The hospitality sector is as diverse as the risks that beset it. The sector spans hotels, resorts, eateries, theme parks, pubs, clubs, event planning and tourism. It’s any business that serves food and/or drinks, prioritises customer service and earns more revenue from services than goods.

This article covers the most common risks and what you can do to minimise them.

Slips, trips and falls

It may be no surprise that slips, trips and falls are among the biggest causes of third-party injury in the hospitality sector. Take a preventative approach by training staff to identify and understand key hazard areas and situations and ensure staff implement appropriate procedures. Document safe work processes and register incidents and accidents.

Food-borne illnesses

Safe food handling is another huge risk for hospitality businesses and not managing these risks could be costly for your business, leading to closure, fines, product liability claims and associated loss of reputation.  Always ensure your staff have ongoing training in safe food handling, sanitation and health safety procedures.

Patron behaviour

Managing patron behaviour is an extra burden for your staff, with alcohol-fuelled behaviour and unreasonable patron reactions to the fast-changing COVID-19 health orders being the top issues faced by businesses.

Risks to employees

Employers can help by being strategic in identifying at-risk staff and developing an employee wellbeing program or connecting staff with support agencies, particularly if they are under financial distress. Use downtime to help build teamwork among staff.

Equipment failure

Fully functioning equipment is the backbone of your business. When it fails, financial and reputation losses, plus health issues, can escalate. Think about which maintenance philosophy your business predominantly harnesses and if it’s a good fit.

Insurance you should have as a hospitality business

Another layer of protection is to have stand-alone policies or policy packages that cover things like equipment breakdown, business interruptions, management liability, workers’ compensation and public or product liability.

Bundling your policies into one package and securing them through us can also earn you discounts and save time.  If you would like to know more about hospitality insurance cover,  please CLICK HERE or contact us for more information.