As your plans for a new hotel property take shape, your excitement builds. You’re adding what will be a beautiful, modern property that fits very well in your portfolio. Your team has worked numerous hours to pick out details in regard to facades, furnishings, and other amenities that will make your customers swoon. The blueprints are spread across your conference room tables, with each page turned countless times to ensure EVERY detail is covered. All of the time spent on these plans is key to adding this new property to your offerings. But, have you forgotten anything? Maybe! After all, it’s a busy time. Here’s a hint…did you think about a hospitality risk management program? If not, it’s critical to do so!

Whether you’re adding that beautiful property, hiring new staff for said property, or simply taking a look at safety measures in place for your existing portfolio, you should have a great risk management plan in place to keep operations running smoothly. When reviewing your program, it’s important to think about the following:

• Culture — Having a top-notch work culture is key to success in the hospitality industry. With such high turnover in customer-facing positions, a culture that enables employees to want the best for your customers will assist everyone in meeting goals.

• Claim Reporting and Review Procedures — If you have multiple properties, do you have a single point of contact at each property for your employees to report claims? Do you have a single point of contact within the company for each employee (at each location) to report claims? Whether it’s the former or the latter, implementing procedures can help reduce employee time away from work in the event of a workers’ compensation claim.

• Safety and Loss Control — In storage locations, what items are stored on the top shelves? Could those items cause injury if they were pulled awkwardly or dropped? Do you have anti-slip mats in all locations where employees could be standing on wet surfaces (i.e. kitchen)? What about training on how to properly lift or tools to clean those hard-to-reach places?

Your plan for the above will assist you in protecting your employees. But what about the plan to protect another prized-possession…your customers?

• Is your cyber policy up to date to protect all the data coming and going within your facility (whether it’s your customers credit card information or the data transferred on the “free WIFI” you’re offering)?

• What are your check-in and check-out policies? Is there an opportunity for the transfer of customer information, room numbers, or phone numbers to people in the area with not-so-good intentions?

• Is your security system up-to-date? Do you have self-closing doors that can only be accessed by a room key? Is your securement of the property adhered to by all employees?

While these are only a few of the things your “plan” should cover, they’re quite important. At Holmes Murphy, our hospitality team focuses on these and many other risks associated with the operation of hotels and businesses within the hospitality industry. We help to Avoid, Reduce, and Transfer the above through ART, which helps our customers be the best for their customers.

So while your new property is ready to open its doors, have you completed your plan to make sure that property operates smoothly when the first guests arrive? If you’d like assistance in reviewing your “plan,” don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re at your service to help you continually be Thinking Ahead.