ME TOO: US Hotels to give staff panic buttons

Maid cleaning the room with please make up my room sign on the door

US hotel leaders have pledged to enforce stronger safety measures for their employees, including providing hotel employees with panic buttons.

According to Skift, CEOs from Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott and Wyndham, accompanied by the American Hotel and Lodging Association made the announcement in Washington.

The so-called 5-Star Promise pledged by the five brands includes providing US-based employees with safety devices, or panic buttons, enhancing policies, training and resources for safety, particularly concerning sexual harassment.

Speaking to Skift, Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta noted the increased awareness of sexual harassment claims across all industries.

“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.

Though panic buttons are already a requirement for hotel workers in a number of US cities, including New York, Washington, Chicago and Seattle, this new pledge helps ensure the policy will be implemented nationwide by 2020.

AccorHotels, Best Western, Loews Hotels, Las Vegas Sands, Outrigger, Radisson and Red Lion Hotels Corporation have also jumped on the bandwagon, promising various degrees of commitment to the safety devices.

Juana Melara, a housekeeper at the Westin Long Beach, who was collectively named Time Magazine’s person of the year as one of the ‘silence breakers’ of the ‘Me too’ movement, has been advocating for panic buttons, collecting thousands of signatures to bring the initiative to long beach.

Juana Melara. Source: La Opinión

“We’re part of the package when they pay for a luxury hotel,” Melara told the Guardian this was the mindset of some guests she has encountered in her 23 years working at hotels.

“The only way this can change is having these panic buttons.”

According to a recent survey of hospitality workers, 89 per cent of respondents said they have experienced sexual harassment at work.

Though panic buttons may help, Melara told Skift the culture of hospitality also needs to change.

“It’s a policy in every single hotel,” she said.

“If you report something, there are doubts. They’re going to investigate if it’s true or not what you’re saying.

“It’s your word against his word. The guest is always going to be right no matter what the situation is. They are already blaming you.

“They don’t ask you for details about how or why it happened. You don’t have a chance at all.”

Melara said the industry needs to change its attitude towards employees.

“We are human beings, too, just like them, and we are just trying to earn a living.”

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