TRAVEL TIP #8 - Hotel Safety – Watch your back

You may have guessed by now that my blog is a wee bit behind schedule BECAUSE I have been ---- traveling! Accordingly, my next safety suggestion is NEVER to disclose online when you are traveling. There are thieves who are watching your home in anticipation of helping themselves to your big screen TV, just about the time you fly off to the sunny skies of the Bahamas, Caymans or Virgin Islands.

No, I did not go to the islands, and I did not discover the real Jurassic Park. The picture on today’s blog post was shot at my always favorite retreat: Disney World. Hotels are clean. Staff is amazingly gracious. The parks are perfect. I arrived at Epcot just in time for the opening of the International Flower Show. My husband flew to Florida and we spent a lovely evening dining in “Morroco” and watching Jose Feliciano sing in concert. Yes. Feliciano’s voice is as melodic and flawless as ever. His musicianship is phenomenal. And his sense of humor is endearing. The lineup of music artists for the Festival is tremendous. I wish I could have heard EVERY scheduled concert! Performers in the near future include David Cassidy, Starship, Tony Orlando, Herman’s Hermits, the Nelsons tribute to Ricky Nelson, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Fran Cosmo (former singer of Boston), Davy Jones, and Chubby Checker and the Wildcats. If you’re close to Disney, go to dinner and a concert on the lake. Can’t beat it with a stick. Wow! What a vacation. My husband beamed from ear to ear. It helped that there are no snowblowers in Florida!

So, you see, I just returned from the sunny southeastern USA where I relaxed at Disney, rested at Club Med, Port St. Lucie at the annual Carter Center Retreat, and sauntered back through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia. It was so wonderful to escape the snow drifts and 5 degrees that prevailed the day I left. Happily I’m settled back at home, and enjoying increased sunshine and gradually warming temperatures.

Whether I travel alone or with my husband, hotel safety is always a concern. There are many sources of hotel safety tips online, and I encourage you to review as much information as possible. The following list is just a personal outline of my priorities when settling down for the evening. It is not all inclusive. Again, I cannot assume responsibility for your personal safety. It is essential to use your head, use some common sense, do your homework, and trust your instincts if you feel you are at risk.

1)Choose a hotel in a safe location. And, if you think a hotel along the Interstate is the safest place to stay, think again. There are some definite advantages: no dark garage parking, no pan handlers, no bars on the windows of restaurants. But behind the “safe” appearance of shiny hotels and restaurants just off the intermittent freeway ramps is the potential for thieves to snatch and run. Easy access to a major highway system means that a thief or assailant can quickly blend in with all the other vehicles buzzing along the highway.

Once I drove a short quarter mile off the Interstate to a name brand hotel, but the parking lot appearance “felt” threatening. I turned my vehicle around, found a brightly lit inn, and called the seedy hotel to cancel my reservations before the 6:00 deadline.

2)Don’t assume that bright lights and clean appearances guarantee safety. Keep your eyes open. One recent news story in our area reported a kidnapping in broad daylight at a high end restaurant where most of us would believe we were safe.

3)Park your car at the front of the hotel, never in shadowy back lots. That means
you have to travel early in the day, and check in early in the evening.

4)If you feel uncomfortable, ask the hotel staff for assistance. When my car broke
down in Washington, DC several years ago, I asked the hotel manager for an
escort to my room from the underground garage. It was late at night and I had been attending a conference several blocks away from the hotel. Not only did the garage attendant provide a safe escort, he checked the room thoroughly (closets, bathroom, etc.) before assuring me that I would be safe.

5)One hotel experienced friend reminded me recently to deadbolt the door and
Secure the safety chain/bar immediately after entering the room. She had known of hotel clerks inadvertently assigning the same room key/number to successive
guests who walked in on people who were not expecting them!

6)When you check in, be sure that the hotel clerk does not say your room number.
S/he should write the number on your card envelope. If your number is spoken aloud, ask for another room assignment and explain why it is important.

7)Invest in portable motion detector and doorstop alarms for your room door and
windows. Pack extra batteries.

8)Choose a “safe” room, although I cannot honestly tell you what that is! I do
know that walking along dark outside corridors and walkways toward isolated
rooms at far reaches of huge hotel complexes is probably not a good choice.
The nice thing with Disney is that you can be very specific in your room request
if you make your reservations well in advance. They will try to accommodate you to the extent possible.

