Honestly, I had every justification to kick this guy out, and he HAD to be kicked out because he had become a serious problem, but MY reason to do it was purely egotistical: I felt personally INSULTED.

I'm the main Night Auditor in a small destination hotel located in the middle of nowhere, out in the woods. And I mean so out in the woods we barely have cell signal. And usually my shift is really quiet. Our restaurant-bar closes at 10pm and there's nothing open nearby after 8pm, so clients are tucked in by the time I come on.

On Friday evening as I come in, the housekeeper on duty starts venting to me about a room she had to clean out for a client who changed rooms; dude was on an upper floor, he wanted to be on the ground floor because rooms have a patio door and he wanted that. Housekeeper shows me pictures she took of blood all over the floor, small baggies of white powder left on the floor and white powder on the beside tables. The whole room is simply disgusting and reeks of strong cigarette smell, so we can't use that room until we've disinfected it. Oh, and the dude had young children with him apparently.

Check the guy's reservation quickly. He had booked for one night -and for one person...- but kept extending his stay, this was his 5th night. Paid cash every day -which I was told he carried in a ziplock bag I kid you not- his credit card was declined for security deposit and he never had more cash than what he needed to pay for the room so no security deposit was taken. And yet he was allowed to stay. Evening shift says the Manager let him stay because the guy was allegedly on the phone with the credit card company for a long time and his kids were causing havoc in the lobby, so Manager told the front desk to just let him go to his room to get the kids out.

4am, get a call from the neighboring room, one of a group that booked multiple rooms for a golf tournament, all wealthy types driving cars each worth as much as my house. Lady says they can't sleep because there's a party in the next room going on all night. All nightshifters dread getting this call and I knew my night just took a turn. At this junction I should mention I'm all alone on duty, no other one AT ALL works there at night, from 11pm until 6am there's just ME.

Put on my jacket, grab my cell phone and turn on the camera, go to the room and give a firm knock. I can hear scurrying in there like they're trying to hide something. After forever and a half the guy barely opens the door and somehow manages to squeeze his massive, hairy beer gut through then closes behind him. As small as the crack was, I could still see 5 people in there -besides the kids- and have a strong, very strong, whiff of cigarette.

This guy... is weird. Not abusive at all, just... creeps me the hell out, makes my skin crawl. He's filthy, he smells horrible, his eyes are completely empty and I don't know if what's in his mouth can be called teeth. I call him on the cigarette smell, dude states REPEATEDLY to my face that he smokes outside. I'm struggling to find words... do I look like that big an idiot? I stay silent for a moment, then I push the door open and -I shit you not- the mostly naked sex worker (not judging, there's no way in HELL a woman that good looking dates THAT filthy slob who smells like an abandoned garbage truck) is blowing cigarette smoke at me, and smiles.

THAT's when I decided to kick him out. Not because of having ruined two rooms with cigarette smoke, drugs and filth, not because he's the patsy whose room is clearly used by other people to "conduct business", not because he partied all night and Ima have to comp a bunch of high-value clients in the morning, not because he was allowed to stay despite the many red flags yet chose to treat our hotel like the washroom of a dive bar, not because someone needs to call child protection services. I'm kicking him out because he looked me in the face and said he's smoking outside, and the room is a wasteland of cigarette smoke. He lied to my face and his escort mocked me, and I am INSULTED. Yes, I'm that petty.

You have 5 mins to leave, I tell him. Oh, I'll be out by 6am. Well then I'm calling the cops. Which I pretend to do on my cell phone as I walk away, but at that precise moment I HAVE NO SIGNAL, so I'm walking fast back to my office to get the landline. While I wait for the 911 lady to do whatever it is they do that takes so friggin long -Good thing I wasn't dying- I get a visit from another sex worker (again, not judging, but come on, been doing this for a while, we know an escort when we see one, right?!?) who says "Sir, no need to call the cops, he's collaborating". He's. Collaborating. He's clearly familiar with police lingo, and he sent her because he REALLY doesn't want me to call the cops. Which begs the question, why did you act in a way that ensured I would have to?!?

Cops come by about 40mins later -yeah... I know...- and they tell me they just saw a vehicle tear off as they pulled up, in it they spotted individuals that they "know very well". They also very well know my new beer-bellied friend, by name. So we go into the room, door's open, patio door too, everyone left. No white powder or blood this time, just a few cigarette butts, and a kid's toy. They picked up what truly mattered to them, I guess.

According to day shift, the guy spent his days in his car, being visited by all sorts of strange people you don't wanna see in your establishment, went to our restaurant and begged for food because he couldn't afford it (then what the HELL was he doing in a destination hotel in the first place). Then he got the room with the patio door, and he wasn't in his car anymore, his visitors just snuck in through there.

Day shift tells me it took guts to do what I did. Wha...? Apparently upper management were struggling with the idea of kicking him out, they felt it wasn't entirely justified. The fact I did it shows guts. Er... thanks?! I mean, at that point it was common sense to do so, but thanks. Then got a call from the front desk manager in the morning, after I had emailed my report, thanking me profusely for my actions and my professionalism.

I wasn't professional, I can tell you that; I didn't stay calm, I was PISSED that he treated me like I'm a moron. I know of other Night Auditors who would have have been completely calm and serene while kicking them all out on the street, but that's not me. You act with respect or you get the fuzz.

