Security Concerns in the Hospitality Industry: Hotels and Short-let Homes

Security will always be a primary concern for holiday guests visiting Lagos. This explains guest's booking preference and unwavering commitment to hotels, guaranteeing 100% security. 4/5star hotels are foremost for some holiday guests on a big-budget. A reason that tops all others is that most of these hotels have international prominence with a history of offering excellent customer experience. However, over the past decades, there have been recorded security breaches in some of these high-end hospitality facilities. With this downtime, it is only natural for holiday guests to seek other alternatives.

Good news is short-let apartments present a great alternative. They are typical homes away from home, designed to provide guests with convenience and quality experience.

A short-let home is a property that is fully furnished and serviced with the sole aim to provide guests the best home experience, whilst they are away from home. Shortlet homes can be let to guests, from a few days to a few months. Property types for short lets are a wide variety: studio apartments, flats, bungalows, duplexes and large mansions.

Short let in Lagos have grown quite popular in the last 2years. Since the COVID-19 lockdown which prompted the temporary shutdown of hotels, leading to an increased demand for short let apartments. This resulted in product proliferation, leading to a 76% spike in the occupancy rate of short let apartments in the major cities of Nigeria. Currently, short let homes serve as an excellent option for most international guests. With its affordability, convenience, and improved security factored in. Players of the industry highly prioritized security as the supply surpasses the demand, thus offering varieties of options. In fact, they conduct in-depth research, filling the gaps in hotels, hence the improvement and popularity of short let homes.

1. Unauthorized Visitors

Security can be threatened by the many activities in hotels. This includes too many guests, visitors (of hotel guests) or customers patronizing other businesses at the hotel. It is almost impossible for hotel management to memorise every guest that checks into their hotel, daily. Same applies to knowing every customer in the hotel premises, and understanding who is genuine or not. That many people in a premise can lead to major security breaches, especially when someone boldly intends to cause a guest harm.
This is not the case with leading shortlet homes. Typically, a building can only accommodate limited numbers of guests. It is easy to rent a detached house and enjoy 100% privacy. Whilst security is primarily the focus, most apartments are set up in well secured residential area. Several short let apartments in Lagos are within gated estates, with armed security and checkpoints. Although guests can have visitors, a thorough security clearance is conducted, a visitor is only granted entrance when the guest confirms. It doesn’t end with the secured estate gate. Within the premises are high gates, fences, and uniformed securities. Most doors are strong wooden with digital locks. There is hardly a history of security breaches in any of the reputable short let apartments in Lagos. Ensure you do a thorough background check on these apartments before you book.

2. Theft

Theft can be a major problem in hotels even with security measures and advanced surveillance systems set to protect guests and their properties. Referencing the first point above, and considering hotel management can not control their guests or visitors movement. People can get robbed within the hotel premises. A case study was an unfortunate event that had happened to one of our holiday guests at a hotel in Lagos. An unknown person had taken his valuables. It is disappointing he didn’t recover said items and had sued the hotel for negligence.

This would have been easily averted with a thorough check in and check out protocol.

3. Negligence

For instance the story of a woman that slipped and fell down the staircase in a 4 star hotel in Lagos. A leaking roof on the penthouse had caused this. It is distorting how this negligence has led to a guest demise.

Top-rated shortlet homes in Lagos have built an incredible reputation for regularly maintaining their homes. Considering the existing competition in the short let market, there is relatively no room for negligence.

Shortlet owners like Gidistays understand that safety is characterized as a top criterion in the hospitality industry. Ours is a double layer security, including CCTV; a guest/visitor is first cleared at the estate gate and secondly at the property entrance. We follow very strict protocols to ensure your safety.

We help guests enjoy their holiday while free of worries. We continuously assess risks, and implement well informed security plans (cybersecurity inclusive) in order to mitigate these risks. We do this with our guests in mind. We incorporate these plans into our policies: security manuals, emergency procedures manual, incident action plans. Our staff are adequately trained on emergency and incident action meant to prioritize your safety

We are all about offering excellent customer experience. Book your stay with us!