DEBUNKING THE "LOGISTICAL CAGE": THE ELSPA REBUTTAL SHEET ​The Industry’s "Standard Operating Procedures" Are Life-Threatening Absurdities.

DEBUNKING THE "LOGISTICAL CAGE": THE ELSPA REBUTTAL SHEET

​The Industry’s "Standard Operating Procedures" Are Life-Threatening Absurdities.

​1. THE "INCIDENTALS" EXCUSE

• ​The Hotel Says: "We need a guest’s credit card on file for 'incidentals' like room service or damage."
• ​The Reality: STUPID & ILLOGICAL. If a third-party payer (an advocate, friend, or organization) has already provided a card and signed a digital authorization, the hotel is already covered. * The ELSPA Truth: A $50 minibar charge is not more valuable than a human life. Demanding a secondary card from a person who has just escaped with nothing is a choice to prioritize a hypothetical soda charge over a woman’s physical safety.

​2. THE "FRAUD PREVENTION" EXCUSE

• ​The Hotel Says: "We must see a physical ID that matches the credit card to prevent fraud and chargebacks."
• ​The Reality: STUPID & ILLOGICAL. In the age of 2-factor authentication and secure digital payments, "physical card matching" is a 1990s relic. If the money has cleared, the transaction is done.
• ​The ELSPA Truth: "Fraud prevention" is being used as a dog-whistle for surveillance. By forcing a guest to produce an ID that an abuser may have stolen or destroyed, the hotel is effectively enforcing the abuser’s control.

​3. THE "GOVERNMENT ID" EXCUSE

• ​The Hotel Says: "Local laws or 'security' require us to verify the identity of every guest via government-issued ID."
• ​The Reality: STUPID & ILLOGICAL. A hotel is a place of lodging, not a TSA checkpoint or an FBI precinct. If the room is paid for, the hotel's "interest" in the guest’s legal papers should end immediately.
• ​The ELSPA Truth: Abusers use ID theft to "erase" victims. When a hotel demands that ID, they aren't "providing security"—they are acting as a de facto border guard for traffickers, ensuring the victim has nowhere to hide.

​4. THE "CORPORATE POLICY" SHIELD

• ​The Hotel Says: "Our hands are tied; it’s just our standard corporate policy."
• ​The Reality: STUPID & ILLOGICAL. Policies are not laws; they are choices. Corporations change policies for profit every day.
• ​The ELSPA Truth: "Policy" is a cowardly word for complicity. Under ELSPA, if your "policy" results in a guest being turned back onto the street and into the hands of a killer, your "policy" makes you strictly liable for her death.

​THE BOTTOM LINE: If the money is on the table, the door must open. Any further demand for cards or papers is an act of human rights obstruction and works hand in hand with the goals of human traffickers to deny shelter to slaves fleeing captivity.