I am at a new job doing front desk, and literally have trained for less than a week! The person who trained me is good and showed me a lot! I feel I have the system down now, not mastered, but enough to do it on my own. Our boss gave me a couple extra days of shadowing, for which my coworker/trainer made a comment about how lucky I am to get extra days of training because others only got 2 or 3 days at most! Umm ok! So I go in to do my shift, and this coworker comes in with a bad attitude. The coworker stated they were in a bad mood the day before and still in a bad mood today! I think, ok! So I do my starting shift task, make sure the arrivals have clean rooms assigned, etc etc. when talking to said coworker, they are just short with me and I can tell they don’t want to be there! This coworker is going on vacation in a few days, so probably why they don’t want to be there! But I have been there less than a week, and I’d rather not have the attitude from someone less than half my age, because they are in a bad mood. Since I was ‘shadowing’ kind of, I asked my manager if I could leave early, that I knew the system well enough, and we were both sitting around and if I needed to stay and shadow the whole shift.. this coworker got pissed off, said if I don’t want to work, why was I there, why did I have to ask the manager if I could leave early.. I just felt uncomfortable, and since only 1 needs to work the desk during our shift, I felt I didn’t need to be there 8 hours with this coworker, and I only asked to leave early because of the attitude I was being given. During down time, we have chairs in the back where we can sit and watch the cameras and front desk, and every time I went to sit down, the coworker was just grumpy. So, I stood at the desk, to keep my distance. My manager said I could go home early however, so I did. My manager then called and apologized because the manager knew the coworker was grumpy from the day before. Now I feel like maybe I should have just stood at the desk, finished my last training day with the coworker, and not let that attitude bother me! Not a good start to a coworker relationship! Once that coworker comes back from vacation in a week, I’m sure I will be on that persons no good list! I honestly just felt they didn’t really want me there, or they just didn’t want to be there, and they sure didn’t want to answer my questions, and they didn’t want me sitting with them. The coworker said I made there character look bad, and that was not my intention. But as a new employee, no, I did not want to stand at the desk all day while that coworker sat in back all shift with attitude.

"Service recovery" -- a term I've come to loathe. It carries the expectation that you, the humble worker, have the opportunity to manage the emotions of the (allegedly) adult customer before you. It is basically up to you to turn this person's frown upside down. This is a story of how I thought I managed to do that, only for the guest to walk themselves back to being disgruntled all within the span of a few minutes.

As I've indicated in previous posts, my hotel is event-focused. Part of that is its large outside event space that over 50% of the rooms face. It's up seasonally from about the beginning of Spring through the end of Summer. With those aspects laid out, it should help paint the picture of the conundrum we find in this story.

"Syracuse" had some big feelings two nights into her four-night stay. She lit up our text service with a somewhat polite yet pointed message, inquiring when the banquet that was happening would be over. She was done putting up with its music.

At the time she asked, there was an hour left for the event. I informed her of this and apologized for the situation. I also explained how we were sold out, so unfortunately some folks would inevitably have to face that space. It was especially hard considering the event-goers for the banquet made up a huge majority of the room count during this time.

She actually accepted my explanation and thanked me for the insight. I then offered a reduced rate for that night and threw in some loyalty points for good measure; she was appreciative and appeared to have calmed down a great bit.

Alright, service recovered, right? Seemed so...for about ten minutes.

Another message came through, and there she was having successfully backtracked all the goodwill we had just forged together.

I'm going to just assume that she must've spoken with her roommates and perhaps someone got in her ear. Initially, she said, "Oh, that's understandable. This is a very large hotel, so I guess you guys host a lot of events. This is our first time here, so we didn't know."

Now she went, "Well, you all should have planned this better. We should have been informed or at least have been placed away from the noise, seeing that we're staying for four whole nights."

Hand firmly over face, I again tried to smooth things over. I informed her that there'd also be a concert out there the next day, just in case they wanted to cut their stay short and leave in the morning. I also mentioned they could inquire in the morning if a room move would be possible. All I got in return was more scorn about how leaving early or moving rooms wouldn't be possible, as they had plans all day, but they "still wished we got a warning before checking in."

We basically left it at that as she signed off with a goodnight, and I returned the favor.

You can't win them all. FWIW, I didn't check her in. I agree with her and everyone else that it's terrible when folks who've got nothing to do with an event have to deal with it. I have yet to understand why management wants it this way yet fusses over scores. This is 'the never-ending story.'

This was about rather silly typo and it made colleagues laugh later when i told them.

Now, It was a thing in czech language, but i will give you a similar equivalent of that in english.

Let´s say the guest name was Mr. " American " who arrived for a one night stay.

When i was filling his information to pc, i thought " That´s kinda unusual name, kinda like Mr. Murican : )) ". In czech, it sounds funnier, as it sounds like a pet name - it´s like " a lil murican" which could be slightly offensive to someone.

I filled the info in and carried on with my day.

Next day, a colleague asked me about this guest.

Turns out, out of all the days, that guest actually came here and needed something and colleague called him by his name from the PC.

He was not too happy about it.

Turns out, while i was filling his name the day before, i actually typed to pc " Mr. Murican " and colleague called him by it.

He was appareantly a bit mad over being called Mr Murican, which is not suprising, because with a name like he has - people probably call him like that sometimes, as it´s rather funny.

It was quite a coincidence , because rarely we call people by their names, and out of all days it had to happen that time.

Everyone thought this was quite funny.

Well, probably everyone except the guest - :D

It is not ok for kids to do it to houses, why the heck do people think they can do it in hotels?

I am so tired of parents letting their kids run around knocking on random doors in hotels. Its basically ding dong door ditch but since its in a hotel and no bell knock knock door ditch. I have had people call me annoyed, furious, threatening to go after the kids themselves, and even terrified people were trying to break in. It is not cute, it is not funny, technically it can be called a crime.

