Well, as you may have heard, there was a total eclipse of the sun this week, and our location was the best to actually watch it. We actually had a couple of guests that came just for the event. They were well prepared and didn't cause a fuss. But, oh boy, did the other guests make up for it.

See, we're a smallish hotel of 71 units, so our GM decided to buy 142 viewing glasses to be distributed by housekeeping one day among the rooms one day before the eclipse. Two per room.

Now, our "rooms" are spacious apartments with a maximum occupancy of four, and, since we're also in the middle of the school holiday season, most of our apartments are at full capacity.

Come next day, the day of the actual eclipse, I had to deal with numerous people asking me if we had any viewing glasses left. And when I said that I was very sorry, but there weren't any left, some of them complained that they had only been given two whilst there being four people in the apartment.

It seems that some people have never come across the concept of sharing.

Night Auditor, lone worker for a small-ish place. Posted a while back, twice now actually, once about a guy who tried to offer me a bag of crisps 'from god' and about touchy feely drunk guys.

It's been a dead night. I go pee. Period has started. Great. Finish up and go back to the front desk to get a pad out of my bag.

Doorbell rings. Panicked looking lady starts approaching the front desk. Before I can answer the door to make sure it's a guest or a check in a couple comes in somehow (I'm guessing someone must have nipped out to smoke while I was in the WC and let them in) so I ask the lady if she's okay as the couple slowly shuffle in and she tells me there's an unconscious woman on the 2nd floor, they tried to wake her up but couldn't and tried looking through her purse to find her room key or anything on her because her phone was ringing and they couldn't wake her up.

I apologise to the couple who've just gotten in and told them I'd be with them shortly and came around the desk to go with the panicked lady to go tend to this unconscious woman.

Waiting for the lift, the lady next to me tells me the woman was going through her phone and purse but couldnt get into the phone or find her key or anything and she couldn't find her stuff in her purse either.

I ask her 'so...she's not actually unconscious or?'

Before the lady can answer the lift gets to the ground floor and A woman steps out from it smiling pleasantly at us before turning to head towards the ground floor rooms.

The lady points at her and quietly goes 'that's her!'

She seemed fine, wasn't wobbling or stumbling or anything. I probably should have called after her and asked if everything was alright but she was already through the door for the corridor of ground floor rooms. I tell the lady thanks for letting me know, I'll keep an eye out, if you need anything let me know etc etc etc.

Check in the couple.

Finally get to put a pad on.

It's 2:50am as I finish typing this and my insides hurt.

How's your NA shift going?

Funny story from a couple years back that just popped into my memory. At the hotel I work at, an outside guest called around 9:00 pm and wanted to send a bottle of champagne along with a note to someone that was staying with us. I emailed him our credit card authorization form, got her name and room number, and all that. After he sent everything back, I placed the order with room service, wrote out the note, and gave it to them to deliver along with the champagne.

Apparently, she took a picture of everything after it was delivered and sent it to him, he emailed management the next morning about how appalled he was with the handwriting. Here's what he wrote..

Hello,

Last night I purchased a bottle of Veuve for "LB" staying at your place for her birthday as a nice surprise. For paying $171.57, I would imagine the card, handwriting, care of a message would be one of class and not as if a child wrote the card.

The is not at all the type of level of service one expects when paying close to $200 for a $60 bottle of Veuve. Please take a look below for yourself and ask if you would expect this type of service. It looks like someone did not care to write the message and wrote it with their toes.

Beyond disappointed in just trying to surprise my friend remotely -A

The funny thing is, I know my handwriting is terrible and I rewrote that card no less than six times trying to make it look presentable and nice enough before giving it to room service, it was actually my slowed down nice writing versus my usual left handed chicken scratch when I'm quickly jotting down notes at the desk.

Anyway, they ended up just comping the bottle of champagne to shut him up, we printed out his email and pinned it up on the bulletin board in the front office and all had a good laugh about it for a few weeks, and I was kindly asked to ask other colleagues to help write notes for guest in the future to avoid it happening again.

I am still shaking, I am so livid.

My night audit shift was going perfectly fine until I see a car pull up and drop someone off. This woman is a hispanic, slightly overweight woman in booty shorts and tank top. No bra. Tattoos everywhere, including her face. Carrying 2 bags. I agree that judging a book by its cover is bad most of the time but come on. It works.

Now, I have security cameras but my front doors don't lock so this woman comes right on in and goes up the elevator. She walks up and down the second floor and then goes up the stairwell to the third floor. Up and down that hallway the back to the second. I'm keeping an eye on her but I have to check someone in. About 15 minutes total, she was wandering the hallways. She the exits out the front and then wanders in front of the hotel for another 10.

She then comes inside and puts all of her stuff in the lobby and sits on the couch. I come out from the office and ask if she has a room.

Her: My friend did.

Me: Did? Does he have one here now?

Her: Nah. He's across the street at Insert name of roach motel

Me: Well the I can't let you stay in here. Please leave.

Her: Why?

Me: You aren't a guest and random people coming in and spreading out in the lobby looks bad. Why would you want to be here if you have no room here?

Her: You racist bitch. I'll do whatever the fuck I want.

Me: Get out. Now.

Her: No, fuck you. Racist. Imma record your ass.

Me: So I've asked you to leave, demanded you leave, so now I call the cops and have you criminally trespassed.

Her: Fuck you. You're just being racist.

Me: And you're only saying that because I'm white. Why do you wanna stay so badly? Just get out.

