Is your laptop available for a steal?

On a recent trip to Portland, Ore., Mary White and her husband, Greg, lost “everything” on a single afternoon.

No, they haven’t opened a new casino in town. White was attending a chess convention with her children Steven, 11, and Kristin, 9, and she left two Dell Latitude notebook computers in her room at the Portland Radisson. When she returned the PCs were gone, along with two video cameras, a Game Boy and Greg’s electric razor.

“They cleaned us out,” says the New York Internet consultant. “We lost $11,000 in hardware – and I can’t even estimate how much the information on the computers was worth. One of the laptops was so new that I didn’t have a chance to back anything up.”

Laptop thefts jumped by 52 percent last year, according to the Columbus, Ohio, insurance company Safeware, with more than half a million portable PCs reported stolen in the United States. That may seem like an alarming increase at first glance, but it doesn’t reflect the fact that more people – including leisure travelers – are hitting the road with their PCs now. Nor does it take into account the fact that only 26 percent of laptops are lost to theft. (The number one culprit that leads to an insurance claim remains a simple accident, which happens to about 1.3 million laptop computer users, Safeware reports.)

No one knows how many of those thefts took place in a hotel. But since White’s did, let’s take this opportunity to focus on the somewhat strained relationship between a guest’s technology and a resort. Even though the lodging industry likes tech travelers – and their money – it would rather not have to put up with the gadgets that come with them.

Consider White’s bittersweet resolution. The Radisson agreed to pay her the maximum for which it was liable – $300 per guest for a total of $1,200 – but declined to offer anything more. She’s unhappy with the settlement and believes the hotel should have worked harder to protect her valuables. As a direct result of the burglary, White had to lay off one of her employees, and she says $1,200 doesn’t begin to cover her losses.

But the finger-pointing is pointless. Sure, White could have probably prevented the theft by taking a few simple precautions, including using the hotel’s safe to store her valuables. And the property could have probably been more vigilant about keeping criminals away from its guest rooms.

I think this comes down to a question of responsibility, not safety. Things have been stolen from hotel rooms since there have been hotel rooms, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Fact is, the hotel industry is sending frequent travelers mixed signals about technology. Properties are being two-faced – welcoming laptop users but at the same time unwilling to assume any responsibility for their expensive equipment. Think about it. On the one hand, hotels encourage the use of portable computers by offering high-speed Internet access, or at the very least two dataports in their rooms. On the other hand, when a laptop goes missing or is stolen, the first thing a hotel manager often says is: “Well, you really shouldn’t have brought your computer along.”

That’s what happened to Jennifer Grace, a Washington communications consultant who was staying at Seattle Sea-Tac Marriott when her room was burglarized. She lost a $3,500 Micron notebook that contained information she could never replace, including a year’s worth of correspondence between her and her recently deceased grandfather.

When she notified the hotel’s security department of the theft, she was met with a startling response. “They asked me, ‘Why did you have your laptop out?’” she remembers. “They suggested that this whole thing was my fault, and that I might have even faked the theft. I felt as if I was being put on trial.”

It would be easy to berate the hotel industry for failing to offer enough safes, for not making the safes safe enough, for not having consistent policies for dealing with in-room thefts, and for being insensitive to the needs of its guests who become victims of crime. But why bother?

Truth is, travelers are ultimately responsible for their laptop computers, as they are for all of their valuables. Leaving a notebook PC in your room is like asking Charles Manson to baby-sit for your kids. The only way to make sure that your PC doesn’t get nabbed is to keep it with you. End of discussion.

No matter how tech-savvy a hotel is, it doesn’t recognize the value of your technology or the information that’s stored on it. Despite the often touchy-feely rhetoric about guests being more than just a number, or about a given property being “technology friendly,” every customer really represents a transaction measured in dollars and cents.

And your PC is an unwelcome liability that threatens to disturb that equation.

Keep your laptop safe

Consider leaving your laptop at home. Applications such as Symantec’s pcAnywhere, LapLink and Expertcity’s GoToMyPC allow you to access your data remotely without actually carrying a computer with you.

Skip your room safe. The most secure place at a property is in the manager’s office safe, according to Terry Riley, author of “Travel Can Be Murder: A Business Traveler’s Guide to Personal Safety.” Room safes can be opened by many people at the hotel – including some you might not want to have access to your valuables.

Get a security system. Try the Targus Notebook Security Alarm system, which merges a steel cable with a motion-detector system. Kensington also manufactures several useful locks, including ones designed specifically for your floppy disk drive, to keep data thieves away. If you want to get fancy, then check out Caveo’s Anti-Theft PC Card, which not only detects a theft but prevents a burglar from accessing your system.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

2 comments