Hotel Worker Safety Stats and Facts

FACTS

Housekeeping hotel employment can lead to any of the following injuries and safety hazards:

Slips and falls: Scrubbing floors of bathtubs, showers in bathroom floors create ideal conditions for slip-and-fall accidents.

Respiratory: Exposure to chemical cleaning agents that can cause long-term respiratory problems.

Infectious diseases: Waste disposal can expose hotel housekeeping staff to pathogens, broken glass, and other body waste.

Stress: Excessive workload and exposure to other hazards can cause occupational stress.

Muscle Injuries: Repetitive movements of vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, etc. of hotel rooms require housekeeping staff to move their body in ways that can strain and even tear muscles and tendons.

Harassment and violence: An increasing amount of workplace harassment and violence has been reported in hotels across Canada and the United States. Violence and harassment can be defined as any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated, or assaulted in his or her employment.

STATS

• According to an article in Hospitality Net, at an annual injury rate of 7.9%, housekeepers experience one of the highest on-the-job injury rates in the hospitality industry.
• Hotel and motel workers had a nonfatal injury and illness rate of 5.4, a significantly higher rate than the 3.5 rate for all industries.
• From 2016 to 2019, the most common causes of injuries reported in hotels and motels were: strain to the lower back; slips, trips and falls with multiple body parts involved; cut, puncture, scrape or rub to the fingers; strike or injury to the foot; and strike to the skull.
• Hotels and motels are the most common and tend to have the highest number of claims. Between 2016 and 2019, Summit received 2,970 claims for workplace injuries in hotels and motels.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that for every 100 full-time workers in hospitality 3.4 are injured or fall ill each year because of a workplace accident. Of those injured or ill, over half require time off work to recover.
• Throughout the hospitality industry employees are required to lift, push, and pull heavy inventory and objects. The result is that nearly 50% of all workplace injuries in the hotel industry, and similar numbers in bar and restaurant work come from manual handling.