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Manage guests withouts previous booking

General Hostel Operations

Maria Emilia Manzaneque started this discussion 8 years 1 day ago

Hello;

I am opening a hostel in San Miguel de Allende, México, on February 2017. But I have a question regarding general hostel management.

When I was working in a hostel we would receive a lot of guests that came to the hostel without previously booking, and the manager of the hostel told me that the guy that was previously in my position used to charge these kind of guests but kept the money and, since he didn't reported the booking in the hostel software, this went unnoticed for a long time.

Since I have other business, I would not be at the hostel in most part of the day. So I am wondering, how can you prevent the staff from doing this?

Thank you for your answers!

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Rucksack Brian

7 years

That’s a great question, and a difficult problem to control.

Here is an older discussion that is very similar:

How can i check if receptionist steal money from reception?

The first solution is prevention, starting with hiring a team you trust. But we don’t always have that luxury, especially if we walk into an established team. People can also become less trustworthy once they work with you for a while.

Your laundry bills might indicate if you have more guests staying than paying.

A PMS will also help, especially if the housekeeping list is generated automatically. If there are frequently more beds to be made than what is on the list, or a lot of beds to be made that are unassigned to guests, then it might suggest unregistered guests. But it could just as easily suggest that your real guests are changing beds without telling you, which is very common.

An audit of video camera footage or sending in a secret shopper to test procedures could expose a dishonest team member.

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SilverSeagull

7 years

Security cameras system, which you can access even from your home, is the best way to control your staff (and guests). After opening in a couple of weeks you will know, which hours walk-in clients normally appear most often (for, example, in our hostel these are 10pm-1am, when guests missed their last train or bus), so you can control only these hours via security cameras in order not to waste your time. Also, even if you are not in the hostel the most part of the day, when you are there you can say hello and communicate with your guests, it helps a lot.

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SilverSeagull

7 years

Also, if you are using the keycard system, there is no problem at all to check how many cards were issued. If a receptionist give his/her own card (staff mastercard) to a guest, you can also see it in logs of keycard system, because reception staff is not supposed to enter in the dorms, except an emergency case.

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