The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, just an hour’s ferry ride from bustling Hong Kong, offers an integrated resort experience where you can wine, dine, shop, stay and also do some serious business. The property boasts of the world’s largest casino and has 750 game tables, 350 international brand stores and 30 restaurants. It is one of the newest properties in the world and flaunts a plethora of luxury experiences that guests can enjoy during their stay.

The Venetian Macao is not unusual. It just reinforces a worldwide trend that was kicked off half a century ago by the Peninsula in Hong Kong. Today, luxury hotels are no longer places where you just hire a room for the night. They offer the best in dining and shopping experiences and every day hundreds of people stroll into their plush environs to partake of them.

Five star hotels in India are no exception either. They too have fallen over themselves to house high end luxury brands like Armani, Burberry, Boss and a host of others, and to offer a clutch of ultra chic fine dining outlets. In the process, they seem to have turned themselves into one huge mall space — a space where anybody can walk in for a bite with a spot of shopping thrown in.

But that may change — thanks to worries over security.

The terror attacks on Mumbai’s iconic hotel properties — the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and the Oberoi-Trident — raises the bigger question of the amount of control that luxury hotel managements actually have over their properties. Entrance and exit points are the obvious points of control but sprawling hotels that house scores of retail shops and restaurants pose a big challenge to the job of managing security effectively.

In the wake of the attacks, hotels across the country have woken up to the need for enhanced security measures. And the top managements of several chains are reviewing their security practices. Leela group vice-chairman and managing director Vivek Nair says, “These tragic incidents are a wake up call for the hotel industry. We are brainstorming to make our security systems foolproof and are evaluating several options to beef up security at our multi-use properties.”

The Leela in Mumbai has shut its exit gate to ensure that there is only one entry point to the main building. It is also stopping cars at the main gate and transferring guests to hotel cars that are then ferrying guests to the hotel building. The Leela management is also considering hiring an international security agency and providing specialised crisis management training to its staff. The Oberoi Grand in Calcutta is doing something similar. Cars are stopped outside and visitors are searched, not once but twice.

Guests agree that security at luxury hotels is inadequate. “The Oberoi guards are very sweet guys, especially if you hand them a Rs 50 tip. But we need high calibre security at hotels,” says Thomas Cook India chairman Udayan Bose, adding that it is very difficult to change hotel formats and restrict retail and other entertainment activities.

But some international hotel chains already have a policy to limit their retail activity. For instance, Four Seasons, one of the biggest hotel chains in the world, believes that unlike other luxury hotels the winning formula is to manage smaller properties with limited public spaces that make the task of control simpler. Four Seasons Mumbai’s general manager Armando Kraenzlin says, “The pillar of our business model is small and medium sized hotels (150 to 200-room hotels) with a limited number of restaurants and just a shop or two that we run ourselves. We don’t really depend on food and beverage revenues like others do because we want to concentrate on personalised service in an environment that we can control.”

The promoters of Four Seasons in Mumbai are setting up service apartments, banqueting facilities and a limited high end luxury retail area in a tower that is adjacent to the Four Seasons in Worli. This tower will have separate entry and exit points and will be separate form the main Four Seasons building.

Guests too are beginning to develop a taste for smaller hotels that offer exclusivity and more personalised services. Heritage hotels that dot tourist destinations in states like Rajasthan and Kerala, the Neemrana chain, or Adrian Zecha’s Aman Resorts’ hunting lodge in Ranthambhor, point to this developing trend.

Global chains that plan to manage properties in India will have to grapple with the security threat of having sprawling food courts, supermarkets and entertainment centres in close proximity to the hotel building itself. For instance, the Shangrila, which is coming up smack in the middle of the badly planned and very busy shopping and entertainment district of Phoenix Mills in the heart of mid-town Mumbai, will no doubt find it tough to ensure the safety of its guests.

Says Future group promoter Kishore Biyani, who has set up the group’s flagship Big Bazaar supermarket at the Phoenix Mills complex, “The entrance to the Shangrila is separate. Security is a subject that we are focusing on but the fact is that most hotels around the world have shopping arenas. The question is how much of retail should you ideally have.”

Biyani has a point. Hotels like the Imperial in New Delhi have managed to restrict footfall from shoppers. (The Telegraph contacted The Imperial in Delhi — arguably the best hotel in the city —but officials declined to comment.) However, like their global counterparts, very few hoteliers in India stay away from mixed use developments.

Manav Thadani, managing director, HVS International-India, the Indian arm of the global agency that tracks the hospitality industry, is quick to cite examples of leading mixed use developments spanning from Tokyo to Washington. “The immediate priority is to increase security measures at existing properties,” says Thadani. He suggests that five star properties should check luggage at separate entrance points, a practice that is followed by several hotels in high threat countries like Pakistan and in the Middle East. Internal security will have to get better too. “The staff at the Taj and Oberoi displayed a wonderful mix of courage and training. But there’s little doubt that hoteliers will have to invest a lot more in training,” says Thadani.

And maybe they should also take a long and hard look at a different business model where revenue earners like F&B and retail rentals are given a miss for a bigger goal — the safety and security of their guests.