Whenever I stayed in a hotel in a high risk environment there were a number of steps I took to minimise my exposure to any risks and maximise my chances of extracting myself from an incident in the event I had not avoided it in the first place. A lot of my work was in the middle east and during and immediately after Gulf War II [2003 onwards] most places in the middle east could be risky for a blue-eyed Caucasian. Hotels housing western businesses were targeted with bombs, including one where I worked and another where I went social dancing, both of these were in Amman, Jordan resulting in multiple fatalities.

Room Location

If you’re going to a high risk environment, always get a room at the ‘back’ of the hotel away from the front / foyer / reception area. This was always the No1 target area for truck bombs to be ploughed into the hotel. Rooms at the back are less likely to be destroyed / damaged, thus lessening your chance of injury. If you’re going on the family holiday to the most peaceful place on earth, it is unlikely you need to include this in your risk assessment.

Fire

Always get a room on the 3rd floor or lower. In the event of a fire in the hotel, many local fire brigades only have ladders on appliances that will reach the 3rd floor. I know many big city brigades are equipped with appliances with greater reaches but if you aren’t in a big cosmopolitan city, you may wish to think that through. This could happen anywhere, any time.

I have first hand experience of being in major fires. Trust me, it is a truly terrifying experience. As soon as you have put your bag down in your room, go and find the fire escape. When you exit the room is it turn left or turn right? How many paces is it until the fire exit door? Tonight might be the night you are woken by the hotel fire alarm. You might be jetlagged, you might have a had a few drinks and the room is full of thick black smoke and you are on your hands and knees to get out of the room into the hallway and then to the exit. Not ideal! Not all hotels have arrows on the floor or the walls at ankle level. Not all hotels have signs for the emergency exit at levels when you are crawling on your hands and knees. If you don’t know the direction and the number of paces to the door before a fire starts, once you are in smoke you aren’t going to find it. The smoke will kill you long before the fire gets near you.

Fire / Emergency Exits

As part of your reconnaissance, once you have found the fire escape, open the door and go down it to the emergency exit out into the street. The door should not be locked by padlock and chain or anything else. When you get outside, if there is an external metal staircase coming down from other floors above it may be enclosed by a ‘cage’ all the way around with an exit door. That exit door should not be locked. I have stayed in a number of hotels around the world where the fire exits were not ‘one-way’ or ‘egress’ only, you could get back into the hotel because they had a door handle and could be opened from outside. To prevent intruders entering the hotel, the fire escapes were locked. In Le Royale hotel in Amman I ended up having what I shall describe as a somewhat heated and robust discussion with the duty manager when I found the fire escapes padlocked and ordered them to be unlocked. Same with Ak Zhaik hotel in Atyrau, the fire escapes opened into an enclosed ‘cage’ at the bottom which was locked with the rustiest padlock I’ve ever seen. Temperatures here get down well into the -30’s and there’s no way you could ever open that, even if you did have a key. All the escapees would either be crushed to death in the cage or perish in the fire.

True Story

The hotel where I worked in Amman, had our offices on the 1st floor. A suicide bomber entered the hotel directly below and detonated his explosives vest on the ground floor, bringing down the ceiling and the spaces where our office had been. We had moved out of that hotel, into a purpose built secure office block.

The other hotel had a nightclub where we would go ballroom dancing on a weekend evening [seriously]. Both of these hotels were also frequented by military contractors, western diplomats and others engaged in the ‘war on terror’ hence their being targeted. A suicide bomber entered there and turned himself into flying mince. My dancing might have been a bit average but I didn’t think it deserved quite such a response!