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by | November 9, 2013 · 11:27 am

Hospitality Industry Fire Risk Management: “Security Alert! Check The Security Of Your Hotel’s Knox Boxes Frequently” By Todd Seiders, CLSD, Petra Risk Solutions

Security Alert! Check The Security Of Your Hotel’s Knox Boxes Frequently

by Todd Seiders, CLSD

Check your Knox Boxes! A Knox Box, known officially as the KNOX-BOX Rapid Entry System, is a small, wall-mounted safe-like box that holds building keys for firefighters and EMTs to retrieve in emergencies. In many jurisdictions, the local Fire Department requires that a Knox Box be located outside of your hotel (check with your local Fire Department for requirements; some jurisdictions may not require hotels to have one), for their use only, in the event of an emergency. The Knox Box has a complete set of the hotel’s master keys locked inside this box.

Knox Boxes simplify key control for local fire departments. Local fire companies can hold master keys to all such boxes in their response area, so that they can quickly enter a building without having to force entry or find individual keys held in deposit at the fire station. Sometimes Knox Boxes are linked via radio to the dispatch station, where the dispatcher can release the keys with telecommunication tone signaling over analog phone lines.

Knox Boxes have advantages and disadvantages for both business owners and emergency responders. The main advantage for their use is that they cut fire losses for building owners since firefighters can more quickly enter buildings without breaking doors or windows. The disadvantage of the system is that it provides a single point of failure for security. If the key to a district’s Knox Boxes is stolen or copied, a thief can enter any building that has a Knox Box. Likewise, if the locking mechanism or structural integrity of the box is compromised, a thief can gain access to the keys and hence access to the entire building. For this reason some building owners wire Knox Boxes into their burglar alarm systems so that opening the box trips the alarm, thus negating its use in facilitating clandestine entry.

Knox Boxes are an actual miniature safe designed to withstand tampering and are built in a variety of sizes ranging from a box designed for two keys to one designed to hold hazardous material information and multiple keys. Prices start at approximately $250.00. Most Knox Boxes are mounted onto a wood or steel mounting with the screws or bolts covered.

Todd Seiders Petra Risk SolutionsYet, this does not mean that Knox Boxes are indestructible or cannot be removed from their mounting with force. We have recently seen many of these Knox Boxes forcefully removed from their wall mountings and stolen from the property. In several cases the thieves then returned to the hotel with the master keys and stole items.

In one theft at a hotel the thieves specifically used the master keys to access the storage room for the hotel night audit packets and guest files. The thieves stole hundreds of night audit packets containing the names, addresses and credit card numbers of previous guests. Obviously, hotels can be held liable for breach of guests’ personal information or loss of their credit card data.

So, what should hoteliers do? Secure your night audit packets/files in a secure room that has a hard metal key, rather than a magnetic key card lock. There should only be one or two hotel employees that have access to the night audit storage room, and storage room keys. Secure these files separately, and control all access to them. DO NOT include a key to this storage room in your Knox Box, or on your “master key ring”, or even leave this key unattended in a key box. The night audit file storage room key should be kept separate from all other keys.

As for the hotel’s Knox Box, local ordinances may require that your property have a Knox Box in the event of an emergency. If so, follow these suggestions:

  • Check that your Knox Box is solidly secured to its location, using numerous heavy duty screws or bolts to make it extremely hard to remove.
  • Relocate your Knox Box to a well lit area, and in view of security cameras, if your property has them.
  • Add a visual inspection of the Knox Box to your property inspection form and security tours so it will be inspected on a regular basis. This will let you know in a timely manner if someone has tried to remove it, or has in fact actually removed or damaged. Immediately re-key the entire hotel if the Knox Box is stolen or the keys inside come up missing. 

Pictured above: Here’s what some of the various Knox Boxes look like.

http://www.petrarisksolutions.com/

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(Todd Seiders, CLSD, is director of risk management for Petra Risk Solutions, which provides a full-range of risk management and insurance services for hospitality owners and operators. Their website is: www.petrarisksolutions.com. Todd can be reached at 800-466-8951 or via e-mail at: todds@petrarisksolutions.com.)  

