What is a Hotel Incident Report?

According to Safeopedia, an unplanned event that disrupts regular operations is referred to as an incident in the context of occupational health and safety. The intensity of the incidents varies from near misses to fatalities. Connecting that with the hotel incident form, the primary location being the hotel where the incident took place and the immediate commotion within the surrounding area that occurred. A hotel incident report mainly records the aftermath of the incident and gathering the witnesses for their statements and collecting the tangible pieces of evidence to add and help verify the report.

Why Should All Incidents And Accidents Be Reported?

There are economic benefits in addition to the basic reporting obligations that motivate most companies to establish a strong reporting system. The majority of incident reporting methods fall under the category of money spent only as an operational expenditure. Most companies would want to avoid additional reasons to spend their money and so do their best to avoid hotel incidental charges. Though, if the evidence points to their mistake on the matter, hotels would surely begin working on Maintenance Forms to improve the experience their guests had and shell out that necessary budget to achieve such improvements.

What Needs to Be Included in a Hotel Incident Report?

Keeping your hotel incident report accurate may be a challenging thought. You may even be confused about where to start and what information is important enough to gather. Understanding the many types of details of data you may need to collect during the hotel incident reporting process helps you narrow down the necessary information you should be gathering. Here’s a list of facts to keep in mind when you’re documenting an incident:

General Information: The most basic information required in a hotel incident report, such as the occurrence’s exact location, time, and date. If additional research is required, this will also be useful information.Area or Environment: This refers to the physical and environmental factors that may have played a role in the incident. This might also include any possible risks discovered within the immediate vicinity of the incident’s location.Affected People: The names of those involved, as well as their titles and departments. Customer Relationship is important to maintain because if you lose their presence then the hotel would lose its income and face a deficit. Shouldering expenses if they are really grave may be necessary to prove a point that they are not alone in the injuries that they are facing within the hotel premises. Create a separate report for each impacted employee if more than one person is hurt in an occurrence. Despite basic information repeating in reports of this type, you will still need to include information particular to that person, such as their perspective on the event or medical data.Injuries and the Severity: Include the type of damage, its severity, and the affected bodily parts. You can be as detailed as possible so that when it is being reviewed, the authorities reading the incident report in the hotel would know more about the situation.Witnesses: This refers to the statements of those who were at the hotel at the time of the occurrence. Whether it would be employees working within the hotel that were unaffected by the incident and were able to spectate with their own eyes or hotel guests that were staying near the area of the incident. You may even ask them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to signify their statements are for the intended hotel incident report and they may not speak of the details outside the hotel grounds.Administered treatment: This includes any early therapy, assistance, or drugs offered to those who have been afflicted. This information is helpful to recognize guest or employee rehabilitation and related mandatory care that they may require in the immediate future.Property and equipment damages: This detail would explain the assets, materials, facilities, and equipment that were damaged or destroyed during the incident. If the equipment was found to be faulty, a Risk Management Plan may be required of the hotel to prevent similar instances to occur.Events: The incident’s story, as well as the facts on the background of how it led to becoming an incident. A full detailed recount of the events is much better or even having it be direct to the point through bullets helps when it is being reviewed by authorities. The point is having much to say while having it be factual and true to the actual incident.

How to Format a Hotel Incident Report?

The information in a hotel incident report may be presented differently based on a variety of circumstances. As a general rule, incident reports should be written in the third person since the goal is to be impartial and objective, only providing facts and eliminating views and prejudices. View the templates that were provided in this article to see various hotel incident report examples that you can use as a basis.

Step 1: Provide the Relevant Information

The introduction in your hotel incident report must be the essential and the most relevant information, you can use the four Ws (who, what, when, and, where) as a guide to know which detail you should prioritize. Make sure to include the names of the people that were affected by the incident. If their identification cards are missing or you are unable to identify their names, you can instead state their role in relation to the incident. You also have to be able to summarize the incident in three sentences or less.

Take note of the exact or near estimate of the time and date of the occurrence. As well as the location of the incident and as much as possible be exact with that detail.

Step 2: Expound More of the Details

In the second step, you will need to elaborate more on the details that were written in the introduction portion. Write the events prior to the incident and then the incident itself in chronological order to avoid confusion. Make sure to explain comprehensively the four Ws that were mentioned in the earlier step.

Step 3: Aftermath of the Incident

Is the situation under control? How? Explain in detail the measures and actions that were done in addressing the incident and as well as how long it took.

If the issue has not been resolved, explain why and what measures need to be taken to address it. State the intentions and plans of the hotel or company personnel to alleviate the affected lives that were involved and the situation of the incident itself. Creating a Safety Plan may help outline the intended plans.

Step 4: Add Signatures

Include the incident report writer’s complete name and signature for accountability and record-keeping. This is merely to provide authentication that the information written out in the document is valid. And if the authorities were to have any other inquiries, then they know who to approach for additional information or explanation.

