New Emergency Dialing (911) Standard Effective May 1, 2014; Ensure All Hotels are Compliant by Dec. 31, 2014
Franchisees | As we communicated in January of this year, there was a tragedy in Texas in which a woman was killed in a hotel room. During the attack, attempts to reach emergency services were unsuccessful due to the need to dial “9” before “911” in order to get the call out. This incident, along with more recent incidents, garnered a wide range of media and Congressional attention and some states have taken legislative action regarding the matter.
In partnership with the AH&LA, a survey was delivered to understand emergency dialing patterns across the industry, and Marriott has since completed a survey to gauge patterns in place across the portfolio. To ensure the safety of our guests, on May 1, 2014, Marriott began requiring that all hotels (Marriott-managed and franchised) route all guestroom 911 calls to emergency services without dialing to access an outside line (for example, 9-911 or 8-911) as part of the new “Guestroom Emergency Dialing (911)” standard. This standard also requires that all new PBX Systems support emergency call notification features and that properties train personnel on specific procedures for managing the notifications.
As a hotel owner and/or operator, it is incumbent upon your company to operate your hotel(s) in compliance with all brand standards. We have ensured that all Marriott-managed hotels are now fully compliant with the standard, and it is our expectation that all franchised hotels are compliant as well. Compliance with standards is the responsibility of the franchisees.
If any of your hotels are not yet compliant, we strongly urge you to develop a plan for those hotels to ensure compliance by December 31, 2014, and appreciate your effort to date for the many hotels already completed.
Please let us know if you have any questions, or reach out to telecom-voice@marriott.com for questions specific to implementing a solution.