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No overnight staff

General Hostel Operations

nicolest started this discussion 13 years 4 months ago

I'm looking at starting a small, 18 bed hostel. The property, which I have not leased yet, is about a two minute walk away from my house and is not big enough for me to live in. I was considering having a staff member there until about 11 o'clock at night and after that, there would be no staff member on hand, just my phone number where I could be reached 24/7. Do any of you operate like that? Is it too risky? I would love your thoughts.

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lasagna

13 years

I recently saw a house quite small but closer to one of the most fun streets in Sao Paulo... Since it would be a small hostel, I thought about not having a night staff... maybe give a key to all the guests or a code lock... but then I realized that begin close to a night life area and not having someone to keep an eye on things, could let guests free to 1, bring other people back to the hostel and/or 2, bring drugs into the hostel. Depends on what kind of guests ur gonna have and where it's located, i guess...

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ACBBPatrick

13 years

Should be no problem. Although having a "work for accommodation" person in a dorm bed will give you "peace" of mind at night.

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sydney

13 years

I've stayed at a small hostel like that in Australia which had no overnight staff. The manager had security cameras around and would go over them the next day. If one guest did anything against the rules he would kick them out immediately. It seemed unfair at the time but really made an example for other guests. It worked fairly well because he had so many long termers. If you have a lot of short term guests I reckon they wouldn't really care much if they were kicked out or not.

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Scotch Argus

13 years

I would certainly make sure your insurers are OK with having no live in staff. In some countries it is the law that someone who is trained in the fire safety procedure is on site in case the fire alarm goes off. I think it could work from a customers view - just make sure you aren't contravening any laws in your country.

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rjd1983

12 years

I would agree, this would be the best solution. Have them do some paid cleaning in the morning (such as cleaning the kitchen), to make up for it. Or give them a discount on the accommodation instead.

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