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Staff Adding Guests on Facebook/Social Networking Sites

General Hostel Operations

rjd1983 started this discussion 13 years 11 months ago

What are your opinions/thoughts on staff adding guests on Facebook or other social networking sites? For example, is it ok if a receptionist adds a guest to their Facebook without asking the guest? And how did they find them on Facebook, did they use the guest's e-mail address or add them through a mutual friend?

I know in some countries, like European countries, using an e-mail address to add a guest that you collected on an official form would count as a Data Protection Act violation.

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balibali

13 years

Unless a person has an unusual name it is not so easy to find someone on facebook they have no connection to. Usually you would need to tell a person your email address.

If the receptionist invites a guest to be their "friend" on facebook, I would presume that they both had some kind of conversation about it. If not, it would be kind of creepy.

From a business owner's perspective, I think it is better that staff give out the hotel's Facebook page URL, rather their own personal profile. Facebook pages are a good way for hostels to promote their business on FB - see the internet marketing section for more tips.

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Rucksack Brian

13 years

Our business is making friends and personal connections. I have no problem if the staff wants to add guests to their personal facebook account. Or the hostel’s facebook account for that matter. I would imagine that they have spent a little time together, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable that either one would add the other. I see tons of backpackers adding each other as friends after no more than a five minute conversation in the common room. I have added lots of people simply because they took a picture of me and it’s easier to tag myself later than it is to go find my camera and take my own picture now.

The guest always has the option of declining the request.

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santa klaus

13 years

If the receptionist invites a guest to be their "friend" on facebook, I would presume that they both had some kind of conversation about it. If not, it would be kind of creepy.

I second that.

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itak

13 years

My former hostel would send an email after people booked, with a link to our Hostel facebook page. Whomever added us could enter a simple contest or get some small special deal (like voucher for entering a club - which had cost us nothing). Our goal was to engage with guests and we managed, to a certain extent, to create some movement in that facebook group in which staff were actively participating to provide info, offer some help with unusual arrival times or what to do with a transport strike, and so on.

We've seen sometimes guests planning activities with other guests who'd be staying with us at the same periods. It helped to create a sense of care and engagement, which, I believed, helped our ratings.

In some special nights we'd put pictures online on facebook and let guests tag themselves if they want.

Within all this fuss, many times guests added staff, particularly during their stay. No problem with that. Only thing I didn't like was staffs "stalking" guests and adding them out of the blue with their personal accounts, but that never was an issue.

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