These Are the Surprising Things Professional Bodyguards Look for to Keep Their Clients Safe—and What Travelers Can Learn

It’s easy to let your guard down while traveling.

Often, travelers are so focused on finding their way, they don’t notice a pickpocket eyeing their wallet or a cyclist planning to snag their expensive camera off the table. To help, Travel + Leisure tapped private security professionals to share their safety tips, and their biggest piece of advice was to simply pay close attention to your surroundings, especially when moving between spaces.

“If you’re not even, you know, paying attention to the people that are walking by you on a daily basis, you’ve got no prayer of protecting yourself,” Dominic, who has been working in executive protection for more than two decades, told T+L in the YouTube series “Travel, Unfiltered.”

Fellow longtime security professional Kat said travelers should watch out for transitional spaces.

“There involves movement—whether that’s leaving your car into the grocery store or the gym, leaving your house into your vehicle,” said Kat, who has worked in private security for seven years. “So it’s a space where you’re most vulnerable trying to get from A to B.”

Private security teams have lots of strategies for keeping their clients safe, and some are easy for travelers to adopt.

“Potential problems are easy to spot once you know what you’re looking for,” Dominic told T+L, adding he pays attention to people’s hands when assessing potential threats.

“I see someone with hands in pockets, hands concealed inside a jacket, that’s gonna get my attention,” Dominic told T+L, adding, “Hands are what’s gonna hurt you.”

Another private security professional, Khyri, recommended keeping an eye out for things that seem unusual. “You develop a baseline when you enter a room of the actions and everything taking place in that setting,” said Khyri, who has been in the business for four years. “Anything that would break out of that baseline would be something that I would pay close attention to.”

In one incident, Kat recalled spotting a person hanging out at a hotel with a book bag and a couple phones for what felt like far too long. “To us, that’s a red flag,” Kat said. With some innocuous small talk, she said she was eventually able to identify the person as a known threat to her client. “Women are chameleons in the security industry: we are able to blend in.”

For all travelers, knowing when and how to exit a situation quickly and safely can be key to protecting themselves on the road.

“We always try to have at least two ways out, ideally three ways out of any situation if we can afford it,” Dominic told T+L. That situational awareness has even seeped into his personal life. “I can’t go to a restaurant without having my back to the wall, I already know where all the exits are. I’ve got a plan of action.”