Guests lose sleep as bills roll in

In the early 1970s, I was promoted to financial director of Cunard's Caribbean Hotels, having previously worked for the company in London.

Full of enthusiasm, I launched myself into a series of internal audits at our four hotels, determined to bring in the same good controls and systems that we had operated in London.

Cunard had just opened a luxury hotel in St Lucia. Apart from the general manager and myself, the staff were all local and keen as mustard to make a success of their new careers. Tourism was in its infancy in St Lucia and many of the staff lacked experience. They made up for this by a will to learn and carry out instructions.

I thought I was doing well in teaching the accounts staff the elements of control but there were aspects that gave me cause for concern.

One of these was the fact that the bar staff were lax in obtaining signatures for bar drinks that were booked to a guest's room. Should a guest have queried a bill, we would have had no signed docket to support the transaction.

The night auditor was a young man whom I will call Vernon. He was extremely keen and was proud of the fact that he had some training in book-keeping.

"Vernon," I said, "please will you make sure that guests sign their bills in the bar." With a beaming smile, he replied: "No problem Mr Smith, leave it to me."

The next morning there was a queue of very angry people outside my office. Vernon, as good as his word, had followed my instructions to the letter.

Throughout the night and small hours of the morning, as he went through his audit of the previous day's business, he had telephoned all the guests who had not signed their bar bill and summoned them to reception for a signature.