When crisis strikes a meeting professional’s host city and hotel, it’s comforting to know that—despite the uncertainty that surrounds unexpected events—the hotel in which you’re hosting your event is well prepared to take on the challenge.
This is what Loews Atlanta Hotel demonstrated when Sustainable Forestry Initiative Conference (SFI) hosted their event just days after a water main break occurred in downtown Atlanta, and later impacted another water main pipe in midtown Atlanta, just days before the conference was scheduled.
Navigating Emergencies
This break left venues, hotels and businesses around the city without water and under boil water advisories. Fortunately, Loews Atlanta’s access to water was never shut off or minimized, as it was miles away from the main break. But even before being placed under an advisory, the Loews Atlanta team got to work.
Executive chef Olivier directed his team to fill large sanitized culinary containers with clean water and save them in the kitchen’s refrigerator; when the hotel was placed on the advisory, the team had the water on a continuous boiling cycle that lasted the seven days they were under the boil advisory. Taking this precautious measure prevented any negative impact of the hotel’s F&B outlets.
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“Given that so much of the city was impacted by the water main break, it was challenging to quickly purchase bottled water from nearby retailers,” says Reggie Dominique, managing director at Loews Atlanta Hotel. “Not only did the hotel rely on its trusted network of vendors from around the region, but dedicated team members who reside in areas far beyond the impacted boil water zone, in some instances an hour away, picked-up cases of water and brought it back to the hotel.
Chef Olivier’s experience working in Florida and Boston had prepared him for incidents such as this, with the hurricanes of the former and harsh winters of the latter, which can lead to frozen pipes and no access to water.
“As with any boil water advisory, residents and visitors are likely to search what you can and cannot do during a boil water advisory,” Dominique says. “Guests, in general, were concerned about if they could use tap water for personal hygiene needs, like showering/bathing, hand washing and teeth brushing.”
Should guests have questions and concerns, Loews positioned team members in high traffic areas throughout the property to provide answers. In addition to direct communication, Loews Atlanta’s communications leader presented letters outlining the situation at hand to its 414 guest rooms, as well as sent text messages through Chat Your Service, the company’s mobile communications program, which provided a link to the hotel’s website that gave up-to-date information about the water main break.
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Given SFI’s priority is focused toward sustainability, Loews Atlanta wanted to ensure, even during a water boil advisory, that the conference’s attendees would remain committed to sustainability. To do this, Loews Atlanta acquired glass bottles of water for drinking, hand washing and other hygiene needs.
“Hotels are often appreciated as a carefree place to escape for fun, or for businesspeople to gather, share ideas and network,” Dominique says. “The key is that there is zero stress for the guest, as all of the intricacies of maintaining a clean space, preparing high-quality food and drinks, and creating a welcoming environment with hospitable team members are all seamlessly orchestrated by the hotel.
“In unexpected situations, like a nearby water main break that causes a boil water advisory, there is a blip in the idyllic guest experience; however, the team at Loews Atlanta Hotel orchestrated a cross-department plan of action that made the interruption subtle.”
