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After Mumbai, debating security at luxury hotels

December 01, 2008 | Hospitality Industry

For decades, luxury hotels have been oases for travelers in developing countries. But last week’s lethal attacks on two of India’s most famous hotels have underlined the extent to which these hotels are becoming magnets for terrorists.

Hotel executives and security experts say that little can be done to stop extensively trained gunmen with military assault rifles and grenades who launch attacks like the ones that left this city’s Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace & Tower strewn with bodies.

P.R.S. Oberoi, the chairman of the Oberoi Group, said at a news conference over the weekend that he had directed his company’s hotels to step up security after the Islamabad bombing. The Oberoi banned anyone from parking in front of its hotel here for fear that a car bomb could destroy the glass wall at the front of the lobby, a risk at many hotels.

But those protections did not deter the attackers, who entered the Oberoi on foot. Mr. Oberoi questioned whether any hotel could defend against such an assault.

Get the full story at The New York Times

Read also “Why hotels are easy terror targets” at MSNBC, and “Frequent Travelers Wonder if Any Place Is Safe”, at The Wall Street Journal (free content)

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