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What Is This At The Omni Berkshire Place?

Where: 21 East 52nd Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10022

We like to keep it fun but informative here at HotelChatter so our newest series, What is This? is devoted to odd-looking items in hotel rooms that upon first glance look as if they serve only a decorative purpose. But everything happens for a reason, right? And we're here to tell you what these things really do.

It took us a while to figure out what the heck this miniature doodad was, though several factors in the room (a malfunctioning safe, for one) distracted us from the mystery at hand. And anyway, the Omni Berkshire Place is a pretty classy joint, so we weren't about to throw a tantrum when we had delicious cocktails and pink-accented bathrooms to enjoy.

But it turns out it's not so much what this thing does than what it stops from happening.

Too cryptic? Click below to see what we mean.

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Hotel Safety / Hotel Rooftops / Hotel Windows / Hotel Emergencies / → All Tags

Hotel Safety 101: What to Check Out After You Check In

Hotels. Gravity. There's no reason they have to be in opposition. So far this summer, we've seen one too many tragedies unfold on the wrong side of a hotel balcony—or window. So maybe it's time we go back to basics and lay down some travel safety rules.

· Keep off the heavy drinking at rooftop bars

It's a terrible way to bring a night of fresh-air fun to an abrupt and unsavory end. When you find yourselves drinking al fresco, it may be a good idea to save the heavy drinking for later, when you find yourself back on dry land. One Manhattan-based GM tells us: "On busier evenings, we do have security on the roof to watch for unruly behavior as well as employees and managers keeping their eyes out for any such occurrence."

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Hotel Safety / W Hotels / Hotel Windows / Austin Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

What is Wrong With The W's Windows?

UPDATE, 3:42PM: W Hotels has released this statement on the two incidents.

The W Austin and W Atlanta Midtown incidents are completely unrelated.

The circumstances of the two incidents are quite different and they are totally unrelated. At the W Austin, a panel of glass broke on balcony railings on two unoccupied condo residences located above the hotel. As such, these are two completely separate incidents, at two very different types of buildings and locations (balcony railing versus window).

Teams of experts are currently investigating each event independently.

We thought last month's horror hotel story about the two women falling through a guestroom window at the W Atlanta was bad enough but it's happened again! there's been another scary incident involving glass at a W Hotel. This time, at the new W Austin in Texas.

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Bed Bugs / Hotel Safety / Hotel Health / EcoSmart / Hotel News / → All Tags

EcoSmart Bed Bug Repellent Won't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

Bed bugs are a hotel guest's worst nightmare. But there's not much you can do about them since they are so hard to see and it's only when you've returned home from a trip that the telltale red bumps start to invade your skin.

And not even avoiding skanky budget hotels will protect you as luxury hotels have been known to be infested too.

But now there's a product out there that claims it can keep bed bugs from getting into your suitcase EcoSmart Bed Bug Travel Repellent uses botanical ingredients to "erect a barrier around [a] suitcase and other areas so bed bugs, if they're lurking can’t hitch a ride home."

And if you're staying in hotel rooms, you can spray EcoSmart around the headboard of the bed and the mattress area to keep the bed bugs from biting in your sleep. You can even spray EcoSmart in your home if you think the bed bugs may have followed you there.

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Hotel Safety / Hotel Locks / B Hotels / → All Tags

We've Never Seen a Door Latch Like This Before

When we turn out the light for the night in our hotel room, there's one thing we always do--and that's slide the safety latch above the door lock into place.

Sure, a determined thief could use a special tool to dismantle the latch but we still feel safer doing it.

Usually, the safety latch is a chain link with a nobbin on the end of it that you insert into another piece on the door. When the door opens, it immediately gets caught by the latch. (OMG we totally just tried to explain how a safety latch works.)

Anyways, most hotels have that chain link but at the new B Ocean Hotel in Fort Lauderdale (Guess the Hotel revealed!), we spotted a new sexier kind of door latch.

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Econolodges / Orlando Hotels / Hotel Safety / Choice Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

Having an 'Undercover Boss' Still Didn't Help the Econolodge in Orlando

Where: 8738 International Drive [map], Orlando, FL, United States, 32819

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending but it doesn't change the fact that a 16-month old girl slipped and fell from the balcony of the Econolodge in Orlando, one of the biggest Econolodges in the world and also the same miserable property that got poor marks during the Undercover Boss episode back in September.

Miraculously, the toddler was saved by a British tourist who noticed the baby hanging from the fourth-floor railing and ran to catch her before she hit the ground. The girl hit a third-floor railing on the way down but didn't even suffer a bruise or scratch and was even described as happy afterward.

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Hotel Safety / Milan Hotels / Crowne Plaza Hotels / → All Tags

The Crowne Plaza Milan Shares Its Street Smarts

Where: Via Melchiorre Gioia, 73, Milan, Italy, 20124

You're in a foreign city and you've spent at least half the day traveling and you just want to sit down inside your hotel room and maybe flip open your laptop and update your Facebook status. But then...something catches your eye. It's a little sign that notes good safety precautions inside the hotel, like keeping valuables in the safe and always checking the peephole before opening your room door. But wait! It continues on to advise on proper safety outside the hotel—street smarts, if you will.

