“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” Jesus said, “when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.” (New International Version)

Here’s what we know:

Criminals preying on travelers has been a problem forever, and a vicious assault can happen anywhere. A thousand years ago, pilgrims on their way to Santiago, Spain — the tomb of Saint James — feared for their lives. I made this 800-km pilgrimage by foot this year — St. Jean-Pied-de-Pour, France through Santiago to Finisterre — but was watchful in urban or thickly wooded areas. Just last year, a woman from Arizona, Denise Thiem, was lured off the trail, robbed and murdered in Astorga.

We typically believe that we are safe in an inn or hotel room, but here’s the truth: Crimes occur in the parking lot, in corridors, in stairwells and inside guest rooms. And attacks in hotels and motels are on the rise. Statistics confirm that crime associated with hotel guests and trespassers — rape, robbery, violent sexual assault and battery — has been on the increase since 2000.

Sure, good hotel security can deter most criminal attacks on guests, but not so long ago Motel 6 agreed to pay $10 million to a plaintiff who was attacked and raped at a franchise in Texas (a “negligent security” settlement). Because they often deal with catastrophic damage, hotel lawsuits are often in the millions of dollars.

Indicators of an unsecured hotel include:

  • Dim interiors (lack of adequate lighting),
  • A high-frequency of prostitution or a transient population congregating in the parking lot or on the stairs,
  • A lack of security cameras,
  • A lack of on-site security personnel and
  • Inattentive clerks who do not verify visitors.

How do you take care of yourself and your family when traveling? Vigilance and your carry firearms are perhaps the best way, but traveling across state and international borders is difficult, sometimes impossible, and requires study of the law. And even then, carry across borders may be a problem, as the Florida family stopped and searched while driving through Maryland three years ago will attest.

Here are a couple of security options in case you do not or cannot travel with your firearm:

1. Stay at an upscale motel/hotel. Studies confirm that serious crimes — assaults and murders — occur more frequently at low-cost establishments. This may be explained, in part, because higher-end hotels typically have adequate security. The chairman of the lodging committee for the American Society for Industrial Security, Phillip Sunstrom, says that “economy properties have a high client and employee turnover rate. You get what you pay for. And at $29.99 you’re not buying a lot of security.” (Despite the fact that security levels vary at budget versus luxury hotels, both kinds of hotels can be held accountable in a civil hotel assault lawsuit for failing to provide adequate on-site security.)

2. And women ought to take additional precautions. In the early 1960s all the way up to the 1980s, fewer than one percent of all hotel guests who traveled for business were women. Now half of America’s business travelers are female. Unfortunately, hotel crime and assaults are disproportionally aimed at women. Even you book into a large hotel with a convention hall and banquet rooms, every entrance and exit should be monitored by hotel security. (On a recent business trip to Las Vegas, my wife and I stayed on “the strip” at the luxurious — and expensive — Wynn Encore. Security was omnipresent and impressive.)

Things to look for if your firearms are not an option: solid core hotel room doors with 180-degree privacy viewing peepholes, working deadbolts and magnetic keyless room entry systems. Don’t trust a man or woman in a white coat who knocks — “Room Service.” Ask for the service receipt to be slid under the door before opening it. Check that lights in the parking lot are in order, carry a doorstop and don’t stay on the ground floor.

The world is sweet … and cruel. Refuse to be a victim.