Hotel Safety Tips for Traveling Business Women

Photo by 
GORE-TEX® Products

Hotels are not only dangerous for maids, like in the recent IMF's managing director's alleged rape case, it's also dangerous for women traveling alone or business women who frequent different hotels. Business women usually travel by themselves and can be targets for sexual predators.

If you are a business woman that stays at hotels frequently or travels often, please read the following safety tips and let your co-workers know about them:

It is not necessary to open your hotel room door when someone knocks on it. You can always ask what they want or have them drop off what they want to deliver. If they say they can't leave it at the door, have them take it to the hotel's front desk.

Avoid having detailed conversation with strangers you meet at the lobby. Sometimes that's where predators hang out, to befriend future victims.

If attending a convention, wear your name badge only at the convention and nowhere else. Don't advertise where you are staying and give out your name to everybody who passes by you!

Never let anyone into your hotel room that you don't know.

Need an alcoholic drink to take the stress off? It is best to have the front desk bring it up to your room. Request that the person delivering it, be a woman. If you prefer going to the hotel bar, make sure you see the bartender pour your drink and always keep an eye on your drink. If you are at a table, make sure the waiter or waitress pours it in front of you or request a closed container when ordering for example, a beer or for that matter any beverage!

When traveling or staying at a hotel, it is important to also carry with you some sort of self defense product besides practicing safety tips. Best thing is a personal alarm (airports won't confiscate them). One example is the Personal Travel Alarm. This alarm has a motion sensor which you can place on your hotel room door knob. If someone moves the door knob, it will alert you! If placed on your briefcase when you can't keep an eye on it and someone moves it, you will also be alerted! Another nice defense product you can select is the Door Stop Alarm. It is similar to those old rubber door stops but it also has an alarm that can wake you up besides not allowing intruders to get in.

These safety tips are not just for business women staying at hotels, but also when women are in airports, riding trains, in subways or at bus stations!