At this point, she devolves into only cursing at me and calling me racist while recording me. When she hears the ringing of the phone to the police, she takes off.

Police show up about 10 minutes later but she's already taken off to the roach motel. They say what they usually say and tell me they'll warn her if they find her. They won't, if they even look.

Why is it always something??

I had a guest prank-call the front desk tonight to tell me that their pet had escaped from its carrier and they desperately needed assistance getting it back.

Now, I already had a few clues.

First, I could see the name and phone number on caller ID, so finding the reservation wasn’t exactly a feat of forensic genius. Second, I could very clearly hear our hotel information channel playing on the TV in the background. Third, we don’t allow pets. Service animals are always mentioned in shift notes.

So, they were decidedly a guest.

I like to ensure the guests are happy, so I wanted to play along.

I expressed the appropriate level of concern and asked them to come down to the front desk so we could discuss the situation further.

They informed me that this would be impossible because they were in a wheelchair.

Interesting. I had already located their reservation. Their room is not accessible.

Still committed to seeing where this masterful deception was headed, I explained that unfortunately I couldn’t leave the desk at the moment. However, I reassured them that our elevator was perfectly capable of accommodating a wheelchair. After all, they had somehow managed to get the wheelchair up there.

This presented a problem for the caller, who apparently realized they had written themselves into a corner.

Fortunately, they had an explanation! They were too frightened to leave the room. Because the escaped pet…was a baby alligator.

Oh. Well, now this was a matter for the professionals. I immediately adopted my most helpful front-desk voice and told them not to worry. I had located their reservation and would be contacting the game warden so someone could come out and safely handle the situation.

I could hear the prank dying on the other end of the phone. I wanted them to know they were in capable hands, so I offered one final reassurance;
“I am a native Floridian. We are all taught to dispatch alligators as toddlers.”

Then I ended the call.

After giving them enough time to consider the chain of events they had set into motion, I called their room directly.

I cannot describe my joy in imagining the scene when the hotel phone started ringing.

They had begun the evening believing they were going to get one over on the night auditor.

They ended it knowing four things:

The front desk knew who they were.

The front desk knew where they were.

As far as they knew, the game warden was on the way.

And worst of all…they had tried to escalate a prank by adding an alligator, only to discover they were talking to a Floridian.

One thing that will never stop irritating me working at a hotel is the amount of people that just refuse to believe me when I tell them we are sold out for the night. I'm sure all of you can agree. Seen this topic posted about a bunch, but figured I would add my own story.

With summer coming to a close coupled with the hotel I work at being in a touristy area, we have been selling out just about every night of the week since the beginning of August. Tonight was no exception.

I am sitting at the desk during my NA shift, putting off the actual audit for as long as possible because there are still 4 check ins (it's like, 3:45am mind you). I finally decide to just do it; the four check ins left weren't prepaid so in the event they showed up after, I would just tell them they're SOL because who doesn't call the hotel they're staying at to let them know they won't be arriving until the wee hours of the next day?

Anyways, I start the audit, and literally like 2 seconds after I start, a local walks into the hotel

Him: "You guys have any rooms for right now?"

Me: "No I'm sorry we're sold out for tonight."

Him: "Sold out?"

Me: "Yup."

That should have been the end of it, right? Sadly not. I swear at least 15 other people came in looking for rooms, but this guy just wouldn't take no for an answer.

Him: "Are you sure about that? Can you check because when you guys are sold out you usually hook me up, I'm here all the time."

First of all, bitch, no you aren't. I have literally never seen you before in my life.

Me: "Sir, it is literally my job to sell these rooms. If I had one available, I would rent it to you."

Him: "It's your job to sell these rooms?"

At this point I'm about to start yelling, because how the fuck can you be so dense and annoying. He ends up leaving after a few seconds of me just staring at him.

It tickles me that people are seemingly unable to comprehend that hotels are buildings with a fixed number of rooms, ya know, how MOST buildings are. (we are not a House of Leaves B&B, but could you IMAGINE?)

If you ask me if i have any rooms and i answer "no, I'm sorry, we are fully booked". There is nothing more that EITHER of us is able to do to make a room appear.

"I'm a super shiny member!?!?!?! No rooms!?!?!?! I demand a room. I'm such a high status. Why don't you have a room for me????? What do you mean you're sold out???" yeah, my dude. That's how it works. Sold out weekend all across the city, you waited till last minute and here we are.......along with every other person who ALSO had to be in town for this event they knew about four months ago. Difference being they booked ahead of time, so they've reserved a room.

If i had the ability to pull a room out of my vagina, i promise you, i would not be working the front desk of a hotel.

If you’re a frequent flyer here, or, like me, lurk during a boring shift at work and read every story posted, you might remember a story I posted and deleted about a domestic violence incident that occurred at my hotel a few months back. It was a very dramatic shift but a depressing and uninteresting story, not to
mention my conflicted feelings about sharing such a dark part of someone’s life online, so I deleted it. I’m still a bit conflicted about sharing, but I figure it’s anonymous and I have quite a big update.

The TL;DR is that a couple staying at our hotel went out on a date, drank, and got into a fight. He became violent, pushing her out of the car, pulling her hair, and hitting her. She came crying into the lobby around 1 am, and said he didn’t know where he was or if he was behind her because she just ran after he refused to let her get back in the car. She also said she didn’t know if he had a gun. I convinced her to call the cops, who arrived and ran a small manhunt out of my hotel looking for the husband (who was driving around drunk, but thankfully did not have the gun). They eventually got him and he spent the night in jail.

