Ten Tips For Hotel Safety
Ever had anything stolen from your hotel room? Or from under your nose at the reception desk? This happens to many of us each day, but it doesn’t have to. Here are ten tips that will make your next hotel stay safer.
Follow these hotel safety tips and enjoy your trip.
- Take copies of your important papers and photos of your valuables before you travel to make it easy to track them down or block them if they are stolen.
- Don’t leave your credit card lying around when booking in, and make sure that you get back the right credit card.
- Look after your luggage. Leaving it unguarded while checking in is an invitation to opportunistic thieves.
- The same goes for your briefcase, handbag or laptop. It’s tempting to think these will be ok while you have a bite to eat, but it only takes a second for someone to spirit them away, so keep them with you in public spaces.
- Avoid booking a ground floor room as these are easiest to break into. Rooms above the fifth floor may not be accessible by fire ladders in case of an emergency. Stick to the second, third or fourth floor and you should be ok.
- Ask for a room with as few exits as possible. The more ways there are to get out of a room (windows, french door, main door), the more ways there are for thieves to get in.
- Make sure door and window locks are working properly and where possible, choose hotels with electronic key card locks, which are more secure than key locks. A deadbolt lock is also an advantage. Always check locks before leaving the room.
- Keep details of your room number to yourself. If your key card comes in a folder with the room number on it, remove it, as that makes it easy for people to realize where to go for your stuff.
- Store your valuables in a safe, either in the room or at reception.
- Carry a rubber doorstop to place behind your door at night. This will make it difficult for someone to open the door. There are also versions with alarms which will sound if someone attempts to enter the room.
Feel free to add other tips in the comments section.
Photo: Kevin Rossell
Tags: business travel, hotel safety, hotels, safe travel, Travel Tips
May 28th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Super tips. I’ve never usef the door stop one, will going forward though, Thanks:)
May 28th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
It’s a simple solution, Debo Hobo, and cheap too.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:37 am
[...] Ten Tips For Hotel Safety | Taking off Travel blog [...]
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 am
I am enjoying this site, and these tips on safety are really important especially the take copies of important documents, especially foreigner’s that are traveling overseas on business or even on holiday, I have heard so many bad stories of people having their things stolen and then having a hard time getting back to the home countries, great site keep up the great work.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:24 am
Great article and some really great information, I have to say that the first tip is really important make sure you have copies of every important document, these are always the important things, then one has to look at your money and what you going to use, be it credit cards or travelers cheques. Rather look up valuables in the safe don’t leave things lying around.Always be aware of everything that is happening around you, but also have fun.