Room surveillance can protect against violations

Prevent what you cannot predict

Every hotelier has had to deal with guests smoking in their rooms, being way too loud or exceeding room occupancy. All these violations cost money, time and a lot of stress. Of course, such isolated incidents occur. It is impossible to eliminate them completely, but you can do something before potential damage or complaints from guests arise.

As a hospitality professional, you may not yet be thinking about room monitoring devices because they are so new. Whether you're a hotelier, temporary rental property owner or building manager, they can be more helpful than you think. The functions of room monitors are not all the same, but in general they alert if something is not right. One thing they have in common is that they detect and report noise violations. That makes it an investment worth considering. 

Research into smoking complaints

In a survey in California, 383 hotels with a total of 27,798 hotel rooms were asked to check how often smoking was unjustifiably prevalent. This survey examined both completely smoke-free hotels and hotels with smoking rooms. They found that hotels with smoking rooms reported about 300 smoking incidents per year and smoke-free hotels reported about 200 per year. Not only does this pose a health risk to employees and guests, it is also expensive to remove the smell of cigarette smoke. You will have to pay employees for longer working hours when cleaning the room, the required cleaning products cost more and bedding or furniture may have to be replaced. If the damage caused by indoor smoking is very bad, the room may not even be used for a while. Certain monitoring devices, such as Alertify, can detect smoking indoors, even at levels that do not set off traditional smoke detectors. This way, you protect furniture, bedding and walls from damage caused by smoking.

Noisy guests

Excessive noise, whether guests are partying or simply unaware of it, is the most common complaint received by hoteliers. Only 25 per cent of all noise complaints are reported. While the remaining 75 per cent are not reported to hotel staff, they do have a negative impact on the business, as the unreported noise complaints are often seen in online reviews. These, in turn, can negatively affect future bookings. 

Room monitoring devices cannot guarantee that you will never again receive excessively loud people. But it does allow you to intervene before guests in surrounding rooms get frustrated or call to complain. Some devices can also alert in real time if the maximum occupancy level has been exceeded. That way, you know something is wrong, even if the noise level is not yet too high or there is no smoking in the room. Moreover, you get valuable data, including information on overall indoor air quality, the risk of mould growth and more.

To protect hotel rooms from these incidents and more, you can turn to Alertify. The system provides access to an online portal where all past data can be viewed and where you can download evidence of violations for disputes with guests. Customise violation trigger points to suit your hotel's personal needs and start preventing what you can't predict.■