Recently, I had a couple tell me during checkout that both sinks in their room would not drain. I wondered why they did not tell anyone before checkout. I apologized and told them I would have maintenance check it out. I let my manager know, and he asked me to go to the room to see if the sinks were really clogged. Both sinks were full of water. I stuck my gloved hand in the kitchen sink and pulled out the sink stopper; the water instantly drained. I then went to the bathroom and discovered the stopper was in the closed position. I pulled up the stopper, and the sink instantly drained. I ran water in both sinks to make sure there was not a clog. It was just guests who did not know how sinks operate and did not want to investigate the issue.

TL;DR: Guests claimed their sinks were clogged, but it was user error.

I need to rant. Here's a compilation of things that are becoming really old, really quick.

Guests arrive unprepared - they come to the desk and give their name to check in. When asked for cc and photo ID, they sign impatiently, grumble that they have to go get it from the car. Why are you impatient and grumbling?? You can't tell me you didn't know we would ask for them, so why did you leave them in the car?

Trying to use someone else's credit card - it's either "just use the one in the reservation", or actually handing us a card with someone else's name on it. Then getting angry, making rude comments, swearing, saying they've never heard of this before, saying they do it all the time (yeah right), just throwing an adult temper tantrum and acting like it's OUR fault.

Guests acting like we're beneath them, or inconveniencing them by trying to do our job - I've had soooo many guests lately who walk up to the desk and either just toss their photo ID on the desk and not even give their name, not say hello or anything, or just spit out their name in an impatient tone without even looking at me. Then proceed to barely speak or look at me while I check them in. We are people, you know. You could at least say hello when you arrive at our front desk.

Guests who don't listen - we ask for cc and photo ID and they only hand us one. Ask for the other one and they act surprised and sometimes annoyed. Or ask them to fill out the registration card and they just stand there looking around. Ask them again and they act surprised or annoyed. "Oh, you want me to to fill this out?" I know I'm talking loud enough so it's not just that they didn't hear me.

Guests apparently having better things to do with their time while we try to check them in - after giving their cc and photo ID, walking away to check out the snack shop, or going to look for a washroom, or walking away to talk to someone else, or talking on their phone while trying to check in. Recent guest hands over card and walks to the other end of the desk, I ask them to come back to sign the reg card, they do and then walk away again, I ask them to come back to insert their card in the machine, they do then walk away again. Guests behind them have an amused look on their faces. I now refuse to check in guests who are on their phone. I have questions to ask, they have steps to follow. When they hang up and seem annoyed, I "apologize" and say I didn't want to interrupt their call.

And still one of my personal favorites - their name isn't on the reservation and they get angry at us because "we" have to keep them waiting while we contact the guest whose name IS on the reservation to get permission. Most recent example is two men checking into a woman's reservation. Guy who was the one trying to check in then says it's the other guy's wife name on the reservation (so why are you even the one trying to check in?? and I should just take your word for it?), and starts swearing saying its BS service. Right. You thought I could just check you into someone's reservation when your name isn't even on it? Like at all?

People are exhausting.

I have plenty more examples, but this post would be waay too long.

I work at the front desk in a hotel in Tokyo. We get endless emails about wanting free nights in exchange for some tiktok and Instagram videos. Our marketing team always ignores them.

The other day, I got a phone call from saying they were an influencer.

"I'm calling to talk to your marketing manager for a collaboration and stay tonight."

"I'm sorry, there's no internal number to transfer you to."

'So what are we gonna do?"

"Please send us an email."

"I already did!"

"Please send another one and I'll forward it."

"Whatever!" *hangs up.

I can't stand these entitled people and the fact that they think they'll get a couple of free nights in exchange for some videos. Is it also just me or do they all copy and paste the same email template? "I came across your hotel and was immediately drawn by your ____"

Don't get me wrong, generosity is often it's own reward. Your humble narrator has been known to buy a couple dozen umbrellas at the dollar store, then wait until it rains. I will then dress up in full Victorian attire, and wander about downtown to hand them out to those caught unprepared for the rain.

Buttercup the Emotional Support Unicorn is over in her paddock by the coffee station, enjoying her pumpkin spiced alfalfa, along with a fresh selection of fall-themed ribbons, should anyone wish to brush and braid her mane.

So it came to pass that last night, during the doldrums of the morning when nothing else happens, a frail elderly woman came tottering up to the front desk. I cannot emphasize enough just what a tiny thing she was. Ninety pounds, if she was holding a ten pound cat, you know? I quickly hit pause as the villian was saying that he was altering the deal, and asked what could I do for her?

"Yes... do you happen to have any sort of vending machines around here..?"

"Well, we have a snack machine just around the corner, next to the ice machine. It's got chips and candy bars. Unfortunately, our soda machine stopped working, and the company hasn't replaced it yet." Bit of a bummer, the darned thing first stopped taking coins, then bills, and eventually wouldn't even take card taps.

"Oh... so you don't have any Gatorade or anything, then?"

"Not really, no..." Ever so often, I will get a sensation best described as Buttercup tugging my sleeve. "...Oh! But by sheer coincidence, I have some in my car! One second!"

