Hotel Security Challenges
Hyatt Hotels owns and manages hundreds of properties worldwide. Until 2013, they
had no standardized CCTV security platform. This presented different challenges.
Disparate video management software across different sites was not efficient or
effective.
“I travelled around the world and there was no rhyme or reason to the number of
cameras our properties had,” says Erik Antons, Vice President of Global Security
for Hyatt Hotels. “Even more disconcerting was the fact that at least a few cameras
were usually out of operation at each property, some for a considerable period of
time, and if the one person tasked with security monitoring was not around, there
often was no one else who knew the system – user training was a big issue.”
A turning point was an international terrorism act at a Marriott hotel in 2009.
The event alerted Hyatt to the fact that video storage for Hyatt properties was
exclusively onsite.
“The first thing police did was they came in, captured all the video imagery and
confiscated it,” Antons says. “The police began releasing video clips in the public
domain in an effort to explain to the citizens what had happened. So we knew we
needed to start thinking about remote storage and the ability to get access to video
if an incident occurred.”
A Standard Solution Worldwide
Antons felt it was important for Hyatt to have a standardized security platform
across its brands. He wanted one that would allow for integrated security and risk
management, centralized support and training, and remote storage and incidence
management.
In December 2012 Antons commissioned Hyatt’s global security standards project.
He reached out to Wade Pinnell, now owner of Virtual Software Equipment &
Consulting (VSEC) Services, an emerging leader in the electronic security industry,
to assist in choosing Hyatt’s new platform and implementing the rollout.
“We had it narrowed down to Milestone XProtect video management software
(VMS) and another competitor,” Antons says. “Milestone offered clear advantages in
features and function. Once they decided to match the competitive encoder price,
the choice was pretty easy.”
The program was officially launched in December of 2013 following a pilot project
with three smaller Hyatt properties. Pinnell, who for this project was hired as a
contract implementation manager for the Hyatt global closed circuit television
(CCTV) systems, says that as of 2016 Milestone is online in over 100 Hyatt
properties with deployment plans in some stage of development in another 50-80
properties. The ultimate goal is all Hyatt properties.
In addition to Milestone VMS, Hyatt wanted preferred component partners in
other aspects of the installation. After careful deliberation, Hyatt chose Axis
Communications as its preferred camera provider, Anixter as the preferred
distributor and HP/BCDVideo as the preferred server.
Pinnell says Hyatt presents unique challenges because it manages, rather than
owns, the majority of its properties, which means working out agreements on
security deployments with other stakeholders. “This is going to be a long and
complex process because each Hyatt property is unique. But what’s great is that at
the core, tying everything together, is Milestone VMS.”
Expanding Hotel Locations
Hyatt Hotels includes 10 distinct brands and more than 600 properties worldwide,
with almost $4.5 billion in revenue in 2014. In that year alone, Hyatt experienced
rapid growth by adding nearly 100 properties.
Hyatt offers a number of sub-brands to address the needs of a broad customer
base, from business travelers to family vacationers to others looking for a high-end
hotel experience. Hyatt’s newest brand, Hyatt Centric, launched in April 2015 to
serve guests as a “super concierge”, offering recommendations on things like wine
tastings and beach activities that place visitors right in the center of the action.
Open Platform Architecture
Pinnell says that one of his first requirements was that the platform be built on
open architecture. “When we started looking into Milestone and other competitors,
we found Milestone easier to use and a lot more open. If you dig deep into the
software’s architecture, there is a pretty big difference there.”
One of the chief differences involves Open Network Interface Video Forum (ONVIF).
ONVIF is the dominant industry standard for the interface between IP physical
security products. In addition to video streaming, Pinnell appreciates that while
being ONVIF compliant, Milestone does not rely exclusively on this standard. By
having dedicated drivers for Axis cameras, and thousands of other cameras, feature
sets such as input/output and voice-over-internet IP are guaranteed to work. Other
competitors that rely exclusively on ONVIF compliance, are less reliable, which in
Antons’ eyes was a clear advantage in choosing Milestone.
“These cameras can do a lot more than record video,” Antons says. “With Milestone,
we can maximize many of those other features, which is a big selling point.”
Shared Video Helped Catch the Rico Suave Bandit
Antons says that video surveillance has helped resolve a major investigation.
Several years ago, there was a jewelry thief that repeatedly made off with a sizable
amount of jewelry from a hotel in Los Angeles.
The thief would pretend to be a hotel engineer and targeted specific individuals
he thought he could manipulate. He would appear at their room posing as a hotel
engineer, and tell them the hotel sent him to do a check of the AC system in the
room, and to do so he would have to spray an aerosol that had an offensive odor.
He advised the guests to wait in the hallway while he performed the check. The
guests would leave him alone in the room for a few minutes, during which time he
would make off with jewelry and other valuables.
