How To Handle Theft In Hotels – Tips to Deal With The Embarrassing Theft Situation

Thousands of guests report having things taken from their hotel rooms each year. All of this anecdotal data implies that theft in hotels is a quite common occurrence.  A hotel’s brand reputation takes years to establish and incidents such as theft serious undermine and ruin the efforts of many years. If a hotel’s credibility is spoiled, it may result in big economic loss.

How to Handle Theft Situation in Hotel
Here we will explore how you may manage a theft in a hotel. As it is said, prevention is better than cure, so hotels should take care to avoid or prevent hotel thefts. There are many prevention steps that hotel staff can take. However this article is more focused on properly and efficiently dealing with the situation after a theft has occurred. We do present some prevention steps, but to do more justice to the the topic we may require a separate prevention article of its own.

Try To Do An Internal Investigation Before Lodging A Official Complaint:

When a distraught guest approaches you and complains about an expensive item missing or reports a cash theft. To begin with, this is usually a stressful position for hotel management. Nobody truly knows what occurred. The assumption on the side of the guest is that something was taken and that it was stolen by hotel staff.

Before filing a formal report, try to sympathize with your guest and convince them that you will make it your priority to discover the thief and restore their stuff. A formal complaint might affect your hotel’s reputation. As a hotelier, your aim should be to do all possible to solve your guest’s complaints before lodging an official complaint.

When you conduct an internal inquiry, you are presented with a variety of different interpretations. However, in our experience, guests do not consider the following: someone in their party stole whatever it was, the guests themselves lost or had it stolen elsewhere, (if money) the guests do not recall correctly how much they spent (especially if out drinking, etc), the guests did not lock their room or even close their door upon leaving and someone else staying at the hotel took advantage of the situation, and so on.

To begin the inquiry, inquire first how much of their possessions are gone when they discovered it was missing when they last saw it in their room, and when the room was unattended… These questions may give you a sense of where to begin. Examine the CCTV cameras for any strange behavior in the selected room.

Sometimes it is not the staff that robs, but an outsider pretending to be a guest at the hotel, or another guest at the hotel, or the individual falsely claiming to have been robbed to avoid paying the high expenses. After searching the staff’s lockers and other conceivable areas where the stolen item may have been stashed, examine the claimant’s baggage as well. As the owner, personally question your employees and find out who was working near the stolen spot at the time.

If The Guest Want To Lodge A Official Complaint Give your Full Cooperation:

Certain challenging guests would like to sooner submit an official complaint than just accept only an internal inquiry. As a hotelier, it is your responsibility to provide full assistance to your guests at this time. Allow them to participate in all aspects of the inquiry and interrogation. This will restore their lost trust in the hotel and assist in avoid the angry client from spreading the negative word about the hotel.

As hoteliers, we all know that every visitor is significant, and instances like these have an impact on guest loyalty. If you want the guest to return, provide some discounts or a free stay/free dinner/free takeout to make up for the mistake. Also, express your real regret for the lack of safety and attempt to provide something or anything that would persuade them of your regret for their unfortunate experience.

Set An Example Of the Guilty If Found, To Prevent Hotel Theft from Happening Again:

Once the defendant is identified, set an example by reimbursing the looted guest from the guilty’s salary, issue a final warning to the guilty and demand a sincere apology from him, and possibly blacklist him from the hotel/restaurant to send a message to all other employees if the situation calls for it. While you’re at it, attempt to keep the exploited guest around all the time to reestablish his trust in the hotel. If It’s not one of your employees who is guilty, it’s better to hand over the defendant to the officials and request strict action. Hotels must be vigilant regarding their hotel security to avoid such situations.

Basic Steps to Prevent Theft in Hotels:
Here we are mentioning a few points Hotels can take as precautionary precautions to avoid these types of theft incidents:

• During the hiring process, check the staff’s qualifications.
• Train your employees to be trustworthy and loyal.
• Honest employees should be recognized and rewarded.
• Maintain registers and security cameras (CCTV) to track the movement of hotel employees.
• Provide a safe deposit box in each room for all occupants to protect their belongings.
• Preventing hotel employees from carrying significant amounts of cash on them while on the job.
• Employees’ access to room key cards should be limited. [ Not Every Employee Should Have Access To Guest Rooms]
• The security officer should check and frisk every hotel worker as they leave after their shift.