TOO MANY BAD ARTICLES ARE BEING WRITTEN ABOUT HOTEL SECURITY...... AND BEING PRINTED IN GREAT PUBLICATIONS.
How sad it is that some of those who write authoritatively about important issues like security in our industry have no real clue about what they write. Is this not a form of terrorism where fear is actually spread by the strong suggestion that there is no serious security procedures in place?
As the former CEO of the International Hotel Association, the global voice of the hotel industry, I served as chair of the Global Council on Security on which the senior security executives of most of the world's hotel chains participated. They dialed in from California, Hong Kong, London and Brussels or wherever they were travelling. They networked into a dedicated website where documents were shared, updated and conclusions reached.
After an encouraging start to this regular teleconference and the unanimous agreement amongst all members that this was a 'non-competitive area' in which they had no trouble sharing best practices, we separated this Security Council into three areas; Terrorism, Natural Disasters and Pandemics, the latter in conjunction with the World Tourism Organisation and the World Health Organisation.
Participating on the Terrorism panel were Vice-Presidents of Security for all the major hotel groups and some smaller ones with an experienced General Manager from Israel who brought it to life in a very personal way.
During the course of our ongoing discussions, incidents transpired and members communicated amongst themselves. The London bombing of 7/7/05 was an early example.
From these events and hundreds of others, large and small that preceeded this Council, strategies, policies, procedures, training programs, inspections, analysis, re-analysis, daily briefings, revisions of capital budgets were discussed, debated, changed, updated and implemented.
The outcome, in my view was that the hotel industry, within the major groups was in very good hands and, as a veteran of fifty years in the industry, much better organised and implemented than I could have imagined.
International insurance companies, government agencies, security investigation services and many other organisations are involved in the excercise of keeping guests, employees, visitors and property safe and sound.
Some areas are riskier than others and therefore are subject to stricter rules. These rules can change daily, and do. The means of evaluating an area, a region or a city also change regularly. General Managers, Owners, Operators and local authorities participate and many superb systems are adopted as 'best practices'.
Most topics in our industry are easily discussed without danger of adverse fallout. Security is one that requires careful verification before carelessly branding the industry as non-compliant, because without that counterbalance of verification, we are contributing to the fear that drives terror.
There is another area that falls into a similar category...........but that is for another day!
For information on other issues in the industry that have been, or need to be covered, or for a security review of your facility, contact [email protected]
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