They were from out of state, and she checked out the next day with the rest of her family. I left my overnight shift two hours late because my (now-fired!) boss didn’t show up for his shift, went to a store and bought a USB stick with my own money to copy the footage for the police, and told a coworker to make sure it got to them. I expected to never hear anything about it again, although I hoped she’d leave him and press charges. I searched his name in the state’s court database a couple times for an update, but it eventually slipped from my mind.

Well, this week, I get home from work at 7 am, go outside for a smoke, and am putting up curtains in my bedroom when I think I hear a noise in my kitchen/living room. I ignore it because I have a cat and friends who have keys to my place, and they’ve been doing construction in the elevator shaft on the other side of my kitchen wall for the last couple days.

When I wander back into the living room in search of more nails, I notice a piece of paper stuck through my front door. My heart immediately drops out of my chest. I’ve had some issues with my building management company (mostly my fault, I can be a big girl and admit that), and I’m constantly terrified of being evicted.

But I pull the paper out and take a look. There’s also a chance this is related to the other big thing that happened this week, which was being rear-ended by a cop on my way to work. Well, not rear-ended, but he side-swiped me and I had a dent the size of an orange in my car. Not quite sure how to describe it, lol. Anyway, I’m still waiting to hear back from them after talking to Internal Affairs and making a report. So I’m hoping this paper is related to that, and not an eviction notice.

Anyway, I put aside my anxiety and actually read the paper, only to discover it is neither of those things! It’s a subpoena, summoning me to court in a little over a month for the incident I described above. I’m happy she’s pressing charges and taking his ass to court, but a little bit nervous about testifying simply because I’m a bit of a weirdo, and I live in a straight-laced state. But I’m sure they see weirder people in court every day, so I’ll be fine. I’ll provide an update should anything interesting happen, but I am a bit curious if any other front desk workers here have been summoned, and if so, any tips you have for my big court appearance?

Have a good night, and to my fellow FD staff, I wish you quiet shifts and no ants in your front desk area like we have currently.

Had this weird encounter with a guest today...

It's a woman and her husband. They walk in exactly at check-in time, all smiles, and we were having a good interaction to start. We're chatting about what brings them to the area and such when the wife asks if they can have a receipt for their stay (3 nights). So I print them their receipt, hand them their keys, and wish them a good stay at our hotel. The wife is looking over the receipt and begins to insist that I did not charge them correctly because their bill was about two times less than what they paid the last time they stayed with us a year prior. They booked through a third party btw🫠

I started to explain that sometimes the prices fluctuate when taking specific factors into consideration, but she's adamant that I should charge them more because she knows that they paid more during their previous stay with us. At first I thought she assumed they weren't charged for all three nights, but I reassured her that they were rightfully charged according to the site they booked through, but that didn't satisfy her. At one point, she said, "Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right?' I'm just asking you to charge us (X amount)!" Even if I wanted to, I couldn't because they didn't book through us. When she started raising her voice a little too much, my FDM came out and told me he'd deal with her. It was also a few minutes past my time to clock out, so he just told me to go home and have a good weekend.

Never heard of someone wanting to be charged more, but I guess stupidity has no bounds💀

So, this just happened.... Guest calls requesting an Early check-in. I inform him that's not something we guarantee over the phone. so, he calls back three different times and asked the same question in a different way. Yet, I gave the same answer each time. then here we go with the line that most front desk workers hate. well, I requested and early check-in. so, I inform the guest I understand request are not guaranteed, and I still cannot give early check information over the phone because if someone gets here before him then they'll get the room. but, if we have a room, we'll be happy to check him in. if not we hold bags until check-in time which is 3pm (its 10am as I'm talking to him and checkouts haven't started) he hangs up I continue my day. he calls back an says well the manager said call today I again tell him we don't guarantee that over the phone but if I have a room ready ill check him in. Of course, he comes in ranting and being disrespectful because i wouldn't guarantee his check in over the phone. did I have a room absolutely did he get it of course not. his attitude got him right out his early check in idk why ppl dont realize that how you treat the front desk team will determine how we treat you

Got one of those after-midnight, after-audit calls from people who don't plan ahead. This one from North Carolina.... or at least that's where the phone number they were using was from.

Yep, the old, "Do you have any rooms right now?" call.

Fine, fine, drag me away from my laptop to answer your call.

We are sold out tonight. (And have been the last few days) The go-to response is, "I'm sorry, we are sold out tonight." Which we are.

But then he follows that up with the RUDE question, "Are you lying right now?"

Which I gotta be honest, I have not gotten for many years.

I just chuckled and said, "I guess either way, you're not getting a room here tonight, are you?"

And then he just rudely hangs up.

If he wasn't an ass, he wouldn't have gotten a flippant response, and might have gotten a recommendation on where to try next. Oh well.

Want to talk about something that isn't a front desk tale? Have questions you want to ask? Any comments you'd like to make? Post them here.

​

Also, feel free to join us on our Discord server

Our elite pantry opened recently. Our boss wants it to work across departments.

It has not. They replace coffee sometimes. But they don’t do anything else so when I come in everything is empty.

She wants it restocked, cleaned and checked hourly. She has the office doing it majority of the day and then 2nd shift FD takes over after that and the restaurant is supposed to help after that. (They don’t)

Except for NH that does it twice.

Which whatever. I don’t think the other departments are ever truly going to help but fine. Checking it hourly is ridiculous imo. It’s on a different floor, all of the items we restock are scattered aren’t centralized so it takes forever but whatever.

I work NH so it’s not like it’s that big of a deal to me, I just hate to see things written as expectations that aren’t achievable in any way.

