http://twitter.com/GuestChecker
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Hotel Industry Risk Management: “GuestChecker.com” And Its “Twitter” Site Represent A Trend In Current And Future Web-Based Solutions To Guest Security Issues
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Hotel Industry Guest Relations: Hotel Owners Must Invest In Employee Training To Create A “Positive And Egaged” Environment To Retain Guest Satisfation
Make reputation management a priority. Whether your property is a five-star resort or a one-star motel, your guests are evaluating you on how well you communicate and deliver on your brand 
promise. Subscribe to a social media monitoring tool and start tracking your Market Share of Guest Satisfaction; in the age of social networking, it’s as important as your revPAR index. Formulate a strategy for optimizing your online reputation, set goals, and meet regularly with your social media team to review progress.
Speak up. We would never ignore a guest ranting in our lobby, so why do so few negative reviews receive a response? (7%, according to TripAdvisor). It’s our chance to show the world we care, to thank the guest for feedback, to apologize and explain, and to clear up any misconceptions. On TripAdvisor reviewers can’t reply to hotel responses, so effectively we get the last word. Use it.
Engage. Hotels used to hire mystery shoppers to tell us what we were doing wrong; now our guests do it and pay us for the privilege. User reviews keep us in touch with guests and allow us to reach a mass market we could never hope to reach through our own marketing efforts. Be grateful. Wherever possible, engage writers of negative reviews and try to make amends. With expert handling, our harshest critics can become our most powerful advocates.
Take the high road. If the review is petty or vindictive, there’s no need to stoop to that level; travelers are smart enough to read between the lines. If allegations are false and defamatory, dispute the review with the host site, post a diplomatic response to set the record straight, and let it go. If your property’s reputation is so fragile that one or two bad reviews will devastate your business, you’ve got more issues than bad reviews. Read on.
Create a cycle of positivity. Use guest feedback to justify investments in training, labor, capital upgrades and communications. Improvements will generate positive reviews, which will attract more travelers and in turn will generate incremental revenue, thereby funding more improvements, and so on. The alternative? Ignore feedback and create a cycle of negativity, with the opposite results.
Prevent escalation. If you listen closely, bad reviews are often less about the issue itself than how staff responded when it was brought to their attention. Train employees to prevent on-property issues from escalating to online complaints by listening, empathizing, offering solutions and following up to ensure guests are satisfied. Some issues take time and money to fix; in the meantime, ensure staff are minimizing fallout by expertly managing complaints.
For more:Â http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article50511.html
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Hospitality Industry Trends: How Will Hotels And Restaurants Of The Future Improve Their Operations And Profitability? (Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9DhCXcL0A4]
Here is an interesting video describing some of the future trends of the hospitality industry, and more specificly hotels and restaurants.Â
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Hospitality Industry Sustainability Initiatives: Hotel “Green Initiatives” Are Being Implemented And Maintained Through Training And Management In Spite Of Economic Downturn
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Hotel Industry Liability Issues: “Bed Bug” Court Verdicts Have Recently Found Hotel Owners Liable When “Conscious And Deliberate Behavior” Allowed Infestations To Proliferate
The recent surge in bed bugs has created an uptick in litigation against motel owners and landlords alike. duLac’s article focuses on a Maryland attorney who is filing a series
Bed Beg infestations at hotels can result in guilty verdicts against hotel owners if conscious and deliberate behavior led to infestations going untreated.
of bed bug liability suits.  The typical compensatory damages claim is $200,000, and many of the suits claim punies.  Bed bug suits, in Maryland and elsewhere, generally face three major issues.
First, plaintiff will have to prove notice on the part of the motel owner or landlord. Actual notice is best, but constructive notice should suffice. For constructive notice, the focus will be the length of time the condition (bed bugs) has been in place. The Maryland suits contain mostly conclusory allegations, so discovery will be important.
Second, plaintiff will have to establish compensatory damages. Bed bugs are nasty creatures, and I have a lot of sympathy for people impacted by them. Plaintiffs in Mathias got a jury verdict for compensatory damages of $5,000. A Florida attorney quoted in duLac’s article is leaving the bed bug liability field because the damages are too small. He noted that he settled one case for $4,000 and another for $10,000.
Finally, a fairly standard punies regime requires a plaintiff to prove some type of conscious and deliberate behavior on the part of the defendant. In Mathias, the hotel owners were informed about the bed bugs. Instead of paying for a $500 extermination, the owners allowed the bed bug situation to fester for nearly two years. It was widely known the hotel had bed bugs. There were certain rooms that employees were not supposed to rent out because of the bugs, yet the rooms were rented if there were not enough other rooms available. Guests were informed the bugs were ticks (as if that’s better!). Under these circumstances, the court upheld a punies verdict of $186,000.  If proving notice in the Maryland cases will require the discovery of significant facts, for punies the bar is even higher.
For more:Â http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2010/11/bed-bug-liability.html
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Filed under Claims, Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management
Hotel Industry Cyber-Crime Risks: Hotels Are #1 Target For Credit Card Data Theft As Centralized Processing And Economic Downturn Delay Encryption Software Upgrades
 “Because of the downturn in the economy, a lot of industries have stopped upgrading their software,” he said. “So they’re very open for being hacked at any point.”
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.Â
“The main reason is they’re such a central hub for where people run their cards,” Jones said.
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Recent studies show hackers steal credit card data from hotels more than any other industry.Â
“It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when it’s going to happen,” said John Sileo, a Denver resident who had his credit card information stolen on a recent business trip. “The Driskill Hotel had an entire database of customer information stolen. Mine was one of them.”
