SCENARIOS: What more can top hotels do to boost security?

By William Maclean, Security Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - The Jakarta hotel bombings confront security experts with an increasingly familiar dilemma: How do you give fortress-like protection to businesses whose very existence depends on the gentle art of welcoming people?

Bombs tore through the luxury JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Indonesia's capital on Friday, killing eight people and shaking faith in the effectiveness of security at hotels and other possible targets. [nSP391776]

Police said the Marriott device was planted by people who had checked in as guests and had probably assembled the device in their rooms.

Governments have been highly attuned to hotel security since devastating attacks on high-end establishments frequented by wealthy people or Westerners in Pakistan and India last year.

But they are finding there are no simple, one-size-fits-all solutions to protecting the world's five-star hotels.

Better protection depends on a relentless focus on better routine security practices -- a challenge for managers and workers alike because the tasks are by definition repetitive and monotonous, industry analysts and counter-terrorism experts say.

WHAT HIGH-END HOTELS MAY SEEK TO DO

Tightening check-in

Full airport-style check-in may be one part of the solution, with more scanners, detector wands, body searches, armed plain clothes security men, surveillance personnel and sniffer dogs.

It is an open question whether business guests who have to come and go several times a day will tolerate repeat searches.

"Hotels are not banks or fortresses. They're in the business of welcoming people: So how welcomed can you feel if you're being patted down, wanded and interviewed," says Kevin Doyle, an editor at Conde Naste Traveler.

Guests may be required to personally identify luggage before bags enter the hotel, and both their vehicles and luggage could have to pass scanners that can detect vapor from explosives.

Better training of guards in the use of detection equipment is a must: sloppy procedure is widespread and a serious risk.

Redesign

New hotels are being designed further away from main roads, allowing greater "stand-off" protection from vehicle-born bombs. Entrances routes are laid out so that the approach of any vehicle to the main entrance is slow and done in stages.