In November 2008, terrorists attacked two luxury hotels in Mumbai, India. Less than a year later, in July 2009, terrorists hit two hotels—the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton—in Jakarta, Indonesia. In January 2010 the targets were hotels was Baghdad. In April 2011, Nigeria.

Could blasts, large or small, happen in the United States? Absolutely, say security experts. That’s why the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recently rolled out “Eye on Awareness—Hotel Security and Anti-Terrorism Training.”

The web-based, interactive training program is designed to help frontline staff identify and report suspicious activity, and perhaps, thwart planned terrorism attacks. Hyatt Hotels is among the first to pilot the program, starting this month.

“Terrorism is a threat to hotels internationally. It may be a matter of time before something happens in the U.S.,” says Mark Sanna, Hyatt’s vice president of corporate security and a member of the team that developed the training program. “Public venues have inherent vulnerabilities. It’s incumbent upon us to raise awareness on how to be proactive to mitigate risks to the public and to employees who use these facilities.

“The training is crucial because it gives an understanding and engages staff in a collective effort to enhance the security of the property,” he says. “When you raise awareness it makes people bring it front of mind and enables someone who sees something have the ability to do something about it.”

Sanna says targets are hard to identify. “Terrorist groups or an individual can focus on a hotel because it’s an iconic property,” he says, mentioning the Grand Hyatt New York above Grand Central Station. Or he notes, “Targets can be dynamic because of an event going on at a hotel or a particular visitor to a hotel.

“We want to raise the general awareness,” he says, “and we need to have times when people are hyper-vigilant because of what’s going on at the hotel at the time.”

Activating awareness in housekeepers, front desk staff, bellhops, valets, food and beverage servers, landscapers, maintenance workers and more is far from creating a den of spies or collection of enforcers.

“The challenge for a hotel is to be welcoming and aware. It needs to welcome its guest unlike any other industry in America,” says Paul Goldenberg, president of Princeton, NJ-based Cardinal Point Strategies. Goldenberg joined AHLEI, Sanna and Homeland Security to develop the training program.

“The industry has gone through great effort to ensure profiling isn’t part of this,” says Goldenberg. “It’s based on behavior. It’s based on factors identified by experts. It’s based on historical events and past behaviors of human beings before they become engaged in criminal acts.”

Some of the things employees should watch for are the same as other criminal activities, such as paying for everything in cash; lack of identification; denying housekeeping for long periods; multiple package deliveries; suspicious strings of visitors and more. The online training materials offer more suggestions of suspicious behavior. If identified, they should be reported to a manager who will determine whether a next step is needed.

“Hotel employees should never accuse a guest of wrong doing,” notes Robert L. Steele III, CHA, AHLEI president and COO. “In many cases, simply asking an individual who looks suspicious or out-of-place, ‘May I help you?’ will alert the individual to the fact you’re aware of his or her behavior.”

“We want all line-level employees to feel confident that, with the proper background knowledge and a keen sense of observation, they can play a vital role in keeping their property and guests safe,” says Steele.

Sanna says, “The threat of terrorism is not going away. It’s no longer just a government issue. We’re not immune. There has to be a balance between public and private sectors so we’re trying to do something.”

All things considered, Goldenberg is reassuring: “There is nothing eminent. There is no threat we know of. No alerts. We’re just embracing and engaging good quality, preventive measures so the U.S. hospitality industry doesn’t become a target.”

AHLEI’s online program also instructs employees on what to do in an active shooting situation, including how to stay alive and assist others.

It takes roughly one hour for the interactive, multimedia lessons including review questions that assess employee comprehension. It costs $45 per employee trained, $30 for employees at AH&LA member properties. AHLEI is offering the program to global markets as well. For more information or to view a demonstration, visit the AHLEI website.

http://www.ahlei.org/eyeonawareness.