We Don’t Condone Forgery But This Might Be An Exception

We recently had a guest kicked out of the hotel. A funny note I saw on the report was, “Guest kept walking from the pool to the room with a fuzzy wig and a shiny purple blazer.”

[Guest] checked in alone, but by 7:30 pm, there were seven people that had gone up to the room. A young lady also came to the front desk and asked where the filming in the hotel is. We told her we don’t have filming at the hotel, but then [Guest] came to pick her up. We told him that he does not have a contract with us to film at our hotel, to which he said that they will be disputing all charges due to having a bad experience at our hotel

Later, around 1:00 am, [Guest] tried taking ten people up to the room. We did not allow him to go up, he started cursing at our staff, and then he shoved our security guard. Per the general manager, we locked their room and did not let them go back up. They said they had stuff in there, so we told them to come back in the morning to get it and they must leave immediately.

I arrived in the morning and housekeeping called me, sounding a bit speechless, telling me I needed to see his room.

I went upstairs. The room’s furniture was all moved to corners and sides of the room. The rest of the room was lined with red carpet, which was lined with velvet rope dividers and led to a wall with big red theatre curtains hanging from the ceiling and going all the way down to the floor. On the walls were a bunch of large framed pictures. The pictures featured [Guest] Photoshopped into photos with various celebrities and at celebrity events — horribly Photoshopped, at that. There were around eight shattered champagne glasses and many cigarette butts littered all over the floor, and the room reeked. And there were also just their items and their camera equipment.

Per the general manager, we were to charge a $1,000 cleaning fee and a $500 smoking fee, along with a $500 fee for damages to the room. We posted the charges to the room and charged [Guest]’s card. He eventually returned to the hotel to retrieve his belongings.

Guest: “I need to speak to a manager. I was racially profiled and discriminated against for being Indian. I came back to go to my room, tired, at 1:00 am, and they kicked me out of the hotel. I need to pick up my stuff, but I need you to issue me a full refund for my horrible experience.”

Me: “I’m the manager. You tried taking ten people to the room; the capacity for your room is four people. You were also filming at the hotel, which is against the policy that you signed when you checked in. You then physically assaulted our security guard. Before we can give you your belongings, we just need you to sign this paper accepting these charges.”

Guest: “What the f*** is this? $1,000 cleaning fee? For what? And why am I being charged for smoking? I don’t smoke! And I also didn’t break anything. I’ll be disputing these charges.”

Me: “Sir, you know how you left the room. And there were cigarette butts all over the floor.”

Guest: “You put those cigarette butts there. You’re trying to extort me! You can’t keep my stuff. Give me back my s***!”

Me: “The room is exactly as we found it. You aren’t getting anything back until you sign for these charges.”

Guest: “I have thousands of dollars’ worth of camera equipment in those bags. It’s illegal to not give it back. I will call the police if you don’t give me back my belongings.”

Me: “Go ahead and call the police so that we don’t have to.”

I’m a pretty big dude, so guests like this usually don’t directly insult me. But then, my mid-shift coworker, a small woman, got a word in and told him that he’d left the room a mess and all the furniture had been bunched up in a corner. She has a thick accent but is fluent in English. These are just a few of the things he said to her.

Guest: “Shut the f*** up. Speak English; I can’t even understand you! Jesus f****** Christ!”

Guest: “This is America! Go back to your country if you’re not going to speak English.”

Guest: “Your voice is disgusting. Please go back to your country.”

Guest: “You disgust me. That mole on your chin is nasty. Please don’t even look at me.”

He also tried mocking her accent then told her to shut the f*** up again.

If it had been a PM shift, I would have gone off on him. But it was an AM shift, and this happened in the afternoon, which is when lobby traffic is heavy. I didn’t want guests seeing me cussing someone out. Of course, I did defend her, telling him to stop talking and to not speak to her that way, etc. Then, security came and took him outside to talk to him and calm him down.

Eventually, the police arrived, and he suddenly became the little victim. He told them that we were extorting him, that we planted cigarettes and trashed his room so that we could charge him, and that we were discriminating against him since he was Indian, etc.

They told him to wait outside and asked us our story, which we told them. The cops then went outside and talked with him, but we couldn’t hear what he said. After a few more minutes, [Guest] came back inside.

Guest: “Give me that paper you wanted me to sign.”

We gave him the paper and he literally just scribbled all over it.

Me: “That’s not a signature. That’s a scribble.”

We printed out a new one.

Me: “Sign where it says, ‘Signature’.”

He still scribbled over the entire paper. We told him he was not getting his stuff back until he signed, and he finally did.