“Because of the downturn in the economy, a lot of industries have stopped upgrading their software,” he said. “So they’re very open for being hacked at any point.”
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.
Ryan Jones, a data-security consultant with Trustwave, has been watching a steady increase in hotel hacking.
Trustwave found that out of all the hacking cases they investigated last year, 38 percent involved hotels, well ahead of financial services (banks) at 19 percent and retail at 14 percent.
Destination Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Englewood, is just one of the major chains that got hacked.
This summer, they told guests at 21 hotels across the country that their credit cards might be compromised.”Because of the downturn in the economy, a lot of industries have stopped upgrading their software,” he said. “So they’re very open for being hacked at any point.”
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.
Ryan Jones, a data-security consultant with Trustwave, has been watching a steady increase in hotel hacking.
“The main reason is they’re such a central hub for where people run their cards,” Jones said.
Trustwave found that out of all the hacking cases they investigated last year, 38 percent involved hotels, well ahead of financial services (banks) at 19 percent and retail at 14 percent.
Destination Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Englewood, is just one of the major chains that got hacked.
This summer, they told guests at 21 hotels across the country that their credit cards might be compromised.
For more:Â http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/25881609/detail.html
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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft
Hotel Industry Employee Issues: Unions Unite To Highlight “Housekeeper Workloads” And Workplace Injuries (Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfqf5KoVXRg]
Hyatt housekeepers have been given excessive work loads in cleaning extra rooms to the extent that they are experiencing numerous work injuries. In addition, their exhaustion at the end of the work day is seriously eroding their family lives.
On Nov. 18, 2010 a protest was held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to draw attention to this. Supporting the housekeepers (members of UNITE HERE Local 1) were some 50 labor and community activists, including CACOSH (Chicago Area Committee on Occupational Safety and Health) Director Emanuel Blackwell who declared “work should not hurt.”
To dramatize the excessive work load of the housekeepers, the protesters marched with mops and buckets up to the entrance of the Hyatt to explain that they were there to help the housekeepers do their work. They were not allowed in. One housekeeper brought some fitted bed sheets as examples for the management to consider instead of the non-fitted sheets the workers are forced to use, causing extra backbreaking work when making beds. When she left the sample sheets at the hotel, management had the police write her a ticket for littering. Length – 7:28. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220.
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Hotel Industry Health And Safety Issues: Bed Bug Infestations Have Been Reported In All 50 States And Restricted Use Of Pesticides Will Make Eradication Efforts Difficult (Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAEavqJS9eI]
Prior to World War I, nearly 30 percent of all homes were infested with bed bugs. Widespread use of pesticides such as DDT all but eradicated bed bugs for nearly 50 years. But with declining use of pesticides and the elimination of DDT, bed bugs have staged a comeback and are reported in all 50 states. There is even an iPhone app that allows users to track bed bug sightings. Dr. Jeffrey Levin of the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler discusses bed bugs in this post to the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler’s YouTube Channel.
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training
Hotel Industry Employee Safety Issues: OSHA Will Target Hospitality Employers That Exhibit “A Pattern Of Non-Compliance” With An Aggressive Enforcement Campaign
“…if OSHA believes that the violation at a particular hotel is indicative of a pattern of 
non-compliance, then it will launch investigations into other hotels owned or operated by the same company. This company “profiling†should put all hotels on high alert…”
“…Â In light of the significant penalties and the new focus on enforcement from the government and labor unions, it is important for hotels to take worker safety issues seriously and to have a plan in place should OSHA launch an investigation into their respective properties…”
The housekeepers allege injuries arising from their daily room quotas and argue that cleaning rooms and lifting heavy mattresses lead to accidents and workplace injuries. The complaints allege that workers are discouraged from reporting injuries due to fear of retaliation and that monetary rewards for having a safe workplace discourages complaints. The housekeepers recommend several solutions, including changes to fitted sheets, mops and other equipment used to clean a room, as well as a cap on their daily room quota.
Hospitality employers must be on alert of similar OHSA complaints at its properties. OHSA has begun an aggressive enforcement campaign against employers when it unveiled its “Severe Violator Enforcement Program†(“SVEPâ€) earlier this year. Under SVEP, OSHA will target those employers who disregard their obligations through willful, repeated, or multiple violations. This will lead to a significant increase in OSHA inspections at workplaces that not only have a history of health and safety violations, but also allows for nationwide inspections of related workplaces.
 Thus, Additionally, because OSHA investigators are more likely to approach local managers at each property, it is important that these managers receive proper training on OSHA regulations and how to comply with an OSHA investigation. Accordingly, hotels should take the necessary steps now to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state requirements through attorney-client self-audits.
For more:Â http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c08060f9-c1d2-4b11-ba11-e20e66a39ab3
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Hospitality Industry Employee Issues: Hospitality Owners And Management Should Verify Employment And Utilize “E-Verify” Through The U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility.
Why E-Verify?
Why do people come to the United States illegally? They come here to work. The public can, and should, choose to reward companies that follow the law and employ a legal workforce.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working to stop unauthorized employment. By using E-Verify to determine the employment eligibility of their employees, companies become part of the solution in addressing this problem.
Employment eligibility verification is good business and it’s the law.
Â
Who Uses E-Verify?
More than 225,000 employers, large and small, across the United States use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, with about 1,000 new businesses signing up each week.
While participation in E-Verify is voluntary for most businesses, some companies may be required by state law or federal regulation to use E-Verify. For example, most employers in Arizona and Mississippi are required to use E-Verify. E-Verify is also mandatory for employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-Verify clause.
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