Washington, To offer hotel guests further preventive guidance, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) recently updated its award-winning Guest Safety Tips video and placards. The educational resources provide guests with fundamental recommendations to help ensure a secure and pleasant hotel stay.

Originally produced for AH&LA by HBO in 1994, the new 90-second video can be incorporated on any hotel room's open television channel. The recording also highlights a variety of important tips such as keeping valuables in the property's safe deposit box, using the viewport before admitting any visitors, checking emergency exits, and much more.

Additionally, AH&LA revised its 4-inch-9.5-inch Guest Safety Tips cards as a printed alternative or paper exponent of the video's practical safety suggestions. Suggestions from both projects were based on advice from AH&LA's Loss Prevention committee — comprised of leading safety and security experts within the lodging and real estate industries.

"As we continually look to provide educational and safety based products and services to hoteliers, we recognized the need to update these resources, which address the nation's current safety concerns and issues. As a business that is accustomed to serving the public, we are extremely attentive to providing material that will help ensure the safeguarding of our guests, hoteliers, and employees," said AH&LA President and CEO Joseph A. McInerney, CHA.

These projects support the association's various initiatives to enhance security in the lodging industry, including a variety of security training videos — on topics such as emergency preparedness, fire safety, workplace violence, employee awareness, and problem prevention — through its Orlando, Fla.-based Educational Institute (EI).

AH&LA's Web site, www.ahla.com, also features a "Homeland Security and Traveler Information" section to provide updated information on potential terrorism threats, protective measures, crisis communications guidelines, expert security advice, links to important government-related sites, and much more.

In addition, AH&LA joined the Real Estate Information Sharing and Analysis Center ¾ a coalition that works with the U.S. real estate industry and federal homeland security officials ¾ to help prevent, detect, and respond to terrorist and malicious threats on lodging guests. The association also partnered with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to educate travelers about measures being implemented to promote safe and convenient air travel.

To order AH&LA's Guest Safety Tips video, contact EI at (800) 752-4567 or visit . The video is complimentary for members and $25 for nonmembers. Also, via AH&LA's Web site, www.ahla.com, browsers can view the video and download the Guest Safety Tips cards, free of charge.

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AH&LA is a 93 year-old federation of state lodging associations throughout the United States with some 11,000 property members worldwide, representing more than 1.5 million guest rooms. AH&LA provides its members with assistance in operations, education, and communications, and lobbies on Capitol Hill to provide a business climate in which the industry can continue to prosper. Individual state associations provide representation at the state level and offer many additional cost-saving benefits.

Tia T. Gordon
Manager Of Media Relations
(202) 289-3153
AH&LA