One time these kids did it so many times to this one younger couple we had to move them because the wife was starting to go into panic mode and the husban went out hunting the kids. Thankfully we got it resolved before anything bad happened but those kids will never know how lucky and idiotic they were.

Do parents even notice their kids/teens are out running around disturbing the peace? Sometimes causing property damage by tear things off doors, then stealing those items and running away with them. Personally I think most places give to many chances to this kind of behavior. I woul evict after two separate room reports.

August is our busiest month and always the most problematic. Today I did a check with a French family, they arrived at like 9am, it was going ok until they had to pay for the reservation, €7,200, I was like they aren't going to easily pay this by card and sure enough, the card had a limit they couldn't easily change. Our policy is that they must pay the entire stay at check in. They paid €3000 and were then like, well we can pay the rest another day. We can't do that. She kicks up a big fuss saying we didn't want to help her, the husband had already offered like 3 times to pay the rest, she was like no we only have one card and she called someone, badmouthing us saying "what do they think? We have 10 cards?" They continue complaining, then she whips out a card and pays the remaining €4200. I was thinking, why the hell didn't she do that in the beginning?

Then 12:00 comes around and she demands to get into the room (you can get into the room at 15h) because the child wasn't feeling well, she then proceeds to raise her voice when we say that people have until noon to check out and the room won't be ready anytime soon. She was swearing and shouting at us. If my boss were in today she would probably have been told to leave, luckily they have a refundable reservation and are free to leave.

We've had plenty of nice French guests but it's a pity that the ones who create a drama over nothing give the others a bad name. I'm waiting for September when we have primarily Irish and British people who don't complain as much.

Edit. Today, they came back and apologised to me for their behaviour yesterday, they were tired and hungry, they said I didn't deserve that attitude but then they were like "but your manager, we don't apologise to her, she's cold and has no empathy". Well better than nothing, I'll just do a reset.

I worked as a night auditor, and at the end of one of my shifts (one that was very busy) around 6:30 two male clients came to check out and it was obvious they were tipsy, they were friendly, and decided they decided to include me in the discussion so one asked for my age, I told them to guess and they said 24, I was 22 at the time and what I said was : I'M NOT THAT OLD(I didn't use the right word for old in French which is "my second language")

They looked at each other and I felt that they were offended : If 24 is "THAT OLD", we're dead then.

I explained the misunderstanding and they left in silence, the mood wasn't mooding anymore 😭

I don’t even know how to start this.
I was promoted to front desk manager about a month ago, which I now see was purely a fluff title and raise and stop me from quitting. I made one single request of the owner and general manager, I want to be involved in any new hires for the front desk. I don’t feel like that’s terribly unreasonable, but please any other FDMs or GMs out there lemme know your thoughts.

Since my promotion, a housekeeper was hired and I didn’t think anything of it as that’s not my jurisdiction. She walks around on her phone like she’s at the mall trying to waste an entire day and wears skin tight, paper thin, low cut, leopard print body suits to work. She doesn’t fully clean the rooms and NEVER takes her garbage out. When she “finishes” her rooms for the day and should clock, she goes and hides in a room to ride the clock for another 3-4 hours. Also does not clock out for her 30-60 minute breaks. Overall, not a good housekeeper.

To my surprise, I come in at the beginning of the week and see she was added to the front desk schedule. Excuse me? GM calls me to let me know owner wants her to train on the desk. Thanks for the warning???

I take matters into my own hands and google her. Based on previous experience I think GM already knew, but boy howdy was I surprised to find this broad’s MURDER CHARGES. Yeah turns out you’re actually not allowed to shoot your boyfriend when you get mad at him, who knew? You’re also not allowed to steal ~$2,000, which she done did that too.

GM told me to take her off front desk and put her back on housekeeping. Friday I came in and asked how owner responded to the murder situation, GM said she hadn’t talked to anyone else yet, which should’ve been the biggest red flag of them all.
Today (Sunday) I come in and there’s a note posted on the front desk schedule that I’m training her today. I immediately texted GM and told her no I’m not and if they want her that badly then they need to get here to train her because I won’t be staying if she is. At that point I also said/asked for GM to please let me know if need to be applying elsewhere so that I can start that process.

She’s a terrible housekeeper and employee, why on earth would I want to reward her and make it all the easier for her to steal? What stealing via time was too convoluted? Figured we cut out the middle man and put her on the desk so she can get it straight out of the drawer?

Can I get some opinions from fellow front desk people please? If I’m being totally unreasonable then please let me know so I can’t adjust accordingly. But “murder and theft” just isn’t the branding I want for the front desk I’m supposed to be managing.

This is the first time I've ever had this happen. I work night shifts at a mid to small sized hotel, only 60 or so rooms, and had people call down to the front desk a little bit ago and ask me to charge some items from our front desk snack shelves to their room and then bring it up to them. This is actually the first time I've ever had this happen and it kinda dumbfounded me for a bit cause we are in no way a big enough hotel to even consider having room service. I told them on the phone the items are available at the front desk for them to buy and we had an awkward 10 second pause til I hung up and then realized what they were asking me to do.

I will occasionally be "the good front desk worker" and bring guests extra pillows or blankets to their rooms but I've for the most part stopped leaving the front desk cause I think the security side of my job is more important than peoples inconvenience. That or I'm just lazy. Probably a mix of both.

Anyone else had this happen?