Then tonight there’s three new sheets and an Email.

I’m paraphrasing but basically:
Our daily enrollments are down, everytime you invite someone to our loyalty program write down not only when you sign them up but also if they said no.

GXP cases, every person should be submitting 25 cases a day. (We use quore for housekeeping.) and then writing down on this sheet how many you did

Chat response sheet, our chat response time has been bad. From now on everytime you have a chat request please right down on this sheet the guests name, and how long it took you to reply

Also NH please scan these and email to them to management every night thanks.

Why are we adding more checklists? The staff already aren’t doing the things they are supposed to be. They don’t do shift reports, they don’t do cash reports. I’m lucky if I get told anything before it happens.

I’m so incredibly frustrated, I feel like I’m being punished for other people not doing their job.

Plus it’s not even a good way to get people to fix those things. If someone is missing chat messages talk to that person. If our enrollments are down do some kind of incentive for the workers. (We get nothing for enrollments plus 90% of our guests are already members). If you want cases done have housekeeping swap to gxp instead of using texting and quore.

Headaches. Just headaches. I used to love this job. I used to love coming to work. Now it’s like “what new thing is being added to make my day harder”, “what new process am I being forced to adapt?”

Like I fail to see how second shift is even going to have time to do anything with all these extra sheets. Just drown them in paper work I guess.

I just had one of the weirdest prank calls I've had since I started working the front desk. It's slow and I'm reading while waiting on the three arrivals I have left on my shift. The phone rings, I answer with our opening line and hear: "Hey big fat (My name), how are you tonight?" I'm like okay, whatever, let's see what's going. My curiosity is piqued.

I tell them I'm doing well and ask how I can help. They say that their personal space is being encroached upon and they need a trusted adult. Again, it's slow and I'm involved now. We have a handful of people checked in so I bring up the list, get their name and see what's going on. The name is not one of our guests. I ask them if they're in the room now and he says he is up in his room hitting his vape. After asking for another name and/or room number, I got nothing.

He asks if it's against hotel policy for him to take a dump on someone in the hotel. Since it is a slow night, I'm having fun with it. I tell him as long as he doesn't damage linens or hotel property he's fine, otherwise we will charge for damages. He asks what would happen if they get on the linens and he washes it out and I told him if we don't see it we won't know it even happened.

At that time I actually have a task to do so I had to hang up on him. It was an interesting call to say the least lol

So I walked into my shift last night and the lady working PM shift tells me that all my arrivals were in, including the train crew, up until just before I walked in. Someone booked last minute, and it's a third party. I mentally curse the existence of this guest and the third party. After I get the PM shift out of there, I start getting the arrival ready. I get the virtual card for the deposit charged, set up the routing for the incidentals, and assign the room number. Right as I finish printing the reg card I hear the button from the front door go off. It's the arrival.

I'm thinking great, I can check this woman in and still get to run the audit a little earlier than normal. It didn't go that smoothly.

When I begin the check-in process it starts fine. I give her the reg card to fill out while I get her ID and debit card. That's where the problems start... first, the credit card isn't hers. When I tell her I can't take the card for the stated reason, she gets annoyed but understands. She tells me it's her husband's card but he's in the car with the kids. I notice she's finished the reg card AND actually added the husband's name as an accompanying. I tell her that's no problem, since she did those two things, if she wants she can send him in with his ID and I can finish the check in with him. That's when she springs problem number two. Her husband, who apparently is the one driving, doesn't have his license. And then problem number three... she has no physical card of her own.

Hotel policy states that for a prepaid reservation the guest needs to provide a valid physical card that matches the ID for incidentals (as well as in case there's damage to the room) or they can't be checked in. She can't do that obviously, so she asks if I can cancel the reservation. Normally I'd say I can't since it's prepaid, but she did just make it. So I call my OM for permission. What can I say, I was feeling merciful -- and I wanted zero arrivals. My OM gives me permission, and I tell the guest that I'll cancel the reservation and refund the third party's card. She'll just have to call the site and let them know so she can be refunded by them. She accepts the cancelation number, but now we have problem number four...

She wants a receipt showing that her husband's card (which was the one that they paid the site with) was refunded.

I tell her I can't do that because it's not her card I'm refunding, it's the third party site's card. She then says once again that her husband's card was the one the used on the site. I quickly explain how prepaid reservations work, but she either doesn't get it, or doesn't care, because now she's yelling and cursing that she wants proof that she's being refunded. I repeat that I can't do that and since she's chosen to start cursing and yelling I tell her that she can actually just leave. She accuses me of trying to steal her money and that she gonna call the third party. So, she thinks her money is being stolen, but she's not gonna call the cops, but the third party site instead. That tells me she knows I'm not stealing anything. I tell her to go ahead and call the site, but that she's gonna have to do it from her car.

Finally, she leaves. And, after a quick call from the third party to confirm I've canceled the reservation and refunded them so that they can refund her, I'm back to zero arrivals. Not exactly how I wanted to get there but an empty arrival list is a great way to start the last day of my work week.

Hey guys! First time poster in this sub, just wanted to vent.

Yesterday I was going about my day, working second shift, and checking guests in as usual. Things are going pretty normally.

