A maid in Sweden explained why a strange ball is needed on the door of a hotel room (6 photos)

Sweden, of course, amuses us with its “jokes” literally every day and at every turn.





Further from the author's words: Another funny moment happened to me in a hotel in Stockholm, where I stayed for several years while exploring the Swedish capital.

As soon as I entered the room, I immediately noticed with displeasure a strange little thing on the door, which I had never expected to see there, and which I had never seen before during my travels, although I had stayed in hundreds of hotels.

A small ball, a smaller copy of a football.

Somehow it has already happened in the modern world that hotel rooms have become so standardized in their equipment, interior items and equipment that it is rare to find something completely new in them.

And if you do come across it, then, as a rule, it’s just something outdated, when the interiors have a certain classic look. For example, in old traditional hotels that want to keep their familiar interior and equipment, rather than modernize.

But this is not the case here.

Some completely unexpected “door” ball.



You can see that it is attached close to the door frame, but not screwed to it, but to the wall using two self-tapping screws.

Honestly, if I wanted to attach such a thing near the door for something, I would do it to the door frame, and not to the wall. Well, okay, the Swedes are peculiar guys.

The ball itself is made of thick rubber, and inside it is hard plastic.

The ball is attached to a holder screwed to the wall with a metal spring about 10 centimeters long.

And it is secured from the side of the doorway, and not from the hinges.





The spring, by the way, is rigid, so the ball can be placed in different positions: hanging, standing vertically on the spring, and parallel to the floor.

Of course, I wondered what this ball was here for? After all, this is not a rented apartment in which the owner invented something for himself and attached a trinket or talisman.

Obviously, this non-standard thing for a hotel is not simple here.

There were different versions, but I didn’t see an obvious answer for myself.



I even tried bending it and letting it go. But the ball only hit the wall or frame with a slight thud, depending on how the spring was turned, and nothing else happened.

Well, that’s not why it hangs here, so that you, like pimply polyethylene, use the ball as an anti-stress.

There was even a version that this was some kind of protection against uninvited guests trying to enter the room. A type of signaling device. But no, it’s also unlikely.



Abandoning attempts to guess, I went about my business, and in the morning the maid knocked on my room, wanting to clean the room and wondering when this could be done in my absence.

While talking with her, I remembered the ball, which was right there in sight, and decided to inquire about its purpose.

And she showed with a smile, in one second she answered the question that had been spinning in my head for a day.



The ball, it turns out, is not for the hotel guest, but... for her!

Maids use this thing when cleaning rooms so that they do not need to open the door with a master key, because... The door closer closes automatically.

During cleaning, the ball is turned towards the door (exactly as I experimented, assuming that it interfered with entering the room) and left in this position.

As a result, the ball prevents the door closer from slamming the door, and the maid can come in or out without a card at any time, even if her hands are full, and just so as not to take it out of her pocket a hundred times while cleaning is in progress.

As always, everything ingenious is simple...