Here is an article on risk in our businesses. So here is the question for you: How do you think we can quantify such risks? And how would this quantification of risk help manage effectively?
Lets take 48 hours to blog on this one please. Thanks.
See you soon.
http://www.resolvergrc.com/blog/top-risks-facing-the-hospitality-industry/
I think having the best staff available is the largest factor. Hotels need tight security so that guests will watched in public areas to make sure no guests are to damage property. Also, this is far-fetched but maybe hotels could start having guests sign waivers saying they are liable for certain activities if they were to occur in the duration of their stay. I think if the hotel and staff had guests under control and high security they could be more relax to put their effort into other areas of the hotel. It would help manage unnecessary costs. For example a guests suing the hotel for something that is not actually the hotel's fault. I also believe that no matter what hotels and restaurants, will always have this problem but as long as they can keep it to a minimal. Guests are always going to break the rules and "not care" but the hotel isn't their home. They feel as though they are paying to stay somewhere and they technically can do "whatever they want."
ReplyDeleteHonestly the best way to counter these risks would probably be proper training of the staff. By training the staff about risks and cleaning up, you can first of all get rid of most staff risks by informing them about the risks involved in the job and how to deal with them. Then, with the staff doing great and cleaning up the messes and making sure restaurant food is safe, and making sure everything is safe, then guests will have less risk of getting injured and sick and have a better experience. Also, training them about cyber security and to not give out any information about anyone, you can at least make cyber security safer, although hackers are always possible. Finally by doing what you are supposed and doing a good job will make it so you do not lose your brand flag. Training is definitely the main answer.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more that training and staffing are huge when it comes to these risks that seem to be very popular among businesses. For each risk there should be a plan on how to handle each and do it with in reason before it can negatively effect you company and your company's reputation.
DeleteAlthough all the risks discussed in the article are inherent to the hospitality industry, I think guest behavior is the most unpredictable risk and also the most common. We rely on guests to make our business profitable, but they also could harm the business with unexpected behaviors. An example of this would be a hotel guest damaging the room. To quantify this risk, hotels should create a log of all damages and the costs associated with repairs. From this log, managers can track how often damage occurs (example: 1 out of every 100 guests) and how much it costs to repair (example: average repair $200 and standard deviation of $50). Once a manager has this information, they will better be able to budget for repairs and maintenance and remove some of the unpredictability associated with guest behavior. Improved policies could also help to ensure that guests are held accountable for the cost of the damages, although depending on the service level it may not be appropriate to ask a guest to assume full responsibility.
ReplyDeleteTo take these risks on you need your staff to be on point this includes being trained properly in order to eliminate these risks. With doing this you can eliminate the staff risk and data privacy. The staff need to know how much of a big deal is when obtaining people's information like credit cards that it is confidential. I completely agree with the behavior of guests that management needs to have internal controls in order to prevent the issues they listed in the article. I also think with branding that a institution should have a program to detect threats before they can really harm your business.In the end staffing and training are the keys to success where these risks won't be a factor.
ReplyDeleteKylie - I completely agree with you and I like how you pointed out about branding to detect threats!
DeleteI believe these threats are all the directly due to the management. These four issues can be solved quite simply with a appropriate and timely response from management. For example, it is very obvious that data security is an enormous threat to the Hotel industry given that we collect vast amounts of data from our guests, ranging from credit card numbers to family members names. Corporations need to allocate capital and either contract a security firm, or hire outside consultants. While as of right now money may be tight for these firms, it outweighs losing repeat business due to a security breach. While the next two risks: Guests, and Staff comes down to appropriate training and compensation. Guests are unpredictable, and you cannot predict the behavior of eradicate customers, although you can train your staff to handle these instances to limit liability and to ensure the safety of everyone present at the location. As for branding, it seems like Hospitality corporations need to have a good legal department.
ReplyDeleteDylan, I definitely agree that the benefits of hiring outside companies to oversee data security. Although this is a pricey investment, the chance of losing loyal and repeat customers in this economy would be detrimental to business.
DeleteData privacy, branding, guest behavior, and staff are the four main issues that cause travelers hesitation when traveling. I believe many of these issues, roughly 80% of the issues, could be taken care of just with more conscientious decisions. The staff needs to treat each transaction as it were their own.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do believe the recession and the economy do play a big impact on the rate of travelers. Traveling is expensive. It is also expensive for the providers such as hotels to be able to fix the four main problems. Hotels, and the hospitality industry, needs to make sure they are hiring beneficial people to their company and doing background checks to avoid theft. They need to cut costs in unnecessary areas and increase spending on the top four requests/complaints of guests.
