I work in a hotel. We had an older couple who had booked a prepaid, nonrefundable reservation through an Online Travel Agency (OTA). The man was the one I interacted with while checking them in; the woman kind of just stood back and waited.

I asked [Man] for the same items I ask of everyone: a driver’s license and a credit card.

Man: “You don’t need my credit card.”

Me: “Your room is prepaid, but I do indeed need your credit card on file for incidentals.”

Man: “I’m not going to give it to you. You hotel people always hold the money for way too long.”

Me: “Sir, the amount of time it takes for an authorization hold to drop is completely dependent on your bank. We don’t choose when to release the funds.”

Man: “Well, I’m not giving it to you anyway.”

Me: “Okay? Well, you can do a cash deposit of $150 if you’d prefer. You’ll get it back in the morning if there’s no damage to the room.”

Man: “That’s too much. How much would it be if I used my credit card?”

Me: “It would be the same amount: $150.”

Man: “That’s way too much. I already paid for the room. We just need a place to sleep for the night. I’m not paying for incidentals.”

Me: “Sir, bottom line, I can’t give you a room if you don’t have a card on file or a cash deposit.”

Man: “Is $50 okay?”

Me: “No.”

Man: “$100?”

Me: “No.”

Man: “Why not?”

Me: “Because that’s our policy: $150 cash deposit or a card on file. You will literally get it back when you check out in the morning as long as you don’t trash the room.”

Man: “Are there at least two beds in the room?”

Me: “No, it’s a single queen room. One bed.”

Man: *Huffing* “That’s not what I booked. I booked two beds!”

Me: “Okay, well, you’d have to take that up with the third party you booked through. That’s what the reservation says, and I can’t change it.”

Man: “Are you kidding me?”

Me: “No. I can’t change the room type for you. You need to take it up with the Online Travel Agency.”

Man: “Can we just cancel it? This is getting ridiculous.”

I agree; this WAS getting f****** ridiculous.

Me: “I can’t cancel it. You need to talk to your OTA.”

Man: “So, you’re refusing to refund us?”

Me: “I don’t have your money. You have to call the OTA.”

Man: “Well, if we can’t cancel it, I guess we’ll have to take the room.”

He rolls his eyes and takes out his wallet — his thick wallet with plenty of cash in it — and hands me $150.

Man: “I want a receipt for the deposit.”

Argh. We don’t typically put the deposit in the folio since our system lumps it in with our drop total and messes up the drawer. We make a note in the reservation, note it in an email that goes to the front desk, general manager, and front office manager, and fill out a paper that’s clipped to the deposit money in the drawer. But okay, I’ll put it in the folio to get this guy out of my hair.

I put it in the folio, printed him a receipt, and then reversed the payment so my drop total wouldn’t be messed up.

I handed the man his room keys at last, and he had one more thought to add:

Man: “My review of this hotel will not be good.”

[Man]. Dude. Bro. Man. You didn’t even book with the hotel; you booked with an OTA and then tried to haggle over an incidental deposit. And in my experience, anyone who tries to get out of paying for incidentals is most certainly planning to f*** up the room in some way.

Don’t be a [Man].

In the mid-2000s when I was nineteen, I worked for an eighty-two-room hotel. We had a conference center that fit maybe 300 people. We had a guy who used us several times a year (I will call him Carl) who put on different trainings for police officers. Carl was a higher-ranking police officer and trainer. He was a very nice guy, probably in his early forties, and he would buy our staff dinner and bring treats and snacks — really an upstanding guy. He always left us glowing reviews. We always put him in a room close to the front desk at his request, and he told us to call him if we ever needed anything. As part of the deal with him, we blocked out a large number of rooms for the conference over a three-day period — discounted rooms at the state rate. We would have twenty-plus cop cars in the parking lot. It was nice having them there; we always felt very safe, and they were usually a good group.

This particular night, I was working by myself on the 3:00 to 11:00 shift. For one of the major trainings they did several times a year over a three-day weekend, we had probably thirty agencies staying. Some of them had booked rooms with the FIRM agreement that we’d bill the agency for the rooms; however, the guests needed to provide a credit card for incidentals. Some of the agencies covered everything, but not all. Most agencies sent their staff with agency credit cards to be used for incidentals.

One lady came to check in around 5:00 pm. She was a police officer from about four hours away in a medium-sized city.

Me: “Okay, ma’am, may I please see your credit card for incidental charges?”

Guest: *Rudely* “I don’t need to give you that!”

Me: “Ma’am, your agency will cover the room and tax, but a credit card is required for incidentals.”

She proceeded to argue with me, yell at me very loudly, and basically act like an all-around entitled jerk. It went on for close to ten minutes: me explaining the policy between us and her agency, and her refusing. I never once raised my voice or did anything to her. At one point, I started shaking because of how loud she was being.

Me: *Politely* “Ma’am, please calm down.”

Guest: “Wow, look how you are shaking. See? That’s from how aggressively you are talking to me!”

Finally, she told me:

Guest: “Fine! I’m going [Hotel across the parking lot]. You are extremely hostile and I’m not comfortable with you.”

That hotel was sold out of their state rooms, and they’d charge at least $189 a night versus our $70 block rate.

The lady went outside to talk to her husband. He quickly stormed in with her behind him and started going off on me.

Husband: “You were extremely rude to my wife! I could hear you raising your voice at her from all the way outside!”

I was pretty puzzled considering I had never yelled or raised my voice; I had merely repeated our policy several times and given her her options. He continued to go off on me.

Within a few seconds, Carl came down the stairs and politely introduced himself to this man and woman.

