When spending travel time in a hotel, you should enjoy your stay without any worries. There are a few simple rules to insure that everything goes as planned:

1. When first arriving in your room, get familiar with emergency number(s) you can call on the room's phone or your own smartphone. If a safety or health problem happens, assure yourself of prompt response.

2. When inside the room, make sure every locking device on doors is in place at all times. If there's a balcony, be sure the door is locked when you return inside.

3. Remember the old buddy system at summer camp? Apply it when at a hotel. Seniors, especially those with special needs, shouldn’t wander alone, including hallways, beaches, swimming pools and shopping areas outside the hotel grounds. 4. Never allow a person claiming to be a hotel employee into your room, unless it is a maid you've already seen working in the hallway or nearby rooms. If it’s someone claiming to be there for repairs or other reason, and you have not specifically called for help, don’t open the door. First call the front desk to verify the that the person is a hotel employee on the specific assignment.

5. When returning to your room at any time, but especially late at night, and don’t feel safe to use the elevator or hallways. Contact hotel security first to assign a guard to go with you to your room.

6. Also, if at any time you don’t feel safe in using the hotel garage, ask hotel security to assign a guard to escort you to and/or from your parked car.

7. Don’t carry large sums of money on you. In many hotels, you can use the room's safe for storing cash. If there’s no room safe, ask the front desk to keep your money and other valuables in the hotel safe. When shopping or dining in expensive restaurants, carry only one or two hundred dollars on your person.

8. In other large-amount money situations while traveling, using traveler's checks is safer than cash. There are very few places in the world where American Express traveler's checks are not honored.