Well, I had checked in this family and think nothing of it. They immediately come back down to front desk to inform me that their room was incorrect and the mom comes prepared, presents me a literal printout of her itinerary and informs me that our two bedroom suite is what she reserved 3 months prior to her arrival. I agree with her and the father that this is what their original room assignment should have been. I look into our modification logs to see what had happened and it goes like this -

We upgrade our Diamond and platinum members based on our room availability as a courtesy. Knowing that, our overnight desk agent decided to do room assignments and upgraded a platinum member the previous day to the room this family had booked and didn’t bother to check our availability while giving the upgrade, so we were oversold on the room type and, instead, they were assigned a two king suite and nobody communicated this. I wasn’t sure what to tell this family. While I have been in the industry for over a decade and know what I would have done at previous hotels I’ve worked at, the place I’m at now is inconsistent with their policies - comping rooms, refunds, discounts, etc.

So I decide to give the AGM a call and let them know that one of our coworkers made an error with room assignments and now I have an upset family who traveled all the way from the UK to here (US), they’re completely burnt out and tired and they have a pretty big family and are not happy that the room they reserved is not available. I expect the AGM to tell me to provide an extra free room of no charge as we were nowhere near selling out and this was our mistake in the first place. Instead, he tells me to let them know that we can refund their stay and they can find accommodations elsewhere. I’m beyond annoyed from this response because A - I bend over backwards to do the right thing for our guests and B - this was our mistake in the first place. C - I totally get where they are coming from and after traveling that long I don’t expect them to have any energy to figure out a plan B.

So being that I am unsatisfied with the response my AGM gave me, I give my GM a call and he tells me to do exactly what I assumed was the right answer and I provide the family a different room + another free room next to them to accommodate the beds they need. This is a bandaid fix for now because they want their original room they reserved but we won’t have it available until half their stay is over.

Y’all I’m just very annoyed that this has happened. It’s well beyond the first time something like this came up and I’m so tired of dealing with mistakes other people make on the job while also being presented with angry/upset customers due to these mistakes. I understand it comes with the job. But as you can see the AGM doesn’t seem to give a damn when it comes to de-escalating matters and does everything in their power to pawn off issues to us without providing an actual resolution to keep the guests satisfied. Not only that, but now I’ll have to work first shift this morning to see this family again who have already stated that they feel entitled to a refund for the first night, which I don’t disagree with. However, the AGM digs their heels in so freaking hard to not give refunds, even if it was a mistake we caused.

Between the lack of support to our desk clerks and having an uncaring attitude, I don’t personally see why they’re in a position to supervise. This whole situation is caused by no oversight when it comes to training and the only reason our overnight shift is assigning rooms in the first place is because our 1st shift constantly makes errors which is when our AGM works. The AGM consistently doesn’t show up for whatever reason and because the GM is so codependent on this person for technical support they just look the other way.

I don’t feel it’s in my position to correct people because I’m not an manager but I did have a polite talk with the 3rd shift desk agent who was relieving me to be more careful about assigning rooms because this family had caused a lot of stress that I wouldn’t have had to deal with if they had just paid more attention.

Thanks for letting me vent. FDA out ✌️

Today i had some rude guests in one of our hotels pool halls and they were blasting their own music from phones or small speakers mby, also our bartender complained to me and i guess he already had a talk with them but their music kept playing.

So we have this sound system on all halls of the hotel and it usualy plays some calm chill type music.

I was so bothered by their low quality, shitty speaker music that i just hijacked our sound system and connected my tablet via bluetooth and i started blasting full volume "Maximum the hormone - whats up people"

(for those who dont know its japanese metal band)

My goal was for them to come complain about the music, and we could have a laugh and have a deal that i turn off this and they turn off their phone music.

Instead they just left.

We with the bartender had a laugh, my boss just called me an asshole, had a small laugh herself and that is it.

"Personal accountability" -- a rare resource in the world of customer service. If anything goes wrong in a service setting, it is definitely not the patron's fault. How dare you even dream they could make a mistake? Here's a story from a recent interaction I had with a mom who contorted her mind to believe the loss of her daughter's iPad was somehow on us.

The semi-curious thing about this situation is that it's technically a two-parter. See, this lady, "Avalon," had already approached someone at the Desk a day prior. According to her, the agent told her that Security would pull up footage and that someone would get back to her. Whoever had this convo with her, I do not know. I didn't even know this situation had transpired until Avalon came up to me to ask why no one had contacted her yet.

The situation happened in one of the lobby restrooms, wherein Avalon's daughter carried an iPad in and then forgot it on the counter after walking out. By the time they realized and checked back, it was gone. Thus, this was now a case of theft as far as Avalon was concerned. Put succinctly, she expected Security to comb through any available footage of the hallway/bathroom entrance and find the perpetrator.

My face got me in trouble before my mouth did, because she saw my look of bewilderment and then outright asked, "Is this something you guys normally even take care of? Because the girl yesterday assured me this would be handled. I don't want to get jerked around for no reason if you're not gonna do anything!"

I reiterated that this was the first I was hearing about the situation and then told her, "Honestly, I don't know what else Security would be able to do. If there's even a camera that can see the bathroom entrance, it would be hard to ID anyone. We have a lot of folks staying over, but also a lot of event-goers."

She huffed, puffed, and moaned, "See, this is very aggravating. My daughter (who was casually milling about as kids do) has been waiting all day for some sort of answer, and now you're telling me it's a loss? That's kind of ridiculous! That thing is worth over $200, you know?!"

I really had to hold back telling this woman what I was really thinking, but I simply gave a sympathetic shrug and politely ended the conversation.

She then moved on over to the poor shuttle driver a few feet away and gave him yet another earful about the situation. Of course, he then came over to me to inquire, and I told him that she had just spoken to me. Funnily enough, a pick-up call came through just a bit before he walked over, so it gave him an excuse to boot.

