Hold Onto Your Rage; It Won’t Change Anything

I work in a hotel. It’s Friday, and my coworker and I are about halfway through our seventy-five-ish check-ins for the day. We’re down the street from a big college campus, so it has been pretty much all students and their parents getting ready to move into their dorms tomorrow.

They’ve been a super nice crowd, and for a super busy night, our shift recap only has three things on it. While no one makes a fuss about our incidental hold, and only a couple have questions about how it works, there is only one that has an issue with it. Go figure, too, she is a [Rewards] member. She is pleasant enough, but as soon as I mention the hold, things get catty.

Guest: “Now, why would I need to pay you more if I already paid for the room?”

Me: “It’s just a hold; you’ll get it back tomorrow after housekeeping gives it the all-clear.”

Guest: “Do we really look like the type of people who would damage your room?”

Me: “That’s not what I said. Thi—”

Guest: “Well, that’s why hotels take them, right? To scare people into not trashing the rooms!”

Me: “Yes, but that’s only par—”

Guest: “So, you think we’re just like the other trash you must normally get, is that it?! I’m a [Rewards] member! This is not how I’m normally treated at your hotels!”

Me: “I’m sorry you feel that way, but that’s not what I was insinuating at all. We have to do it for all guests; it’s just corporate policy.”

Guest: “Bulls***! You can tell corporate if that’s the case that they just lost one of their top customers! We’re never staying at any of your s***ty hotels ever again after this! Unbelievable!”

Me: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Then, I just try to get on with checking her in. All of our [Rewards] members get a complimentary room upgrade, so I inform her that we were able to get her upgrade for the night, and y’all know what she says?

Guest: “That’s nice, but a stupid upgrade isn’t going to buy back my loyalty. If you really appreciated my loyalty, you would’ve waived the hold instead of giving me the sorry excuse you call an upgrade.”

I decided I was done with this interaction, so I told her when breakfast would be and which floor she’d be on and sent her up the elevator.

The boss lady asked me the next day when I came in what I did to that lady to make her so angry. I guess my general manager had gotten an earful that morning. She laughed when I told her it was just about the hold, which the lady did get back. My boss said that the way that lady had been talking to her, you would’ve thought I’d called her every rude name in the book. But nope, I just asked for something that’s standard policy in 90% of hotels!