How is your SEO these days?

June 13, 2019

ADA COMPLIANCE

ADA TITLE III LAWSUITS FILED IN FEDERAL COURT CONTINUE TO INCREASE …. 33% IN 2018 OVER THE PREVIOUS YEAR!

As a hotel owner and member of California Lodging Industry Association, we know this is a big issue for your business. You must remain steadfast in your commitment to ensure that persons with disabilities are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Since the law was enacted in 1990, hotel owners have spent billions of dollars to achieve compliance and provide unfettered access to their properties. And with the increase in lawsuits related to website access, compliance with ADA laws remain a frontrunner for hotel owners.

Despite these efforts, thousands of hotels and businesses are still getting sued or threatened by lawsuits - the majority of which are unfounded and frivolous. In the past two years alone, 15,000 Title III lawsuits were filed under ADA targeting hotel owners and other businesses.

Are your current liability limits adequate to defend you against a frivolous ADA lawsuit?

Click here to learn more....

Click here for 10 Tips for ADA Website Compliance...

Is Your Hotel Website ADA Compliant article

Contact: Christian Muller (818) 935-0216 christian@reharris.com or Lisa Catagnolo

(949) 338-8983 lisa@reharris.com

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The Complete SEO Audit Checklist

By Jamie FitzHenry, brought to you by www.4hoteliers.com

When you invest your energy and hard-earned money into working with the best SEO strategies for your business, how will you know if they’re promoting the desired result or not?

An SEO Audit is the answer. It’s simply the best way to analyse your SEO strategies.

As a result of the world of SEO being extremely dynamic in nature, the SEO strategies that work now might turn out to not be useful six months from now. Ranking algorithms are frequently updated by Google and other search engines, and so, an SEO audit will help you stay well informed and updated about the changes.

SEO audits should be conducted at least twice in a year. This will certainly help to ensure that your website is up-to-date with the latest developments in SEO. Various SEO audit tools can be used to perform an SEO audit and improve your search engine rankings.

Click here to learn more about the aspects of an SEO audit....

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Preventing “Off-the-Clock Work” Lawsuits

Employees filing lawsuits for performing “off-the-clock work” for which they are not paid continue to rise in California and nationally. Usually in these lawsuits, employees claim they were not paid for work they performed before or after their scheduled shift or during their unpaid meal break. By implementing and enforcing strict work policies, employers can reduce the possibilities of such lawsuits.

Employers do have the right to prohibit off-the-clock work. This policy should be stated in the employee handbook and enforced through a variety of communications with employees.

One consideration in such lawsuits is whether or not the employer had notice that the employee was working off-the-clock or without being paid. The courts have tended to rule in favor of the employer in circumstances when they were unaware that such work was being performed.

Off-the-Clock Work Best Practices

Employers can consider these ideas in establishing policies and practices to prohibit off-the-clock work:

Spell out your definition of off-the-clock work, for example don’t check your emails at home, don’t work before or after clocking in or out or during your meal break, don’t run work errands before or after clocking out.
Observe your employees work and explain on a regular basis the company policy regarding off-the-clock work. Ask them if they understand the policy and are observing it. Record their responses.
Infractions of the off-the-clock work policy should be treated as a disciplinary issue and followed up with appropriate action.
Supervisors who do not actively enforce the off-the-clock policy should be subject to disciplinary action.
Take a hard look at company practices that reward supervisors to keeping labor hours or overtime pay low as they may incentivize off-the-clock work.
Examine any special issues relating to remote workers.

Regardless of the official off-the-clock work policies, employees must be paid for any time worked, even if it was unauthorized. Once brought to your attention, off-the-clock work should be the subject for re-training and possibly disciplinary action.

CLIA Lodging Members can call the FREE CLIA Helpline about Human Resource and other questions at 916.925.2915.

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Get Your Free Human Trafficking Certification

Inhospitable to Human Trafficking: Training Workshop

These FREE workshops will empower you to make a difference in the lives of those who are exploited by equipping you with best practices to identify and report suspected trafficking incidents, prevent trafficking, and increase hotel safety. You will learn how to protect your hotel from legal risks, security risks, and reputational risks. You will also learn how to use BEST’s online training program to train all staff at your properties and discover ways to build upon your existing human trafficking training tools.

Who Should Attend: frontline supervisors and department managers, hotel owners and general managers

SB 970 was signed into law by Governor Brown. It requires Human Trafficking awareness and education for all hotel employees that may come into contact or interact with possible victims of Human Trafficking. Employees must complete this by January 1, 2020.

All attendees will receive a certification of completion by BEST at the end of the workshop.

Walk-ins Welcome

Light Refreshments Provided