Hotels

[The Stig]

What steps do you take to prepare for a SHTF event when staying in a hotel?

For me:
* Never stay in hotel/motel with exterior facing doors
* Stay on as low as floor as possible
* Place large towel across the bottom of the room-door to block smoke in the event of a fire while I'm sleeping
* Note the approximate distance to the fire exits from my room (counting doors preferably....ie 6 door to the left is a stairwell, etc)
* Keep my clothes and personal belongings stacked neatly in one location so I can easily grab them all if I have to scoot quickly
* Place room key with car keys so I don't lock myself out on a trip to the ice machine (total shtf event if making quick dash in skivvies)

Other ideas thoughts?

I think Hotels lend a false sense of security because you start to identify with your room and feel like you're in a bunker. Many things can be going on outside your room but you're separated off in your own little cocoon.

[alaska]

i hate hotels.
I will actually walk from my room to 2 diff exit locations. kind of like a muscle memory thing.

[bacpacker]

I try and stay on a lower floor. Also typically I keep my bag packed and ready to grab if need be. All valuables are kept in a laptop backpack to grab and go. Clothes for the next day in a pile next to the backpack, along with the shoes. I also try and park away from the hotel, not right next to it. Always backed in and with decent access to a exit.

Good idea about the towel at the door and preplanning 2 different exits by counting doors.

[RedJohn]

I remember one time, I arrived in Orlando and my lower floor bedroom was flooded because of heavy rains. Lower is not always better.

I hate hotels. I have this thing about what they did in this bed before me.

[bacpacker]

Personally I prefer the 2nd floor, mainly due to all the traffic on the main floor. Generally hotels suck at their best, but are sometime a nessacary evil.

There has been a lot of good idea's so far, lookin forward to eveyone else's ides as well.

[LUNCHBOX]

I agree with the second floor....when me and my buddy make a gear run and hotel it I request the second floor and bring a decent length of rope just in case you have slide out. Keeping your bags and sensitive items ready and close is just part of how we (the like minded people) are.

Parking away and backing in are nice ideas.

[alaska]

i also procured, a while back, a case of fire escape masks. one will be with me from now on when a hotel is involved.

[ak474u]

I set up the suitcase tables, (look like cots for midgets) in front of the door a few feet when we go to bed at night, an invader is going to be in a hury to clear the fatal funnel most hotel rooms that have the bathroom at the inner wall feature, so if they kick the door, they have an entanglement of sorts in the way. Can you imagine kicking in a door of a darkened room and busting your ass as you hurry toward the living area? we actually do something similar at home with my son's living room toy box in the pathway.

[alpmco]

A flashlight. I always take two with me. One by the bed within easy reach. A small LED in my pocket.
With all the smoke alarms in hotels (I don't know where Motel 6 Ranks) I don't see the need for the towel at the door other than to keep light out or someone from peaking through those big honkin threshold gaps. Personally I prefer doors that open out to the parking lot not into a hallway. A place where if I'm driving I can back in outside the door. These type are disappearing quickly.
I don't unpack and store things in the drawers. I repack my important stuff prior to turning in at night. Grab and go! On business I take a backpack with me for leaving the room. I load it with essentials I may need.

[Idaho J]

Man, you guys are true preppers!

The only thing i do is keep my EDC gun on the nightstand (instead of in the nightstand at home).

This ended up getting us a free room once! My wife and i checked into our room and i brought my pistol from the car and laid it on the bed after we checked in. Instead of unloading the car, we went straight to the motel restraunt. After dinner we came back to our room and laid down. The manager knocked on our door, i answred it and he said "how did you get in this room"? I told him we had checked into it an hour ago...well he said that some other people had checked into it while we were at dinner and were a little concerned with the contents. I said "you mean to tell me that there was other people in my room while we were at dinner?". While trying to calm me down he said he would comp our room. It worked, i became calm, and got the room for free. Turned out that a computer glitch caused them to book out our room a second time that night. But now i realize it's not always a private room-anyone can walk in, staff or guests.

[Dropy]

i used do a LOT of traveling for work. I found that staying on the top floor works best so i can get some sleep. Trying to sleep on lower floors doesnt work well when there is a girls high school softball tourney in town and the girls run the halls alll night....

i LOVE the hotels with the door that goes straight outside. If i get this sort of hotel i grab the bottom floor and grab the parking space right in front of my room. I find these types of hotels to have less noise issues this way. I back in my vehicle so that the exhaust is pointing at my window. My current truck is an f250 diesel 7.3 liter. She has a 4 inch magnaflow exhaust. When she wakes up the whole neighborhood wakes up....and so do i!! So she parks at my door with her rear in my face.

[dragon5126]

I remember my honeymoon the first night was in a so called better hotel in Rolla Mo. You Army folk probably know the place since you pass it going into the base... I should have known it was gonna go to hell in a hand basket fast. At supper both my bride and I ordered T bones extra rare. they came burned and over cooked. Brandy Manhattans came as wiskey old fashions. but the worst part was at 0730 the next morning the outside door busts open as the bimbo says "Maid" and yes we were "enjoying" our honeymoon status at the moment. The maid almost died... Literally. I was off the bed, 1911 coming off the nightstand and treated her to a view that had her wetting her pants in an unhappy way while my new wife did pretty much the same thing with her model 19 on the other side the bed... so if you ever hear me maks disparaging comments about hilbillies or hotel maids, well you will know that in my eyes they have earned them. I do have to admit, life is rarely dull around us...