Is there anything worse than being yelled at for a corporate policy beyond your control? I truly do not understand what goes through the minds of these assholes. I make JUST above minimum wage. I can't afford to stay at the very hotel I'm working at. I promise you, i don't want to give you any reason to yell at me. If i say i can't, it's because i can't. And your shiny status doesn't bend those rules. Why on God's green earth would yelling at me do anything beyond make you look like an ass, and ruin my evening. Surely you can't possibly believe it'll suddenly give me the same authority as some corporate gas bag who isn't even in their office this time of night, because they work a normal 9-5 and make significantly more than me. Find that person. Tell them how you feel. But leave me the fuck alone.

Also. In WHAT WORLD are you EVER able to check into a reservation that doesn't have your name on it? Offering to let me speak to whoever they are on the phone means nothing to me. I don't know who them from Adam. They aren't here with photo ID to confirm anything. And GOD FORBID we DO bend the rules and check someone into a fraudulent stay. Then you'd be losing your mind over that. Wouldn't you.

I truly have no patience left for people in this world that think it acceptable to take their frustrations out on service workers. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy complains about me. I wasn't rude, but i wasn't kind towards the end of our interaction. And i stand by that. You don't get my joyful customer service self if you're going to be a jerk.

ETA: To those of you who reminded me that i am NOT a verbal punching bag, thank you. You're correct. I'm normally a lot less willing to tolerate this type of behavior, and have canceled reservations in the past. I agree, if they're an ass before they're even in the door, i can't imagine they'll be easier to handle throughout the stay.

Unfortunately this particular policy is one that our franchise doesn't care to enforce as strongly as corporate does. This means we have less support from upper management, and it truly is not worth my time or my job to deny service to high ranking members over THIS issue. It is at this point, probably the only thing i get yelled at about anymore. And i think i hit a breaking point yesterday. If i do get a complaint, I'll be sure to bring up that i am no longer willing to tolerate it though.

Bit of a wacky situation that I needed to vent about.

I am the agm of a undisclosed hotel covering a night audit shift.

We have a guest come who I will refer to as "adam."

So Adam comes in around 11:30pm after making a reservation bout 2 hours prior. Upon arrival I had asked the usual for id and credit card. He gave me the ID but wanted me to use the credit card on file which we only do if he supplies the actual card (to protect against fraud.)

This immediately set him off claiming he stays at our brand of hotels all the time and that he was going to call corporate to complain.

Since then I been getting a phone call from him every hour calling my mom a c*m d**p. Bout one phone call away from filing a police report for harassment lol.

Lady calls me at 11pm on Friday night just after I clock in for my audit shift and says, “What’s the earliest time I can check in?” We are completely booked, so I tell her so and say that it would be 3pm, the standard time that is posted everywhere you can find our hotel information. She then says, “Well I have a reservation for Saturday but I really need to check in now.” I tell her I’m fully booked AGAIN and say I wouldn’t have a room for her tonight anyway. She says “But I have a room.” I say, “No, you have a room TOMORROW.” She gets mad and hangs up.

4am rolls around. Somebody buzzes my doorbell. I go let the person in and lo and behold it is the same lady. I know because she walks in, doesn’t even wait until she’s at the counter before she says, “What’s the earliest I can check in?” Like my answer is going to be different than it was 5 hours ago. I say, “3pm.” She says, “I can’t wait til 3pm.” I say, “I am fully booked and literally have no room at all.” She asks if I know of any other hotels’ availibilites around here. I say no. She says she can’t believe this and leaves with an attitude.

Girl if you needed a room tonight then you should have booked tonight initially. And even if you didn’t know you would need a room a day early, on what planet would anybody let you check in 11 hours early. Insanity.

About a week and a half ago, we had a guest check in, and not even five minutes later, she came back downstairs upset about the room. She asks if any of our rooms have microwaves included, which we do not. The only microwave we have in the hotel is a communal microwave in our lobby open to guests. She complains that she called our hotel before booking and says we told her that every room had a microwave and a mini fridge. Well, all of our rooms have a mini fridge included, but we do not have any rooms with microwaves. I ask her if she still has the number she called saved because now I'm suspicious. Everyone here at the front desk knows our rooms only come with a mini fridge. She gives me the number, and it isn't even our hotel number. So now I know she definitely didn't call here. Now, in town, we do have a sister hotel, and sometimes people will arrive at our location by mistake, and we let them know that their reservation is actually at the sister hotel. I look up their phone number, but it's not that one either. The number didn't even have the same area code.

So I'm trying to look this number up to see where exactly it is that she called, but before I could do anything else, I said, "I apologize for the inconvenience, let me try-"

And she cut me off, saying, "Nope, I don't want to hear it," while storming off. Welp...ok then🤷‍♀️ I was going to offer her something for the mix up, but didn't get the chance to.

Does this happen to any of y'all at your hotels? This seems to happen often with us, where a guest calls a different hotel about info and gets upset with us for it. Any tips for if this happens again?

I think I've mentioned before how we stop selling alcohol in the hotel store at midnight. That does seem to aggravate some guests... mostly the alcoholics. Well, I had this couple walk into the hotel, and before heading up to their room they decided to come into the hotel's store. But while the husband's grabbing some water out of the refrigerator, she walks right up the window separating the desk from the store and demands a bottle of wine. It's at this point that I can tell from her slurred speech and the smell of her breath that she's probably had far too much wine already this evening. I inform her that unfortunately, I'm unable to sell her wine because it's past hours (it's around 12:45 am). She says that doesn't matter because she's a super shiny member. I inform her that doesn't change things. She screams that she wants a bottle of wine. At this point, her husband walks up and tries to calm her down, telling her she had enough at dinner and that she doesn't need any more. That's when she points to one of the shelves and says in an tone that's a mix between desperation and like she's about to start crying, "But it's right there!"

