4.9 House policy
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A house policy provides a framework for both patrons and staff in understanding the responsible serving principles adopted by venue management. It can be used to reinforce acceptable serving practices of the venue. |
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Watch the following video to see how a house policy is implemented in a service situation.
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Lyn Humphreys |
Lyn Humphreys, Licensee, talks about implementing the house policy in her hotel.
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It’s not black and white whether somebody is intoxicated or not; it’s where you draw the line, and it’s not black and white on having a house policy that is there necessarily 24 hours a day for the whole time that the venue is open or even that applies to everybody that is in the venue at that time, so I certainly give my managers a lot of leeway as far as what they can call at any time. So while we might have a house policy that says ‘no shots after 10 pm on a Friday night’, if they want to implement that on another night because they’re experience tells them that there is a group in there that may be starting to get intoxicated or it’s a particular sporting team and so they need to implement those policies at any other time, I certainly give them their freedom to do that. I rely on their experience and expertise to make those sorts of decisions. |
A good house policy is a simple statement, or series of statements that reflect the principles implemented by the venue and can cover such things as:
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not serving minors or intoxicated patrons
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not conducting irresponsible liquor promotions
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ensuring quality food is always available
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promoting safe transport options to patrons
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offering discounted non-alcoholic drinks
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the venue’s approach to dealing with problem patrons
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restricting the types of drinks sold after midnight.
Staff training
Effective training of staff to implement a house policy is essential if you are to succeed with your strategy for responsible service. All staff should be included to allow them to begin implementing a uniform set of practices.
It is important that staff implement responsible serving practices that they have learnt from their training. Staff meetings, incident logs, the review of particular incidents, and positive reinforcement of staff observed acting in the required manner assists in this process. The liquor + gaming magazine published by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing should be circulated to all operational staff.
Management must:
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state their expectations of performance
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give staff authority to make decisions and support these decisions
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consider how to reinforce staff behaviour.
When staff members are confident that they will be backed up by management, they will be much more comfortable with the idea of the responsible serving of alcohol.