Their Attitude Is A Real Slap In The Face
CONTENT WARNING: Assault
I’m the general manager of a busy extended-stay hotel. On July 1, a couple checked into the hotel for thirty-one days with a dog. They filled out pet paperwork and paid pet fees with no mention of a service animal.
On July 3, I was walking the fourth floor and saw the woman come out of her room, presumably leaving the dog alone in the room; the dog immediately began scratching on the main door incessantly, as well as barking, the entire time I was on the floor. At my property, if a dog is left alone in the room, it is required to be crated at all times while alone.
The guests received a notice that evening reminding them of the rules they’d agreed to at check-in regarding the crate and the incessant barking. It let them know that if any damages occurred due to the dog scratching the door, they’d be responsible. It was a very professional note; I use AI for my notices and proofread everything before handing out.
The next day, July 4, the woman came to the desk and accused the staff of stalking and harassing her and her service dog.
On July 8, another staff member and three guests reported that the woman let the dog off the leash while outside. The dog was running wild and went after two other dogs on site.
On July 9, the guests received another notice regarding the rules, reminding them that the dog must remain on a leash at all times when outside the room, and they must be in control of the dog. That evening, the female guest once again came to the evening staff and went off, accusing us of stalking and harassing them.
Woman: “I’m a veteran, and this is my service dog! You are discriminating against me and my service dog!”
She left her phone number for me to call the next day; I attempted to, but there was no answer.
On the morning of July 11, the woman came down to the desk to speak to me. She instantly had an attitude.
Woman: “You know who I am, so you’d better not play f****** stupid with me.”
The only time I’d seen this woman previously was in passing on the third when I’d seen the back of her leaving her room when her dog was barking and scratching. I did not know who she was, nor did I know what room she was in. We are a 121-room property, and I do not have every guest memorized.
She kept on with the attitude, going off about us stalking her, harassing her, and discriminating against her as a veteran and her service animal. I pulled up the video footage of her check-in and showed her that neither she nor her partner made any mention of a service animal at that time. I attempted to ask her the two questions we are allowed to ask about service animals, but she was too busy screaming and being an Entitled jerk to listen.
Me: “Ma’am, I am done with your poor treatment of the staff, and you have broken too many rules. I am now asking you to leave.”
That just resulted in more screaming, so I went to the back to call the non-emergency police number for assistance.
When I came out of the back of the office, her male partner was now standing there screaming. He was going off about discrimination against a veteran with a service animal. He hopped up on the ledge of the window at the office and started pointing his finger in my face while screaming. I asked him repeatedly to get down because I didn’t feel safe, and he refused to move.
By then, several other guests were in line behind him.
Me: “Sir, can you please move out of the way so I can help these other guests?”
Man: *Screaming* “I’m not moving until the police come!” *To the other guests* “You need to leave! She’s not going to help you!”
We have a big, wooden window that we can pull down and lock to close the desk. With him still sitting on the desk, I continued to ask him repeatedly to get down because I didn’t feel safe. He refused to move, and I got the window halfway down. At that moment, he reached across the desk, slapped me clear across the face, and grabbed me by my collar. I ripped myself away, not saying a word, and he hopped down as I closed the window the rest of the way.
We have a small plastic sign that instructs guests to use the phone in the lobby to call us if the office is closed, and apparently, that hit him as I was closing the window. He immediately screamed:
Man: “That’s assault! B****, you’re going to jail! You’re going to jail!”
Literally two seconds after he slapped me in the face.
During all of this, the woman was recording me. We had three house cameras that had also captured the entire thing.
The police showed up a few minutes later and talked to the two guests first, and then they spoke to me. I showed them the camera footage and agreed to press charges, and the man was arrested.
The woman stated that she didn’t have a vehicle there and had to go get her truck before she could gather their things; she’d be back at noon to do so.
One o’clock came around, and another staff member spotted both of the guests’ vehicles in the back. (My guests are required to have parking passes, so we knew they were their vehicles.) We assumed the woman had snuck back in to get their things, but she wasn’t supposed to be back without a police escort. Another employee went to check the room; she wasn’t up there, and all of their things were there. We checked the cameras, and both of their vehicles had been there all morning. So, she lied to the police about getting their vehicle.
I called my boss, and he told us to go ahead and bag and tag the guests’ things so the woman would have no reason to come back into the building when she returned. He also instructed me to take a video of myself entering the room for the first time; I did, as well as taking photos. Another staff member bagged and tagged everything.
About thirty minutes later, both the man and the woman showed back up to collect their things with the police. We brought their belongings down, and they immediately claimed they were missing a gun. Guns are not allowed inside the building, and there are signs everywhere stating this. They found the gun in their things. They then claimed they were missing $1,000 cash and a GoPro camera. Fortunately for us, I took close-up photos of where they claimed the cash and camera were, and they weren’t there the first time we entered the room.
Fast forward to the following Monday, July 15. We started getting incessant calls to the property, asking for me by first and last name. Someone calling finally mentioned that they were calling regarding the video posted on TikTok. I found the video, and while I was doing nothing wrong in it, the captions explained things very differently than they actually happened.
Unfortunately, I am unable to reply or post publicly as part of my job. The calls to the property actually began Saturday, but they were at their height Monday. The calls stopped after a week or two, but the video is still up. We have continued to get bad Google reviews (because you don’t have to be a verified guest to review on Google), but I’ve managed to get a lot of them taken down. Others I have simply responded, “You shouldn’t believe everything you see on TikTok.”
My company didn’t and hasn’t offered me any support during this, but I do still have my job. They are of the thought that it will just blow over eventually. But I’m upset that they never took any steps to have the video taken down.