Months after multiple thefts with the same modus operandi (MO) were reported in
the U.S., a robbery with the same MO was reported in Australia. Hyatt meticulously
combed through video footage, coordinating with both the Perth and Sydney
police departments. Eventually, the thief was caught on a Hyatt property in Sydney
after being wanted for almost three years and making off with nearly $5 million
dollars in stolen goods. Hyatt receives all the FBI bulletins and distributes them
internationally because many jewel thieves operate globally.
“By sharing imagery, we helped lead to his arrest,” Antons says. “Our partnership
is predicated on the use of a global system that enables us to use our equipment
more intelligently, lower our costs, improve our performance capabilities and most
importantly, better protect our operations. Milestone will give us that foundation.”
Antons says that Hyatt’s security system is also integrated into specialized city
security systems in the US, like Project Shield in Chicago. Hyatt is already a partner
with municipal police departments in cities like London, Chicago and San Diego for
the purposes of sharing video to assist in the protection of public venues.
Software Features Address Management Needs
As VSEC Services and Hyatt were deciding on a VMS, Milestone released two
product features that proved very timely: the Customer Dashboard and Milestone
Interconnect.
“The Customer Dashboard lets us monitor our installations in real time,” Pinnell
says. “We can see that all our sites are up and working, and if something does
happen in that process, we get an alert so we can immediately respond to the
problem.”
In addition to the stand-alone systems at each property, Hyatt uses Milestone
Interconnect, which allows Pinnell to monitor all the Milestone deployments from
one central location. This gives Hyatt tools and options to prevent situations like
those seen in Jakarta. Milestone Interconnect also gives Pinnell a one-button click
access into the VMS installed at a property level. That means he can log in, add and
modify users and passwords, and do remote configuration – all from his office in
Michigan.
“Hyatt has over 600 properties, so we had to have that ability to know when
things were working and when they weren’t on a case-by-case basis,” Pinnell says.
“We wanted a tool that would allow us to manage the health and functionality of
our servers and to make sure that the standards we wrote were being deployed
properly. Milestone Interconnect was a perfect fit for these needs.”
Milestone Tiers Provide a Flexible System
Hyatt’s 10 different brands require varied security configurations. Milestone’s ability
to accommodate each was another advantage of the company’s open platform.
“Generally we use Milestone XProtect Corporate for Hyatt’s casinos and large,
complex sites,” Antons says. “Milestone XProtect Enterprise is deployed to sites
with more than 48 cameras, XProtect Professional for use with 17-47 cameras and
XProtect Express for our smallest sites. It’s great to have tiered solutions that meet
the needs of different properties.”
Antons estimates that Hyatt has saved tens of thousands of dollars based on the
fact that there are significant cost differences in camera licenses between the tiers.
In addition, the ability to use the Customer Dashboard and Milestone Interconnect
to monitor all the tiers from a central location are critical, cost-effective tools for
Hyatt.
Easy Training and Programming a Big Plus
Pinnell says Hyatt is already seeing meaningful benefits from the recent Milestone
installations. “We did a recent deployment in the south of France. Obviously there
was a little bit of a language barrier, but with the XProtect Smart Client supporting
27 languages, training went well. One week later the security manager calls me to
say how much the staff loves using Milestone, how easily they’ve picked it up. We’re
going to continue to have deployments all over the globe, and so far, we’re hearing
that the user benefits compared to previous systems are tremendous.”
Previously, Hyatt’s digital video recorders (DVR) could bring up different camera
feeds but the system did not allow customization. With Milestone, operators can
toggle between different views with ease and change camera options based on
time of day and location.
In addition, Hyatt personnel have commented on the ease of video export with
Milestone. “Properties often need to coordinate with law enforcement or human
resources to pull video,” Pinnell says. “We’ve consistently received feedback that
it’s so much easier to accomplish this with Milestone. If there are questions, we can
support them in real-time.”
Ready for the Future
Antons and Pinnell say that Hyatt’s first year using Milestone was mostly focused
on getting installations up in different locations and adapting to a new system. The
upcoming year will be more focused on adding complexities to the system.
“Right now we are considering various biometric applications, business analytic
tools like traffic flow and space utilization, and license plate recognition (LPR),”
Antons says. “We’re definitely looking at capitalizing on the many integrations
Milestone has to offer.”
Most of the installations so far have been on smaller properties, but Pinnell already
sees year two deployments featuring bigger, more complex installations.
“We’re tying a lot of our deployments to major renovations or acquisitions,” Pinnell
says. “Obviously if you’re spending millions to add or significantly upgrade a
property, it’s easier to add in $50-100,000 for a new security system.”
Pinnell is hopeful that the positive feedback from Hyatt properties with existing
Milestone installations will spur more locations to ask for their upgrade sooner.
“We want the rollout to be a model that demonstrates the value of a centralized
standard based on business principles and not edict,” Pinnell says. “We’re definitely
moving forward, but a key is getting people excited about implementation, banging
down our doors for Milestone because they want it.”