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Hotel Safety Tips For Travelers

Before your trip

• Copy all credit cards, airline tickets, passports and important documents, front and back.
  
• Jewelry and luggage and all valuables should be photographed prior to trip.

What to look for in a safe hotel:

• If possible, select a hotel with has installed modern electronic guest room locks. The majority of these locks automatically change the lock combination with every new guest so there is little chance of someone having a duplicate key to your room. If you lose or misplace your key, ask to have your room re-keyed immediately.
  
• Is each room equipped with a dead bolt lock and a peephole?
  
• Fire sprinklers in hotel rooms, hallways, and meeting rooms likewise for smoke detectors. If each room is not equipped with a smoke detector, are sprinklers systems installed in the hallways or is your only hope the local fire department.
  
• Each room telephone should allow outside dialing.
  
• Guest phones located in hallways and lobbies should not allow direct room dialing. Anyone using the phone should have to call the operator and request a room by guest name, not room number.
  
• Secure locks on windows and adjoining doors.
  
• Well-lit interior hallways, parking structures and grounds.
  
• Hotels that have limited access to hotel structure, generally the more limited the access; the less likely a trespasser will enter.
  
• The parking garage should not have elevators taking passengers to guest floors. It should only go to the lobby.
  
• Does hotel provide personnel trained in guest security and available for escorts to rooms and auto when requested?
  
• Is the hotel located in a high crime rate area, especially when traveling overseas? Check with the US Embassy's Resident Security Officer in that country and they can alert you of areas to stay away from.

When arriving and checking into your hotel room

• If you arrive in a bus or cab, stay with your luggage until it is brought into the hotel lobby.
  
• Keep a close eye on your luggage, purse, etc when checking in.
  
• If the lobby is busy, thieves will often take advantage of the distractions to take your things with them.
  
• If you are staying in an older room which still has the older guest door locks with metal key, one of first signs of how a hotel treats the issue of security is to observe how hotel room keys are controlled. If it is checkout time and a pile of metal room keys are laying on the front desk, the hotel is not too concerned about your security. Anyone can take and key laying on the desk. This is not a big concern if the hotel is using electronic key cards but is if the metal keys have the room number embossed on it. You will find this more prevalent overseas.
  
• Ask the front desk personnel not to announce your room number. Rather, tell them to write it down or point to it. If the desk clerk should do this, explain the problem and asked to be given another room. You never know who is listening. Your room number is a matter of security, and the fewer people that know your whereabouts, the better. There’s no need to announce it to the entire hotel lobby.
  
• When registering, sign only your last name and first initial. Don’t use titles or degrees. Makes it harder to determine gender, marital status or profession. If you are a women traveling alone, you might consider booking your room as Mr. and Mrs.
  
• Don't leave your credit card lying on the check-in counter while you complete your registration. Also make sure the credit card that is handed back to you by the hotel clerk is really yours.
  
• Instruct the desk not to give out your name and room number and ask for them to call you if someone inquires about you.
  
• Immediately upon check in, get two business cards or matchbooks with the hotel name and address on them. Place one by the phone in the room so you know where you are and keep the other on you when you leave so you know where to come back to. If you get lost, you have the address and phone number handy. There is nothing more frustrating than telling a cab driver to take you to the "Marriott" and they ask which one?? That could be one very expensive cab ride. Or if you are in a country where you don’t speak the language, you can simply show a taxi driver the matchbook, and you’re on your way back to the hotel.