Tag Archives: Insurance

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Tips to Keep Hotel Data Hackers at Bay”

Also of concern to hotels is the Dark Horse Virus, Shortz said. This virus is meant to capture sensitive data business travelers might have on their devices.data hack She said it presents itself as a system update when a user logs onto a hotel’s Wi-Fi network and is prompted to type in their name and room number…Data hacks will continue to happen in the hotel industry, the presenters said. During an interview with Hotel News Now following the session, Garfinkel said it’s not a matter of if a hotel company is hacked, but when.

Lara Shortz surveyed the crowd Tuesday at the Hospitality Law Conference and asked attendees to raise their hands if they’ve been involved in a data breach.

“If you haven’t raised your hand, you should,” Shortz, an attorney at Michelman & Robinson, said during a session titled “Anatomy of a hospitality data breach.”

The session was especially timely given reports that White Lodging was again targeted by data haxkers. In 2014, malware was found in the food-and-beverage outlets of 14 of  its hotels a year ago.

For more: http://bit.ly/1G81ko8

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Filed under Conferences, Crime, Employee Practices, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology, Theft

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “5 Trends in Hotel Design”

Developers with sustainability goals can use the LEED credit list and become certified, but Beckman says those things aren’t always sensible. He sees a bigger payoff in selecting sites that are polluted and need fixing.HotelIndigo1-620x330 “Now, you’re taking care of a site that has had some industry on it and has left some residue behind that needs to be cleaned up,” he says. “So you’re doing something positive for the urban environment, for the city, and for yourself.”

As the U.S. economy continues to strengthen, the architecture and design industry is gaining momentum. Gordon Beckman, principal and design director at John Portman & Associates, an architectural and engineering firm with more than 60 years of expertise in designing hotels and other buildings, discusses opportunities and trends in hotel design.

All About Authenticity
Hotels across the country are focused on providing locally relevant and authentic experiences. As a result, lobbies have evolved into active social hubs with flexible spaces for work and play, featuring cafés, bars, libraries, computer stations, game rooms, and more. “The more interactive things you have, the better—whatever you can do to connect people and make it less of a hotel and more of a place,” Beckman says. By incorporating flexible design elements, hotels can more quickly adapt to consumers’ changing tastes and preferences. “There’s a certain flexibility that gets built in to allow for change, because more and more people see hotels as an evolution of place rather than a static brand.”

For more: http://bit.ly/1DmhV9L

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Filed under Employee Practices, Hotel Industry, Hotel Restaurant, Maintenance, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “U. Michigan Frat Accused Of Causing $50,000 In Damage To Hotel ‘Embarrassed And Ashamed’ Of Behavior” (VIDEO)

“We had a group of a fraternity that was visiting and had an excessive party and did damage on the resort.frat party Food, beer, alcohol, the walls, carpet damage, ceiling broken down and furniture damage,” the Treetops Resorts general manager told local 9 & 10 News. He also said that the students had to be led out of the hotel by police.

The University of Michigan chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu released a statement Wednesday taking responsibility for a reported $50,000 worth of damage to a northern Michigan ski resort.

“We are embarrassed and ashamed of the behavior of a few of our chapter members at Treetops Resort over the weekend of January 17-18,” the fraternity said. “This behavior is inconsistent with the values, policies, and practices of this organization.”

The Sigma Alpha Mu members allegedly caused a reported $50,000 worth of damage. Two other UMich fraternities also reportedly caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to another nearby ski resort the same weekend.

For more: http://read.bi/1CMh6GM

And for more on how to manage special events, check out the video below from Petra’s own P3 Risk Management Team.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/119141202 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Director of Risk Management, Todd Seiders, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Managing Prom Nights & Grad Parties’. 

