I’m a former FBI agent and here’s why you should only book rooms on these hotel floors if you want to stay safe while traveling

A former CIA and FBI agent has revealed her top tips for staying safe while traveling, including sleeping at specific hotel levels and avoiding private rentals.

Tracy Walder, 44, worked for the CIA as an officer and the FBI as a special agent between 2000 and 2005, learning how to take extra precautions during assignments abroad.

Now, the Dallas-based criminal justice professor shared her top tips for safety in a TikTok video, including using a doorstop, sharing your travel route with family and downloading a panic button app.

Before she even sets foot in a foreign country, Tracy surveys the area for any threats and sets up an app that notifies contacts of her location in case of an emergency.

When visiting hotels, Tracy chooses to stay in a room located between the third and sixth floors – low enough for emergency access, but away from intruders who might enter on the ground floor, which is ‘most accessible’ .

If you stay on a higher floor, it will be ‘difficult for you to get out quickly’.

Regardless of the floor height, she “locks the room” and “sets the security lock across the street” on her door.

After closing the door, Tracy sets up a door stop to give herself even more security and warns that some hotels may not have them or may not have security locks.

Tracy practices what she preaches. She recently took a trip to Florida and requested a transfer from the first to the fourth floor.

Tracy says the safety protocols are “second nature now.”

Once, while traveling for work, her hotel “refused” to move her room to a higher floor, so she “put towels under the door.”

In one particular country, Tracy noticed that “all the hotel doors were facing outward” and she had to take “extra precautions” because “someone could shoot something in.”

Tracy Walder, 44, worked for the CIA as an officer and the FBI as a special agent between 2000 and 2005, learning how to take extra precautions during assignments abroad

“My husband, Ben, 44, teases me about it and while it’s unlikely anyone will break in, the reality is that hotel staff have a key card to get into your room,” Tracy said.

In addition to checking the security of her hotel room, Tracy shares her itinerary with her family and uses the Panic Button app, which notifies her emergency contacts of her location when pressed.

She’s a big fan of the ‘important’ safety button and loves that it’s free.

The mother of one child refuses to stay in private rental accommodation, calling it ‘extremely dangerous and risky’ because you ‘trust’ a stranger in their home.

She also warns that travelers don’t know who actually writes the reviews for places.

When traveling, Tracy puts AirTag bracelets on her daughter in place of a phone and packs them in all her luggage.

Tracy started using her new tricks after a particular trip abroad left her feeling like she might be in danger.

She has a friend who travels alone and was “surprised” to learn that she “wasn’t necessarily thinking about personal safety.”

Her mentality is that you have to assume that if they are in another country, someone “knows who she is” and “may be trying to harm her.”

Now the Dallas-based criminal justice professor shares her top tips for safety, including using a doorstop, sharing your travel route and downloading a panic button app

“My hope was to give people all the different variations of security checks and encourage them to use things they can check or already have – without having to buy anything,” she said.

She often posts videos about kids’ internet safety, safety gear she loves, and her commentary on controversial news topics.

When she’s not posting videos to her TikTok account, Tracy contributes to national security for News Nation.

She is also the author of The Unexpected Spy.