CNN.com International

August 15, 2003

Business Traveller - Is your hotel secure?

By Nick Easen for CNN Friday, August 15, 2003 Posted: 0735 GMT ( 3:35 PM HKT)

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Since a car bomb blast ripped through a luxury hotel in downtown Jakarta, security has been the first thing on the minds of biz travelers.

As hotels across Asia step up luggage and physical searches, as well as installing metal detectors and bomb-detection dogs, the question still remains -- is your hotel safe?

"Hotels are designed to make a traveler's stay as convenient and pleasurable as possible, they are not designed with a fortress mentality," Richard Hancock of Hill & Associates a security specialist told CNN.

When it comes to access, experts agree many hotels are similar to shopping arcades -- public places that offer easy access. Nowadays a lot of luxury hotels have shops, restaurants and bars to attract passing customers.

"I'm quite surprised about the differing levels of security in hotels across Asia," John Stonham of asia-hotels.com told CNN.

"In Manila the security is very high and can be quite disconcerting, but in other countries there is next to nothing," he added.

But as Asia's hotels beef-up security in the wake of the recent blast in Jakarta, they now realize that there is a fine balance between heightened defense measures and increased inconvenience to guests.

"Hotels are soft targets, but security can become so intrusive it begins to degrade the whole hotel experience," says Stonham.

"Many in the region are American owned, they have to weigh up the risk of being attacked and security inconvenience to travelers," he added.

Advice to executive travelers from those in the business is to be more vigilant and report anything suspicious to the hotel lobby.

Security before convenience

Even before the recent blast, hotels in Jakarta were employing consultants to provide training for their in-house personnel on security awareness, including profiling people and searching vehicles.

Yet in most cases hotel security is confined to the actual premises and there is unfettered access to the streets around the building.

"Short term we are going to see the police taking a greater role, they are the people that have the legal right to stop people in public thoroughfares around hotels," added Hancock.

Hancock believes hotels can also learn security tips from embassies.

In many cases concrete or other less intrusive barricades prevent any vehicle-mounted devices getting anywhere near consular buildings.

"People are going to start changing how they design hotels to at least have a barrier separating the area where people reside and where a security check takes place," Hancock told CNN.

"In the case of the blast at the Marriott in Jakarta the vehicle was able to enter the hotel before a guard was able to get anywhere near," he added.