Death of a Guest

I’m sorry for your loss Robert. It is a grim topic, but it could happen to any of us. It’s particularly difficult when it happens to guests who stay long term or if your staff has taken the time to get to know them.

Several years ago a guest of my hostel died in a car accident a few weeks after leaving us. He had been drinking and driving, and caused the accident. At that point he was a guest of one of our friends’ hostels. When I heard the story I actually felt a bit relieved that I never met him.

Another hostel owner recently told me about a guest who died inside his hostel. A receptionist saw the body on the floor of a dorm room, but left her there because they thought she was passed out drunk. A housekeeper later found her and determined that she had passed away.

At another hostel a guest under the influence of drugs and alcohol fell over the railing of an upper story balcony. He didn’t die, but he was paralyzed in the fall.

As hostel workers we tend to get really attached to some of our guests, but we also get used to saying goodbye and letting them go on a daily basis. I wonder if that makes it any easier to cope with situations like this. Hopefully it’s not something that most of us will have to find out.