Secure Laptop on hotel shops

How do you secure your laptop when performing a hotel evaluation? I mean from theft?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 08:49PM by audrialyn30.

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Do you mean how do you secure it while you are out of the room or how do you secure it while browsing on WiFi?

For the first - I put it in the safe. I also have a password on the system so even if there is no safe, they cannot browse in my system and see what I am working on. Are you worried about someone stealing the laptop or just looking at what is on the laptop?

For the second issue - I actually don't - I do use the hotel's WiFi system. I have heard of cases where the shopper's WiFi was monitored - but don't know if this is true or not and I just don't worry about it - if the staff is that aggressive trying to figure out who the shopper is, then they are probably going to suceed at some point.

"Secure" has a whole lot of meanings. First I make sure I use a password such as 8pdkn$4!ZX that includes numbers, special characters, upper and lower case and is at least 8 characters long. (No, this is NOT my password :-O)

Second, when doing hotel shops the reporting software I was provided was used off line so could not have been intercepted even if the hotel had a curious geek.

Third, if there was a safe I stored my laptop there when I was out of the room, if not, I either took the laptop with me or locked it in the trunk of the car.

I got a major virus doing work in a Vegas hotel, the system wasn't secure.
I have left my laptop in the closet hidden under clothes and don't worry about it, the housekeeping crew that turns down the bed are never alone, so would be hard to steal a laptop without getting caught. You car truck would be another place, but akward to have to get it and return it all day. Don't think it fits in the safe used for jewelry.

Live consciously....

what if the hotel doesnt have a safe?

Aw, Flash. I was going to ask which website you use that password on! lol

Only my bank accounts--all of them :-) NOT!

audrialyn30 Wrote:
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> what if the hotel doesnt have a safe?

Better hotels do have in room safes. Generally if the safe was too small for my computer it was at least large enough for my thumb drive and that is where I save my data anyway. The last hotel job I did was a pretty sleazy feeling motel and I locked the laptop in the trunk every time I was going out of the room for more than a couple of minutes. Even then my thumb drive was in my pocket.

I keep up-to-date virus scanners, malware detectors and spyware software on my computer. This is whether I am at home with my own secure internet or in the field with my laptop.

I guess that wouldn't be an option for you.....
Wrote:

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> what if the hotel doesnt have a safe?

Live consciously....

Seems WAY to stressful to worry about this. Live a little.

Besides, IF staff is breaking into hotel rooms and stealing customer stuff, they will be caught IMMEDIATELY both by video cameras and by tracking which employees were working the floors during a crime, after 3 or 4 thefts it will point to one person. AND the fact that they use their employee swipe card, which is logged. Its like accusing the USPS of stealing your mail. Have a little more faith in people. Theft is the very rare exception in these places, not the rule, which is why it is sensationalized if it happens.

It's probably much safer in there, in plain view, than carried around the streets of a popular tourist city in a backpack.

All the same, I'll still hide it under a shirt or something just in case.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2012 05:32AM by marmani.

I put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my door, anyway, because I don't want or need my towels and sheets replaced daily. That cuts down on the likelihood of someone going in my room in the first place.

Same way you would if you were not doing a shop, I guess.

D'Agosto

"What does it mean? You ask. I answer not/For meaning, but myself must echo, What?/And tell it as I saw it, on the spot."

You can buy a cable lock for ANY laptop for under $20, pretty much anywhere like Amazon or ebay.

It works with that little opening on the side of your laptop.

TechSavvy Wrote:
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> I put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my door,
> anyway, because I don't want or need my towels and
> sheets replaced daily. That cuts down on the
> likelihood of someone going in my room in the
> first place.

Most all hotel shops I have done include evaluating the stayover service, which means you need to allow housekeeping in to change the towels/sheets.

If you are shopping hotels that don't evaluate that service, perhaps I can understand the concern over the laptop. In that case my answer is to take it with you when you leave!

I have evaluated hundreds of hotels and never had any problem with my laptop, but these have 4/5-star hotels. Most have a safe, but I have a widescreen laptop that will only fit in about 10% of hotel safes.

thanks for the advice everyone

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