Businesses can't afford to ignore the street outside
A good night’s sleep depends on more than a comfortable bed. For hospitality providers such as Premier Inn and Travelodge, guests also need to feel confident that they, their belongings and their families are safe.
That starts inside the hotel. But it extends to the pavement outside, the nearby car park and the route from the station.
Hotels operate where people live, work and socialise, often welcoming guests throughout the night. Across the sector, staff can find themselves dealing with drunken aggression, persistent disturbance, drug use, harassment and people attempting to enter areas where they have no legitimate reason to be.
These situations place considerable demands on receptionists, housekeeping teams and managers. Someone employed to welcome guests can suddenly find themselves managing a confrontation, supporting a frightened customer or deciding whether to call the police. Abuse and intimidation should never be accepted as part of the job.
Staff need practical training, clear procedures, adequate support and confidence that concerns will receive a response. Responsibility for safety must sit throughout the organisation, including at the most senior management level.
The recent scrutiny of Travelodge underlines how much is at stake. Its independent review (opens external site), published on 1 October, followed a serious sexual assault at its Maidenhead hotel in 2022, after the attacker obtained a room key by deception. Travelodge has apologised for failures in room access security and its response to complaints, and committed to further improvements.
A serious sexual assault is one of the most grave crimes. But the case reinforces a wider principle: safety requires reliable systems, consistent implementation and an organisation and culture that listens when people report crime and concerns.
The same seriousness should apply to the environment surrounding a business.
Businesses can invest in CCTV, security personnel, alarms and measures to prevent theft. Those investments matter. Yet a well-protected shop or other premise can still lose customers if reaching its entrance means walking past persistent intimidation, aggressive street drinking or public drug-taking.
Likewise, a hotel’s welcoming reception cannot fully compensate for guests feeling unsafe as soon as they step outside. Employees must also travel through those streets and public spaces, often alone and early in the morning or late at night.
The commercial consequences deserve attention. Research commissioned by the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser found that anti-social behaviour has an economic impact on business that is comparable to violent crime. Persistent disorder can therefore carry substantial economic consequences, alongside its human cost.
For hospitality providers, retailers and other businesses, taking the surrounding area seriously means recording recurring problems, explaining their impact and working with neighbouring businesses, residents, councils and police to secure improvements.
FixASB helps make persistent problems visible, bringing reports and experiences together so that the cumulative impact is easier to understand and communicate.
Businesses have an important contribution to make: their staff often see patterns that individual customers only encounter briefly. Capturing that knowledge can help turn isolated complaints into a clearer picture of what needs to change.
Safer business premises and safer streets belong together. Protecting both helps staff work with confidence, customers feel welcome and local businesses thrive.
