Hopefully, it will be the only part of your strategic Public Relations plan that you will never have to execute: a crisis plan is often times the most important part of the communications strategy.

A crisis is usually referred to as an event that can affect a property in a negative way. This can be anything from a fire, to a guest relations issue, a computer glitch, or it can result from a renovation, a management change, new ownership, etc. The effects of a crisis can be short term or long term, and many times the damage can be irreversible. When a crisis is handled poorly, it affects your reputation, brand management, and most of all your credibility- and when credibility is badly damaged, the affects can be fatal to your business.

Ultimately, a crisis plan outlines the communications strategy and tactics that should be undertaken for each scenario identified by the Executive Committee of a hotel. As I have indicated from time to time in my columns over the years, your PR or Communications counsel, whether an in-house or outsourced professional, should have a seat on your hotel's Executive Committee. I am seeing more hotels follow this practice in recent years, ...