Tag Archives: Risk

by | December 1, 2014 · 10:25 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Costa Mesa Sued Over Law Limiting Stays at Motels

Under the ordinance, which took effect last month, motel owners must apply for a conditional use permit to allow any new long-term tenants.Costa Mesa Hotel To be granted a permit, the motel must meet requirements such as providing on-site laundry facilities, installing kitchens in every room and having at least 75 rooms.

A recently enacted law that limits how long people can stay at motels in Costa Mesa was illegally designed to target low-income residents, a lawsuit filed against the city alleges.

The Public Law Center, a Santa Ana-based pro bono law firm, sued this week on behalf of a group of residents to block an ordinance adopted last August limiting when motel guests can rent a room for more than 30 days.

For more: http://lat.ms/1FHJlDm

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by | November 20, 2014 · 10:30 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “How Much Bandwidth Does Your Property Need?”

Hoteliers need to know how the bandwidth is currently being used so they can prioritize different types of usage. Packet inspection equipment can help you figure out if guests are using the Internetbandwidth to download movie torrents or to make voice over IP calls, and then you can prioritize and make more bandwidth available for one activity over the other. “You don’t want to overpay for excess bandwidth when it isn’t necessary,”

Two years ago, BioMarin, a pharmaceutical firm based in San Rafael, Calif., called Inn Marin to book an offsite training session. This wasn’t unusual since the 69-room independent hotel is located eight miles up the road from the company’s headquarters. And with only 35 people attending, the meeting requirements were far from onerous. But there was one last-minute request that nearly caused Inn Marin to lose this booking. BioMarin needed an Internet connection that was six megabits per second (Mbps) or faster to allow 20 desktop computers to log into the corporate server in San Rafael. And the DSL line coming into the hotel was only capable of 1 Mbps down and 1/2 Mbps up. “I just about had a heart attack,” says Inn Marin General Manager Robert Marshall. “That’s when I realized that we couldn’t keep doing business like this.”

For more: http://bit.ly/1p3ciar

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by | November 19, 2014 · 9:48 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “How Tech Will Make Your Hotel Room Feel Like Home (Or Better)”

In the wireless Internet age, guests increasingly expect a personalized experience abroad as well as at home. That can be tough on hotels, as rapid changes in technology makeforbes it difficult and expensive for them to adapt. A few years ago, hotels equipped themselves to handle two mobile devices per guest. Now, guests may have three or more, and just when they thought they had needs covered, hotels have to build more robust networks.

When you receive your morning wake-up call at theWit hotel in Chicago, there’s no robotic voice intoning, “It’s time for your wakeup call.” Instead, you can be rousted by a very different message:

“Hey you dirty rat, this is Al Capone reminding you to get your rotten bones out of that sack. Now get moving—I’ve got an overdue Valentine’s Day gift for Elliot Ness I’ve still got to deliver! [Laughter and gun shots].”

Or perhaps you’d rather hear Muddy Waters. Or Ann Landers. The touchscreen next to the phones in all of the hotel’s 310 rooms lets you choose who will urge you to rise and shine. Touch that same screen to request extra pillows, get a toothbrush or order meals—without ever picking up the phone.

For more: http://onforb.es/1uwkOOA

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by | November 18, 2014 · 10:06 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Hidden Cameras Reveal How Much (And How Little) Some Hotel Maids Really Clean”

At a Crowne Plaza hotel, the maid collected all the used drinking glasses, put them into the sink, and turned on the water. Then she gathered all the dirty towels from the bathroom floor,housekeeper held onto one, and used it to help dry the cups. The Crowne Plaza maid then used the same towel to wipe down the countertop, the toilet and the bathtub. She never used soap on anything, but she did return to spray the room with air freshener.

When you check into a hotel room, you assume the maid has cleaned everything, including changing the sheets and disinfecting the bathroom. But a hidden camera investigation revealed that may not always be the case.

The Rossen Reports team booked rooms for two nights at some of the most popular hotel chains and rigged them with cameras (all three of the hotels were in northeastern New Jersey). In each case they put soda in the glasses, threw towels on the bathroom floors and made the rooms looked used before calling to have housekeeping make them up, as well as prominently displaying the card requesting that all linens be changed.

For more: http://on.today.com/1ur6PcG

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by | November 12, 2014 · 9:42 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Hackers Using Hotel Wi-Fi to Check Into Victims’ Computers”

Safeguarding against such an attack can be difficult for hotel guests. The best defense is to double check update alerts that pop up on your computer during a stay in a hotel.hackers Go to the software vendor’s site directly to see if an update has been posted and download it directly from there. Though, of course, this won’t help if the attackers are able to redirect your machine to a malicious download site

A hacking campaign known as Darkhotel has been deployed by Hackers to steal sensitive information from business executives, security researchers have revealed.

How it happened is that the sophisticated attackers had been lurking on the hotel’s network for days waiting for him to check in. They uploaded their malware to the hotel’s server days before then deleted it from the hotel network days after.

