Let’s paint a scenario…
You book your workforce into an affordable guesthouse in a large rural town. As the site manager, you deal with the guesthouse owner daily. He calls and sends WhatsApp messages at all hours, keeping you informed of the activities of your workforce at his accommodation.
After four months you start to demob after finishing three weeks ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, it seems like the guesthouse owner understood that you would be using his guesthouse for six months. He calls and tells you that your workforce has caused damage to his guesthouse to the sum of roughly R100 000. This includes two TVs which are now missing, a broken microwave oven, two rooms now require repainting, nine sets of missing keys, four lost remotes, two damaged doors and R50 000 for damages to a perimeter wall when someone reversed into it a week after your workforce moved in.
At the time, he was unsure if it was your workforce who was responsible, but now it seems that suddenly he is certain. Because you refuse to sign off the invoice, he has started to email directors in your company and has taken the matter to an attorney.
Scenario complete. What did you think?
Is it sounding like a nightmare? This scenario is all too real and all too common. When contracting an offsite services specialist like iLodge, you’ll be provided with a wealth of information to assist the project manager or business owner, helping them consider potential challenges at the beginning of the project even if they only arise later on. An example would be damage claims against your company late in the project or after your workforce has already left their accommodation.
iLodge conducts entry and exit inspections at rental properties or long-term guesthouse rooms. This essential function is included when using iLodge as your service provider for boarding and lodging of your project workforce. In practice, it means that iLodge inspects all facilities and assets prior to your workforce moving in.
In our agreements with service providers, any damage suffered by the service provider as a result of the actions of your workforce, must be reported to iLodge within 24 hours, and in a very specific way.
iLodge then investigates and oversees the compilation of a detailed damage report, including pictures and quotations. This report will be made available to the client company and is of such a standard that it may be used in any disciplinary action against your workforce, to recover damages.
There are a number of advantages of this system:
- It forces the service provider to regularly inspect the state of assets and facilities used by your workforce.
- It removes speculation and hearsay from any allegations of damage or wrongdoing, since the damage report must be accompanied by a detailed account and include photographic evidence.
- It means you can take action against your workforce and recover the financial damages from the guilty parties if need be.
- Perhaps most importantly, it ensures that only actual incidental damages are claimed at acceptable repair costs. Service providers are not able to claim damages as a blanket amount after your workforce checks out.
The method of damage reporting used by iLodge and its service providers ensures that the client company only deals with incidents in so far as it concerns disciplinary actions against the project workforce suspected of damaging property.
iLodge fronts payment for the damage to the service provider upon completion of a standard enquiry and reporting action. You as our client will never have to deal with service providers, and costs can never be inflated and can only be for damage incurred during specific incidents. In this way, damage deposits are largely safeguarded and exit inspections reveal only minor damage more akin to normal wear and tear.