I agree with the four main points that you stated, but even with the recession and the economy the way it is, I feel that companies focus should firstly be to train the people that are going to be representing their brand, and like you said they need to be doing background check etc. So yea I definitely agree with you
DeleteI think these risk can be minimized in a couple of ways. The data privacy risk is a huge growing risk especially, like said in the article, companies are saving personal information of guest. The only real way to control that is by assuring the guest by having the most up to date and protective software. Your staff has to be properly trained to handle guest information and make sure that it is properly secure. Guest behavior can only be monitored then acted upon. Companies could impose more fines or have more security throughout their property to monitor guest's actions. When it comes to the staff, you really have to work on building organizational commitment. If you can build a good relationship between an employee and the employer it makes it a lot easier to keep them. Finally branding is very important. Building a brand recognition is huge in this industry. If they can properly brand themselves, they can build a reliable client base and keep them coming back.
ReplyDeleteI agree that data protection needs to be addressed. Companies could potentially take a very large hit on online bookings from the company website if there is news of data theft. This would cause guests to choose to stay somewhere else or to book through a different site.
DeleteI also do think that staffing can have a big influence on what effect the risks will have on your business. Training your staff does not only give them the knowledge to sell themselves which is good for your brand, they also get the awareness on how their attitude affects the business. They will be aware that taking "just" one towel actually does have a lot of effect and definitely adds up. Guest behavior is something you cannot really control, you can't tell the guest what they must do and what not, you do have the ability to influence their behavior my showing the right attitude. If we talk about data privacy, there will always be hackers that can get to your information but by making sure, and again teach your staff that giving just a little bit of information to other guests or friends/family can have a big affect on the hotel. It can result in lawsuits.. And this is where the cycle starts again.
ReplyDeleteTraining is indeed a huge way to lower risks of hotels. Like you said, guest behavior is the hardest to control and predict. Staffing and data privacy are huge risks that will always exist, but with the right training for employees they will know how big of an impact stealing or sharing information is and the severe consequences such as termination of their job.
DeleteRisk will also be apparent in the Hospitality Industry and out of the risks explained in the article, some can be prevented and some are out of companies controls. Guest behavior is a huge risk hotels and restaurants have to deal with. Guests can act in ways that destroy property and also that harm or affect other guests stays. It is the hardest risk to manage in my opinion, but very important. Staffing is another huge risk that hotels and restaurants encounter. That is a more controllable risk, as companies can choose to hire certain people or not. They interviewing, training, and managing process can be tightened and changed in order to lessen risk. Hiring the right staff to work is extremely hard, but needs to be a priority. Hiring the wrong person can hurt the company, such as if the employee was stealing from the hotel/restaurant. Also a good staff can help control guest behavior to a certain point. With good training and ways to deal with customers, hopefully guest satisfaction will be high and less negative guest behavior will occur. Also when guests behave poorly, such as throwing things off balconies, good training will allow staff members to address that problem in a timely and professional way.
