HOTEL SECURITY STAFF AND SYSTEM
A hotel's security staff may include in-house security personnel and contracted security officers. In general, hotels prefer ex-army or ex-police officials as their security officers because they are already well versed with various security aspects and have a lot of experience in this field. Security responsibilities may possibly include patrolling the property, monitoring surveillance equipment, and, in general, ensuring that the guests, visitors, and employees are safe and secure. The security department is responsible for establishing the details of room keys security, fire safety systems, emergency evacuation plans, and emergency communication plans. The effectiveness of the security department depends on the cooperation and assistance of the local law enforcement officials. The security personnel should be trained to handle situations such as vandalism, terrorist attacks, and bomb threats. They can also be trained to prevent and fight fire.
Every hotel should have a proper security system to protect its guests, employees, and their properties. Hotels may take measures such as installing close circuit televisions in public areas for proper surveillance, engineering proper lighting of public areas, fencing of the hotel property and positioning security grade
ROLE OF FRONT OFFICE
A front desk professional has to perform a variety of roles during him/her workday being a gatekeeper, communications expert, phone whiz, troubleshooter, and receptionin The front office personnel are the hotel's first individuals to get in touch with the gues vendors, visitors, and delivery people and are considered to be the eyes and cars of the organization. It is up to them to spot the potential troublemakers, identify the red-flag behaviours, prevent the breaches of security, and act with confidence and authority when situations threaten to get out of hand.
A security programme would be more effective if all the hotel employees participate in the hotel's security efforts. The front office personnel such as door attendants, parking attendans, bellboys, and receptionists play a vital role in assisting the hotel's security personnel to carry out their tasks efficiently. They should observe all the people who are entering or leaving the hotel premises, and if they notice any suspicious activity or circumstances, they should immediately report the same to the security personnel.
SECURITY AND CONTROL OF ROOM KEYS
A guest room is the most important hospitality product. One of the chief concerns of the hotel staff is to ensure the security of the guest rooms, which is done by controlling the access to the guest rooms by maintaining a strict control over the room keys. Hotels may have a hard kry system or an electronic key system. In case the hotel uses the hard key system, the following security measures can be followed:
• Request the guests to deposit the room keys at the reception while leaving the hotel premises.
• Discourage the guests to carry the room keys with them while going out of the hotel premises. This is mostly done by putting heavy and large key tags, which are
• inconvenient to carry. In an event of loss of keys, the lock should be replaced immediately.
An electronic key system is an investment in guest safety and security. For each new guest registering at a hotel, a fresh plastic, metallic, or hard-pressed paper key is produced under such a system. The room door lock combination can be changed as and when required by options available through the master computer. Hence if a guest carries away the electronic key with him/her, it will not pose any security threat. Hotels, for security reasons, use the following types of room keys:
• Emergency or grand master key
• Master key
• Guest room key
Emergency hey or grand master key door locks of all the guest rooms, even if they are double locked. (Double lock is an interval safety locking device, cannot be An emergency/grand master key opens the in which, if the door is locked from inside the room, it opened from the outside by its own keys at should be highly protected and should only trys of master key of an emergency. It or The emergency hey should not be taken out of the premises, and a strict key control should be maintained for the same. In property. general, the emergency key is ander the control of the head of the property.
Master key
A master key opena all guest room door locka that are not double locked. This key may be such that it can unlock all guest room locks or may open only a specific floor's guest room locks. The master key is under the control of the executive botuekeeper of the hotel. There may be several floor master keys, which are used by room attendants for cleaning the guest rooms. These keys are strictly controlled and inued only to the staff on duty; they have to sign befire taking the key and at the time of mubmitting it.
Guest room key A guest room key opens the lock of an individual guest room. These keys are under the control of the front desk and are issued to the guests who have registered in the hotel. Guests are required to deposit their room keys when they check out and depart from the hotel.
