Category Archives: Risk Management

by | February 14, 2014 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Miami Hotels Use Technology to Help Sick Guests”

“…Creator Dr. Ramsey Saffouri is launching the program in South Florida ahead of a worldwide release. Saffouri demonstrated the broad, Image multilingual medical technology, which he said also has wide diagnostic capabilities, at a press conference at the iconic Delano Hotel on Wednesday…”

Some Miami hotels are teaming up with a program to offer out-of-town guests who are feeling under the weather a convenient way to hook up with a doctor.

If travelers are suffering from anything from an earache to the flu, they can contact the hotel concierge or front desk to co-ordinate a new medical technology platform.

SKYdoc enables a doctor to receive vitals, such as blood pressure, pulse, and EKG reads for non-life threatening illnesses. The technology allows a doctor to communicate in a way that’s similar to Skype one-on-one with their patients 24-hours a day.

For more: http://www.theprovince.com/travel/Miami+hotels+offer+sick+guests+convenient+doctor+with+technology/9508105/story.html

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Filed under Employee Practices, Guest Issues, Health, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology, Training

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by | February 12, 2014 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Safety Update: “Placing Guests at the Heart of Safety”

“…Risk, along with return, is perhaps the most important part of any business calculation. Risk has to be managed correctly and one way of doing this is to have a risk strategy. A risk strategy helps everyone understand the importance of risk awareness.  It is useful because it sets down in black and white the kind of things you will and won’t do. It’s always difficult to look away when there is an opportunity to make more money and in the heat of the moment one can throw caution to the wind…”

When one purchases a high-priced item, it is natural and reasonable to expect a high-quality of performance. For most people, cars and holidays count as the two highest priced items of regular expenditure. People save money to take their annual holiday and also put aside money to be able to purchase a newer car.
During the past two to three decades, the automobile industry has made vast strides towards improving the quality of their products to the extent that faults on new cars are now a rarity. Yes, occasionally, manufactures ‘recall’ certain models owing to production defects, but the percentage of recalled cars is a tiny fraction to that of the thousands of cars that are globally sold daily.

For more: http://www.dailymirror.lk/business/features/43010-placing-guests-at-the-heart-of-safety.html

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Filed under Claims, Guest Issues, Insurance, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

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by | February 10, 2014 · 8:45 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Safety Update: “Florida Police Ask for Tourist Tax Dollars to Fight Crime”

“…The move is likely to face resistance from Florida’s influential tourism industry which has fought similar plans in the past Imageto use tourism tax dollars for anything other than marketing expenses in driving more business to the Sunshine State…”

“…Jim Preston, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Florida said police, fire and ambulance services invest lots of money and resources protecting tourist areas. ‘I think it’s reasonable that some of those tourist-tax dollars should be going to those agencies to help offset those costs,’ he said…”

Following a spate of robberies in hotels in Orlando’s tourist district in recent weeks, a law-enforcement group proposed extra spending on public safety, directly financed by the local hotel tax.

The Fraternal Order of Police wants the Florida Legislature to let local councils use some of their tourist tax dollars to fund public safety improvements in tourist areas.

There has been over a dozen robberies targeting hotels and restaurants in the Orlando area, thought to have been carried out by the same armed gang.

For more: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2010156&c=setreg&region=3

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft

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by | February 7, 2014 · 8:12 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Issues: “Can You Legally Smoke Marijuana in a Seattle Hotel Room?”

“…According to the Washington Lodging Association, there are no universally enforced protocols within the hospitality industry as to smoking marijuana inside the hotels for medical or recreational purposes. Image Because of this, it is completely up to the hotel owners whether to allow marijuana use in the designated smoking rooms or not…”

With legal recreational pot shops set to open for business at some point in the spring, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and others have been pushing the state to okay places where marijuana tourists in Seattle can smoke up. (So far to no avail.)

