Some Guests Require You To Throw In The Towel

A guest calls the front desk from her room.

Guest: “My room was supposed to be cleaned, but there are no fresh towels!”

This is a room that recently passed a cleaning inspection by the owner. The only way to pass inspection is to have EVERYTHING fully stocked. I sent a coworker up to the room, who came back and confirmed there were towels.

Guest: *Calling back.* “There are no fresh bathroom supplies!”

Coworker: *To me.* “Nope. They have everything stocked. Everything.”

Me: *To the guest.* “Ma’am, all the items were restocked following your room being cleaned. I can send someone up to show you where everything is—”

Guest: “—You’re lying! I want to speak to the owner!”

We are a smaller, privately owned hotel, so the owner was at hand. He went to the room personally and showed her where the towels, supplies, toiletries, and everything else were in her room. When the owner came by the front desk, he told me:

Owner: “She had the audacity to be on the phone with the third-party booking agent she used to book the room, telling them we didn’t resupply the room and demanding for a refund. She was doing that AS I WAS SHOWING HER where all the stuff was.”

Me: “What did she say when you did all that?”

Owner: “She didn’t respond to me directly; she just kept telling the agent on the phone that we were gaslighting her.”

Me: “Why would we do that?”

Owner: “You see this sometimes. They look for reasons, any reasons, to get a discount or a refund from us. I guarantee you that whatever booking agent she used to book here is going to call us back “on behalf of our mutual client” to ask if there’s anything we can do. If they call back tell them, we can put “our mutual client” on our banned list and see if that helps them calm down.”

The agent did indeed call back, and did indeed ask for a discount or refund “on behalf of our mutual client” (yes, they used those exact words – the owner called it!). I replied that we would ban the guest if they continued to make up false claims about our service and continue to demand a discount, and the agent simply said they understood and would pass that information back to “our mutual client”.

The guest didn’t cause another ruckus during her stay, but she gave us the stink eye every time she passed us in the lobby.