Hospitality security adjusts to COVID-19 constraints | 2021-02-08 | Security Magazine - 0 views
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While COVID-19 has slowed the hospitality industry, security plays a more pivotal role than ever and the ongoing pandemic is challenging security professionals to adjust and adapt to new rules and procedures.
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“The things people do in hotel rooms are things they would never do at home: prostitution, drug abuse. Suicide is huge, people kill themselves in hotel rooms because they don’t want to do it at home,”
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The hotel industry came to a halt in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and things are only slowly starting to pick back up. Yet the burden on security is no less than it was before, and in many ways, the job has gotten harder.
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Occupancy levels dropped 90% for several months and have only recently returned to a consistent 40%, with many hotels still closed,
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“Despite the low occupancy levels, we continue to have a significant number of incidents resulting in a much higher incident-to-occupied-room ratio than we have historically seen. We have seen a dramatic increase in heart attacks and suicides over the past few months, and continue to have increased numbers of fraud and guest-on-guest type incidents.”
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Even as the need for security persists, many hospitality chains have pared back their security budgets.
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Eventually COVID-19 will recede, but new risk categories will likely continue to unfold in hospitality. Security professionals can help to steer a course by reminding upper management that risk is more than just a monetary calculation.
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Under these emerging policies, security is striving to put more active eyes on guest rooms — right at a time when COVID-related staff reductions are making it harder for security even to sustain normal operations.
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Even if there’s only one person working the front desk, “they still need to be making the rounds,” Perman says. “They need to be knocking on doors and making contact, making conversation. You need them to keep up that level of human intervention.”
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“A passive infrared detector can also be used to detect temperature in human beings, so a video camera that is infrared capable can detect fever in a human, and that is being done in a lot of places,”
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Through COVID-19, though, technology can be a double-edged sword. For example, some hotels have turned to mobile-phone-based check-in to provide a touchless experience. “From a security perspective there are unintended consequences there,” Danson says. “Now you never have to go to the front desk, you never have to encounter a person.”
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In some cases, entire corporate departments are being eliminated, so there is no centralized security department. There is no one providing corporate guidance, no one providing policies and procedures.”
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With the onset of COVID-19, things have gotten even more challenging, as hotel security is increasingly tasked to do more with less.
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Even in this strained environment, other common risks persist in the hospitality world. Prostitution is a perennially complex issue for hotel security, for example, while human trafficking is an increasing area of concern.
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When allocating resources in support of operational safety and security, “the chief of security needs to be informing corporate leadership of the potential risks, so that it becomes a risk-based decision and not just a budget decision,” Slotnick says. “Security has to make the case for risk, whether it’s a risk to brand reputation or other forms of risk.”
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This article goes into great detail about how Covid-19 is affecting hotel security. With budget cuts, security personnel are being limited, but the need for security is more important than ever. The article talks about how suicides in hotels are higher than ever as well, making it all the more important to have a solid security presence.
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In this article, it discusses the decline of the hotel industry following the COVID-19 pandemic, and how things have only slowly begun picking up again. However, the security burden is as great as it has ever been, and in many ways, it is even harder. Despite hotels closing their doors amid the pandemic, occupancy levels have only recently recovered to a consistently high 40%, with many still closed for months.