Before You Book That Holiday Trip: The Safety Questions Parents Should Ask First

Before we know it, the holiday events and activities will be in full swing. Right now, families are busy making their holiday travel plans. While most people focus on the cost of where they are staying and the proximity to the activities they want to do, it’s crucial that they take a few moments during the planning stage to ask critical safety questions to help protect their family.

“Nobody wants to think that something tragic will or can happen while they are on a trip, but it happens more often than people realize,” said Melissa Hull, certified heart-centered grief and bereavement specialist, speaker, and author of “Dear Drew: Creating a Life Bigger Than Grief. “The good news is that there are some things we can do to help reduce our risks and keep our family safer.”

According to AAA, there are nearly 82 million people who will do some traveling during the holiday season, going at least 50 miles from their home. Many people stay in rented homes, condos, and hotels, which puts them in unfamiliar settings. Each year, there are people who are hurt or killed in accidents while they are traveling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the top causes of deaths from non-natural causes while traveling are motor vehicle crashes, homicide, suicide, and water-related deaths (e.g., drowning, boating-related, etc.).

Before reserving a place to stay, it’s crucial to ensure that the family will be safe there. It’s critical to go beyond only looking at the enhanced photos online and making a decision based on them. There are some questions that should be asked before choosing where to stay, especially for those who have children.

Here are questions to ask before booking a place to stay on a holiday trip:

• Transportation safety. Whether you are renting a vehicle or hiring a driving service, it’s important to ensure they have seat belts, a good driving record, and safe vehicles. Those with small children will want to take a car seat when they travel or ensure they will have access to a compliant one.
• Inside the room. The place where you will be staying needs to have a certain level of safety for the family. It’s important to find out if there are carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms, childproofing if it’s needed, and that there is security for balconies and stairs. Ask if there are adjoining rooms and locks as well.
• Outside the dwelling. The focus cannot only be on the room or condo, but it also has to be on the physical location. Find out if the neighborhood and surroundings are safe. You will need to get in and out of the place you are staying and don’t want to worry throughout the night.
• Emergency access. Find out what type of access there is to emergency services, should they be needed. It’s better to know ahead of time, instead of needing them and finding out they are too far away.
• Crowd control. Check to see if there will be crowds in the area when you will be there and what type of crowd it is. If you are booking somewhere and there’s a biker event going on, for example, you may want to be aware of that ahead of time.
• Water safety. Always know ahead of time what type of security and safety measures there are when it comes to any water that will be nearby. This goes for pools, hot tubs, ponds, lakes, etc. Drowning is one of the most common tragedies experienced while traveling, and a little prevention goes a long way.

“It may seem like a mundane task to ask these questions, but it may prevent a tragic situation,” said Hull. “We already do many of these things at home, but we can’t assume that when we travel such safety features are in place. I’m happy to help people do an assessment to keep their family safer.”

Vacation planners can start by looking up information online, including reading reviews. But it doesn’t have to stop there. They can also contact the property owners for additional information, and they can reach out to the local police non-emergency information line to inquire about the safety of the area and property.

Hull has become an expert in grief and bereavement after losing her son to drowning. Her mission is to help others be more aware of potentially dangerous situations and help them through the grieving process if things don’t turn out as planned. She helps people learn to move forward following tragedy with the grief that they carry. Her work is a culmination of 20 years of researching what works to help people in such situations.

Hull is not only a grief expert, but she is also a guide for fully living after loss. Her work integrates meditation and spiritual connection, energy work and Reiki, somatic and grounding practices, emotional processing and mindset work, and Dr. David R. Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness. To get more information and access her free tools, visit her site at: https://www.melissahull.com/. Her book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and other major retailers.