Hotel crime rises in recession, but hotels say they're still safe

— -- Mary Catherine Tubbs was an experienced hotel manager, but that didn't save her from becoming a crime victim at a hotel 10 years ago.

Like two women tied up last month in New England hotel rooms by an assailant dubbed the "Craigslist killer," Tubbs was tied up by a man who followed her into a hotel room in Northbrook, Ill.

He threw her to the floor, tied her hands behind her back with a bathrobe sash, put a pillowcase over her head and choked her.

"I resisted vigorously, and he left," says Tubbs, a hospitality consultant in Nashville, who managed hotels from 1990 to 1998.

More than a billion travelers stay at U.S. hotels each year, and some, like Tubbs, become victims despite the sense of security that locked doors, surveillance cameras and hotel staff provide. And now that the country is in recession, several veterans of hotel security say, there's a greater likelihood that what happened to Tubbs could happen to other travelers.

"We're absolutely seeing an increase in crime at hotels," says Philip Farina, CEO of Enterprising Securities, a San Antonio company that designs security programs for hotels.

Security industry veterans like Farina say that the hard economic times are especially driving up incidents of theft, including the amount perpetrated by hotel staff. Hard times are also prompting cuts in security at some hotels. As a result, they say, guests must take more responsibility for their own safety by being more vigilant when they arrive and after checking in.

"The current (economic) downturn is associated with significant cuts in security," says Dave Wiggins, a member and former president of the California Tourism Safety & Security Association. At the same time, he says, hotel employees are working fewer hours and making less money, which "may be pushing some otherwise honest people toward dishonest behaviors."

Many in the hotel industry dispute that hotels are any less safe now, especially after security was beefed up following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, disagrees with the security experts. He says there is no evidence crime is on the rise.

John Wolf, spokesman for Marriott International, says, "The incidence of crime within our hotels remains far below the rest of society."

Car break-ins also a problem

The fact is nobody knows how much crime is committed in hotels vs. elsewhere. Police don't keep statistics on that, and no hotel companies responded to USA TODAY's requests for crime data. However, hotel security experts such as Farina estimate that at least one crime may occur daily in a big-city hotel. And, they say, most are thefts.