ReplyDeleteAs the economy improves it can benefit and harm the hospitality industry. It could benefit the industry in that more people will travel and spend money. With all the risks associated majority of these risks can be reduced if not prevented all together with the help of management. Training should be taken seriously and a well designed program about safety incorporated in training can help reduce injuries in a hotel. When guests check-in to a hotel, often times they are requested to sign and initial a form that informs the guest about a fee that must be paid if damage is done to the room. If employees emphasis this at check-in, it could benefit the hotel and reduce damages all together. With an increasing economy it's important that management give incentives to their employees or a pay rise to stay competitive in the job market. Lastly, data privacy is something that concerns travelers. It's important that hotels have a lot of security on the software used to access guest information.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a major risk for the hospitality industry is branding. It is important for large companies to take pride in their brand image and do everything that they can to maintain it in all locations. This brings up the issue of staffing also because these companies need to devote time and resources to train all employees so that each guest will experience a similar thing when staying at any of the brand locations. Brand can be ruined very quickly, but it takes a very long time to build up. This is important to remember because many people will forget about how important having a strong brand image is. I personally always choose to stay at a hotel that I had heard positive things about and brand image is also very important when choosing a restaurant. If I have heard that there has been food poisoning, I would not go, even if the event happened 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI think that four of those risks are really important and the risks are related. When well trained staffs give guests and travelers a good service, guest behavior would decrease the risk of guest behavior. After guests and travelers have a quality service, the brand value of the company will be increased. Also, well trained staffs are more skillful to prevent data and identify theft. From these, I think having good staffs are the best way to reduce risks. Data privacy and guest behavior are caused by unskilled employees. By extension well trained staffs could lead to build a positive image of the company and that would result in strong brand image and market power.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of risk are clearly visible after the fact that something bad has happened. Installing a new computer system seems beneficial when customer processing time is reduced and data are efficiently organized but it is not until a breach occurs do we realize that there is indeed a hole in the fence. There exist certain types of guest who seek to take advantage of hotels by getting into “accident” or playing the “unsatisfied guest”. As seen in hospitality law, there are some laws that were created only after certain circumstances has occurred and the legal system realizes that they have not established the black and white line about what is right or wrong in that situation. The hotel staff plays an essential role in sustaining the hotel business and employers genuinely want to believe that their employees’ have the hotel’s best interest at heart. However, as opportunities abound, loyalty isn’t as prevalent as it used to be and some employees believe they can easily leave in search of another job. When employees’ goals do not align with that of the establishment they work for, there is no sense of attachment; therefore they do not feel too bad about profiting from the hotel. Industry practitioners should also be careful about the concept of branding. It can be a powerful tool when used wisely but if managed carelessly, it can fall short of guests’ expectation and run the risk of damaging the image of the brand.
ReplyDeleteThere is no easy way to quantify risks but managers can always look at past occurrences and attempt to anticipate what may happen and prepare as best as possible. By trying to gauge the level of risk present in each decision, managers can then compare them and make a choice based on the tradeoff between return and risk. For example, there are companies that hire security firms to test their security and provide them with weak entrance point that can be further guarded to ensure data security and confidentiality. In terms of guests, I think if the staff respects them and treats them with sincerity, most guests will reciprocate. In the rare case that the hotel encounters that guest that is just impossible to appease, hoteliers can only try their best to accommodate them. To a certain extent, integrity and honesty can be instilled within the work environment by being stricter in the hiring process. As much as the turnover rate is high in hotels and that hotels are always in search for new employees to replace those that have left or got promoted, there is no excuse for skipping the pre-hiring screen that consists of background checks and drug tests to ensure that you hiring the right people to be part of your team. Training, recognition, and appreciation also goes a long way to remind employees that employers value their effort and hard work. When choosing which brands to associate with, owners will have to do their research to ensure that the chosen brand is headed toward the same direction as they intend to.
Not only in business but in every decision you make in life carries certain risk, it is often up to our own discretion and sense of judgment that guides us in our choices. And whenever we make good or bad choices, we learn from it and keep moving forward, becoming better versions of ourselves as we grow.
I have to agree that training is a very key step in any business. Training can help any employee prevent something bad that could happen or deal with something properly that has already happened. The horrible thing about the news is it mainly talks about the "bad news" so one thing that goes wrong with your company can ruin your brand for good. Since we know of previous mistakes made by other companies we can use these has way to train and lessen the risk to our company.