There are certain criteria for checking the safety and security of your hotel that must be met. In the pre-COVID era, some of those key areas included ensuring that fire safety procedures are in place and having a professional security team on the ground. Now, we have to also put even more factors into consideration to ensure that the safety of your hotel clients and staff is upheld at all times.
To provide you with an updated and detailed hotel safety and security inspection checklist, we've put our experience with the hospitality industry as well as guidance issued in line with the WHO Operational considerations for COVID-19 management in the accommodation sector into the content of this article.
Read more: Hotel Checklists To Improve Your Hotel Service Delivery
The Hotel Saftey & Security Inspection Checklist
Below is a compiled list of the criteria to look out for when inspecting your hotel to ensure the safety and security features are in proper order. This checklist emphasizes the COVID-19 influenced criteria but, we also highlight a few other features that should be included in any efficient safety and security checklist.
Covid 19 - Hotel Safety & Security Inspection Checklist
- Ensure that all members of staff of your hotel are vaccinated (in countries where this is possible).
- Whether or not your staff is vaccinated, ensure that the cleaning crews should be trained on personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand hygiene immediately after removing the PPE and cleaning and disinfection work is completed.
- On arrival at the hotel entrance, disinfectant gel dispensers should be provided to all guests. The disinfectant gel should also be provided all around the hotel facility
- Ensure that all and any cleaning equipment made of cloths and absorbent materials, such as wiping cloths are properly discarded. A lot of cleaning and disinfection is to be going on so you need to check to make sure these materials are being properly disposed.
- Check that all air conditioners are in good condition. The proper functioning of ventilation, air exchange, and dehumidification equipment of covered pools should be crosschecked.
- To ensure proper communication of safety measures to be taken, provide short documents or informative posters around the hotel. These should include the promotion of hand-washing, social distancing, respiratory hygiene, and coughing etiquette.
- Ensure that official and updated information is made available about travel to and from countries or areas where COVID-19 is spreading.
- As recommended by WHO, the reception desk staff, if possible, should not be older or with underlying health conditions. This is as a precaution on the chance a COVID patient is encountered.
- To be prepared in the face of any incidences, make sure the reception desk has readily available the telephone numbers of the health authorities, medical centers, public and private hospitals, and assistance centers for use whenever there is the possibility that a guest may be ill.
- All dishes, silverware, and glassware should be washed and disinfected in a dishwashing machine. This should be done regularly for bot used and unused dishes.
- If your hotel has a restaurant or facility that presents a table setting, make sure the tables are arranged such that the distance from the back of one chair to the back of another chair shall be more than 1 m apart and that guests face each other from a distance of at least 1 m.
- Check that all Dispensers: disinfectant solution dispensers, hand dryers, disposable tissue dispensers, and other similar devices are functioning properly. Defective units should be rapidly repaired or replaced.
- In the hotel restaurant, food should never be handled with bare hands. The tongs and ladles used should be cleaned more frequently, and put in separate containers. Check that all buffet surfaces are cleaned and disinfected after each service.
- The coffee machines, soda machines, and others, in particular the parts more in contact with the hands of users, should be cleaned and disinfected at least after each service and more often if necessary.
Necessary equipment and medical kit
The reception desk should have a medical kit that includes the following items:
- Germicidal disinfectant/wipes for surface cleaning Tissues.
- Face/eye masks (separate or combined, face shield, goggles). Note that disposable face masks can only be used once (see Advice on the use of mask).
- Gloves (disposable)
- Protective apron (disposable)
- Full-length long-sleeved gown
- Biohazard disposable waste bag
More on safety and security checklist
This includes other safety and security features that should be inspected to ensure the safety of clients and staff.
Fire Safety
- The fire/smoke detection system should be tested and checked to be in good condition.
- As mentioned earlier, a proper communication system should be in place to make sure alerting hotel guests in the event of a problem is done immediately.
- Check the functioning of fire extinguishers and/or hose reel systems. Make sure they're clearly marked and function as they should.
- Emergency exit, stairway, and panic hardware should be inspected and all in working condition.
- Your hotel staff should have basic fire safety training
Security
- Make sure a professional security team is on duty at the hotel 24/7.
- Better safe than sorry, check your hotel CCTV cameras and coverage room to make sure they are working as they should.
- Ensure that the lighting around the outside of the hotel and within is adequate in all areas.
- Security personnel should monitor entrances to prevent unauthorized access.
Room
- Safety lock on all doors should be tested and in perfect condition.
- If the rooms are controlled by a card-key system, make sure that they function properly by testing regularly.
- Check to make sure that all the emergency fire exits on each floor are marked clearly and easy to spot.
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