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People can be pests too...

Pest Control

Hostel Witness started this discussion 17 years 5 months ago

As these ideas come to me I'm gonna run with it.

Wondering how to deal with drunks.
People who are loud and annoying? I imagine if it's a case of causing a disturbance it'd just be a simple case of picking up the phone and arranging a transfer from your hostel, to a bleaker lodgings with iron bars and filled with lots of drunks. Not that they'd have any intention of going quitely.

What happens if there's damage done - serious damage - to the premises? What are your experiences in these circumstances and what's the normal procedure?

I can imagine all sorts of things go on in hostels and somehow I imagine it's one of those "I thought I'd seen it all but..." professions.
I mean I know, also, that even in shared rooms ppl can still fool around once the lights went out. That'd be something I wouldn't know how to deal with were such a complaint to reach me. Which is more popular, unisex dorms or seperate?

Another thought, but is theft a major issue? I mean sure with cctv and alarms and locks and lockers and all that - but things still go missing. I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever been in the position of catching or even suspecting that one of their customers was stealing either from the hostel itself or from other customers - what did/woudl you do?

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Josh Hostels

17 years

If drunks wouldn't quiet down we would often try to get their friends to quiet them down. If it wasn't a critically bad situation we would give them a warning in the morning. If it happened too many times in a row and other guests were complaining, they might get asked to leave with money refunded. When removing a troublesome guest, it helps to give them a slip of paper with addresses of other local accommodation on it. Then they don't feel panicked about not having a place to stay. They put up less of an argument that way. If they are backpackers they usually understand.

I had to call the cops on a drunk guest once. The cops had to pepper-spray the guy and drag him away in handcuffs. All the guests emptied out of that half of the building -- even on the other floors. Very rare occurrence. I think that kind of thing usually only happens with transient locals who stay at hostels. That is why many hostels don't let many locals in.

Theft is a tough one. I think it's more common in "rougher" hostels that allow local residents to stay there. I worked in one city hostel where it was a problem. In the US if you have a suspect you can call the police, but there is not much that they can do. Usually it is a case of a backpacker not locking up their electronics or money. Most of the time, the theft would be done by a local resident who is staying at the hostel or a rougher kind of working traveler (not "backpacker"). If you have lockers in the rooms and people use them it shouldn't be as much of a problem.

I would go with mostly co-ed dorms, but leave a few rooms as female-only dorms. People rarely ask for male-only dorms, though there are a few (sometimes religious reasons). In the hostels I've worked at one or two rooms would be designated as unofficial "male-only" dorms... or temporarily put to other uses... I always tried to assign rooms based on who I thought would get along...

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Andy08

17 years

Great thread.. The hostel I worked in in London would definitely fall into the category of "rougher" hostels the adminstrator was talking about..I would say the cops would of been around 10 times while I worked there. Not really for drunks so much. noise complaints, theft, vandalism mostly.Probably all fuelled by alcohol...We had a 50% + long term occupancy rate so you would get the occasional undesirable.. I had to deal with a few issues like guys getting into girls beds, guys getting so drunk they wet the bed,shagging in dorms, smoking pot, etc etc.. Most of its common sense...
I agree with the administrator about getting the guests mates to help you out. when a friend tells you you're out of control you're more likely to listen.

One of my biggest concerns as a hostel owner/manager would be having to deal with one of my staff being accused of theft..

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Josh Hostels

17 years

guys getting so drunk they wet the bed... [...]

Heh heh... reminds me of the time that one of the employees at a hostel (housekeeper) got so drunk that she peed on a guest's backpack.

:confused:

At some places, the workers are more difficult than the guests...

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talkeetnahostel

17 years

Heh heh... reminds me of the time that one of the employees at a hostel (housekeeper) got so drunk that she peed on a guest's backpack.

:confused:

At some places, the workers are more difficult than the guests...

LOL!! Great story, but I am sure not at the time.
I had a couple of college boys stay up late around the firepit and howl like wolfs until the troopers came. Luckly they quited down and went to bed, but the next morning I found that they had broken all the light fixtures in the room before they left (mostlikely in a drunken stuper). Unfortunatly they were walkin:s and had payed with cash, so I did not have a credit card number on file:rolleyes: . Otherwise I would have charged them for damages.

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Joseph

17 years

I have always made walk-ins pay a deposit if they want to pay cash or leave a credit card number on file for the deposit.

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talkeetnahostel

17 years

Good idea. Sometimes I am a little too relaxed with walkins paying cash.

