Hotel and Motel Safety
Tips for When You Travel

Take your common sense with you when you leave home and use these easy tips to stay safe while on the road.

1. When registering, use a last name and first initial. Don’t use Mr., Mrs., titles or degrees. The less information about you and your gender or status, the less information a criminal will have.
2. Try not to say a room number in public. If a desk clerk announces a room number and people are in the room, ask for another room. They should write the number down or point to it on a map, not say it out loud. Once a thief hears a room number and maybe a name, everything is easy. They can find you; watch you and maybe even charge things to your room. Ever just been asked for a room number at the hotel restaurant?
3. Take a couple hotel business cards. Put one by the phone in the room, and one in a wallet or car. You may need to tell someone where you are or ask for directions to get back to the hotel.
4. Check the locks on your rooms. You should have deadbolts and peepholes. Also check the windows and interconnecting doors to see how they open and how they lock.
5. Take a wood wedge or buy a small portable alarm wedge to put under your door when everyone is inside your room. The door will not open, even if smashed.
6. Interior rooms are safer compared to outside rooms. Criminals can't monitor your activities as easily.
7. If you have a balcony, check out the door accessing it and the railings. Make sure your child can't climb up onto the edge of the balcony.
8. Use the room safe if you have one. Don't leave valuables in plain sight. Throw used underwear and socks over top of small items. People may not want to look through dirty clothes for something that isn’t already in plain sight.
9. Note emergency exits and stairways as you check in. Know where to go in case of emergency and set a meeting point outside (by your car, restaurant across the street, etc) for your family. Also note that fire department ladders can only reach up to the sixth floor.
10. Make sure everyone carries some form of ID at all times. Make a card up for your children. Include recent photo, name, address, phone number, parents’ names, allergies, age and birth date, and emergency contact back home. Use a laminate sleeve and tuck an updated slip of paper on other side with the name of hotel and phone number (or a tucked in business card)