TREATMENT

Dec 1, 1999 12:00 PM, Michael Fickes

Perhaps the greatest test of hotel security arrives with a visiting VIP - a dignitary, celebrity, or prominent business person.

Sometimes hotels pass this test. Sometimes they do not.

Take the case of a major motion picture actress who stayed at a New York City hotel while attending a movie opening. The actress's stay went off without a hitch. In conjunction with her security staff, hotel security controlled the fans who gathered outside the hotel. Both hotel security and hotel staff monitored the lobby to ensure that no overly enthusiastic fans gained improper access, always backing off, though, when the actress seemed inclined to meet and talk to admirers. Hotel security officers provided courteous yet unimposing escorts when she moved around the hotel, coordinating their efforts with the actress's own security people.

The visit ended; the actress left; and several days later, an embarrassing story about a medical problem suffered by the actress appeared in a national tabloid.

The leak came from the hotel. The actress had left a doctor's prescription on the bedside table in the room. A housekeeper found the prescription and sold it to a gossip reporter.

It was an unacceptable failure of security for a hotel.

Taking no risks Jimmy Chin, director of risk management with the Peninsula New York Hotel in New York City, has laid out a procedure to prevent such problems at the Peninsula. "Our security staff always visits a VIP room first after check-out," he says. "We collect everything left behind, including fax transmissions or other documents related to confidential business. In accordance with our procedures, we also call the individual or his or her security staff to ask what to do with items we have found. In some cases, we return the materials. In other cases, we dispose of them according to a set procedure. This kind of action is both a service for the VIPs that stay with us and proper risk management for the hotel. We also have swift disciplinary actions written into our policies to deter employees from revealing any confidential information found in the trash or elsewhere."

A hotel security staff must imagine many difficult-to-predict scenarios when determining risk management procedures. As a result, hotel security procedures affect virtually every member of a hotel operating staff, from desk clerks and bell hops, to housekeepers, and food service workers. Desk clerks, for example, must learn to issue room keys and room access cards quickly and politely, but never to an unauthorized person. Housekeepers must know what to do when approached by an individual claiming to have locked himself or herself out of a room. All must learn to recognize and report suspicious activities that may pose security threats. At the same time, no one must ever compromise the quality of hospitality provided by the hotel.

Training staff in these procedures represents a never-ending task for hotel security managers. "I used to meet with each hotel shift once a week for 15 minutes to talk about procedures," says Leon Carroll, a former hotel security manager and now a security consultant with LaMar and Associates in Dania Beach, Fla. "Once a month, we had a longer meeting where we showed videos, discussed security issues, and reviewed problems that had arisen or that might arise in the coming month."

Not only is procedural training continuous, it must be pragmatic. "It's not enough to tell a housekeeper to call security if he or she sees suspicious activities," Chin says. "You have to teach people to look for specific things or activities. For example, what if you see a person testing doors in a hallway? That person might be looking for a friend's room intentionally left ajar or for an opportunity to steal a wallet."

The Peninsula's procedure in such a case requires the housekeeper to use a room pass to enter a room, lock the door, call security, and provide a physical description of the person. "We teach our staff what to observe and how to describe people," says Chin. "When we get such a call, security officers respond immediately. Once we have handled the situation, we go to the room where the housekeeper has been waiting and tell him or her that it's all clear."

Cooperation brings unity A VIP visit brings additional considerations into play, because the security director must coordinate the efforts of both the hotel's operational and security staffs with the work of the VIP's security people.

"We have more demands than the normal hotel guest," says Robert L. Oatman, president of R. L. Oatman & Associates, an executive protection firm based in Towson, Md. "I want to know about the environment around the hotel. "I feel more comfortable in certain areas of a city than others. I evaluate the kind of activity taking place on the street at the time we expect to go into the hotel.

"When looking at the hotels, themselves, I want to meet with the hotel manager, the director of security, and the concierge. I want to know what services are available and what level of cooperation they will offer. Can we go directly to the room when we arrive instead of stopping at the front desk? Will they hold an elevator for us? I want a decent restaurant inside the hotel, because there are times when we don't want to leave. Will room service come to my room first, before going to the principal's room?

