Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta Earns Rare OSHA VPP Star Certification

Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta has earned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) Star Certification, OSHA’s highest level of recognition for workplace safety and health. The achievement makes Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta one of only three hotels in the United States to receive designation, joining Four Seasons Hotel Houston, which became the first hotel in the country to earn VPP Star Certification in 2018.

Established by OSHA in 1982, VPP recognizes workplaces that have developed comprehensive safety and health management systems and maintained injury and illness rates below their respective industry averages. Star participants must demonstrate strength across several areas, including management of leadership, employee participation, hazard identification and prevention, training, emergency preparedness, and ongoing program evaluation.

Earning VPP Star Certification is not the result of a single inspection. It follows more than six years of work led by the hotel’s Safety and Security team, with employees in every department participating in ongoing training, reporting, and inspections. During that time, Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta reduced its workplace injury and illness rate by 22.36 percent, maintained a three-year Total Case Incident Rate 12.93 percent below the national hotel industry average, and currently recorded 247 consecutive days without a recordable injury. The effort included 28 annual safety inspections and 600 hours of training. As part of the certification process, the hotel also submitted more than 130 pages of documentation detailing its safety performance and practices, including injury and illness data, training records, inspection findings, emergency procedures, hazard reports and corrective actions.

OSHA evaluated that work through an approximately four-day onsite review that included tours of the property and confidential interviews with managers, supervisors, and employees. The interviews assessed employees’ understanding of job-specific hazards, training and emergency response, as well as their role in reporting concerns and improving workplace safety. Maintaining VPP Star status requires annual self-evaluations and periodic OSHA reviews.

“Hotels are complex, 24-hour operations, with many departments and job functions collaborating with one another,” says Pierre Kermanac’h, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta. “Reaching this standard calls for shared accountability across the entire property and a commitment that extends far beyond one team or initiative. To become one of only two hotels in the country to earn this recognition is an achievement of which we are tremendously proud.”

Kenneth Martin, Director of Security and Safety, helped lead the hotel through each stage of the certification process.

“This was a true team effort,” says Martin. “Every department played a role, from participating in training and inspections to speaking openly about where we could improve. Earning Star status shows what is possible when everyone takes ownership of health and safety.”

Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta will celebrate the achievement with a VPP Star plaque presentation and recognition ceremony in October 2026. VPP representatives and Four Seasons leaders are expected to join hotel employees for the occasion.