The Day You Stop Caring Is The Day They Might Start

Our check-in time is 4:00 pm; we try to get people checked in earlier IF their room is ready but never before 1:00 pm.

An elderly guy who is one of our high rollers — those who spend way too much money in the casino — requested a specific room and made the reservation earlier today after housekeeping had their morning meeting (where they discuss VIP rooms that HAVE to be done for early check-in) and he arrived at noon before I got here for the day. My coworker told him to check back later to see if we could check him in.

I have a line in front of me and I am in the middle of helping a guest by myself when he interrupts my current guest at 2:30 pm.

High Roller: “I just need a key made!”

Me: “You will have to wait in line just like everyone else, sir. That requires more than just handing you a key card.”

I am focused on the job at hand so I don’t see his reaction, but I do notice him go to the back of the line. He gets to me and, you guessed it, his room isn’t ready. He hasn’t checked in or even run his card for deposit. I am wondering why he thought he could just get a key and go.

He goes into a tangent about how the previous guy told him his room would be ready and how his host (the employees who manage high rollers) told him his room would be ready. Blah, blah, blah…

Me: “Sir, neither I nor the hosts can control how fast our housekeepers work—”

High Roller: “I know that—”

Me: “But I can request a push on your room. There is no guarantee that it will be ready so I suggest you come back around 4:00 pm, and by then, it should be ready.”

He left his bag with me and had issues in general about me touching it and wouldn’t even let me put it on the floor. I checked on his room periodically and it was ready at 3:30; he showed up not even five minutes later. After I told him his room was ready it was like he was a totally different person, smiling and laughing. I felt like I was being cat-fished.

I told his host that they need to make a rule that if hosted players don’t treat employees nicely then they get kicked out of the host list — meaning no more free rooms beyond what their rewards give them and no more extra stuff. But of course, they would never do that.

I am surprised at how I treated him. Usually, I let people walk all over me and it gets to me all day. I guess I finally stopped caring.