I work as a receptionist in a hotel in a small seaside town in Tuscany famous for its beaches and thermal baths. A customer books a reservation for all of August, the busiest tourist month of all the season. The hotel accepts small dogs or animals that can stay in a cage: for example, little birds.

Before the confirmation of the booking, we send an email asking if the customer has animals. They write back saying that they have a meerkat with them, but they assure us that it will stay in the cage when they are at the beach.

The manager decides to accept the reservation, even though it isn’t a typical animal, with the clause that the customer has to pay all the reservation period in advance. The idea is that the customer would never accept such a proposal, but the manager is wrong, and the customer pays everything immediately.

I send an email to the customer with the confirmation of the booking, as well as all the information and phone numbers if they want to reserve the deck chair and umbrella at one of the bathhouses near the hotel. I suggest they do so as soon as possible and, after that, I don’t think any more about the strange reservation.

August comes and the couple with the meerkat arrives with a small cage and the animal on a leash like a small dog. This conversation happens after the check-in.

Me: “Have you booked a bathhouse around here as suggested? I can give you the directions there if you need them.”

Customer’s Husband: “No, why?”

Me: “We are in full season; it is very difficult to find a place now.”

Customer: “We read the email, but we thought that you were too dramatic, so we didn’t do it.”

Me: *Still smiling* “Not a problem. There are some free beaches around here. They are a little crowded, but if you don’t mind, they are very nice. Remember only that your pet has to remain inside the cage, closed, when you are out so that it can’t escape from the room or dirty it.”

Customer: “Don’t worry; we will take the meerkat with us to the beach, and we are sure that we will find a place to stay in a bathhouse near the hotel.”

Me: “Are you sure? I don’t think that any bathhouse will accept the meerkat. It is not a dog, and as written in the mail that I sent you, only two bathhouses accept animals.”

Customer: *Starting to look at me as if I’m dumb* “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing! They will not dare to reject us.”

The next afternoon, the customer’s husband arrives at the reception desk really upset.

Customer’s Husband: “This place is impossible! It’s supposed to be a very famous tourist town! They don’t want tourists! We hate it here and we want to leave tomorrow!”

Me: “I’m so sorry. How can help you to change your mind?”

Customer’s Husband: *Even more upset* “We walked all the morning to find a place in a bathhouse, but they were all full or they don’t accept pets! And wherever we went, all the other tourists wanted to take selfies or photos with our meerkat, and all the small kids wanted to pet it, calling it Timon!”

Me: *Trying to remain serious* “I’m so sorry, but I think that seeing a meerkat is something that doesn’t happen every day, and as I told you yesterday and I wrote in the email that I sent you at the moment of the reservation, we are in full season—”

Customer’s Husband: “I don’t care! My wife thinks that everyone is so rude in this place!”

Me: “I’m really sorry. The only thing that I can suggest for you is that your pet remains in your room inside the cage while you enjoy the sea. I can try to find a place at the bathhouse in front of us with a special discount for the inconvenience.”

Customer’s Husband: *Even more upset* “My wife would never put her beloved pet in a cage; how dare you even suggest it?! I will talk to your manager, and we want to leave tomorrow with a full refund!”

He went away, muttering about the rudeness of everyone. I called the manager and told him all about the conversation, and he assured me not to worry and that he had the situation under control.

The next day, I asked the manager about it.

The couple decided to leave, even though the manager refused to give them a refund because they had been well advised by email about the need to reserve a bathhouse before their arrival, and it is not the fault of the hotel if people wanted to take photos of their pet.

While they were discussing that, the customers left the door of their room open and the meerkat was (obviously) not in the cage. The pet went missing and the wife started to scream and cry trying to find the animal. All of the hotel’s staff started to look for the meerkat everywhere, even outside the hotel. My manager instead decided to enter the room, and there the poor meerkat was – terrified by all that noise – simply hiding under the bed.

When the wife saw the manager with her missing pet, she started to hug him and thanked him, calling him her savior and superhero.