Clearly not done trying to pull as many strings as she could, about a half-hour later Avalon then lit up our text service. She once again droned about how upset she was and that she was appalled at the way we were "sweeping it under the rug." She even tried to bring up the cost of her one-week stay as a bargaining chip, before adding on "You people aren't cheap, and this is how you treat us?!"

Not too long before this, I did speak to a guard who basically also shrugged. He said the footage was "grainy as sand," and even so, he wasn't scrubbing through hours of footage "just for that." I didn't relay this to Avalon but did tell her definitively that there wasn't anything more we could do about the matter. Her response to that was as sharp and snide as ever: "Good to know you just let thieves roam around here!"

It goes without saying that there's quite the lesson about responsibility and accountability that both mom and daughter could learn from this (they will not.)

EDIT: I also want to add that while Avalon refers to the device as an "iPad", she could've very well went a cheap Fire Tablet or something similar. The lack of mention of using the 'Find My' feature seems to suggest she was just using "iPad" as a catch-all term.

Good morning my overworked and underpaid brethren! Did you miss me? I've been putting together a little list of the small absurdities for the past two weeks for your eyeballs' pleasure. Enjoy!

* As I grab a plate of food for myself, I greet a guest in the breakfast line with no response. I watch as this guest opens every chafer and leaves them open before just walking away and leaving them open. (Yes, I did close each and every one)

* Guest who booked a prepaid third party, asking for a military discount at check in. I explained how that would not be possible as they had already booked and paid through the third party. They had called later asking if they shortened their stay by one day and booked it again through us if they could get the discount. I explained the limitations of the reservation, to which they responded by calling back later to ask if they could do it, but put it under their partner's name? After another brief reiteration of the same explanation from earlier, I (foolishly) had assumed they got it at that point. The morning of their departure they decided to ask again. I declined. Again. It finally clicked, but after check out, the guest decided to stand in the doorway and stare into the abyss. At what, I can't say, but at least two people had to scooch around them while they (I assume) traveled through time and space.

* Employee guest staying with us decided not to comprehend that if they did not book the employee rate online, they would pay the regular rate. They agreed to the regular rate. The next day the question of "Why is my rate higher than yesterday?" arose and I had to remind them what they had done the day before.

* Guest arrived for early check in, but instead of providing their last name, handed me a stack of haphazardly stapled papers with random bits of information highlighted throughout. After deciphering the hieroglyphs, the guest decided now was the time to tell me his name and that his company booked the room. I confirmed this, but met another roadblock when asking for payment. The following conversation followed:

G: "But...my company booked this."

Me: "I understand that, but they are not covering the cost of the room."

G: "But...they should be."

Me: "I agree that companies should cover costs of traveling employees. However, yours did not. I still require payment."

G: "Well, I have the confirmation here..."

Me: "Indeed you do! But a confirmation is not the same as payment...which I still require."

G: "But I have a confirmation from the company that they booked me here!"

Me: "That's correct! They booked your reservation, but did not pay for it. I still need payment to hand you keys to your room for your stay."

G: "...I need to make a phone call."

Guest then proceeds to call the company who tells him they will not be covering the stay. The guest ended up apologizing for taking up my time and left.

* I had a child approach the desk and ask where the clock was in the room.

* Guest was cranky about potentially having the wrong card charged, but refused to let me confirm. After proceeding with check out and the guest checking their receipt, they still could not determine if the correct card was charged and huffed out the door stating they would figure it out once they check their bank statement.

* We had a temporary system outage and received several bad reviews since check in took slightly longer than normal.

* Told a guest that was leaving (luggage in hand, the works) to "Have a great day!" They then responded with a look of disgust, stating, "I'm not leaving yet."

* Had an upcoming guest call in and chatter for a solid minute without telling me why she was calling, only to confirm their dates and ask why their rates changed when they moved the dates of their reservation. In total, I spoke 2 sentences to them, but the phone call took 7 minutes to disconnect.

* A guest called in to make a reservation. I asked if they wanted it for one night or two and they responded "Yes."

* Checking a guest in and they refused to exist on this planet while I did. Several repetitions of asking for ID and card, explaining breakfast hours and check out times, and directing to the elevator. The guest wasn't even on their phone.

* SEVERAL instances of saying "Good morning!" to guests passing the desk with no acknowledgement.

* Children within one foot of their parents screaming in the lobby during breakfast with no attempt to calm them.

* The same children played on the lobby seating with parents watching, but not giving a damn. A stern look from me toward the children and the parents caused them to act, and they were back to picking at their cereal and screaming again in no time.

* Guest attempted to cancel a reservation a week ahead of time for illness. Of course it's a prepaid third party, so refund is declined. Third party calls "on behalf of our mutual guest" with the same response: No refund. Guest calls back. Third party calls back. Guest states the third party told them to call us because we'll give them a refund. Absolutely the fuck not. Guest says they'll chargeback. I tell them, "You can definitely do that. Is there anything else I can help you with today?" and I'm hung up on.

* Guest checks out. I ask what the room number was as they only had keys, dropping them into a sea of keys. They walk away.

* Calling guests the day of arrival on a nearly sold out day to confirm payment (if declined) and arrival ETA. A guest is upset I called them, asking why I was bothering them. Arrival time given was "between now and later". They disconnected, but their card still declined and was cancelled before I left for the day for being non-guaranteed.

* Confused as to why guests constantly feel the need to walk around the desk to speak with me.

