Hotel Security - Where the Claims Are?

By Nelson Migdal, Aliza L. Carrino and James M. Norman

Guest safety became a serious hospitality industry issue after singer-actress Connie Francis was assaulted in a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Westbury, Long Island in November of 1974 by a stranger who was able to open a "locked" sliding glass door to her room. Our post-September 11 world renewed the public's fears about security everywhere, including hotels, which suffered collateral damage in the terrorist attack.

Guests arriving at hotels expect to see the visible signs of enhanced hotel security, from security guards and video cameras to unmarked guestroom keys. Guests assume that they can trust hotel employees to help keep them safe and secure during their stay and count on the staff to be part of the security, and not a risk factor. This sense of security, or the lack of security, is part of the guest experience that may play an important part in a guest's decision whether to stay at a particular hotel or even with a particular hotel chain in the future.

Violent crimes committed against hotel guests are, fortunately, not a common occurrence. Rarer still are attacks by hotel employees. The nature of our society is now such that these isolated instances generate significant media attention. Although no hotel owner or operator can totally guarantee guest safety or that their employees will never commit crimes against hotel guests, the political response to highly public cases often is an attempt to hold hotels to the standard of almost absolute safety. Currently, there is a movement in state legislatures to require employers to perform criminal background checks on all potential employees. These legislative initiatives are becoming known around the country as "Nan's Law."

Nan Toder's Story

During a 1996 business trip, Nan Toder checked into an Illinois hotel. For added security, she locked the door and cautiously placed her fully packed suitcases in front of the hotel room door every evening. What Ms. Toder did not anticipate was that her greatest danger would not come from lax hotel security that allowed a stranger to wander the hotel hallways or even from other hotel guests, but from a hotel manager.

Christopher Richee used his position as a manager at the hotel to access guestroom keys, and he illegally entered Nan Toder's room as she slept. Richee brutally tortured and strangled her to death. During the murder investigation, it was learned that Richee had a history of...