Mr. Broadhag

Spas, Health & Fitness

10 Top Liability Risks for the Hotel Fitness Center

By Kurt A. Broadhag, President, K Allan Consulting

Hotel fitness centers worldwide share the common goal of providing guests a safe workout environment. Unfortunately with exercise comes risk. Within the gym there are a whole host of potentially dangerous situations that can threaten the safety of its members. Without the proper planning these risks can result in injuries, exposing the facility to potential negligence.

Unlike traditional gyms the hotel fitness center offers the unique challenge of catering to a constant flow of new members daily unaccustomed to specific gym dynamics. In the traditional gym setting new members must participate in a mandatory orientation consisting of health screenings, release forms, equipment operations, and rules and regulations allowing each member to become familiar with the operations of the gym facility. This orientation is not often found in the hotel fitness center setting. As a result, this inability to develop personal relationships combined with the unfamiliar surrounding each guest faces on limited usage creates a unique challenge in providing the safest of environment.

Despite the fact that the hotel fitness center is at a disadvantage in as far as orienting its guests with potential liability risks found within the gym there are a number of steps that can be taken to reduce negligence. Following are ten areas within the fitness center that can pose risks as well as steps that management can take to limit liability:

Equipment Selection

Liability protection is an important factor to consider when purchasing exercise equipment. Catastrophic failure of exercise equipment can lead to serious injuries. Consideration in the procurement process should be given only to reputable equipment manufacturers who have been in business for years. This endures a lengthy amount of time has gone into product testing and quality control. Also, these reputable manufacturers carry large product liability policies. When choosing equipment within these companies make sure the equipment will hold up to the rigors of your facility by purchasing either full commercial products or at the minimum light commercial. There are a number of different specifications among the different fitness equipment categories that each should meet to lower your risk of liability such as protected weight stacks, equipment placards explaining proper equipment use, and emergency stops to name just a few. Finally, pay special consideration as to whether your facility will be staffed or non-staffed. For example, if your facility is non-staffed it would not be a good choice to install equipment that uses heavy freeweights which can be easily dropped on someone causing serious injury, especially without supervision.

Poor Layout

Proper layout of the fitness equipment floor is extremely important to ensure the safety of your hotel guests. Adequate walkways throughout the gym, in addition to conforming to ADA requirements, will clearly define safe equipment operation for those walking by. It is important to consider equipment footprint during exercise since many pieces pivot outside of this space and place the walkways around the widest operational arcs. Equipment function and how one enters/exits each piece are both major considerations. Attention should also be paid to allow adequate space around high-injury accidents such as falls off the back of treadmills. Finally, care should be given to head clearance since there are a number of pieces that hang down from above.

ADA compliance

Fitness centers must follow the same ADA requirements as all other public facilities. Gyms that are not in compliance with these requirements could face both civil lawsuits and hefty fines. To meet ADA requirement thought must be put into the design phase to accommodate the needs of those with disabilities. As with all other public places design elements affected include such things as counter heights, locations of drinking fountains, handicap bathrooms/showers requirements, and accessibility. Special consideration in the gym setting also include such things as walkway widths and access to all equipment – selectorized, freeweight, and cardiovascular.

Unqualified Staff

Employing an unqualified staff can pose liability risks in all areas of operation – exercise instruction, check-in, and maintenance and, as a result, affects both staffed and non-staffed facilities. Fitness professionals such as personal trainers and group exercise instructors that are not properly trained and certified may pose a risk if they give out unsafe advice that leads to injury. Check-in staff not properly trained and certified in areas such as first aid a may not be able to handle emergency procedures effectively and in the timely manner required. Finally, unqualified maintenance staff may not be able to enact correct preventative maintenance procedures necessary to ensure equipment is functioning in a safe manner. Making sure all staff members are properly trained and maintains current certification in their respected areas will help guarantee operations are run in a safe manner.

