The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Focus on security of tourists’ personal belongings in hotels

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Focus on security of tourists’ personal belongings in hotels

The recent theft of personal belongings at a high-end hotel calls for measures to protect belongings of tourists, says Rajesh B. Nair

The recent incident of theft inside a high-end hotel in the town has brought to light the safety aspect of the personal belongings of tourists staying in Puducherry. Valuables worth around Rs 1 lakh was stolen from the room of a senior officer working with the Indian Navy, who along with his family had checked in on June 16.

The Navy official in his complaint at the Muthialpet Police station had stated that he retired for the night without locking the door properly. When he woke up the next day morning, they found that Rs 30,000 in cash, gold ornaments, a digital camera, credit card and two mobile phones were missing from the room.

The vanity bag which was found missing was later recovered from near the wash basin of the restaurant, he stated in his complaint. Police have registered a case and investigation was on. A few years ago a similar incident had happened in the same hotel, police said.

A senior manager of a high-end hotel said though such incidents were isolated they have taken adequate steps to provide security to the belongings of guests. Some of the high-end hotels have put in place proper safety measures such as deployment of security personnel at the corridors, vantage points inside the hotel and installation of electronic door lock, programmed according to the duration of stay of the guests.

Hotels have also installed door locks that had in-built mechanism to register the number of time a particular door was opened and Electronic Programmable In-room safes in all the rooms.

Besides these fool-proof security measures, some of the hotels have provided time cards to the staff to monitor their movements.

“Although we provide adequate security to the belongings, during the check-in time we instruct the guests to take care of their things. The Hotel Rule cards details all the safety aspects,” he said.

An owner of a travel agency said safety aspect in the hotels had become all the more important as Puducherry was becoming one of the most important tourism spots, especially during weekends.

“All steps should be taken to avoid recurrence of such incidents in the future,” he said.

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