A Florida woman’s account of her overnight stay at a Hilton DoubleTree hotel in Boca Raton has sparked widespread concern online.
According to her, unidentified hotel staff attempted to enter her room late at night, leaving her fearing for her safety and questioning the hotel’s internal procedures.
Breanna Holmes, a Jacksonville resident, shared her experience in a series of TikTok videos that have since gone viral. The account, first reported by The Mary Sue and later republished by MSN, describes what Holmes characterized as a “terrifying” encounter that forced her to leave the hotel in the middle of the night.
Holmes said she booked a room at the Hilton DoubleTree near Garfield Beach in Boca Raton in late January after spending the day apartment hunting in the area. To avoid a long drive back to Jacksonville, she decided to stay overnight and return home the next day. She described her plans as low-key: dinner, a bottle of wine, and a quiet night in.
According to Holmes, the evening took a troubling turn after she returned from dinner and discovered that the television in her room was not working. She contacted the front desk and was told that a maintenance worker would be sent to her room. Holmes said she declined the visit at that time, explaining that she had just showered, was undressed, and did not feel comfortable having a man come to her room.
She alleged that the front desk attendant responded dismissively, asking:
“What do you want me to do about that?”
Holmes ultimately decided to drop the issue, telling the desk she could use her iPad instead. While unsettled by the interaction, she said she attempted to move on and go to sleep.
Shortly after midnight, Holmes said she was awakened by a ringing phone in her room—something she found unusual because no one close to her knew she was staying at the hotel. About eight minutes later, she heard a knock at her door. With the room dark, she said she could see the silhouettes of two people standing outside but heard no verbal identification.
According to Holmes, the situation escalated when the individuals attempted to open her door and then tried a connecting door. Frightened, she called family members and briefly dialed 911 before hanging up, unsure of who was outside and afraid of making the situation worse.
“I’m crying, holding mace and a box cutter,” Holmes recounted in her video. “I’m thinking, did the man downstairs send someone up here anyway?”
Holmes said she considered calling the front desk but feared that hotel staff might be involved. She spent the remainder of the night awake, keeping a knife and mace nearby. She also recorded audio of the noises outside her door, describing them as loud and aggressive rather than incidental.
The next morning, Holmes said she was told by a hotel employee that she had been listed as a “no-show,” meaning the hotel had no record of her occupying the room. This explanation confused her, as she had checked in around 4 p.m. the previous day and had multiple interactions with front desk staff, including calls from her room.
Hotel staff reportedly told Holmes that checking empty rooms was part of standard protocol. However, Holmes questioned why such a check would occur after midnight and involve attempts to open a locked, occupied room. When her aunt contacted the hotel to ask about security, the property allegedly stated that it did not have a dedicated security team.
Further adding to Holmes’s concerns, she later discovered discrepancies in her booking details. Her online reservation listed a room with two queen beds, while the room she occupied had one king bed.
Holmes said she never received a follow-up call from hotel management explaining the incident, though she was issued a refund. She emphasized that the refund did little to address the emotional impact of the experience.
“Imagine if I felt threatened enough to fire a gun through the door,” she said. “This could have ended much worse—for me or for them.”
While some commenters suggested the incident may have resulted from a clerical error, others argued that the situation was unacceptable regardless of intent. Hilton hotels generally do not publicly disclose internal room-check policies, though hospitality experts note that hotels may reserve the right to inspect rooms periodically.
Holmes said she still does not know exactly what happened that night, but maintains that the fear she experienced was real and traumatic. Hilton Worldwide and Holmes have both been contacted for additional comment.