Carl: “I’m Carl [His Last Name]. I’m the one in charge of the trainings, and I set aside the block of rooms. Which agency are you with, ma’am?”

She showed him her badge, and they were super friendly to each other. Carl then very quickly asked what the issue was, and she explained how I had “treated her very badly”. He then pulled out his cell phone.

Carl: “If you want, feel free to stay at the place across the street, but as it stands, you attending the training this weekend will not be happening.”

Guest: *Absolutely shocked* “Why not?!”

Carl: “I happened to be sitting up there catching up on some reading for the training, and I heard everything.”

He gestured toward the little seating area at the top of our main lobby staircase. He liked to sit in the common areas and listen to the interactions, and honestly, I’d had no idea he was up there.

Carl: “I heard the entire interaction: everything you, your husband, and [My Name] said. Your behavior was completely unprofessional. I have no tolerance for someone who, one, acts like you have as a police officer, and two, lies about what has happened. This weekend’s conference probably won’t benefit you in the long run. I’m going to go ahead and contact your chief of police since I know him, and we’ll see how he wants to handle paying for the empty room I booked for you since it won’t be used now.”

The lady and her husband left without saying a word, just pure shock on their faces. Carl went upstairs to his room on his cell phone, and I could no longer hear him.

Carl did follow through on his word, and the lady’s chief was NOT happy at all. The chief called the hotel within an hour. He told us to go ahead and charge incidentals to the credit card we had for the rooms for the remaining attendees, and he apologized for her behavior. He said he had told his officers they would need to give their own credit cards before they left and said he didn’t realize this would be such an issue.

Carl also apologized profusely for her behavior, and he said he was sorry I’d had to stand there and take that. I explained that it wasn’t his fault, and he politely told me that I was very kind and professional and that he appreciated me and everything our hotel did for his program and the other police officers. He later bought me a nice dinner from a local Italian restaurant, and he sent our hotel a nice gift basket after the conference. He made sure to tell our general manager how polite I was, how our customer service was top-notch, and how that was what kept bringing him back to our conference center.

I never found out what became of the lady. But to think she was a police officer. Yikes!

Our hotel rooms have electronic clocks that update automatically during Daylight Saving dates. A guest is rushing up to the checkout.

Guest: “We had to leave an hour ago, and your clocks bloody updated all by themselves! I thought I still had an hour! We were supposed to leave at 9:00 am!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. We thought the clocks updating automatically would be helpful, but I will leave a note with management that this should be advertised more clearly.”

Guest: “You’d better! It’s not helpful when you’re being too helpful!”

The guest dashed out the door. Also, it was 11:00 am, so she still would have been an hour late outside of Daylight Saving.

I swear, guests think that hotel rooms are scavenger hunts for free stuff. They find the smallest thing wrong and expect a complimentary night.

I had a guest come up to me to check out, and she reported that the bathroom fan in her room wasn’t working.

I thought, “Big whoop. My apartment’s bathroom fan doesn’t work, either, and you don’t see me complaining.”

What I said out loud was:

Me: “I’m sorry about that, ma’am. I’ll make sure maintenance takes care of it.”

And I grabbed the maintenance log to add it in. She stood there expectantly.

Me: “Is there anything else, ma’am?”

She looked at me like I’d asked her a very embarrassing and rude question.

Guest: *Sheepishly* “What about… compensation?”

Me: *Genuinely dumbfounded* “Compensation?”

Guest: *Eagerly* “For my issues.”

I was floored. This lady was asking for a discount over her bathroom fan not working.

But standard hotel policy is that if a guest has an issue with their room, our first course of action is to ask if they want a room transfer. Now, we didn’t have any rooms the night before, but I bluffed.

Me: “Why didn’t you come down and tell us about it? We could have given you a room transfer.”

That was not strictly true, but I had a cash reservation I could have cancelled in an emergency.

She puckered her lips and continued staring at me.

Not sure what else to do, I kind of just stared off into space and pretended I didn’t see her anymore. Like, I didn’t want to argue with her, but she refused to leave.

She finally did go after she realized I was either ignoring her or having a stroke.

I’ve never intentionally frozen like that in front of a guest. My instinct is to be accommodating, but I wasn’t going to give her any kind of discount or refund, and she clearly wanted to engage me purely to that effect.

In the past, I wouldn’t have thought twice about a ten percent discount to get her out of my face, but the owner has been really hard on us lately about getting our numbers up. And the new manager even put up a sign saying, “Team No Refunds”. So, this lady was up the creek either way.

I’m the manager on duty for the second shift at a hotel. Mr. One-Time Teen Heartthrob from Hollywood checks in at 10:00 pm.

Hollywood: “My room is too small. I was expecting a suite!”

Me: “That is one of our junior suites. It is the room [Big Fundraiser] booked for you. Unfortunately, we are sold out, and you were our last arrival.”

Hollywood: “Cancel my reservation. I’m leaving and going to [Other Hotel]; they are better!”

Me: “They also are sold out, sir.”

Hollywood: “They know how to treat a VIP; they will make room. Can I go now?!”

Me: “BYE!”

One hour later, Hollywood walks back in as I’m leaving.

Me: “Welcome back.” 

Hollywood: “I guess I’ll take that room.”

Me: “Sorry, we are sold out. Your old room has been rented. You did cancel that reservation.”

Hollywood: “What? I’ll have your job! Now, give me a room!”

Me: “As I said, sold out. No rooms. Bye.”

He argued for another hour, eventually calling his contact at the fundraiser, who called the sales contact. Then the sales contact called ranting and raving at me. Hollywood ended up staying with someone from the fundraiser, the salesperson became my mortal enemy, and the general manager and I had a good laugh.