1. ^aDepartment of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306, USA. E-mail: taipingho@bsu.edu, mbrown@bsu.edu
2. ^bSchool of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Florida International University, North Miami, Florida 33181, USA. E-mail: zhaoj@fiu.edu

^*Corresponding author.

Abstract

The tourism industry has been rapidly expanding over the past few decades, and hotels and lodgings have become an integrated part of tourism-expansion in many tourist-oriented destinations. Many factors influence tourists' decisions on where to visit and in which hotel to stay, and the extent of criminal activity in and around hotels is of critical importance to tourists. The hotel industry is extremely sensitive to criminal activities against hotel guests. This study focuses on the nature and the patterns of criminal victimizations against hotel guests in the city of Miami Beach, Florida. By using the offense-incident reports of the Miami Beach Police Department, the present researchers analyzed the effects of hotel guests' characteristics and other contributing factors on criminal victimizations among hotel guests. Results showed that a majority of hotel crimes were property-related; burglary and theft were two major crimes committed against hotel guests. The results of this study indicated that such victimizations might be significantly minimized if hoteliers enhanced crime prevention measures such as increasing security in the parking lot or installing more surveillance cameras inside and outside the hotel.