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by | November 8, 2013 · 7:01 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: California Hotel To Manage Electricity Costs With Innovative Battery Storage System; 30 Percent Savings On Peak Demand Usage Seen

Intercontinental Hotels has run a trial with a 15-kilowatt Stem storage system for the past year, and though Hobbs would not discuss dollar Hotel Utility Costssavings he says he’s seen between a 17 percent and 30 percent improvement in his ability to manage demand. The hotel has 17 Stem systems on order and plans to install two 54-kilowatt battery packs at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, which would supply 20 percent of the hotel’s demand.

If a hotel’s energy consumption spikes—say on a hot day when guests all turn on their room air conditioners at once—the utility ratchets up the electricity rate they pay. To avoid these so-called demand charges—which can account for half of a monthly power bill—businesses can participate in programs that cut their bills if they allow their local utility take control of their air conditioners or lighting to reduce electricity use when the grid is overloaded.

Letting hotel guests who pay $300 a night sweat, however, is not an option. So Hobbs has pulled the plug on his utility by storing electricity in lithium-ion battery packs when rates are low for use when demand and prices rise. The battery and sophisticated software was built by a Silicon Valley startup called Stem and is another example of how technological innovation is upending utilities’ century-old stranglehold on power.

Patel says a 54-kilowatt system costs about $100,000, though California state incentives cover about 60 percent of that price. But thanks to a $5 million fund financed by Clean Feet Investors, Stem will offer customers no-money-down installation of battery storage in exchange for monthly fee paid out of the savings on utility bills. Such lease deals unleashed an explosion in residential solar systems and Patel expects to see a similar result in battery storage. Stem has orders for 6 megawatts’ worth of systems and Patel expects that to jump to 15 megawatts over the next year.

For more: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/the-100-000-battery-that-could-help-hotels-save-bundles-of-money/281194/

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by | November 7, 2013 · 7:23 am

Hospitality Industry Employment Risks: Georgia Restaurant Sued By EEOC For “Sexual Harassment”; Female Workers Forced To Resign After Not Tolerating The Abuse By Manager

“…According to the EEOC’s suit, the employer allowed six women to be subjected to repeated acts of sexual harassment by a manager.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commissionsexual harassment occurred throughout the servers’ employment, occurring daily for some…When some of the servers rejected the sexual advances, they were assigned to less profitable sections of the restaurant or had their work schedules negatively changed, which resulted in lower earning opportunities. Although the employees complained to other management officials about the harassment, nothing was done to stop it from recurring…” 

A popular Atlanta-area restaurant/nightclub violated federal law by subjecting female servers to a pattern of sexual harassment by a manager, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed recently against Sirdah Enterprises, Inc., which owns and operates Taboo 2 Bar and Bistro in Roswell, Ga. The agency also alleged that the working conditions were so intolerable that five of the women were forced to resign when they could no longer tolerate the abuse.

It included groping their breasts and buttocks, indecent exposures, explicit sex related comments, requests for sexual favors, and promises of better working assignments and other benefits if they engaged in sexual acts.

Sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The EEOC filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (EEOC v. Sirdah Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Taboo 2 Bar & Bistro, No. 1:13-cv-03657) after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.  The federal agency seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for the servers, as well as injunctive relief designed to prevent such misconduct in the future.

“This case involves charges of gross sexual harassment where a manager, an individual normally entrusted with ensuring that the rights of employees are protected, took advantage of these women by abusing his position of power,” said Bernice Kimbrough, district director for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office.

Robert Dawkins, regional attorney for the Atlanta District Office, said, “Taboo 2 was aware of the sexually hostile work environment to which these young women were being subjected, but failed to take remedial measures as required under the law.  In addition to vindicating the rights of these seven women, this lawsuit is for the purpose of protecting the rights of current and future female employees.”

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.  Further information about the EEOC is available on the agency’s web site at www.eeoc.gov.

For more: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-6-13a.cfm

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by | November 6, 2013 · 11:44 am

Hospitality Industry Safety Risks: Florida Hotel Faces Serious “OSHA Safety Violations” After Death Of Worker Crushed By Elevator; Lacked “Written Lockout/Tagout Procedures”

“…(the Hotel management company) had faced $23,000 in proposed fines for three serious and two other-than-serious alleged violations, Hospitality Industry OSHA Violationsaccording to the citations…RIA-Tradewinds allegedly lacked a written lockout/tagout procedure for the hotel’s elevators, the employee authorized to lockout/tagout the elevator involved in the death didn’t do so, and there was no coordination of lockout/tagout procedures with Progressive Environmental. The two other-than-serious violations involved the lack of documentation for lockout/tagout procedures and training…”

Two companies face $84,000 in proposed fines over the death of a worker in Florida who was crushed by an elevator car while cleaning the bottom of an elevator shaft, according to citations released Nov. 4 by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The citations, dated Oct. 15, allege the two companies failed to coordinate their lockout/tagout procedures and that employees lacked required lockout/tagout training.

