14 years
We always get the payment for the beds up-front. I think that most customers accept this as normal in hostels. Means there's not any chance of misunderstandings on checkout regarding any aspects of the cost.
I remember a case at a hostel where the owner took in backpackers who were working picking fruit. The had no money from pay check to pay check, so would let them run up a tab for expenses. She took their passports as security. At the end of the season some of them just left without paying and without their passports, and claimed them as lost or stolen on their travel insurance.
I know this thread is a few months old, however:
I would charge them immediately upon checkin, it stops runners. Where I was working in Sydney, you had a lot of poor backpackers, and the hostel would let most people fall behind in their rents (sometimes for too long), and you would get some runners, or there was miscalcuation over how many nights have been paid for, or not paid for. In general, it's best not to let people rackup a too high tab.
It's definitely worth taking their passport and driving licence if they have one, that gives them a much more incentive to pay their rent/tab. I had the unfortunate experience in 2008 of losing my passport in Canada, and it was so much hassle to get a new British Passport sent to me in Canada as I had to get the passport issued by the British Embassy in Washington DC, due to it being the closest passport issuing Embassy to me. No one in Canada could issue me a new passport. The cost was over £200 (€250 approx) for a new passport via the Embassy (much more expensive). Then I had to get photos, courier documents and give them my driving licence (as proof it was me). Expensive mistake.
However, most people don't realise how much it costs (time, money, effort) to get a new passport, and just assume it's a few hundred quid. So bear that in mind if you take passports as security, if they rack up a €1000 tab and you take their passport as a guarantee, a new passport at €800 is cheaper.
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