The Argument for 24-Hour Desk Staff in Hotels

You want staff there for emergencies. Inevitably, the building or a guest in the building will have an issue that they will expect you to handle in a prompt manner. If you don’t, you will have an ornery line in at the front desk that next morning. Having a point person there to help could go a long way toward avoiding those issues or cutting them off before they escalate and render you helpless and scrambling to fix them.

In some parts of the country, hotels attract the homeless for obvious reasons. They are looking for a place to stay, and hotels have a warm lobby that seems open to the public for much of the day. You need staff there who can discourage the homeless from coming in, but that isn’t the only reason that they might be important in this context. They can also discourage the homeless from hanging around a hotel and soliciting guests for money or whatever else. Even the most kind-hearted person can see how dealing with that population might be jarring or off-putting for hotel guests, even if those reasons are beyond the control of any hotel.

In an extreme case, staff can even call police if there are car break-ins or some other issues that disturb guests or any housekeeping staff who happen to be working overnight. Police may not arrest the homeless, but their presence alone is a deterrent in many ways. It’s unfortunate that they are one of the levers you have to pull but remember your goal of keeping guests comfortable. If folks are hanging around making them uncomfortable, you have a responsibility to help where you can.

Guests aren’t the only folks you have to consider where nighttime issues are concerned. Staff want to walk to their cars in peace, especially at night when they aren’t sure who can see them. Front desk staff run out and help a woman to her car if circumstances allow, and perhaps keep an employee safe who might have otherwise been attacked or robbed. We live in a world where safety isn’t a guarantee, and women are at danger given their physical disadvantages. You don’t necessarily want to be known as a place where guests cannot leave after a certain point in the night. Just the presence of a second person — especially a man — can deter a robber or someone else who might otherwise bring issues to your building, or your property, or that of guests.

Guests who come back to the hotel late at night also may have the same concerns. The absolute worst optic for you is for one of them to have an issue and you can’t appropriately deal with it until the early morning. By then, you might already be on social media getting skewered by a bunch of people who don’t know the nuances of the situation. People who have a bone to pick sometimes would like their pound of flesh, and 24-hour staff can help with that.

There are people who will work your front desk if given the opportunity. Consider how many different ways they can be useful as you figure out how to staff your hotel throughout the day and night.