A reactive maintenance SLA is only useful if both sides agree what each priority means, what the clock measures, and how compliance is evidenced. This article is a cluster of our multi-site hotel maintenance guide and goes into the SLA mechanics.
Define priorities by business impact
Write definitions in terms your site managers understand — "no hot water to bedrooms", "kitchen cannot trade" — rather than technical terms. Give examples for each priority so the helpdesk classifies consistently.
Measure response and resolution
| Priority | Response | Make safe / fix | | --- | --- | --- | | P1 | ≤ 2–4 h, 24/7 | Same visit | | P2 | Same / next working day | ≤ 2 working days | | P3 | ≤ 5 working days | Agreed on quote | | P4 | Scheduled | Programme |
"Make safe" should be defined: isolate the hazard, restore as much service as safely possible, and leave a written plan for the permanent repair. In a gas leak at a Beefeater, make-safe meant isolating the restaurant main so the hotel's heating and hot water could be restored the same night.
Stop the clock honestly
Agree when the clock pauses: waiting for client access, parts on order with a quoted date, or a specialist third party. These should be visible on the job record — not silently applied at month end.
Verify with the contractor's own data
The SLA report should come straight from the work-order system: logged time, dispatch time, geofenced arrival time, completion time. If the contractor's platform records arrival only when the engineer is physically inside the site geofence, you have an SLA you can trust. That is how AiMS works, and why our 24/7 reactive service publishes its SLA performance to clients live rather than monthly.
Close the loop
Every P1 and P2 should end with a root-cause note. Repeat failures on the same asset are a planned-maintenance or replacement conversation — see the PPM guide.
Frequently asked questions
- What counts as a P1 emergency in facilities management?
- Anything that creates an immediate safety risk or stops the site trading: gas smell, loss of hot water in a hotel, kitchen extract failure, lift entrapment, major leak, loss of power, fire alarm fault. P1 jobs are attended 24/7 within a short window, typically 2–4 hours.
- What is the difference between response time and fix time?
- Response time is how long until an engineer is on site. Fix time (or make-safe time) is how long until the problem is resolved or made safe. A contract that only measures response encourages quick attendance and slow resolution.