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many risks that could destroy or harm a business in the hospitality but there are ways to prevent it. I think that having a good management team is the key to preventing these risks. With a good management team, the business could pick out a good staff that will do their jobs right. There should be a well-trained security team and well-placed security cameras that ensures none of the guests are damaging the property. Also, with a good security system, it could prevent employee theft. If any of the staff tries to harm the business in the anyway, he/she should be fired. The business could also make guests sign some sort of form that states if any hotel property is damaged, the guest is responsible for it. This way, the hotel not have to pay for the damages caused by guests. There should also be a well-trained front office and technology team. Dealing with guest information is very important and employees should be very careful. Knowing how to secure guest information the right way can prevent the risk of hackers and cyber criminals.The staff and management is still the key to preventing these risks and without a good team, the business is open to many risks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that proper training and management can properly handle the risks stated in the article. Once management is aware of the risks that are affecting the hospitality industry, they can correctly train their staff to handle situations that may arise. Depending on the location, different levels and types of staff may be needed. As for branding, hotels that do not lie under a well known flag may need to do more advertising and make sure word of mouth stays positive for their property. Plenty of hotels without a well known "brand name" are able to be successful, but I believe management plays a large role in handling marketing. Overall, in my opinion, handling risks effectively should be the job of all staff. Management should be properly managing the staff to prevent issues before they arise.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion training your staff will greatly cut risk. That is why a lot of big companies spend a good amount of training and staffing so they can learn proper techniques. With your staff knowing how to clean up the right way, they are then able to learn and adapt to lowering guest risk, such as food poisoning and injuries. There really isn't anything that the hotels and restaurants can make the guest do, to be more safe in their stay. So overall I think that training is really the best solution.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this because of if staff is train properly the overall risk of the hospitality company decreases significantly
DeleteI think staff is the biggest control factor in this article. The first thing that needs to be in place is solid management. Management can not simply train employees, but rather always monitor their progress and behavior. To be sure employees are not working against you, make sure staff feels appreciated, and understands the significance of their job on this company. Employees who are well trained will maintain the expectations of the brand every shift. We are a service industry, that is what we have to offer is generally intangible. People choose to dine at Olive Garden because they know what their meal will taste like every time. Olive Garden needs dedicated and passionate employees to maintain brand standards. Managers need to look at the past and learn from situations. We can not control how much a guest drinks before they return to the hotel at night, but we can make sure staff is at the front desk to notice the intoxication. This way staff can escort the intoxicated guest to the room, which may help avoid numerous incidents. The situation in the article could have been avoided and if the guest is loud when going to the room, you have staff aware of the situation to apologize to upset guests.
ReplyDeleteThere will never be a way for companies to completely eliminate inherent risks in their business, but there definitely are ways they can decrease the amount of risk. I think the risk that imposes the most threat on the business is the data privacy. This kind of risk is detrimental to the business and its customers. If my credit card info got hacked when I stayed at a hotel, I would 100% never return. They would have lost my business. The other significant risk, guest behavior, will surely cause a lot of financial lawsuit issues for a company, but I think loosing customers is worse. Companies need to make sure they hire the correct employees (background checks, references, etc) to help eliminate this problem.
ReplyDeleteI think the best was to decrease the amount of risk is to have the best training for employees. How employees handle situations with guests can impact guest behavior. For example, if an employee is ignoring a guest, the guest is going to get angry and could complain, which in result can loose profit in result. Employees need to be trained to be courteous and always helping guests. Employees can also be trained on appreciating the brand they work for. Managers need to step up and start training their employees well.
ReplyDeleteI agree, employee training should be paramount in a firm’s priorities. Not only that, a firm must also carefully select its employees and make sure it gets qualified and competent workers. Quality employees will not only raise guest satisfaction, it will also guard against risk. Good employees are less likely to take actions that could lead to guest injury. They will not be careless and will not be a liability. Also, they will even take proactive by making changes or spotting inadequacies in a property or a system.
DeleteI believe this story did a good job of displaying and quantifying potential risks in the hospitality market but, I believe many of the risks mentioned have been problems for quite a long time.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to help keep customer information, guests, staff, and your brand safe is to ensure that your staff has been trained properly to identify and address these potential problems. The author spoke about a manager possibly losing good staff members due to the improving economy and the temptation of other positions. In these cases, the employer must find a way to reward their employees, and find a way to tell the best employees that their effort is appreciated and will be sorely missed if they leave.
I am in a similar situation, not due to the economy, but my boss at my current job is trying to convince me to stay and work for him after graduation but my interests in our field would not be satisfied if I stayed. Thus, though i agree that rewarding employees and showing appreciation for your employees is extremely important no matter what, it may not always work in convincing staff members to stay where they are. You never know what the reason for them leaving is going to be and thus I think that to only blame the improving economy is too much of an assumption and a generalization. I think that staff issues are issues that must be addressed on an individualized basis.
DeleteIt is evident that all of these issues apply to the hospitality industry. However I think that the most important part of that to manage your risks best is employee training. If employees are trained properly then this can do a number of things. It can cut down in risks in which theft can occur as well as identity theft as well. Also it can make sure that all the measures are taken so that the brand keeps it's reputation as well as making sure the employees are safe while on the job. Guest behavior is definitely important as well because actions can be taken by the guest that to then end up hurting the brand name. The security of the guests is key as well because if the hotel cannot keep the guests personal information private then how can they possibly trust hospitality company at all.
