Market know-how: The Secrets of Hotel Corridors

A hotel is not simply a commercial real estate premises, it is a special zone and even a special organism with an internal life and atmosphere. It seems logical that a hotel should be equipped with not less powerful safety infrastructure than say, a supermarket or a warehouse. In fact in warehouses and office centers people only work, and in shopping complexes relax for maybe an afternoon, but in hotels visitors live round the clock, sometimes for weeks and months.

In a twist of fate the image of hotels in the public eye is not always positive. In films and novels there is always something out of the ordinary in hotels. To recollect even a classic such as Arthur Hailey's Hotel: heroes have to prevent attempted rape, a choking old man struggles to live life, police are appealed to with suspicions that a high-ranking lodger-duke is a murderer, etc. Like it’s not enough to catch a thief with the nickname the Master key stealing things from hotel rooms. The hotel becomes an arena of intrigue and detective stories (Alfred Hitchcock's film, Detective Jean-Luca Godara, Soviet film The Ten Negroes, Agatha Christie’s works and the Stephen King novel Light, in which a hotel is an ominous place occupied by an evil spirit). When legendary special agent Nikita in a Luca Besson film strolled around the corridors of the big hotel in the form of a room-service waitress, hiding a weapon under her apron, none of the employees of the establishment suspected it and thanks to that Nikita managed to get into the room. Operators of the hotel business say that in reality to do such a trick is impossible: all corridors in modern hotels are carefully surveilled via video cameras, and if someone gets into a room, except for the chambermaid and the tenant, within a minute a whole group of internal security service will be there. But, unfortunately, hotels do not experience a smaller number of crimes and household states of emergency than they do in films and in literature.

"The main emergencies that happen in hotels are fires and thefts. Recently explosions connected with terrorist activity have also become frequent, especially in traditional areas of unrest - Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia, where an attack on tourists serves as an argument in the struggle against the opposition and the government," Marina Smirnova, head of hotel consulting group Colliers International says.

Seven disasters…

The main problem of hotels, in Smirnova’s opinion is fires. It is not by accident that in the directorate of the European Union, concerning hotels, the main stress is on fire-prevention safety (directorate of the EU dated 22.12.1986 "On fire-prevention safety measures in hotels"). The largest fire in modern Moscow happened at hotel Rossiya in 1977. In a northern building of the complex of 1000 above standard hotel rooms more than 100 rooms were burnt down and 42 people were killed. According to the official version, the cause of the fire was a soldering iron that had been left in the broadcasting center. Small fires in hotels occur almost every day. In June 2007, overlappings in the reconstructed 9-storey building of the Moscow Ukraina hotel on Kutuzovsky prospekt caught fire. News agencies reported no victims.

In 2004 in Moscow the basement of the Minsk hotel on Tverskaya Street caught fire. Because of furniture in the basement of the hotel catching fire the security guard of a jewelry shop on the first floor of the building was injured. Thanks to the competent actions of firemen it was possible to keep the flames from spreading from the first floor and the fire was quickly extinguished. The total area of the fire, according to ITAR-TASS, was 10 sq.m. At the end of November 2003 there was the largest fire in Moscow for a decade at a hostel of the Russian people’s university of friendship. 30 people died in the fire.

Foreign history is also dazzled with large fires. Last year on the other side of the ocean, in a suburb of Atlanta (USA), a fire broke out in a hotel of known chain Holiday Inn. It was discovered the fire started in premises on the second floor. 18 lodgers of the hotel were taken to hospital. The cause of the fire was that in 30 years the hotel building had not been equipped with automatic fire-fighting system, and according to lodgers not everybody could here the fire alarm. Also in 2006 a fire in a hotel in Mecca resulted in 16 victims being taken to hospital, according Reuters. The fire enveloped the ground floor of the building, therefore lodgers evacuated by means of helicopters.

Another lash for hotels are acts of nature. Russia is subject to them less than southern continents and coastal countries. For example, the Californian cities of the USA, especially San Francisco that sits directly on two adjoining continental platforms, are constantly under threat from earthquakes. In Miami in Florida where the resort zone is completely covered with expensive hotels, tsunamis and hurricanes are a regular fixture. Even now on the southern coast of Miami it is possible to see the fallen walls of hotels closed for restorations after the Katrina hurricane in 2006.

One more danger is thieves of whom there are especially a lot of in resort hotels. For example, during the MIPIM exhibition in Cannes this year in Pierre Vacance Cannes Beach apartments, Elena Shuvalova, a non-staff columnist of Vedomosti Real Estate, had a pre-wedding gift from her husband - a white gold ring with a diamond – stolen from her hotel room. Notifying the police brought no results. Terrorism can also be included in this category.

The usual visitor of a hotel has a weight of questions on safety. For example, whether it will be possible to be rescued from the property in case of an emergency and whether administration will compensate for any loss? Will a potential criminal be noticed entering the hotel through a general hall accessible to all or in the bar? How should you behave if there is a fire and in such cases what help should you expect from personnel of the hotel? How can you check the reliability of the personnel?

Security tactics and strategies

Hotel Soyuz in the capital experienced an incident in 2001. Participants of the International festival of stuntmen in Moscow were staying in the hotel and had brought a lot of pyrotechnics with them, a former employee of Soyuz. After the stuntmen had left, a chambermaid found out a suspicious device in a tub of flowers in the corridor. The personnel determined that there was gunpowder in it. And then evacuation of the guests began. Evacuation is not an easy process: you know never, at what moment there might be an explosion. People came onto the street literally in dressing gowns and slippers. The nerves of everybody, especially the employees of the hotel, were stretched to the limit: if there was an explosion the guests would have no place to stay and they would not be able to rescue their personal belongings. It was explained simply to the guests of the hotel: the situation is serious; it is necessary to leave the hotel quickly and without panic. And there was no panic thanks to the calm and psychologically correct actions of the personnel. Everyone stayed on the street for 6 hours before the arrival of special services. As a result there was no explosion or fire.

