Shooting at dinner attended by Trump spotlights US hotel industry's nagging and costly security problem

The suspect charged with storming a security checkpoint and firing a shotgun near the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday mocked security measures at the Washington Hilton that allowed him to get close to United States President Donald Trump. “I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo,” the hotel guest identified by law enforcement as Cole Allen, 31, said in a manifesto ahead of the attack. “What I got,” he added, “is nothing”. Allen’s attack heightened a decades-old problem for the hotel industry: how to tighten security while maintaining a sense of warmth and hospitality. Some new security firms are offering AI-powered monitoring solutions, but hotels have been slow to adopt anything that could spike costs and infringe on the privacy of guests. “Security is going to continue to improve with technology in identifying strange behaviour. But at the end of the day, it’s a hospitality business where customers have to feel welcome,” said Nicolas Graf, a professor of hospitality management at New York University. Allen moved through the building before charging a checkpoint on a floor above the ballroom where Trump was dining with 2,600 journalists, government officials and others. Trump was safely evacuated and the guests were unharmed, but the breach showed the risks at such events come from inside hotels. Hotel attackers have repeatedly exploited the same vulnerabilities: multiple access points, guests arriving at all hours, uneven screening, and blurred lines between public space and protected zones. “Not every guest in the building is screened the same way, which is why zoning and access control become critical,” noted Morgan Stevens, senior vice president for global security operations at Crisis24. Hotels must boost security to save lives, but also need to watch their spending. The top nine hotel, casino and resort companies by revenue generated about $102 billion