Hotels across the country beefed up their security arrangements as the terrorist strikes at two five-star hotels in Mumbai — Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident — exposed the vulnerability of this sector.
Hotels are not typically equipped to handle terrorist attacks and present ideal soft targets around the world, according to experts. Even the private security guards that the hotels hire do not always have the expertise to use weapons. This is set to change now, hotel officials say.
For a start, vehicle-checks, baggage checks and personal frisking were instituted at all the major hotels, entry to which was allowed only after crossing newly set-up barricades. “We ..are taking necessary precautions across all our hotels,” said a statement from the Taj group of hotels. Most of the hotels have also sought assistance from the local police and are desisting from allowing any check-in’s on a walk-in basis.
The Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi, which has an internal security staff of about 70, tried to source additional personnel from the private security agencies, but could not do so as every other hotel in the city was drawing from the same pool of security people.
At the Le-Meridein hotel in Delhi, security concerns promoted the cancellation of three of the four main event scheduled today, said a hotel executive.
Hyderabad’s five-star hotel — ITC Kakatiya — asked for additional police security and now has an armed picket at the hotel. The hotel management is also set to meet shortly to discuss further sprucing up of security.
Barring the mirror check of the cars and metal detectors installed at the entrance, there are no elaborate mechanisms with the hotels to sniff explosives or terrorists, admits Virender Razdan, general manager at ITC Kakatiya, which is also equipped with 120 CC TVs that run on a 24X7 basis.
In the same vein, Julian Groom, the COO and ED of DB Hospitality — which owns the Le Meridien hotels in Mumbai and Ahmedabad — said that despite the satisfactory security measures deployed , which “in most 5 star and premium rated hotels in India are very much upto the mark and on par with international standards, it is not always possible to wade off determinant attacks by terrorist.”
The Karnataka government deployed additional police personnel to star hotels so that they can screen people entering their premises. ITC Group's Windsor has also ramped up security measures in its property in Bangalore.
The popular Taj Krishna in Hyderabad requested the assistance of the local police and has also “beefed up security,” according to Tania Vijay Kumar, public relations manager at the hotel.