The sign above is such, and we discovered it on the desk of our room recently. Why the Crowne Plaza Milan? Well, it's a future feature in our Adventures in Blind Booking series, and it's centrally located...right in the vicinity of Milan's Stazione Centrale. Aka the domain of clueless tourists, pickpockets, rushing businessmen and other transients. Not the best place to be careless with your belongings, right? Right.

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Hotel Scams / Hotel Crime / Hotel Safety / Hotel News / → All Tags

Don't Fall For This Surprisingly Simple Hotel Scam

There's an email going around you might want to pay attention to if you've got a hotel stay in your future, and if you're here reading HotelChatter, we're betting you do.

The forwarded email warns of a scam plaguing hotel guests, whereby a scam artist outside of the hotel gets your credit card information very easily and with your complete trust, and here's how:

'Someone' calls the front desk and asked for (example) Room 620 (which happens to be your room). Your phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says the following:

'This is the front desk. When checking in, we came cross a problem with your charge card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last 3 digits numbers at the reverse side of your charge card.'

Not thinking anything you might give this person your information, since the call seems to come from the front desk. But actually, it is a scam of someone calling from outside the hotel/front desk.

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Hotel Crime / Hotel Safety / W Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / → All Tags

Whiskey Park at W Atlanta Gets Robbed

Where: 188 14th Street NE [map], Atlanta, GA, United States, 30361

There's been some alarming news on the hotel crime scene this week, including yesterday's horrific suicide plunge at the Le Parker Meridien. We don't normally like to post on the grisly but when it comes to guest safety, we feel that guests should know what's been going on.

At the W Atlanta Midtown, employees at their Whiskey Park bar was robbed on early Monday morning at gunpoint. The AJC reports:

Two employees were counting money in an office around 12:30 a.m. when two gunmen entered, threw down a black bag and demanded all the cash, police said.

"They gave the males all the money that was sitting on the table and in the safe under the table and gave the bag back to them," police spokesman Officer James Polite said.

No one was hurt in the incident. Police did not say how much was stolen.

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Hotel Hell / Hotel Crime / Hotel Safety / Hotel News / TownPlace Suites / Erin Andrews / → All Tags

Hotel Peeping Toms Not Limited to Pretty Sportscasters

We were just starting to get over the uncomfortable idea that the creepy stalker of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was actually helped on his perv mission by a hotel staffer when we came across this news last night--a family staying at a TownPlaces Suites Hotel outside Denver were also the victims of a hidden camera placed inside their hotel room.

Robert Reams and his family checked into their hotel room during a vacation in August. But while they were there, they had no idea that someone was watching them. WOWT TV reports:

From a hole nearly invisible to the eye, David Fugate was in the room with the family. The hole caught the attention of a hotel employee after the family checked out. "The maintenance people poked a pin in the hole and it poked back. They went and got a knife and cut it open to look inside," says Reams. "When they looked inside the wall they found a camera." Fugate had been observing the Reams family from an adjacent room using a wireless camera.

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Hotel Safety / Spain Hotels / Paradores / → All Tags

Where is The Cleanest Hotel in The World?

Where: Plaza do Obradoiro 1, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 15705

Health and safety not top of the list when you’re deciding on a hotel? Us neither, though spending the past four days laid low with a stomach bug in Egypt has made us think twice.

Luckily for hygiene freaks and the walking wounded, H&S hotel experts Check Safety First have produced a list of the most hygienic hotels in the 10 countries they work in – from the Czech Republic and Germany to Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Topping the list is the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos Parador in Santiago de Compostela. Apparently it has “clearly shown its commitment to the well-being of its guests”. Perhaps that’s because it’s had over 500 years to practice customer service.

Hygiene and history will cost you, mind – rooms start at €231 ($345), although if you’re under 35 you can bag a room for a relatively teeny €110 ($164) with the Young Persons Getaway offer.

Hotel Crime / Hotel Safety / Erin Andrews / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

Erin Andrews Stalker Asked For, and Received, a Guest Room Next to Hers

Where: 2555 W. End [map], Nashville, TN, United States, 37203

Last Friday, the creepy stalker who videotaped sexy ESPN reporter Erin Andrews through a peephole in her hotel room was found, arrested and charged with one count of interstate stalking using harassing and intimidating surveillance. But it turns out, Michael David Barrett wasn't just a clever predator on the hunt for his prey. Oh no, he had some help from the hotel.

A lawyer for ESPN blasted the management at Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University for failing to protect Andrews. The reason why? Computer records show that Barrett requested and was given a room next to Andrews and that their rooms were located in an alcove off the main hallways. It even shows up on the computer records as "GST RQST TO RM NXT TO [Andrews]." So much for guest safety and privacy, huh?

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