Scores from annual inspections of more than 70 Northern Kentucky hotels and motels can now be found online.
Information on the inspection process, along with the scores, can be viewed on the Northern Kentucky Health Department’s website.
CLICK ON "INSPECTIONS" TO VIEW ONLINE INSPECTION REPORTS
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“If someone has a couple of articles of clothes on the bed we will move them to make the bed…if they have expensive things on the bed – purses, electronics, cameras – we will not touch that bed.”
“…if there is something sensitive, like a closed wallet or laptop, a supervisor or manager will stand at the door for the employee’s safety…”
“…keep a log on what keys have been used on the room’s electronic doors…”
“…hotels’ insurance providers require police statements for incidents…have everyone write a written statement and sign and date it…”
While every chain hotel has a set corporate policy, each individual hotel may be less stringent and abiding for the guest’s benefit.
“According to Iowa law, we can enter a room anytime we want,” Jepsen said. Generally, hotel staff won’t enter a room if they don’t suspect something may be wrong in the room, Jepsen said. With extended-stay guests, who are staying 30-40 days, they are required to enter the room a minimum of twice a week. They mainly change the sheets and make sure garbage isn’t piling up, but also they make sure their equipment isn’t damaged. By the end of 30 days, a mattress could be ruined or the guest could be smoking in the room, Jepsen said.
There are other reasons for entering a guest’s room. “There have been instances where guests put their ‘do not disturb’ sign up but they may have a medical issue,” said King. “It could go unnoticed for long periods of time.”
“In the back of our mind, we always know what our rights are and what the rights of our guests are,” she said. “You can’t always have rules written in stone.”
Protection exists for both the hotel and the guests. Country Inn & Suites and AmericInn, like most hotels, have video surveillance systems. Both also keep a log on what keys have been used on the room’s electronic doors.
With any serious crime, such as theft, the police are immediately contacted, Jepsen said. “If a guest reports a theft, it’s investigated to its fullest extent,” she said. This is also done because the hotels’ insurance providers require police statements for incidents.
“What I always do is I have everyone write a written statement and sign and date it,” Jepsen said.
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CLICK ON "SEE" TO WATCH "EYE ON AWARENESS" PREVIEW
Hotel bombings in Baghdad, Jakarta, and Morocco—hospitality properties have become popular targets for terrorism in recent years. Not surprisingly, a majority of today’s guests list safety and security as their most important concern when planning a hotel stay.  How can your hotel ensure a sense of security and still offer a welcome and inviting environment for guests? A property’s front-line employees may well be the most crucial, yet often overlooked, element of effective hotel security.
Developed in partnership with international security experts, hospitality leaders, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s If You See Something, Say Something™ campaign, Eye on Awareness—Hotel Security and Anti-terrorism Training™ provides the skills and knowledge essential for hotel employees to recognize, report and react to suspicious situations at their property.
For more:Â http://www.ahlei.org/eyeonawareness/
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Pomrenke accuses Homewood Suites of negligence for not warning customers of the dangers of the wet floor or offering an alternative route around the area. She asks for an unspecified amount of money in damages for medical costs, loss of income and court fees. Pomrenke represents herself in this matter and asks for a jury trial.
A Harris County woman is suing a Memorial hotel after she allegedly dislocated her knee when she slipped on a wet lobby floor. Emily L. Pomrenke filed a lawsuit March 28 in Harris County District Court against Homewood Suites Hilton-Austin South.
According to the petition, Pomrenke was a guest of the Homewood Suites in April 2009. As she was walking in the hotel lobby with her son in the early afternoon, Pomrenke says, she slipped on the wet marble floor that had just been cleaned by the hotel staff. She alleges she dislocated her knee, bruised her tailbone and tore a retina in her right eye in the fall. Pomrenke claims an accident report was written up by the hotel manager and that she received a phone call from the hotel’s insurance carrier, which told her Homewood Suites would take full responsibility for the accident.
For more:Â http://www.ultimatememorial.com/stories/239385-memorial-hotel-named-in-slip-and-fall-claim
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Federal law requires hotels to give people with mobility issues access to their properties, including allowing them to use devices other than wheelchairs as long as they do not raise legitimate safety concerns. The type, size and speed of the device, along with the amount of pedestrian traffic all factor into the decision.
One major change deals with the information available to people making room reservations. The idea is that people with disabilities should be able to book hotel rooms with the same efficiency, immediacy and convenience as those who do not need accessible guest rooms. The provision applies whether people are making reservations by phone, in person, on a website or though a third-party provider such as a travel agent or OTA.
Hotels must identify and describe the hotel’s accessible features in enough detail so potential guests can determine if the hotel can meet their needs, McCullough said.
Hotels also have an obligation to hold accessible guest rooms for people with disabilities unless all other guestrooms of that type have been rented. For example, McCullough said, if a hotel has 25 double-bed rooms and two are designated accessible, the reservation service must rent all 23 of non-accessible before it rents the two to people without disabilities. The rule does not apply to unique rooms such as a penthouse or bridal suite.
The difficulty is making sure that the reservation system accommodates this requirement, since the rule applies to reservations made through all channels.
