Large New York hotels plan to equip their guests with portable alarms so they get help quickly in case of trouble, officials said Wednesday.
Any guest who might be confromted with staff member who must enter guests rooms, such as maids, waiters and mini-bar attendants, will be given the “panic buttons” within the next year, said Gretchen Graven, spokeswoman for the Hotel Association of New York.
She declined to link the electronic alarms to the case of French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief who was accused of sexually assaulting maid, Nafissatou Diallo, at the Sofitel in New York in May. The charges against him were eventually dropped due to the obvious lies of the presumed victim.
“It has been under discussion for some time,” Graven said.
The devices were included as a requirement in a new seven-year contract between the Hotel Association of New York and its unions.
The contract provision says the guests must be given “devices together with the key card to their room, which they can quickly and easily activate to summon prompt assistance to their location.”
The Association’s board of directors approved the contract unanimously on February 3. The union membership is expected to ratify it next Monday.
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