06/01/2012 13:11
mintek.com
A New Year’s Eve Hotel Management
Nightmare Come True
A Hotel Wedding Story Multiple NYE Hotel Lock Problems
T
he following post was inspired by a friend The Tampa hotel issue was not an isolated incident
of mine that was recently married on New on New Year’s Eve, MSN reported that a Denver ho-
Year’s Eve here in beautiful Tampa. After the tel that had an almost identical issue as the Tampa
wedding, a reception was held at a local well-known hotel and a third hotel, the Gramercy Park Hotel in
hotel. Things went along well until approximately NYC had all guests locked out at midnight for 3-5
midnight when the guests room key cards to the hours. There probably are a few more hotels but
hotel rooms failed. no one has reported them yet.
“… on New Year’s Eve, at approximately mid-
night, the hotel experienced a malfunction with
our guestroom locks. Every lock went offline
and no keys were working, including hotel
master keys. Generally hotels have emergency
keys locked in a safe in case of a situation like
this. We did, but unfortunately these keys did
not work either…. At this point we are able to
http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/years-eve-hotel-management-nightmare-true/
confirm that there was a glitch in the system,
and that we were not the only hotel impacted.”
Source: Elizabeth Mao, General Manager, Gra-
mercy Park Hotel
In reading the rest of the response written by Ms.
Mao, I commend her for responding so well as the
Now this was not an ordinary room key failure, problem caught the hotel completely by surprise.
in fact all hotel rooms were affected indicating a
system failure. In most hotels, maintenance mana- Hotel Guest Impact
gement can use a master key to open rooms but it
was reported that these keys did not work either. None of the hotels affected by the guestroom locks
issues planned this to happen. Regardless of who is
To make matters worse the physical master key that responsible, the problem was that each hotel main-
was used to open the guest rooms did not work for tenance and management staff was immediately
all the rooms. The liability issue on this is excep- placed into a defensive and reactive mode of ope-
tionally high. ration.
Some of the consequences included:
Love this PDF? Add it to your Reading List! 4 joliprint.com/mag
Page 1
06/01/2012 13:11
mintek.com
A New Year’s Eve Hotel Management Nightmare Come True
• Angry guests: In two of the hotels the police reception drinks is never forgotten. Res-
were called in to handle angry guests. ponsible party – Hotel Maintenance Mana-
• Noise: Those who were the first to be in gement
their rooms had to deal with noise issues • Hotel hall noise. With guest locked out of
• Overwhelmed bathrooms: Leaving the hotel their room and in the hallways or common
with an unkempt perception. areas, hall noise levels exploded. Hotel
• Guest locked in rooms: It is reported that in noise problems are already one of the top
at least one hotel guest were locked in their hotel problems. Proper carpeting, weather
room and unable to exit. stripping can mitigate noise issues. Res-
• Blackened Image: Negative travel reviews ponsible party – Hotel Management and
and bad memories that guest won’t forget. Maintenance.
• Lots and lots of overtime • Bathroom facilities overrun. With no room
• Lost Revenue: Lots of free stays and comps access everyone was forced to use the few
given out. common restrooms. I cannot even begin to
imagine the state of the restrooms in Den-
Was this a Hotel Maintenance ver, Tampa or NYC. Credit maintenance
Issue? teams for doing what they could. Res-
ponsible party – none.
The answer is no one person or party is responsible. • Guests locked inside their room after elec-
In order to better understand this one has to look tronic locks failed. This is another inspec-
at the incident in parts. In my opinion based upon tion issue as safety or door inspections
the information available: should have identified these problems.
Responsibility – Maintenance
http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/years-eve-hotel-management-nightmare-true/
• The actual lock malfunctions were not the
hotel’s fault because this occurred in several Customer Care May Have Won the
hotels in different parts of the country. My Night
guess is that the problem is a glitch in the
software that runs the computerized lock Despite all accounts of a horrible night for guests, I
systems. The manufacturer will need to have also heard that many of the hotel staff worked
bear responsibility on this. their tails off for guests that night. In fact, my friend
• In two of the hotels it is reported that the who got married that night raved that the staff was
master keys did not work. This is possible if so attentive to his and his bride’s needs that he would
they too are electronically coded. In Tampa, still consider using them again.
the hotel had a physical key to unlock doors.
the problem is they only had one key. There This goes to show that how a hotel handles a disas-
is no excuse for a hotel not to have a phy- ter is just as important as the disaster itself. I nod
sical key to unlock doors in an emergency. in respect to the hotel staff who hustled to do the
Responsible party – Hotel Management. best they could for guests under the circumstances.
• Hotel master key not working on every
door. Periodic inspections could have iden- It is easy to see that the cost of a quality compute-
tified this problem before guest became rized maintenance management software (CMMS)
furious. Comp’d stays are one thing, no bed program would have paid for itself by ensuring that
to sleep on New Years Eve after revelry or each hotel regularly inspected all of its assets.
Love this PDF? Add it to your Reading List! 4 joliprint.com/mag
Page 2
06/01/2012 13:11
mintek.com
A New Year’s Eve Hotel Management Nightmare Come True
We would love to hear your stories of hotel mainte- Most Recent Posts
nance staff going above and beyond the call of duty.
If you liked this article you may also enjoy reading:
CMMS, hotels, inspections
• A New Year’s Eve Hotel Management Night-
Did you like A New Year’s Eve Hotel mare Come True
Management Nightmare Come True? • Relevant EAM CMMS, Cable, and Lodging
News for 12-30-2011
Every share you make allows us to write more great • 2012 New Year’s Maintenance Resolutions
stuff for you:
• It’s how we prove that it’s worth blogging to
our bosses. Researching and writing takes
serious time.
• I happen to get a free lunch for every post
with 10 shares... I really like free lunch.
• The whole office gets free lunch for every
post with 100 shares.
• I also like seeing our stuff on the internet.
You have to admit it’s really cool.
What enterprise blog topics interest you
http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/years-eve-hotel-management-nightmare-true/
the most?
Other Articles Written by stuart smith
Stuart Smith is Mintek’s InBound Marketing Specia-
list. He works hard at creating compelling content
to keep Mintek’s customers and prospects informed
with relevant information.
Love this PDF? Add it to your Reading List! 4 joliprint.com/mag
Page 3