New Hampshire hotel managers ‘deeply sorry’ after UK students’ passports were destroyed

By Ray Brewer

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    LINCOLN, New Hampshire (WMUR) — Managers of a New Hampshire hotel that destroyed most of the passports belonging to a group of students from the United Kingdom last month have released a statement apologizing for the mishap and explaining what happened.

“We’ve heard a lot of anger and disappointment these last two weeks in response to an unfortunate, regrettable situation that occurred involving one of our visiting ski groups,” Kancamagus Lodge managers said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry. We take full responsibility and offer a genuine apology to our guests and community.”

On Feb. 19, a member of the Kancamagus Lodge’s management team was cleaning the back office and put a number of items to be disposed of into a dumpster. Among the items was a box of the students’ passports, which managers said was inadvertently placed there.

“Our scheduled, contracted garbage disposal company emptied the dumpster and promptly destroyed all contents,” managers said.

When one of the students’ chaperones asked to add a passport to the box, the management team came to the realization that the passports had been accidentally destroyed.

“We immediately notified our guests and began working with our guests to come to the most satisfactory resolution,” managers said. “We worked closely with the tour operating company, contributing however we could towards their extended stay, to come to a swift, safe and successful resolution that was satisfactory to all involved.”

The accidental destruction of the passports led more than 40 British schoolchildren to be stuck in the United States for days. They were on a ski trip that started on Feb. 17 and were expected to be home on Feb. 25. They didn’t return home until March 1.

Kate Hibbs, the head teacher of Barr Beacon Head School in Walsall, England, told News 9 in late February that 42 students and four staff members were left waiting in New York to receive their emergency documents after 41 of the passports were destroyed by the hotel.

“In addition to offering our profound apologies to our guests and their families, we also offer our sincere apology to our community for not representing our industry to the best of our ability and for not living up to the expectations you have of us,” the managers said in the statement.

Hotel managers said new steps will be taken to ensure such a scenario does not occur again, including committing to protect all guests and their information, starting a thorough review of policies and connecting with industry professionals to ensure their safety and security standards are above industry standards.

“Our values will guide everything we do,” managers said. “Our guests and community expect more from us, and we promise we can and will be better. We are committed to putting proof behind our promise.”

“What I think we will be doing is kind of working with our businesses to develop some sort of best practice guide in this particular instance,” Mike Somers, of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, said.

Somers said that he doesn’t anticipate that the incident will have any long-lasting impact on the state’s tourism industry.

“I think the business responded quickly; they tried to be proactive, make sure they got this addressed as quickly as possible,” Somers said. “They apologized profusely, certainly made commitments to make sure it never happens again and I think I would take them, I would take it at face value.”

WMUR reached out to the school to see if they had any reaction, but they have not yet responded.

Managers at the Kancamagus Lodge declined to be interviewed by WMUR, saying that the written statement speaks for itself.

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