One Year After Pledge, More Than 5,000 Hotel Properties Have Deployed Safety Devices For Employees

One Year After Pledge, More Than 5,000 Hotel Properties Have Deployed Safety Devices For Employees

Large hotel chains adopted new measures to combat sexual harassment and increase safety for workers in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

One year after the hotel industry announced a pledge to increase security for its employees and protect against sexual harassment, more than 5,000 properties have deployed safety devices this year with another 15,000 properties planning to do the same in 2020. 

In 2018, executives from Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, IHG and Wyndham announced that their companies would adopt the 5-Star Promise, a series of actions aimed at decreasing sexual harassment of employees by colleagues or guests. While 17 companies originally signed on to the pledge, a total of 56 have now said they will work to adopt the policies, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association

“I’m proud of the progress we have made as an industry over the past year, and we will continue our efforts to ensure America’s hotels are safe places for all those who work in and visit them,” Chip Rogers, the president and CEO of AHLA, said in a statement. 

Those five actions included developing industry-wide training materials on safety, security and sexual harassment; implementing mandatory anti-harassment policies available in multiple languages; providing ongoing training on sexual harassment; broadening partnerships with organizations that fight human trafficking and sexual violence; and providing employees with safety devices to help them feel secure while on the job. 

That last promise was the focus of the AHLA’s announcement on Monday. Labor union leaders have been calling for the distribution of safety devices for years, but also told The Los Angeles Times that they were concerned about which products the hotel chains were distributing. Some may offer electronic panic buttons that employees could call for help regardless of their location, and others might be distributing devices that make loud noises, including whistles. 

“It’s a step in the right direction but it’s no guarantee to bring help unless it’s a real panic system,” said Kurt Petersen, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 11, a union representing 30,000 workers in hotels, airports, restaurants and more in California and Arizona. 

In the AHLA’s announcement, the organization said that participating properties are determining the best security devices according to their specific circumstances. Some of the options range from devices with loud noise emitting features to emergency GPS trackers, according to the statement. 

“This approach reflects the segmented and diverse nature of the hotel industry as well as the considerable structural differences in building design and layout, construction materials and WiFi network capabilities within the industry,” the statement reads. 

Rosanna Maietta, a spokesperson for the AHLA, told the Times that she does not know a hotel company that is only giving employees whistles to address the harassment issue. 

“Every solution will differ per property based on the needs of the employees and the type of hotel, so a hotel on the side of a highway will have a different solution than a high-rise in Manhattan,” Maietta said. 

Panic buttons are required in some parts of the country, including Washington, D.C., Seattle, New York and Chicago. Other cities in California are considering the initiative, and Long Beach approved the measure in November 2018. 

About the Author

Haley Samsel is an Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Maximizing Your Security Budget This Year

    Perimeter Security Standards for Multi-Site Businesses

    When you run or own a business that has multiple locations, it is important to set clear perimeter security standards. By doing this, it allows you to assess and mitigate any potential threats or risks at each site or location efficiently and effectively. Read Now

  • New Research Shows a Continuing Increase in Ransomware Victims

    GuidePoint Security recently announced the release of GuidePoint Research and Intelligence Team’s (GRIT) Q1 2024 Ransomware Report. In addition to revealing a nearly 20% year-over-year increase in the number of ransomware victims, the GRIT Q1 2024 Ransomware Report observes major shifts in the behavioral patterns of ransomware groups following law enforcement activity – including the continued targeting of previously “off-limits” organizations and industries, such as emergency hospitals. Read Now

  • OpenAI's GPT-4 Is Capable of Autonomously Exploiting Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

    According to a new study from four computer scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, OpenAI’s paid chatbot, GPT-4, is capable of autonomously exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities without any human assistance. Read Now

  • Getting in Someone’s Face

    There was a time, not so long ago, when the tradeshow industry must have thought COVID-19 might wipe out face-to-face meetings. It sure seemed that way about three years ago. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.” 3

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure. 3

  • Compact IP Video Intercom

    Viking’s X-205 Series of intercoms provide HD IP video and two-way voice communication - all wrapped up in an attractive compact chassis. 3