NBC Dateline Investigates Hotel Safety

June 5, 2004 at 9:54 AM | by jenleo | Comments (0)

Last night, Dateline NBC featured a hidden camera investigation on the safety of hotels. Chief Consumer Correspondent Lea Thompson researched nearly 30 hotels and brought us the inside scoop on current safety issues.

"How safe is your hotel?
Hidden camera investigation uncovers security gaps"

Dateline producers were able to get into elevators, onto guest room floors, and even inside guest rooms with little effort.

"Even at some of the most luxurious hotels in the country, intruders, unwittingly helped by hotel employees, are breaching security and getting very close to where you might be sleeping."

The article on their website includes the interviews and examples that were in the TV report. Sometimes the loose security led to one woman's computer equipment being stolen at the Paramount Hotel in New York City's Times Square, and on a different occasion one woman was raped at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.

John Fannin, the owner of "Safeplace", a company which independently tests and certifies hotels for safety, agreed that there is a definite problem with hotel security in our country.

The Dateline report gives hotel-goers several tips on how to increase their security when staying at hotels. Here are two that I liked,

"� Place the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on your door. The sign gives the impression you are in the room when you are not. Call housekeeping for maid service - instruct them to leave the sign on the door. Do not use the "clean the room" sign.
� Before boarding an elevator, observe all passengers. When returning to your room, board last and/or be last to select your floor button. Always position yourself near the elevator control panel. If threatened, press the alarm button and as many floor buttons as possible.

HotelChatter

Select a Destination:

Tips / → All Tags