The Management of Delinquent Behavior in Greek Hotels

Abstract

The delinquency in hotels is well known both to the professionals of the sector as well as to the clients. The specificity of hotel accommodation as an area of “hospitality” and discretion, providing distinctive tranquility and security prevents disclosure of delinquency cases that occur in them. Despite the discretion which the handling of these cases entails, their existence is undeniable. This survey, conducted for the first time in Greece, aims at exploring the extent and forms of delinquency in the Greek hotel industry, by recording and classifying phenomena of delinquent behavior and how hotel managers are dealing with them. The survey was conducted on the basis of a structured questionnaire that was distributed to directors and managers of hotel businesses. Due to the expected reserves to make public these incidents, the sample was a “convenience sample” and was combined with personal interviews with hotel directors. The questions posed were related to the manifestation of delinquency cases, their type, the way of confronting them, the personnel responsible for their management, the existence or not of relative staff training, the employment of security officers, the involvement or not of the police, the communicative handling of the cases, etc. The survey shows that hotel delinquency includes a wide range of actors both within and outside the hotel circuit. It also reveals the lack of security departments charged with preventing and managing these cases. In addition, the study demonstrates the necessity of carrying more targeted research by region and category of hotel accommodation in order to draw more valid conclusions on preventing and reducing offending behavior in hotels