Home / ANALYSIS / Hospitality Trends / Soft to hard - a hotel's security transformation

Dr John Wyatt, MBE, technical director, SDS Group
[More Images]

With so many on-going attacks on vulnerable ‘soft’ targets like five-star hotels, security is now perceived as an integral aspect for the hospitality industry, aver Dorman Followwill and Dr John Wyatt

The hospitality industry, serving both the business community and tourism, is an important component of a country’s infrastructure, playing an integral role in every modern society’s economy. Luxury hotels and resorts are popular destinations for the rich and famous, and preferred venues for many major events frequented by both national as well as international dignitaries.

The recent assaults on hotels in Indonesia (July 2009), Pakistan (June 2009) and India (November 2008), therefore came as a shocking reminder of how vulnerable people are away from home. However, it should not have been a surprise, since hotels have been the focus of attack by criminal and terrorist organisations for more than 100 years. This is because they are perceived to be ‘soft’ targets, relative to other more fortified options, and because the potential rewards to a terrorist of a successful attack on a high profile hotel is significant in terms of the desired result and related media attention. Such an incident is also capable of causing great harm to a country’s morale and economy, on top of the direct damage to the targeted hotel.

Terror attacks are characterised by the elements of surprise, speed, and lethal consequences. Experience has shown that police forces alone cannot protect all potential targets, and therefore the protection of the hospitality sector must be a shared responsibility with the private sector.

Story continues below

Advertisement

COMMENT   Did you know he is involved in the fake explosives detector fraud with the HEDD1 from Unival in Germany, as UK represent   2 Comments Read more comments »

Today’s traveller expects to be well protected when staying in a luxury hotel. In fact, the level of protection that a hotel provides may now rate of more importance to many travellers than its level of comfort. However, as security becomes an increasingly important factor in choosing a hotel, the problem arises that it is not currently easily measurable due to a lack of general consensus among so-called security experts on its definition. This means that an assessment by one expert may differ significantly from that of another, based on the range of factors taken into account. In response to the urgent need for objective, reliable information in this area, Frost & Sullivan has launched a ‘Hotel Security Excellence Programme’, to assess the standard of security measures in place in luxury hotels around the world.

To accomplish this challenging task, the firm is working in association with international counter-terrorism consultants the SDS Group, a UK-based company which is part of AIM-listed Pentagon Protection, and which has more than 20 years experience in ‘search, detect, and secure’ procedures in hot spots throughout the world. SDS’s protective measures and procedures in the hospitality sector were initially developed as a consequence of the bomb attack in the UK on Brighton’s Grand Hotel; the team has carried out many security surveys and critical risk assessments of leading hotels around the world.

The objective of this programme is to provide a comprehensive and standardised system for assessing the security levels of luxury hotels. To be truly comprehensive, this must address all types and degrees of known risk, e.g., high and low, external and internal, common and unusual. This requires not only in-depth experience and knowledge of the threats existing today, but also an understanding of how these are evolving into the risks of tomorrow. To achieve accurate standardisation, Frost & Sullivan is collaborating with key industry associations and global hotel chains and applying a rating approach, which is based on similar systems provided to other key industry sectors.