American Moves to Europe, Mystified by Apartment Door System: ‘No Sense’

A video about an American’s bafflement over the European door locking system, which he describes as both “inconvenient” and “dangerous,” has gone viral on TikTok.

Shared by Patrick Marquette (@no……..thisispatrick), the clip has amassed more than 619,000 views since it was posted on May 14.

Marquette moved to Brussels in January to live with his Belgian girlfriend after 4.5 years of long-distance dating. Text overlaid on the video reads: “European doors make no sense.”

He says in the clip: “The doors here are not only dangerous but also make zero sense.” Unlike in the United States, where homes typically have a twist lock or a double bolt that can be operated without a key from the inside, Marquette adds that many Belgian doors require a key to both lock and unlock—whether from inside or outside.

Marquette told Newsweek: “99.9 percent of the doors here and throughout Europe have this lock feature. I always felt it was strange, inconvenient and unsafe.”

International travel and cross-cultural exchanges continue to rise. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) says that around 300 million people traveled abroad in the first quarter of 2025—14 million more than the same period last year—underscoring the growing intersection of cultures and design expectations in an increasingly mobile world.

Showcasing the door of his apartment, the American points out in the video that “there’s no twist lock,” noting that “in the U.S., normally you just have a double bolt, so you don’t need a key at all.”

But that is not the case in Brussels. Marquette notes: “Here’s why it’s dangerous—let’s say that I leave and I shut the door and I lock it [using the key]. My girlfriend or someone else is still in the apartment. They are now locked in … because if it’s locked on the outside, then they’re literally stuck if there’s a fire, if there’s an emergency.”

Marquette said: “If I lock it and her keys, for example, were left in her car, then she’s essentially locked in. If something were to happen, a fire, emergency etc., it’s really dangerous.”

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me … there’s no logic, and I don’t know how that’s not a safety hazard,” Marquette says in the video. “If you live with more than one person, everyone needs to have their keys on them pretty much all the time in case anything goes awry.”

This isn’t the only design choice that has surprised the American expat. Marquette also pointed to Belgium’s preference for partial glass panels in showers instead of full enclosures or curtains. “Sometimes, there’s no glass door at all,” he said. “I think the look of it is nice, but the conventionality isn’t always there … I do miss shower curtains a bit, I won’t lie.”