For more: http://bit.ly/1B9M6jS

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by | November 11, 2014 · 9:00 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “60 People Fall Ill With Norovirus at Bay Area Luxury Hotel” (VIDEO)

After the outbreak, staff members with the county’s Communicable Disease and Environmental Health Service began working with hotel managementNorovirus to implement infectious disease containment measures. The measures include frequent and comprehensive cleaning of common areas, educating employees about the virus and posting additional signage reminding employees to wash their hands.

Public health officials say 60 people who fell ill after staying at a Bay Area luxury hotel two weeks ago contracted the norovirus — a highly contagious virus that can lead to stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea.

San Mateo County health officials confirmed Friday that the guests and employees of the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City became ill sometime after Oct. 28, and traced the illness to the highly contagious norovirus, which spreads after contact with an infected person or contaminated food and water.

For more: http://lat.ms/1uYVKCD

And for more on how to help prevent Norovirus at your property, check out the video below from Petra’s own P3 Risk Management Team.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/98741016 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Matt Karp, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Preventing Norovirus at Your Property’. 

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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by | November 7, 2014 · 8:50 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance Update: “AH&LA, 80+ Hotel Organizations Call On House Leadership To Pass TRIA Now”

TRIA is intended to provide stability to the economy and assure investors and developers,ahla-80-hotel-organizations-call-on-house-leadership-to-pass-tria-now as they plan long-term projects, that insurance will be available to adequately protect their properties against the financial risk of a terrorist attack. However, a short-term extension creates uncertainty as to whether TRIA will still exist as these projects move forward.

Washington, D.C. — In the wake of the midterm elections, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), along with more than 80 other hotel industry groups including hotel brands, management companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), owners and state hotel associations, called on the House of Representatives to get back to work and pass the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in a letter sent to House leadership.

AH&LA urged lawmakers to focus on the immediate priorities, including passage of this vital piece of legislation, which is critical to protect job and economic growth within the hotel industry and across the broader economy. More than 80 groups joined AH&LA in signing the letter, which was sent to every member of the House of Representatives in addition to House leadership.

For more: http://bit.ly/10ym9JI

 

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by | November 5, 2014 · 9:48 am

Hospitality Industry Marketing Update: “Becoming Guest-Centric: Why Hotel Marketing Needs to Change”

At a time when guest-centric thinking has become critical for differentiating hotel brands,reinvent marketing hoteliers need solid information about guest preferences and behavior in order to deliver customer-centric marketing. By transforming not only their marketing efforts but their entire businesses in this way, hoteliers can deliver the value that today’s empowered guests crave.

Hoteliers: It’s not about you.

Is your marketing all about you? About how beautiful are your rooms, how delicious is the restaurant’s menu, how soothing are the spa services? All this may be true, but let’s be realistic: Your potential guests are hearing the same thing from every hotel.

There definitely is room for differentiation among hotel properties, and travel searchers yearn for it. Leisure and business travelers alike are usually undecided when they begin the online research process. Sixty five percent of vacationers and sixty percent of road warriors are considering multiple hotel brands when they begin planning. While most business travelers have a handle on the differences between hotel brands, sixty five percent of leisure travelers are unclear on hotel differentiation.

For more: http://bit.ly/1vJxmQh

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by | November 4, 2014 · 8:47 am

Hospitality Industry Health Update: “Maintaining a Healthy Workforce, Workplace Keys to Hotels’ Ebola Response”

So far, it appears that the Ebola outbreak is not holding back companies’ road warriors. According to a poll of corporate travel managers released by the Global Business Travel Association Foundation,Ebola-620x330 nearly 80 percent of the managers said international business travel has either not been impacted at all or has not been impacted much during the past month. Likewise, more than 90 percent of managers said that domestic business travel has either not been impacted at all or has not been impacted much during the past month.

Travelers aren’t immune to the fear of Ebola generated by top headlines, so even though the dangers of a serious outbreak in the United States remain extraordinarily low, hotels must be prepared to respond to guests’ and employees’ concerns. And with flu season upon us, they should be ready to take responsible action no matter what the serious health care scenario.

“The health, safety, and security of our guests and team members is paramount,” stated Katherine Lugar, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) in a press release. “In these kinds of rapidly evolving situations, it is imperative that we stay informed, dispel fact from fiction, and follow official guidelines.”

For more: http://bit.ly/1x3lCeB

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by | October 22, 2014 · 8:37 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Update: “Liberty Mutual: Retail and Hospitality Institute II”

“Best practices for mitigating risk and reducing losses for guest and employee injuries and incidents in the retail, hospitality, restaurant, gaming and entertainment industries.”

Liberty

At the conclusion of this institute, you will be able to:

• Explain what drives best-in-class performance in safety and risk
management
• Implement best practices for achieving safety and
operational excellence
• Apply resources and take advantage of networking opportunities that
can lead to stronger risk mitigation practices and related expense control

For more information contact Liberty Mutual at LPED@libertymutual.com with questions.

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