The story of Cheri Marchionda inspired me to create Chizzle It for Personal Security. Prior to the spring of 2023, I had never heard of Marchionda and had little experience as a female solo traveler. That April I was hired as a traveling national consultant. Coincidentally, Cheri Marchionda’s ex-husband was hired as my husband’s new manager around that same time. That’s when I learned how Marchionda was brutally raped and assaulted inside her Embassy Suites hotel room. While the details of her attack are difficult to stomach, I believe that every female traveler needs to hear her account.
I see myself in Cheri Marchionda. Like her, I’m a traveling sales professional. I mostly travel alone and stay at hotels across the country, occasionally at Embassy Suites. What’s not to love about free breakfast and nightly happy hour? But there’s a darker side of Embassy Suites that never occurred to me prior hearing Marchionda’s story.
Cheri Marchionda was sitting at the hotel bar when she rejected the unwanted advances of a man named Christopher LaPointe. She then went to her room. The problem with the atreum-style layout of most Embassy Suites hotels is that a predator watching from the lobby can easily observe what room someone is staying in because the upper floors are open and clearly visible.
Shortly thereafter, LaPointe was able to get a key to her room from the front desk clerk just by asking for it. He wasn’t even asked to show ID, much less prove that he was a registered guest at the hotel. When he couldn’t gain access to the room using the key because Marchianda had on the security latch, he convinced a maintenance worker to disable it for him, claiming that Marchionda was his “girlfriend” and had locked him out after an argument. Again, he wasn’t asked for ID. The maintenance worker simply let LaPointe in unaccompanied and left. Marchionda awoke to find him sitting on the bed holding her leg. He then proceeded to batter and sexually assault her for hours.
While this story makes me feel anger, outrage, and sadness, it doesn’t surprise me. As a female solo traveler, I usually receive eyerolls when I express safety concerns to hotel staff. Women who advocate for themselves are often seen as annoying “Karens.” As Cheri Marchionda’s case proves, you simply cannot trust hotel workers and procedures to result in safety.
I created Chizzle It For Personal Safety as a way for solo travelers to keep their loved ones informed of their travel activities in real time. It also serves as a forum for travelers to document any suspicious behavior or unsafe conditions. Document or “chizzle” everything when you are traveling. Chizzle your Uber or taxi ride. Chizzle when you arrive at your hotel. Chizzle the name and description of the person checking you in. Are you seated at the hotel bar and someone makes you uncomfortable? Chizzle it! By normalizing the process of “chizzling” our activities, we can hold those accountable who put us unsafe in conditions. Not to mention that it serves as a deterrent for somebody who might engage in nefarious behavior. Here are some ways that Chizzle If for Personal Security can help keep you safe:
- It keeps your loved ones informed of your activities in real time. Your significant other/friends/family members will know when you get into an Uber or when you lock yourself into your hotel room.
- It encourages others to think before they act. Hotel personnel might make the effort to closely check ID’s if they know that their actions are being monitored and documented.
- It discourages bad behavior. A would-be predator might be dissuaded from following a woman back to her room if he knows that the woman has documented his unwanted advances and that her loved ones are seeing a log of the woman’s activities in real time.
- If something ever happens to you, your loved ones will have a time stamped activity log that will help to trace your last steps.
I acknowledge that men also have safety concerns when traveling. I absolutely encourage people of all genders to chizzle their travel activities and keep their loved ones updated on their whereabouts. For females traveling alone, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of documentation. It may help save your life or the life of another woman.
For those of you who still think you are safe staying in hotels, check out Cheri Marchianda’s unbelievable story here: