Hotel detectives have emerged from behind the lobby palm. In fact, security staff members are virtually on display these days as advertisements for hotels. In a few years, the hotel-motel industry has reversed itself, from shunning the topic of protection against crime, lest it cause guests to worry, to talking about safety openly.
“Security is a big issue in the industry,” said Lisa Garb, spokeswoman for Howard Johnson’s. “If it’s not the top priority in guest surveys, it’s the second.”
Once the issue received public attention-after a widely publicized settlement in a motel rape in Texas in 1991, and an increase in crime against tourists in Florida and elsewhere-no hotel could afford to fall behind.
One strong indication is the rise in door-locking systems that use plastic cards, mechanical or electronic.
Electronic door locks, which cost about $250 each installed, are opened with cards with magnetic strips and are reprogrammed automatically when a guest checks out; the non-electronic key cards do not change combinations automatically but can be reprogrammed if a guest fails to return a key. Because these cards do not have room numbers on them, they are useless to anyone who finds one.
Thom Davis, an operations consultant to the American Hotel and Motel Association, says the major security advantage of electronic key cards is that “a lot of places don’t have good key control” and the automatic reprogramming feature eliminates employee neglect-failure to change a tumbler lock after a key is lost, for example-as a security risk.
Davis, a former police officer who is a partner in Hospitality Risk Controls in Dublin, Ohio, says that locks are only one part of security. He said his 1,500 clients nationwide included motel chains with effective security that still used metal keys.
Anthony G. Marshall, dean of the School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University in Miami, said virtually all motel and hotel chains had set deadlines for their properties to switch to card locking systems.
On Aug. 17, according to Mercedes A. McDonnell, a spokeswoman for Choice Hotels, the participating motels of four chains in this group set a deadline of Oct. 1, 1996, for conversion to electronic locks: These are the Quality, Comfort, Clarion and Sleep Inns.
Sleep Inns, an economy brand begun in 1988, describes itself as the first chain that started out with state-of-the-art door security: These motels, now numbering about 100, use the guest’s credit card as the room key. But the company making this technology, McDonnell said, is not doing as well as others in the field and Sleep Inn owners are being given the option of changing to their own electronic keys.
Holiday Inns has set Jan. 1, 1996, as a worldwide deadline for its properties to install reprogrammable card-keys. According to a spokeswoman, all hotels joining the chain must now have such a system.
Howard Johnson’s deadline for franchise holders to install electronic locks is Jan. 1, 1996, according to Garb. Two other chains in the same group-Hospitality Francise Systems Inc.-have set deadlines: Ramada Inns in the United States for Jan. 1, 1996; the Days Inns for Jan. 1, 1997. This group’s Super 8 chain still uses metal keys, but management is discussing a change, she said.
Budgetel Inns, according to chairman Steve Marcus, had shifted its company-owned properties, now numbering 80, to electronic locks by the end of 1993; the end of 1994 is the deadline for its 22 franchise operators, which he said were nearly all converted.
Sheraton’s deadline was August 1993, and all 272 properties in North America met it; “a couple” of the 124 overseas properties were granted extensions, according to spokeswoman Lisa Dickason. According to the chain’s security chief, Richard Hudak, 60 percent to 70 percent of Sheratons have electronic keys; the rest have mechanically reprogrammable ones.
All domestic Marriott hotels, Courtyards by Marriott and Fairfield Inns have new locking systems, according to Chad Callaghan, Marriott’s senior director for loss prevention.
Residence Inns, another Marriott brand, still use metal keys but Callaghan said each unit was small enough to maintain tight key control.
Kris Krause, director of industry evaluation for the American Automobile Association, said the membership of 36 million began telling the organization in 1991 that it expected deadbolts, in addition to regular latches, on hotel room doors.
The AAA responded in 1993 by raising its minimum standards for being listed in the 23 regional Tour Guides. A requirement was added that room doors and connecting doors have deadbolts, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, and that room doors also have chains and peepholes. The deadline was set for the inspections on which the 1995 guides would be based.
The inspections will be finished in October and by mid-August, Krause said, 7,000 of 22,000 were complete. She said 447 lodging places had been told they were out of the book because of the security requirement, a rate of 6 percent.
“Most of the hotels recognized that these requirements were long overdue,” Krause said. “The ones that did not were in remote places, independent motels that could not afford to get them installed, or places that conceived that they had no crime problem.”
The AAA has given up on enforcing its requirements for places listed in “Caribbean Travelbook.” “We would have retained 5 percent of our listings,” Krause said. “Most places there say they do not lock their doors. They say crime is not a problem. They are in deep denial.” She said the AAA was considering stating in the entries which places did or did not have room security.
Hotel security experts point to another reason that safety discussions have become so audible: In a time of prevalent crime, hotels want guests to be alert to safety issues.
There is no point in having a peephole if a guest does not use it before opening the door, Davis said. Don’t flaunt jewelry, Marshall said. Don’t leave the motel door open while fetching your luggage, Krause said.
Alice M. Wisel, editor of the seven regional Mobil Guides, estimated her guides eliminate on security grounds 1 percent of the 23,000 places they inspect in a year.
Although inspection standards do not specify deadbolts, peepholes or type of keys, she said that overall security was carefully checked, particularly location. “We just drop a place if the inspector says, `This is not an area where I would send a guest,’ ” she said.
Hotels and motels in the United States are probably now the safest in the world, Marshall said, because courts have made it costly for those who do not exercise “reasonable care.” Davis, who represents many motels in lawsuits, said that the question of “foreseeability” was getting more acute; that is, even if a motel has not experienced a particular crime, if the neighbors have, the motel must take precautions on that score.