Their fear is that our streets will be crowded with tourists smoking in public and annoying everyone, as well as breaking the law against public “display” of weed. The fine is only $27, but the backlash could be bigger with too many puffers wandering around.

But in a state where it is illegal to smoke anything inside or around public places, things can get tricky for these tourists wanting to exercise their newfound freedom in hotel rooms.

For more: http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2014/02/05/answered-can-you-legally-smoke-marijuana-in-a-seattle-hotel-room/#14194103=0&20036105=0&20340101=0

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Filed under Green Lodging, Guest Issues, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training

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by | February 5, 2014 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Mission Valley Travelodge Owners Agree to Increase Security Measures to Thwart Prostitution”

“…Tourism is one of San Diego’s largest industries, guests to our city should feel safe and secure during their stay,” said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.Image “Our office will continue to combat illegal activity such as prostitution and will work diligently to hold business owners accountable and clean up neighborhoods…” 

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The owners of the Travelodge motel in Mission Valley have agreed to increase security measures to thwart prostitution activity, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Mission Valley Travelodge Joint Venture and WW Lodging Ltd. are to hire onsite security guards and reimburse the city of San Diego more than $18,000 in investigative costs, according to the deal reached last week.

The partnership that owns and manages the motel at 1201 Hotel Circle S. already have installed more security cameras, posted signs to deter criminal activity and improved registration policies to include the photocopying of all guest and visitor identification cards and registering of all guest and visitor vehicles, the City Attorney’s Office said.

For more: http://www.sandiego6.com/story/owners-of-mission-valley-travelodge-agree-to-increase-security-measures-to-thwart-prostitution-activity-20140203

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by | February 4, 2014 · 9:00 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Risk: “Legally Speaking: Avoiding Bath Fall Liability”

“…But knowing that shower areas present risks is not a trade secret shared only among guests. Hoteliers are also in the know. That fact imposes on inns a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable bathroom mishaps. bathThose steps include installation and ongoing maintenance of any of the following: non-skid strips on the tub or shower floor, a bathmat, handrails along the walls of the tub for gripping and/or like devices designed to reduce the dangers. Failure to provide, and keep in good form, these simple apparatus deprives the guest of protection against falling, and in many states opens the door, to a founded lawsuit…”

Some issues in hotel law come and go. Falls in slippery bathtubs have a sticking quality. Liability in this type of lawsuit can be avoided but it takes some attention to those porcelain bastions of cleanliness.

In the typical case a guest is showering, loses his balance and falls. Because floors and walls surrounding showers are customarily rock-hard, injuries are likely to occur and be substantial.

So, who’s at fault? The answer is: it depends. Yes, guests should know that tubs and shower stalls are, by their very nature, slippery and potentially dangerous. And, yes, guests should therefore use caution to protect themselves from injury.

For more: http://hlconverge.com/index.php/component/k2/item/781-legally-speaking-avoiding-bath-fall-liability

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Filed under Claims, Guest Issues, Injuries, Insurance, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

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Hospitality Industry Legal Risk: “Parents File Lawsuit on Behalf of Teenage Girl Critically Injured in Panama City Parasailing Accident”

“…This lack of oversight means no one is keeping tabs on parasailing operators to make sure ropes that are damaged by sun and saltwater are replaced,” said Chalik who has spent years pushing for reform. “Parasailing should be a fun and safe activity, but parasailing companies that cut corners or disregard the safety of their customers can turn the popular beachside pastime into a dangerous and even deadly trip…”

PANAMA CITY, FL and ROANOKE, IN–(Marketwired – January 23, 2014) - The family of an Indiana teenage girl critically injured in a horrific parasailing accident last summer in Panama City, Fla. has filed a negligence lawsuit against the parasailing company, its owner and the hotel that operated the excursions.

On July 1, 2013, 17-year-old Alexis Fairchild of Huntington, Ind., and her friend Sidney Good of Roanoke, Ind., went up in tandem when strong winds snapped their parasail free from its boat below. Witnesses watched in horror as the girls were flung across the shoreline, smashed into a nearby condo rooftop and were dragged into a power line, before plunging into cars parked below.

