Their Understanding Of The Hotel Industry Has Checked Out

I am expecting some guests to arrive late at night. I receive a call.

Me: “Hello, this is [Inn]. How can I help you?”

Client: “This is [Client]. I would like to tell you that we will arrive at 2:00 am. Is that a problem?”

Me: “Not at all. As long as we have an approximate hour of your check-in, we can ensure that there always will be someone at the reception desk to receive you.”

We’re a small, family-owned inn. We don’t have twenty-four-hour reception duty, but we live on the property, so if a guest is arriving late, one of us can man the reception desk past midnight.

Client: “Also, we would like to have a rebate for the first-day rate.”

Me: “Sorry?”

Client: “We booked for today until the day after tomorrow, but we will not get there today, so we will not be paying today’s fee, right?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but hotel daily rates don’t work like that.”

Client: “But if we won’t be using the hotel today, we shouldn’t be paying for it!”

Me: “You do have a reservation. It means that you paid for a room to be reserved for your use from today to tomorrow. If you cancel today’s fee, the room becomes vacant, and I can sell it to another guest, and when you get here tomorrow at 2:00 am, there will be someone sleeping there, until checkout, which is at midday.”

Client: “Oh… all right, then…”