Hits: 0
Crisis Management Plan Intercontinental Hotels Group is one of the leading global hotel chains in the hospitality industry, with two hundred and twenty hotels with 71,045 rooms globally. The intercontinental group hotel offers midscale and upscale services to its clients. As with every organization globally, Intercontinental Hotels Group has several vulnerabilities and crises that they might face in the future. A crisis is defined as an event that will result in an unstable and dangerous situation that will affect an organization. The crisis that this hotel industry faces ranges from diseases to credit card fraud, forcing the organization to take action to ensure that the brand of Intercontinental Hotels Group is not damaged. There are many crises that Intercontinental Hotels Group might face in the future. It is important to discuss these crises and rate the crisis in terms of likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact on the organization if the crisis occurs.
Crisis-related information of the Intercontinental Hotels Group will be scanned from numerous sources. The sources used include scholarly publications, news, magazines, government documents, and theses and dissertations.
| Crisis | Likelihood | Impact | Rationale |
| Pandemic diseases such as covid-19 | unlikely | catastrophic | I provided this ranking because pandemics such as covid-19 will close the operations of the intercontinental group hotel globally until the pandemic has been dealt with. The pandemic will also result in major losses in terms of revenue due to a lack of operations. These kinds of diseases will also result in major losses for the global hotel chain because the organization will be forced to pay its employees, premises, and tax in several countries without any revenue source due to the closure of the hotel chains ( Alonso et al., 2020). These kinds of diseases will also increase expenses for these organizations compared to low revenue generation. The reason being that the government will require them to implement a measure that will control the spread of the diseases; a good example is covid-19 testing of the hotels’ workforce after a certain period which will increase the cost significantly. Pandemic diseases will also affect intercontinental group hotel staff where most of the workforce will be laid off from work, affecting their livelihood source. Crisis Management Plan |
| Cybersecurity | occasional | critical | Cybersecurity has become a major concern that is affecting different organizations in the world. Intercontinental hotel group is also one of the organizations which are affected by cyber-attacks. These will force the intercontinental hotel groups to invest and focus on preventing data theft and identity theft. An example of how cybersecurity has become a major crisis in the hotel business is Marriott International, where there was a data breach on November 20th, 2018. The result of the attack is that the personal information of more than four hundred million customers was exposed, including the contact information of the customers, passport numbers, travel information, and payment information ( Panai, 2018). Data security breaches will negatively affect the intercontinental hotel group because customers who value their privacy will lose trust in the organization. The loss of trust will damage the brand image and be costly to the intercontinental hotel due to lawsuits due to its failure to protect its clients’ information ( Berezina et al., 2012). In addition, liability claims due to fraudsters using information that has been obtained as a result of data breaches will result in significant losses for the intercontinental hotel group. Crisis Management Plan |
| Foodborne illnesses | seldom | catastrophic | The reason for this ranking is that food safety is one of the biggest crises that the intercontinental hotel group has to prevent at all costs. Some of the diseases resulting from poor food handling include salmonella, campylobacter from contaminated chicken, and Escherichia coli. In addition, one of the most common infections that cause illness is Norovirus, which results in vomiting and diarrhea. This virus is a major concern because it spreads when it comes into contact with an infected person or contaminated surface. These viruses can result in significant expenses of intercontinental group hotels where the hotels can be shut down for extensive cleaning and sanitation depending on its severity. In addition, foodborne illnesses will damage the intercontinental hotel brand and result in losses for the organization due to claims, compensations, and lawsuits. Therefore, hotel continental needs to train its staff in food handling, sanitation, and health safety food procedures to address the issue of foodborne diseases. In addition, food vendors’ quality controls should also be established to ensure that the food provided is as safe as possible. |
| Guest behavior | frequent | negligible | Guests of the intercontinental hotel groups are the main reason why the global hotel chain is running. Without guests and travelers, the intercontinental hotel group will incur losses of a significant amount, resulting in its closure due to lack of revenue. However, guest behavior can cause one of the biggest crises that the global hotel chain deals with directly and indirectly. One such way is through lawsuits from persons injured or the guests’ damages to the guestroom. A good example is that of Plim Plaza, which was sued for six million dollars. The lawsuit resulted from Legionella bacteria, which was found present in water samples collected from different locations in the hotel by an investigation carried out by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The bacteria caused the death of one person, and five others fell sick. |
| Physical crime | likely | moderate | Over the past few years, there has been a recent increase in physical crimes in hotel organizations worldwide. The intercontinental hotel groups face an increase in physical crimes ranging from professional burglaries that use social engineering techniques to temporary drug laps in the hotel rooms ( Leung et al., 2018). Organized crimes in global hotels have also been on the rise. This has forced the intercontinental hotel to review its security awareness programs. The poor continental hotels have become easily accessible and less protected at night, resulting in increased gun violence. |
| Fires | likely | catastrophic | Hotel fires have the potential of escalating too fast, resulting in huge amounts of damage both on human life and property. Dealing with fires in the hotel is not easy because people are sleeping and are in their most vulnerable state. It is made worse because most hotel customers are not familiar with the hotel surroundings making it hard for them to escape. One of the most common places where fires start is in hotel kitchens due to the cooking equipment (Hu, 2016). In the kitchen, the fires result from frying medium, faulty or unsupervised equipment, and human error. Careless smoking is the other cause of fires. A study carried out between 2018 and 2019 determined that eight percent of fires in hotels were due to careless cigarette smoking. The other cause of fires in hotels is electric appliances which include lamps, hairdryers, and kettles. This electrical equipment can cause fires if not properly used by the hotel guests and staff. Therefore it is important for hotel intercontinental to have a fire safety plan and fire safety equipment. Fire detection systems should also be regularly maintained and tested to ensure that they are effectively working when there will be a fire outbreak. |
| Courtesy transportation | unlikely | negligible | Courtesy transportation of hotel guests has been on the rise in the hospitality industry over the past few years, resulting in it becoming a necessity, especially for the intercontinental hotels operating near airports. However, these vehicles and drivers present a whole variety of risks. These risks include accidents that might result in injuries to the customer being carried to the hotel. Such Crisis Management Plan accidents will make the hotel intercontinental liable to the injuries of these persons. Accidents involving other vehicles or passerby might result in lawsuits which will result in the global food chain losing millions of dollars in lawsuits and compensations |