We just wanted to remind everyone to come check out Petra’s own Director of Risk Management, Todd Seiders, and Loss Control Manager, Marco Johnson, at the Southern California Hotel and Lodging Conference. We hope to see you there!
Tag Archives: Housekeepers
Hospitality Industry Conference Update†Southern California Hotel and Lodging Conferenceâ€
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Filed under Conferences, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management
Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Lawsuits to Recover Unpaid Wages and Damages For 89 Workers at Five Hotels Filed by US Labor Department”
“…Investigators from the division’s Columbus District Office found violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime and record keeping provisions for 61 workers jointly employed by Darpan Management and Fantastic Cleaning. Fantastic Cleaning, which provided housekeepers, attendants and laundry 
 staff for the hotels owned and operated by Darpan Management, misclassified the housekeepers, who were employees, as independent contractors. These employees were paid by the room and frequently did not earn enough to make the federal minimum wage…”
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed two lawsuits in the federal district court in Columbus against Darpan Management Inc.; five hotels the company owns and manages; and its owners, Darshan Shah, Vibhakar Shah and Prakash Patel.
One of the lawsuits addresses violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions for the hotel staff directly working for Darpan Management, and the other addresses similar violations for workers jointly employed by Fantastic Cleaning Ltd., a company that provided hotel staff to Darpan Management. The two lawsuits seek back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 89 workers.
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Filed under Claims, Employment Practices Liability, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership
Hospitality Industry Conference Update” Southern California Hotel and Lodging Conference”
Come check out Petra’s own Director of Risk Management, Todd Seiders, and Loss Control Manager, Marco Johnson, at the Southern California Hotel and Lodging Conference.
For more:Â http://www.calodging.com/events/2014-southern-california-hotel-lodging-conference/
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April 11, 2014 · 8:33 amHospitality 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. 
Those 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:Â 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
Hospitality Industry Guest Health Risk: “The Bed Bugs Rise Again”
For the full size image: http://visual.ly/bed-bugs-rise-again
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Maintenance, Management And Ownership
Hospitality Industry Security Risk: “With Better Security Technology, Hotels Shore Up Blind Spots”
“…In New Orleans, Mike E. Cahn III, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association security network, says he sends surveillance tapes showing criminal activity to other area hotels, and to the police,
who sometimes put them on YouTube. Recently a man stole a laptop from a conference room, Mr. Cahn said, and within 24 hours, he was recognized from the distributed video footage and apprehended…”
At a poker tournament in Barcelona last September, Jens Kyllönen, a professional player, said that his room at Hotel Arts was broken into and malware was installed on his computer to transmit anything he saw on his screen as he played. Despite video camera systems and electronic key card entry logs, no one was caught.
Although he said he discovered the malware in time, he says he is much more careful now about where he stores his belongings and secures his computer. Hotel Arts declined to comment, saying it was a private event.
His case is just one in what has become a technological cat-and-mouse game between hotels and criminals.
For more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/business/with-better-security-technology-hotels-shore-up-blind-spots.html?_r=0
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Filed under Crime, Employee Practices, Guest Issues, Privacy, Technology, Theft, Training
Hospitality Industry Legal Risk: “Woman Forced to Cut Dreadlocks After Bedbugs Found in Suburban Chicago Hotel Room: Lawsuit”
“…Harder to explain is the trauma affecting travel for me now. I travel a lot for work, and every time I stay at a hotel I just get filled with anxiety…”
“…Brumfield claims that on the second day of her stay at the hotel in Oct. 2012 a manager said an inspection of her room was needed after the bloodsucking Cimex Lectularius insects were found next door…”
A tennis coach was forced to cut off her waist-length dreadlocks after finding bedbugs in her suburban Chicago hotel room, a lawsuit claims.
Donna Brumfield alleges she had to hack off the cherished mane she’d been growing for 13 years after the creepy critters set up home on her head.
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership
Hospitality Industry Employee Update: “L.A. May Hike Minimum Wage for Hotel Workers to Highest in U.S.”
“Hotel owners and their representatives say a $15 minimum would trigger higher room rates and worker layoffs, as managements struggle to keep costs under control. The owners argue it’s unfair to take a piecemeal approach to pay rules — singling out a few industries or geographic areas.”
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Filed under Employee Benefits, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Uncategorized
Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: Hotel “Housekeeper” App For Smartphones And Tablets Improves Staff Efficiency; “Room Status And Problems” Reported Directly To Property Management System
“…the new ‘Housekeeper’ application is proven to deliver an average 50% reduction in the time required to carry out housekeeping and hotel 
support tasks, enhanced staff communication, as well as powerful reporting capabilities…with quicker response and improved communication with the housekeeping staff we are able to better serve our guests and get a real-time picture of the room status…”
Building on its growing range of mobile applications and cloud-based services, Housekeeper provides an alternative to Quadriga’s established, fixed TV-based housekeeping solution, integrated into its Sensiq guest communications and entertainment platform. The Hibox Housekeeper application is a web-based service which can be hosted in the cloud and provides hotel staff with easy and immediate reporting capabilities via most web-enabled mobile devices. Services include the reporting of room status to the hotel PMS, minibar usage and rooms fault reporting and management, as well as a staff messaging tool.
Housekeeper is already deployed in hotels across the Nordic region and is now available worldwide. Juha Peltonen, Hotel Manager at Hotel Haikko Manor, Porvoo, Finland, says, “The Housekeeper application gives us an easy-to-use tool to manage the housekeeping tasks. Also we are able to reduce the housekeeping costs with improved monitoring and reporting.”
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Filed under Guest Issues, Labor Issues, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology, Training
Hospitality Industry Health Risks: Hotel Rooms Continue To Have “High Levels Of Bacteria” From Diversity Of Guests; “Infection Risk” As Sanitizing Equipment Goes “Room To Room”
“…a hotel is not an operating room, and bugs may lurk, despite tip-top cleaning efforts.” The amount of guests who check in at hotels 
from different parts of the world may increase the exposure of germs…Cleaning items used by housekeepers such as sponges and mops were also found to have high levels of bacteria which increases the risk of infection as they go from room to room using the same sanitizing equipment…”
On average, hotel housekeepers spend 30 minutes cleaning each room — about 14 to 16 rooms in an eight hour shift. In a study conducted at the University of Houston, researchers took 19 bacteria samples from items found in three hotel rooms in three states: Texas, Indiana and South Carolina. While high levels of bacteria were discovered in bathroom sinks and floors, the dirtiest areas were light switches and TV remotes, which contained 112.7 colony-forming unites of bacteria (CFUs) and 67.6 CFUs, respectively. Moreover, light switches had the highest levels of fecal matter bacteria with 111.1 CFUs.
“Guests should not assume that their hotel room, not to mention all common surfaces around the hotel such as doorknobs, front-desk pens … while (hopefully) clean, are not sterile,” Matilde Parente, MD, a California-based physician, biomedical safety consultant, and author board certified in pathology and integrative holistic medicine, told Medical Daily.
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Maintenance, Risk Management, Training
