A traveller from Hong Kong – known online by his username @theworldisntenough – has told what happened when he tried to catch his flight and discovered that his passport was stuck in the hotel safe.

In a video shared on TikTok, the traveler described the hilarious yet nerve-wracking moment when his passport became stuck in a hotel safe that wouldn’t open. The video’s caption read: “When you need to catch a flight and your passport is in a hotel safe that won’t open. It’s an intercontinental experience,” alongside footage of a hotel employee using a drill to try to access the jammed safe.

The incident occurred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October 2022, just as Asia was slowly emerging from the long shadow of COVID-19 lockdowns.

The impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry has been enormous, and the poster explained that many hotels in the area were struggling to return to pre-pandemic service standards.

“It’s actually just a small example of how the restaurant industry struggled to return to its previous service standards because they lacked trained staff after most of them were closed for over two years and had to hire many new, inexperienced staff,” said @theworldisntenough, who wished to remain anonymous. Newsweek.

The mishap that left his passport stuck was apparently due to a battery failure in the safe – a known problem, according to hotel staff. “When I checked out, they told me they knew about the problem and I shouldn’t have used the safe at all, but they obviously forgot to inform people. It’s a 5-star hotel, I’ve been there a few times and everything was great, but this experience… It took them 45 minutes to open the safe and then I got my stuff and everything went fine,” he said.

Fortunately, the traveler made his flight and took the situation in his stride, even finding it funny. “I just thought it was funny at the time and recorded it. I’ve been on TikTok for a few months now and share some travel experiences there,” he said.

The video has been viewed over 70,000 times online, with commenters sharing their reactions: “I thought these safes usually had a key override in case the battery dies?!” said viewer Sam. And viewer 39stone wrote: “I’ve never understood why people put passports in safes. I work with a dozen hotels and have never heard of maids or staff stealing IDs.”

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