My parents own farmland and rent it out to farmers. We went to a seminar for farm owners, so there were lots of very wealthy people in the mix. They served us lunch at the hotel restaurant, and it was very good food.

This hotel is part of a huge international chain, so it was their own catering service.

At the end of the meal, one of the women at our table flagged down a waiter.

Woman: “Can I get a box to take the rest of my food home in?”

Waitstaff: “We don’t have boxes or allow anyone to take the leftovers home.”

Woman: “That’s terrible! You just lost your tip!”

Waitstaff: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Woman: “That’s it?! You’re not going to do anything for me?”

Waitstaff: “I can get my manager for you.”

They got the manager, who came out and told her the same thing: she couldn’t take home the food. Cue her screaming at the manager.

Manager: “Ma’am! There are still a full six hours left of lectures for your event. We cannot ensure the quality of your food being left out or in a box that long. We would be liable for any food safety issues.”

Woman: “I can’t even take this food home to my dog?!”

Manager: *Knowing what kind of seminar this is* “You can afford a farm, but you can’t afford dog food?”

Woman: “I will ruin you! You don’t know who you’re messing with!”

My dad looked at me and explained quietly.

Dad: “I know who she is; she only lives like twenty minutes from us. She has a net worth of at least ten million, I’d say.”

Me: “And she’s whining about not being able to take home a few bites of leftover pot roast?” 

I don’t doubt that she has some influence with as rich as she is, but as far as I know, she has yet to take down the Hilton!

I work in a hotel. We have several events going on in our city from high school games, to reunions, to a ton of hunters.

I get a phone call from a gal asking about double-queen room availability.

Me: “Unfortunately, we’re sold out of regular double-queen rooms. The only double-queens I have are pet rooms.”

Woman: “I’m allergic to dogs; I can’t be in a pet room.”

I apologize, and she accepts that and disconnects.

Fast forward an hour. I have a cancelation for an accessible queen room. Not too long after that, a new reservation pops up to book that accessible queen — which, by the way, is a single-queen, not a double.

Minutes later, I’m talking to a couple who have walked in and need a double-queen pet room. I notice a lady standing behind them, getting visibly agitated.

I finish up with the couple in the pet room, and this woman behind them comes up and slams her things on the desk.

Me: *Ignoring the mild violence* “Can I help you?”

It turns out that she is the gal I spoke to on the phone about not having any double-queens. She is also the customer who booked the accessible queen. I notice that she has a friend with her.

Me: “I just want to point out that the accessible room you reserved has only one bed.”

This upsets her beyond belief. She proceeds to screech and scream at me.

Woman: “You lied to me! You said you had no queens available, but the accessible one was available on the website! You lied!”

Me: “Ma’am, we did not have any double-queen rooms available. The accessible room, which is only a single-queen, only became available after a cancelation.”

Woman: “But you just gave that couple before me a double-queen!”

Me: “That was a pet room, ma’am, and you very specifically said that you were allergic to dogs.”

She begins to berate me under her breath, and then to her friend, as if I’m not standing right there.

She again turns to me and starts arguing with me about how I lied. I just can’t get her to understand. I try explaining how room availability works and how it shows on third-party sites. Nope. She isn’t having it.

Woman: “You could’ve given me a spa room!”

Uhh… what?! She specifically asked for double-queen, and spa rooms aren’t even available!

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’d give you a small discount for the misunderstanding, but you’ve booked a non-refundable room through a third party. The price is fixed and I can’t change it.”

Woman: “Again! If you were honest, I could’ve gotten the room I needed.”

Me: “Again! The room you wanted was — and is not — available.”

After about five minutes of being called a liar and complaints about things I have no control over, I finally get a bit angry.

Me: “I am not going to stand here and argue. I’m done. I did not lie about rooms.”

She pauses to stare at me. By this point, I have been insulted and berated so much that I am close to just canceling the reservation altogether.

Me: “Do you want the room or not?”

Woman: *Snapping* “Of course we do! We have no choice!”

Yeah, I could think of a few.

Anyway, I get them checked in, and I let her know where her room is. She isn’t done with the snotty remarks.

Woman: “It had better not be by the dog rooms.”

Well, guess what? IT IS! Then again, you have no choice, right?!

As I was explaining which entrance she could use, she was still snarking off after every sentence I uttered. “I won’t be going through THAT entrance, because of dogs.” “I really hate being lied to.” “They need to hire people who know what they’re doing.” And on and on… and on.

I didn’t hear from the lady or see her again all shift. Although, her friend came through the lobby and sheepishly gave me an apologetic “I’m sorry about my friend” wave.

However, she did leave a review. It was actually not bad or good — a six out of ten — but with the remark, “Customer relations training could benefit certain employees.” I had to laugh out loud!

I was prescribed Tramadol for my sciatic pain a few years ago; the pain was so bad that I literally couldn’t get up, sit, or walk without it. I’d actually had to take a couple of weeks off work as my doctor and I were experimenting with less-potent drugs, but this was the only one that worked. On Tramadol, I was perfectly functional; off of it, I was bedridden.

I had to refill the prescription in another EU member state once, and they gave me trouble at the pharmacy, questioning the doctor’s choice of the drug. I had to explain to them that maybe they should just do their jobs and fill in the prescription since they weren’t my doctor.

Then, one day, I took a trip to Egypt. (The condition lasted almost a year before it cleared, and I couldn’t put my life on hold, so I tried to live a normal life in the meantime.) To my horror, I discovered that I had forgotten to pack enough pills, and I would be out of them soon. I also didn’t have a valid prescription with me. I thought I’d try my luck at the hotel pharmacy; maybe Egypt had different rules that could work in my favor this time?

