Safety Series Part 4 of 4: Wild Bill’s Travel Safety Tricks
May 1, 2009 by dr. lam
We conclude this week of safety with Wild Bill Stanton’s vacation and travel safety tricks after he proved on a show that he could get into any hotel room by hook or by crook within 10 seconds. Here are some of your safety tips when you travel:
1. Always lock your valuables in your safety deposit box and keep the safe locked at all times. Thieves can easily break into your room. Keep your valuables completely safe if possible.
2. Whenever you have an extra key card given to you, do not just let it sit on the desk. Thieves who get a hold of them can extract your name, address, and credit card information. Again, make sure that all keys that you are given are not left out on your desk in your room and that they are either returned to the front desk and secured by them when you leave or you bring them home to be destroyed.
3. If you are worried about a fire, don’t reside above the 7th floor of a hotel. That is the highest floor that the fire truck ladder will reach. Along those lines, always make sure you know where your exit is and how many doors it would be away from your room and in which direction so that you could easily get there in case of smoke.
4. If you are going to a high-risk country, be careful of the local security forces. They can be in cahoots with the local thieves. I have heard this to be the case particularly in Jamaica. Be very careful.
If anyone else has great travel advice, I welcome them here! Safe travels.
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4 Responses to “Safety Series Part 4 of 4: Wild Bill’s Travel Safety Tricks”
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Golly, what’s a lock for then?! That’s just not right. Hey, if these thieves can unlock a door that quickly, I’m thinking they can probably unlock that safety deposit box without too much difficulty. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Wow, that is unbelievable….crooks being in cahoots with law enforcement! I’m glad that you warned about this, Dr. Lam.
Thanks for all the great travel advice!
just checked with a hotel last night and they said that their cards do not have your personal information on it. i do not want to cause widespread panic but i think probably only hotels where your card could be used as a credit card would have your personal information on it. i think in general you can always ask the front desk to find out. just wanted to write that clarification.
Dr. Lam is right. I used to work at a couple hotels and the keys don’t have personal information on them. The only info that the keys have is what room number and the dates that the user will be there. If someone is able to get a hold of someone’s room key, chances are they probably already know what room number you are in. On the computer, someone can look up that room number and then get access to all your personal information, but the computer doesn’t show your complete credit card number just the last few digits, so even then, it’s not likely that someone’s going to be able to do much with this. Also, the computer requires a password to access.
The main problem is giving your credit card number over the phone to make a reservation. Normally hotels will do a criminal background check on their employees, but some don’t. In fact, one of my co-workers got arrested for identity theft at the hotel I was working at (quite a shocker), so just to be on the safe side, make your hotel reservations online rather than by phone.
thanks heather for the great clarification and tips.