There’s a small, slightly odd ritual that’s become common among frequent travelers: before locking a hotel safe, they toss in a single shoe. It looks strange if you catch someone doing it, like they’ve forgotten how footwear works. But the logic behind it is oddly sound, and it’s rooted in a very real problem that trips up even experienced travelers.
Hotel safes are supposed to protect your valuables. Ironically, they’re also where a surprising number of passports, cash stashes, and pieces of jewelry get left behind entirely. The shoe trick didn’t emerge from nowhere. It came from someone who spends her working life inside airports and hotel rooms, and it caught on for reasons that go beyond social media hype.
A viral hack with a surprisingly simple logic
The idea traces back to a TikTok video that started circulating widely, showing a simple demonstration: place one shoe inside the hotel safe along with your valuables, then lock it. The tip, which comes from a flight attendant named Esther, is intended to remind travelers that they may have other goods in the safe that need to be retrieved before checking out, since you won’t leave without your shoes on.[1] It sounds almost too basic to work, yet that’s exactly the point.
The mechanism isn’t complicated. This works providing you’re willing to consistently put a shoe in your safe every time you return to your room.[1] No app, no alarm, no sticky note falling off the mirror. Just a physical object you can’t walk out the door without noticing is missing.
Where the shoe trick actually comes from
The person most associated with popularizing this hack is Esther Sturrus, who works for Dutch airline KLM and frequently posts videos on TikTok about her life as a flight attendant, along with advice for fellow travellers.[2] Her video wasn’t a single isolated tip. In her video which has already racked up more than 1.1 million views, flight attendant Esther Sturrus describes six simple hacks using everyday travel and hotel room items that will save you time and headaches.[3]
The shoe hack quickly became the standout among the group. In the text over her clip, she wrote, “Worried about forgetting something in your locker? Put your heel/ shoe in it and you won’t forget it!”[2] Reaction online split into two camps almost immediately, some travelers calling it a lifesaver and others pointing out the obvious flaw of packing more than one pair of shoes for a trip.
Why hotel safes cause so much trouble in the first place
The reason this trick resonates isn’t random. Guests routinely tuck their most important items into the safe specifically because those items matter most, which paradoxically makes them easier to forget. One common culprit is the in-room safe: guests tuck important belongings inside for safekeeping, then completely forget about them when checkout rolls around.[4]
Hotel staff see this pattern constantly. Room safes, used for security purposes, are among the most commonly overlooked places when checking out, with many guests leaving the hotel without retrieving their passports, wallets, and the cash they put in the safe.[5] The safe essentially disappears from a traveler’s mental checklist the moment it’s locked, precisely because it feels secure and out of sight.
The psychology behind why it works
There’s a simple behavioral principle at play here, even if nobody involved calls it that. You cannot leave a hotel room without shoes on your feet, at least not comfortably, and definitely not through an airport. That built-in physical constraint is what makes the trick different from a written reminder, which can be ignored, lost, or simply not read in a rush.
Travel writers who’ve covered the tip repeatedly note this practical angle. That way, when it’s time to leave the hotel, you’ll be forced to remember, since it’s an old trick and works for many.[6] The shoe becomes a physical tripwire rather than a mental note competing with a dozen other last minute thoughts.
Real travelers, real forgotten passports
The stakes behind this hack aren’t hypothetical. Stories of travelers scrambling to recover documents from hotel safes circulate constantly, and some carry real consequences. One traveler recounted taking a train between Hungary and Slovakia when Slovakian border agents boarded to check passports, only to realize a friend had left his passport in the hotel room safe, requiring the hotel to arrange a FedEx delivery and a visit to the police station the next day.[6]
Money isn’t immune either. Another traveler described a costly detour after forgetting cash and documents behind. One person left money and passports in a safe at a hotel in Incheon during a trip when they switched to a house in Seoul, resulting in a two hour round trip train ride to collect them.[6] These aren’t rare, dramatic exceptions. They’re the exact scenario the shoe trick was designed to prevent.
Not everyone uses a shoe, and that’s fine
Packing more than one pair of shoes creates an obvious wrinkle in the original hack, and plenty of travelers have adapted it. Some swap the shoe for something else entirely that fills the same role. If you’ve brought more than one pair of shoes with you, it could pose a bit of a problem, though the premise works for anything you know you’ll have to put on or use before checking out, whether it’s a coat or a toothbrush.[7]
Other travelers have found their own versions after seeing the tip resurface online. One person responding to the trend said they’d need to wear their shoe but would come up with something else, maybe setting aside their traveling home outfit and putting a reminder note on top.[6] Others have suggested keys, sunglasses, or a phone charger as substitutes, as long as the item is something impossible to leave a hotel room without.
The hygiene problem nobody talks about
There’s a less glamorous side to this hack that rarely makes the viral video cut. Hotel safes get touched by hundreds of hands and, apparently, a lot of shoes, and they aren’t cleaned as often as a nightstand or a bathroom counter. One response online offered a reminder that because of this trend, the safe is most likely pretty dirty, suggesting travelers put their valuables in a plastic bag or on top of a piece of paper to keep them clean.[6]
It’s a small detail, but it matters if you’re planning to store a passport or cash directly against the same surface a shoe sole has touched. A thin plastic bag or even a hotel laundry bag solves the problem without undoing the trick. It’s the kind of practical adjustment that turns a clever idea into a genuinely usable one.
