While you might not have to deal with forklifts, toxic chemicals or heavy loads, running a hospitality business comes with a whole host of different hazards, both for your staff and customers.
As such, custom safety signs are essential in hospitality businesses… just not in the ways you might think!
Whether you run a restaurant, hotel or cruise ship, safety signage is a crucial part of the safety equation.
Here are just four of the ways that custom safety signs can help hospitality businesses like yours…
1) Custom safety signs for fires
Your staff might know what to do in the event of a fire… but what about your guests and customers?
This is especially important for hospitality businesses that focus on accommodation such as hotels, motels, hostels and BnBs. You won’t be able to run every guest through the fire escape plan.
The solution? Custom safety signs.
AS 3745 2010 (Planning for Emergencies in Facilities) mandates that maps to designated fire escape routes need to be located in all guest rooms, common areas, and exit/entryways.
While AS 3745 2010 doesn’t specify what these fire escape plans need to be made of, we strongly suggest opting for metal signs.
This ensures that these signs can stand up to potential damage – in particular, damage from fire sprinklers, which are also mandated by Australian Standards.
Talk to a custom sign maker about getting signs with your floor plan and evacuation route printed.
In addition to signs that communicate your fire plan, you’ll also need to purchase fire services signs to show the locations of fire-fighting equipment like extinguishers and hoses.
2) How signs keep certain areas off limits
There are certain areas in your hospitality business that no guest is meant to be.
There are plenty of good reasons for this:
- Perhaps these areas often don’t have camera coverage
- Deliveries and heavy loads may pass through regularly
- They might be storage areas for potentially hazardous substances like cleaning agents
Whether you’re a hotel or restaurant, ensure that your guests and customers are kept away from these areas with safety signs.
You can even get these signs custom-made, with your branding and logos printed along the bottom.
We know, these aren’t exactly what you think of when you hear the word “custom” signs – however, that doesn’t make them any less important!
3) Impose rules and hotel policy
Another way that custom safety signs are of great help is by communicating hotel policies and rules.
At Signsmart, we keep a wide variety of prohibition signs on stock. Some of these include:
- No smoking zones
- Alcohol policies
- Below 18 rules
Another hazard that hotels in particular need to worry about is traffic safety. Traffic signs in Australia are a crucial part of ensuring that your parking areas are safe for drivers and pedestrians alike.
In addition to protecting your guests, proper signage also protects your business against potential lawsuit by fulfilling your duty of care.
Need a signage solution that doesn’t fit into either of these categories? You can always go custom!
4) Custom safety signs for kitchens
When it comes to kitchens, there’s no such thing as “too careful”.
We aren’t just talking about the potential for burns and the like, either – there’s an equally-high risk of food poisoning arising from poor hygiene and food handling practices.
In addition to safety signs, it’s also a good idea to kit out your kitchen with custom safety signs that outline proper food handling procedures.
This is especially important for hospitality businesses like restaurants.
If you deal with meat, consider a custom sign that goes through the entire food handling procedure. That means proper storage and cleaning techniques, as well as procedures to avoid cross-contamination.
For example, you might consider putting up signs mandating hand washing before starting work. These can be backed up by signs pointing the way towards taps and sinks.
All of this provides a little of extra confidence knowing that proper procedure is being followed, and that your guests are leaving happy and fulfilled, and not sick!
It isn’t just customers, either – if you have a particularly large kitchen, we strongly recommend getting emergency and safety signs for your kitchen outlining what should be done in the event of a kitchen emergency.
5) Provides a sense of direction
The last thing you want is for guests to get lost.
The solution? Directional signs.
Accurate, easy to read, and clear directional signage should be installed all over the place to guide guests to amenities such as pools, gyms, spas and bars.
Another good idea is to talk to Signsmart about getting signs with maps of your property custom-printed if you own a large hospitality business.
In addition to telling guests what to do in the event of a fire (see point #1), this also ensures that nobody gets lost while they’re staying with you.
Get smarter signs from Signsmart
We do much more than just custom safety signs
If you ask us, safety signs are a crucial part of keeping both staff and guests safe at your hospitality business.
However, that isn’t the only thing custom signage is good for.
In addition to custom safety signs, Signsmart also produces:
- Welcome signs
- Site maps
- Window lettering
- Hazard signs
Whether you own a restaurant, hotel or any other hospitality business, you need the right signage. In many cases, you’ll need custom safety signage.
And if you need signs fast, you need to call Signsmart!
Our specialty is getting signs to you, and quickly. With our industry-leading turnaround times, we minimise the amount of time your hospitality business spends without proper signage.
In some cases, we can get custom signs to you as quickly as by the next day!
Contact Signsmart on (03) 9687 3050
All you need to do is get in touch with us! Call (03) 9687 3050 or send us a message, and we’ll be in touch with you immediately. Start shopping safety signs.
You can also visit us for custom safety signs in Melbourne: pop into our office at 122 Whitehall Street, Footscray, VIC 3011