ReplyDeleteI think that the main thing in minimizing risk in the hospitality industry comes down the proper training of employees. Data privacy is one of the top risks that companies face and if employees can be trained to prevent data and identity theft their companies will way ahead of the curve. Data privacy is becoming a huge issue because more and more companies are starting to come of with different rewards programs and things of that nature that require the company to take down a plethora of personal information like credit card numbers or social security numbers. Being properly trained to combat cyber hackers will help companies to protect their brand from unwanted damages. Along with proper training, companies also need to figure out ways to retain their employees as well. There are many different ways to do this, some may higher wages, while others may take steps to empower their employees which can make a big difference in the attitude and motivation of these workers. Keeping employees with the company is becoming harder due to an improved economy and different career options that never used to be available. Overall, the number of risks facing every company is the hospitality industry is increasing. There are many steps that companies can take, they just have to make sure that they are choosing the correct options, and in doing so, they can keep the company on the rise as well.
ReplyDeleteAfter analyzing these risks, I believe that data privacy and staff are the most controllable. These two risks can be properly handled with effective management and training. As far as data privacy, I believe investing in an outside security company to oversee data protection is crucial. There is no reason to risk hackers stealing guest information. Although this would not directly be the companies fault, guest's would have a hard time acting sympathetic to hotel management. If guest security has been breached, the chance of a customer returning is definitely slim. Proper and effective training would help minimize staff risks. Managers need to work to empower employees in unforeseen situations. Proper training and staff empowerment would help staff act more effectively and efficiently in situations that could arise with guest behaviors. While unpredictable guest behaviors is definitely a problem, hotels must remember to think from the guests' perspective. If management "scolds" guests then guests will become easily offended and not return. Lastly, hotel branding problems should be handled by a well trained legal and public relations department.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I feel that these risks very much come with the nature of the business and though there are ways that companies can go about trying to avoid these risks with their utmost abilities, some things cannot be controlled from the inside. As far as data privacy goes, obviously the information stored is necessary to the business transactions and is necessary in order to provide services. The only way of controlling this would be investing in a high quality safety program that would ensure to protect the information of the company's customers to the best of its ability. The success rate of the data privacy programs could be quantified possibly in the form of a ratio comparing the number of times that a system tried to get hacked vs. the number of times the hacking was successful. This could show which programs are the most secure, which could help when management is putting these programs into place.
ReplyDeleteAs far as guest behavior goes, it is very difficult to predict how a guest is going to act. I feel that there is no way to quantify a ratio regarding guest behavior since guest behavior varies so drastically.
The next risk dealt with staffing. This too seems as though it would be difficult to quantify. I feel that as long as a company is doing its best to keep its employees well trained and well aware of how to act and what to do in certain situations, I think that a successful staff is a good way to ensure a successful company.
Finally, branding issues were mentioned. I do not feel as though I know enough about the issues that come with branding and partnering companies, but from the article, I would say that when entering any type of brand agreements, the companies really need to pay attention to the agreements and not make any silly mistakes that could cost them big time in the future.
