Staff & Guest Security is Paramount:
A hotel is a home away from home. Everyone who walks through the doors of your property expects to have a feeling of comfort and well-being. Keeping your guests feeling safe and secure is extremely important, but they are not the only ones who need to be protected; hotel staff should feel safe every time they arrive at work, too.
While many hoteliers spend extra bucks on keeping their important data protected from hacks and malware by investing in a secure property management system, they sometimes put their staff’s security on the backburner, assuming that there are less chances of anything happening to their hotel employees. However, housekeepers have been victims of crime in the past, making it even more important to protect your hardworking employees.
Past Incidents:
Prior to the American Hotel Lodging Association’s (AHLA) reassessment of security in the mid-1990s, there were numerous attacks on housekeepers. Criminals would pretend to be guests and enter rooms with open doors that were being cleaned. If a housekeeper asked for proof that the person was indeed the guest of that room, they were sometimes attacked or berated into leaving. Following these attacks, the AHLA recommended that housekeepers check the security features of a room during the check-out cleaning, and a closed-door cleaning policy was implemented. Rather than having the doors propped open, housekeepers would close the door behind them and enter the room to clean.
Take Extra Steps for Security:
Whether it is guests, front desk attendants, room service employees or someone from the housekeeping staff, each individual should feel at ease while inside your property. If you need to boost security, consider making all areas inaccessible to people without an active room key. Electronic key cards allow for additional security by detecting and recording who enters a particular room at a particular time. All employees should also be able to easily alert hotel security at any time.
Make sure everyone at your property feels like his or her safety is top priority. Find a few practices that work best for your hotel, but always check with the employees to ensure they feel fully protected while carrying out their work.
To read more about caring for and motivating your hotel staff, click here.