Features

Placing guests at the heart of safety

12 Feb 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Continued (Part one of this article appeared on February 6, 2014)

When one purchases a high-priced item, it is natural and reasonable to expect a high-quality of performance. For most people, cars and holidays count as the two highest priced items of regular expenditure. People save money to take their annual holiday and also put aside money to be able to purchase a newer car.
During the past two to three decades, the automobile industry has made vast strides towards improving the quality of their products to the extent that faults on new cars are now a rarity. Yes, occasionally, manufactures ‘recall’ certain models owing to production defects, but the percentage of recalled cars is a tiny fraction to that of the thousands of cars that are globally sold daily.

In pursuing high standards of passenger safety supported by a robust continuous improvement policy, detected defects are immediately rectified by those in the auto industry so that these same defects do not ever occur again. The quality of packaged holidays has also improved dramatically over this period, but unlike cars - which are largely produced by robots – people deliver holidays, so the same standards of quality assurance are often not achievable.

However, despite the quality of modern cars, accidents still occur and in over 98 percent of the cases, they are not caused by the car, but by the people who drive them! Similarly, accidents occur on holiday and, as with car accidents, it is usually the other persons fault! So, who exactly is this ‘other person’? When booking a packaged tour, the ‘other person’ is the tour operator and when occupying a hotel room or attending an event held in a hotel, it is the hotel operator.

Are hotels well prepared?
Part one of this article dealt with the trials and tribulations of the Nemo family during their stay at the ill prepared ‘Slovenly hotel’. When we talk of hotel safety and security, fire safety plays a major role. It is essential that there is: a fire warning system, a fire fighting system, a fire prevention programme and a fire evacuation plan. I dread to declare however, that I have come across hotels that are ill-prepared to cope with any outbreak of fire because they simply did not have all the components of a fully functional fire safety programme in place.

There is this beachfront budget hotel named with the tenth letter of the English alphabet, which opened in June 2013 and is operated by a family owned hotel group that has been in the business since 1973. A fortnight ago, I travelled to Negombo to spend a night in this hotel. The access to the hotel is via a narrow by lane and I drove past it, as I missed spotting the budget sized sign hotel board, despite driving at around 10 kilometers per hour whilst searching for the hotel. On a scale of one to 10 for ‘hotel signage’, this budget hotel would rate a lowly three – but that is another story! My room which was typical of a budget hotel had two leaflets.

One listed out the available TV channels and the other was a price list for consumerables such as shampoo, toothbrush, shaving and sun cream, slippers (spelt sleppers), swim suits, goggles, etc. What I couldn’t find in the room was neither a ‘fire escape plan’ nor any information on what a guest should do, (such as where the designated ‘assembly point’ was) - if one had to evacuate the building in the event of a fire.

Fire can occur anywhere, anytime…and operating a budget or a ‘no frills’ hotel is no licence to disregard fire safety. I guess the ‘regulators’ no longer see it that way? Only the other day, a manager of a hotel located on an island in the Bolgoda Lake was reprimanded by the city coroner for negligence, after a guest of the hotel died, due to the non-availability of a boat at night to transfer the seriously ill guest to hospital.

It transpired that the life of the 34-year-old guest could have been saved had the hotel promptly taken him to the hospital. Indeed a tragic example of hotels placing their own interests ahead of their guests. In this instance, the hotel bartered the costs of not having an emergency night-time boat service at the expense of a human life.

Case for managing risks
Risk, along with return, is perhaps the most important part of any business calculation. Risk has to be managed correctly and one way of doing this is to have a risk strategy. A risk strategy helps everyone understand the importance of risk awareness. It is useful because it sets down in black and white the kind of things you will and won’t do. It’s always difficult to look away when there is an opportunity to make more money and in the heat of the moment one can throw caution to the wind.
Consider the New Year’s Eve party that was held at a five-star Colombo hotel, where several revelers were injured when a raised section of the stage that held 500-600 guests collapsed. In the aftermath, the hotel issued a statement that, “the event organiser was responsible for the setup of the party in the hotel premises.” In the same statement, the hotel goes on to add, “The wellbeing, safety and security of our guests and team members are of paramount importance and we continue to make every effort to ensure that all practices and standards are in line with strict safety and security regulations.”

Did the hotel really ‘walk the talk’? If so, then, where did this negative baggage come from? Did not the hotel have a risk strategy? Did it carry out any proper due diligence? The event organiser maintained accountability for all actions under their control and went on to state that “we contacted a reputed company, which possessed the necessary expertise and experience…and we opted to procure their services since we placed so much importance on quality and safety” and ends by saying “it is clearly evident that the supplier had not constructed the said stage to the standards originally agreed with.”

Whilst denying allegations that the event was ‘oversold’, the event organiser claimed that they were “verbally promised by the supplier that the platform could hold 1000 people.” In essence, the event organiser acting solely upon a verbal assurance put to risk the lives of people. This is a classic case where both the hotel and event organiser failed to recognise that ‘you may deal with people and suppliers you trust, but can you risk trusting the people who are supplying them?

Imagine the catastrophic consequences had there actually been the intended maximum 1000 people on stage – a stage that collapsed when only at 50 percent capacity? Was this to happen in certain countries and in the event of a fatality, those responsible would have been charged for corporate manslaughter - and imprisoned.

Safety is a never ending journey
Let me return to the comparison of cars and holidays. If holidays could be delivered by robots and were taken by robots, it would be possible to eliminate accidents, in the same way that faults in new cars, have virtually been abolished. However, humans deliver holidays and holidays are taken by humans, so accidents do occur and we (‘We’ include hoteliers, tour operators and most importantly government regulators), must do our best to ensure these are minimised.

Boeing – the makers of the 787 Dreamliner jet is not satisfied with its current reliability rate of 98 percent. (Meaning: that two out of every 100 flights is delayed). Boeing’s 777 jets currently fly at a 99.4 percent reliability factor and this is the benchmark it wants to attain with the Dreamliner Jet. Throughout the aviation industry, safety is paramount (in deeds – not words!) and this has produced rewards, yet, a few people still remain afraid of flying.

Alan Flook – ex secretary general of IFTO, made this interesting observation, “For many people, an important – even essential part of their holidays is to do things they do not do during the rest of the year. This may range from swimming to more adventurous activities, all of which may present minimal dangers to the experts but can be very dangerous for those without experience. Safety therefore is a journey that never ends and the hotel industry has a long way to go when caring for guests.”
So, unless those in the hospitality industry make a determined effort, Russell Peter’s “Somebody’s Gonna Get A Hurt Real Bad” will not be a laughing matter!

(Shafeek Wahab has an extensive background in hospitality management spanning over 30 years. He has held key managerial responsibilities in internationally renowned hotel chains, both locally and abroad, including his last held position as Head of Branding for a leading Hotel Group in Sri Lanka. Now focusing on corporate education, training, consulting and coaching he can be contacted on [email protected]. Website: www.in2ition.biz)

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Placing guests at the heart of safety

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