Skift Take
Implementation of panic buttons, or employee safety devices, for hotel employees is a good start, but it should just be the beginning of the much broader measures the entire global hospitality industry should take to ensure the safety of every single person who walks through its doors.
An unprecedented gathering of major U.S. hotel leaders on Thursday announced a new industry-wide pledge to enforce stronger safety and security measures for their hotel employees.
Called the 5-Star Promise, five hotel brands have promised to provide their U.S.-based hotel employees with safety devices, also commonly referred to as panic buttons, as well as to enhance their respective policies, trainings, and resources for hotel safety, especially as they relate to sexual harassment and assault.
The panic buttons can range from those worn as necklaces to those on a key fob.
The announcement was made at a press conference by the chief executive officers from Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, and Wyndham as well as by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) in Washington, D.C.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta told Skift that "safety and security has never been an area that we compromise on," but he noted that in the last year especially there has been increased awareness of "sexual harassment claims across a broad range of industries and, frankly, geographies."
"I think we all sat and realized, over the last year and a half, this is an area — in terms of taking care of our team members — that we [the hotel brands] really shouldn't be competing on, and that we should have a unified and aligned, and as consistent an approach that we could," Nassetta said.
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While a handful of cities in the U.S. currently have ordinances that require panic buttons for hotel workers — New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Seattle, among them — this new pledge ensures that the devices are to be implemented nationwide by 2020. Joining the five brands with various levels of commitment to safety device implementation were AccorHotels, Best Western, Loews Hotels, Las Vegas Sands, Outrigger, Radisson, and Red Lion Hotels Corporation.
"This is such a first for our industry, to really proactively address an issue that matters deeply to our associates and to our employees," said Geoff Ballotti, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts CEO. "It’s incredible. I’ve never seen such engagement across competing brands as I have on this issue in my 30 years in the hospitality industry. I've never seen such a commitment to partnerships with such best-in-class organizations like the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, or the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