Lack of Emergency Plan

In the event of an emergency it is imperative that your staff is trained to handle the situation effectively. This includes both natural disasters and personal injuries within the gym. Often the critical time for handling emergency situations is immediately after they occur. Formulating an emergency plan, training staff members in correct operational procedures should an injury occur, and properly logging all relevant information in imperative in both handling the situation immediately and protecting your actions should negligence come into question.

Lack of Informed Liability

Traditional gym settings use liability release forms to inform their members about the risks associated with exercising. They can also be used to determine if there is any pre-existing medical condition the prospective member is aware of that might have contraindications to exercise and warn of the risks. Although liability forms do not totally release the facility from potential threat of lawsuits they do help protect when due diligence is followed. A challenge is faced by non-staffed hotel fitness with the inability to inform guests of a release specific to the fitness center even if the hotel blanket release covers the fitness center. Combining signed releases with posted signs explaining the dangers of equipment usage and risk of injury will properly inform guests of the assumption of risks while using the gym.

Rules and regulations – posted signage

Every fitness facility needs to have certain rules and regulations in place their members must follow to create a safe workout environment. This can include everything from minimum workout age, proper workout attire, gym etiquette, and procedures to follow in the case of emergency to name just a few. Having these rules and regulations in place protects the facility from liability risks should they not be followed and an injury occurs as a result. Since most hotel fitness centers lack the ability of requiring each member sign a copy of the rules and regulations they must resort to posting throughout the gym. By making these signs visible in the fitness center they can fulfill their obligation of informing hotel guests of rules they must follow to maintain a safe environment.

Faulty equipment

Injuries related to faulty equipment are perhaps the biggest and most prevalent liability risks found in the gym setting. At the same time these are more times than often easily preventable. Protecting your facility from injuries related to faulty equipment is a two-pronged process. First, care should be taken to purchase commercial equipment from only reputable manufacturers. Second, adopting a detailed preventative maintenance program and contracting a service company factory trained by your equipment manufacturer will keep your equipment running optimally while at the same time flag any potential issues with equipment performance.

Lack of Preventative Maintenance Log

Hand-in-hand with properly maintaining equipment is keeping an up-to-date maintenance log of all your equipment. It is imperative to have a detailed log of scheduled maintenance should an injury occur on the equipment. Daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual maintenance as specified by each equipment manufacturer should be performed by qualified staff and noted within the log. Having this log serves two-fold. First, maintaining the log ensures that your equipment is functioning properly, extends its life, and flags any potential equipment failure that could lead to injury. Secondly, if, for some reason, someone still gets injured on the equipment presenting the completed preventative maintenance log can help in proving the facility fulfilled its due diligence in maintaining the equipment.

Slip and Fall

Slip and fall accidents are a common liability risk in all public places but are even more of a concern in the fitness center. Common injuries occur from either slick floor surfaces or something placed in the line of walk. Although many hotel fitness centers lack shower areas, a common area for slip and fall injuries, they still must deal with wet floors in the fitness area caused by sweating. Ensuring non-slip floors in the design and also incorporating a diligent cleaning schedule will help guard against these injuries. Other areas of concern include such things as weights on the floor and placement of cardiovascular equipment electrical cords. Once again, proper consideration in the design phase and regular monitoring of the fitness floor by staff will help protect from this liability.

The hotel fitness center can pose an extremely high liability risk for operations. If left unaddressed these risk factors can not only lead to potential threat of lawsuits but can also endanger the safety of your guests. By adopting basic liability reduction strategies in the design, program development, and operations of the hotel fitness center you can all but greatly minimize your risk.

Kurt Broadhag has over 16 years of experience in personal training and gym design. He is president of K Allan Consulting, a firm specializing in health club design and management. K Allan Consulting works in unison with property owners, architects, and interior designers to address fitness solutions and develop functional workout environments. The company specializes in two-dimensional and three-dimensional fitness facility renderings, consulting from conceptual design to final installation. Kurt obtained his LEED AP certification and has authored articles on green fitness center design. Mr. Broadhag can be contacted at 310-601-7768 or kbroadhag@kallanconsulting.com Extended Bio...

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