Keeping the hotel as safe as possible for ourselves and our guests is everyone’s responsibility. Maintaining a safe hotel helps minimize the potential for accidents and crime to occur. Once of the best ways we can help make the hotel a safe place is to pay attention to our surrounding and reporting anything unusual to Security and/or Management. This includes paying attention to both physical hazards and people’s behaviors. All employees should be tasked with observing the behavior of guests and other visitors and reporting ALL
suspicious behavior. Following these general guidelines below will help employees properly identify and handle suspicious individuals who may be loitering, soliciting unauthorized or
illegal business or behaving irrationally. Depending upon the type of behavior being displayed, hotel staff should act accordingly to ensure that steps are taken to protect the safety of other hotel guests, staff and property. Hotel employees should be careful to not
profile persons as criminals due to their appearance or dress. Doing so can lead to offending innocent guests, a loss of their business, and perhaps even a lawsuit. Rather, unusual behaviors should dictate suspicions about a person. Room attendants, bellmen and housemen who move about the property should report suspicious persons to the front office or security. Persons with illegal substances or weapons should be immediately reported and law enforcement should be contacted. When a suspicious person is identified, a security officer or member of management should approach the person to politely verify that he or she is a registered guest or invitee. If the person is not in the hotel for legitimate reasons, he or she should be asked to leave and a written Trespass Warning should be given. If the person refuses to leave, local police should be contacted. You can also give your guests tips on keeping themselves and their property safe during a stay at your hotel. This might include:
• Reminding guests to stay with their personal belongings at all timeswhile in public areas.
• Notifying guests that there are safe deposit boxes behind the front desk available for use if they are traveling with valuables.
• Posting signs and advising guests to remove valuable items from their vehicles. Make sure as an employee that you are “keeping your eyes peeled” for unusual activities. Remember the 5/10 Rule: all guests should be greeted and asked whether they need any assistance if they are within 5 feet of the employee; and welcomed with a smile and eye contact if they are 10 feet away. You may prevent losses by simply acknowledging and
approaching suspicious persons.
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