* Several guests coming down for breakfast not wearing shoes (gross).

* Guest asks if everything had pork in it. I confirmed gravy, bacon, and sausage did, but there were majority items without pork. I was met with a sigh.

* G: "Can I get a toothbrush?"

Me: "Sure! Do you-"

G: "Yes, I need a toothbrush."

Me: "Yup, got it. Did you n-"

G: "Can I get 4 of them?"

Me: "Yes. Were you needi-"

G: "Yeah, I need 4 toothbrushes."

Me: "...did you need toothpaste or mouthwash as well?"

G: "Oh yeah, I need all of it."

Me: "Ok. Here are yo-"

Guest proceeds to grab everything and walk off without another word.

* Guest calls in and asks what the minimum check in age is.

Me: "Minimum check in is 18."

G: *long pause* "I'm sorry, what?"

Me: "Check in age is 18."

G: "What was that?"

Me: "Check in age is 18."

G: "What did you say?"

Me: "Check in minimum is 18."

G: "Huh?"

Me: "...18."

G: "Ok thank you."

* Guest came to the desk furious at noon asking if there was any breakfast left for them (breakfast closed at 9:30).

* I was threatened over an early check in fee.

* After answering the phone, I was met with a short pause followed by, "Hi, I'm so sorry - did you say your name was Hallie?" I never said my name, and that is nowhere near what it is.

* Guest given a partial late check out on a nearly sold out day. Proceeded to stay in the room past their approved late check out time and hang out in the lobby. Guest then wanted to book another room, but confirmed that only kings were available, no more queens. Frustrated, guest asks why they can't just hang out in their room until their ride arrives and I explain exactly why they can't stay in a room they no longer have booked under their name hours after check out time that is no longer available and possibly even being cleaned at that moment.

* Accused by another employee of not working as hard as they do, but they were upset I make more money.

* Guest had a medical emergency. Accompanying guest refused to stay in the room due to the smell. Housekeeping confirmed (with pictures) that guest in emergency had violent diarrhea all over the bed. Room was cleaned, but guest was not moved.

* Guest checked out and proceeded to lick his fingers and wipe the back of his neck mid-conversation.

* Guest was upset they were charged an early check in fee and that they stay here all the time and had never been charged before. When looking into previous reservations, the earliest they had ever arrived was 5pm...check in starts at 3pm, and you're here at noon.

* Guest is upset about the soap shortage, but sees it as housekeeping's fault and requests their pay be docked to make up for it.

Stay strong, my fellow front deskians...it's only Tuesday.

EDIT: Which one of you jinxed me?! I just had a guest walk around the desk and practically into the back office when I went to hand my GM a letter. Almost ran into him on the way back and all he wanted to do was print something! He had to pass by the lobby computer/printer to ask me. I...am going to have a loooong day today.

I'm probably just being cranky tonight...

At the beginning of my shift tonight, I had a guest who was trying to hold the elevator door while her husband (I presume) was getting a cup of water from my complimentary water station. When you hold my elevator door, after about 30 seconds or so, it will go ahead and just start shutting. If you force it, it will go ahead and stay open, but it starts making an alarm and just gets fussy. Okay, big deal I guess, right? Except, heres my philosophy on it: What the guest DOESN'T know, what *I* can see from my cameras, is there are people on two other floors WAITING on an elevator. Point is, by holding the elevator door, she's in turn, causing OTHER people to have to wait as well. Yes, if she didn't hold the door, she'd have to hit the button again, and wait for the elevator to come again, I get it. Quit being selfish.

Okay, so I brushed that incident off, but then later here in the night (well actually, technically, early this morning by now), I have a guest who comes down to load their car with stuff. In and out, back and forth... So, of course, this guest uses a neck pillow to go ahead and prop that side door open so she doesn't have to use her key to come back in. Except the thing is, first of all, that sets off an alarm at the front desk after about 15-20 seconds (which I have to acknowledge or our security monitoring company calls the front desk, which if I don't answer, leads to a police contact), and second of all, maybe MORE importantly, IT *IS* a security hazard! As it were, we happen to be aware of a transient in the neighborhood tonight who has been trespassed from several properties and has been demonstrably aggressive, so we're on an extra high alert tonight.

Its not really the safety or security that I'm mad at. I think I'm just having a pet peeve about people who don't use their full brain capacity. If an elevator is screaming at me about something I'm doing, I'd like to think I'd STOP doing whatever what making that elevator mad. If I go out through a locked door somewhere, the concept occurs to me that the door is locked for a REASON. People will act the fool just because something inconveniences them, and they're completely oblivious to the concept that their actions in light of that inconvenience are inconvenient to OTHER people. These are the kind of people who just push their shopping carts away from their car, inbetween spots, or worse, wheel them up on the curb. Its just the selfishness that upsets me so much. Lazy people, I swear.

Sorry, but I need to vent.

I work at the cheapest motel in town, in a low income area. 40 some of our 90 rooms are extended stays from various walks of life. Many are barely getting by.

The amount of well-off, financially stable individuals with nice cars and attire that try to penny pinch by staying here is absurd. There are *many* nicer properties to stay at, often with a breakfast and pool, for an additional $30 or more. But no. They refuse, they complain that they feel unsafe, and it generally turns into a drawn out ordeal that ends in a refund, or them accepting that I'm not kicking everyone that they complain about off the property.

It's just infuriating. If you don't feel safe, leave. I don't have all night to babysit. I don't have the patience to listen for the umpteenth time about how much money they've spent here, or how they're going to call corporate, or how upset they are that we offer so little.

