Staff Performance

I guess much depends on what sort of hostel you are running (big, small, city, countryside) and what sort of guests you have.

Then, of course, what sort of people you hire for the job. That´s a dilemma - we have great entertainers here, but they produce lots of booking screw-ups and never get their cash-up right because they are so unorganized. Then there are the organized "pros" who come across a bit boring. You can identify both sorts easily when you first interview them, but I still don´t know which sort I should prefer.

The point about the design of the reception area is of course right. If it permits guests to hang out (i.e. with comfy couches or a pillow pit) they will do that and interaction will start on its own whithout further encouragement.

In Munich, some of our staffers have started their own free walking tour - it´s a great success. In Berlin, some bartenders did a regular sausage sizzle on our rooftop terrace - in their spare time.

cash-ups can be fixed, bookings can be checked but boring is always going to be boring...

Yeah, they can be fixed - by the manager the next day. One of my favourite jobs... :rolleyes:

I remember we had a talkative guy at the reception who never bothered to even check the emails - he was just too busy with socializing. Taking over a shift with a mess of bookings and 50 mails in the inbox is not what I appreciated most. I loathed the guy.

I think one of the most important personality traits for the front desk is to be genuinely interested in making sure guests have a good time and to be willing go an extra step or two to try to help people.

I think the single most important trait to look for is: ability to teamwork. Unfortunately, people are hardly tought that any more in school.

You are basically right with your point. There are two sorts of people who deliver the trait you are looking for: those with a highly professional attitude who understand that service is what they are paid for. Those are the ones who are also capaple of the organizational stuff, like getting bookings and cash-ups right, which is important, too. They are very rare. And then there are the people who are just helpful, nice, socialble and enterteining by nature. Beware though, they are only good at their job when they are in a good mood. When they just have been dumped by their girlfriend, or their pet dog just died they do a horrible job and infect everyone else with it.

At one hostel I worked at, a couple of long-term guests started their own pub crawl,

Hmm, that's a good idea -- encourage long-term guests to organise activities, and make sure of course that new guests are fully included! Some of the worst hostels are those where the long-term guests think they own the place, they only talk to each other, and they monopolise the common room with the TV always on. The best are those in which the long-termers welcome all, and invite everyone to their pub visits, or organise a barbecue or meal for everyone, etc. Salmon Weir (Galway) is the most outstanding of the latter type.