Preventing and recovering from a ransomware attack is a topic for a different article. In this series, we’ll focus on preparing for and responding to the loss of crucial operational systems such as the property management system (PMS), the point-of sale system (POS), and guestroom locking. The root cause might be a successful ransomware attack, a system shutdown driven by ransomware, or some other cause entirely such as a backhoe across the street rips out the fiber optic cable to your hotel, a fire in the server room takes out the servers, switches, and routers, or a part in a server fails and you have to order a new one and get it installed. This series will track the three phases of successful downtime operations: preparation, running the hotel while the system(s) are down, and recovery.

Making a Plan

Your downtime operations plan should include the three phases described above and all crucial hotel applications. Keep current copies on paper in
all affected departments. Operating departments must execute the plans, so they need to take ownership for creating and maintaining them -- not the IT department.
Their job will be to get the affected systems back up and running. Operating departments’ jobs are to serve the guest and maintain revenue
streams.
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Your downtime operating plan needs to account for different types and durations of outages. If you lose everything for days, as in a ransomware shutdown or a fire in the data center, your plan is different than if you lose the POS terminals in one outlet. Your plan needs to account for different types of systems and their capabilities in different scenarios. If you have a cloud-based PMS and lose your server room and the local network, you can still access the system via cellular telephone service and, at a minimum, get reports to run the front desk with.
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Your plan needs to account for all critical guest-facing processes. In all hotels, these will include:

• Check-In - Registration, Establishing Credit, Room Availability and Assignment, Key Encoding
• Housekeeping Services - Room Status Update, Discrepancy Reporting
• Charge Posting and Folio Maintenance - Room and Tax,
• Other Revenue
• Check-Out - Settlement, Room Status Update
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Most hotels will need to plan for delivering food and beverage services including taking orders, control of product, and control of settlements. Many hotels will need to plan for managing parking and collecting parking fees. Meeting room signage and group resumes/event orders will be crucial processes for many hotels to plan for.

Prepare According to Plan

Your plan may call for various supplies. You’ll need to source them in advance and store them in secure places near where they’ll be used. You may have heard these called “crash kits.” They can be as simple as a cardboard box or a plastic bin containing the requisite supplies. Here’s a partial list of supplies you might want to consider writing into your plan:

You can’t assume you’ll have printers and laptops if you lose electrical power. You can create forms you’ll need in Excel and print out a supply for your crash kits. If you have computers and printers, you can use the Excel version instead of the hard copies.
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These forms would include cashier’s reports for balancing out at the end of the shift. Room Status forms that reflect the hotel’s physical layout and have cells big enough to record guest name, time and new status are essential in an extended downtime event. Likewise, the preprinted room attendant assignment sheets should reflect the stations that the room attendants normally work.
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You’ll need forms that start from your contingency reports (see below) and maintain that data over time. You also can’t assume you’ll be able to make keys. So, you’ll need to make an inventory of fail-safe key cards in advance. Label them by room number and set. You’ll want at least two sets, if not three. Store them in a secure location.
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You can issue them to guests without having to send a bellman or security to the room every time someone wants to get in. Preparation begins and ends with backup lists. Sometimes called contingency reports or shift reports, these are a set of reports that should be run procedurally, or ideally automatically, hourly if the front office is busy or less often if there isn’t much activity. These reports should be saved to a disk somewhere as a file, and also printed out. Some PMS systems have preconfigured back-up reports all in one place. Others require the hotel to configure a set of reports as a batch to be run on a scheduled basis or on-demand.

Your back-up reports should have at least three components:

1. A guest list of in-house guests, sorted by room number, showing:
   
   • Rate, rate code, group/package code, charge routing, arrival/departure dates, special service codes, # of guests and folios balances
   • This report tells you what room is occupied by whom and lets you calculate their folio balance going forward
2. A list of in-house, expected, and departed guests, sorted by last name, showing:
   
   • Room # (if assigned), arrival/departure dates, status, room type, rate, rate code, group/package codes, # guests, special service codes
   • This report lets you manage check-ins, so you know what room type is associated with any given reservation
3. A room status report of all rooms, showing:
   • Room type, occupancy status, cleaning status, days available, expected departure flag
   • This report tells you what rooms are available as of the time the reports were run, and which need to be cleaned.

You may want to include other reports, such as credit limit, OOO, future expected arrivals and so on, but the above would be a bare minimum. It’s crucial to maintain this data throughout the downtime event, not on the back-up list report itself, but on ledger forms you have previously prepared. Without recent back-up lists, your chances of gracefully getting through a downtime event of any duration are pretty slim.

Practice Your Plan

You’ll need to practice your plan periodically so the people tasked with executing it know what to do. Your team can gain valuable experience from exercises that simulate a down time and have check-ins, check-outs and room status changes going on to ensure that people have a process in place for managing
these key flows when they need to. In the next installment, we’ll walk through some key elements to executing your plan during a downtime event.

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