Our hotel is within ten miles of a [Vehicle Brand] assembly plant, and we get a lot of guests staying with us that are affiliated with the brand, either as direct employees or subcontractors coming in to do work at the plant. The [Brand] rate is $117 plus tax, which is a substantial savings off of our rack rate.

A guy checks in on a Friday night who has a reservation for four nights with the [Brand] rate. We progress through the check-in process we get to the point where he needs to insert his card into the card reader. He freaks out over the amount of his stay (plus incidental hold) showing on the screen.

Guest: “Why is it so much?! I was told that the rate was $117 plus tax for my stay!”

Me: “The total showing is for $117 plus tax per night, plus the incidental hold.”

He starts screaming at me.

Guest: “I was told when I made the reservation that the total would be just $132 for my whole stay!”

Me: “You must have misunderstood the reservation agent, because… do you really think you’d get a room here for four nights for just 132 bucks?”

Guest: “Yes! If I knew I was going to have to pay over $500, I would have made a reservation somewhere else!”

At this point, I was getting tired of him yelling at me.

Me: “If you would prefer to stay somewhere else, I could cancel the check-in process and cancel your reservation, or you can have your card authorized for the full amount and be on your way to your room.”

Guest: “I’m going to call corporate and have you fired!”

Me: “Have at it; I’m not in the wrong here.”

After steaming and stewing for a few more minutes, he finally decides he wants to stay, and we finish the check-in process. As he walks away from the front desk, he says:

Guest: “I’ll be speaking with your manager in the morning!”

Me: “The general manager won’t be in until Monday morning, but our assistant general manager will be here at 9:00 Saturday morning.”

Guest: “I’ll wait to talk to the big boss on Monday.”

As an added “bonus,” he called down about thirty minutes later, saying that when he made his reservation, he requested a smoking room, but he didn’t see an ashtray in his room. I told him that all of our rooms were non-smoking, and if he wanted to smoke, he would need to go outside to do so. I got treated to yet another verbal assault, so I just hung up on him.

Thankfully, I didn’t have any more interactions with him for the rest of the night, and hopefully, I won’t for the remainder of his stay.

I work in a hotel. Today while checking in a guest, I asked for an ID and a credit card. While handing me their ID:

Guest: “You can actually check someone in without an ID, you know.”

Me: “We do require a valid photo ID at check-in.”

Guest: “That’s incorrect. Only the government and banks can ask for and require an ID.”

After going back and forth for a few seconds I decided you can’t win arguing with crazy and just stopped engaging while finishing up checking them in.

Also, while I was writing their room number on their key packet, they noticed that I was left-handed and proceeded to tell me the statistics of left-handed people in insane asylums.

We sometimes rent out our upstairs (which has a kitchenette) on Airbnb. We’ve had perfect reviews so far — people have complimented us on how great the place is, how clean it is, and how much they like it. One guest even compared it to a five-star hotel in their review!

On Friday evening, we get in a guest. They check in late at 11:00 pm and compliment us on the place. However, we hear the guest leave and it doesn’t appear they come back for the night for some reason. At 6:00 am on Saturday, we hear pounding on the door upstairs so loudly that the entire house is shaking. My husband peeks out the window close to the stairs leading up to the door and asks the intruder to leave, who identifies himself as a friend of our guest. He goes back and forth many times with the guy, refusing to let him in, and the guy keeps repeating, “Well, what am I going to do?”

Not our problem, buddy. He leaves and I go back to sleep, while my husband cannot sleep.

Later on that day, the guest returns and invites the friend (who was banging on the door) in. They spend the evening being kind of loud and obnoxious, and we text the guest, asking that the friend leave for the night (since the suite was booked by only the guest) and reminding them that they need to be quiet at 11:00 pm. We don’t think the friend ever leaves, and the same noisy routine repeats the following evening.

The morning the guest and friend leave, I go upstairs to see the condition of the suite. To my horror, it reeks of cigarette smoke. Upset, I simply message the guest to inform them of this. The guest then calls a while later, insisting that there’s no way it smells like smoke, that they only smoked outside, and denying over and over that the place could actually smell like smoke.

Thankfully, after airing the suite out (including during a snowstorm, so we have to get the snow out of the suite), the smell disappears completely. I message the guest to update them and thank them for clarifying that they, in fact, did not smoke inside.

Sadly, the guest leaves us a negative review, saying that they wouldn’t recommend staying there and that I wasn’t “nice.” They then give us one-star reviews each for cleanliness and for accuracy. For some reason, even though they initially told us the suite was great, they are so upset about the conversation about the smell that they’ve decided to ding us for things that were actually not an issue.

