Keep Hotel Housekeepers Safe Without Breaking the Bank
Housekeepers provide a critical and demanding service for hotels. Their tasks are varied and can be physically challenging. They typically work alone, cleaning vacant rooms, bringing fresh towels, or making up the beds while guests are away. Hotel housekeepers put in a hard day’s work, every day. If you ask them about the biggest job negatives, though, they’ll tell you it’s not the cleaning. It’s being harassed or even assaulted by a guest.
“No one should ever be fearful doing their job, least of all associates on-property who are so vital to the success of our company and our industry,” said Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International.
Yet, according to the Chicago Tribune, a survey of nearly 500 women working at hotels and casinos in the Chicago area found that 58% of hotel workers had experienced some type of sexual harassment by guests.
The good news is that the situation is changing for the better. Cities like Seattle and Chicago have passed staff safety laws requiring hotels to supply panic and duress buttons for their employees. Other cities and even states aren’t far behind. New Jersey was the first state to pass a state-wide law. The heads of the major hotel chains Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG and Wyndham announced plans to give alert devices to any employees who work alone or in isolated situations throughout their hotels.
How do you create a good hotel duress system? You ask an expert. For 15 years, RCare has been creating the most advanced nurse call and emergency alert systems in the industry. They combined their reliable and tested technology with their advances in improved response times to create the RCare Hospitality Alert Suite.
Simply put, hotel employees need to be able to summon help immediately and easily, no matter where they are. With RCare, they can wear a crisis button on their wrist or on a lanyard and know that when pressed, help will be on the way. Of course in an emergency time is of the essence.
How do you know where exactly to send the help? RCare’s pendants can tell you exactly where the person is located with the Advanced Locating Protocol (ALP). Each alert sends information identifying who pressed the button, and exactly where the call came from (floor and location).
RCare ensures reliability for sent and received alerts with their military-grade RF, a signal protocol proven to be far more reliable than WiFi or Bluetooth. And it has a wide listening range, even in the oldest buildings with challenging infrastructure.
Although these devices are intended for personal protection, they can come in handy in other crises as well. In Seattle, a group of employees used a button to get help when they were trapped in an elevator. They’ve also been used to call for help quickly when a staff member had an injury.
In case of an emergency, you want to ensure that everyone in your building feels protected and safe. RCare’s wireless ALP Hospitality Suite can help.
Want to know more? Contact RCare today.
