I’m staying at a hotel with my wife and daughter. I’m talking to the desk clerk in the morning.
Me: “Where is breakfast being served?”
Clerk: “We don’t serve breakfast.”
Me: “Your website says, ‘Free continental breakfast.’”
Clerk: “Yeah. That’s a mistake.”
Me: “We booked this hotel because breakfast was included.”
Clerk: “I have a pack of donuts in the office. You want some?”
I work in a hotel. It’s a hundred-room property where I work as the sole employee on my shifts.
Our property has been a bit busier than usual because there have been widespread power outages after a nasty ice storm in town. This weekend, we are about packed full.
One of the guests is a homeless man whose room is being paid for by a local nonprofit.
This guest was a s***ty guest before this incident. He and his party would not wear masks on the property despite being repeatedly asked. His room received several noise complaints, and there was a lot of suspicious activity in and out of the room. Despite this, my general manager refused to kick them out.
But then, one night, the guest gets drunk and discharges a firearm off his balcony.
Several other guests freak out, complain, etc. But the worst of it is that a twenty-five-room group reservation wants to check out four days early because they are concerned about the safety of the property. Because of this, as well as other guests checking out early, one guest’s drunken gunplay costs our property over $8,000 of revenue that we would have gained from those who checked out early.
That finally got my manager to get rid of him and put him on the do-not-reserve list. I hope he starts listening to the advice of us front desk managers on when to boot someone in the future, but I’m not optimistic.
I work in a hotel. I have a guest come in at about 4:30 one morning wanting to check in. I inform her of our policy: in order to check in early, you have to pay an additional fee. She begins to whine.
Guest: “I want to stay until Sunday, but I don’t want to pay the extra money!”
Me: “That is our policy, and I cannot change it.”
Guest: “I’ll just book it online.”
Me: “Without the early check-in fee, you would have to wait until 3:00 pm to check in.”
She goes out to her car for a few minutes, comes back in, and announces:
Guest: “I have a reservation through [Third-Party Booking Site].”
Me: “I’m sorry, but you still either have to wait until 3:00 pm to check in or pay the $45 early check-in fee.”
Guest: “No, I have a reservation for today.”
Me: “Okay, well, check-in will be at 3:00 pm this afternoon.”
Guest: “I have a reservation. See?”
She shoves her phone into the plexiglass barrier between us, nearly knocking it down.
Me: “I see that. If you will read the line printed in bold on your confirmation, you will see that it states that check-in time is at 3:00 pm.”
Guest: “But I have a reservation and I want to check in now!”
Me: “That will add an early check in fee of $45 to your bill.”
She grunts, groans, and argues a bit more, and then calls [Third-Party Booking Site] to whine to them. She makes sure it’s on speaker so I can hear them take her side. But, alas, fate has smiled down on me and the wonderful representative tells her in no uncertain terms that if she wants to check in now, she has to pay an early check-in fee or she can wait until 3:00 pm to check in.
She demands they cancel the reservation. I swear I can hear the evil grin come across the rep’s face.
Representative: “I’m so sorry. You booked a super-low, no-cancel, no-refund rate. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
She walked outside, got in her car, and drove away. She never came back.
I work in a hotel that is part of a larger chain.
With the current situation going on in the world, my hotel is very limited on what we can offer for breakfast. Our local health department will not allow us to do our famous hot breakfast until the number of new cases in my area decreases; this means that we can only offer grab-and-go items that can be eaten cold or heated in a microwave. We are also not allowed to open our dining room as there’s not enough space for social distancing. We’re supposed to discourage people from “hanging out.”
We have signs all over our dining area that state due to the current health crisis, we are not allowed to open the dining tables.
For breakfast, we offer a box of items that can be grabbed and taken to the guests’ rooms or eaten cold in the car. In the box is a bagel, two hardboiled eggs, a breakfast bar, cream cheese, and yogurt, as well as eating utensils.
This particular customer has already been a bit of a troublemaker. We are a three-star hotel and will go out of our way to help a guest, but this customer is never satisfied, no matter how far out of your way you go. When she first checked in, she cussed out my front desk staff because we don’t offer valet parking.
The customer and her husband each take a breakfast box, and upon pulling out the bagel, the customer comes to my desk.
Customer: “You need to get me a toaster for this bagel.”
Me: “I’m sorry, but we do not have any toasters available.”
Customer: “Then how am I supposed to eat my bagel?”
Me: “Ma’am, there are microwaves available in the guest rooms, or if you are heading out, I will be more than happy to heat it in the little microwave in my office.”
[Customer] doesn’t like either of those options and huffs back to the breakfast area where her husband is waiting. I figure they are leaving and that’s why he is waiting. I walk over a little bit later to clean and check to make sure there are enough boxes for all the guests when I see [Customer] and her husband sitting in the dining area. One could assume that they didn’t see the signs; however, they sat at one of the tables that had the sign on it.
Me: *Calmly* “I do apologize, but per CDC and local health department regulations, we are not allowed to have anyone in the dining area.”
Customer: “There is no sign anywhere.”
I point to the large-print sign on the table.
Me: “Ma’am, we have them posted on the entrance door, as well as on the tables right here.”
Customer: “Well, I’m not moving until I finish eating.”
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you will have to. If the health department sees you here, we can be shut down as a public health nuisance.”
Husband: “Let’s just take our things back to the room.”
Customer: “No, this little a**hole is lying. There are no rules that say we can’t eat here; he just doesn’t want anyone here.”
I step off and go to the back. I come back with a printout of the CDC and local health department regulations
Me: “Ma’am, these are the rules as outlined by the CDC and the health department. As you can see, it says right here—” *pointing to the page* “—that eating areas must be able to accommodate social distancing to open. As this is a small dining area that cannot accommodate social distancing, we are unable to open it.”
The customer goes ballistic, yelling and cussing.
I finally get tired of listening to it.
Me: “Ma’am, if you are going to continue to yell and use foul language, I’m afraid I will have to ask you to leave the property, without a refund.”
This is when the customer says the Magic Words.
Customer: “GET ME YOUR MANAGER!”
I get a little glee when I hear entitled and rude customers say this, as I am the assistant general manager here, and generally, at breakfast time I’m the only employee here.
I point to my name badge.
Me: “Ma’am, I am the manager, and I’m going to have to ask you the leave the hotel. Don’t worry about a receipt; it will be emailed to the email on your reservation.”
Husband: “I can’t believe we are getting kicked out of another place because of your attitude.”
The customer’s husband had to drag her out of the hotel.
I’m waiting in line to check into my hotel. I’ve been up since about 6:00 am yesterday, due to traveling a long distance, and I just want a bed to sleep in. The man ahead of me apparently has never checked into a hotel before.
Customer: “Why do I have to show my ID?! You’re just gonna steal my identity!”
Receptionist #1: “Sir, it’s to check you in, since we have many guests staying with us. It’s also in case of emergency, if the police contact us, or if there is damage done to the room.”
Customer: “You’ll call the cops on me?! Now you ain’t ever gonna see my ID!”
Another receptionist comes over to help me since this guy obviously isn’t going to cooperate.
Receptionist #2: “Can I see your ID?”
Me: *Loudly* “Of course, since any hotel I go to is going to ask me for ID for obvious reasons!”
I hand it over. After a minute, the receptionist hands it back, along with my room card.
Receptionist #2: *Also loudly* “Thank you, ma’am! Here is your ID back, with the information in a system that’s encrypted and does not allow me to steal information, and your room key!”
The man glared at us and stormed out.
