Dubai: Companies providing valet services in the UAE often face rough situations when their client’s guests issue complaints against them for something wrong they might have done.

Whenever a car owner issues a complaint or is unsatisfied with the service, a valet company has to look at different options to solve the issue.

Among the usual scenarios they face are related to a scratched or dented car, or a lost item that was in the car, but they also get blame for what they may not be liable for.

Different actions are carried out by valet services depending on the situation and evidence found, if any, on the premises where the fault could have taken place.

Looking at the nature of valet businesses and how their services are handled, Gulf News spoke to Oscar Services, a prominent valet service company based in Dubai which handles over 50 venues in Dubai — from hospitals to hotels and restaurants — and tried to understand the types of complaints they receive from people, including the way these issues are handled.

The company offers a wide variety of valet-related services to the UAE marketplace where the demand for such services has been growing steadily.

Vishnu Janardhanan, General Manager of Operations at Oscar Services, said that their company only recruits trained staff with years of experience in this field in order to ensure the job is handled well and without any probability of error.

“Most of our staff comprises Asians. Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and some Africans. The staff we recruit must meet specific qualifications. They must, of course, have a driving licence, speak English or Arabic and must have a minimum of three years’ experience as a valet,” he said.

However, he said, although they deeply trust their employees, errors or complaints from customers can happen.

“If there is any damage to the car with evidence that it was caused by our valet during operations, we are obliged to fix it. We have an insurance of third party liability that covers the costs of such damages,” Janardhanan said.

In other cases, he said: “When a guest issues a complaint that his or her car has been damaged by our valet, a police officer is called in to analyse the problem and issue a report. The officer then asks the valet if he was responsible for the damage being caused. Then other valet witnesses are also questioned. If there is still no proof, we seek the hotel’s security department to view the CCTV surveillance to find out the actual cause of the damage,” he said.

However, he said, when there isn’t enough evidence to prove it was not caused by them, they sometimes have no other option but to repair the guest’s vehicle through their insurance.

“If, for example, we cannot obtain anything from the CCTV because it was not working, we are obliged to repair it. But, if the CCTV shows we have done nothing wrong and the car was carefully parked and returned, we cannot be held liable for anything,” said Janardhanan.

There are other issues that make the job of a valet more challenging. Janardhanan refers to instances when they have had to face situations when the customer came in with the damaged vehicle but didn’t know about it and therefore claimed that the valet had damaged his vehicle while in the latter’s custody.

“In such cases, we have sometimes been forced to accept the damage and get it repaired. It’s a hospitality business and the customer is always right. The hotel or hospital does not like to have any customer issues within their premises,” he added.

“Sometimes, there are people who intentionally choose to come to an expensive, busy hotel with a busy valet parking facility and have their car parked. In such venues, the valet has no time to check if the car has any existing scratches, dents, or damages and heads directly to park it in the basement. Some customers blame the valet and insist that we were responsible for the damage,” he said.

But, despite the challenges, there has never been a need to fire staff for any of these reasons. In fact, staff who bring a high degree of commitment to their job are recognised and rewarded for their honesty and good performance.

“We make sure to reward our staff through the employee of the month recognition certificate which also comes along with cash rewards,” Janardhanan said.