The worker, Mark Allen Johnson, 45, of Tampa, was employed by Progressive Environmental Services, doing business as SWS Environmental Services of Panama City Beach, according to OSHA and police reports. He died April 24 while cleaning oily water from the bottom an elevator shaft at a St. Petersburg Beach hotel. The hotel, Tradewinds Island Grand Beach Resort, is managed by RIA-Tradewinds Inc., according to the citations.

OSHA cited Progressive Environmental for one repeat and four serious alleged violations carrying proposed fines of $61,000.

For more:  http://about.bloomberglaw.com/law-reports/death-of-florida-worker-in-elevator-shaft-results-in-84000-in-fines-10-violations/

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by | November 5, 2013 · 6:53 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance Solutions: “Hospitality Workers’ Compensation Fundamentals” By Brad Durbin Of Petra Risk Solutions

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by | November 4, 2013 · 6:53 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: Texas And New Mexico Hotels Pay $78,000 To Settle Department Of Labor “Wage Violation Lawsuit”; Staff Paid Flat Rate Without Regard To Hours Worked

Investigators found that the MCM Elegante and MCM Grande Hotels paid housekeeping staff a flat rate per room cleaned, without regard to the Hospitality Industry Wage Violation Lawsuitsnumber of hours worked. When these employees worked more than 40 hours in a week, the employers continued to pay only this flat rate, failing to pay overtime at one and one-half times the employees’ regular rates of pay, as required by the FLSA. A housekeeper paid $3 per room, cleaning three rooms per hour, would earn $450 for a 50-hour week at the piece rate, without overtime. The employee would legally be due $495, a shortage of $45.

MCM Elegante and MCM Grande Hotels in New Mexico and Texas have paid $78,876 in overtime back wages to 200 dishwashers, bartenders, wait staff, bellmen, housekeeping, and maintenance workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).

The investigation allegedly found overtime, minimum wage, and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico and several cities in Texas, were not properly paid wages they were due. The hotels are owned by HTL Operating LLC, based in Odessa, Texas.

As a result of the investigation, the employer has agreed to comply with the FLSA at all of its locations. It will pay the back wages found due in full.

For more:  http://compensation.blr.com/Compensation-news/Compensation/FLSA-Fair-Labor-Standards-Act/Hotel-employees-owed-79000-in-back-wages/#

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by | November 1, 2013 · 10:36 am

Hospitality Industry Safety Solutions: “Hotel Power Outage Risks” Discussed By Todd Seiders, Director Of Risk Management At Petra Risk Solutions

Hotel Business Newspaper

October 21, 2013 Issue

“Getting Through A Power Outage Is All In The Planning And Prep”

By Nicole Carlino, Associate Editor

For the average household, a prolonged power outage can be a nuisance, but for a hotel, it’s logistically difficult and a potential insurance nightmare.

Todd Seiders Petra Risk SolutionsTodd Seiders, director of risk management, Petra Risk Solutions, a hotel-specific insurance broker, noted that there are three main pitfalls for hotels when it comes to a loss of power: loss of business; guest and employee safety; and food spoilage.

“Policies are cleverly written, and they often don’t cover the first 48 hours of a power outage,” Seiders said, noting that many outages last less than that, which is still long enough for guests to decide to cancel reservations. And, should a guest be hurt, the hotel is the entity they’re going to sue regardless of who is at fault for the outage. As for food spoilage, Seiders said a hotel could lose thousands of dollars if it isn’t properly prepared for power loss.

Preparedness, he said, is the key. Seiders noted that one of the best things a hotel can do is to make sure it has plenty of flashlights on hand for guests and employees.

“If you don’t have some of these basics ready to go, you may never have them during the entire outage,” Seiders said, noting that others often run out to buy the items during the loss.

In addition to making sure necessary items are in-house, hotels need to review their emergency response plan; know what areas of the hotel an emergency generator will power; know the procedure for rescuing guests trapped in elevators; understand how the fire alarm system works in an emergency situation; have a plan for perishable food; and maintain an employee cell phone list. Also, a hotel should know how the key card machine works in an outage.

