EDITOR’S LETTER
Get the right checks
CONTRIBUTORS
SUZANNAH ROBIN
Suzannah is an alcohol
and drug safety expert at
AlcoDigital. She has helped
businesses implement
testing policies for the last
14 years
Could there be a worse event than a preventable
death inside your hotel property? This month we
reported on an outbreak of Legionnaires disease
at the Feathers Hotel in Ludlow, Shropshire. The
hotel closed temporarily after taking advice from
Public Health England (PHE) in the West Midlands
and Shropshire Council, and laboratory tests from
DEBORAH HEATHER
Deborah is the director of
Quality in Tourism - the
accommodation assessment
scheme for VisitEngland.
Deborah manages a
team of more than 40
accommodation assessors,
who each grade some 300
properties a year
the hotel subsequently showed links between the Legionella bacteria
found in the water samples and the two guests who stayed there.
The first guest, a woman in her 70s, was diagnosed in April this year
and has since recovered. The second guest however, a woman in her
60s who stayed at the hotel in July, is understood to have died mid-
August. The hotel wrote to guests who had stayed in the two weeks
approximate to the suspected cases, to contact them if they have
experienced any symptoms of the disease.
LENNART DE HAAN
Lennart is the CEO and
co-founder of the 4Suites
app. A startup system
which allows hotel guests
to take control of their
hotel stay
What’s particularly shocking about this is there is no reason to
suspect the owners were negligent - a thousand other responsible
hoteliers could fall foul of a problem like this, manifesting as it does in
silence and low detectability. But as with so many rare and isolated
cases of tragedies taking place in hotels (take the death from
scolding shower water we reported on recently), it is a reminder of the
responsibility hoteliers have to their guests for safety and wellbeing.
It’s expensive to get the professionals in, and much more so to have
them tell you that new equipment or time-consuming processes are
ANGIE PETKOVIC
Angie started as our
resident marketing advice
columnist and has now
built a substantial following
for her straight-talking
answers to the common
questions about executing
a professional marketing
strategy
ON THE COVER
Advice - GDPR
data protection
Page 38.
|
OCTOBER 2017 £5.95
required. But good heavens, it pays to avoid a horrific tragedy.
The vast majority of the trade are hot on this, and that’s why we
do not hear of cases every week. But it never hurts to carry out an
internal audit, and make sure that all is truly well.
I hope you enjoy the issue.
Michael Northcott
Editor, Hotel Owner
[email protected]
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‘‘
...A THOUSAND OTHER RESPONSIBLE
HOTELIERS COULD FALL FOUL OF A
PROBLEM LIKE THIS, MANIFESTING
AS IT DOES IN SILENCE AND LOW
DETECTABILITY
www.hotelowner.co.uk
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