RISK MANAGEMENT
TRENDING
RISK MANAGEMENT
The horrific shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 60 people dead , including the gunman perched in MGM Resorts International ’ s Mandalay Bay , occurred October 1 , 2017 ; the first lawsuit was filed October 12 . Since then , says Christian Ryan , the question he gets most frequently
Roland Fasel from hotels is “ whether they have enough insurance to protect against third-party lawsuits following a potential active shooter incident on their property .” Ryan is Dallasbased U . S . hospitality , sports and entertainment practice leader for insurance broker and risk management consultancy Marsh .
“ During recent policy renewals , our data and analytics show the vast majority of our hotel clients purchased more general liability limits than they have historically , with an average increase of 20 % to 30 % compared with the prior year ,” Ryan says .
Beyond buying coverage , how can hotels protect themselves from such a tragedy ? “ Every hotel should establish a policy to reduce the risk of workplace violence and impacts from active shooter events ,” he says .
Roland Fasel is busy . He just completed his first year as Aman Resorts Hotels & Residences ’ chief operating officer , visiting most of Aman ’ s 31 hotels in 26 countries . In January its ambitious Amanyangyun opened in Shanghai ( p . 43 ). This year and beyond sees urban expansion , including in New York , with residential , wellness and F & B key components .
HOTELS : You have named London , Paris , Hong Kong , Singapore and Sao Paulo as potential sites for urban Amans . What ’ s in the pipeline ?
Roland Fasel : We ’ re moving on several of the locations . At this moment I ’ m not in a position to reveal which one will come first , but there are three or four cities where we are in an advanced stage of finding locations and partners who want to collaborate . Some of the cities are a little more difficult than anticipated . H : What ’ s the long-term plan ? RF : ( Aman ) is a brand that will pencil in 45 to 48 hotels ; that ’ s our aspiration up to 2025 . Part of the
The approach should include establishing procedures so that employees can report violent or troubling behavior ; set criteria for escalating incidents to a pre-defined threat assessment or management team ; and be reinforced through drills . “ Security , crisis communications , emergency response ( including active shooter ), humanitarian assistance and crisis management plans should align with a hotel ’ s workplace violence prevention plan ,” Ryan says . “ They also should be similarly updated and reinforced regularly .”
Ryan is advising hotels to continuously review policies and procedures and update them as needed . He adds , “ In hospitality , there ’ s lots of turnover . So this training needs to be consistent — and done on a frequent basis .”
AMBITIOUS AGENDA
strategy clearly defines 2025 as our benchmark … Residences is a key component of our brand and the way forward . Of the 11 projects , all of them have a residence component .
H : Developing two F & B concepts ( Italian and Japanese ) seems to buck the “ local ” trend . What ’ s the strategy ?
RF : ( They ) have to compete with the restaurants in the destinations they ’ re located in , but it would also become potentially an independent restaurant , maybe , in cities where we cannot get in . I think we are quite aligned to the same trend … The concepts have enough flexibility to adjust the menus based on the produce or product that is available in the local context . H : Any plans to introduce a new brand ? RF : It would be a missed opportunity not to explore a sister brand to the Aman brand . Not a sub-brand , but a sister brand – equal but in a different segment .
16 hotelsmag . com March 2018