I agree with the majority of the people in saying that proper and CONSISTENT training, as well as employee benefits, is going to be the most effective means to managing risks. This includes training of management and all employees. It's important in the hospitality industry to pay attention to our employees almost as much or a little more than our guests. If there are dedicated employees who feel empowered and confident, it will decrease the human error while using important data and other softwares which normally would be the result from just carelessness. Happy employees also care more about pleasing the guests as well as motivating them to come up with ideas to be more aware of guest behavior. Effective management can also minimize the risks of improper guests - making sure there are enough staff on each shift to control certain instances or even being present and preventing such situations. Also if employees are satisfied with their company, they won't be looking elsewhere for jobs. It's very important in hospitality industry, where guest privacy is essential and hotel assets are high, to have loyal employees who have a want to help the company succeed instead of not caring if it fails.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to quantify these risks because there are so many variables. There are a multitude of unknowns, most of which one can assume are unknown unknowns. In regards to the data piracy, a firm must assess how much data its cyber system holds and how sensitive or valuable those data are to criminals and to customers. A firm must then determine how secure its systems are, how likely a criminal would target that firm, and how likely an attack would be successful if targeted. Lastly, a firm would have to estimate the costs if an attack is successful, both monetarily and to the firm’s public image. Using this information, the firm can decide if the benefits of having these cyber systems are worth the risks. To quantify the risks of lawsuits from guests because of injury is just as difficult. The firm must assess the safety of its property and the competency of its employees. Even then, it is impossible to predict the behavior of guests, other than inferences through past experience and observations. Staff risk is easier to quantify. A firm can determine the satisfaction of its employees and understand the type of benefits, salary, and work environment it offers. Then, the firm can assess the same of its competitors and determine the likelihood that employees will leave. Also, the risk of theft is known through experience and gathering inventory. Risks to branding can be avoided easily by carefully surveying the market. A firm should make sure that it does not infringe on any other firm’s brand; also, a firm should remain vigilant that no firm infringes on theirs.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will ever be possible to completely get rid of risk 100%. However, I think it is possible to limit important risk by taking the right approach. For one, training your staff the proper way is very important. The reason for this is in our industry, your staff is dealing with important private information from the customer. If your staff is not trained right on these procedures it could cost your company a law suit if a customer looses its identity or bank information. This also leads into cyber security. You can also minimize risk if you put the right security on your company's systems. This will keep hackers from stealing private information from your customers as well. Although, we will never be able to completely get rid of risk, there are many procedures that companies can make to minimize them.
ReplyDeleteI believe these four different risks are all valid and should definitely be taken into consideration when thinking about how to best run or manage a hotel, or any hospitality institution. Data security and cyber security is one of the largest growing fields for IT professionals. This is because as time goes on our lives are being recorded more and more online. Hackers and other people know this and thrive on it. If your hotels information is hacked and peoples financial information or other information is stolen, it diminishes trust in that company by consumers tremendously. Branding is also an interesting threat in the hospitality industry, especially in hotels, because the people running the hotels usually have nothing to do with the actual brand. For example a Hilton hotel may be run by Interstate Hotel Management. The vast majority of guests do not realize this. So in my opinion the management teams themselves can be more of a risk than the brands. The other risks discussed do not seem to be as important to me because these types of problems have been around forever, and not just in the hospitality industry.
ReplyDeletethere are a lot of things to do decrease the amount of the risk, but employee is training is the most important. employee training is worth to the investment, and training staff is most essential but also important related to hospitality business. with the training staff more efficiently, hospitality industry can decrease the amount of the risk, but can increase the guest loyalty, employee retention, and also better bottom line. since bottom line is most related to the customers or travelers which are can get most value. there is not a perfect solution to decrease the amount of the risk, but with having a better training employee, it will be more easily in the future for the company.
ReplyDeleteEntering to any industry to do business carries certain risks. Companies and government understand this and that is why contracts and regulations exist to limit liability of firms to some of these threats. Regarding information fraud firms invest a lot of money in secure networks and most of the times when fraud happens is because of employees or customer's wrongdoing. As the economic panorama improves consumer confidence will also increase which affects positively they way people relates to companies a the point to consume and do business. Threats exists every time we engage in any type of business, it is management's responsibility to control the impact of this threats in their business model to ensure confidence from employees and customers.
ReplyDeleteBecause our hospitality industry changes constantly, which cause our risk factors to change. To decrease the amount risk in our industry, I believe, as many others have stated above, that training your employees well will ultimately decrease the amount of risk. Due to your staff being the mostly front line employees, they are the ones determine how the guest reacts to certain situations. Also, training will help with branding and how they want to be viewed in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, this comes down to data privacy, the employees are the ones who deal with the guest information. So training your staff well in a way that you want them, they will determine the amount of risk.
ReplyDeleteAll four of these examples present major risks that hospitality businesses must be aware of in order to minimize the risks. I think the biggest risk is data privacy. If this is not managed properly than it ties in with the risk of staff and branding. Companies must make sure that financial and personal information are kept confidential. If this system is ever hacked, then the company will be liable for the money stolen, which could result in millions considering the amount of credit cards used at a hotel. If credit card information is hacked, then the public will have a negative perception of that brand. Once you have a bad name, it takes a while to recover. BP is a prime example of this, as they are still struggling to recover from their oil spill.
ReplyDeleteAlso, companies must have trustworthy and well trained staff that interact with guests and handle financial records. Management must ensure that employees are not stealing credit card information and using it for personal gain because the hotel is liable for any theft related to that. Proper background checks are required to avoid this. If this ever occurred, then management must take immediate action in order to minimize risk and liability.
