Washington Hilton attack spotlights hotel industry's nagging, costly security problems

“I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo,” the hotel guest identified by law enforcement as Cole Allen, 31, said in a manifesto ahead of the attack. “What I got," he added, "is nothing.”

Allen's attack heightened a decades-old problem for the hotel industry: how to tighten security while maintaining a sense of warmth and hospitality. Some new security firms offer artificial intelligence-powered monitoring solutions, but hotels were slow to adopt anything that could spike costs and infringe on guests' privacy.

“Security is going to continue to improve with technology in identifying strange behavior. But at the end of the day, it's a hospitality business where customers have to feel welcome,” said Nicolas Graf, a professor of hospitality management at New York University.

Allen moved through the building before charging a checkpoint on a floor above the ballroom where Trump, 2,600 journalists, government officials and others gathered. Trump was safely evacuated and the guests were unharmed, but the breach showed the risks that can come from inside hotels.

Hotel attackers repeatedly exploited the same vulnerabilities: multiple access points, guests arriving at all hours, uneven screening and blurred lines between public space and protected zones.

“Not every guest in the building is screened the same way, which is why zoning and access control become critical,” noted Morgan Stevens, senior vice president for global security operations at Crisis24.

Hotels must boost security to save lives, but also need to watch their spending. The top nine hotel, casino and resort companies by revenue generated about $102 billion in 2025 but faced margin pressure in recent years.

The Washington Hilton hotel said it operated under "stringent" Secret Service protocols. Hilton Worldwide Holdings declined to comment for this story, but the steps taken after the attack followed a familiar pattern: Law enforcement sealed off the hotel. Investigators retraced the suspect’s path. Security experts debated what should have been done differently.

Allen was charged with attempted assassination, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and illegally transporting guns and ammunition across state lines when he took a train from his hometown in California.

Hard to secure

Hotels rarely shut down for major events but employ access controls like separate elevators or restricted floors.

It typically takes several days to a week to secure a hotel ahead of a major event, experts said. Security teams conduct site surveys, establish credential systems and divide the property into controlled zones.

Still, other guests can move through lobbies, restaurants and guest floors alongside screened attendees. That creates unavoidable security gaps, they said.

"Hotels employ a layered approach to safety and security," said a spokesperson for the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Precautions include trained staff, surveillance systems, access control and coordination with law enforcement, the spokesperson said.

Robert McDonald, assistant professor at the University of New Haven and a retired supervisory Secret Service agent, said the agency typically works with hotel security, police and the White House administration to develop a security plan rather than closing hotels outright.

The April 25 incident shook the confidence in that model.

Trump said afterward that the hotel was "not a particularly secure building." Reuters reported that U.S. law enforcement officials were reassessing security at the Washington Hilton, outside of which President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 by John Hinckley, leading some to call it the "Hinckley Hilton."

After that shooting, the Hilton added a secure garage allowing presidential motorcades to arrive inside the building, and adopted wider use of magnetometers and tighter press controls, McDonald said.

Around the world, major attacks at hotels prompted security changes. A turning point was the 2008 assault on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, which left 31 people dead.

"The industry has improved quite significantly since” that Mumbai attack, NYU's Graf said.

In 2017, a man aiming out the window of a 32nd-story suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas gunned down 58 people at a nearby concert. Hundreds more were injured.

Security upgrades costly

Hotels are starting to consider AI-powered weapons detection, but experts said making meaningful upgrades would be costly and complex.

Shortly before the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, AI security firm Xtract One said it received an inquiry from the chief security officer of a major hotel chain about its weapons-detection system. As of now, no rollout followed.

“This is a complex problem to solve, not simply addressed by putting in a single screening device,” Xtract One CEO Peter Evans said. He noted multiple entrances as well as the heavy volume of people and variety of luggage moving through large hotels.

Anthony Varchetto, co-founder of Blue Star Security, said hotels often allocate resources toward external threats while underestimating risks posed by registered guests.

“That’s a common oversight,” he said. “People get complacent, they understaff, and a lot of it comes down to budget.”