Good Reef!

I am a receptionist/guest experience manager in a high-class hotel. Unfortunately, this means I deal with a lot of wealthy, entitled guests who don’t understand that I’m not God or exactly how big Australia really is.

I’m helping an older American couple plan their sightseeing trips.

Man: “We’re really excited to see the reef.”

Me: “The reef? Oh, you mean the Great Barrier Reef? Are you heading to Queensland after here?”

Man: “No, we just figured we’d do a day trip. Drive up, have lunch, maybe swim a little, and drive back.”

Me: “I’m sorry, a day trip? The reef is in Queensland. It’s not possible to drive there and back in one day. Even flying, it would be difficult to do.”

Woman: “We already looked at the map and know it’s only a couple of hours’ drive away. You just want us to spend more money.”

I pull up Google Maps, type in the closest town to the start of the reef, and set it from our current location.

Me: “As you can see here, it’s at least a twenty-four-hour non-stop drive to the start, and over forty hours to the end. If you like, we can work out adding it into your trip?”

They did not drive down for their “day trip”.