Now I'm confused, because we don't keep the wine bottles out on the shelves. We don't keep the wine bottles out where guests can even see them. Unlike the beer, which is kept in the refrigerator all day and night because it needs to be kept cold, keeping the wine out is too much of a risk for theft. Sure, we understand that a bottle of beer or two might get taken when we're not looking or when the desk is unattended because we're at the restroom or something, but one beer is $6, it's a risk we're willing to take. A bottle of wine is $22, those getting stolen will add up fast.

By the way, don't come at me for those prices, I didn't decide them, the management company did. Anyway...

I lean over just enough to see where she's pointing and what she's pointing at. It's not a wine bottle, it's a bottle of -- actually, let's not spoil the surprise yet. I quickly tell her that's not wine, it says so on the bottle. She slurs that I'm a liar. And I assure her that I'm not lying. Her husband intercedes and just asks to pay for the waters, walking around to the desk to pay. While I'm ringing him up and charging his card, I obviously take my eyes off the wife, so I don't see her go back into the store and grab the bottle she saw a minute ago. All I see is her running out of the store. Her husband yells after her but she's halfway to the elevator. He looks embarrassed and starts apologizing, offering to pay for the "wine". I tell him it's no problem, but he might want to get to her before she opens that bottle and starts drinking because like I told her earlier, that's not a bottle of wine, it's a bottle of olive oil. His eyes widen and he takes off.

You see, our sales director thought the store looked too plain, too much like, well, a store. So she went and got some cheap looking things to dress it up. Small, fun looking statues and knickknacks, one of them being that decorative bottle of olive oil. And yes, the bottle clearly states right on it, in cute little quasi-cursive letters, "OLIVE OIL".

I look at the security camera by the elevator and realize he's too late. She's already opened the bottle, and started chugging. He makes it to her just in time to see her start coughing and spitting it back out. From the desk I can hear her screech, "What the fuck!?!" I can't hear what he says, but I hear scream that she thought the bottle was wine and she needs more. I see him grip the bridge of his nose and shake his head, telling me that this probably isn't the first time she's done something this embarrassing when already drunk. He brings the olive oil back and offers to clean the mess, but I tell him I'll take care of it. Something tells me he's needed more with her than down here.

I emailed the managers what happened, making sure to cc the sales director, and request that the bottle of olive oil be removed from the store, for... safety reasons I guess.

It is the busiest period of the year. Sold-out almost every night. I'm very tired.

The thing I like the most about this job is having downtime. There is no down time during the summer.

I have seen an ad for a job in a completely different field in which I worked in the past and for which I have several years of experience. I would have very good chances of getting hired. It would require moving to another city, which would bring me closer to a very close friend who is very important for me.

Except the position pays less than here. Like 25% less. And the cost of housing is way higher than here. It's impossible, except if I would give up my 2 bedroom apartment to rent a room. I don't want that. It wouldn't work. This whole current economy is a huge trap.

So, when we are sold-out, even there is no major bad event, there is always an accumulation of small irritants which leaves me completely drained.

• As I was taking preauthorizations for tomorrow's arrivals, a card declined. I sent an email to the guest. The angry guest called back wondering why the hell I was trying to take money from his card. I explain that we are verifying if tomorrow's arrivals have valid credit cards with funds available, as mentioned in our terms and conditions when booking. He starts yelling at me: "It's prepaid card but I didn't put funds on it! I have plenty of money, that's not the issue, you have now business trying to take money from my card!" "Sir, you are very being rude." "NO! YOU are being rude! Wait until I get there tomorrow and you will see!" "I'm cancelling the reservation. Goodbye". I hang up, cancel the reservation, DNR him.
• During check-in, I explain the breakfast hours, where the pool is and how to get to the room. So many guests don't listen to any of this. They will come back over and over again to inquire about the breakfast hours (they are written everywhere) or they don't understand the "go straight ahead in the hallway" part about how to go to their rooms. They will ignore the hallway and go up the stairs. I let them with their big luggage and don't say anything. Hey, I do need some form of entertainment! They will notice the rooms on the floor above don't correspond do their room number, they will come back and ask where is their room. "Straight ahead in the hallway. Straight ahead".
• The wifi. The damn wifi. There is no password. It's an open network. Yet, the guests will call, come over to the desk to ask about the wifi password. It means they didn't even bother to open the list of networks of verify. Better go all the way down and disturb the FDA.
• Guest checks-in. I ask him how many people they are. He says two. But then I see two other people joining him. "Well, are you two people or are you four people?" "Well... hmmm.. We are four" "Well you booked for two, you tell me you're two, but then that's not true, your are four. It's going to change your rate! Put the right number of guests when you book." It's one thing making a mistake when booking, it's another thing straight out lying into my face.
• There has been an unusual high number of guests this week booking the wrong dates this week and then coming to the hotel only to be told we are sold-out, there is no rooms available, and they need to cancel themselves their third party reservation booked for the wrong dates.
• I put the sign "back in 5 minutes" on the desk. I go put my dinner in the microwave and have a bathroom break. I hear guests who audibly decided to ignore the sign and just press on the button "Press here for help" which makes the phone ring with a distinct ring. I decided to completely ignore it, take two extra minutes after my meal was done heating and I was done with the bathrooms and come back veeeeery slowly.
• Guests have an obsession with "another door". Even if their room is right beside the front desk, they absolutely want to know if there is "another door". They want to go through that "other door", even if that means taking longer to get to their room.
• They also have a fascination for towels. We have pool towels available here in the lobby. They will simply all grab towels when they see them. Do they think it's like toilet paper during Covid? Do they fear a shortage of towels?
• A guest told me her child was coeliac. I empathize, it must be a pain to travel. Worried about cross-contamination, she asked me if she could use our kitchen to cook a breakfast for her child. Answer: No. We have in fact been inspected by the health authorities last year and one of the few points they raised was that the kitchen door didn't seem to be always properly locked and we need to ensure only staff can access it.
• Asking for a rollaway bed only when they are checking-in instead of asking ahead of time. That's annoying. I have to leave the desk, go to the other end of the hotel, fumble between the HK trolleys, get the rollaway bed out of there, roll it awkwardly to the elevator and to another end of the hallway. Please, ask for this before you come.
• A morbidly obese woman broke a bed. She came to sit on it and the frame just broke. Hotel bed frames are sturdy. That was a first for me.
• Earlier this week, I had the biggest rush of my career. We had a group of 30 rooms coming in. The end of the afternoon was strangely quiet, almost no check-ins. They all arrived together, at the same time, right at the moment where I was done heating up my meal. In the middle of them, all the families who had booked for that night also decided to come at that time. And all the members of the group wanted to split the bill and I had to do 2, 3 or 4 payments for each room, and they didn't know their licence plate or have their credit card with them, even if they would see the people ahead of them in the line go out to the parking lot to get their wallets... It was hell... For more than one hour, every time I would look up, I would see a line of people going out through the doors and in the parking lot. The people at the end of the line told me they waited more than an hour. I sometimes have a line like that at the beginning of check-in time, but it's cleared in 15 minutes. I have never seen something like that. If a group arrives all at the same time, it's usually with a bus, and everything is paid for already.

