How can technology enhance workplace safety in hotels?

ISJ hears from Yasmine Mustafa, Co-Founder & CEO, ROAR.

The hospitality industry has struggled with a higher than usual turnover rate in the last few years.

While some of this has been linked to the pandemic, sexual harassment and security concerns in the workplace remain a major point of contention.

A recent strike action from hotel workers in Los Angeles highlights the persistence of these issues and the rise of incivility.

Thankfully, technology is helping businesses catch up on the issue.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the major security threats that hotels face, technology that can ease this, the benefits of leaning on technology and future trends for how it will be used to tackle workplace safety in hotels.

Many innovations are popping up that can boost security in hotels so that workers don’t just feel safer, but the guest experience is improved and business operations run smoothly.

Workplace safety challenges in hotels

To understand where technology can best intervene on the issue, it’s important to look at where exactly the current security challenges stem from for hotel workers:

Unauthorised hotel visitors

Whether it’s people that hotel guests have brought in or malicious individuals who have managed to evade security, unauthorised visitors are a cause for concern when it comes to hotel worker safety.

The assumption often is that it’s those who enter premises intending to commit a crime that pose the biggest risk, but in fact, drunk and unruly people who come in with guests can be just as much of a threat.

They are often hard to understand or reason with and can create further conflict with guests which makes things even more unsafe.

Guest behaviour

A 2022 article in The Guardian detailed numerous stories of California hotel workers experiencing sexual harassment from guests.

In a landmark survey in Chicago, 49% of hotel and motel housekeepers said that they had experienced a guest exposing themselves, flashing or being naked in front of them.

Statistics and stories like these are echoed throughout the industry. Studies have revealed that nine in ten women in the hospitality workforce have been sexually harassed on the job.

This is higher than the three in ten of the general workforce and is concerning when we look at the fact that the harassment usually comes from legal visitors on hospitality premises.

Conflict between guests can also raise issues for worker safety, as it’s easy for staff to inadvertently walk into high-risk situations and be caught in the crossfire.

Quiet, isolated working conditions

Lone hotel housekeepers and front-desk staff on night shifts tend to experience this most frequently, but quiet working conditions are an issue across hotels.

Workers are often targeted because of how isolated they look to those with criminal intentions and can end up in distressing situations because they are far from help or witnesses.

Technological solutions for workplace safety

Some of the most pressing safety issues that hotel workers face can be improved with the adoption of simple technology solutions:

CCTV

CCTV surveillance has come a long way in the last decade. Systems today can be integrated with motion sensors and AI to flag when quiet areas are busy or even when someone has fallen.

From a workplace safety perspective, they allow hotel security to maintain visuals across premises.

This means that when housekeepers are working alone in isolated areas, there’s still a presence keeping an eye out for unauthorised visitors or strange activity.

Panic buttons

Placed on walls or under hotel desks, panic buttons offer hotel workers a quick, silent way to call for assistance if they feel threatened or have noticed a volatile situation.

Wearable panic buttons take staff safety a step further by ensuring that each person has help on-hand, no matter where they are in the workplace.

Hi-tech versions are also designed to operate on self-healing Bluetooth networks with LTE backup so that the wearer can call for help even if they’re stuck in an elevator or stairwell where signal is bad.

Keyless entry

Keyless entry is another piece of technology that we’ve seen improve hotel worker safety.

Hotel room keys are notoriously easy to steal or lose which can lead to workers being startled by unauthorised visitors.

Keyless entry using biometrics or phone apps helps boost the security of hotel rooms and, in turn, keeps those working in them a little safer.

Online training and support

Because most staff work on shift rotations, gathering people for in-person safety training can be tricky.

Online training offers an easy technological solution to this and ensures that all hotel workers get access to the basics on what to do if, for example, a guest is drunk and belligerent, how to call for assistance, etc.

Benefits of implementing technology

There are so many ways to tackle workplace safety in hotels but here’s why using technology is a particularly beneficial way to do it:

Take the pressure off hotel workers

Safety and conflict de-escalation training is important but it’s equally necessary that we take some of the pressure off hotel workers when it comes to their security.

Technology is one of the best ways to ease this burden because it improves safety without necessarily asking workers to do or learn more. Instead, they are better supported.

Quicker response times

Implementing technology like panic buttons improves how easily hotel workers can call for assistance and how quickly they get it.

The ripple effect of this is that hotel security can be on the scene faster and minimise damage as a result.

So much of keeping a hotel running smoothly is simply getting to situations before they become major problems.

Adds a preventive layer

This only applies to visible security technology such as CCTV or access control, but it’s still worth noting.

Sometimes, just the presence of safety technology can help ward-off anyone with a criminal intention as they’re suddenly more conscious of the fact that someone may be watching or how easy it would be for attention to be called.

Makes guests safer

Even in the most seemingly secure environments, hotel guests face security risks that range from petty theft to sex trafficking.

Hotel workers are the ones most likely to be witnesses to these events and, if they’re better equipped with safety measures like wearable alert devices, they can then flag situations where guests aren’t safe.

Future trends

Chicago, Miami Beach, Washington and New Jersey already have legislation in place that requires hotel and motel workers to wear panic buttons.

Workers in California have managed to get some of these measures in place in Santa Monica and Anaheim. Many others around the country are pushing for something similar.

It’s why the biggest trend we expect to see in terms of hotel workplace safety is wearable, hi-tech panic buttons.

They’re a simple piece of technology to implement that makes workers feel safer and more supported, helps reduce staff turnover as a result and ultimately allows hotels to maintain a secure environment for guests too.