Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Through The Hotel Peephole

Will the threat of litigation make the obligatory hotel peephole consigned to history?

We did a post HERE back in February about a Hollywood motel that upset a guest when they discovered that their room's peephole had been supposedly installed backwards - they were unable to see out, but others could see in!

We were amused to read another story that has added fuel to the great hotel peephole conspiracy.

Adam Kirby
www.hotelsmag.com
20 July 2009

A high-profile hotel peeping tom case may spell the beginning of the end for an old hotel security staple: the peephole.

Erin Andrews, a famously attractive reporter for ESPN, was videotaped in the nude in her (unidentified) hotel room through a peephole. The video, which was made without her knowledge or permission, was then posted and distributed online last week.

Andrews and ESPN plan to sue over the incident. Whether the hotel is at fault, either directly or indirectly, remains publicly unknown.

The video was apparently made using a reverse-peephole lens, which can be purchased online or made at home fairly easily. I'm not linking to any such instructions on how to make reverse-peepholes for obvious reasons, but suffice to say it was a quick Google search.

The Andrews episode is garnering a good deal of Internet buzz today, both due to her popularity and because of the sickening unease it no doubt raises among members of the traveling public.

A similarly disturbing incident happened earlier this year in Florida, when a room at a Quality Inn was found to have had its peephole reversed.

It begs the question: Does this mark the beginning of the end for peepholes as a hotel security item? Beyond installing expensive security cameras at every doorway and closed-circuit TV in every room—which is already becoming popular at luxury hotels but which isn't really feasible for mid-scale—is there any way around installing peepholes?

Source: Click HERE

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