The best way to quantify risk is by hiring the right people and proper training for those people. Privacy concerns for the hotel industry is a big challenge, because of hacking and different scams. This summer, there was a prevalent scam happening in the different casinos. My dispatcher also received the same scam for our room service, but was trained well enough to not divulge the information he was seeking. Three of the other casinos were not as lucky, however. Through proper hiring and training, the hotel will be a much safer plus for and secure place for guests and employees.
ReplyDeleteAdequate training is paramount in all industries, and its one of the biggest levers in controlling risk. Aligning company values and missions is very important, and training should be focused on quality, not cost. That being said, the IT field is expanding very rapidly, making data and cyber security advance in ways they could not before. Training programs can also be developed and improved through these growing IT fields.
ReplyDeleteRegulations and legal contracts are set in place to help decrease risk, but a company can only predict so much out of their guests' behavior! It IS management's job to eliminate threats and create and enforce good relationships with customers (through proper training!) -- ultimately leading to better customer
demeanor when acting in businesses.
ps - It's Lis Wert
My main concern for the Hospitality industry would be the cyber crime risk. With the people moving towards a newer a better technological world, it would be essential for major companies to keep up. This would be increasing the security risk of the companies which would be then reliable for all their customers. The best solution in my opinion would be to have the best possible firawall and anti-spyware system that money can buy because thinking of the future is what matters. So is there "really" a complete solution to cyber crime? Yes and No, because at the end of the day, no matter what you still gota take that little bit of risk and hope your system is better then the hackers.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger the hotel company the more risks there are going to be. As guest and employee count increase the more chances there are for risks and incidents to occur. Somethings are going to happen regardless but others are more controllable. For example, there are always going to be guests incidents. They may break something, they may get injured on property or they eat something that makes them sick. However I believe the more training staff has to respond to these risks are they way we can control such issues. If management knows how to respond quickly and efficiently to any incident that occur the damages can be minimized. Staff needs to be aware and trained how to respond to these sort of threats also.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in order to quantify these risks a hotel must hire the right people, and invest in training for these employees. Since one of the major risks hotels face is guest behavior, a property should be equipped with the proper personnel to assure that guests are behaving adequately. For example, security, as several people have mentioned above, is key. If there are security personnel constantly walking around the property, guests are probably going to be less likely to misbehave in public areas. Another idea is making guests sign a contract stating that they will leave the room the way they found it, not including anything that should be taken care of by housekeeping, but if anything major is missing or destroyed they should be held liable. However, I do understand it can be difficult because many guests have the mentality that they are paying to stay at a hotel therefore they should be able to do what they want, but sometimes it can go too far.
ReplyDeleteI believe staff is one of the biggest risks. The main focus of the hospitality industry is customer service which your front line employees are providing. The risks regarding your employees can be quantified in many ways. The turnover rate can be measured at the end of each year. If the turnover rate is high, management can have short employee meetings. Marriott serves as a good example where they have employee "pow-wows" every morning. From housekeeping to front desk, all employees are expected to attend. Each week, a different employee holds the meeting with entails games about customer service, important issues and Marriot facts. This helps the employee feel empowered and valued by the company, which in turn hopefully results in a lower turnover rate. Another way to eliminate risk related to employees is to increase surveillance and security. For example, if a front desk employee counts a drawer at the end of a shift, a manager should have to sign off on the money before it is dropped. Its also important to keep track of all inventory in all departments on a weekly basis. As the article states, stolen property can add up but by keeping track of it theft can be eliminated.
ReplyDeleteI believe staff is one of the most important risk. At the same time, I believe hiring the right employees with the proper training will lower the four risks which the article have mentioned. Privacy concerns and data theft have always be the most sensitive issue with in the hospitality industry; however, we will be able to prevent them happen by hiring the right people who have clean criminal record with great training. Those trainings should not only prevent internal employees theft, those should also raise employees attention on hacking and identify theft. We could lower the guest behavior risk by hiring security within the hotels and train them to prevent guest misbehavior from happen. We could also lower the staff risk by hiring more permanent employees, training them to be more motivated, and keeping them with good innovative strategies. I believe hiring the right employees with proper training will prevent lots of risk from happening.
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