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Keeping guests safe at City Lodge

Guest safety and security is a top priority for the City Lodge Group. With five Courtyard Hotels (381 suites), 16 City Lodge Hotels (2853 rooms), 12 Town Lodges (1503 rooms) 21 Road Lodges (1969 rooms), and the Fairview Hotel (120 rooms), the City Lodge Hotel Group has 6826 rooms and suites and ranks amongst the 250 largest hotel chains in the world. A major factor driving the success of the organisation is its ability to enhance the customer experience which in turn drives return visits and referrals.

In a proactive approach, Jaclyn Baiocchi, external sales consultant at Centurion Systems, approached Bsuresec, security systems installers for the Group’s Waterfall City facility when she heard they were keen on upgrading their current access control system. No strangers to Centurion technology, the hotel had expressed their satisfaction with the existing Centurion gate motors but wished to upgrade and enhance the system.

Centurion has a long-standing relationship with Bsuresec, having provided a number of access control products for various projects over the past few years. The primary goals of the upgrade were to provide high levels of functionality in keeping with the aesthetic standards of the City Lodge Group. The intention was to minimise downtime and to ensure that guests were able to readily access the facility, whilst unwanted visitors were denied access.

Baiocchi and Andre Botha from Bsuresec met with Brendan Luttig, general manager for City Lodge Waterfall City when they undertook a comprehensive risk assessment during a site visit to establish the optimal solution for the facility. After reviewing the customer’s requirements and factoring in the expected volume of people passing through the entrance and exit points, a proposal was provided to the City Lodge management.

Automation at critical access points, namely the exit and entrance points to the hotel, involved replacing the existing Centurion Vector linear swing gate motors with an Onity access card system, two Centurion D10 industrial sliding gate motors with Flux SA loop detectors fitted for free-exit, and an additional two Centurion G-Speak intercoms.

The D10 features a robust but quiet 24 VDC motor, coupled with a precision die-cast aluminium gearbox, generating enough torque to allow it to shift a four-metre gate in less than five seconds. The G-Speak cellular intercom system eliminates the need for cabling as guests merely use their mobile phone as the handset.

Other elements within the new system include a Centurion Sector three-metre traffic barrier which will be operated by a security guard. Guests can communicate with the guard room using a basic POLOphone one-to-one intercom system. Interestingly, the POLOphone is the recipient of the prestigious SABS Design Institute’s Design Excellence Award.

The City Lodge Group is so pleased with the installation that it is currently liaising with Baiocchi for an access control system for its City Lodge Newtown facility project.

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