I found this news interesting and wanted to share it.  With this decision, it sets the precedent for hotels to take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of their guest.  All this while, I thought that was expected.  I travel frequently and live half the time in hotels.  Safety within the hotel is something that I’ve taken for granted, expecting that I’d be safe.  Having said that, I always double-lock my doors and never let strangers into the room (except maybe the housekeeper).  The key is to not be paranoid, take care of your own safety and be sensible when visiting dodgy places. 

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MANILA – A Philippine court on Tuesday ordered one of the nation’s most luxurious hotels to pay more than one million dollars in damages over the murder of a Norwegian guest a decade ago.

The murder of Christian Harper could have been prevented if the Makati Shangri-La in Manila had provided adequate security, the Court of Appeals ruled as it upheld a lower court’s judgment against the hotel.

“Unfortunately, records failed to show that it was exercising reasonable care to protect its guests from harm and danger by providing sufficient security commensurate to it being one of the finest hotels in the country,” the appeals court ruling read.

The hotel was ordered to pay 52 million pesos (1.1 million dollars) in damages to the heirs of Harper, an executive of a European power company who was found dead after being bound, gagged and then robbed in his hotel room on November 6, 1999.

He was aged 30 at the time.

The Makati Shangri-La had asked the appellate court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, arguing Harper had been negligent in inviting the two suspected murderers, believed to be foreigners, into his hotel room.

Both suspects, a male and a female, were filmed by the hotel’s security cameras entering the victim’s room.

But the hotel’s security officer testified that the victim’s visitors did not pass through security checks, and that other guests had reporting losing valuables in their rooms, the ruling added.

The court was told one of the suspects later tried to use Harper’s credit card to buy a watch at a jewellery store, but left the shop hurriedly when the clerk tried to verify his identity.

The suspects have never been caught.

The Makati Shangri-La is located in the business district of Metro Manila. It is part of the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group.

A spokeswoman for the hotel said it was expected to release a comment on the court verdict later on Tuesday.