www.habbohotel.co.uk

WHAT IS HABBO HOTEL?
It's a virtual hotel, where teenagers can hang out and chat. It's a bit like a computer game, but all the characters are real people in different places. Please have a read of our Parents’ Guide to find out more – this page will concentrate on the things your pupils are most likely to ask you about.

WHO’S BEHIND IT?
Habbo Hotel is run by a small team of full time staff from our London offices. Habbo Hotel is owned by Sulake Labs, a Finnish games company. Local Habbo Hotels exist in Spain, Finland, Japan, Switzerland and Italy.

CONTACTING US
You can email us at info.uk@sulake.com or phone us on 0207 557 4822. We’re available between 9.30am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Please do not give out these details to pupils – we only offer email customer support to them. If you call, please tell the receptionist you are a teacher, so that we can prioritise your call.

SHOCKWAVE DOWNLOAD
Habbo Hotel is programmed in Macromedia Director and computers need Shockwave to run it. This is a free download, which will take about ten minutes (maximum) to download. Please tick ‘OK’ when the security warning pops up – Shockwave and Habbo are completely safe and won’t damage computers in any way.

FIREWALLS AND PROXY SERVERS
If your school operates a firewall or proxy server, it’s possible that Habbo Hotel won’t work on your school computers. To get Habbo to work when you have a proxy server you need to allow non-http connections to bypass it. If you have a firewall, you’ll need to allow access from http://www.habbhotel.com or open the following ports:

IP: 213.157.65.8
37000

IP: 213.157.65.41
37201; 37202; 37302; 37307; 37308; 37310; 37320; 37330; 37340; 37390; 37391; 37393; 37401; 37480; 37501; 37520; 37521; 37522; 37523; 3607

IP:213.157.65.42
37010; 37020; 37030; 37040; 47050

IP: 213.157.65.43
37201; 37203; 37607

IP: 213.157.65.44
37060; 37070; 37080

PROBLEMS GETTING INTO HABBO HOTEL
It’s possible that pupils will ask you why they can’t get into the hotel. The easiest thing to do in this case, or in fact whenever pupils have a problem with Habbo Hotel, is to tell them to fill out our Contact Us form so that we can answer them directly. We answer emails every day except Saturday, between 9.30am and 5.30pm.

However, here are some of the most common reasons why people can’t access Habbo Hotel. Some are things that can be fixed easily without our help:

1. The hotel may be full – tell them to try waiting a few minutes and then checking in. We have a maximum capacity of more than 9,000 simultaneous users, but this can be reached during peak times (lunchtimes and after school). If this is the problem they’ll see ‘connecting’ flashing within the check in page, but it’ll never connect them.
    

2. They might have been banned – if users break the rules our moderators ban them. Most bans are only for two hours, so please ask them to wait and try again. If they can’t get in then, they should email us.
    

3. The computer may be out of memory – this can happen if there are lots of windows or programs open at the same time. Restarting the computer usually fixes this problem.
    

4. The PC might be behind a firewall – please see above.
    

5. If they keep seeing the 'disconnected' message - this means that the connection between the PC and our servers has broken. Sometimes they still might be able to speak or move about in the hotel, but some parts of it may not work - like their Navigators or Consoles. Reloading usually helps (F5 or Ctrl-R).
    

6. If they get a black screen when they click on 'check in' - this means that there is something wrong with the Shockwave download. Reinstalling Shockwave fixes this problem: To download shockwave click here.
    

7. If they see a 'security risk' pop up - this is the standard pop up from Shockwave, which appears when Habbo Hotel is accessed for the first time on a computer. Just tick the third box and it won't appear again.
    

8. They are using the wrong password – if this happens they’ll see a ‘wrong password’ alert. Tell them to fill out the ‘forgotten your password?’ link and we’ll send them a reminder to the email address they registered with.

BANNING COMPUTERS AND IP ADDRESSES
We occasionally ban computers and/or IP addresses in the case of serious misbehaviour. We have advised our moderators not to use such bans during school hours to minimise the risk of banning entire schools or multiple pupils (those using the same computer, for example). If you think we have banned your IP address or one of your school’s computers, please contact us. If at all possible, please have the Habbo name of at least one pupil who has used the computer, so that we can remove the ban more easily.

SCAMMING
Sadly, some children set out to trick (scam) other users into revealing their passwords. They then use these passwords to gain access to other Habbos’ accounts. Pupils may say that they have been ‘hacked’, but this isn’t possible – Habbo accounts are secure as long as the passwords are kept secret.

Please ask any pupils who report that they have been scammed to visit Scam Busters and fill out the ‘I’ve been scammed’ form. We’ll restore their account. Scam Busters can be found here.

MODERATORS
Habbo Hotel is moderated 24 hours a day by volunteers called Hobbas and by paid, fully-trained Habbo Ltd staff members. All staff members are police vetted. We are always looking for volunteers, so if you’d like to help out in your spare time, please contact us.

ONLINE SAFETY
The safety of children is very important to us, so we’d be more than happy to come in to your school and talk to your pupils about how they can be safe online. Please contact us if you’d like to arrange this.

www.habbohotel.co.uk