Safety and Security in Hotels and Home Sharing

This brief comparatively reviews the security and safety features of hotels and home sharing services. It reviews crime data, laws, and applicable theories – such as defensible space, rational choice, and routine activity theories - to determine how responsibility for crime control and accident prevention in these industries is allotted.This analysis identifies key policy questions about the role of the home sharing hosts and guests in ensuring their own safety and security, which will be of interest to policy makers, researchers and practitioners in criminal justice and law enforcement, as well as those involved in the home sharing and hotel industries.

• security
• crime control
• AirBnB
• safety and security
• crime and place
• hotels
• crime prevention

“It is worth noting that the book also has several strengths. ... the book provides many thought-provoking ideas and is easy to read. … The book is a worthwhile read provided one knows what to expect from the purchase. While I hope future versions are similar works are more evidence based, the book presents interesting information, and it is easy to read.” (Daniel Reinhard, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, Vol. 24 (4), 2022)

• Security, Fire, and Emergency Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA

  Chelsea A. Binns

• School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, USA

  Robin J. Kempf

Chelsea A. Binns is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Center for Safety and Private Security in the Department of Security, Fire and Emergency Management at the world-famous John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She has a doctorate and two master’s degrees in Criminal Justice from the CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is the author of two books: Fraud Hotlines: Design, Performance & Assessment (2017) and The Art of Investigation, (2020) both published by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press. She is a licensed Private Investigator and Certified Fraud Examiner and is the past president of the New York Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. She is a security and investigations expert, and her research interests are focused on corporate security matters, including background checks, corporate crime, cybercrime, financial crime, investigations, and organizational fraud. Shehas extensive experience in these areas, having worked for prestigious organizations such as Citibank, Morgan Stanley, New York City’s Department of Investigation (DOI) and the New York State Office of the Attorney General. 

Robin J. Kempf is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.  Dr. Kempf holds a juris doctorate and a PhD in Public Administration from the University of Kansas.  She is the author of The Power of Accountability: Offices of Inspector General on the State and Local Levels, published by the University Press of Kansas in 2020. Her research interests focus on accountability. In particular, she studies government accountability, examining various methods and policies utilized to help ensure government actors uphold citizens’ interests, and corporate accountability, exploring how laws, rules, and regulations are held accountable for their actions. 

Policies and ethics