“Aquatic Adventures Management Group, which operated Why Knot Parasail, not only ignored the fact that weather conditions had deteriorated, but failed to operate the boat a safe distance from shore,” said attorney Deborah Chalik, partner at The Law Offices of Chalik and Chalik, who filed the suit on in Bay County, Fla. on behalf of Alexis’ parents Michael and Angelia Fairchild. Chalik and Chalik has successfully represented a number of cases regarding parasailing accidents.

For more: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/parents-file-lawsuit-on-behalf-teenage-girl-critically-injured-panama-city-parasailing-1871901.htm

For the original article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-parasailing-victim-sidney-good-breaks-silence-article-1.1587594

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by | January 23, 2014 · 8:41 am
by | January 21, 2014 · 8:02 am

Hospitality Industry Maintenance Update: “Hotel & Building Maintenance Tips”

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To see full size infographic: http://visual.ly/hotel-building-maintenance-tips

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by | January 16, 2014 · 8:13 am

Hospitality Industry Cyber Security Risk: “The Target and Neiman Marcus Breaches: What Hoteliers Need To Know”

“…Most of all, hotel companies need to make a commitment to secure the sensitive information of their companies and their guests, and to seek out informed consultants and advisers.Image Information security is a relatively new and rapidly changing area, and requires specialized knowledge; the investment today can protect a hotel from being front page news — for the wrong reasons — later. Developing a comprehensive information privacy and security program…”

The recent headlines about the Target and Neiman Marcus security breach with customer credit cards highlights a growing crisis that concerns owners and operator of hotels as well as retailers. In this article, Bob Braun, one of the senior members of our Global Hospitality Group® who focuses on data security — when he is not working on hotel management or franchise agreements — gives us some thoughts on what to do about this problem.

The Target and Neiman Marcus problem. When 50 million Americans – more than 15% of the nation’s population – wake up to find that their credit card information was compromised while Christmas shopping, we all take note. When we find out that there were 70 million victims, and the information went far beyond credit card information, and that it wasn’t just one chain, Target, but at least four more, including Neiman Marcus (which estimates 40 million payment card numbers were compromised), we should start to look at our own businesses and procedures to think about how we should plan for and respond to these malicious attacks.

For more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/global/154000392/4063594.html

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by | January 13, 2014 · 8:40 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: “Kari’s Law: Murder Victim’s Family Campaigns To Change Hotel Policy”

“When we do this we want to do it right so people can feel comfortable when they have to dial 911 and they get an emergency dispatcher,” ImageGohmert told local TV station KETK. “Even adults when they’re witnessing something terribly traumatic will not be thinking about ‘what do I dial to get an outside line?’ They’d be running and dialing 911.”

“We are attempting to ensure that any person needing police, EMS or the Fire Department at any hotel or motel location may be able to dial the numbers 911 and receive emergency response,”

It was Dec. 1, 2013, and Kari Rene Hunt lie on the brink of death in a hotel room in East Texas. The eldest of her three children, a 9-year-old daughter, attempted to call 911 for help, but because she had no idea that she would have to dial 9 first to get an outside line, the call never went through and her mother succumbed to her wounds. Now, Hunt’s father Hank is out to ensure that hotels across the nation do away with systems that require dialing anything before 911 to make certain that the same scenario doesn’t happen again.

“We are attempting to ensure that any person needing police, EMS or the Fire Department at any hotel or motel location may be able to dial the numbers 911 and receive emergency response,” Hank said in a petition on Change.org. “In a panic, any underage child — or for that matter, anyone in an emergency situation — should be able to depend on dialing 911 from any phone in the United States and receiving assistance.”

For more: http://www.ibtimes.com/karis-law-murder-victims-family-campaigns-change-hotel-policy-1536166

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Filed under Guest Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Uncategorized

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