Hotel properties are complex facilities. They include guest rooms, lobbies, food service areas, bars, sometimes ballrooms, and public and private meeting areas, to name just a few. Because of this, hotels typically need different types of mats to help protect the health of the facility and keep guests and hotel users safe.
To determine which types of mats should be installed where, Crown Matting Technologies suggests that hotel managers divide their properties into "matting zones." These are the key matting zones found in most hotel properties:
Entrances:
Entrances to the hotel include front entrances as well as side and back entrances. They are the first places where soils and moisture can be "walked in" on shoe bottoms, so it is essential to make sure the proper matting is installed in these locations. Each entrance should have 15 feet of matting made up of three components: scraper mats, wiper/scraper mats, and wiper mats. Together, they help prevent as much as 80 percent of soil and contaminants from being walked inside the property.
High-risk areas:
If the hotel has a restaurant, a high-risk area that is often overlooked is the floor area leading to and from the kitchen. These are busy areas. To keep them safe, select a mat that has been certified by the National Floor Safety Institute such as Crown's Dust-Star.
High-traffic areas:
Along with the lobby, most hotels have one or two corridors that receive the most foot traffic. A perfect example is a walkway leading to the lobby and elevators. These areas can become heavily soiled. When this happens, the likelihood that soils and moisture will be "walked" into other parts of the hotel increases. Proper matting such as Crown's Oxford can absorb soils and moisture, preventing this from happening.
Kitchen areas:
The first concern in a hotel kitchen is that the floors stay as dry as possible, which an effective matting system can help ensure. Flow-through mats, such as Safe-Flow Plus are designed for kitchen areas that allow for spills to flow through the holes in the mat to the floor below, keeping the walk area dry and safe. This promotes safety and keeps shoe bottoms dry, helping to prevent a slip-and-fall accident.
Lobby check-in:
The Front Desk people tasked with checking guests in and out of the hotel are typically standing throughout the day. This causes pain and fatigue that can negatively impact their work performance. Anti-fatigue mats are designed to reduce the muscle pain and fatigue these workers experience. They provide a gentle but definite "bounce," helping increase blood flow to the lower limbs, which in turn can reduce fatigue and pain and promote safety. Select mats made of a patented material called Zedlan. Most experts report these are the most effective anti-fatigue mats available.
The Crown Matting Technologies blog is where cleaning professionals and building managers find expert, practical advice on the many features and benefits of high-quality, purchased floor mats and how they can help keep your facility cleaner, safer, healthier, and looking its best. For more information, contact us at 800-MAT-LINE (628-5463).
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