August 7, 2025 • 10 mins
Joe Savarise, CEO of Hotel and Lodging Association discusses the problem and what some of the solutions could be. This is just the beginning of the story
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Let's
welcome in the president of the Ohio Sorry, the Ohio
Hotel Lodging Association is Joe Savaricice.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Joe, good morning, Good morning, Mike. It's great to talk
to you, you as well here for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Thank you for listening. We appreciate it very much. I
wish we were going to be speaking on better terms
this morning. A situation we've been reporting on quite a
bit is this rash of break ins car break ins
in hotel parking lots specifically. In fact, I saw your
numbers from June and July, Joe, more than two hundred
break ins have been reported in the state of Ohio,
(00:37):
and that problem is not getting any.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Better in Columbus. Rather, that's a Columbus number, Okay, just
a sampling of local hotels, And you're right, the problem
is not getting better. This has been a problem within
our community for several years. But earlier in the year
we did a report and gathered some data on this
which showed from June of last year through February of
(01:03):
this year, we saw a significant, significant increase in the
severity and frequency of these crimes, and we had almost
one thousand incidents in June to February of this year
in just the sampling of thirty two hotels, which is
about ten percent of the entire hotel market in Columbus.
(01:24):
And then, as you said, we've gotten new numbers just
for June and July to see what was happening this summer,
and we've had more than two hundred verified reports from
impacted hotels in that short period. It shows that the
problem continues to spread. The frequency and severity is still
an issue, and there's a lot more work to be done.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
There were issues at the Good Guy's Car Show. There
have been issues at the State Fair with car break ins.
We've talked a lot about the Polaris area, the seventy
one one sixty one exit. I mean, there's a lot
of these areas that are prone to this. What what
is it about a hotel parking lot that's attractive to
these thieves.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, if you think about the nature of parking at
a hotel, hotels are businesses that are open and easily
accessible and built to be inviting. So the parking lots
are easy to get in and out of, and people
who are parking cars usually a large amount of cars
at hotels aren't coming and going as frequently as they
are in a retail business or other businesses. You know,
(02:27):
you're leaving your car, you may not be back to
your car for a day or more compared to coming
in and out of a store. And that is combined
with the fact that hotels are usually in areas that
are accessible to freeways, and it just makes them a
prime target for a crime that is very practiced and
(02:50):
very orchestrated that it happens very quickly. One of the
things that we can demonstrate, and we have security footage
of this, is we have seen groups of these folks
come in and hit eight, ten, twelve cars or more
and be gone in less than sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And that's the nature of the crime that I think
people don't understand. Hotels are taking steps to combat this,
but the first thing that we have to understand is
that this is happening at lightning speed because it's groups
of people that are coming in and doing it. They've
practiced it, it's orchestrated, and they're gone.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Joe Severie, CEO, President and CEO Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association,
talking about car break ins and hotel parking lots. So
does the security footage help you at all, because it's
my understanding, these groups of people they're all masked up.
It's hard to identify who they are. And to your point,
they're coming in, they've got a system, they work as
(03:47):
a team. They're in and out in a minute, minute
and a half before anybody knows anything better.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, and to compound the problem, quite frequently, almost always
h's a stolen car are that they're using too. So
the security footage only helps with the bigger picture of
figuring out how the crimes are perpetrated, what the methods
are that they're using. But it doesn't help identify these
(04:14):
are really brazen crimes. They're happening more in the daytime
than they did a couple of years ago. They're happening
in front of guests and travelers that are coming in
and out of the hotel, and they pay no attention
to that. So people say, well, why aren't you security,
you know folks able to see this and stop it. Well,
number one, we just talked about how it's happening so quickly.
