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Our iPod Was Stolen From Our Room at the MGM Grand

Where: 3799 Las Vegas Blvd S [map], Las Vegas, NV, United States, 89109

We spent a few days last week hopping between Vegas hotels that we’d booked through Hotwire. We landed the MGM Grand for our second night in Sin City, which we were very excited about. And although we got zilch in the way of upgrades and vouchers at check-in, we rather liked our room — it was a little old-looking, but it had a pretty super view of mountains and McCarran airport. We could have watched the planes coming in all day.

Unluckily for us, as it turned out, we didn’t. We went out instead. And, because we were a bit nervous of being mobbed by drunk people, just as we were going out the door, we whipped our iPod out of our purse. We’d already locked our (paltry) valuables away in our suitcase, and we didn’t have time to get the key out, so we just stuck it in the front flap of the case and ran off to watch people humping chairs at Anthony Cools’ hypnotist show at Paris.

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Tags: Hotel News / Hotel Security / Hotel Safety / Hotel Hell / Erin Andrews / → All Tags

The Erin Andrews Peeping Incident: Isolated Creep or Common Occurrence?

Here's one, if you haven't heard it already, that will send tingles up your spine: blonde ESPN reporter Erin Andrews — the crush object of many a sports fan (and many a lady-fan, really) — was changing in her (still unidentified) hotel room while a still-at-large creeper filmed her through what looks like a peephole. Ugh.

The video footage was uploaded to a website and is still making its way around the internet, though an expert source interviewed by Deadspin believes that the footage was shot from an adjoining hotel room using "a gooseneck or fiber-optic camera [threaded] through a hole in the wall about a quarter-inch across."

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Tags: Hotel Security / Hotel Technology / Hotel Safety / → All Tags

Will a Door Stop Alarm Make Your Hotel Room Extra Safe?

In light of the super-scary news that two women were attacked in Boston hotels recently (one was robbed; one was killed — police suspect it was the same attacker), we know you can never be too careful. While these women granted access to their attacker under the premise of a business transaction (massage services), it should definitely serve as a wakeup call to travelers: the world is a scary place and, unfortunately, you're not always 100% protected when you check into a hotel.

But what can you do? Here's one suggestion, which comes to us via the blog TravelingMamas: invest in a Door Stop Alarm. Not a bad idea for those of us who want to be on the extra-cautious side, no?

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Hotel Safes That Don't Look Like Safes

We've seen our fair share of totally useless hotel safes, especially these days if we're hauling our laptop round and would like to leave it safely behind for the day. A new product from Safemark reckons to have this problem solved with an extra-large safe to fit our laptop (up to 17 inches) plus all our expensive jewelry (!).

They also are using the principle of a hotel safe looking safer when it doesn't look so obviously like a safe. This new product is meant to blend in as a desk drawer with a combination lock and they say that as well as being convenient to use because it's close to where you'll need your important documents and your laptop, it's also a bit secret.

The size is definitely a winner, but we're not sure that would-be thieves will be so easily confused that they can't recognize a desk drawer safe. But even if they see it, the drawer safe is secured to the desk with steel-wire cables that should keep it there. You only have to worry if you see a suspicious-looking guy carrying a whole desk down a hotel corridor.

Tags: Jerusalem Hotels / Israel Hotels / Political Hotels / George W. Bush / Hotel Security / → All Tags

How Many Secret Service Personnel Does it Take to Fill the King David?

Where: 23 King David Street , Jerusalem, Israel, 94101

No matter what your political persuasion, if you're a U.S. president heading to Jerusalem, there's one place to say: The King David. Sure enough George W. Bush is staying there on his first official visit to Israel.

Bush will be staying in a suite at the King David hotel that costs $2,600 a night -- for guests who are not president of the United States. Assistant General Manager Benny Olearchik would not disclose how much the Americans are paying to stay at his hotel, one of Israel's most expensive.

Bush's entourage already has taken up more than two-thirds of its 237 rooms, and will take over all of them once he arrives himself, Olearchik said. Unlucky guests who happened to plan their visits at the wrong time had their reservations canceled.

There's a word to the wise for people staying at hotels popular with heads of state: you may be kicked out and forced to rebook. We can just imagine the look on the face of the person who had already booked an expensive suite being told, "Sorry, you must stay elsewhere."

We hear security will be a tad tight. "More than 10,500 policemen and security personnel will be deployed to protect Bush and keep order during the visit..." If you're going to be in Israel, this would be a good time to head to the Tel Aviv Hilton instead.