After more than 10 months of careful planning for the 118th running of the Boston Marathon, Boston's hotels are gearing up for record occupancy and larger-than-ever crowds of spectators both in the city and along the 26.2 mile route. This year’s Boston Marathon will be held on April 21st.

The lessons learned following the Boston Marathon bombings were many, but one lesson that was learned rather quickly was that Twitter was going to become the go-to platform for gathering timely and accurate information from city, state and federal officials regarding the rapidly unfolding events of that week.

For many of Boston's hotel security directors, the day started like so many other Marathon Mondays, a calm morning full of excitement and anticipation for the events about to begin in the quaint New England town of Hopkinton, 26.2 miles from the Marathon's finish line in Boston's historic Copley Square.