by | March 14, 2014 · 8:56 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “Code Violations Plagued The Majestic Hotel Before Fire”

“…In an evaluation of the hotel in 2012, the fire chief predicted the hotel’s ultimate demise stating, “In the event of a fire it is anticipated portions of the yellow brick will begin to fail at an early state in the fire’s development.Image To place the cities firefighters inside the yellow brick building under those firefighting conditions is to needlessly expose them to injury or death…”

Two weeks ago today an historic hotel, more than 100 years old, went up in flames. Tonight, we’re learning more about what Hot Springs city leaders did to try and prevent the Majestic Hotel fire. Talk to just about any Hot Springs resident and they’ll give you a memory of the Majestic.

One bystander said, “That was the restaurant there and 20 years ago my husband and I had our first date there.” Another person said, “We had our wedding reception in the Majestic.” In the 1950’s the hotel became so popular, construction crews added on to it.

For more: http://www.arkansasmatters.com/story/d/story/code-violations-plagued-the-majestic-hotel-before/52879/rJ44s7w9-ku2EpG5lLKoGw

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by | March 13, 2014 · 8:43 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “NWC Student Dies in Fall at Denver Hotel”

“…Thamba’s death remains under investigation, according to Sonny Jackson, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department, but foul play is not suspectedImage….Thamba fell from a balcony at the Holiday Inn Denver East at 3333 Quebec St. between 3-4 a.m. Tuesday, Jackson said. How far he fell, and what caused the fall, have not been determined, Jackson said…”

An international student attending Northwest College died early Tuesday morning when he fell off a balcony at a Denver hotel.

Levy Thamba, of the Republic of Congo, Africa, began attending Northwest in late January. He apparently traveled to Denver during the college’s spring break.

For more: http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/12164-nwc-student-dies-in-fall-at-denver-hotel

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by | February 18, 2014 · 8:43 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Risk: “Carbon Monoxide Leak At Westin Sends 9 To Hospital”

“…A total of 20 guests and employees were evaluated by paramedics, resulting in the transport of nine people to the hospital.  Four employees who worked in the area of the hotel’s laundry roomImage were transported by paramedic unit to the Hyperbaric Chamber at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.  Five additional patients, four employees and one guest, were transported to local hospitals…”

For the second time in as many months, Anne Arundel County paramedics were alerted to the presence of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide on the scene of a call by carbon monoxide detectors carried on their medical equipment.  On Sunday February 16th just after 1:30 p.m., paramedics responded to the Westin Hotel, located at 1110 Old Elkridge Landing Road in North Linthicum to assist an employee who felt faint.  While assessing and treating the patient, the paramedics were alerted to the possible presence of carbon monoxide by their CO alarm.  They immediately requested additional assistance to the scene and began to evacuate the patient and others in the area.

Additional responding units checked other areas of the hotel and found excessive levels of carbon monoxide in various locations in the hotel.  Some levels were in excess of 700 parts per million- levels capable of causing serious injury with just two hours of exposure.  The seven story hotel was evacuated by firefighters going room to room on each floor to ensure all employees and guests had been evacuated.

For more: http://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2014/02/17/carbon-monoxide-leak-at-westin-sends-9-to-hospital/

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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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by | February 13, 2014 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The Hotel of the Future”

“…’The cookie-cutter in-room experience has to die,’ says internationally recognized keynote speaker Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean, UW-Stout School of Hospitality Leadership, Menomonie, WI…timthumb‘We’ve talked about customization for a long time now,’ she notes. ‘We’ve talked about the colors of the room changing, about what’s on the walls changing to be more reflective of the person who is in the room. But it’s not just the physical, it’s the intangible.’…”

At the YOTEL New York, a towering robotic arm takes guests’ luggage and stores it in bar-coded storage bins. The Nine Zero Hotel in Boston uses iris-scan technology that opens the door to its presidential suite, while the Hotel Éclat in Taipei, Taiwan, has toilets with lids that open automatically. The hotel experience is changing, and the future will be here faster than you think. We asked planners, hoteliers, and hospitality experts to make some predictions on what the guest experience will be like; what follows are 20 features that are already here, or will soon be here before you even know it.

For more: http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Event-Planning/Technology-Solutions/Articles/The-Hotel-of-the-Future/

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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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by | February 11, 2014 · 9:08 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Va. AG Sues Richmond Magnuson Grand Hotel”

“Virginia consumers have every right to expect that agreements will be honored when it comes time for delivery of goods and services,” Herring said.Richmond-Magnuson-Grand “I will not tolerate businesses that misrepresent themselves or mislead customers and my office is absolutely committed to protecting Virginia consumers from such practices.”

RICHMOND, Va. (Legal Newsline) – Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced a lawsuit on Friday against the operator of a Henrico County hotel for allegedly violating the Virginia Consumer Protection Act and the state’s bait and switch statute.

GRM Management LLC, the operator of the Richmond Magnuson Grand Hotel and Convention Center, allegedly offered and confirmed room rates for one price but overcharged customers upon check-in or told them their requested room was unavailable.

For more: http://legalnewsline.com/news/247135-va-ag-sues-richmond-magnuson-grand-hotel

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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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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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by | February 6, 2014 · 8:33 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Plaza Hotel Using Noise as Legal Reason to Remove Bike-Share Rake”

“…Steven Sladkus, attorney for the luxury hotel and condos, told The Post when he first filed the case last fall, Image “The public should enjoy unobstructed or unblemished landmarks. This isn’t just for the ‘wealthy’ in The Plaza. This is for the benefit of everyone. Don’t mar it.” He declined to comment on the city’s response…”

A city attorney blasted The Plaza hotel for using “red herrings” such as traffic, noise and historical import in its legal quest to remove a bulky bike-share rack near its entrance.

“It is clear that this proceeding is motivated instead purely by The Plaza hotel’s aesthetic concerns,” Nicholas Ciappetta, a lawyer for the city, said in a Jan. 28 court filing revealed Tuesday. “In other words, The Plaza hotel does not want the station anywhere in its vicinity,” Ciappetta added, asking a judge to toss the “meritless” case.

Ciappetta called the high-priced hotel “self-serving” for trying to oust one of the city’s most popular kiosks.

For more: http://nypost.com/2014/02/05/plaza-hotel-using-noise-as-legal-reason-to-remove-bike-share-rake/

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