9)I do prefer lower level rooms in large hotels, primarily because it saves time
waiting on elevators to high floors. You can probably save an hour a day in some
cases by NOT waiting on slow elevators to stop at seventeen floors before reaching you. On the other hand, thieves/assailants on lower floors have quick
exits from their crimes, so you may be more vulnerable on a lower floor. I also have this recording in my head --- something about fire truck ladders reaching only the first ten floors of a building. I “think” Jerry Seinfeld has a story about
being in a hotel fire and sitting on the balcony waiting for someone to rescue him.
At some point, it occurred to him that no one was coming and he had to become proactive in reaching safety. I can’t say with absolute certainty that it was
Seinfeld who went through that experience, but some “old” memory tells me it was he.

I DO know that Charles Kuralt was saved from a hotel fire by a hooker who pounded on his door in the middle of the night. No one else came. Just a hooker.

10)With that in mind, check all your exits. On a lower floor, I check to see if the
windows will slide open, allowing me the MOST DIRECT escape from an emergency situation. I sleep with a small flashlight on my night stand. Emergency lights should work. So should fire sprinklers and alarms. But do you
want to trust your life to someone who gives out a room key to the guest who enters the building behind you?

At one favorite Amish country bed and breakfast I was curious. I removed
the battery cover from the First Alert smoke detector and found that there WERE no batteries. Fat chance of getting out of that second story farm house. Henceforth, I carry my own smoke detector. I’ve never carried my own carbon monoxide detector, but it is something to think about.

11)Park in safe parking spaces, away from bushes, vans, dumpsters or other objects
where assailants can hide. The kidnapped woman whom I spoke about earlier was grabbed by a man hiding in hotel shrubbery.

12)Four stars do not mean we are safe. Look at the atrocious crimes that have been
carried out at America’s finest hotels. Keep you eyes alert. Just when you think you are safe, you are not.

13)Never show your hotel room key in public places and never discuss the hotel
where you are staying.

14)Enroll in that self defense class I discussed previously.

15)If you go to a bar, you are sending the wrong message. Stay with family
restaurants on the road. Take carry-out to your room. I often stash a
grilled chicken salad in my hotel fridge and worry nothing about venturing out
at night in search of dinner.

15)If you leave your room, leave the television running, a light on, and the DO NOT
DISTURB sign hanging on your door. Create the illusion that you are in the room.

16)Carefully check closets, showers, etc. as soon as you enter the room. If there is
room underneath the bed for a person, check it! I was told several years ago that
an acquaintance was on her honeymoon, totally distracted by the romance of the
moment. In the morning when she and her husband awoke, his “good buddies”
crawled out from underneath the bed and told them to have a nice day. True story? I don’t know. Do you want to take the chance?

17)Get a room with a safe when possible and secure your valuables. Otherwise, get
a lock box at the front desk to secure irreplaceable jewelry, cash, credit cards, cameras, etc. in your absence.

18)If you don’t feel safe getting on an elevator with someone, feign distraction and walk toward other people in the immediate area. Take the next elevator.

19)Never invite people into your room. Are you really bent on self destruction?

20)Never believe the “manager” is knocking on your door. Call the front desk.

21)Use the peephole before opening the door to anyone. Look for a hotel uniform, but don’t trust it. Several years ago I was at a colorful tropical hotel where the
staff wore flowered shirts. When I ordered room service and saw a floral shirt
attired young man at the door, I cautiously peered across the safety bar, looking for a name tag and sniffing for hot food! Then I opened the door.

22)Talk about where you and your husband are going on this trip. Feign
companionship.

23)Always quickly review the safety card that is provided in your hotel rooms. Even
if you can predict the contents, reviewing the advice each time will heighten your
awareness of safety procedures. Don’t become complacent.

24)Never let anyone convince you that your are being silly taking safety precautions.
My husband admits that he feels safer when he is with me because I am so vigilant. Now THAT’s a switch! I make HIM feel safe? Good.

25)We are never safe. We are only managing space and time to minimize risks.
Nothing more. Nothing less.

WATCH YOUR BACK