"" Writer's Wanderings: Travel Safety - Your Hotel Stay

Monday, August 06, 2012

Travel Safety - Your Hotel Stay

The other day I came across an online article that was quite a treatise on hotel safety. If I had to remember all of what was suggested there for my check-in and stay, I would have to book an extra day to get it all taken care of. I am not a paranoid traveler but I do emphasis using common sense. Here are a few of my common sense suggestions for staying safe in your hotel.

  • Do not show your room number to a stranger. It is common practice for a hotel to write down your room number on your key folder rather than announce it at the desk. Be careful to hold it so the number doesn't show as you make your way to your room.
  • Check out your room immediately upon arrival to be sure the locks on ground floor windows work and there is a deadbolt and a safety bar or chain. (One suggestion I found was to twist a safety chain to make it a little shorter and safer. Don't know how that works.) Also check to be sure doors that connect rooms are locked. We once had someone try to open a connecting door. Luckily one of our kids was sleeping on a roll away across the door. Of course it startled our son and made us all uneasy for the night.
  • Never, never put the safety bar or the deadlock in the position that will hold the door open for you as you run down the hall for ice or across the hall to visit someone. You are inviting a quick thief into your room to grab and run or worse, enter and hide.
  • Sometime before retiring, be sure you know which direction to go for the nearest fire exit and how many doors between. Should there be a fire at night especially, the smoke and dark may be difficult to see through.
  • Use the room safe or take valuables to the desk to be put in their safe. If the cleaning staff should momentarily forget or not follow their safety rules, they could leave your door open while cleaning and step away for a moment. Also a good reason not to leave a laptop, e-book, etc. lying about.
  • In an elevator should you feel unsafe, stand near the control panel where you can hit as many buttons as necessary in an emergency and/or get off at the next floor and catch another ride.
  • Okay, now this might seem ridiculous but it saves me embarrassment. If I'm by myself going to the room and I feel someone behind me, I will stop short or walk past my room, snap my fingers as if I've forgotten something and turn back to head the other direction until I'm sure the person is not following me to my room. So. . .now you know how truly quirky I am. 

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