(04:36):
Number Two, hotel security are not a police force. They
can't arrest people and we also have to think about
the safety of those folks because we know that it's
been demonstrated that often these folks are armed. There was
a shooting in a hotel parking lot where a hotel
(04:56):
security guard did try to stop it while it was
in progress. As fortunately nobody was injured, but we're very
hopeful that that never happens. But that's how brazen the
crimes are. So we put in more security personnel. We
put in more technology, including cameras and alarms and even
(05:20):
plate readers, but plate readers don't help if you're using
a car. You're you're seeing hotels make physical changes like
put up fencing around hotels, which is just, you know,
totally counter to the way that hotels are designed and
the way you want a hotel to appear, which is
open and inviting. You're seeing more fences and barriers in
(05:41):
the parking lot. So hotels are taking steps. And back
through March, we had from that same sampling of hotels
seeing that they had spent more than one point two
five million dollars in security and safety expenses, and that
was in that June to February period. Now we think
(06:03):
that number we're getting new numbers, but it's really close
to having doubles since then. I mean, hotels are spending
millions on this. Yeah, that's not that's not going to
be the solution. It's a crime problem.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It is a crime problem, Joe. And we know that
a lot of these crimes are being committed by juveniles,
those that are under eighteen years of age. That has
been the really the sector of the population and clubus
that's been committing most of the crime. They're young kids.
Have you had any conversations with law enforcement and or
(06:39):
you know, the the juvenile justice system, judges, you know, prosecutors,
you know, to make it prohibitive for these people to
do this if they just get a slap on the
wrist and you know, maybe they're on probation for a
year and they get, you know, sent back to mom
and dad, who probably don't care too much what these
kids are doing. Anyway. Have you had any of these
(06:59):
conversationations and what have been what's been what's come out
of them?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We absolutely have, And that is one of the biggest
problems that we have run into for years with this situation,
is that many of the crimes are committed by juveniles,
but there still is a juvenile justice system, and there
is a way to punish juvenile criminals. I think that
part of what we've done, both with the court, law enforcement,
(07:25):
public officials, and others in the public is to illustrate
the scope and nature of the problem, to say, this
isn't just uh, you know, minor juvenile high jinks or
you know that, we're talking about serious crimes. We're talking
about property damage that amounts the felony level property damage
that the punishment needs to be commensurate with the crimes
(07:50):
that are being committed and what it's causing to the victims.
So part of what we've been doing is try to
illustrate the problem is bigger than folks have acknowledged and recognize.
We've heard that well, the juvenile justice statutes needs some adjusting,
so we're working on that at the state house level
to say are there things that we can change in
(08:12):
state law regarding these offenses. And we have some lawmakers
that are working with us on that. But in general,
I think one of the biggest problems that we have
is we hear this regularly from the police who are
out there doing the hard work and doing a good
job on a daily and nightly basis, they'll spend more
(08:34):
time when they're dropping somebody off at the detention facility
than the person that they dropped off, and that offender
will be released before the police officer is able to
finish the paperwork and administrative work that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That's a flaw. That that's a problem. Joe, before I
let you go, what would you tell what would you
say to hotel guests? I would imagine a lot of
these folks are from out of town, not necessarily all
Columbus residents. They're here for business or for pleasure of
some nature. What would you say to keep yourself safe
in a hotel in some of these areas that are
getting hit hard by car break ins.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, one of the things that we need to recognize
is that the community is not inherently unsafe as a whole,
and that this is a particularly focused problem, but no
doubt it's a problem. Hotels do not leave things of
value in vehicles. One of the problems that we know
is that a lot of folks will leave firearms and vehicles,
and that is quite often what criminals who break into
(09:33):
cars are looking for is firearms. The more that we
can reduce that the more we take away the incentive
to break into those vehicles. But I would like to
say that, you know, we get a lot of talk
about what steps the hotels take and the responsibility of guests,
and that's all true, but if a gang at bank
(09:54):
robbers moved into Columbus and started knocking off multiple banks
a day, you know, we wouldn't go of the banks
and say what are you doing about what are your
customers doing about it? And that's that's what we've been
that's what we've been hearing. Yes, it's true that we
need to be doing everything that we can with security
and technology and physical barriers and deterrence, and guests need
(10:18):
to be careful about not leaving items in their cars.
