You Can’t Bend Time To Your Will… Or The Night Worker

I’m working in a hotel when the front desk phone rings. I am about five minutes into my audit shift. I haven’t even grabbed a cup of coffee. So, I pick up and get the delightful, “Do you have any rooms?” Lucky for them, I do! It’s my last room: a king standard. I do the routine, tell them the rate, and:

Guest: “So, if I come in now, what is my checkout time?”

Me: “Checkout is 11:00 am.”

Guest: “Why?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but why what?”

Guest: “Why is checkout eleven in the morning when I’m coming at eleven at night?”

Me: “That’s just standard checkout policy? I usually offer a noon checkout to later arrivals, but I don’t have any available tonight due to a large group coming tomorrow.”

They hang up. So, I putz around, doing my thing, killing time until something interesting happens. About 12:30, I’m going to lock the main doors as a guest walks through.

Guest: “Hey, I’m checking in.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll take care of you in a couple of seconds here.”

I finish locking the door and head up to the desk.

Me: “What was the name on your booking?”

Guest: “[Guest].”

Me: “Weird. I don’t see a booking for you. Do you have your confirmation number?”

We do this for a few minutes until they’re finally able to find it. Welp, that explains it. It’s for tomorrow. I apologize and let them know their booking is for tomorrow. Before I can finish, they cut me off.

Guest: “I know. Some idiot told me I’d have to check out at eleven if I came in last night, so I booked it for today.”

Me: “Well, that idiot was me. So, here’s what I can do. I can check you in now, but you’ll be charged with two nights. Or I can change your arrival date for today, and you can stay the night and checkout at eleven.”

Guest: “That doesn’t make any sense. You told me if I came last night, I had to leave at eleven. Now it’s the next day and you want to charge me for two days?!”

Me: “Yes. That is because you’re checking in fifteen hours before our check-in time for today. So, I have to charge you for the extra night.”

Guest: “What the f*** ever. Check me in and I’ll deal with your manager in the morning.”

They take a big ol’ wad of cash out.

Me: “We don’t accept cash for room payments on check-in. You have to have a credit or debit card. You can use cash when you check out, though.”

Guest: “Oh, no. You are taking my motherf****** money and giving me my f****** room.”

I ended up having to call the police after twenty minutes of being screamed at. They bailed before the cops showed up, unfortunately. My shift was stupid quiet after that nutball.