UNIT 8 SITUATION HANDLING (8TH SEM)

TO UNDERSTAND THE TOPIC BETTER, FIRST CHECK THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS RELATED TO THE TOPIC

1. How to handle emergency situations?

2. How to handling guest complains? 

Situation 1:

A Guest calls the housekeeping control desk and says he is attempting suicide. Deal with the situation

This situation implies that the guest is in a state of mental depression and needs counseling. The desk attendant should not panic: he / she must display presence of mind by keeping the guest engaged on the phone by constantly talking and making him / her talk back. In the meanwhile, the desk attendant should get another member of staff to alert the security department so that they can access the room and take custody of the guest.

Dealing with the situation: In a situation when someone expresses an intention to commit suicide, you should try not to get upset or embarrassed.

STEP 1: Keep yourself calm and encourage the person to explain more in detail why and how he/she intends to commit suicide. There is an apprehension that talking about suicide is a scream for help and even if it is true in that sense that the last way for someone in an intolerable situation is to commit suicide, you cannot completely trust that it is not seriously and literally meant. There are some factors that prevent people from realizing their thoughts to commit suicide. Try to communicate more, to get the person to abandon thoughts about suicide.

STEP 2:  If a person tells you about his/hers thoughts to commit suicide, it can be of help if you listen to what the person says. That can function as "the first help" for the person that is close to commit suicide. It does not matter if you feel unsure of what to say. What is important though is that the person notices that you listen and take the conversation seriously.

STEP 3: In the meanwhile, the desk attendant should get another member of staff to alert the security department so that they can access the room and take custody of the guest.

Situation 2:

A guest calls up the control desk to say that she had given a shawl for dry cleaning, mentioning the same on the laundry list. The shawl has been returned to her considerably shrunk.

Dealing with the situation:

STEP 1: The desk attendant should apologize to and try to pacify the irate guest.

STEP 2:  Then the desk attendant should inform the laundry supervisor about the situation, so that he/she can in turn apologize in person to the guest. The hotel must replace the shawl with a new one.

STEP 3: In case, the problem probably arose because the laundry attendants did not pay heed to the ‘special instructions’ column in the laundry form, in which the guest had stated the shawl needed only dry cleaning. The laundry staff must have given the shawl a normal wash. The laundry supervisor should thus ensure that the staff pay heed to the ‘special instructions’ column in the laundry form in future.