Hotel & Motel Management - January 7, 2008 - (Page 8) 8 Legally Speaking orations can be in promoting a party attitude, they present their share of perils. Lack of attention to detail when installing, displaying or removing adornments can result in guests tripping, suffering injury and suing. “Ka-ching” is not the image your decorations are intended to create. Here are some tips gleaned from lawsuits generated by such mishaps. These suggestions can help guests and lodging facilities avoid pain and suffering. The immediate task at hand is removal of holiday décor. While unhooking and taking down garlands, menorahs and noisemakers, and before packing them in storage crates, some items will temporarily litter the floor of the area they graced. Likewise, tools used to help dismantle the display might be carelessly placed around the work site. Avoid causing injury to unsuspecting or inattentive guests by blocking off the area with stanchion barriers. Protect employees by inspecting for cracks and other hazards. After removing the decorations, watch for leftover debris on the floor, like bits of orna- H&MM January 7, 2008 | HotelMotel.com Decorations can be dangerous IN THE details Decorate with care Be aware of potential hazards Check power cords Watch out for fire hazards By Karen Morris H&MM Columnist have big shoes to fill. Gulp. Here goes. We are on the threshold of a new season. The 2007 holiday season is over and hotels are preparing to welcome school vacationers, skiers and midwinter getaway travelers. Changes in seasons are marked in many facilities by decorations that complement the times. Themed parties held year-round also prompt creative displays, transforming banquet rooms to the likes of Polynesian paradises with hanging tiki torches or Harry Potter-inspired scenes, complete with capes, wands and stuffed owls. As fun and effective as dec- I ments, tacks or nails. Thoroughly sweep and vacuum the area before returning it to service. Once the decorations are down and boxed, take them directly to their storage place. If left on stairs or elsewhere, they become traps for trips and falls. The storage area also presents potential for accidents. Address clutter that interferes with easy access. Ignored trapdoors leading to attic storage spaces have been known to fall on fingers, or worse, heads. Concerning installation, whatever the season and whatever the affair, adornments should be hung by the chimney with care. The task should be assigned to responsible employees who appreciate the hazards. Affix the decorations securely to protect against falling. This is particularly true around dance floors and areas with high guest traffic. Placement should not obscure exit signs or hide items that could cause a risk to guests if not visible, such as ornamental wall pieces or a stair located in an unusual spot. Hang decorations out of reach of youngsters. Beware of decorations in the vicin- ity of ceiling lights. The result can be dim illumination rendering walkways and stairwells unsafe or, worst case, resulting in combustion. Wiring and extension cords must be situated to avoid tripping. Also, be sure available electricity is adequate and power cords are in good shape. A fire started by overloaded plugs or cords can spell disaster for a hotel. And when the facility is down for the count, it still might have to defend lawsuits by neighboring or lobby businesses that suffered damage from smoke, soot and water. Yikes! If your display achieves its goal, guests will be awed and their attention diverted. Extra caution in the maintenance of the area is in order. Sometimes party hosts bring their own decorations or centerpieces. Upon arrival for the affair, their arms will be full. Offering assistance from the lobby to the party room can prevent trips and falls. If the laden guest is directed to use the freight ele- vator, make sure it is in suitable condition. These lifts typically are not maintained with guest use in mind. An experienced employee should accompany the guest and operate the device. Develop a policy for party hosts to follow concerning permissible types of decorations, methods of installation and rules for dismantling. Decorations serve the fun function of enhancing ambience and creating festive moods. If handled carelessly, they can create hazards and lead to lawsuits. With attention and planning they can be installed, enjoyed and removed without incident. Here’s to a safe New Year! hmm@questex.com Karen Morris is a lawyer, municipal judge and Distinguished Professor at Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., where she teaches hospitality law. Contact her at kmorris222@yahoo.com. Cornell Insights Online packages’ value counters price transparency IN THE details Online travel packages Growth potential exists Look-to-book ratios booming Improve “IT horsepower” By Glenn Withiam H&MM Columnist elling hotel rooms directly to customers is just one of the ways the Internet has changed hotel room distribution. With a little help from back-of-thehouse information technology, a hotel property or chain will S be able to plug into the huge and expanding market of online packaged tour sales. However, as explained in a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, Internet distribution brings a danger along with its considerable promise. The danger: price transparency. The promise: packages that shroud transparency. The report, “Travel Packaging: An Internet Frontier,” by William Carroll, Robert Kwortnik and Norman Rose, is available at no charge from the center at chr.cornell.edu. Carroll, Kwortnik and Rose point out that tour packages still are assembled by tour operators and sold in the traditional fashion by travel agents, but the big growth potential lies in sales to individual customers, particularly those who use the Web to assemble their own tour packages. Customer-driven package assembly becomes even more intriguing when vendors respond to customers’ tour wishes as expressed on social networking sites. While some travelers will always purchase packages based on price concessions alone, the report suggests a strategy based on offering travel components that enhance customers’ value perceptions, such as travel services that mesh with each other and that respond to consumers’ stated desires. By creating an integrated, high-value package, tour packagers can offset price- oriented purchase approaches. The Internet allows consumers to check prices repeatedly, both on your Web site and on your competitors’ sites. Such activity has caused lookto-book ratios to skyrocket to as high as 500-to-1 in some cases. Carroll and his co-authors suggest that combining your rooms with other services— whether in your hotel or from allied vendors—interferes with price benchmarking. Beyond that, with preferences shown on Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, you can focus on your customers’ desires even before they log on to your site. Another factor that interferes with your pricing power is the explosion in the number of vendors, packagers and other agents offering travel packages. A big challenge arising here is that your brand can be lost in the plethora of purveyors, even though hotel companies themselves are using the Internet effectively to promote their brands. Not only do some Web sites (e.g., Priceline, Hotwire) intentionally obscure the brand names of their travel offerings, but brands—or, more to the point, brand loyalty—can be overlooked as customers seek out packages from the Web sites that do disclose brands (such as Expedia and Travelocity). Beyond that issue is the larger question of what the brand is in the consumer’s view. Is the brand that of See Online | page 20 http://www.HotelMotel.com http://chr.cornell.edu
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.