REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Charlie Sheen allegedly trashing a hotel room at The Plaza Hotel in New York in October and a recent dispute with a hotel manager in New Jersey that ended in two men being charged with assaulting a police officer remind hoteliers to be prepared to deal with safety and security situations. Violence can happen anywhere, but there are steps hotels can take to prevent incidents or reduce the opportunity for them to occur.
The hotel building itself is one determinant in the incidences of violence, said Thomas A. Maier, president of T.A.M Global Services and an assistant professor in the School of Hospitality Leadership at DePaul University.
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Anthony Roman |
“The type of hotel, the size and location of the hotel, are going to determine what kind of violence would be prevalent,” he said. “If it’s a larger hotel, in the 1,000- to 2,000-room range, you’re going to be dealing with many more people and with more people you have more opportunity for violence.”
Anthony Roman, CEO of Roman & Associates, a global investigation and corporate security consulting firm, said the primary factor in hotel crimes is the environment in which they are present.
“You have muggings, you have robberies, pickpockets, burglaries, assaults of various categories, everything you have in the general population you have in hotels,” he said. “The second factor (affecting hotel crimes) is serving an urban business clientele or a resort servicing a regional clientele or a specific area where the guests are known to be carrying a lot of money, such as Las Vegas.”
Joe McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said most of the violence at hotels happens behind closed doors.
“Someone might take someone they meet at a bar back to their room and not get what they want or get more than they want,” he said. “Would they do that at home? Who knows? People beat their wives and are abusive to them at home and they might do the same thing in a hotel room.”
Paul Tang, VP and managing director of the 815-room Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, said there are many issues to consider, including back-of-the-house and employee safety issues. “If you have a hotel with 300 rooms, you’ve got on any given day 500 people there, and you’ve got to keep them safe,” Tang, who is also outgoing chairman of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, said. “That’s part of the responsibility of a hotel operator.”
There are no reliable statistics about the number of crimes at hotels because the properties are not required to report incidents, Roman said. Reporting—or not reporting—is up to the individual guest, and many don’t report, he said. They report it to the hotel and that’s where it remains. But it’s safe to say that as overall crime rates increase, hotel crime rates go up, too.
“Take New York City,” he said. “The murder rate increased this year by 16%. You can assume the violent crime rate has also gone up in hotels.”
The details
Regardless of whether a hotel has a high incident rate, the property has a responsibility to guests—and employees—to provide a safe and secure environment. This includes structural and employee steps.
“There are standard security protocols that are implemented to different levels and with varied success at different classes and categories of hotel facilities,” Roman said. “Resort hotels as a general rule of thumb have a lower level of security than airport hotels and urban hotels, which are facing a higher crime-rate environment.”
Roman said the standard security protocols include cameras on every floor and at entrances, elevator banks, points of entry and exit, key points of traffic and the lobby. Specialty hotels such as those in Las Vegas have vastly superior protocols, such as software and video analytics, he said.
A hotel must control access, Maier said.
“Proper locks and security systems can put barriers between people that want to commit violence and access to the facility,” he said. “You have to have a very thorough security apparatus.”
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Paul Tang |
Tang said technology allows hotels to require a room key to open the hotel’s front door and elevators. The cardinal employee step is training.
“Train properly and you minimize the risk of anything happening,” Tang said. “Security is everybody’s responsibility, not just (the security department’s) responsibility.”
Maier said an alert, proactive staff can play a large part in averting incidents.
“An ongoing and robust training program would include being alert to who is in the hotel, following proper safety and security procedures,” he said. “Key control and key management are very important to make sure the locking system is not violated.”
Most hotels should increase the level of training they require of employees, Roman said. Standardization also is key.
“The biggest issue with global management of a particular brand of hotel is the difficulty in their global security structure to sustain standardized protocol command and control of security worldwide,” he said. “Is the resort in Hawaii performing at the same required level and standardization methods as the New York hotel or Paris hotel?”
It’s also important employees receive alcohol awareness training, including levels of intoxication and liability, Maier said.
“It’s about proper alcohol service with care,” he said. “It’s an area where you are fueling irrational behavior.”
McInerney said the AH&LA is partnering with the United States’ Department of Homeland Security in its “If you see something, say something” initiative, which is a campaign to encourage and educate hotel employees to recognize, report and react to suspicious and crisis situations that occur on property.
“It’s another tool in their kit to make sure if the employees see something that looks out of place that they notify their supervisor, who notifies the proper authorities,” he said.
The general rule of thumb is to practice reasonable care, Maier said.
“Can your behavior and activities be judged as … providing reasonable care?” he said. “Are your actions reasonable and did you exhibit care when the incident was brought to your attention?”
McInerney said hotels must be careful with the tactics they employ. “We’re in a very litigious society,” he said. “That can leave you with tremendous liability.”