Disasters can strike anywhere and damage any property, including boating marinas. Because of this, marinas need a crisis management plan shared with boaters and staff to help prepare for or recover from catastrophes.
Here’s how to mitigate crises and help your staff and guests stay prepared.
Marinas face many potential threats and areas of vulnerability, putting them at risk of significant property damage. Depending on your location, you need a plan to prepare for and recover from disasters. Here are some to consider:
The importance of risk assessment can’t be overstated. In fact, Ready.gov has multiple resources around risk assessment, including how to conduct business impact analysis, a business impact analysis worksheet, and a risk assessment tool.
Identifying and assessing these potential threats in your crisis management plan ensures your marina is safe, enjoyable, and prepared for any disaster.
To effectively mitigate potential threats to your marina, it is crucial to integrate a comprehensive checklist into your crisis management plan. This proactive measure ensures that your business takes all necessary actions to support and assist your boaters and staff during times of crisis.
Although every marina will have different checklists per location and threat, some of the most important things to consider are:
Ensure you make your checklist easily accessible so that it encourages guests to take the appropriate actions based on the type of hazard or threat so they can coordinate a proper emergency plan.
It's vital that in the case of an emergency your guests are familiar with what is expected of them and can easily access that information. Consider having appropriate signage throughout your property as well as proactive communication regarding your guests' game plan if an emergency should arise.
Ensure you:
Remind boaters about checking their equipment. Inform your guests to check mooring lines regularly and secure equipment, such as furniture, grills, and sports gear.
Review protocol for a range of emergencies. This includes fires, sinking boats, flooding, storms, environmental pollutants, and other crises. This information can be communicated with your guests upon arrival or in their reservation confirmation email.
Include your refund policy. Consider adding information about reservations and refunds in case of a crisis at your marina.
Gather your staff together and designate emergency roles and responsibilities for each member.
For example, one member should update marina information, including all boat descriptions and personal contacts. Another team member should be responsible for emergency equipment and their functionality, such as checking on fire extinguishers to ensure they’re in working order.
You should also have roles and responsibilities for:
In case a crisis does occur at your marina, you must be prepared to initiate a comprehensive recovery plan to reduce downtime and restore your marina to a functioning destination for your boaters.
When creating a recovery plan, it’s mandatory to consider the following steps to implement during the recovery phase:
It’s important to understand that recovery takes time, and all the changes won’t occur overnight. You can talk to all the third-parties involved in restoring your marina to get an idea of how long each process will take.
While you wait for your marina to be back up and running, ensure you reflect on the incident and take notes of how you can prevent it from happening again. Check your marina for areas of loose wiring, gas leaks, dangerous animals, points of entry into your marina, cybersecurity measures, fire hazards, and more.
An extra step that you should take is to leverage the latest industry resources, news, and more to always keep your marina in line with best practices.
If you’re looking for more of the latest marina management tips and precautionary advice from hospitality experts, get your Operational Excellence in Hospitality: Using PMS to Work Smarter guide today.