# How Easily Can a Fugitive Hide In a Hotel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easily-can-a-fugitive-hide-in-a-hotel/526413 "2010-01-25T20:18:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easily-can-a-fugitive-hide-in-a-hotel/526413/21 "2010-01-26T13:29:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Any thoughts would be helpful. Research is for a little piece of fiction I’m trying to put together. No, seriously. If you want to avoid the hassle of being spotted at a hotel, you could do what the killer in Forsythe’s _Day of the Jackal_ did (twice) – pick up someone at a bar and crash at their place, killing them if necessary – no records get left, and the only problem is an extra homicide on your tab. If you don’t like extra murders, you can always steal or forge a credit card and use it at a hotel – then they don’t have a record of your real name staying there. ---
**Author:** ![foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9a140/32.png) [@foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolscap)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easily-can-a-fugitive-hide-in-a-hotel/526413/22 "2010-01-26T16:09:53Z")
There is a “WIRED” magazine issue you might look at Wired Dec 2009 “shedding your identity in the digital age” page 144 . You can get gift cards tied to a credit card company, with “your” name on them. If the clerk doesn’t look closely he might miss that it is just a gift card instead of real credit card. . And if you have a fake ID in the same name he might not care. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easily-can-a-fugitive-hide-in-a-hotel/526413.md?page=1)