P3 (Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Hotel Industry, Insurance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Structural Damage

Hospitality Industry Conference Update: “2015 Hospitality Law Conference”

The speakers, panelists, roundtable hosts, and facilitators of the 2015 Hospitality Law Conference represent the full spectrum of key roles in the hospitality industry:hlc2015 Private attorneys, hotel and restaurant corporate counsel, risk managers,finance executives, real estate developers, human resources managers, loss prevention managers, insurance brokers, and hotel and restaurant owners, managers, and operators

Hospitality Insurance and Loss Prevention Summit: The Petra Risk Solutions Hospitality Insurance and Loss Prevention Summit converges insurance, risk, LP, legal and finance to break down the silos of these functional areas. As we do each year, we begin with the top claims that have occurred over the last twelve months and the best practices to prevent them from occurring at your hotel or restaurant. As Worker Compensation Claims are becoming more of a challenge for the industry, we will take a deeper dive into best practices for prevention, claims handling and back to work policies.

For more: http://bit.ly/1zX3RBh

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Filed under Conferences, Employee Practices, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “Work Comp Control Can Prevent Employees from Early Check-Out”

We recently read an account of a 48-year-old female who had two complete knee replacements and got hired as a housekeeper.backinjuries-620x330 Within the first three months, she injured her bad knee, and the cost of her workers’ comp claim will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. If this employee had received a pre-placement screening prior to her hiring, the doctor may have recommended her for a different position

According to a recent study by the National Institute of Health (NIH), hotel workers have higher rates of occupational injury and illness compared with workers in other service industries, particularly in the area of musculoskeletal disorders. So is it any wonder why so many hotel employers are throwing up their arms in surrender every time they see their workers’ compensation premiums soar out of control? Many employers treat those premiums with a “there’s nothing I can do about it” mentality when there actually is something that can be done.

The starting point is always your experience mod, or the numbers that dictate what you will pay in premiums, based on your industry. Fifty percent of all experience modifiers are incorrect, and 80 percent of all experience modifiers are mismanaged. You need to understand the importance of managing and reducing your experience modifier—it’s not just a number. Taking a passive or nonchalant attitude can cost you plenty. And this can happen in a number of ways: misclassifications, incorrect payroll audits, recovery at work programs that are weak or in some cases non-existent, and an overall lack of an established safety culture.

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Filed under Claims, Employee Practices, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Injuries, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training, Workers' Compensation

Hospitality Industry Insurance Update: “Will Workers’ Comp Pay For Medical Pot For Back Pain?”

A workers’ compensation judge (WCJ) found Dr. Reeve didn’t prescribe medical marijuana and concluded that the pot program wasn’t reasonable and necessary medical care as required by workers’ compmedicalmarijuana…the appeals court had found the certification required under the Compassionate Use Act by a person licensed in New Mexico to prescribe and administer controlled substances is the functional equivalent of a prescription.

In a state where medical marijuana is legal, a recent court decision has reinforced a previous one regarding pot prescriptions under workers’ comp. 

Miguel Maez suffered injuries to his lumbar spine in February and March 2011 while working for Riley Industrial in New Mexico.

Maez received temporary disability benefits under workers’ comp. Dr. Anthony Reeve treated him for back pain starting in June 2011 and prescribed medication for pain management. He also referred Maez to another doctor for spinal injections.

During a test required for pain management patients, Maez tested positive for marijuana. Dr. Reeve told Maez that if he was going to continue to take marijuana, he needed to have a license for Dr. Reeve to continue administering other narcotics.

For more: http://bit.ly/1BSqcfS

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Filed under Employee Benefits, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Insurance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Workers' Compensation

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “Preventing Credit Card Fraud at Hotels”(VIDEO)

Our P3 Team has created a video to help train your staff on how to recognize the signs of credit card fraud and how to best prevent your property from falling victim. If you have any questions, contact us today!

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/113722566 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Matt Karp, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Preventing Credit Card Fraud at Hotels’. 

