Also it's a good practice to count the number of doors between your room and
that fire escape.
So if you are in a situation where there's fire in a hotel,
there's smoke, there's no electricity, and you have to crawl down the hallway
you know how many doors you have to pass before you find the fire escape.
Check your room security when you first go in.
Are your windows locked?
Are they lockable?
Is the bathroom window lockable?
Is there anything in the closet that might look hazardous, or dangerous?
Is there a connecting door to another room that might allow people to have access?
Check those things out.
If they're not satisfactory, don't unpack your bag, and insist on another room.
At night when people knock on your door, even if it's the hotel employees,
if you have not asked for room service, don't open the door.
There were some accounts not too long ago of tourists in particular country in
South Asia, being attacked by the hotel employees, so just be careful.
And when you leave in the morning, if you're going some place,
tell people where you're going so if you don't show up there is going
to be at least somebody aware of where you've gone.
If you're not sure about what kind of taxis to take.
Should I take the yellow ones, or the green ones, or the white ones.
Is it safe to go here?
Ask the hotels.
They know these things, they can help you out with that.
Many hotels will have a safe in the room that you can lock things up at.
I would say in my experience, about half these safes actually work.
You may have a real crisis when you try to get something out, and it won't open up.
All of these have batteries in the locks.
And I've been in a couple of situations where the battery went dead while my
things were inside, and I was very panicked.
But we managed to find a battery, and we could get things going again.
Now, all of these will have a master key.
So in case you forget your combination or whatever, your social security number or
whatever you use.
If you forget that, then they can come and open this up with a master key.
These master keys have a circulation of their own, and
you can have things stolen out of your room safe.
So if you have something really valuable that you want to be sure is absolutely
going to be safe, and
you're going to be away for awhile, ask to lock this up in the hotel safe.
And there's usually a safe, or safety deposit boxes for
hotels that you can lock things up in and you'd be okay.
And then, if you're looking for a house, where to stay.
First off, think about where safe and protected areas are.
Sometimes these are where diplomats stay or
expatriates stay, which of course makes them much more expensive.
But they're likely to have guards and
they're likely to have security that would be beneficial to you as well.
And then think right in the beginning about what kind of evacuation can
you do if there is a fire occurring?
What kind of protection is there?
The next point is the concern of safety of women.
If there are a number of female employees and they are at an environment where there
is some personal risk to them, it's good to have them housed in adjacent areas or
in adjacent apartments, and that increases the security.
Another approach is to never answer telephone calls,
where you cannot identify the caller on the other cell phone.
If you're going to leave a voice message for to encourage people to leave
their numbers to respond to you, I have a male do this or
one of your servants to do this, and that increases the security.
If you have a gardener or if you have a housekeeper in some way in your place have
them stay around until you come home and it's safe so you won't find other people
who have hidden inside to attack you when you return.
If it is a serious situation and you're likely to have difficulty walking or
taking public transport, then the office should be asked to provide transportation,
and the driver should be with you until you're safely in your house.
So a few points there.