Overview

Security and Safety are fundamental foundations that underpin ‘True Hospitality, a guest that feels threatened or unsafe in a hotel will not ‘Love the Hotel’ and will unlikely feel any loyalty to the brand.

Increasingly Heads of Security for medium and large corporations have the final say in corporate lodging decisions and are increasingly relying on third-party security consultants to conduct hotel security assessments, a large part of which often focus on hotel security design. Therefore, a hotel operating in a high-risk area that has poor security design will consequently fail to attract business and will likely hinder its commercial viability.

Moreover, where hotels have poor security design, it is highly likely that the subsequent required operational mitigation will be a burden on the hotel undermining Profit & Loss.

 Security design engineering is important to be considered at the earliest possible moment when the build of a new hotel in a high-risk location is contemplated. Studies show that the earlier security design is considered, the more effective it is and the less it costs to implement.

Conversely, when security design is implemented later in the design phase or retrospectively, it costs more and is less effective.

Spearfish Security’s consultancy has the following characteristics, which help upcoming hotels to get the full package with an efficient cost-saving mechanism:

• Have a history of providing services to Internationally Branded hotel chains.

• Have an understanding of hotel operations as the consultants themselves have worked for Branded hotels.

• Have the capacity to generate detailed threat assessments.

• Have an in-depth and up to date understanding of security technology.

• Have the capacity to provide updated hotel plans and schematics.

• Have no affiliation to technical equipment providers thus removing any conflict of interest.

The Benefits of Early Security Design Input

At Spearfish, we understand that a good Security Design Guidance should aim at maximising the effect of expenditure by ensuring the approach is implemented at the earliest stage in the project design.

The diagram below illustrates that the benefits of security design are maximised at a minimal cost the earlier they are considered, (point A). Whereas the later they are considered, the more expensive they are whilst the ability to maximise benefits decreases (point B).

The Spearfish Security Design Engineering Approach

Security Design Engineering should be seen as a process of support and not simply the delivery of a plan or a report.

Step One: The Security Threat and Risk Assessment

This part of the process is included in the consultancy. This phase identifies all the security risks relating directly to the hotel build and informs the security design plan's operational requirement.

A detailed Security Threat & Risk Assessment is required to identify known and potential threats. This is the first stage of any security design plan. If the possible security threats are not fully understood, then it is unlikely that the security design will be appropriate, i.e. it will either be over-specified or not detailed enough.

Before the commencement of a hotel Security Design Plan, Spearfish Security Ltd carries out a  Security Risk & Threat Assessment for each hotel.

 Common Failings by Security Consultancies during the Risk Assessment Phase

Consultancies that do not fully understand what is required from the Security Threats and Risk Assessment process will often include a brief summarised assessment as part of an opening statement in their report. Quite often, risks will be summarised in a single sentence such as “Terrorism risk: High” they will provide no evidence of how they made their assessment and fail to take into account the impact that the hotel will have on that assessment.

 By not separating the risk assessment from the rest of the report and failing to get sign off before proceeding with the security plan, consultancies may not adequately manage owners’ perceptions of the security design plan. This causes delays as, quite often, each specification is then open to argument and deliberation.  Hence we at Spearfish Security ensure that we have a detailed team discussion with the project team to explain the crucial elements included in the STRA report before moving towards Step Two.

Step Two: The Operational Requirement

This phase identifies the basic operational requirements that the hotel needs to reach to mitigate the threats identified in the Security Threats and Risk Assessment. This phase identifies what needs to be achieved but not necessarily how to do it.

 A good Operational Requirement study can provide how the hotel project team can go away and manage their own tender processes and project management, implementing the plan themselves.

This approach provides flexibility to the hotel project. It does not, at this stage, tie the hotel into specific solutions allowing for a level of adjustment in the design, provided the operational requirement is met.

This approach immediately ties in a single solution project, allowing little room for creative thinking and alternative approaches.

Step Three – Technical Specification

Spearfish has a team with the required technical expertise to provide the correct technical solutions/advice to its clients.

Our technical experts ensure that their advice helps the projects undertake this part of the process themselves, provided they use the operational requirement as the basis for their tendering process, i.e. all providers of equipment must meet the operational requirement's needs completely.

Spearfish operational requirement states what needs to be done; hence this stage identifies how it is to be done.

 Common Failings by Security Consultancies during the Technical Specification Phase

This is usually a quick win for a consultancy. They will tend to provide a blanket description of exact technical features a technical solution needs to have, and they are unlikely to be specific to the hotel project.

This approach ties the tender process down to specifics. It leaves little room for tenderers to offer imaginative solutions or emerging technologies that may better suit the hotel project's needs.

Step Four – Security Design Project Management

Spearfish Security looks at this stage as an optional stage that is usually invoked only if hotel project teams feel insufficient expertise to manage the technical specification, tender process, and integration themselves.

 Step Five – Security Design Sign Off

At this stage, Spearfish comes in to conduct a review of the security design integration to ensure it meets the agreed operational requirement. A short report is generated to provide an assessment of the final implementation and highlight any shortfalls and remedies.

If you would like to know more about Security Design Engineering and how Spearfish could help, please contact us.