Preventing Theft by Hotel Staff and Guests
How to Prevent Theft By Hotel Staff and Hotel Guests?
1. Preventing Theft by Hotel Staff:
First thing you as recruiters for hotel staff you need to make check references for the staff who apply to work in your hotel, check in the previous places if he has any bad habits, so this is the first stage which can lead you to choose the right candidate,
Also we can say that great amount of care should be taken to see that the hotel staff do not steal or take any items from the hotel, but we still can say that it is a human tendency to take chance. For the same reason, hotels have security department to be sure that the hotel property is in safe all the time 24hours for seven days .
Some of the measures taken by the hotels to prevent theft are:
• Check the credentials and references of the staff during recruitment.
• Train regularly the staff towards being loyal to the hotel and be honest.
• you should make an announcement with Awarding and rewarding for the honest employees.
• all the hotels now have the new technology of CCTV to every where you can see around your property so Maintain registers and surveillance cameras to record all the movement of staff in the hotel this actually helps a lot to prevent theft as the staff they know that somebody can see them so it will be a hard decision to go a head and make something as it will be easy to be caught .
• Provide a fixed safe deposit locker for all the guests in their rooms to secure their valuables otherwise you have to provide a safe box in reception for the guest so they can keep their valuable items .
• Preventing the hotel staff from having a large amount of cash on them while on the work.
• Restricting and limited the issue of room key cards to the hotel employees especially if the room was occupied .
• You need to Check regularly and frisk the hotel staff when they finish duty and if hotel provide accommodations so also check the accommodation by the security officer while they leave the hotel after the duty.
• Also count in and count out, when staff come to the shift you need to know if they have cash, also when they go out of the shifts.
• Review all petty cash every shift and regularly to be sure there are no any suspicious manner.
• make cash spot during the shift to be sure that staff are not doing any dirty business.
• provide meals for the staff during the shifts to add the good spirits and loyalty to the hotel.
• security need to patrolling between the floors and rooms all the times to be sure that all the hotel in safe.
• the master keys had to be very limited and only for the work purpose and if employee leave the hotel you need to cancel the card. Do not keep it active.
• regularly you need to check how many master key Housekeeping staff has and how many emergency they have and be sure that there are no any missing and if there is any missing you need to cancel the card code so it cannot be worked any more.
Also there is one of the main thing you need to be sure it the staff who was working on the hotel for last month’s and try to visit the place regularly without reason, you need to follow as this kind sometimes is dangerous specially if he leave without any logical reason.
You need to have log for entrance and exit to be sure that you control the staff in the hotel.
2. Preventing the Theft by the Hotel Guests:
There are a lot of cases where the guest staying in a hotel, who indulges in theft .
great care and observation on the part of the hotel security is required to prevent such acts by the guest.
Some of the precautions taken by the hotel to prevent theft by guests are :
• All the guests staying in the hotel rooms are requested for their personal identity card to be copied and kept in reception , attached with the R.C also if there are visitors should have copies from the IDs .
• security should be alert with any suspicious action or movements of the I houseguest are observed and immediate action taken.
• Any unauthorized movement should be investigated to prevent any theft to happen also severely condemned and auctioned upon.
• the hotel room key had to be issued for the room booker only and no body else, so if you have case that one guest came and make a booking and after one hour his friend came and ask for the room key, you should not give him a key for the guest room without permission from the room owner personal. Otherwise you need to excuse for him.
If you notice any movement by guest from room to another room so you need to record incase if something happens so you will have any material can help you.
• For the hotel items which guest sometimes take with them steeling during checkout you should have an inventory with what you have in the rooms every thing you need to put in the lost,
•During check in you should take deposit from the guest , so when they come to make checkout you will send Housekeeping to check the room, so Housekeeping will check the room according to the inventory list which they prepared before, and if there are any missing items this will be charged for the guest account and deducted from the deposit.
One more advise if you know by Housekeeping that they are sure that guest steal some hotel items and he put in his bag or luggage so as reception team you need to deal with this case very carefully, what you will do?
Polity and following up the ethics of front office department ask the guest to come far from the reception area or any open area, you can ask him to come to the back office or any place far from the other guest, and just inform him that we have some items are missing from the room, may be it is taken by mistake to your luggage. in this case if he take items he will return back and will go, and do not forget to make him black list.
In the end. As staff if you receive a call from guest room about theft items in his room, you need to make committee, and go to the room, you should not go a lone, and try as much as you can do not touch any thing in the room, only security can do their work by checking every where. Let them to do their work.
Tags:front office department training, Front office rules and regulations, Hotel management training, Hotel Security, Hotel Telephone operator, Housekeeping training
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