The Different Types of Delinquent Behavior in the Hospitality Industry. Case Study from Greece

Delinquent behavior in hotels is well known both to the hotel industry professionals as well as to the customers. The particularity of hotels being considered to provide a "hospitable" and discreet environment, tranquility and security, prevents the disclosure of the incidents of delinquency that occur in them. In Greece, as well as abroad, despite the fact that delinquent acts are known to occur constantly in hotels, nonetheless the facts do not easily go public, and there seems to exist no hotel department responsible for systematically and 'scientifically' managing the cases in question. This study aims to record and classify the incidents of delinquent behavior occurring in the Greek hospitality industry through primary research conducted at hotels throughout Greece. In parallel, a record was created, of the way the incidents were handled, who was the person that managed such incidents, the existence -or not- of staff training, the employment of security personnel, whether the assistance of the police was required or not, communication management of the incidents, etc. The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires in combination with structured interviews with hotels’ executives. The results demonstrate the existence of all kinds of delinquency such as theft, drug use/ abuse, prostitution, fraud, domestic violence, etc. Due to the lack of systematic research in Greek hotels for the phenomena of delinquent behavior and ways of their management, combined with the location, the type, the seasonality and the size of the enterprise, a new survey is proposed to be conducted by means of a targeted research involving scientists originating from the field of social and legal sciences, management, psychology, etc. in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the problem and methodology to tackle the issue.