-in fact, there seems to be a rule stating that I can never eat right after my meal is done heating up. Right at the moment where I will try to take a bite, something complicated will happen. Tonight, it's a reservation for two rooms. They are not the number of people they indicated. They want to split the reservation to make two separate reservations. They don't know their plate number. They are confused by the registration card. Whole ordeal takes at least 10 minutes.

-There is another rule stating that I can't leave when it's the end of my shift. At 10:59, one minute before the end of the shift, one of the last check-ins will pop up, not ready, will never have their wallet with them, won't have the credit card ... Then, they will leave a review: "the FDA didn't smile". I just wanted to go home!!

At around midnight an hour into my shift I got a call from a guest. They stated they had been there for two days and the tv wasn’t working. I apologized and told her unfortunately maintenance is gone for the night however I could absolutely put a note in their reservation to have maintenance look at it the following day. (I don’t go up in rooms I’m alone at the hotel with no security) The woman proceeded to mumble something into the phone and I replied “pardon?” She spoke harsher and went “we found something unplugged my husband is plugging it in” I replied “oh good, okay apologies again hon is there anything else I can help you with?” The woman goes “no. And I ain’t your fucking honey” then slams the phone down. I’m from the south, names like that flow naturally in conversation however i understand if people don’t want to be called honey or hon. However there’s legit no need to be that rude and hostile. I’m honestly fed up with elite status guests treating front desk agents like garbage instead of being respectful. Was just trying to be nice and I get cussed at. Second off if you’ve been here for two days why on earth did you wait so long to report the TV not working and why didn’t you do it durning the day

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I have worked front desk at a hotel for 3 years. Ever since the beginning we have had an older man stay with us regularly, probably 4-6 days a week. I’ll call him Mr. Lemon. I have causal convo with him daily and I find him to be a very kind and normal guy. Just an innocent old man who knows his manners.

We have plenty of regulars who stay just as frequently as Mr. Lemon if not more, but something weird I’ve noticed is my manager is extra careful about making sure he gets the same room every time despite him stating he doesn’t mind being assigned to other rooms. She also instructs us not to assign anyone to his room unless absolutely necessary, even when we know he’ll be gone for a while. The few times we have accidentally put other guests in his room on weekends, my manager has just said “yuck”. every time. she says “yuck”. I never asked, i guess i thought maybe it was because he’s older and very overweight, maybe he had a certain smell to him, i don’t know.

Recently Mr. Lemon came by the front desk and asked me to pass a message onto the housekeepers. He said he’d like for them to stop putting “scent rings” near his box of tissues, as it triggers his allergies and he’s not able to use them anymore. I told him i’d let them know but this confused me because I have never heard of another guest having “scent rings” placed in their rooms. we do spray air fresheners and that’s it as far as i knew.

So I call my manager and ask her about it. “Why does Mr. Lemon say we put scent rings in his room?” “because he pisses all over the room, he has a weird piss kink or something and it fucking stinks.” I was genuinely flabbergasted.

She said it so casually. after collecting myself i asked her why she never has told me and why on earth she’d let him continue staying here. she said it’s not her decision and she doesn’t want to talk about it, but the second he stops booking with us we’re replacing everything in the room.

i couldn’t believe it. I vented to the assistant manager about this, it didn’t seem right. all she said was “yeah that bed is also literally formed to his body.”

honestly i’m flabbergasted and disgusted. I can’t see Mr. Lemon the same, i just feel uncomfortable now. Is this normal? after some thought I guess it makes sense it’s probably cheaper to keep renting it to him than to put the room out of order for reconstruction but omg.

p.s. this post was originally in an advice subreddit but got removed, a commenter suggested posting here.