But in the end, you know, this is about combating
what is, you know, an organized criminal activity that groups
of people are perpetrating.
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Let's
welcome in the president of the Ohio Sorry, the Ohio
Hotel Lodging Association is Joe Savaricice.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Joe, good morning, Good morning, Mike. It's great to talk
to you, you as well here for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Thank you for listening. We appreciate it very much. I
wish we were going to be speaking on better terms
this morning. A situation we've been reporting on quite a
bit is this rash of break ins car break ins
in hotel parking lots specifically. In fact, I saw your
numbers from June and July, Joe, more than two hundred
break ins have been reported in the state of Ohio,
(00:37):
and that problem is not getting any.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Better in Columbus. Rather, that's a Columbus number, Okay, just
a sampling of local hotels, And you're right, the problem
is not getting better. This has been a problem within
our community for several years. But earlier in the year
we did a report and gathered some data on this
which showed from June of last year through February of
(01:03):
this year, we saw a significant, significant increase in the
severity and frequency of these crimes, and we had almost
one thousand incidents in June to February of this year
in just the sampling of thirty two hotels, which is
about ten percent of the entire hotel market in Columbus.
(01:24):
And then, as you said, we've gotten new numbers just
for June and July to see what was happening this summer,
and we've had more than two hundred verified reports from
impacted hotels in that short period. It shows that the
problem continues to spread. The frequency and severity is still
an issue, and there's a lot more work to be done.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
There were issues at the Good Guy's Car Show. There
have been issues at the State Fair with car break ins.
We've talked a lot about the Polaris area, the seventy
one one sixty one exit. I mean, there's a lot
of these areas that are prone to this. What what
is it about a hotel parking lot that's attractive to
these thieves.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, if you think about the nature of parking at
a hotel, hotels are businesses that are open and easily
accessible and built to be inviting. So the parking lots
are easy to get in and out of, and people
who are parking cars usually a large amount of cars
at hotels aren't coming and going as frequently as they
are in a retail business or other businesses. You know,
(02:27):
you're leaving your car, you may not be back to
your car for a day or more compared to coming
in and out of a store. And that is combined
with the fact that hotels are usually in areas that
are accessible to freeways, and it just makes them a
prime target for a crime that is very practiced and
(02:50):
very orchestrated that it happens very quickly. One of the
things that we can demonstrate, and we have security footage
of this, is we have seen groups of these folks
come in and hit eight, ten, twelve cars or more
and be gone in less than sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And that's the nature of the crime that I think
people don't understand. Hotels are taking steps to combat this,
but the first thing that we have to understand is
that this is happening at lightning speed because it's groups
of people that are coming in and doing it. They've
practiced it, it's orchestrated, and they're gone.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Joe Severie, CEO, President and CEO Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association,
talking about car break ins and hotel parking lots. So
does the security footage help you at all, because it's
my understanding, these groups of people they're all masked up.
It's hard to identify who they are. And to your point,
they're coming in, they've got a system, they work as
(03:47):
a team. They're in and out in a minute, minute
and a half before anybody knows anything better.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, and to compound the problem, quite frequently, almost always
h's a stolen car are that they're using too. So
the security footage only helps with the bigger picture of
figuring out how the crimes are perpetrated, what the methods
are that they're using. But it doesn't help identify these
(04:14):
are really brazen crimes. They're happening more in the daytime
than they did a couple of years ago. They're happening
in front of guests and travelers that are coming in
and out of the hotel, and they pay no attention
to that. So people say, well, why aren't you security,
you know folks able to see this and stop it. Well,
number one, we just talked about how it's happening so quickly.
