Dear WH&LA Independent Property Member:

Back on January 28, we had sent a targeted Capitol Insider to you regarding a significant fact-finding effort by the American Hotel & Lodging Association relating to 911 call capabilities at lodging properties nation-wide. We had asked for everyone to participate in a brief survey.

Resulting from the death of a woman assaulted at a lodging property in Texas, with her young daughter unsuccessfully dialing 911 in the room for help, there has been media attention followed by congressional interest in exploring safety improvements and possible legislation to avoid such future incidents. For reference, the child kept dialing" 911", instead of also dialing a "9" first for an outside line as required, and there was no capability for the call to instead route to the front desk for personal assistance.

AH&LA has established a Task Force on 911 Call Access, which WH&LA is a member of, and they currently are gathering widespread data on what capabilities lodging properties currently have for 911 calls before making recommendations to congressional representatives.

AH&LA has received almost 5,000 survey responses from branded properties around the country; however, they have only received 200 responses from independent properties, meaning their results do not currently represent the real status and capabilities of our industry - especially here in Wisconsin.

To enable better participation from smaller and independent properties, AH&LA has agreed to wait until this Monday, Feb. 24 to close the survey.

Please take a moment, if you did not do so previously, to participate in the following brief, confidential survey to ensure our independent properties are accurately represented before solutions are determined. Some have noted they did not complete it as they have no phones in rooms at their property. We still need this to be noted in the survey - under #5 "Other ", as it is important that generalities are not made that presume all properties have phones in their rooms. 

 

Access the AH&LA Survey Here

Thanks for including your voice in this important industry status determination.