Pat Testing in Hotels

Even the most modest hotel or guest house has many portable electronic devices in its public and service areas and in the guests’ rooms themselves. Keeping this equipment regularly checked and tested is crucial to keep the hotel safe – preventing fire risk and risk of electric shock. Keeping the place running efficiently, ensuring that food can be prepared etc and also in keeping the customer satisfied by ensuring that all available equipment for their use is working properly and not ‘out of order’. In the hotel rooms we nowadays have TV (and possibly game players etc) as standard, tea and coffee making facilities are also expected and additionally there may well be a hair dryer, iron, trouser press, bedside and other lamps and possibly heaters and fans. TV’s can get moved by guests and this can sometime dislodge wiring, expose wires that should be covered, putting wiring under undue pressure etc. With tea making equipment water may well get into places where it should not. Hair dryers may be dropped, irons allowed to overheat etc. Frequently visually checking of these items should be a standard practice with PAT testing carried out on a regular basis as agreed with a PAT testing company. In the public rooms equipment used by staff at the bar or in the restaurant such a coffee machines or glass washers need to be maintained so that the staff can give service to the hotel guests smoothly and quickly. Lamps around the public rooms need to all be functioning (it looks very poor when lights do not work). Sometimes such lamps get knocked over accidentally and their wiring would need to be checked after such an incident. In reception (and the back administrative offices) it is crucial nowadays that the hotel has functioning computers and the other office equipment required for marketing and correspondence,to take reservations, and calculate and issue bills amongst numerous other housekeeping administration tasks. Catering to the food and drink needs of a hotel, particularly if it runs a restaurant where food is cooked, is crucial. All manner of food processors, toasters, blenders, knife sharpeners, mixers, are heavily used and if not moved on a daily basis during the use of the item, are often shifted when cleaning to the level expected in a public kitchen. As well as wear and tear of proper use, food and liquid spillages, over-heating of equipment and pulling of wiring during movement are all possible sources of portable electrical devices becoming damaged. Finally, of course, guests expect hotels to be immaculately clean. The devices used for this, vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, vax machines etc, work hard and are subject to being bashed about, pulled about and used to a point where they may overheat. If a hotel does its laundry of table linen, sheets, towels etc on site then clearly the machines which carry out washing, drying and pressing, if of a portable nature, will need to PAT tested.