Guest Gets Zero Out Of Five, Would Not Unlock Room For

A few evenings ago, a guest wrapped in a pool towel came to the front desk and tossed his keys on it.

Guest: “These keys aren’t working.”

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry!”

I remade the keys and sent him up. He came back downstairs and tossed the keys back on the desk.

Guest: “They’re still not working. A yellow light is coming up.”

This happens very rarely, and we always make it up to the guest.

Me: “It sounds like the card reader door needs to be reprogrammed, which will take about twenty minutes. My maintenance guy left twenty minutes ago but I’ll have him back to fix it right away.”

As I called the maintenance guy, the guy started huffing very heavily while staring at me with his eyes wide open.

Me: “Our maintenance guy will be here in twenty minutes. I’m going to comp your breakfast from yesterday. If you want, you can head back out to the jacuzzi and I’ll send you some drinks on us, as well, while you wait.”

Guest: “I will not do that. My girlfriend is upstairs waiting for the door to open in my suite that I paid to use!”

Me: “I apologize for that, sir. As I mentioned, my maintenance guy will be here in twenty minutes, so if you can bear with me until then, we’ll get you into your room.”

Guest: “I DON’T WANT TO GO INTO MY ROOM IN TWENTY MINUTES! I WANT TO GO INTO THE ROOM THAT I AM PAYING $400 A NIGHT FOR RIGHT NOW!”

Me: “Sir, this is completely our fault, but you must understand that sometimes things out of our control can happen. It’ll just be twenty minutes until he gets here and we will, of course, make this up to you.”

Guest: “I’M PAYING $400 A NIGHT TO STAY HERE! I WANT TO GO TO MY ROOM NOW, NOT IN TWENTY MINUTES!”

Me: “I understand that, but like I said, there is a problem with the card reader on the door that only our maintenance guy can fix. I want you to get into your room, but we can’t until our engineer gets here.”

Guest: “SO, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO LET ME INTO MY ROOM?”

Me: “I want you in your room. It just physically can’t happen because of the problem with the key reader.”

Guest: “SO, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO ALLOW ME INTO MY ROOM THAT I PAY $400 A NIGHT FOR?”

This back and forth continued for a few more minutes.

Me: “Sir, you need to lower your voice. I admit that this is our fault, but that doesn’t mean you can scream.”

Guest: “I WILL NOT LOWER MY VOICE! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWING ME TO GO INTO MY ROOM THAT I AM PAYING $400 A NIGHT FOR!”

Me: “I’ll allow you to go into your room. You just can’t because of the card reader.”

Guest: “SO, YOU’RE NOT LETTING ME INTO MY ROOM!”

Me: “I’ll let you go into your room. I am perfectly fine with you going into your room.”

Guest: “BUT I CAN’T!”

Me: “Yes, because the card reader is not working.”

Guest: “SO, YOU AREN’T LETTING ME INTO MY ROOM!”

Me: “Yes, I’ll let you go into your room; the card reader is just not working.”

Guest: “FINE! Can I go into another room while I wait, then?”

At this point, I was done with him and refused to help him.

Me: “No. This conversation is finished. You’ll have to wait.”

A few minutes later, I felt a burst of wind from outside and felt bad that his girlfriend might have been cold because of his stupidity. I made keys for a room next to theirs and gave it to him so she could go inside. He took the keys, but his girlfriend refused to go into the new room with him. He went in and then slammed the door shut, leaving her outside.

The engineer from maintenance came and fixed the door and then came to talk to me.

Engineer: “The door’s fixed. I could hear the dude in the room next door on the phone with his mom complaining about the hotel.”

We got his room ready, I went to tell him, and in front of me he was still repeating, “Mom, I’m spending $400 a night here and they’re not letting me into my room.”

I guess he and his girlfriend fought; two hours later, she left the hotel with her bags. He then walked in and out of the lobby a few times for a few more hours while walking slowly and staring at me wide-eyed. Everything he did, he did angrily; he pushed open the front doors hard, slammed on the elevator buttons, etc. Every time he closed his room door on the fourth floor, a guest would call asking what that gunshot sound was because of how hard he was slamming it.

Suddenly, at around 9:00 pm, I hear a loud slamming sound over and over again. I got like ten calls from scared guests. It turned out the dude was just in his doorway opening and slamming the door shut over and over again.

I called him.

Me: “Sir, we’ve been getting complaints. If you slam your door, one more time, you’ll be removed from the hotel.”

Well, he slammed it repeatedly again. He came downstairs at around 9:30 pm to check out as I was calling security to kick him out. While I was with him, I got a call from a guest asking what that sound was.

Me: “It’s an out-of-control guest. But don’t worry; he’s being kicked out now.”

I handed him his receipt, which he crumpled up in a ball and threw on the floor before walking out.

The next day, housekeeping reported that the door frame was shattered. Per the general manager, we charged him $1,000 for the broken door frame. I also added the comped breakfast back onto the bill.

The best part? Two weeks later I saw a one-star review from him saying, “They wouldn’t let me into my suite that I was paying $400 a night for. Ruined my anniversary. Would not recommend.”