Hotel Safety for Holiday Makers
We’ve come a long way since the days of the completely blind ‘allocation on arrival’ style holidays. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, allocation on arrival is a way of keeping costs (and expectations) to a minimum, by literally greeting a plane load of tourists with coaches destined for whatever hotel happens to have a bed in the area. Your group could be split up. You could be given the worst room in the hotel. You could be driven miles away from where you wanted to be. No one would even know where you’re staying until you call to let them know. Hardly the safest way to travel.
Of course, the upside – for anybody optimistic enough to believe that this could actually ever happen – is that you could be taken to the foremost hotel in the area and given a penthouse suite far beyond your expectations. This probably happened to someone once, and they’re no doubt still telling the story every chance they get.
Thankfully, worldwide building codes have been brought up to scratch, so you no longer have to worry about asbestos, and in connection, knowing whether you have Mesothelioma or not. However, we do have to consider some other rather pressing concerns when it comes to choosing a hotel – this is where you will call home for perhaps a week, a place that will keep you and your belongings safe, a place you should be able to trust.
Leave your bags by the pool (it’ll be fine, honest)
If you’re met at the hotel by some sort of concierge who informs you to leave your bags by the pool and follow them to reception, don’t dream of following this instruction. Hotels like to keep clunky baggage out of reception. It gives an impression of a smooth flow and uncluttered high society. But to leave your luggage unattended is insane. You wouldn’t leave your laptop on a park bench while you stepped over the road to buy a coffee, so don’t listen to the hotel staff telling you that the ‘free luggage to any thief who happens to be passing’ plan is acceptable.
Secure your room
OK. This is scare-mongering time. But it’s information worth knowing. Thieves are known to take summer jobs in hotels. They have easy access to keys and they may even be expected to enter your room for cleaning duties. Keep valuables in the safe, and if you are in your room, use the deadbolt (if one is available) or wedge the door shut using a doorstop or a chair under the handle – especially if you are in the shower (this is prime thieving time, as you are unlikely to hear them or give chase).
And, last tip, if you lose your keycard, change rooms. Anyone could find it.
