Travel Security:
Hotel & Motel

Travel Security means remembering that most hotels and resorts worldwide are in or near high-crime areas and attract predators looking for easy prey: travelers. Questions to ask before booking a room:

• Are all outside doors alarmed and checked to ensure they're activated?
• Are there surveillance cameras throughout the hotel and guards at all posts at all times?
• Are all employees checked for drugs and criminal backgrounds?
• Is the entire hotel equipped with smoke detectors and fire sprinklers?
• Is every guestroom door equipped with a deadbolt lock and a peephole?
• Does the hotel have a safe for storing valuables?

A man heard a knock at his motel room door by someone who identified himself as "security." The view from the peephole in the door was obstructed, he said, but as he tried to just crack the door to take a look, two armed men forced their way in. They robbed and beat him and his wife.
Excerpted from The Fort Myers News-Press – 30 June 2005

On 15 February 1999, Cary Stayner, a repairman at a motel near California’s Yosemite National Park, noticed three guests he considered “easy prey.” Carrying his toolbox, he knocked on the door of Carole Sund, her teenage daughter, Juli, and teenage family guest Silvina Pelosso claiming he needed to “fix a leaking pipe.” Through her locked door, Carole Sund told him there was no leak in the bathroom and refused to open the door. But finally she peered out the peephole, saw his uniform and toolbox, and with a sigh of relief, let him in. He disappeared into the bathroom and returned a moment later with a handgun, ordering the three to bind each other – whereupon he tortured, raped, and murdered them.
Compiled from the Arizona Daily Sun, Associated Press, Contra Costa Times, Fresno Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12 December 2000 – 07 January 2003

Motels, loosely defined, have hallways and room doors on the outside of the building while hotels' are inside. For travel security, try to get a motel room close to the office and on the second story.

Hotels and motels attract crime because the people who stay there often carry money and valuables – yet they often are thinking more about having fun than possible travel security dangers, authorities say. ... "There are nice cars, money and valuables coming and going," said Alachua County Sheriff's Sgt. Keith Faulk. "Any time you get a draw of fish in a barrel, you're going to have someone preying on those fish. ... Travelers know little about the place they are visiting. Smaller hotels often have more crime. You can tell by looking at a property, if it's dirty, rundown, paint peeling, with graffiti; that's a sign management doesn't care. And it doesn't take bad guys long to assess that.” You can, however, call ahead to police to find out the crime rate of a specific lodging.
Excerpted from The Gainesville Sun – 08 September 2003

Hotels have an ever-changing cast of guests into which criminals can blend, phones linking all rooms by dialing a room-number, easily bribed staff, easily-obtained staff uniforms and badges, and notoriously sloppy travel security.

A businesswoman at a motel, awakened by a knock on the door, opened it, assuming it was one of her colleagues... Besides a lack of basic security devices, the motel had no security staff after hours. It installed peepholes and door latches after her attack... Aside from fire codes, no national standards and few state codes exist covering travel security at the country's 47,000 hotels and their 4.4 million rooms. Do not become overconfident just because you have a lot of traveling experience, says Marybeth Bond, author of "Gutsy Women: More Travel Wisdom for the Road"
Excerpted from The New York Times – 25 November 2003

Employees often disable exterior door alarms after they are accidentally triggered. Security guards rarely make sure that no one, such as a smoker, has taped the latch open on an exterior door. And guests often ignore travel security by treating hallways like safe public places – just assuming that other people belong there.

In some cases of crime in hotels, the assailants had trailed the victims to their rooms and barged into the rooms as they were about to close their doors... We should avoid getting into a lift with someone that we feel uncomfortable with. If we have to take the lift with a stranger, we should press the button to our floor last. If we feel uncomfortable with the person in the lift, we should get out as soon as possible. If the stranger gets out on our floor, we should stop at the nearest guestroom and wait for the stranger to walk away before approaching our own room and avoid opening the door to our room if there is a stranger close by.
Excerpted from The Straits Times (Singapore) – 04 December 2003

• Accept no room on the ground floor (greater burglary risk) or one too high for firemen’s ladders to reach. The second through sixth floors are best.
• Accept no room without a deadbolt lock, without a door peephole, or with an isolated entry.
• A woman alone should request the concierge or key service floor.
• Insist that the front desk keeps your name, room and phone numbers private and to call you if anyone inquires about you.

