Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

securitymagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 236 posts

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#51

Post by Markoff »

SwiftyBug wrote: post #42
threatofrain wrote: post #9

The most interesting advice here is to leave the TV on with a do-not-disturb sign. I think people will be less likely to rob you that way. All the other advice is kind of whatever, like not being on the top floor in case someone is sweeping for you floor-by-floor.

The problem is that in a lot of hotels the power of the whole room shuts down the moment you remove the key card from its slot. I guess you would need to ask for a second key card.

often any card or piece of whatever stucked inside work, they don't really check for chip or anything

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#52

Post by gregw2 »

gregw2 wrote: post #43

I was robbed at gunpoint at a hotel once and in the aftermath have my own tactical "lessons learned" on the topic of hotel safety tips... which I am happy to share with you fellow HN travelers: * Don't check into (cheap) hotels at 2am, criminals prowl at night looking for easy targets. * If you do, be on extra alert for idling or lurking cars with headlights on at hotels in early morning hours, it is indeed a greater…

Not a safety tip, but also (to me) one more interesting lesson from the experience (which happened in my early 20s):

* Trauma is a real thing. Your body can react to deadly threats afterwards in ways you cannot control. The next day after being held up, I literally could not enter a new room without my head moving/turning to scan entrances/exits for threats. I tried to stop my head moving repeatedly and could not! I literally could not control my body.

After a little while of experiencing this, I found myself asking myself "Well, do I need to embrace this new behavior as a needed lifestyle adjustment? Or do I work to go back to my old ways?".

I chose to work to go back to my old ways as this was a bit of a one-off situation (and in hindsight it was), but it took about a week of continual effort to regain control of my mind+body behaviors. I can easily see someone in different circumstances facing different tradeoffs remaining traumatized.

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#53

Post by [deleted] »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #4

I was almost impressed by the equally prominent "Reject" cookies button until I realised that when you press it, it refuses access. Ironic for an article about how to be a security paranoiac. Edit: Especially as it recommends an online booking and doing so without regard to cookies and other trackers is probably leaking far more personal information to people who actually could use that information than saying your n…

[deleted]

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#54

Post by pengaru »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #30
jamisteven wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2010 I was working at a large hotel / convention center in Nashville, at about 8pm we were preparing for a massive event where a company had bought out one of the venues, the entire hotel was booked solid. In the days prior to this, we had torrential downpours and heavy rain but this was normal, until it wasnt. Out of nowhere we get reports that the underground tunnels in the hotel used for employees to get around…

How often does this happen? Once in a life time? This is the kind of stuff that makes you go nutty. Of course you _can_ try to prepare for everything and anything, but does it actually make sense to worry about being in a flash flood like that? I doubt it.

The orientation section doesn't seem incredibly inconvenient nor costly. It's basically just establishing situational awareness in an unfamiliar place. What are you getting kept from by doing it? A dozen extra minutes of terrible hotel TV?

On the topic of flash floods esp. when traveling; I make a conscious effort to not park/stay anywhere liable to flash-flood, and that requires some situational awareness in the sense of at least knowing your surroundings and the area's geography/climate/seasonal weather patterns. We recently narrowly avoided getting caught in [0], and that was with us making a conscious effort to not spend too much time in any of the low-lying areas, not even for a day hike - we'd always park somewhere relatively high and simply avoided hiking any of the low regions. That storm happened just one day after we were there passing through that exact spot. The tourists staying at that popular hotel probably didn't think about how they're staying on the floor of an enormous desert valley in a monsoon-y time of year. By failing to prepare you're preparing to fail...

[0] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-05/unpreced...

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#55

Post by szszrk »

chrisseaton wrote: post #36
Shank wrote: post #7

Rather than a doorstop, I usually prefer a super grip lock [0] -- an extremely corny as-seen-on-TV product that you can lash around a door knob that uses simple physics to make the door impossible to open with the key on the other side. Naomi Wu mentioned this and Deviant Ollam has too. The basic premise is that it's less destructive than most "security door stops" and hotels tend to get angry if you destroy their ca…

Seems like it requires an extremely particular design of door handles that I’ve never actually seen in a hotel.

Yeah, most hotels I've been in used electronic locks with no moving parts you can hook that to. Just a card reader on the hallway and a door knob inside. Door knob works as the additional lock (upward position in a European style knob) most often.

I would still use a door stop - a rubber one doesn't weight much. But I would just carry one - with my luck the other door would be a slide door or open outside.

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#57

Post by WWLink »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #35
Shank wrote: post #7

Rather than a doorstop, I usually prefer a super grip lock [0] -- an extremely corny as-seen-on-TV product that you can lash around a door knob that uses simple physics to make the door impossible to open with the key on the other side. Naomi Wu mentioned this and Deviant Ollam has too. The basic premise is that it's less destructive than most "security door stops" and hotels tend to get angry if you destroy their ca…

Seeing the picture of that lock reminded me how uniform were the door locks and light switches in the US. In Europe there are countless different types of door locks and light switches but basically everywhere I went to in the US it was the same door locks and light switches. I take it if you travel internationally a doorstop would work everywhere.

There are building codes that were implemented before most buildings in the US were built for stuff like that. There are variances in like, knob vs lever handle, but yea they mostly work the same and are in the same spot.

IMHO a smart thing if there's an emergency and you're staying someplace unfamiliar...

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#58

Post by closewith »

bboygravity wrote: post #24
parker_mountain wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These days their prices are competitive or better than the aggregation sites, and with better terms I travel extensively for work, and this is simply not true. Literally last week, I saved $40 by booking through hoteltonight in Chicago. Once you get close to the date of the stay, prices become squirrely and weird. This is definitely true if you're booking more than two weeks in advance, though.

Definitely true for Europe. I pretty much live in hotels and so far 100% of my bookings where either cheaper (usually) or the same price (rarely) on the hotel's own webste vs aggregators. Regardless of my "genious discount level 9000" or "save up 10 nights and get 1 free" and all the other "discounts" that you actually paid for indirectly on aggregators. The only place where this didn't hold true for me so far was a…

Europe is a big place. It's not true in Ireland, anyway.

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#59

Post by WWLink »

stevarino wrote: post #44
zoltar wrote: post #39

[1,000 lumen flashlight] ...they are incredibly effective at temporarily blinding a would-be attacker, giving you a chance to escape. Is this dude for real?

Tactical flashlight. They're strong enough to give you second degree burns if you hold it against your flesh. They typically have low, high, and strobe modes for disorienting targets.

They also usually have the most asinine single button interface and the most likely person to get strobed is yourself lol.

Re: Hotel safety tips from a former intelligence officer

#60

Post by raverbashing »

jhoelzel wrote: post #13

For a Security site, the are quite hostile for declining their cookies. I will not get redirected to the article but to mainpage and the search doesnt work :/

That's why I just accepted cookies and deleted them

I do care about my privacy (and safety), thanks

Post reply on HN