MUMBAI - THE men were only carrying a cake box and a bouquet of flowers but as soon as they approached the five-star Mumbai hotel they were stopped and their parcels whisked away to a metal detector.

'No outside guests,' barked a black-clad security manager at another hotel.

The luxury end of the market in India's financial capital has long sought to entice wealthy locals, foreign tourists and businessmen to their towers of marble, swimming pools and exclusive restaurants.

But since being targeted in last week's deadly attacks, five-star resorts are desperate to show they are doing all they can to protect their guests, without making them feel too anxious.

With armed guards, sniffer dogs and requests for photo identification among the extra security steps being taken, the industry is treading a fine line between hospitality and hostility.

Security experts caution that hotels need to gauge shifting threat levels and adopt measures accordingly - rather than ramping up security immediately after an attack only to drop it soon afterwards.

'You have to have an escalating scale,' said Mr Richard Dailly, managing director in India for risk consultants Kroll.

'Blocking the gates, only allowing in people who are guests - in normal day-to-day running that's not a road that hotels may want to go down.'

Staff training is key, with many lives saved by hotel employees who bolted restaurant doors at the first sounds of gunfire in last week's attacks, turned off lights and ushered guests out through service passages.

But some security measures may increase the perception of risk among guests, many of whom are looking for a carefree getaway.

'The armed guard in the hotel is a very recommended thing but they should not be visible so the people feel 'I am coming here and I am not secure here',' said Mr Jagat Raj Trikha, chair of India's private security guard industry body.

Sandbags to protect guards were in place at the Marriott in Mumbai's Juhu beach area this week. The chain, which had its Islamabad hotel blown up in September, has three properties in Mumbai.

'Security has been raised to the highest level, which includes the presence of armed guards and other provisions to prohibit access,' the company said in a statement.

Ms Natasha Pal, a spokesman for the Tata-owned Indian Hotels Company, whose century-old Taj Palace hotel was one of two hotels held by the attackers, was reluctant to discuss specific measures.

'We don't want to talk details,' she said. 'We're working on a lot of things.'

Some hotels are turning away outside visitors from their restaurants and refusing conference bookings, even though such business accounts for over a third of revenues, according to Mr Suresh Jain, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India.

With nerves on edge after unconfirmed reports suggested that some of the militants in last week's attacks may have checked in as guests, hotels are even eyeing their patrons with suspicion.

One man was briefly detained when he arrived to check in to Mumbai's Grand International hotel, according to local reports.

Some security measures appear perfunctory at best or even nonsensical.

In checks at two hotels in Mumbai, employees barely looked inside as they quickly rummaged through bags.

Yet even with the best measures in place, security experts admit it is impossible to stop every attack when well-funded militant groups have months to plan their strikes. -- AFP