Additional Reasons to Report Incidents

If you are still not convinced of the importance of a hotel incident report, then we have listed additional reasons to show you why you must write out incidents. According to Technical Safety, there are four main reasons why you should report incidents and hazards. And they are:

Assist in Preventing Recurrences: Even small events and risks are important. By reporting these accidents and risks, it is more likely that recurring failures will be detected and addressed before they become more serious. This is why Maintenance Report forms provide hotel personnel with information so they can note the status of the property and equipment.Adds Greater Understanding of Safety Risks: If more incidents or hazards are recorded, your company and hotel staff will have a better understanding of safety concerns and will be able to draw more findings that will significantly decrease or eliminate recurrence in your company and throughout the hotel. The information may be used for similar businesses, industries, and corporations. Risk Assessments are important to ensure the safety of both employees and guests.Imbue Lessons Learned Within Your Hotel Staff and the Industry: The data obtained from the reports may be disseminated throughout the hotel staff to improve safety procedures. You can see it as a Safety Checklist to be reviewed here and there.Creates a safety-minded culture: Encourage all staff to report accidents and risks to build a better safety culture. Staff will witness how the firm responds to these findings, resulting in a culture of change that can be developed through two-way communication and including everyone in the process.

Tips to Keep your Hotel Safe

Nobody wants to stay in a shady and dangerous hotel when they intentionally wanted to get away from the stress of their usual environment and take a breather from their usual schedule. People want to go to hotels in order to relax and unwind but if your hotel is not satisfactory enough, guests may opt to stay elsewhere. To avoid such situations, Hotel Management provides 5 ways to ensure your hotel guests and employees would feel much safer within your hotel premises.

Using CCTV: Make sure to keep an eye on your setup at all times, letting the cameras do all the work won’t do. Certain systems also have a voice command feature, this allows you to instantly scold employees or guests that are caught doing things they shouldn’t be doing. You may even use a cloud-based closed-circuit TV storage system to monitor your property from a control room or handheld device at any time of the day or week. Having a CCTV also helps record and track events so that they can be used as evidence. Your guests will surely appreciate the backup that footages can provide if anything were to happen to them.Emergency Response Plan: Knowledge is key and having your hotel staff and personnel be informed can help avoid incidents from worsening or happening in the first place. Your staff should be properly briefed on what to do in the event of a disaster which can help them calmy address it if they are in the presence of a disaster. Meetings with law authorities and emergency services should be planned on a regular basis to ensure that you and your hotel staff can formulate a strategy and update it as needed. Electric and Gas Safety: Check-in on electricity and gas safety on a regular basis. This will guarantee that the risk of electrical shocks, fires, and accidents is minimized, resulting in fewer workplace mishaps. It’s critical that employees are also well trained in the use of any gas appliances, including how to identify evident problems with visual examinations. This might include any piping or connectors that are damaged.Secure Online Data: It may not seem like it but hotels store important online information with regards to the guests or even the employees working within the hotel premises. This includes personal information, card and bank details, government IDs, and so on. Make sure your online system is up to date and has protection against cyberhackers and thieves prowling online.Staff Uniform: Uniforms help establish a professional and business formal look towards your guests and distinguishes the employees from the guests themselves, Making it easier for those who may want inquiries to know who to approach.

Other Types of Incident Reports

There are numerous other types of incident reports, some are:

Workplace Incident Report: A workplace incident report is a document that is used to track physical incidents that have an influence on an employee’s productivity.Accident Report: An accident report is an event that provides details on a deadly, gruesome, or small accident or emergency. Law enforcement officers and safety officials can submit an accident report, which is not limited to the workplace.Safety or Security Incident Report: A security incident report is used to keep track of thefts, losses, and other related incidents involving a lack of security presence within a given property.

FAQs

What is an accident?

While an incident is sometimes used interchangeably with the term accident, it refers to a distinct subject. Accidents are a subset of occurrences, although certain non-accidental events are also recorded as incidents. See Accident Reports for an example and see for yourself the difference.

What is the purpose of hotel incident reporting?

A hotel incident report can be used to investigate and analyze a situation. It contains the fundamental cause but also corrective steps to eliminate the risks and prevent such occurrences in the future. Hotel incident report letters can also be utilized as safety papers, indicating possible dangers and uncontrollable hazards discovered on the job.

Why is it important to record incidents?

It is important to record incidents, especially on the hotel premises so that authorities can review them in great detail through an incident investigation.

Training your hotel staff is important in all aspects that involve the hotel, whether it be escape routes, providing first aid, or being quick in contacting authorities to handle dangerous cases. Employee incidents are best avoided but in cases that the incident was not expected or overseen, then knowing how to write a hotel incident report can smooth out details with the authorities as well as the people affected.