Do Not Rent, Do Not Refute

I work in a hotel. When I got in one morning, I noticed that the night shift had checked in someone I knew to be on our Do Not Rent list. I figured they were going to be my pain in the a** that day. It didn’t say exactly why they were on the DNR, but I think they had been a pain in the a** at checkout time or something. And based on what follows, I’m probably right.

They were marked down for a 12:00 pm checkout, and the guy came up to the desk at about 11:35.

Guy: “We’d like to stay for another night.”

Me: “No problem. It’ll be $83 added to your total.”

I did this knowing they were on the DNR because it’s usually easier to let folks leave on their own than to fight with them and kick them out.

Guy: “I don’t have enough money. I need twenty more minutes.”

Me: “I can’t do that; the payment is already thirty-five minutes late. I need you to pay or check out.”

Guy: “I have a 12:00 pm checkout!”

Me: “Payment is due at 11:00. 12:00 pm checkouts are for people who need a little extra time in the room, not people who want to pay late.”

Normally, I might give folks a little wiggle room on things like this, but at this point, I was getting a pretty good feeling this dude was on the DNR because he’s a pain to get payment from.

He attempted to argue about this with me for another five minutes. He tried to go over my head and got angry with the fact that I was the manager on duty. I don’t know why he thought he was going to get a different answer from me when he asked the same question thirty times, but he did not. He insisted he only needed twenty minutes. In my years of experience in the business, that almost always means closer to two hours.

Finally, I told him:

Me: “You need to get your situation figured out in the next five minutes or you will have to check out.”

Guy: “Okay, fine.”

Ten minutes later, he still hadn’t paid.

I messaged [General Manager], who had been working on our rooms under renovation, that I was probably going to need backup.

She went to knock on the door. The guy’s girlfriend opened it barely a crack, and she also attempted to argue with [General Manager], who shut it down.

[General Manager] came back to the desk.

General Manager: “They were definitely smoking in the room.”

So, these folks, who were apparently having so much trouble getting the money they needed for the room, were just going to throw away their $50 deposit? All righty, then.

The guy finally came back like ten minutes later and insisted he’d only been gone five minutes. He cussed at me and then attempted to argue with [General Manager] that we couldn’t put him on the DNR for no reason.

General Manager: “Maybe you’re on there for cursing at staff.”

He did not have a response to that.

We checked the room once they were finally out and found ashes on the bed, and they left a plastic bag over the smoke alarm. So stupid.