Hotel managers awakened in the early morning hours to news of an earthquake, fire or explosion are unlikely to think first of saving the hotel's AS400 information system or retrieving computer data tapes from off-site locations. Evacuating guests and employees is paramount.
Disaster plans put people first.
Technology systems rendered inoperable in one location can ripple through an entire hotel organization, forcing the company to fall back on manual operations. Reservations, property management and communications systems must be quickly replaced and guest data recovered to avoid major losses. A case in point involved the bombing of New York's World Trade Center in 1993. The terrorist act inflicted physical damage to a large area of downtown Manhattan, including an adjacent hotel. Although the hotel was evacuated in less than fifteen minutes with no fatalities, the telephone and computer system was damaged.