Soft Targets Are Elevated In Luxury Hotels

While large occupancy hotels focus more on conference services and large groups, however, luxury hotels are more focused in providing individualized services. Luxury hotels cater to a clientele that is very demanding in their services and products they use. This poses many problems and emphasizes soft targets. Soft Targets are those organizational entities wherein security proactive measures are not the highest within the organization's objectives whereas security measures do not coincide with budgetary constraints.

There is large human traffic in general population areas, this holds true even more so with convention hoteliers and often within management practices in convention hotels. Hotels fixed location normally with limited exit strategies, and shallow security proactive measures and perimeters are most vulnerable. Hotels in general are considered soft targets, however, within luxury hotels, this can be elevated due to the heightened service oriented environment that has potentially large threats in access.

Because of these threats, improvements must be made to address the casual environments hotels soft targets seem to convey. Security measures can improve through awareness of daily activities of guests and patrons, collaboration with local law enforcement agencies and emergency response teams, and informed and trained staff members of situational awareness and emergency response procedures. This process requires security practices that embrace the importance of asset protection and investing in the security upgrades that will provide products and services to act as proactive measures rather than reactive measures. And although, security departments are under budgetary constraints most of the time, it is often the last department that funding applies to rather than automatically planned for. The toll of asset loss has been great, especially in monetary value, however, investment in security, most particularly in the hotel industry, proves both to guests and patrons of hotels that management has a commitment to their overall safety and protection.

Stay safe!

Yesterday’s Lessons and Tomorrow’s Application

As we ushered in the twenty first century, many sectors of society held high degrees of apprehensiveness and anxiety about cyber and real world criminal activity that would disable many sectors with the Y2K bug, and other possible criminal elements. The first decade of the twenty first century introduced American to terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and those fragments that support a philosophy and direction of criminal activity that devalued life to emphasize its agenda. The ripple effect and its consequences gave way to the re-prioritization of security and its role from back drop and least concerned to the forefront of operational significance, not just in cyberspace but in many other segments, e.g. airports, subways, interstate commerce, and historic sites throughout North America.

Yes, the first decade was special and the events that transpired were memorable, but if we cannot gain insight from those lessons learned, then how are we to progress and apply those teachings into applications wherein we demonstrate our new found knowledge. Security operations and its application, regardless to its origin, is crucial to the assurance we have polices and procedures in place to employ proactive measures that prevent the destruction of assets and the obliteration of human life to support criminal agenda.

The old saying, “Time Waits for No Man” is applicable in the security industry because it says that we cannot be apprehensive nor indecisive about the lessons gained from past vulnerabilities and the implementations of those polices and procedures that corroborate conceptualization, training, and implementation, of sound direction for security that protects against terrorism, both foreign and domestic. However, the second decade appears to be heading into redundancy of the first unless we learn from our mistakes and create innovative security solutions. The lessons learned failed yet again and we are again faced with organizations that have no trepidation about engaging in activity that place humans into harms way or the probability of asset loss.

It behooves us as an industry to re-evaluate lessons learned and applications of sound management practices and policies implementation that demonstrate we can now move in the direction that alleviates ambiguity in security efficiency, effectiveness, and operational significance. Robinson Security Consultancy (RSC) finds its role in this process to be a competent information provider; information that facilitates industry practice and sound application that exudes proficiency and expertise.