Oh, and our house rules stated that no smoking was allowed on the premises, but the guest was smoking on the balcony and left ashes everywhere. I also find remnants of a joint they were rolling up in the crevices of the coffee table.

I have no patience left for people who refuse to take accountability for their actions, and the app wouldn’t do anything for us, saying that the ratings and review would stay.

I don’t think we will be hosting anyone else anytime soon.

I work in a hotel. I am checking out a couple after a weekend stay. The husband is reaming off a list of complaints.

Guest: “We need a discount! The AC was too weak, the water pressure was too strong, the view was boring…”

As he’s continuing, I notice a small piece of fabric sticking out of his luggage, caught in the zipper.

Me: “But you liked our lamps so much that you felt compelled to get one yourself?”

Guest: *Stopping mid-rant* “Uh… what?”

Me: “Our custom fabric lampshades. From the looks of your luggage, you liked them very much.”

The guest is flustered, knowing he’s been caught stealing.

Me: “So… provided the room is left in the condition in which you found it, you’re satisfied with paying the standard rate?”

Guest: “I… uh… yes, please.”

The lampshade magically appeared at our help desk a few minutes later.

I work in a hotel. I had a guy check in yesterday afternoon — a very normal, uneventful check-in. This morning, he comes down to the desk in a tizzy about the deposit. He’d tried to check out with the night auditor this morning and was very unhappy to learn that the deposit on his card wouldn’t be refunded instantaneously. What’s more, he insisted I’d told him it would.

Guest: “You stood there and you told me that the deposit would be refunded immediately. So when I check out, you’re going to go up and check my room and give me my money back.”

Me: “That’s not accurate, sir, so I can’t imagine I would have said that. After you check out, housekeeping will check the room. Then, on our end, we will refund the deposit, and then your bank processes the refund.”

For whatever reason, our deposit acts like a charge instead of an authorization.

Guest: “And that happens immediately?”

Me: “I’m not sure how long it will take your bank to process it, sir.”

Guest: “That was my last $50 to live on, so you’re going to give me my money back when I leave.”

Me: “There’s no way for me to do that, sir. I have no control over how long it takes your bank to process refunds.”

Guest: “You told me it would be immediate.”

Me: “I do not recall that, sir, and considering that’s not how refunds work, I can’t imagine I would have said that. But I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”

Guest: “It’s not a misunderstanding! You told me that! That’s my last $50! And you’re going to give it back to me!”

Me: “Yes, sir, assuming everything is good after checkout on our end, we will process the refund. Then, it’s on your bank.”

Guest: “I want it back today.”

Me: “I have no control over that, sir.”

Guest: “This is bulls***. I want to speak to your manager.”

Me: “I’m the manager on duty.”

Guest: “Then I want to talk to the owner.”

Me: “He is on vacation.”

Guest: “How am I getting my money back?”

Me: “After you check out and housekeeping checks the room, we process the refund on our end. Then, it’s up to your bank.”

Guest: “You should have told me that at check-in.”

Me: “I don’t recall our conversation at check-in, sir, so I do apologize for the misunderstanding.”

Guest: “I wouldn’t have stayed here if I’d known the money wouldn’t come right back.”

Me: “Okay.”

Guest: “You misled me.”

Me: “I don’t believe I did.”

He whines some more and demands the deposit back some more, and I repeat myself some more because at this point there is really nothing else to say. After he finally leaves, I turn to my trusty sidekick, Security Camera. I pull up the video from when he checked in to figure out what I might have said that he is trying to twist on me.

Lo and behold, the dude never once asked about when the deposit would be refunded. He asked if the deposit had to be on his card, and I said yes. That was the entirety of our conversation about it. The deposit being back on his card was apparently such a big deal to him, but he made no mention of it to me. And now he’s lying about it.

He is back at the desk an hour later.

Guest: “So, the deposit will be back on my card today?”

Me: “I’m not sure how long it will take your bank to process it, sir.”

Guest: “You told me—”

Me: “No, I didn’t. You see that camera? It records everything I say and do. I told you there’s a $50 deposit on your card, you asked if it has to be on the card, and I said yes. That was the extent of the conversation about the deposit. You didn’t ask about how long it would take to get the deposit back on your card, so I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t know that it was important to you. Usually, people ask when that’s the case.”

He grumbled and then stomped off, defeated.