“You want to be able to get new guests into the rooms,” he said, noting that in many cases, emergency keys have to be prepared prior to a power outage.

“It’s training,” Seiders continued. “Employees have to be trained in things they’re not accustomed to.” He noted this is down to even simple measures, like knowing where the flash- lights are stored. One of the most important things to do, Seiders concluded, is to make sure to power down the building.

“When power comes back on, it surges,” he said. “That can cause all kinds of damage.”

To view this article online: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/icd/hotelbusiness_20131021/#/14

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by | October 31, 2013 · 8:02 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: New Jersey Hotel Settles “Price Gouging” Lawsuit For $75,000; Raised Prices 70 Percent During Hurricane Sandy

New Jersey’s price gouging law prohibits excessive price increases during a declared state of emergency or for 30 days after the termination of Hotel Price Gougingthe state of emergency. Excessive price increases are defined as more than 10 percent higher than the price at which merchandise was sold during the normal course of business prior to the state of emergency.  If a merchant incurs additional costs during the state of emergency, prices may not exceed 10 percent above the normal markup from cost.

A Hazlet Hotel has agreed to pay penalties for allegedly price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Acting Attorney General John Hoffman said Wednesday in a press release. The Riya Hazlet Hotel, a Holiday Inn at 2870 Rt. 35, Hazlet, will pay $75,000 to settle the suit, which includes $2,951 in consumer restitution.  The state will receive $52,121 in civil penalties and $19,926 in attorneys’ fees and investigative costs, Hoffman said.

In December 2012, a N.J. state lawsuit alleged that the Hazlet Holiday Inn raised its prices more than 70 percent, from under $135 to almost $230 a night, between Oct. 27 and Nov. 5 during a declared state of emergency.

The Office of the Attorney General and its Divisions of Consumer Affairs and Law have reached settlements with another eight companies alleged to have price gouged customers following Superstorm Sandy, Hoffman said.  Under terms of these settlements, the State will obtain more than $437,000 in penalties, fees and consumer restitution.

For more:  http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2013/10/monmouth_county_hotel_will_pay_75k_for_alleged_price_gouging_during_sandy.html

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by | October 30, 2013 · 6:01 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: New York Restaurant Found Guilty Of “Anti-Semitic Harassment”; Ordered To Pay $900,000 To Former Deliveryman

A New York restaurant deliveryman was awarded a $900,000 jury verdict for  enduring 16 years of anti-Semitic harassment by three Hospitality Industry Harassment Lawsuitssupervisors…(who) called him a “dirty Jew” and threw pennies at him while making  anti-Semitic comments; they also docked his tips.

A deliveryman for New York’s Manhattan  restaurant Mangia 57 has won a $900,000 jury verdict for the anti-Semitic  harassment he endured while working at the establishment. According to the lawsuit, night shift manager Artur Zbozien often “passed  gas” in front of Adam Wiercinski and said it was Zyklon B, the poison German  Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust, the New York Post reported.

Mr. Wiercinski endured the abuse for  16 years because “he was 50 years old,” his lawyer said. “He said, ‘Who else is  going to hire a 50-year-old delivery man?’ He was afraid.”

The jury reached a verdict in just four hours after hearing much of the  testimony in Polish — used by many of the restaurant’s employees, the Post  reported.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/28/jewish-man-awarded-900k-employers-anti-semitism/#ixzz2jDH9AcJ0

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by | October 29, 2013 · 5:41 am

Hospitality Industry Theft Risks: California Hotel Employee Arrested For Stealing $98,000 From Gift Shop

“…Police reported that a 51-year-old female employee at the Hotel Del Coronado embezzled an estimated $98,000 in cash and merchandise from Hotel Employee TheftThe Signature Shop, which sells apparel, gifts, wine and food…over a four-year period…”

An employee signed a confession to taking an estimated $49,000 in cash and $49,000 in merchandise from a gift shop at the Hotel Del Coronado, according to police.

Police said the employee had been taking money from the cash register while working at the hotel on the 1500 block of Orange Avenue over a four-year period from May 2009 to May 2013.

The loss was estimated at $49,000 in cash and another $49,000 in merchandise.

For more:  http://coronado.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/employee-embezzles-98k-from-hotel-del-coronado

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