One of our top strengths as a security company lies in our ability to create solutions for every security challenge. These challenges include the unique layouts and security needs presented by our customers’ properties. Additionally, they also include security threats posed at different times of the year. In fact, we’ve just entered one of the seasons with the most threats to your security. The holiday season creates several unique threats that we work with customers to address every year. In this post, we share some of our top holiday season security tips.
For starters, we’ll address ways that you can mainatin security during your travels this year. This season sees many homes left unoccupied, so we’ll look at both general best practices as well as burglar alarm-related tips. From there, we’ll aim to help you address fire safety issues that creep up during the holidays. Finally, we’ll wrap up our holiday season security tips with a look at ways to avoid getting targeted for theft this year. Now, let’s get started with some valuable security measures for those traveling this holiday season.
Holiday Travel Security Measures
Of course, advent of the holiday season also marks the beginning of the busiest travel season of the year. This increase in vacant homes naturally leads to a spike in attempted burglaries. In this section, we’ll address this topic from a couple perspectives. First, we’ll look at some general “best practices” to add some travel security. Then, we’ll share some security-system related ideas to help you minimize your risk of experiencing a variety of security threats during your travels.
While taking and posting vacation pictures may be tempting, we recommend waiting until your return to share them on social media.
Travel Security “Best Practices”
Sometimes, the best security comes from those who can keep an eye on your vacant home. Telling your trusted neighbors about your travel plans allows them to stay extra vigilant in watching your home for you. Additionally, consider asking neighbors to occasionally park a car in your driveway. Doing so will give the house less of an “abandoned” look during an extended absence. Furthermore, ask anyone you’d trust with a key to occasionally stop inside the house as well. This adds both security and valuable peace mind during your travels! If you have someone checking in on the house, you can rest assured that “no news means good news.”
In addition to inviting trusted neighbors to help you out, we also recommend keeping your travels off of social media until you return. Putting up pictures of your adventures in real time also advertises an empty home, sometimes to more people than you mean to. Finally, holding your mail during any trips you take also goes a long way towards avoiding that “empty house” look that can invite security issues. Next up, we have a few alarm-related holiday travel security ideas.
Alarm-Related Travel Security
Installing a monitored security system (often referred to as a “burglar alarm”) can greatly increase your security if you travel during the holidays. Taking this step will ensure that a breach in security leads to a central station response and, if necessary, a police dispatch. If you do not have an alarm in place, this marks perhaps the most valuable time of the year to have one installed!
In addition to providing valuable security against a break-in, monitored security systems can provide extra home security for non-burglary related threats during your travels as well. For example, we offer a variety of environmental security devices such as flood sensors and low temperature detectors that can alert you to dangerous weather-related conditions during your holiday travels. This allows you to have a trusted neighbor or family member help you address these situations immediately, as opposed to coming home to a costly disaster.
Obviously, these products add tremendous security and peace of mind. Moreover, they can also provide a monetary benefit as well! Insurance providers often offer discounts for installing monitored environmental detection. In many instances, these deductions pay customers back for the cost of this equipment very quickly, and even gain them some money as time goes by. The combination of security, peace of mind, and money in our customers’ pockets make installing this equipment a no-brainer for many of the families we do business with. Let’s now turn our attention to boosting your fire security during this holiday season.
Practicing Fire Security Over the Holidays
If you’ve followed our blog even casually, you know that we always preach fire safety and security. We find these threats multiply greatly over the holiday season. In fact, the National Fire Protection Association (or “NFPA”) has found that Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve rank first, second, and third in fire incidents, respectively. Therefore, we recommend prioritizing fire security during this time of year in particular. First and foremost, we recommend testing your smoke detection and fire fighting equipment. Smoke alarms and properly-working fire extinguishers go a long way towards avoiding fire-related holiday disasters. Additionally, cleaning your burners and your oven can also help reduce the risk of fires created by your cooking projects.
Finally, we also highly suggest installing monitored smoke, heat, and CO detection. We install detectors that utilize your existing security equipment to create a fire department dispatch upon activation. These detectors can save your home in the case of a fire in your absence. More importantly, they can also save a life in the case of a fire while people are home. For example, if a fire occurs after you doze off while waiting for that holiday turkey or other delectable meal to finish cooking, you can rest assured that help is on the way! Let’s finish up our holiday season security tips with some general suggestions for avoiding getting targeted for theft this year.
A doorbell camera by Alarm.com will alert you when someone approaches your door. This both improves door security and ensures that you will never miss the delivery of a package.
Lowering Your Risk of Holiday-Related Theft
In addition to an increase in empty houses, this time of year also creates a surplus of electronics and other valuables both inside and outsides of homes. Of course, holiday shopping — which takes place online more frequently every year — creates the risks associated with packages left on porches for extended periods of time. Once opened, these gifts then reside in their new homes, ready to be taken if people do not take the proper steps.
So how do we address these dangers? For starters, putting “eyes” on your doorways can help tremendously. Our Alarm.com-powered smart cameras and smart doorbells can provide you instant alerts to any activity near your entryways. This lets you catch packages as they arrive, as well as catch any uninvited guests approaching your home. In particular, smart doorbells also allow you to converse with anyone nearing your door as well! For an extra layer of security, you can even consider adding a smart lock that you can control remotely using a smartphone. When combined with the smart doorbell, these locks let you instruct delivery personnel to place packages just inside your door, then unlock the door briefly to allow them to do so.
Furthermore, we also recommend keeping any packaging related to valuable gifts inside until trash day. Leaving out boxes from video game systems and other sought-after products can act as an advertisement for burglars. Keeping this evidence off the streets can help lower your risk of becoming a victim.
Putting Our Holiday Season Security Tips in Motion
We hope that this post helps you increase your holiday season security this year! Moreover, we also encourage you to contact us with any questions this post raises for you. We will happily answer any queries having to do with holiday security or security in general. Additionally, we invite you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We provide complimentary security audits and equipment quotes to new and existing customers alike at any time! During our visit, we can address any security concerns you may have. Furthermore, we can also make suggestions of our own based on our observations of your property. Together, we can cerate a complete security plan to keep you and your family as safe and secure as possible for this holiday season and beyond.