“That will be a technical hurdle for your companies to leap over within the 11 months,†McCullough said. “I hope you are working on this particular issue.â€
Another change requires that hotels honor a specific guest room request from customers with disabilities, even if it’s a policy of a hotel to not hold specific rooms.
For more:Â http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=20172
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Nine people were taken to a local hospital this morning following exposure to carbon monoxide that led to the evacuation of a West Seneca hotel.
Serafini called for more police and fire personnel, who found high levels of carbon monoxide in the lower levels of the five-story hotel. Authorities said they believe the carbon monoxide may have settled on the lower floors of the building.
Three other guests of the Hampton Inn on Ridge Road reported ill effects from their exposure to carbon monoxide. West Seneca police responded to a call at about 5:30 a.m. today, when the hotel’s front-desk manager told Officer Anthony Serafini that two people on the second floor were requesting a new room. They felt dizzy and faint and told hotel workers they thought fumes in their room were responsible. 70 guests staying there overnight.
National Fuel crews also responded and found the carbon monoxide coming from a heating unit on the hotel’s roof, police said. “I do not believe any of the injuries are going to be life-threatening,” West Seneca Police Lt. David L. Szmania said late this morning of the nine people taken to Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital.
After the problem was corrected, hotel workers ventilated the building, waited for about two hours and then allowed guests to return to their rooms by about 10 a.m., Szmania said.
The lieutenant praised the police midnight shift along with volunteer firefighters from the Seneca Hose, Winchester and Reserve Hose companies. “It could have definitely been worse,” Szmania said, referring to the January 2009 death of 16-year-old West Seneca resident Amanda Hansen from carbon-monoxide poisoning while she was sleeping over at a friend’s house.
For more:Â http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/west-seneca/article365298.ece
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“They were both breathing when they left the pool,†said Cheektowaga Sgt. Brian Gould. “I know the one kid was coughing up water. The other was a little more serious.â€
Two boys were rushed to the hospital late Saturday night after nearly drowning at a hotel pool in Cheektowaga. The boys, ages 9 and 10, were taken to Women and Children’s Hospital after the incident in the Millennium Hotel pool on Walden Avenue. Both are expected to live, according to Cheektowaga police.
Police and emergency crews were called to the hotel at 2040 Walden Ave., near the Walden Galleria, at about 9:45 p. m. Saturday for the report of a possible drowning, police officials said. The hotel pool was “extremely crowded†when, at some point, the two boys went under water, Gould said.
Police are still trying to determine what happened and what the boys were doing at the time they went under. Gould credited some of the people at the pool for their quick action, which probably saved the lives of the two boys.
For more:Â http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/cheektowaga/article340606.ece
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO5Fqc5kuQc]
Consumer Reports magazine finds more hotels are making their rooms pet friendly.
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The Clarion Hotel in Portland cut its chlorine use by 87 percent.
The phosphates reduce the chlorine’s effectiveness. Adding a food grade enzyme to the water reduces the phosphate level and allows chlorine to do its work. Not only is less chlorine needed, but it also lasts longer, Cooke said.
The pool was part of a test project with the state of Maine Department of Environmental Protection to help reduce use of the chemical, which has been linked to skin and eye irritations, lung damage and asthma. The project also saved some money.
“It is very easy,” said Peter Cooke, DEP pollution prevention program manager. The agency funded the project with a $30,000 federal grant. Overchlorination is common at public swimming pools because of the high levels of phosphates, Cooke said. Phosphates occur naturally in some water but are commonly added by water treatment plants to prevent corrosion in municipal water pipes.
The phosphates reduce the chlorine’s effectiveness. Adding a food grade enzyme to the water reduces the phosphate level and allows chlorine to do its work. Not only is less chlorine needed, but it also lasts longer, Cooke said.
Don Hopkins, operations manager for the Olympia Companies, property management company of the Clarion Hotel, said regular swimmers at the pool immediately noticed a difference.
“They said it smelled better and the water felt softer on the skin, ” Hopkins said.
He said workers at the hotel also noticed the difference. Hopkins said adding the enzyme to the 30,000-gallon pool saved $200 a month in chlorine costs, compared to the $130 monthly cost of the enzyme. The company is now looking to reduce chlorine at pools at some of its other hotel properties, he said.
For more:Â http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/using-enzyme-reduces-need-for-pool-chlorine_2010-12-21.html#
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Hyatt spokesman Pete Hillan says the hotel has emptied the fountain and erected a barrier around the 29-inch-deep trough where the boy was found.
The barrier will serve as a temporary solution, as hotel officials look to permanently change the fountain’s design.
A toddler found floating in a fountain at a downtown hotel suffered life-threatening injuries.
The unidentified boy remains hospitalized, a day after officers pulled him from a decorative fountain at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and revived him using CPR.
The officers went to the hotel after the 18-month-old boy’s mother reported him missing. Fire officials tell the San Francisco Chronicle the incident appeared to be an accident.
Hyatt spokesman Pete Hillan says the hotel has emptied the fountain and erected a barrier around the 29-inch-deep trough where the boy was found. The trough serves as the fountain’s drain.
For more:Â http://www.wsbt.com/news/ktla-fountain-toddler,0,1847787.story
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