facility focus Avoid The Winter Blues And Bruises With Floor Mats How to select the right floor mat program for your hotel to help prevent slips, trips and falls. By: Todd McKeown T Tis’ the season of slip-and-fall incidents. Icy sidewalks, damp lobby floors and muddy, curled up rugs are all signs of win-ter at a hotel — and major safety hazards for guests and employees. According to statistical data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), slips, trips and falls cause 15 percent of all accidental deaths — second only to automobile acci-dents in the number of fatalities. Amid snowy, cold winter days, the risk of injury rises — particularly as individu-als compromise their secure footing and safety by hastily seeking shelter and warmth indoors. However, with the right floor care solu-tions and a little more caution, the oppor-tunity for slip-and-fall accidents can be significantly reduced. One solution often taken for granted is floor mats, which come in all styles, sizes and shapes. When used strategically, floor mats can help keep guests and employees safe, as well as elevate a hotel’s image, improve pro-ductivity and reduce housekeeping costs. But, with so many options, selecting the right mat program may appear challenging and cumbersome. In order to help hoteliers select the optimal matting solution for their property, a summary of the different types of pro-grams follows below: ■ Rental mat programs For high-traffic areas within a hotel or hotels in locations particularly prone to dust or bad weather, a mat rental pro-gram is an easy, cost-efficient way to help protect guests and employees, reduce overhead costs and improve cleanliness. No upfront costs are necessary, which makes a rental program easy to transition into from a budget perspective. In addition, the mat rental provider replac-es dirty mats with professionally laundered and sanitized mats on a routine basis. If any of the mats become damaged due to normal wear and tear, repairs and replacements are made at no additional cost to the hotel. In addition to keeping entryways look-ing their best, the service helps ensure that mats continually capture contami-nants and moisture before guests track it through the hotel. For additional peace of mind, hoteliers should check to see if the mats offered by Gaining Traction There are three types of programs com-monly offered by facility service providers: 1. Rental 2. Direct purchase 3. Custom installation. It’s important to review the features and benefits of each in order to select the program that best meets the needs and requirements of your unique facility. Hoteliers can find safe solutions to wintertime slips and falls and facilitate cleanliness by incorporating comprehensive matting programs into their floor care equations. 42 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • January 2013
CMM – Archives Jan 2013: 42
