Guest incidents are never pleasurable to deal with, however we can make them as easy to follow as we can.
Follow these steps to ensure that you are reporting issues correctly, and ensuring that other sites are getting the information they need to make decisions.
Guests who should be banned from one site:
CMS:
In order to ensure that we are saving as much information as possible, we are going to add a guest incident in CMS & link it to their passport information.
Find the folio and open it.
Navigate to the “Guests” section below, and under Actions, click the button on the left to modify the information.
Now that the Edit Guest page is open, navigate to the “Guest Incident” tab on the top right side
Add a guest incident to this folio: under “Incident”, press the “New” button.
Fill out the required information and save the incidence report.
Severity of the Incident:
There are many different reasons that we may need to report a guest incident. Some are more severe than others, and determine the scale of action necessary. Below you will find a guideline of the reasons that someone may be reported, and the responses that we can give.
Minor:
In the case of minor incidents, the issue can begin and end with our hostel. These incidents are easy to fix, have a minimum level of potential for problems, and you should feel free to solve these yourselves.
This includes:
- Guests exceeding room/bed occupancy
- Nonpayment
- Roommate complaint
- Unbillable no shows
In situations where this is the first issue, then the correct response is to issue a warning to the guest, and refer the information to the managers (record them in your EOS statements and incidence report notes within the folio) so that we can follow up if we find it necessary.
Medium:
Medium level incidents are more of an “other” category, and they have different responses.
- Failure to follow hostel policy
In a situation where this occurs, it generally would not be the first warning the guest has received. The first two reports a guest gets to their name are classified as “minor” incidents, however upon the third notice, the guest received a final warning that if the behaviour continues, their severity would be upgraded to “major” and they will be removed from the building.
- Failure to register as a guest
This occurs more often by accident (e.g. when friends arrive at different times) than on purpose, however it can be a warning sign of something bad happening. When a guest fails to register with us, we do not have information about who is in our building. This puts our other guests at risk, and will not be tolerated. Any instance of this happening leads immediately to a final warning that any other misconduct will lead to the guest being removed from the building.
- Unaccompanied Minor
Any minor who arrives unaccompanied must be turned away at the reception. We are not legally responsible for under 18s staying with us, and under no circumstances should they be allowed to check in. This is a major response, however the reason is not, which is why it is listed in the “Medium” category.
Major:
Major incidents are ones where we must be the most aware of the situation. Major situations either suddenly appear or build up over time, and in general leads the guests to being removed from the building by us, or by the police.
The goal during major incidents is to ensure that all guests and staff leave the situation unharmed and safe.
It is an official rule that you are not allowed to chase any guest outside of the building.
We have insurance, we are a running business. You are not expendable, and at all times your safety should remain the #1 priority.
Major level incidents include:
- Bringing in potentially dangerous items
- Disorderly conduct (abusive, disruptive etc.)
- Use of false pretences to obtain accommodation
- Use of premises for unlawful acts (use of drugs, sale of drugs, etc.)
- Violation of government or local regulations
In times of crisis and a quick response is required, every employee should feel empowered to contact the police or a manager who will do it for you. At any time that you think that a guest or a staff member is at risk due to another’s decision, you should call the police. If you have a minor or medium situation begin to build, each individual problem with a guest should be recorded as an incident within the folio. The moment a guest reaches three incidents, we will ask them to leave.
Banning Guests from Multiple Sites
When an incident report for a minor or medium issue is placed into folios, you will find the folio will change to orange in CMS (dashboard, when searching, any time the folio appears).
This orange marker means that should this guest ever come back to the hostel he was reported at, the incident will reappear as a message on the screen. However, if the guest goes to another site, then the information will not.
Once guests reach a major-level incident, we will implement a new setting to allow the incident report to be viewed from any site in the company that the passport is scanned at.
Moving back into the Guest Incident section of the folio, you want to navigate to DNA Properties. Select the dropdown labelled “Set DNA at these Properties”, and select all sites that you wish to block the guest from visiting.
Once this has been completed, the yellow box around the name changes to red. This indicates that the incident report will now appear anywhere that this ID is scanned across the company.
Report Guest Misconduct over OTAs
Not only is it important that we track guest incidents within our own homes, it's also important to ensure that we communicate guest misconduct with the OTAs that they booked through. This ensures that the guest can be penalised for their behaviour, and will allow us to more easily remove poor reviews based on spite.
Booking.com:
For BDC, all you need to do is navigate to the guests reservation details, and select “Report Guest Misconduct” on the right hand side. This will link you to a report to fill out and a course of action.
Hostelworld:
For a HWL booking, you will need to contact your support agent directly. Email support@hostelworld.com with a brief description of the incident, the guests reservation number, and the course of action you’ve taken. Should a guest manage to leave a review who had an incident report to their name, you can also include this in the email to your support agent. They will investigate the claim and in most valid cases, remove the review from their platform.
IMPORTANT
For any MAJOR incidents, please notify your Manager and fill out the Accident and Incident form.