[bacpacker]

Now Dragon while I've never been mistaken for a maid. I have been called a Hillbilly a few times. :)

[dragon5126]

You can type, and know what the inter net is, so that makes you a red neck, not a hillbilly...:p

[bacpacker]

I'm probably that as well. Around here folks born around here call each other hillbillies all the time. Just a term of endearment.

[dragon5126]

LOL used to shoot pigs down outside crossville, very familiar with the usage, although it aint nothing compared to my late uncle's wife, from West Virginia, get her shined up and you don't even know what language she's speaking...

[bacpacker]

Break out some shine and all bets are off on everything!

[izzyscout21]

Now Dragon while I've never been mistaken for a maid. I have been called a Hillbilly a few times. :)

Hillbilly and Redneck are some of the nicer things I've been called.


LOL used to shoot pigs down outside crossville, very familiar with the usage, although it aint nothing compared to my late uncle's wife, from West Virginia, get her shined up and you don't even know what language she's speaking...


Break out some shine and all bets are off on everything!

Sounds to me like we have the makings of a party. BOL's right outside of Crossville. I'll provide the land and pigs, BP's apparently got the shine, and dragon......bring some chips or something. I think I'll leave the arsenal locked up for this one.

[bacpacker]

I think I'll stay a looooong way from any shine. WOOOO!

[TEOTWAWKI13]

It's Tennesee, the school fight song is about moonshine!! and by the way, Go Dawgs!!!

Hotels, I'm basically on the same wavelength as Bacpacker. Keep my stuff close by, laptop bag holds all valuables, car parked away from building and backed in. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but she's a Tennessee Volunteer fan, so there's that.

Oh, look, moonshine! I've got an inside track on some peach shine....little Georgia, little Tennessee.

[bacpacker]

and by the way, Go Dawgs!!!

No comment!

[izzyscout21]

and by the way, Go Dawgs!!! .


careful,now. You ARE in enemy territory.............

[Sniper-T]

So she parks at my door with her rear in my face.

Bwahahahaha!

tx Dropy!

[Sniper-T]

As to the Op's question... whenever possible, I try to stay on the second or third floor, as it is possible to jump if necessary. a quick bedsheet rope can lessen the drop. I live out of my bag, as I keep a garbage bag for dirty clothes at the bottom, and as I wear something and change it out, I bag it at the bottom, take fresh from the top. So it is always ready to grab and go.

Up here it is motels that are one or two story's and have outside access to the rooms, I try to park in front of the door as well, and depending on the area, I'll grab the axe from the truck and use it as a wedge under the door. No one will kick that in. Since we cannot carry handguns, I'll have my machette on the nightstand

[izzyscout21]

Since we cannot carry handguns, I'll have my machette on the nightstand

If I were someone trying to do harm and am met with a crazy guy with a machete, I'm gonna haul balls to get the heck outta there. I think you get the intimidation award.

[mollypup]

Besides ALWAYS hanging the, "PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the outside of the door to keep the housekeepers out until we are ready for them to clean our room, we always place one of these under our door at night. It will definitely scare the you-know-what out of anyone trying to break in through the door. We usually carry two in case there is an adjoining room door.

Amazon.com: GE 50246 Smart Home Door Stop Alarm: Home Improvement (http://www.amazon.com/50246-Smart-Home-Door-Alarm/dp/B0000YNR4M/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3F2OGXRBUXUD6&colid=FTY8VGUJ7KPZ)

[faster]

nothing special. I can always just hang from the balcony of second floor and drop. :-) I"m old, but not so old that a mere 6-7 ft of drop is going to hurt me any.

[sidewinder]

I do some work in a hotel once a week.

Just a few weeks ago some guy was out front shootng at a vehicle...The bullets pentrated the metal...nobody was killed that night but the same guy a week later after being on the run killed a cop.

My point is probably over half of the people staying or visiting any hotel are probably a criminal element. From Hookers to bank robbers and people avoiding the law to drug users and sellers. Think about it.

That doesn't sound like very good odds. My sister was on vacation and had their license plate stolen off their vehicle in the hotel parking lot.

When they got home they had a visit from the FBI. Their plate was used in a bank robbery.

Anyone staying in a hotel is rubbing elbows with some section of the criminal world. Great caution should be used.

[mollypup]

Is the criminal element still about 50% even when staying in better hotels? (Though we can't afford them).

We had our room ransacked once by the cleaning service. They went through everything we had looking for drugs, so the hotel manager told us later. We always keep all our valuables (which are few) with us at all times.

[The Stig]

My point is probably over half of the people staying or visiting any hotel are probably a criminal element. From Hookers to bank robbers and people avoiding the law to drug users and sellers. Think about it.

Yea, when I see all those middle aged men and women in business attire at Hilton Garden Inns, Hyatt Places and Marriot Crowne Plaza's the first thing I think are bank robbers, people avoiding the law and drug users. :rolleyes:

[sidewinder]

Yea, when I see all those middle aged men and women in business attire at Hilton Garden Inns, Hyatt Places and Marriot Crowne Plaza's the first thing I think are bank robbers, people avoiding the law and drug users. :rolleyes:

My guess is there are more suit wearing drug users than people wearing rags...they can afford the good stuff.