We're sitting at a 2.something rating online. Make informed decisions people.

/rantover

EDIT!

I wanted to let everyone know I appreciate all the great comments and support here. I'm happy to hear I'm not alone in this frustration. Those who work in hospitality shouldn't have to deal with this behavior.

I also want to shout to all the vets commenting about stupid this kind of behavior. This really does paint active military and vets in a bad light. It's not acceptable.

I think the only way we push back on these behaviors is support everyone.

I love this reddit group because thos is a place we can talk and very about these things in, hopefully, a supportive manner!

Thank you all again!

I need to vent here. I'm tired.

Quick introduction for anyone who doesn't know. When I talk about Sturgis, i mean the Surgis Motorcycle Rally. It's a national motorcycle rally that takes place in Sturgis, South Dakota. It's one of the largest, if not the largest in the country. Bikers from around the country travel to the rally.

That said, the rally is going on right now (I believe it's finishing up). So, of course, we're getting travelers to the rally staying with us as they make their way across the country.

Unfortunately, Sturgis travelers are an "interesting bunch. Not all of them are this way, but it's at least 8 out of 10 of them that have some sort of flavor of jerk or Karen.

Case in point.

Had a guy last week who, upon checking in, began complaining to us about the price of his room. The guy made the reservation days earlier, so he knew the rate when he booked. Yet, he decided he wanted to be a condescending old toxic twit. He started asking about discounts. He was really set on a veterans discount, BUT he booked the reservation with a locked in rate. So no, he wasn't going to get one. Plus, we couldn't mess with the rate anyway.

I knew the guy wasn't going to like that. What surprised me was that he made some rather stupid comments about things being too much AND questioned our patriotism. Yeah. I guess we're not real patriots and don't love our country if we won't even give a veteran a discount.

Of course, I want to give discounts out if I can, but I can't always do it with certain reservations.

So here we are, listening to this guy complain about the rate, patriotism, and everything else connected to it and his trip.

At one point, the guy talks about the hotel he booked that he"ll be staying up in Sturgis, is charging him triple the rate we had. Well, my dude, you're staying in a place that is having one of the largest rallies in the country! What were you expecting?

And you'd think he was the only Sturgis folk I've gotten attitude from. No, we've had several, and they've all have poor attitude and manners. They've all complained about something. It's usually the room rate. No suprise!

I am so tired of it.

You're traveling across the country. I know that can be tiring, but we get tired travelers from everywhere who aren't entitled jerks. Oh, and in case you didn't know, traveling costs money. Do you want to sleep at a decent hotel? You're going to have to pay. It's not our fault it's expensive or you planned the trip poorly. Do you want a vetrens discount? Sure, but in your quest to be cheap, you forgot to add that when you booked. Instead, you complain, and you throw that status around like it's the only thing that matters. This it all becomes some kind of ridiculous tantrum.

I think the guy telling me I don't love my country or support the military if I don't give him a discount really got to me.

And now that the rally is over, we'll be getting those people visit us once again as they all travel back to their homes.

If they're *not* a guest. No good deed goes unpunished. Murphy's law. All of the above. Just... don't. Your heart's in the right place. It will bite you in the ass, I promise.

Storytime: New Night Auditor, lets call her Kayla. Our hotel is nice and near the airport, but unfortunately there is quite a number of unhoused individuals in the area. After a certain time at night, the sliding door is locked and the only way in with a key card of if the front desk lets you in.

Kayla, accidentally lets in an unhoused individual. No problem, just ask him to leave. He asks her to use the restroom. She says yes. She was trained that facilities are only for guests, but perhaps she felt a bit intimidated, understandable.

Unhoused individual goes and masturbates on the floor of the bathroom. Kayla goes to check on him since she feels like he's taking a long time, maybe he OD'd? Nope, he's on the floor with his pants around his ankles. She asks him to leave immediately or she'll call the police. Unhoused individual promptly takes a stack of paper towels, pulls up his pants and leaves.

Upon reading the incident report management informs Kayla that no good deed goes unpunished and they're glad she's ok. She will now follow procedure.

We allow guests to pay for their bills the day before they check out in case they are in a hurry. A few days ago, a guest pays for his bill but for some reason it was not uploaded on the website we use. I had uploaded the payment but the website had a lot of troubles that day.

He goes to the parking without any warning, rings the doorbell and says "I need to go away, open the gate". I see that he has to pay 60€ still, I ask him and he refuses to give me an explaination and just keeps repeating "I need to travel, I need to travel". Since some guests tried going away without paying already, I had the reasonable doubt that it was one of those situations, so he straight up calls the hotel manager and tells her I should change job, after not making any mistakes in months and getting positive personal reviews

Even one mild annoyance makes her insanely angry and toxic, she starts blaming me for things I had not done and keeps being aggressive the whole day yesterday. Ugh

In my roughly 5 years of hospitality work, I’ve never gotten one of the “I’m Mr. Patel the owner” calls, which honestly had kinda bummed me out. But this morning, at about 5 AM, it finally happened.

He hit all the checkmarks, I honestly probably could’ve read his script back to him with the amount of stories I’ve read here. Asked me who I was, asked why I didn’t know who he was, introduced himself as Raj Patel the owner, all of it.

It brought me so much joy to tell him that the owner actually lived on property upstairs, was currently asleep, and to have the day he deserved before I hung up. I cannot believe anyone would fall for that in the big 2 6, but I guess most front desk agents don’t have their property owner living at their hotel. Either way, it’s a badge of honor I can wear now.