The Metro Doesn’t Go That Far

(Our hotel is right by the airport, so most of our guests are people coming in on flights from other parts of the country. A lot of the time, people who are arriving in a few days will call ahead to get the layout of the area and local attractions.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [Hotel]. This is [My Name]. How may I help you?”

Caller: “Yes, my husband and I will be staying there next week, and we wanted to know how far it is to the Empire State Building.”

Me: *mild shock and general speechlessness* “Uh, ma’am, we are about six hours from New York City.”

Caller: *scoffs at my apparent stupidity* “Well, I am looking at it right now on the Google, and it says that your hotel is only a 20-minute walk from the Empire State building.”

Me: “Ma’am, I can assure you that you would not be able to walk from our hotel in Upstate New York to New York City, which is about 300 miles away.”

Caller: “Well, I don’t think you have any idea where you live. And I think that you are an idiot. I just talked to my husband, and he is sure that when he booked the room it said it was close to downtown.”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, we are very close to downtown Rochester. Not downtown Manhattan. The two are very far apart.”

Caller: “You’re an idiot and we will be staying somewhere else, where people know how far it is to the places around them.”

(At this point, I was simply too dumbstruck to know what else to say, so I just told her to have a nice day and that I was sorry we couldn’t help her. She ended up calling back a few days later and screaming at the manager of my hotel, who also told her we were not within walking distance of the Empire State Building.)

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