When Being Owned By The Owners Is A Self-Own

I come into the hotel where I work on the night shift before graduation weekend in a college town.

Manager: *Casually.* “There are no rooms left to sell, so it should be a chill night.”

I log in and notice there are several reservations under the hotel owners’ names… for tonight.

Me: “About these bookings…”

Manager: “Oh, yeah. If they’re not here yet, they probably won’t be coming until tomorrow, so it’s fine.”

Wrong. They showed up a half hour after my manager left, absolutely livid that they’d reserved rooms in their own hotel well in advance to watch their own son graduate college, with their whole extended family coming with them to stay in the family hotel… with ZERO rooms left for them.

Owner: “Why has this happened!?”

Me: “My manager always tries to sell every room.”

Owner: “But our rooms were already reserved!”

I spent the whole night working on out-of-order rooms to get their family inside one group at a time. As I am doing this, the owner’s wife comes over, looking sympathetic.

Owner’s Wife: “He shouldn’t give you any more grief tonight. I’ve spoken to him.”

Me: “I appreciate that, and again, I’m sorry this happened.”

Owner’s Wife: “Nothing for you to apologize for, dear. My husband and all the other owners have told all the managers to do this to other people in the past to make more money. Now they’re just p***ed it’s happened to them, and even more p***ed that they can’t take it out on you or anyone else because this is all their own doing.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. 

After that weekend, a new directive came down from on high: no more selling already-booked rooms, even if the booking is a late-night no-show.