"So I look at a lot of things related to the concierge side of the house - taking care of guests."

"I also check the fire doors in the exit stairwells to make sure they haven't been bolted. This is particularly important internationally. Some hotels abroad have problems with theft and bolt the fire doors. They care more about theft than fire. I have to care about fire. What fire-fighting equipment is available on our floor? Can we get out in the event of a fire?"

Minimizing access key use Room-key access also concerns Oatman. How effective are the hotel's policies regarding the issuance of duplicate keys? It is important to determine what procedures housekeepers should follow when someone claims to have been locked out of a room and wants a room door opened. "I test these systems in the hotels I look at," Oatman says. "I go to the desk and say my name is Jones, and I've locked myself out. Can I get a key? I also check to see if I can get into a room by growling at a housekeeper in the hallway."

In addition, Oatman checks procedures related to a hotel's closed circuit television (CCTV) system. "CCTV is great but is anyone monitoring the system?" he asks. "Many hotels only respond to alarms, instead of monitoring the cameras directly."

As director of safety and security of the Hilton New York, the largest hotel in the city, Paul Frederick frequently deals with requests for cooperation from VIP security professionals.

Common questions involve the policies for issuing room-keys.

Frederick enforces strict key policies. "Our front desk won't cut a key for anyone unless the individual proves that he or she is a registered guest," Frederick says. "The only acceptable proof is an identification card with a picture that we can match to the person.

"We also have strict policies for housekeeping staff. If someone approaches a housekeeper claiming to have lost a key or been locked out, the housekeeper calls security and we do the identification check."

CCTV provides extra security "As for CCTV, our policy at the Hilton is to place the monitors in the dispatch room, which is staffed 24 hours a day by a security dispatcher," Frederick says. "The dispatcher's sole job is not to watch the monitors and catch people, but we do see things and respond to potential problems before they happen."

Depending on the VIP and the nature of the problems expected, Oatman might, with the permission of the hotel's security team, consider supplementing such a hotel CCTV system with a portable system. "We'll set cameras in the hall and stairwells near the VIPs room," Oatman says. "We monitor those cameras in a command post, a room near the VIP's room. We also coordinate our efforts with the hotel's regular security patrols, room service, and housekeeping activities. In many cases, we'll give the hotel security director one of our radios and get one of theirs, so that we can have instant access to each other in the event of a problem."

In the end, hotel security arises from the cooperative efforts of hotel security, hotel operating staffs, and VIP protection professionals who bring people to hotels. Everyone is part of the team.

Most hotels employ at least two basic kinds of technology: access control in the form of room locks and closed circuit television.

Without a doubt, access control stands out as the prime security technology in the lodging and hospitality industry.

Over the past 15 years or so, magnetic strip card keys have gradually replaced metal keys in securing guests' doors. Today, a new access control technology has begun to make its way into the industry.

Hilton New York, the largest hotel in New York City, installed electronic SmartLocks on each of its 2077 guest room doors in December of 1998. The system recognizes information stored on a microchip imbedded in the hotel's SmartKeys. Developed by CISA of Faenza, Italy, the SmartLock system offers a number of benefits. First, the system's key-cards are nearly impossible to duplicate. Second, the system maintains a unique record of when a card-holder enters his or her room. Eventually, these cards will store and transfer credit and debit information about a guest's stay in a hotel, making the check-in and check-out process more convenient.

In October of 1999, Hilton New York also installed a CCTV technology recently introduced by Sensormatic of Boca Raton, Fla. According to Paul Frederick, the hotel's director of safety and security, a digital Sensormatic Intellex CPU, monitor, and keyboard govern the system. Video flows from the cameras into an Intellex unit, which digitizes the information and saves it to a hard drive. Each drive can store multiple days of video. When full, the hard drive downloads video to digital tape for archival storage. Users call up video by keying in dates and times, making it easier and faster to review incidents witnessed by cameras.

"The Intellex unit also acts as a combination multiplexer, screen splitter, and monitor," Frederick says. "You don't need a switcher, VCR, multiplexer, or monitor. Each Intellex unit can handle up to 16 cameras. At the Hilton, we use three Intellex units running 48 cameras."

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