Luxury Hotel’s Vulnerability Exposed

December 1, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Just as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had a lasting effect on aircraft cockpit security, with reinforced doors separating pilots from passengers, the deadly terrorist attacks that started Wednesday at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotels here could leave an enduring imprint on the design and procedures of luxury hotels. With the death toll approaching 200, and with more bodies still being found at the Taj, the attacks have underlined the vulnerability of five-star hotels to determined attacks by determined gunmen armed with military assault rifles, as well as the attractiveness of such targets to terrorists.

P.R.S. Oberoi, chairman of the Oberoi Group, said that he had actually directed his company’s hotels to step up security two months ago after a truck driver crashed into the Islamabad Marriott and detonated a bomb that killed more than 50 people and left a crater six meters, or 20 feet, wide. The Oberoi banned anyone from parking in front of its Mumbai hotel, for fear that a car bomb could destroy the glass wall at the front of the lobby - a risk at many hotels. “I think all hotels are vulnerable - all hotels have glass doors when you enter,” Oberoi said Saturday night at a news conference.

The Oberoi Group had no warning of the attack here, however, Oberoi said, questioning what any hotel operator could do to withstand such an assault. “The authorities have to help us,” he said, by preventing such attacks from occurring at all. The killings also come at a time of already declining demand for luxury accommodation because of the global economic downturn. Hotels in India are also suffering as many companies have slowed investments in the country and have even sold Indian real estate and shares. Terrorist attacks in other cities have affected tourism, but the duration of the effect has depended mainly on public perceptions of the likelihood of another attack.

London bounced back quickly from the public transport attacks on July 7, 2005, while Bali took several years to recover from the bombings there on Oct. 12, 2002. Particularly in India, hotels are likely to become much more cautious about security policies, said S.S. Mukherji, vice chairman of EIH, an Oberoi Group subsidiary. “The concept of hospitality in this country is going to change,” he said. Michael Coldrick, a London security professional and a former explosives specialist with Scotland Yard, said hotels may need to start screening guests and monitoring their behavior during hotel visits, and to brief national and local security forces regularly on their layout. “Security in the hotel business is a fine balance between effective security measures and the convenience of hotel customers, becoming more intrusive as the threat increases,” Coldrick said. The Oberoi and the old wing of the Taj hotel, where most of the fighting took place, both have high, central atriums. After throwing grenades and directing considerable automatic weapons fire at staff members and diners in ground-floor lobbies and restaurants, the attackers at each hotel ascended the atriums.

News Published Under:   Hotel Industry in India |

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