Security in London for Hospitality Businesses
Last night I organised our first Hospitality Superheroes Meet Up event where we discussed the hot topic of Security in London for Hospitality Businesses. The event was sponsored by the Academy of Hospitality and held at The Brigade Bar and Bistro. Our guest speaker was Darren Carter, the Chair of the Institute of Hotel Security Management.
Hospitality Superheroes is the Facebook Group that I run as a support group for anyone working in hospitality to network online and connect with other hospitality professionals. The group has been steadily growing and members had asked when a face to face networking event would be organised, and so the first one was run last night.
The Institute of Hotel Security Management is the UK’s leading membership organisation for hotel security professionals, and so Darren was the perfect person to be our guest speaker with his expertise on security in hospitality.
We were welcomed to The Brigade by Tom, who explained how Simon Boyle had set up the social enterprise to help vulnerable adults train as Chefs in their kitchens and move on to successful careers in the hospitality industry. After a few canapes we put Darren in the hot seat and quizzed him on his knowledge to get an update on security in London for hospitality businesses.
Some of the topics we discussed included lock down procedures, entering rooms with ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs on, ransomware threats, follow through on fire evacuations procedures and security issues around such an incident, sharing information on rogue employees, and touched on that four letter word GDPR!
To end the session we asked Darren’s opinion on the top three security issues for hospitality businesses. Even though a terror threat is a key issue, the frequency of such an incident is low compared to some of the more frequent issues that hospitality businesses should deal with:
- Walk outs and theft
- Cyber security
- Growth of hotels run and operated by investors who are not hoteliers.
A really informative evening and a great update on what is happening with security in London for hospitality businesses. To end the evening some of us stayed for dinner at The Brigade.
How to become a Hospitality Superhero
If want to be kept updated with future Hospitality Superhero Meet Ups and other hospitality updates and events then join our Facebook Group. It is a closed group for anyone working in the hospitality industry.