"Hotels are magnets for crime," said Chris Falkenberg of Insite Security. One of the weakest links in hotel security is keeping a guest’s room-number private. But do hotels do that? ... To find out, CBS Early Show's Alison Schwartz-Dorfman and Daneil Sieberg set out to see just how easy it is to get into someone else's hotel room. ... Using hidden cameras, Schwartz-Dorfman checked into a busy New York City hotel. The clerk took her information as Sieberg arrived separately and stood very close to her. ... "First, she’s so focused on checking in she's not aware that he’s invaded her personal space," Falkenberg said. ... Second, the clerk announced her room-number out loud. Falkenberg says the clerk should have just silently handed her the key or key-card with the room-number on it. ... Schwartz-Dorfman then headed to her room. Sieberg waited a minute and also went right to it. No one noticed anything. ... Sieberg said, "You shouldn’t have “vacation brain.” People are not as aware as they should be, which is absolutely critical – a hotel hallway is no more secure than a street."
Excerpted from CBS News New York – 27 May 2009

• Request a hotel employee escort to your room and to stay as you check all entry points and hiding spots.
• Count the number of doors from your room to a fire exit so you can find it while crawling through dense smoke with a wet towel wrapped over your mouth and nose. And read the travel security fire escape procedures on the back of your entry door. Just one careless guest can burn down the hotel.
• Request a security escort to your room when returning late at night.
• Don't enter the room if the door is ajar, unlocked, or if someone is loitering near your room. Go to the front desk instead.
• Immediately report any suspicious activity to the management.
• Phone the front desk to verify any delivery or serviceman at your door. Never open it without checking.
• Before receiving even legitimate deliveries, turn on the shower, close the bathroom door and loudly call out, “I’ll get the door, Max,” so the delivery person (and his/her friends) won’t know you’re alone.
• Hang a portable travel security alarm on your inside doorknob. See www.guarddog.net for a variety of noisemaker alarms.
• Lock your door when going to the ice machine, etc.
• Before you leave your room, check the peephole before you open the door (call the front desk if anyone is lurking outside). Keep the TV or radio on while you’re gone. As you leave, call out, “I’ll be back soon, Max,” to an imaginary male companion as you close and lock the door. Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign outside.
• Hold an elevator door open as you press the button for your floor. If the arrow indicates you will go in your desired direction, release the door. But if the arrow points the wrong direction, get out! Someone else (possibly in the basement or on the roof) has summoned the elevator, and there’s no need for you to go there. Wait for the car to return to your floor and inspect it before you get in. ... Always stand near the elevator door so you can get off immediately if someone you distrust gets on. Especially, don’t go to the basement or roof with him – push the alarm button (not “Emergency Stop”) and/or push other floor buttons for more opportunities to flee the elevator. If he chases you, start banging on doors as you run past and pull a fire alarm if possible.
• Always have an employee escort you when going to the parking garage.
• Make sure your car or clothing doesn’t identify you as a tourist, and get directions to your destination from the front desk to avoid appearing lost or wandering into danger.

Hotel/Motel Peephole Travel Security

The hotel industry is reexamining guest privacy safeguards in light of the case of a woman who was videotaped nude through the peephole of her hotel room door by a man who reserved an adjacent room. Police say Michael D. Barrett requested and received a hotel room adjacent to ESPN reporter Erin Andrews. Barrett then allegedly jimmied the peephole of Andrews' hotel door, shot the videos and uploaded them to the Internet. ... Some aspects of maintaining guest privacy are already standard throughout the hotel industry. Front desk clerks are usually careful not to say your room number aloud when you check in. Instead, the number is typically written on the sleeve of your card key. ... But until now, requests for adjacent rooms have been handled inconsistently. If you ask for a room next to another guest, some hotels will call the other guest for consent, but many will simply go ahead and book it without confirming with the other party. Such requests are not uncommon from extended families, tour participants and individuals traveling together for work or conventions.
Excerpted from Yahoo/AP – 07 October 2009

How do you stop peeping toms who tamper with your peephole? Simply put a Band-Aid bandage over the peephole. If you attach it vertically (with one sticky side above the peephole and the other side below), you can lift the bottom section to look out through the peephole. Or you can use a Post It (the notepad papers with a sticky edge). Also for travel security, make sure you always use the peephole to see who’s outside before opening your door (then always call the front desk to verify anyone you don't know – including supposed "room service" or a "repairman"). Never open your door unless you know for SURE who is there!

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