Also, do any of you give discounts for cash coustomers? A lot of people ask about it, but I charge the same. And do you charge a deposit upon resesrvation, or just charge all at once upon arrival?

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Josh Hostels

17 years

At the hostels I've worked at we would take a $10 or $20 cash deposit at checkin. It would be refunded at checkout. The deposit was to make sure that the guests stopped by the front desk to officially check out.

I'm not sure if credit card companies allow discounts for cash. I think that many credit card processing agreements disallow it in the fine print. I used to tell the front desk to casually ask during the transaction, "are you able to pay with cash?" when stating the room rate: "The total is $60... are you able to pay with cash?". If not, payment by credit card was fine. It increased the overall number of cash payments...

One hostel I worked at immediately billed for one night's stay when the reservation was made, refundable up until 24 hours before checkin. That was to make sure that the credit card was valid. Then there was a $20 deposit at checkin to make sure that the guests would stop by the front desk before leaving the hostel. There were over 200 beds so there was no other way to insure that people would stop by the front desk on their way out...

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uktrail

17 years

My son recently stayed in a hostel in Liverpool. He is only an occasional user of hostels, and he said the hostel was good, but two things really spoiled his one-night stay.

The first was a bunch of lads who came in at some time in the middle of the night (after 0100h) and totally disregarded the fact that there were other guests. They were shouting among themselves in the corridors and in the adjacent room for a long time.

The second was, after it had become quiet, there was a loud snorer in the bed above who could not be stopped.

These things are of course not the fault of the hostel. However they do put some people off hostels entirely, and if not, they colour a person's opinion of that particular hostel and that reduces recommendations for it, so it is directly important to that hostel's business. I certainly give negative opinions, and would avoid staying at, a number of HI hostels where I have experienced problems of the first type that the hostel staff just shrug their shoulders at.

Can hostels do much about problems like the first? One aspect of it may be that such trouble emanates from large groups, especially single-sex groups. Should hostels try, with whatever techniques, to discourage such groups from booking? It could be a question of additional income versus maintaining a good reputation.

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Josh Hostels

17 years

The first was a bunch of lads who came in at some time in the middle of the night (after 0100h) and totally disregarded the fact that there were other guests. They were shouting among themselves in the corridors and in the adjacent room for a long time.

If the guests can't work it out among themselves, I think the front desk should take care of that kind of situation when possible.

Can hostels do much about problems like the first? One aspect of it may be that such trouble emanates from large groups, especially single-sex groups. Should hostels try, with whatever techniques, to discourage such groups from booking? It could be a question of additional income versus maintaining a good reputation.

If it's a large group with a leader, the hostel could ask the group leader to be responsible for keeping them quiet at night.

I hate being woken up in the middle of the night by guests who come in at 3am, flip on the light and start rummaging through plastic bags and talking loudly. I don't blame the hostel for it unless they are letting in derelicts or just not doing anything to fix a problem that they know about...

(I could give some funny examples... like the guy who would go to the bathroom in his dorm room's trashcan every night and the front desk still wouldn't throw him out :confused:)

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Ria

17 years

I think those howlers made it to our Utah hostel (since closed)...that story sounded really familiar. As for the drunken pisser...ours was a guy staff...and he peed on the guest's FACE! Has happened twice in the same hostel...the second time it was a guest who peed on a guest...who happened to be deaf and dumb....oh, the humanity!

I think drunken guests is a fact of life in hostels. People are on holiday, having a good time, they are mostly young and probably not experienced in hostel 'etiquette'. It's our job to get them to bed and not disturb others. If it's repeated behavior, like the other poster, we have them leave.

if they are out of control while drunk we isolate them for awhile to see if they calm down...if they don't, or are threatening to others, we will have them arrested. I won't compromise the staff's or the guest's safety because someone can't handle his liquor. But that is always a very last resort.

On the subject of thieves, i think it is naive to think that theft is limited to 'rougher' hostels. I've stayed at over 100 hostels in my lifetime and have had things disappear in Melbourne, Zimbabwe and Spain...none of the hostels of which allowed 'locals' to check in. There are people who travel around the world by stealing from others...

I've asked the developer of this website if there was a way to post to other hostel owners the names and photos of thieves who are caught. Unfortunately in a society that loves lawyers, they'd end up in a lawsuit. But i still think we should find a way to let each other know about thieves.

Had a local hostel called to warn us about an ex-staff, we might have been spared his sticky finger issues...and if something gets taken and we can ID the person from a video it might help to get him arrested if we can pass the photo around.

But we'd need to find a way to do it on the down low to avoid being sued!

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