Sequel to the Las Vegas shooting where a lone gunman
killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 others, many are wondering if hotels
will change their security policies and procedures.
One area of concern is if hotels will
begin implementing bag checks because gunman Stephen Paddock was able to
smuggle 23 firearms, along with other equipment, into his suite at Mandalay Bay
to carry out Sunday’s massacre.
The Wynn resort in Las Vegas—located on
the opposite end of the Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay resort—introduced
security guards on Monday afternoon to screen visitors with metal-detector
wands. It also implemented a bag check, which created a 10-minute wait to get
inside the facility.
This is unlikely to become the new
normal for hotel security in the near future, however, says Russell Kolins, CEO
of the Kolins Security Group and chair of the ASIS International Hospitality,
Entertainment, and Tourism Security council.
“Hotels are in the business of selling
privacy—they’re offering hospitality and selling privacy,” Kolins explains,
adding that hotels would likely start to lose business if they began checking
bags—especially in locations like Las Vegas.
“In Vegas especially, what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas,” Kolins says. “People bring items they don’t want other
people to see.”
At airports, travelers are subject to
bag searches—as well as body scans—because they are a different kind of target
than a hotel. Travelers also have no expectation of privacy while on a plane,
except for in the bathroom, unlike in a hotel where travelers expect privacy
within their room, Kolins says.
One policy that might need to be
revisited following the shooting, however, is how hotels handle checking rooms
that have a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.
Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay
on Thursday and kept a “Do Not Disturb” sign on his hotel door throughout his
stay. This meant hotel cleaning staff did not enter his room, according to a
hotel worker who spoke to The New York Times, because housekeeping is only
allowed to enter a room with such a sign on it if a security guard is present.
Requiring a security guard be present
to enter rooms with privacy signs is the right move, Kolins says, but hotels
should consider changing their policies to require room checks every other day.
“That’s an arbitrary period of time,
but I think a policy should be instilled to at least check on the rooms,”
Kolins says, adding that hotels would have to make patrons aware of the policy.
But such a policy could, potentially, prevent an individual from using a hotel
room for an extended period of time to plot a criminal act.
Kolins leads a team of court-certified
security experts at his firm. He says he thinks it’s unlikely that Mandalay Bay
will be sued for negligence for the shooting because to sue for negligence,
plaintiffs must be able to show foreseeability.
“This is unprecedented—nothing like
this has ever happened,” Kolins explains. “If something happens the first time,
it’s not foreseeable.”
Now that such an attack has happened,
though, if a similar attack happens plaintiffs could potentially bring a
lawsuit saying it was foreseeable. In response, Kolins says he expects the
hotel security industry to begin having seminars and tabletop meetings to
determine how they would handle a similar case.
“I think what this has done is show
that the slogan ‘expect the unexpected’ is again proven to be true,” Kolins
says. “It wasn’t foreseeable because it was unprecedented.”
Culled from: ASIS International
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