How do you handle damages from guests? For example if someone throws up on their bed, breaks the room or equipment etc? Do you charge the guest for extra cleaning or damages that have been associated with things like that? Do you have in your hostels rules that the guest is responsible for any damage during their stay?
15 years
I charge a 20€ fee for vomiting in the hostel if I (or one of my staff) have to clean it up.
Charges for damages depend on the intent. If the guest meant to break something, then I will charge them for it. The damage was an accident, then I'll suck up the cost of repair. Some damages might be covered by insurance too.
15 years
Same here. If it is willful they pay, if it is accidental I deal with it. I like the idea of a vomiting charge, though. It could become my new business model. Free beds, free beer, £20 vomiting charge.
As for actually charging the guests, I've just had guests that looked at me and walked off. They knew I had no way of doing anything about it. But most have been good, and accepted the charges.
15 years
Thanks for that Brian and Stozza. That seems to be the way to cover the guests who can't hold their drink. I've added that to my list of relevant charges that may crop up.
15 years
I think there is a prevention aspect to this issue. If the Hostel is maintained well guests are more likely to treat it with respect. At the first hostel I worked at we allowed Beer & Wine but no hard alcohol (Vodka,Gin,Whiskey & Tequila), this helped to reduce damage in my opinion. The Hostel also had a $20 key&damage deposit, this encouraged guests to have a good time but behave like adults.Some western countries have a binge drinking culture, these countries are a big market for hostels. We (the hostels) need to balance the desire of our guests to socialize and the hostels need to protect its physical plant and protect itself from litigation. Sometimes you have to protect the guest from themselves.
15 years
It's only happened twice in two years, but when a guest has vomited in their room, I wake them up with the option to clean up the mess or check out.
Everybody occasionally makes a mistake, but if the guest doesn't have enough respect for their room-mates, the cleaners, and the property to admit they stuffed up they can go.
In our courtyard we've got wooden picnic tables that people sometimes engrave their names in. The problem with this crime being it's very easy to work out the culprit. I just offer the person who did it some sandpaper, and ask them to please sand off their name. Most people are good enough at reading between the lines to get the message from this.
15 years
Often the most difficult thing with damage is identifying the culprit. Someone who vomits everywhere, breaks furniture or does other damage isn't always likely to come forward and volunteer themselves. Even if you have a good idea who did it, it can be hard to prove it in the face of blatant denial. We had a family who had a group of kids kicking a football in the car-park. Later I found a window was broken near where they had been playing. It was obviously them, but the kids denied it, and the parents backed the kids up. They refused to contribute even a small amount to fix the window. At the end of the day, even if we had a deposit we couldn't legally have kept it as we had no evidence that they had done it - but there was no-one else around at the time.
I personally don't believe in deposits etc, they just make more work, and create bad feeling if they are withheld, or the guest wants to leave early. My opinion is to trust the guests - you'lll always get some who abuse things, but in my experience these are a small minority, the majority are decent. I will just ask the guests if they were responsible for whatever - if they say yes then might ask them to pay, if they deny it, just leave them go and not get into a major argument.
We're only a small rural hostel so have very few problems with alcohol, but guests are welcome to drink whatever they want. I'd find it difficult to enforce a hard liquor ban. When I worked for the YHA they had a ban like that, but it was never really enforced. Things like that create more problems than they solve in my opinion.
15 years
I'd find it difficult to enforce a hard liquor ban. When I worked for the YHA they had a ban like that, but it was never really enforced. Things like that create more problems than they solve in my opinion.
From what I have seen, if you institute a ban on hard alcohol the guests just hide out and drink in their room where no one can see them. They end up getting just as drunk, but they remove themselves from the social atmosphere. Plus it creates an Us versus Them mentality where your team is seen as the Big Bad Authority rather than the hosts.
15 years
We have lots of vomit. Thats why I have cleaners. That comes with the territory of being a party hostel I guess.
As for "hard liquor", its all I drink, so I would be quite offended in a place that allowed beer but not Jack Daniels. That seems ridiculous to me.
I agree with Scotch Argus, don't get all caught up in trying to stop everything. Shit happens sometimes. If you make life difficult for everyone else just because the odd person is an idiot, you would end up with rules coming out of your ears.
Related Pages
Log in to join discussion