2 Ways Your Hotel Business Can Protect Your Customers' Identities
Posted on: 14 December 2015
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You work with customers every day, and as a hotel business, your company keeps records of payment methods, addresses, and arrival and departure dates of all your current and past guests. Identity theft is a valid concern your guests may have, and for good reason. As many as 9 million people have their identities stolen every year by friends, co-workers, and even complete strangers. If you want to help protect your guests as much as possible, consider doing these 2 things to help keep their important information safe.
Invest in a high security paper shredder
A high security paper shredder is designed to shred a single piece of paper into thousands of indecipherable, tiny pieces. With this kind of shredder you can delete customer payment methods with ease once they have been eliminated from your database. Choose a high security paper shredder that can process many pages at once so you can delete paper files and documents quickly.
It's important that your hotel have a system in place where guests who haven't been to your hotel in a certain amount of time or who are not repeat visitors get deleted from your system. Stagnant accounts are susceptible to identity theft, especially when credit card and other personal information is still stored on file since these accounts are not watched as closely as more active guest accounts are.
Teach your staff to protect customers
Your staff should be taught to never give out credit card numbers of customers over the phone, even if a customer asks them to repeat information to them when confirming reservations. They should also be taught to always ask for identification when running payment cards at check-in, even if the card is already on file on their reservation. Another thing that can help to protect your guests is training your staff to never state room numbers out loud when customers check in, rather, they can show guests on a map where their room is and discreetly write the number on their key card envelope. People in lobbies can otherwise hear important information about your guests, which can compromise their safety.
You want to protect your hotel's guests as much as possible, and having a high security paper shredder to delete paper documents and training your staff to be more discreet with reservations can help give your visitors the security they need. These methods of safety are easy to implement and can help prevent identity theft in your hotel's establishment from occurring.