Safety Tips for hotel guests
When choosing a hotel:
- Ideally, the hotel you select a hotel should have modern electronic guest room locks. These locks automatically change the lock combination with every new guest. The problem with room keys is that they can be duplicated. However, your preferred hotel may not have installed electronic locks. Keep reading…
- Verify if the hotel’s rooms are equipped with a dead bolt lock and a peephole?
Before the Trip:
- Take copies of airline tickets, passports, credit cards and important documents, front and rear. Keep them separate from the originals.
- Photograph luggage, jewelry and all valuables – useful in case of loss or theft.
When arriving and checking into your hotel room
- If you arrive in a taxi or coach, ensure that your entire luggage is brought into the hotel lobby before going to your hotel room.
- If the hotel you are staying in, has guest door locks with metal keys, observe how hotel room keys are handled when handed in, especially when going out. If the front desk staffs allow the keys to pile up (usually on a tray) and be left unattended for long - it’s a sign that the hotel is lax on security. Anyone can take a key lying on the desk (with its room number stamped on it) and go to a guest’s room ‘carte-blanche’.
- Avoid leaving your credit card lying on the front desk counter while you complete your registration.
- Make sure the credit card that is handed back to you by the receptionist is really yours. Mix-ups do happen when several guests are checked in simultaneously, and when many credit cards exchange many hands.
- Some Customer Care Agents (CCA) has a tendency to announce guest names and their room numbers to the entire lobby. A typical example is where the CCA instructs the bellman rather loudly, “Please take Mr.XYZ to room 123” Ask the front desk personnel not to announce your room number. Rather, tell them to write it down. Your room number is uncompromisingly- a matter of privacy and security.
- Where the hotel guest rooms are located in a high-rise build, some guests request for a room below the 7th floor –This is because the maximum height that most fire department ladders or equipment can reach is around that height.
- Request for the hotels business card with its name, address and telephone / contact details. Keep it with you whenever you leave the hotel. Should you get lost and wish to ask for directions or take a taxi to get back to your hotel, showing the hotel’s business card comes in handy – especially if you are in a country where you don’t speak the language.
- Guest rooms that are as close to the elevators as possible are safest, but tend to be noisier.
When entering one’s hotel room
- Check out the room door lock and how it works. Some doors where a key is used, auto-lock when closed from the outside while other doors require the use of the key to lock it when leaving the room. An electronic lock does not pose a problem.
- When allocated a room that has an interconnecting door to another room, examine the interconnecting door lock and be sure that it is locked from your side.
- Look for in-room information about fire safety and read to become familiar with nearest fire exit / stairway. It is prudent to locate the nearest fire exit to familiarize oneself in the event of an emergency – especially when there is a total blackout as well.
- Remember, if there is a fire or other such emergency, you are pretty much on your own to evacuate yourself, especially at night. What you learn in the few minutes it takes you to orient yourself to your room and the surrounding areas could mean the difference between life and death.
When in your room
- If you receive a knock at the door and the person says he/she is a hotel employee which you did not specifically request, do not open the door, Use the security viewport to see who is outside your door. If you are unsure about whom the person is at the door, leave the secondary door chain or swing lock engaged while opening the door for further protection.
- Obtain the person’s name and call the front desk to check on the employees credentials as an additional precaution. The same applies when If you receive a phone call to your room and the person states they are with the hotel and need to come to your room and repair something,
- Ensure that your mobile phone is fully charged – especially at night time and before going to bed.
- It's much too dangerous to be stumbling around in a dark hotel in the middle of the night if the electricity goes out. Also, if you have to evacuate in the event of a fire, the flashlight on your mobile will help guide you down a smoke filled hallway.
When you leave your hotel room to be somewhere in the hotel
- Don't display you guest room key in public or even inside the hotel or at the bar or swimming pool. Some hotel burglars have been known to walk by casually, observe the number in the key if stamped on it and make false charges in the hotel restaurant or bar by using your room number. This is more of a concern when staying at hotels which still have metal room keys with room numbers displayed.
Source: External
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