(or why LP is less about “loss prevention” and more about chasing keys with a radio)
Welcome to the back-of-house hotel reality. Think less “James Bond” and more “key concierge with a walkie-talkie.”
The service floor of any full-service hotel?
A living, breathing ant hill of controlled chaos:
- Housekeeping carts flying from floor to floor
- In-room dining rushing food upstairs before the phone call even ends
- Restaurant staff hunting down wine crates and napkins from the storage room
- Wedding planners frantically assembling the reception they forgot to confirm
- Engineers sprinting to stop a flood caused by a guest convinced faucets “used to turn the other way”
- Internet contractors demanding access to telecom closets
- And the delivery guy with the 20-foot palm tree who’s “absolutely sure” he’s allowed to drive up to the 15th-floor rooftop garden
If you’ve worked in hotel ops, you know the drill.
If you haven’t — you probably think LP officers are a mix of Navy SEALs and bodyguards, keeping the peace at the bar after 11 PM.
Sorry to disappoint.
The truth? 90% of LP’s day is spent not fighting crime… but fighting doors.
Providing on-demand access to everything from purchasing warehouses and storage rooms to freight gates and meeting rooms.
Because when a team member needs access to a “restricted” area, guess who gets the call?
Spoiler: it’s not IT.
You might ask, “Wait, don’t hotels have access control systems?”
Oh, they do. Somewhere. In theory.
Usually, it’s a tiny LP dispatch room with a key box, a radio, a pen, and a prayer.
Need access?
You sign a form, get a key (if it’s not lost), and hope someone remembers to log it back in.
And sure, in some areas, there are digital locks.
But the only guy who knew how to assign access? He quit yesterday.
The new hire hasn’t been trained yet.
And the LP supervisor? He’s off today.
Come back tomorrow.
So what happens instead?
- Food & Beverage radios LP: “Open the wine room”
- Events calls: “Unlock “Brooklyn” meeting room”
- Security responds, unlocks, re-locks, logs the entry, and repeats 40 more times
This isn’t tech-enabled access control.
This is LP turned into a human API.
And it’s not because there’s no solution — it’s because no one ever bothered to implement one that actually works for the people doing the work.
Maybe it’s time HQ’s IT director took a mandatory course called
“Access Control for Colleagues”
Until then — if you’re curious how to automate this chaos without million-dollar systems, hardware swaps, or futuristic promises, check the link.
