When You Refuse To Catch The Customer’s Heat

I work as a receptionist in a hotel in a small town on the Italian coast. When booking the stay, we make it clear right away that check-in is not possible before 2:30 pm. Our housekeeping staff is AMAZING, fast, and efficient, but they still need a few hours to clean over seventy rooms!

A family have shown up at 7 AM, demanding that we give them their room early:

Guest: “We have small children who suffer in the heat!”

Me: “Yes, Italy can be very hot in July. Feel free to enjoy the lobby air conditioning while you decide on how to spend your morning. We can hold your luggage if you like, and have it brought up to your room when you check in.”

Guest: “No! We want to get into our rooms now!”

Me: “I’m afraid check-in is at 2:30 PM. We cannot guarantee a check-in before this time.”

Guest: “Go and make the people in our room leave!”

Me: “It is still their room until checkout, and we would never dream of doing such a thing!”

Guest: “We’d better be getting an upgrade for this!”

Me: “Why?”

Guest: “For the inconvenience of making us wait in the heat!”

Me: “As I said, you are very early, and you’re free to rest in our lobby and restaurant area until you figure out how you’d like to spend the day until check-in. Any perceived inconvenience incurred is entirely down to you and your planning.”

Guest: “But I have a baby!”

Me: “Yes, you do. I see that the baby is sleeping; it would probably be best not to raise your voice.”

The guests storm off to the lobby couches and make it clear how inconvenienced they are by having to wait. They do eventually find something to do and leave for the morning but still come back at 1 PM demanding room access and claiming we’d guaranteed them early check-in.

After they checked in, I saw them dragging their baby to the beach under the afternoon sun in heatwave weather.