No Room for Interpretation

I worked for several years in a mid-range chain hotel. This is what would happen any time we sold out.

We didn’t have anything on our big light-up sign that could be seen from the road to indicate we had no vacancy, like some hotels. Instead, we would print out signs and hang them on both sides of our outer and inner sets of doors (so four signs total before you even get inside the lobby, which were big enough to be read without getting out of the car while stopped in our unloading zone).

Without fail, every single time I would have multiple people come in and ask if we had any rooms available. Then, when I told them we were unfortunately fully booked, they would complain about having to walk all the way inside, because calling or just reading the signs would be too much to ask, right?

One night, due to multiple events happening near us, we sold out much earlier than usual. I decided every time I got someone who came in and asked, I would hang up another sign somewhere.

In addition to the signs on all four doors, I hung four more on the glass panels on either side of said doors. I hung a sign off both the computers at the front desk. I hung a sign off the counter of the front desk. I finally even put a sign directly under the bell they would have to ring to let me know someone was at the desk (as I was usually in the back doing other job responsibilities).

For those keeping count, that’s twelve signs all saying in bold size 72 font “NO VACANCY”.

I still had a few more people ask if we had rooms before the end of my shift, and the night audit person said they had multiple people too!

What is it about signs that seems to render people unable to read?!