The ‘Stay Safer’ initiative is the result of a BTN Europe article, Gary Hurst, CEO and founder of mysa, wrote earlier this year. The article highlighted what is often an overlooked disparity between how the safety and wellbeing of airline passengers is approached compared to when travellers become guests in hotels and serviced apartments worldwide.
What brought the point home dramatically were two airline incidents in January 2024, the worst being flight JAL 516. A major humanitarian disaster was ready to unfold when the aircraft came to a halt in flames at Tokyo-Haneda Airport. Due to the crew’s exemplary flight training and their actions in the moment, all 379 passengers and crew were evacuated to safety, suffering nothing more than the odd bruise. In truth, the mindset and safety regulations of the entire airline industry are a stark contrast to the accommodation sector, globally.
It’s not that the majority of accommodation providers don’t have legally required safety and security measures and procedures, it’s that travel buyers and programme managers lack awareness of what actually they do have in place. Without regulation to support providers, companies are generally left in the dark as to whether the hotels or apartments their employees are staying in have the necessary safety and security protocols in place. Limited or non-existent tangible evidence means travel buyers are left relying on blind trust and assumptions that their employees will be safe and secure.
Gary’s BTN Europe article sparked a wave of conversations with experts from across travel, risk and HR, and led to the formation of the Accommodation Conformity Focus Group and the ‘Stay Safer’ initiative. It’s goal is to work collaboratively on defining how best to formulate and assess a universal accommodation safety and security best practise. One which can be embedded within an accommodation RFP process to benefit both supplier and buyer, and ultimately consistently deliver a ‘Stay Safer’ experience for guest employees, the world over.
As an accommodation technology company, we have made it our priority to support the industry through greater use of evidence-based data. mysa has already introduced a digital, environmentally friendly process to serve buyers when building a tailor-made serviced accommodation programme. We are now supporting the focus group in their work to introduce a greater evidence-based process for all accommodation.
Today, work and life are intertwined, so it’s not where people stay, but how they stay that’s important. If you are a travel, HR or travel risk manager and you would like to know more about the focus group, please register your interest on our homepage.