FIRE SAFETY
Fire is among the major potential hazarch associated with hotels. It could take place due to cigarette smoking in rooms, faulty electrical wiring, or faulty equipanent. Hotels unat be equipped to safeguard guests and their property from fire by installing smoke detectors and conducting routine checka to see that the wiring and equiptuent are not defective. All the employees must be aware of specific procedures laid down by the establishment and must be ready to comply with them at any time. There should be fire drilla during low occupancy period to check how the employees put their knowledge of laid down procedures into practice. Umally, fire extinguishers (see Fig. 19.1) are installed in hotels at strategic locations and fire exits are earmarked for use in the event of fire. The guests should be made aware of the same.The presence of three basic components-fuel (a combustible substance), oxygen (necemary as fire is an oxidation reaction), and heat (ignition temperature)- results in the outbreak of fire. If any one of them is absent, fire cannot break out. Fire can be extinguished by starving, smothering, and cooling,Starving Starving is the removal of fuel from the vicinity of fire so that it does not apread. In case fire breaks out in an area where wood is stored, it stored it can be
Smothering air joxygen), which is necessary for the existence of fire. Throwing a blanket over fire mothers the air and extinguishes the fire.
Cooling Heat ignition temperature) is also essential for the existence of fire. Cooling- by adding water brings down the temperature and puts out the fire.
Classification of Fire Depending on the combustible material that has caught fire, the fire is clamified into the following five groupe
• Clau A: Wood, paper, textile, gran, garbage, and materiale composed of cellulose.
Cau B: Oll, petroleum products, varnishes, paints, and non-ionic solvents.
Clas C. Electrical equipment involving electrical short-circuits
Clan D: Metals nach as magnesium, aluminium, zinc, and potassium.
Class E: Gases such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), methane, and compressed natural gases (CNG)
Procedure in the Event of Fire
• The guidelines for the front office staff in the event of fire are as follows
• When fire is detected, inform the concerned staff immediately.
• Do not panic.
• Warn other people in the vicinity and sound the fire alarm.
• Do not jeopardize your own safety or that of others.
• Follow the procedure laid down by your establishment.
• Call the fire brigade immediately.
• Dot not try to extinguish fire if you are not trained for the same, fire may spread if not handled properly.
• If you are trained for firefighting, use the appropriate fire extinguisher to put out the fire.
• Close the doors and windows, turn off the supply of electricity and gas.
It is important that all the pamageways are kept clear and the doors and windows are opened. Fire exits should be marked properly and should be visible in dark 100. The fire extinguishers should be placed at proper places and should be in working condition. Fire drills should be carried out periodically. Fire-detecting-systems (Fig. 19.2), sprinkling system, smoke-detecting system, firefighting equipment like fire hoses, should be inspected and tested at regular intervals to ensure that they remain functional in the event of fire.
ACCIDENTS
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, an accident is 'an unpleasant event that happens unexpectedly and causes injury or damage. Accidents may occur due to any one of the following reasons
Excessive haste Excessive the yeane cases of accident because penon in hane may MT look the safety rules or clutches on the way. Therelia, 10 avoid accidents, one must not on the ast not be in al hurry or nam while job. For example, bellarys, when int hnurry to car ty the luggage of a group, may overlook objects in blind corners and may mees with an accidimt
Carelessness Carlenen is a conced accidents. The cardew handling of goods and equent may lead to anciden. For example, a belley in carelese with the baggage, he may trip and fall
Anxiety Ansarty a fixing of worry for best something. An aman person will not be able to trute on the task at hand and this might bad to accidens
Lack of interest a person lacka interesti he/she is doing, he/she becomes carelend does s follow the correct procedure for carrying out a task leading to accidenata
Lack of concentration A person mare in concentrate on the work due to personal poddas lack of interest, diem actions, etc. The lack of conоета saan may lead to problems and acciden
Failure to apply safety roles Safery desi Sollowed, prevent accidents. Behue operangsty 18.2. For detection and alarm system equipament, one should read and flow the operating matractions given in the product manual no eliminate the chances of accidens The fallure to apply safety rules may cause accident
Accidents in Hotels
In hotels, accidents usually happent in one of the following aross
Stairways
Balconies or landings
Ramps
Parking lots
Bathtube or showers
To minimize the number of accidents and in sind workplace ingaries, the hoseks should take care of the common problenis, some of which are as follow
Presence of handrails/guardrails Presence of a nun-slip surface
Adequacy of landing areas
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