Category Hospitality Employees

“A former employer took more than 20 minutes to respond after I alerted them that a man exposed himself to me in a hallway.” Hotels are under increased scrutiny as workers, cities, and the State of California push for legislation requiring employers to equip room attendants with panic buttons in an effort to prevent violent assaults and sexual harassment in the industry. If passed, California will be the first state in the nation to impose legislation state-wide. CNBC, Jeff Daniels, reports.

• A California bill was introduced Wednesday that requires hotels to provide hotel room cleaners with panic buttons.
• The so-called hotel maid “panic button” bill is designed to protect employees from assaults by guests.
• If passed, it would make California the first to have a statewide law manda...

Employees are a hotels greatest asset! Investing in your employees should be a top priority. Not only will proper training improve the overall safety of your property, it could also bring more to your bottom line. Employees need to be taught how to act and react when addressing guests and situations that arise on the property. Providing detailed onboarding training, reviewing policies and procedures frequently, and engaging employees in processes is a sure footprint to the success of your property safety program. Facility Executive, Terrell Kemp, Jr.  shares insight into effective safety solutions.

Employees’ knowledge of proper security protocols is crucial to the safety of guests, while also enhancing a hotel’s reputation.

Consistency in the hotel business is key...

Scared, uncomfortable and humiliating or simply from fear of losing their jobs, housekeepers have remained silent about the sexual harassment they’ve experienced for decades. With the recent passage of panic button legislation in major cities around the country and the publicity of high profile sexual harassment cases, more housekeepers are speaking out about the sexual abuse that goes on in the hotel industry. Are you listening to your staff? What can you do to improve the work culture at your hotel? With help from HuffPost Business, Dave Jamieson, Cecilia, a Chicago based housekeeper, describes years of sexual abuse.

Low-wage workers have been fighting sexual harassment for years. The national conversation is finally catching up with them.

With guest experience and satisfaction dictating the success of a hotel, effective and efficient hotel technology training is an essential component to every hotel operation. From safety and compliance to operations and guest communication, new technology continues to evolve. Developing a high level comprehensive and layered technical training program focused on different solutions as well as users has proven to benefit hotel operations and the bottom line. Hotel Management, Esther Hertzfeld shares insight and solutions from industry leaders.  

Typically, a centrally managed learning management system is a critical component of managing the training modules available and ensuring that the right people take the right training.

Without the right training tools and procedures in place, ...

Today’s hotel operators face the rising threat of ransomware attacks. These types of attacks can constrain your organization. Since a hotel’s ability to respond to an attack is limited and there is little recourse for restoring ransomed data, updating your computer operating systems and software and having a commitment to properly train all employees on the malicious attacks and anti-phishing regularly is absolutely necessary to minimizing the risks of an attack. Lodging Magazine, Christine Killion discusses prevention tips all hotel operators should review.

Even with the most sophisticated safety and security measures in place, hotels are susceptible to threats and crime. Negligent security claims are often connected to failed or incomplete safety and security procedures paired with inadequate training. To ensure your hotel property is capable of managing threats and crime, it is vital that hotel safety and security be reviewed regularly, and staff training remain consistent and revised to match your safety and security needs. Lodging Magazine, Justin Parafinczuk, provides key points to consider as you assess your safety and security program.

Recent tragedies have shown how vulnerable hotels are to safety and security threats...

It is no secret that hotels see high employee turnover rates with housekeepers sitting at the top of the list. One of the largest downsides to high-turnover in the hotel industry is cost. To improve staff retention in the industry, leadership should turn their focus to employee education, growth and development and continued training. Making these key elements part of your hotel culture may very well turn high turnover numbers into high retention rates. Hotel Management, Elliott Mest, suggests creative measures to engage staff housekeepers.

Housekeeping turnover frequently takes place within the first 90 days of employment.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “every artist was first an amateur...

Although no one wants to think about catastrophic events, it is a topic that should be at the forefront of every hotel discussion right now. No matter what the nature of the disaster, every event represents a significant risk for a hotel’s ability to continue ordinary operations. If you don’t have a plan in place when disaster strikes, you put your staff, guests and your reputation at “increased” risk. Every hotel should have a comprehensive crisis plan that includes pre-event, real-time, and post-event procedures. Communication and training are key elements that contribute to the success of the plan. Lodging Magazine, Ellen Meyer, shares hotel disaster preparedness tips from Bob Rauch, CEO and president of RAR Hospitality, below.

Now chief executive officer and president of R...

There is no way to eradicate security risks in a free society, but they can be mitigated with preventative measures. Hotels are one of a handful of destinations in the United States where large numbers of people gather; some with multiple points of entry and exit and without any form of preventative screening. Although guest experience and hotel security can be tricky, hotel operators need to utilize every resource available to prevent risk while still giving the guest the experience they expect. In lieu of the Las Vegas shooting, all hotel operators need to realize the importance of training every staff member to be part of their safety and security program. Hotel Management, Elliot Mest, discusses hotel security

Travelers are not fond of airport security, but could something similar b...

Although rare, they are also tragic! Nobody should ever go through the pain of freezing to death. The death of this young woman is a stark reminder of how important it is for businesses to develop safety procedures and training surrounding walk-in freezers, and just as important, that businesses limit access to them. Hoteliers you must set the standards with your staff and be attentive to ensure that the guidelines are fully respected and followed. Fox News reports the recent incident that brought complete devastation to the family of a guest, the victim.

The woman was discovered in a freezer at Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center.

A Chicago woman was found dead in a hotel walk-in freezer Sunday, just hours after she was reported missing from a party at the venue, ...