PUTTING AN END TO AGE FRAUD IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY!

In this digital era, technology plays a huge role in connecting people from all over the world. Multiple services are availed at the click of a button, anywhere, anytime. However, technology also has a dark side.

In recent years, the travel and tourism department has gone digital, making Hotel Booking, Payments, and Exploring Places very easy. However, this power is being misused and a lot of people are committing age fraud for multiple reasons, which can lead to dangerous consequences in the future.

First case: Since the Government doesn’t allow youngsters i.e. below the age of 18, and unmarried couples to avail hotel rooms privately, these young adults choose to make fake identity cards to hoodwink the authorities. And because all of this is done online, it is easier to do so because there is no filter to verify these ID cards or personal information given by the customer.

Second case: Sexual harassment is a big and most committed crime in our country, and yet there are so many people falling into the trap. The assailants use fake IDs to book certain rooms and call the victims to these rooms, lodges, private hotels, unlicensed hotels, etc. Preferably in some shady area, and many of them are not tracked due to the hoodwinked Confidential information.

Third Case: Teenagers these days seek a safe haven to party, drugs, sex, and other private reasons. However, since they aren’t allowed to book hotels, they provide fake age proofs. Since the management of the whole travel and tourism feeds off the convenience of booking, there is very less verification and safety checks done.

In the past, we have seen several such cases, read about them in the newspapers. What we can do as hotel management?

Let’s be more strict regarding who we serve, verify their age, identity and purpose of stay, report any suspicious behavior or activity involving this lot of ‘customers’. For example, the 9/11 Attacks changed the entire way of living, and what do you think played an important role? People carrying suspicious activities were staying in accommodation with several loop holes in the booking process.

However, the hotels/accommodation authorities have to pay the price as they are responsible for keeping the customers without any proper background check. The convicts of this Age Fraud also have to face legal action. This does not only end here, the convicts then might have to serve jail time or pay bail according to the level of crime committed and the number of charges.

However, after several cases, the Travel and Tourism industry has progressed and got more strenuous on verifying Identity and Age proofs and also making sure that there is no threat involved.