Well . . . What are you going to do?
We will create an incident, and review the proper steps for responding to it - steps that will save the face of your business, and communicate to the community at large that you have acknowledged it, and done something about it.
Scenario
A young woman checks into your motel late in the night. It is obvious she has been in the cold long enough for her to have brought it in with her. She wants a room for one night, pays with cash, has no ID, and informs you that she and her husband are on the outs. It is obvious that she has been drinking, and may or may not be stoned. Concerned for her safety you place her in a room with two beds for the simple fact that the room is situated between two other rooms occupied by burly men. These burly men would not have a problem reporting an issue should the husband come to find his wayward bride.
The next day she is gone. She has left behind a Tequila bottle, a bin full of wadded up toilet paper, (no blood), and nothing else. She has barely slept in her bed. The other bed in the room is undisturbed, the blinds over the windows are closed, and the curtains drawn. The manager strips the room and finds nothing suspicious. The maid follows with the same result.
Two nights later the room is rented out again.
Let the nightmare begin.
The guest's helpless little granddaughter happens across a pouch full of used hypodermic needles, very soon after a cup crammed with yet more hypodermics has fallen from behind the blind and curtains on to the bathroom floor. Management, i.e. you are called by the guest and told about the situation.
Response Proper
Step 1: get in gear, and get in there. Gather the paraphernalia if it is out for the world to see, and get the whole story. Step 2: if you do not already have it, get the guest's phone number, and home address for ownership follow up. Step 3: ask the guest if they want to involve law enforcement, and if they do, you make the call. Step 4: get them the blazes out of that room and into another. If you are out of rooms, phone other hotels until you get them a reservation elsewhere. Step 5a: treat the transaction accordingly. Step 5b: inform ownership of what has happened, and keep them in the loop on what else is happening either with law enforcement, or with the way you are handling things. (Step 3, and step 4 are interchangeable.)
Warning: if law enforcement becomes involved know that your business, particularly if it is in a small town, will take a hit in the reputation. The reason is obvious - how did you miss not one, but two stashes of hypodermic needles in the room?
Answer
They were missed because of the maid's cleaning routine, which is established by company policy whose responsibility lies with the manager, and ownership. The pouch was hidden under the pillow of the unused bed. Upon inspection the bed looked undisturbed, unused, untouched. There was no reason to suspect that a pouch full of hypodermic needles was hidden under the pillow therein.
The blind was drawn, and the curtains closed in the bathroom window. Something every maid does themselves before leaving the room. There was no reason to suspect that a guest had hidden that paraphernalia in the window sill.
Business Response
Something needs to change to avoid this scenario in the future. That change resides within the policies exercised, and honored by the housekeepers. The response is to search the room before cleaning it. Every nook, cranny, drawer, window sill, shelf, bed, and cabinet must be inspected.
An adaptation has to be made quickly, and in full witness of the parties involved. The officer, if she has come to the business, needs to be informed. And ownership needs to know you are being proactive, and making good decisions.
If the incident has caused a stir in the community, the community needs to understand that measures are being taken, and an appropriate response is being enforced. Send a letter to the Editor of your local paper, or attend a Chamber meeting. These acts will help. But your ultimate penance is going to be talking individually with your friends and colleagues in the community; the other business owners and managers, and letting them know that a response has been implemented, and the incident is an anomaly. There are few worse things than being perceived as a motel that caters to junkies.
The Wrong Thing To Do
There are many wrong things you can do as well. Ignore it. Don't address it. Be embarrassed by it. Let it get buried in the layers of time. Let it confound you, and ultimately ruin your day. Place yourself in the position of being a victim of happenstance. Don't let it be a learning opportunity; let it be another reason to complain. Don't let it be an opportunity to practice your public relations skills, try to sweep it under a rug. Treat it like it never happened. Do nothing.
This will ensure that your reputation will not only remain harmed, but continue to degrade as the months pass.
Ultimately . . .
It is safer just to take the advice of this article before anything bad happens. Ultimately the phrase, "better safe than sorry" is worth more to a business than profits, growth, or popularity. But if it is your unfortunate opportunity to experience something like this, know that taking the right steps in response to it will ultimately prove positive. People are impressed when you acknowledge your wrong quickly, take steps to ensure that it will never happen again, and outwardly let them know that you are actively changing things.
Feel free, however, in the moment to do what Jack does below and be flabbergasted by the carelessness, audacity, selfishness, and recklessness of your fellow man, and then get busy making it better.
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