Experts think that training on safety rules and behavior for extreme situations for employees of hotels should be carried out several times a year. The Moscow press service the Marriott group has confirmed that similar training with such regularity for personnel are carried out. And the press centre of the Ritz Carlton hotel which opens in Moscow on Tverskaya street this summer, says that training in the case of a fire are also carried out constantly. The instructions here are simple: as soon as sirens and an electronic voice informing in Russian and English that it is necessary to leave the premises are heard in the hotel, employees should be on the street within 3 minutes. Guests, having heard the alarm, should leave independently.

At the Intourist chain, part of the Intourist Group of Hotels "the strategy for personnel during a state of emergency is firstly to provide for the safety of the tenants of the hotel, the press service of the management company has informed. In addition to regular training there are instructions for employees on how to behave in extreme situations.

According to Smirnova, in Russia up until 2003 an obligatory certification of safety in hotels, had been a federal law "On certification" since 1995. However in 2003 it became voluntary. So-called certification on safety provided for the safety of hotel clients against a number of incidents: fires, the influence of harmful substances (the law even regulated the use of washing liquids and disinfectants), the low qualification of personnel, including the competence of their actions in emergency situations, poor-quality equipment and all equipment in the hotel building that does not meet safety requirements, including fire-prevention. Now hoteliers have their own standards. Nevertheless, according to Sergey Tarasov, director of marketing at Heliopark Group, it is possible to use recommendations on safety, developed by the World tourist organization. However, in the world hotel business there are no uniform standards recognized by all world chains. Hotels in each country are guided by local customs.

For Tarasov, hotels should have higher safety requirements, than many other commercial real estate premises. The requirements should cover numerous nuances. For example, in designing the interior of the hotel special flooring, curtains and furniture is necessary. A hotel is a ball of every possible engineering communications. Very often kitchens and laundries are sources of fires. So it is desirable to buy special kitchen and laundry equipment.

One should also not overlook the human factor. The personnel of a hotel in addition to training and instructing should be exposed to regular checks from a security and safety service. For example, room keys (plastic cards) in normal hotels are given only to the lodger and chambermaid who every evening is obliged to hand it over at the end of their shift. A night audit exists in hotels. At midnight reception and accommodation employees summarize: information about the guests at the close of the financial day. All personnel know each other by face. Restaurant services in your room and room service are carried out by a special waiter.

Insuring lodgers and their property in accidents has been introduced in the lat few years in hotels. In the chain under the control of Intourist Group of Hotels insuring the civil liability of clients is stipulated. Their property is always insured, except for valuables. Their cars in underground or outdoor car parks are not subject to insurance, for example. Insurance companies now offer a wide set of services for hoteliers. Visitors can also be insured against accidents occurring on the territory of a hotel. But, according to RESO-Garanti, hotel administration first of all seek to insure the building (if it belongs to the insurant or if the landlord obliges the leaser to insure the real estate). And also the furnishings, equipment and personal estate. Only recently proprietors have started to insure responsibility and to include in the list of services for the visitors insurance upon accident.

Details of the safety tactics of large chains are rarely revealed - concealment of such information is also a safety measure. Everything, concerning the security of premises of large chains, especially such as the Marriott or Ritz Carlton, is considered confidential information.

From design to computers

In hotels, as well as in all other constructions, there are weak spots. From the point of view of fire safety the top floors are the least protected. A fire usually spreads across and upwards. To evacuate people from the top zones and to deliver there fire extinguishing means is most difficult, experts of Intourist Group of Hotels considers. Therefore in the construction of modern premises in the world fireproof building materials are already widely used.

According to Marina Smirnova, hotels belong to the first category of public buildings, i.e. great demands on safety are made of them, including technical safety. In Russia construction laws and regulations apply to hotels. And any operator that belongs to an international hotel chain must submit in Russia to local laws and building norms. In our country there are no special construction laws and regulations for hotel premises. Developers are guided in design by the core regulations and laws, Tarasov emphasizes.

Weak spots in hotels are still household premises and halls. But thanks to video observations systems, all corridors and floors of the building and the entrance to every room are under watch and control by security service, approves Tarasov. Video cameras are usually placed inside all public use premises of the building and on the perimeter of the premises on the street. Parking is also surveilled. Without fail the reception zone should be visible on security monitors.

In the Intourist chain, according to the press service, such systems that can be called "intellectual" are used. For example, the analog address system of an automatic fire signal system finds the source of a fire at an initial stage. It automatically activates all mechanisms of fire-prevention protection and disconnects the engineering equipment (ventilation, lifts). Among modern systems used is an automatic fire-fighting system, which effectively extinguishes the local centers of a fire, preventing its development. A loud-speaking notification system and management of evacuation allows to remove people from a building effectively. In the case of a fire all lifts automatically go down to the first floor.

"Intellectual" hotels are gradually becoming fashionable. Advisers say that the Marriott chain uses such systems, which not only provide security for guests of the hotel, but also additional services, for example making a breakfast order from your room using a computer installed there. However Marriott is not in a rush to make comments on this fact yet.

In Smirnova's opinion, very complex "intelligent" systems can be a minus, instead of a plus as it often has failures. For example, in Swissotel hotels the electronic system is so advanced that not all clients can adequately use it. In any case the system is appraised on how it works in an extreme situation.