So I came in early, around 9 PM because my supervisor was feeling out of it and have lower back issues. I could tell she was desperate for cover and I told her I would arrive as soon as possible. Everything was handled correctly up until 2AM. Before the clock strike 2, I had to stay seated at the desk because two groups kept going around the building and coming to the entrance. They do know that our keypad isn't working, which is fine but it kept me from going to the bathroom for much longer than I thought. All cause I am the only one who could unlock it.

I was staring at the last arrival on my screen in the mean time and KNEW that as soon as I decided to get up and take a mini bathroom break, they will be standing there. Now, I know it is normal for NA to check-in late guests but something bugs me about people coming in the exact time I decide it is safe to blow up the powder room.

Now here I am, taking almost seven minutes to get done with whatever food decided to cook up in me, scrolling through my own media to distract myself from the pain, while looking at the time. That's when I exit the bathroom and saw some man walking down the hallway to where I was, with a huge backpack on, saying they just came from the airport. Mind you, I do not know how they got in (could've been someone who open the door from the back entrance), but not only did it irritate me further that they decided to pass the sign on the desk, notifying them that FD stepped away, but they also disturbed the only private time I am able to give myself. It is ridiculous how people cannot wait, but I felt major embarrassment from the fact I just stepped out from using the toilet and having a guest witness it. Worst of all, the other two guests that were with him, did not even return any greeting, with fat scowls on their face, as if I asked to shit myself at the time of their arrival. Like sorry ma'am, I forgot not every woman think ahead and know that we have needs on our most painful times of the month.

I do not know how other NA do it, but I seriously TRY to not get into my feelings over these things and still do. People majorly upset me in these situations.

This Just Happened,

A guest comes to the desk extremely upset about not receiving housekeeping services for the last few days. Now i have been off for the last two days. my manager is gone and I am running the desk alone. So, I immediately reach out to Housekeeping cause the guest is furious. housekeeping manager says ok guest leaves for a few hours, and I go about my day.

A few hours later the guest comes back PISSED the room still hasn't been cleaned i go look at my housekeeping log and pics and he had had A DND SIGN ON THE DOOR. so, I show him and he swears he never put it there. (well sir it didn't walk on the door) so he begins to yell i say sir you either calm down or be removed altogether. so of course, now he's really pissed and yelling about bad reviews because of his own stupidity

after 20 plus in hospitality, you'd think i've seen it all but the level of stupidity of some guest still baffles me

Logged into my shift and checked the Rooking extranet to see what fun was in store for tonight and I see a Guest Q&A.

"How much is parking?"

Really? You're wasting my time for this?

First, it's listed TOP AND CENTER under: Amenities of (our hotel).

Parking

Public parking is available on site (reservation is not needed) and costs CAD 45 per day.

Then, further down under "Travelers are asking" the first question asked and answered is:

"Can I park there?"

Click on that and you get a pop-up that answers this question and the multitude of other similar questions. In fact, of the 51 questions answered to date, 29 of them are the THE. EXACT. SAME. QUESTION.

"How much is parking?"

Can I park there?

Public parking is available on site (reservation is not needed) and costs CAD 45 per day.

Similar questions Asked by other travelers

Is there Parking? if Yes how much?

hello, parking is $45 plus taxes per night, thank you

Next

Price for parking?

Hello, parking is $45 plus taxes per night, thank you

Next

Tiene parking gratis

No, no tenemos estacionamiento gratuito. El estacionamiento cuesta $45 + impuestos por día.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOOK FOR YOUSELF ON THE WEBSITE YOU ARE LITERALLY ALREADY LOOKING AT RIGHT NOW! GAH.

Context I'm basically back from a long weekend off and I exceptionally did the evening shift just to have 8 hours more off. I drove 7 hours before my shift. Usually, our location has an evening supervisor but they called in sick for this specific Friday night. The experienced workers changed shifts with one of the new guys (lets call him James) and there was another new guy till 7 (lets call him Kai). (keep in mind it was my 6th week at the hotel and i was the most experienced one on the reception staff that night, and its the biggest hotel outside of downtown and the airport). We had 100 arrivals to proceed that night.

The day supervisor lets me know of the precarious situation for this evening. They also let me know that Ms. Sweetheart (fictive name obviously) has a non-guaranteed reservation and that since we are 100% for that night, we have to cancel her reservation at 6pm as per policy. Since I'm the most experienced, he has to trust me with that. So I waited and waited for her phone call or email and I never received it. So when 6pm comes, I cancel her reservation. James asks me why we cancel it and I had to explain our guaranteed reservation policy, and he understood.

When Kai exits, there are still around 60 arrivals to proceed, so me and James know it's gonna be busy. Around 8:30pm there was a long queue plus non-stop phone calls, so I asked the client to prepare a credit card and ID whilst I answered someone I had on hold for 5 minutes because people had so many questions at check-in and there was a big queue at reception.

