The incident report for a hotel may only contain a few sentences. It will include the name of the guest, a description of the issue as well as the names of the people who were involved in the incident.
The report may raise more than one question to an attorney. Who was responsible for supervising the workers who were involved? Was surveillance footage preserved? Did the facility follow its policies? Was the property involved in earlier interactions not included in the report.
These questions illustrate why it is important to review business records of every day use prior to testimony of witnesses in hospitality litigation.
Begin by examining the documents made during normal operations
Businesses that operate in the hospitality industry create records for training, scheduling guests service, scheduling and administration. Even though the documents were not intended for use in litigation however, they can be useful in understanding how a business performed in the event of a specific incident.
An expert witness in the field of hospitality may examine staffing schedules, and operating procedures as well as employee training files, logs of security, and surveillance camera recordings to determine the duties that are given to each employee. For example A written policy could oblige a manager to take action to an employee’s report of an intoxicated guest.
Examining the incident will determine if the manager worked or if the report was submitted, and, from the evidence what was the response. The objective is to assess actual operations rather than assume that the written procedure was followed or ignored.
There is a need for a separate analysis of the restaurant’s registers
The employees are split into the food service, beverage preparation as well as customer service and dining room management. This poses a challenge for investigation into restaurant operations. An expert witness from a restaurant can explain the impact of these duties on the decisions taken by employees in service.
Consider a dining-room incident involving customers who have ordered alcohol at a bar before moving to a table. The bar receipt may confirm the initial order while the dining room records will document the orders that were later placed.
However, these documents may not be able to prove the knowledge of the tableserver about the previous service. Combining the server assignment with the transaction times, management notes and employee communications can clarify the sequence. A key distinction is that the fact that alcohol was bought is not automatically evidence that employees were aware of intoxication.
Casino Investigations may require different records
Casino beverage plans can be quite different from the ones of a traditional restaurant. Other sources of information include free drinks cocktails, mobile servers for drinks and gaming-floor supervisors.
A Casino expert witness may review beverage staffing assignments, surveillance footage, security reports, and procedures governing employee communication. The typical sales receipt might not be valid in the event of complimentary beverages.
In these circumstances the investigation will rely more heavily on available surveillance employees’ observations, employee records, and procedure for the property’s documentation. Experts must be aware of the weaknesses of evidence instead of accepting insufficient records as proof.
Save the evidence until it’s no longer available
The preservation of documents that are time sensitive is an issue in hospitality litigation. Some surveillance systems only keep the records for a set amount of time. Schedules of employees, internal communications, and incident documents may be kept in various departments or systems. Attorneys should be able to locate relevant documents and take appropriate measures early.
The required scope is determined by the nature of the claims. Restaurant claims may need documentation for dining and bar areas and a resort-related incident could need documentation for the event, transportation arrangements, and security communications. The targeted reviews will help you determine which records are important without assuming that all departments were involved.
The paperwork is the result of Operational Experience
Preston Rideout is a hospitality veteran with more than 20 years of experience. He has held various positions in management, bartending and beverages operations in a variety of businesses. Rideout Hospitality Consulting was established in 2010 and has been providing advice to restaurant, hotel and resort owners across the United States.
Expert witness testimony for plaintiffs and defendants has covered matters that involved resorts, casinos or restaurants, as well as hotels. This knowledge of operations is helpful in understanding records that appear straightforward to someone who is not familiar with hospitality management.
Staffing plans, for instance determine who was assigned to work. Understanding whether those assignments provided sufficient supervision requires an understanding of the model of service for the property and operating conditions.
The ability to clearly state the issue is the first step towards an argument that is stronger
A quick review by an expert will help lawyers distinguish the documents from unresolved issues. It can help determine which documents are worth seeking or clarifying the terminology used to describe depositions.
The reason for discrepancies is not always because of a malfunction. There isn’t a single policy that proves that the correct procedures were followed.
An expert analysis of hospitality is helpful when it explains the distinctions with relevant evidence and industry-recognized practices. In the case of attorneys who are working on the case for a hospitality client, understanding the business prior to questioning its employees can result in a more specific, convincing investigation of what actually happened.