After they left, my manager’s new rule became: “No meerkats allowed!” but all the staff started to call him the savior of meerkats!

I work as a hotel receptionist. I usually have fairly polite and peaceful guests. During my afternoon shift, I have just replaced my colleague and I have barely settled down on my chair when a man with his son in tow barrels toward me.

Guest: *In English and sounding a bit agitated* “Excuse me, Mrs. [My Name], do you happen to know where the nearest KFC is?”

Me: *Tilting my head* “KFC? Terribly sorry, sir, but there aren’t any here. You—”

Guest: “Look, I know what you’re going to say, but I really need to know.”

Me: “As I was saying, there are no KFCs in this area, or… anywhere in Tuscany, really.”

Guest: *Getting flustered* “Please, my daughter is autistic. I already promised her I was going to get her KFC for lunch if she behaved. There’s gotta be one around here.”

Me: “Sir, I am not trying to be a snob or push you to a restaurant or anything. There really aren’t any locations here.”

Guest: “Okay, fine. Give me a map and I will figure something out.”

I shrugged and picked up a city map from behind my desk and gave it to him. He scooted off with his daughter excitedly following.

Later that evening, the man came back to my desk and apologized to me for his behaviour, saying that he got lucky that a rotisserie chicken cutlet was good enough for his daughter, but I’m honestly more confused by his lack of forethought about it.

I live in Florence, Italy, and a tourist came up to me once to ask:

Tourist: “Why is every shop selling Pinocchio gadgets?”

That day she learned that Disney didn’t invent this character and that it was formerly a book. She was happy to learn and went along with her day, but to me and my colleagues, it sounded like a really dumb question.

That story always makes me giggle, but I wonder if this woman was really oblivious or the news I gave her was obvious just in Italy.

This story was related to us by our safety officer. Years ago, he was working in a large refinery and they had a safety drill every last day of the month. Everyone knew when the drill was due; coworkers kept reminding each other, “Have your badge/dosimeter/mask with you.” At the sound of the sirens, all quickly donned their gas masks and reached the gathering points in an orderly fashion. The safety service reported a 100% preparedness level.

It was too good to be true.

Together with a few practical-minded colleagues, the safety officer lobbied for having a more realistic test, so one day, the sirens sounded unexpectedly.

It was mayhem all around, but one event took the cake. Two workers were doing a job on an elevated platform and had forgotten their gas masks at ground level. One of the two, in the safety officer’s own words, “crapped himself and made his peace.” The other, less fatalistically, jumped from the platform in an attempt to reach the gas mask and broke both legs.

The refinery management, upon receiving the preparedness level numbers, took action. Their first decision, effective immediately, was to return to preplanned end-of-the-month drills with no exception.

I already submitted a few stories about my grandmother, such as “War Will Leave You Cold” and “Unless You’re Dying, It’s Not Worth My Time“, but there are plenty of positive things to say about her.

She went to work as a servant girl at the age of fourteen, and even though her mistress was all right, she also swore that no child of hers would ever grow up to be “staff”. That was a tough proposition for a girl from a family of peasants, who had dropped out of school due to the Great War breaking out (the family house being a few miles away from the frontline).

However, fast forward thirty years, my grandmother is married to a shipyard worker and their firstborn daughter has just completed her primary studies. They discuss with the teachers about enrolling her into intermediate school (a type of school giving access to higher studies), at a time when all but the town’s elite send their children to the technical school.

A few days later, my grandmother receives a visit from the town’s parson. After a few social niceties, the chat focuses on the girl’s studies, and this happens, word for word.

Parson: “Your girl is not really attending intermediate school, is she?”

Grandmother: “Why wouldn’t she?”

Parson: *Huffing* “Because, if the children of the peasants start going to school, who will work as staff anymore?”

We don’t know what my grandmother replied, but the parson left much faster than he’d arrived. The girl — my aunt — went to intermediate school and ended up managing a post office.

Related:
War Will Leave You Cold
Unless You’re Dying, It’s Not Worth My Time