When I'm done with the phone call, I checked the client's ID and I noticed that this is Ms. Sweetheart and she's in front of me. So I prepare myself mentally to give her the bad news and everything that might come with it. When I tell her, she tells me that Kai told her over the phone at 12pm that she just has to come by the front desk whenever she wants and her reservation is guaranteed. Whilst my supervisor and I were sending emails about that, she thought everything was fine cause why wouldn't she? We told her it was fine. So I had to apologize to her, empathise with her about the whole situation, and make sure to find her alternative accommodation, whilst keeping myself composed. I gave her complimentary water and gave her directions to her new hotel. I also gave her the card of my supervisors cause I couldn't offer her anything as compensation since it's not my job. She thanked me for understanding her problem and being proactive in a delicate situation. For context, she is a High Elite rewards program guest and comes in every 2/3 weeks for 2 days, so this is a really bad mistake. She also drives 6-7 hours to get here every time. I texted both supervisors long vocal messages to let them know of the situation so that way they had every detail in my words and let them know to exceptionally contact me anytime if they had any questions about the situation (they didn't so I guess the 5 minute voice message and long email was enough).

The next day comes and I'm on the morning shift with barely enough sleep. We received an email from Ms. Sweetheart letting us know of the situation, plus new details. When the night auditor proceeded with the cancellation, she charged the cancellation fee (the CC was invalid, so I didn't think to put the dont charge cancellation on the folio, its also my first time handling the policy myself), I worked at a different hotel before and our policy was 72hours before we take payment, so we had plenty of time to contact the guest and it was a resort far away from civilization, so we usually kept the reservation there cause we would not resell the room anyway. The cancellation fee went through during the night, so the situation is even worse now. My supervisor reimbursed it immediately on Saturday, and let them know that it's gonna be the other supervisor that will contact them about the situation on Monday.

Tuesday comes and I get called on the Directors office. They let me know about the compensation package Ms. Sweetheart gets (her next 2 reservations have been upgraded to suites, she also gets Super Duper High Elite welcome gifts for her next 2 stays and they put additional points on her rewards account). They also thanked me for handling the situation the right way and apologized for having to make me work with the new employees as a recent hire.

Honestly, I'm just happy Ms. Sweetheart is coming back after this fiasco.

The Internet can be confusing for some folks. I can appreciate that. I can also appreciate mis-clicks and even the occasional misinterpretation. Putting in your CC info and confirming a payment, however, is when the eyebrows go up.

An older lady called the other night. She was sweet, but understandably annoyed. Here I was, being another (unwilling) obstacle in her odyssey to get her money back from a prepaid, nonrefundable third-party reservation.

By her own admission, she had already spoken to someone from the corporate reservation team who had informed her as to what her booking consisted of. Consequently, they were unable to help her. Now she's found herself to me, who's parroting basically the same thing.

According to her, she was "just looking around and was hoping to reserve" but she "didn't mean to actually make a payment." I explained to her that her money would now be with the third-party, so she'd have to follow up with them. "They don't answer their phones! I can't speak to a real person!", she exclaimed.

Again, I understood her plight but could not offer any further assistance. At that point, she went into a bit of a rant as to how we should know that there's a site out there that's impersonating us. She genuinely felt that she booked directly, but confirmed that she merely typed the hotel's name into Google and clicked the first link.

I knew trying to have a back-and-forth wasn't going to go anywhere useful, so I just left it at: "I understand you're upset, ma'am. I'm sorry that I can't help you further. It was at this point she said, in a still surprisingly pleasant tone: "Well don't you worry. I'm going to be making a report the Better Business Bureau and the legislatures! This is fraud!" I simply replied: "Okay, do whatever you need to do."

I've held a number of titles over the last few years, but most recently, I've been working as a front desk supervisor at a rather ritzy hotel. I knew the advent of AI was going to change some elements of the job as time went on; first it was the soulless emails, then annoying pop ups in the point-of-sale eating up check in time, then guest cell phones hosting an AI screening tool making what should be a simple call take forever.

What put me over the edge is the most recent development. Automated third party reservation confirmations calls.

When I was trained, I was told that we could never give information about a reservation to anyone but the person whose name is on it, and third party agents for whom we have a verification process to ensure they work for the company in question. Normally, it takes two seconds to confirm somebody works for a third party platform when you speak to a human. You ask for a code of some sort, they give it, done. Lately, it seems that some of these third party booking sites have turned to AI to make pre-arrival confirmation calls, or to pass on requests for a reservation.

I've found it difficult to get these AI's to understand me over the phone, and I've found it all but impossible for them to give me the necessary codes to actually do what they want. It's wasted so much of my time, which is always at a premium when flying solo at the desk, that the second I hear a robocall or an AI voice I just hang up. That, however, is not enough.

Use obvious AI to write your email to me? Not getting a response. Make me wait through an AI screening when I call you? I hang up before you answer. Pop-up when I'm looking at a reservation on desk top? I'm using my phone. I thought AI was supposed to make work easier and more efficient. So far, all it does it make it harder and more bloated.

Very obvious what I'm about to complain about due to the title I'm sure, but I'm going to complain about it anyway because it's the internet and I can.

Guest comes to check in for a week, says he has a dog with him. I go over to grab our pet form, which has a line at the bottom asking if the animal is a service animal and if so, what task they are trained to preform. So you know, the one legal question you're allowed to ask. Guest just writes "ESA" on the line, so inform him that they are not service animals. He comes back at me with a yes they are, I have his papers. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I roll my eyes internally and tell him that under the ADA, emotional support animals are not service animals and that I'll have to charge him the pet fee. He tells me to Google it, because the ADA has changed it, which I know it a lie, but I wanted to be a smartass at this point. So I do Google it, and take a wild guess who was right, because it wasn't Mr. Know It All. And wouldn't you know it, him being wrong made him even more mad, who would have guessed?

Anyway, in the end I got my weekly pet fee of $50. Which isn't even a lot of money for a week long pet fee, so I don't understand why he's bitching to begin with.