I explained my situation to the pharmacist, and she immediately handed over a box of Tramadol and told me the price.

Me: *Happy but confused* “Wait. Isn’t this a prescription-only drug over here?”

Pharmacist: “Yes, it is!”

Me: “But I don’t have a prescription with me; that’s part of my problem!”

Pharmacist: “Yes, you do!”

Me: “I don’t understand.”

Pharmacist: “We just wrote you one!”

Me: “But don’t you need a doctor for that?!”

Pharmacist: “See that gentleman in the lab coat sitting over there? He’s our doctor. He just wrote you a prescription.”

The hotel pharmacy actually employed a doctor who’d write prescriptions for hotel guests! There’s probably a ton of stuff wrong with this setup, but it certainly saved my butt this time, so the last thing on my mind was to complain.

It’s been a slow week at our hotel so, naturally, the night audit shift had to drum up some excitement for us.

Around midnight on December 3, a guest arrived and checked into room 312. According to Night Audit, [Guest] wasn’t in the room for more than five minutes before coming back to the desk and requesting a different one due to insects in the bathroom. No big deal; he was moved to room 404, and with new keys in hand, [Guest] went on his way.

Now, mid-morning on December 4, housekeeping comes along to talk to me.

Housekeeping: “Is room 312 going to be a stayover? The room has a ton of stuff in it, but it’s marked as ‘vacant, dirty’ on our boards.”

I check, and no one is registered to the room; the only name on our transferred rooms list is [Guest] from the night before.

So, I try to contact [Guest]. I pull up his information, and the phone number listed is invalid. No one else has been checked into the room since November 30, so I decide to lock him out so that he has to come to the desk. He eventually does, again on the night audit shift, and says no, he doesn’t have any belongings in 312, only 404. So, the night audit worker gives him a new key to 404 and waits for someone to come along asking for a key to 312.

No one ever comes.

Now, it is December 5, and there are still belongings in both rooms, with no one registered to 312. Management goes up to 312 to take a look at the stuff and… [Guest]’s name is all over everything — laptop, TSA luggage tag, Chrome Nest, military dressings, etc.

In 404, there’s still a whole set of belongings and clothes for what seems to be an entirely separate party, but [Guest] INSISTS that he is in 404. [Guest] also happens to be a local guest, living about half an hour away, so we’re all confused as to why he has a room in the first place, let alone two rooms, instead of just going home.

By this point, management thinks either this guy is going crazy or trying to scam us. (Personally, I think it’s the latter.) But why lie about something so easily disproven? When your name is literally on the stuff you claim isn’t yours? We’ve waited two days now to see if someone else had arrived and somehow never registered in the system, but no one has shown up claiming the room.

Now, if it was up to me, I would move all of the very expensive equipment and belongings out of 312 into the general manager’s office and wait for either [Guest] to freak out that someone “stole his stuff” or… well, who knows?

My general manager finally sends a message to the email on [Guest]’s reservation, and [Guest] calls back promptly. I answer.

Guest: “I am in room 312. I have not had any issues in that room, nor have I ever been in room 404!”

I transferred him to [General Manager] to hear it firsthand.

So now, we’ve changed the reservation back to room 312, and [Guest] will have to return to the desk to get his keys and show his ID.

As for the mystery individual/belongings in 404, our night audit worker couldn’t have done her job properly by IDing him last night after we locked him out. Either that or we somehow have two Mr. [Guest’s Last Name]s staying the same night, and unless they have the exact same first name, none of this should have happened at all.

So, now, there are mystery belongings in 404 with no name and no one to contact. [General Manager] is investigating everyone registered in the system to try to figure out who, if any, of them may have somehow been moved into 404 without being changed in the system.

We clearly have some issues with this night audit worker not following proper procedures for check-ins, providing new keys, or room transfers. It’s a huge safety and security risk and, unfortunately, (somehow) this isn’t the first incident.

I work in a hotel. We have a full-time auditor who works strictly Sunday through Thursday nights. He steadfastly refuses to work Friday and Saturday. He’s retired Air Force and makes sure everyone he meets is aware of this. He never saw combat and never was in harm’s way. He was in administration or something of that nature. I digress.

The relief auditor works audit Friday and Saturday, and he comes back on Sunday from 3:00 to 11:00. Days off are Wednesday and Thursday.

Last year, [Relief Auditor] was looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with his family who live on the opposite coast. At the last minute, [Full-Time Auditor] insisted that he needed it off and practically bullied [Relief Auditor] into working.

Well, [Relief Auditor] decided to wait until this year to have Thanksgiving with his family. Sadly, his mother passed away in May. He also learned in September that his father has stage four inoperable lung cancer.

Unbelievably, again, [Full-Time Auditor] told [Relief Auditor] last week that his kids were flying in for Thanksgiving and he needed him to cover. [Relief Auditor] told him he would not.

He is rightfully resentful over last year and told the general manager that he was not going to work this year. [General Manager] approved and told him he’d take care of it, not to worry.

When [Relief Auditor] came in for the second shift, he was apprehensive about [Full-Time Auditor]. We were surprised to see [General Manager] come in to do audit.

Apparently, [Full-Time Auditor] told [General Manager] that he wanted off Thanksgiving. [General Manager] pointed out that he had used up his paid time off and reminded him of last year. He then told [General Manager] that he would quit if he didn’t get it off. [General Manager] told him goodbye.

I’m glad our [General Manager] stands up for principles!