P3 (Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft, Training

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Here Are The Top 5 Business Risks For 2015”

For businesses, the main cost of a cyber attack involves the impact to their reputation and the resulting financial damages, as well as the loss of customer business. The breaches at Sony, Target, Staples and Home Depotlocks demonstrated the damage that can be caused to corporate reputations. Seventy-one percent of customers indicated they would leave an organization following a data breach according to the Edelman Privacy Risk Index

The globalization of today’s economy means that businesses are more interconnected than ever, creating a greater risk of business interruption, supply chain disruption, and exposures that can quickly multiply.

According to UNCTAD, over the last 50 years the number of multinational companies has grown exponentially from 7,000 to almost 104,000, and could reach more than 140,000 by 2020.

The Allianz Risk Barometer 2015 surveyed more than 500 risk managers and corporate insurance experts in 47 countries to identify the primary challenges facing businesses this year. Some risks such as political upheaval, cybercrime and business interruption were viewed as a greater risk, while natural catastrophes, technological innovation and market stagnation were viewed as having less of an impact.

Here is a look at the top 5 business risks for 2015 as identified by the Allianz Risk Barometer.

For more: http://bit.ly/1unPPlX

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Filed under Claims, Crime, Guest Issues, Hotel Industry, Insurance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “How Lower Fuel Costs Will Pay Off for Hotels This Year”

Beyond just travel, oil prices also have a role to play in the operational expenses of hotels. Lower prices can bring down utility bills and transportation costs on goods and services and, depending on how long oil prices stay low, propertiesfuel may see this impact their bottom line. “There’s certainly going to be an operational benefit,” says PKF Hospitality Research President Mark Woodworth. “The ultimate benefit is mitigated quite meaningfully by the fact that 45 to 50 percent of hotel expenses are labor related.”

The 50 percent drop in oil prices during the second half of 2014 has put plenty of cash into consumers’ wallets and that could mean good things for the lodging industry this year. Crude oil is selling for $47.64 per barrel today compared to over $90 a year ago. And while prices have started to stabilize a bit, there’s still a chance for them to decrease even further due to the glut of crude and the expectations of weak global growth pulling down the market.

For more: http://bit.ly/183Hzmy

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Filed under Hotel Industry, Maintenance, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Does YOUR Website Have to be Accessible Under the Americans with Disabilities Act?”

Clearly, it has no brick-and-mortar store that we can shop in so the answer should be “no ADA coverage for its website.” That is exactly what happened in its California district court case (Cullen).Handicap-Assessible1-300x225 But, in Massachusetts, the district court case (National Association of the Deaf) went the other way. Law school professors call such cases “outliers,” but in the courtroom today’s outlier sometimes becomes tomorrow’s conventional wisdom.

Is the internet a place of public accommodation: a virtual town hall or a virtual shopping mall or a virtual movie theater? Courts still struggle with that.

Physicalist courts say that the ADA requires a physical location. Ouelette v. Viacom, No. cv 10-133-M-DWM-JCL, 2011 WL 1882780 (D. Mont. March 31, 2011) (no ADA claim re YouTube); Noah v. AOL Time Warner, 261 F. Supp. 2d 532 (E.D. Va. 2003) (same re: chat room); Earll v. eBay, Inc., No. 5:11-cv-00262-JF (HRL), 2011 WL 3955485 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 7, 2011) (same: no ADA claim re eBay); Cullen v. Netflix, Inc., 880 F. Supp. 2d 1017 (N.D. Cal. 2012) (same: no ADA claim re Netflix); Jancik v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, No. SACV 13-1387-DOC, 2014 WL 1920751 (C.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (same: no ADA claim re redboxinstant.com).

Virtualist courts say there are places in the heart and in the mind too. Those courts proclaim that the core meaning of the ADA is that “the owner or operator of a store, hotel, restaurant, dentist’s office, travel agency, theater, Website, or other facility (whether in physical space or in electronic space …) that is open to the public cannot exclude disabled persons from entering the facility and, once in, from using the facility in the same way that the nondisabled do.”

For more: http://bit.ly/1KJS79f

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Filed under Hotel Industry, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology