Storm Season Preparation for Hotels and Resorts

6/16/2021 (Permalink)

Hotels are often viewed as a sanctuary during a storm crisis.  To keep operations running efficient when a hurricane hits the West Palm Beach area, proper planning is required.

Seek Guidance from Insurance Providers.

Understand the specifics of your coverage and seek guidance via checklists or other information your provider can offer you. Insurance companies have a shared interest of minimizing any storm damage, fire damage, water damage, or need for restoration.

Develop a Plan. Communicate it to Employees and Visitors.

The best way to ensure customer trust and employee cooperation is to begin preparation before an immediate threat of a storm arises.  It is helpful to review hotel policies for any modifications that may better serve the comfort of guests (pet or cancellation polices) or the safety of the staff (hours of operation, and evacuation plans). Inform guests of the policy changes and procedures upon booking their stay.  Mutual aid agreements with other businesses or hotels outside of the evacuation zone could provide a stable backup plan.

Let the Professionals Build A Preparedness Plan. 

SERVPRO West Palm Beach offers water damage restoration for commercial businesses. We develop an Emergency Ready Profile (ERP) to streamline the process of emergency response. Our Emergency Ready Profile is a resource to help guide you through disaster and prevent the situation from escalating and a path toward restoration.  An ERP can include:

• A complete profile document that contains only critical information needed in the event of emergency.
• Establishes SERVPRO West Palm Beach as your disaster mitigation and restoration provider.
• Provides facility details such as shut-off valve locations, priority areas, and priority contact information.
• Identification of the line of command for authorizing work to begin.
• A no-cost assessment of your facility.
• The user-friendly SERVPRO Ready Plan app, which is a mobile application that provides quick, portable access to your plan that was prepared by the SERVPRO West Palm beach team.
  • Through this app you can submit water damage claims at the touch of a button and the SERVPRO West Palm Beach team can quickly process and respond to the request.

The ERP is not only beneficial for hotel/ resort managers and SERVPRO West Palm Beach.  If other vendors need to come to the property to assist with repairs, they will have access to this thorough guide including shut-off valve locations, priority areas and priority contact information.

Refresh Your List of Community Resources.

Keep a close watch on all alerts issued by authorities. Plan as if a hurricane path near the hotel perimeter will hit and treat “watch” statuses to “warning.” This helps the hotel and resort teams to feel calm and prepared if a situation worsens.

For national storm updates, follow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

For Local Evacuation Zone Tools Visit Palm Beach County’s web page for Hurricane Preparedness Information in Palm Beach County

To learn more about fire/water damage, and water damage restoration visit our blog

To learn what to do if you are experiencing a water damage emergency, read our tips for emergency water damage.