Attorneys at a Houston law firm developed a hotel safety checklist for guests. As travel increases, the hospitality industry works to keep guests and staff safe. The checklist is designed to help guests protect themselves while traveling.

The checklist is based off of cases seen by the firm where individuals gained unauthorized access to guests' rooms. In 2021, jurors in Harris County found that hotel personnel placed a vulnerable guest in the room of a man who claimed to be accompanying her. 

More recently, a man followed a woman he had met at a nearby bar back to the hotel and received a key to her room from the front desk. Additionally, a lost room key was used by an attacker to enter a guest's room. 

The checklist provided the following recommendations for guests:

• Tell front desk staff that no one else should receive a key
• Discard the key sleeve that often contains room numbers
• Tell desk staff as soon as a key is lost and ask them to disable the lost key
• Always use the deadbolt
• Don't leave belongings unattended

The checklist infographic is available here.