(04:36):
Number Two, hotel security are not a police force. They
can't arrest people and we also have to think about
the safety of those folks because we know that it's
been demonstrated that often these folks are armed. There was
a shooting in a hotel parking lot where a hotel
(04:56):
security guard did try to stop it while it was
in progress. As fortunately nobody was injured, but we're very
hopeful that that never happens. But that's how brazen the
crimes are. So we put in more security personnel. We
put in more technology, including cameras and alarms and even
(05:20):
plate readers, but plate readers don't help if you're using
a car. You're you're seeing hotels make physical changes like
put up fencing around hotels, which is just, you know,
totally counter to the way that hotels are designed and
the way you want a hotel to appear, which is
open and inviting. You're seeing more fences and barriers in
(05:41):
the parking lot. So hotels are taking steps. And back
through March, we had from that same sampling of hotels
seeing that they had spent more than one point two
five million dollars in security and safety expenses, and that
was in that June to February period. Now we think
(06:03):
that number we're getting new numbers, but it's really close
to having doubles since then. I mean, hotels are spending
millions on this. Yeah, that's not that's not going to
be the solution. It's a crime problem.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It is a crime problem, Joe. And we know that
a lot of these crimes are being committed by juveniles,
those that are under eighteen years of age. That has
been the really the sector of the population and clubus
that's been committing most of the crime. They're young kids.
Have you had any conversations with law enforcement and or
(06:39):
you know, the the juvenile justice system, judges, you know, prosecutors,
you know, to make it prohibitive for these people to
do this if they just get a slap on the
wrist and you know, maybe they're on probation for a
year and they get, you know, sent back to mom
and dad, who probably don't care too much what these
kids are doing. Anyway. Have you had any of these
(06:59):
conversationations and what have been what's been what's come out
of them?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We absolutely have, And that is one of the biggest
problems that we have run into for years with this situation,
is that many of the crimes are committed by juveniles,
but there still is a juvenile justice system, and there
is a way to punish juvenile criminals. I think that
part of what we've done, both with the court, law enforcement,
(07:25):
public officials, and others in the public is to illustrate
the scope and nature of the problem, to say, this
isn't just uh, you know, minor juvenile high jinks or
you know that, we're talking about serious crimes. We're talking
about property damage that amounts the felony level property damage
that the punishment needs to be commensurate with the crimes
(07:50):
that are being committed and what it's causing to the victims.
So part of what we've been doing is try to
illustrate the problem is bigger than folks have acknowledged and recognize.
We've heard that well, the juvenile justice statutes needs some adjusting,
so we're working on that at the state house level
to say are there things that we can change in
(08:12):
state law regarding these offenses. And we have some lawmakers
that are working with us on that. But in general,
I think one of the biggest problems that we have
is we hear this regularly from the police who are
out there doing the hard work and doing a good
job on a daily and nightly basis, they'll spend more
(08:34):
time when they're dropping somebody off at the detention facility
than the person that they dropped off, and that offender
will be released before the police officer is able to
finish the paperwork and administrative work that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That's a flaw. That that's a problem. Joe, before I
let you go, what would you tell what would you
say to hotel guests? I would imagine a lot of
these folks are from out of town, not necessarily all
Columbus residents. They're here for business or for pleasure of
some nature. What would you say to keep yourself safe
in a hotel in some of these areas that are
getting hit hard by car break ins.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, one of the things that we need to recognize
is that the community is not inherently unsafe as a whole,
and that this is a particularly focused problem, but no
doubt it's a problem. Hotels do not leave things of
value in vehicles. One of the problems that we know
is that a lot of folks will leave firearms and vehicles,
and that is quite often what criminals who break into
(09:33):
cars are looking for is firearms. The more that we
can reduce that the more we take away the incentive
to break into those vehicles. But I would like to
say that, you know, we get a lot of talk
about what steps the hotels take and the responsibility of guests,
and that's all true, but if a gang at bank
(09:54):
robbers moved into Columbus and started knocking off multiple banks
a day, you know, we wouldn't go of the banks
and say what are you doing about what are your
customers doing about it? And that's that's what we've been
that's what we've been hearing. Yes, it's true that we
need to be doing everything that we can with security
and technology and physical barriers and deterrence, and guests need
(10:18):
to be careful about not leaving items in their cars.
But in the end, you know, this is about combating
what is, you know, an organized criminal activity that groups
of people are perpetrating.
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