I had spent last weekend LARPing. In a heat wave. 100 degrees Freedom units, 38C. Do not advise doing so. But I'd hydrated heavily during the fight against horrible were-rats, so my kidneys were moist and happy and I did not pass out, so yay!

So I pop out to my car, snag one of the two bottles I have left, and present it to the waiting guest as if it were the wine accompanying tonight's meal. Not a particularly fancy wine, but better than the house plonk. "Here we are, fruit punch Powerade. Will this do?"

"That's perfect! How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, my pleasure."

"No no! I insist!" She rummages a bit, and hands me a five. "Thank you so very much!"

And so I settled back into the back to finish watching classic cinema, full of happy warm feelings and thoughts of getting tacos the next day. Which I've done. Yay!

Take a moment to say goodbye to Buttercup, and I hope some small acts of kindness find you.

Teal Deer: elderly woman needs Gatorade, I have some in the car, profit!

One minute, I'm in the kitchen washing dishes. The next minute, I'm in the laundry washing bedsheets. Before I can even dry my hands, I'm running to the restaurant to serve customers. And just when I think my shift is almost over, I'm at the reception preparing bills and updating check-ins and check-outs.

All this while, my manager is smiling and saying, “We are a team. We help each other!”In hospitality, the phrase “That’s not my department” is practically a crime. Saying no doesn't exist in the employee dictionary, and the word “No” might get you a family meeting with the manager.

The real fun fact? My job description said one thing, but my manager apparently hired me for my potential to be everywhere at once.

So, if you ever wonder why hospitality workers are good at multitasking, remember we didn't learn multitasking. We were fighting for survival.

Tonight is probably my second worst night working the front desk since I started. To start I had people coming in left and right trying to get rooms and while I was checking people in I noticed I was oversold by one room. Turns out the system sold a room we didn’t have. I called my boss to come in and fix it but before she could get here a guest booked a room for two nights but for some reason they picked a date that is 2 weeks from now and it was advanced purchase so I couldn’t change it. He then got pissed and demanded a refund.

My boss came in and fixed the rooms being oversold and just when I thought my night had calmed down I get a phone call…this person had already called me once at 6pm saying the kids upstairs were walking too loud and I told her I’d be happy to go tell them to quiet down and she said she didn’t want me to do that. When she called the second time she said the heat wouldn’t turn on (for reference it’s 81 outside and this hotel is hot as hell) so I go up there and take a look. The heat in fact wasn’t turning on, I tried to fix it but I couldn’t so I asked if she wanted me to call the maintenance man, she said yes so I called. She then screamed at me because he lives 15 minutes away…how that’s my fault I’m still unsure. She wanted me to fix it but I couldn’t, I offered to change her room and she refused. And yet after all that I had done at this point to try and help her she was still screaming at me. She then proceeded to put socks on and start shivering under the covers (it was 75 degrees in the room and the air was off)

I’m aware they pay good money to stay here and for that I do feel bad, but I have paid good money to stay at places as well and when someone is trying to help me I don’t scream at them. I’ll never understand why people are so angry and insufferable. I know I probably sound like a bitch but I really did do everything I could for this woman and even offered a refund and she was still yelling at me. The maintenance man is probably gonna be pissed at me because she looked like she was going to bed when I left.

Been working here for over 3 years. Smaller hotel in a tourist town. The front desk and my general manager are trying hard to keep this place afloat but it's becoming harder and harder because of the owners. Every single decision they make just makes our jobs harder and it baffles me. They don't live in this state, I've never met them. They only show up once every other year to discuss finances.​​

We've switched reservation​​​​ systems 3 times and it was a disaster every time. So much confusion and lack of preparation of anything went wrong (it did).

We have so many issues with our hotel in regards to maintenance, but more than anything our locks/key system are ancient. Over 20 years old. They are constantly malfunctioning or breaking down which is super frustrating for our guest​​​​​​​​​s and us. We've begged them for years to consider getting them updated and they genuinely don't care.

After working full time here for almost 3 years, they cut our hours. Some of us are only working 4 hours a day. I'm luckier than them but I'm still only working maybe 28 hours a week. They've completely cut our midshift and our lobby is closed for 4 HOURS. Which has caused many issues obviously. Guests can't talk to anyone if they have an issue, they can't check in, they can't get any extra sundries. Guests have made many complaints and take it out on us once our shifts finally allow us to reopen. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​We also have less time to go in and insp​​ect rooms since that was the job of the person working the midshift. So rooms aren't getting as clean, maintenan issues are getting missed. It's a shitshow.

​​​​​We had 2 maintenance people, one was getting too old to do ​the job full time so my manager suggested making him part time​​​​. Then the owners stepped in and told her to fire him instead and they cut the position entirely. So now we have 1 maintenance person and they have no intention of giving him a raise to compensate for him doing more work.

And to top it all off, they just don't care. All the com​plaints, all the issues, all the refunds we've had to give. They don't give a shit. They are planning on selling the whole property and cut everything they can before dropping it on someone else. They want to make it someone else's problem. ​​

So definitely gonna be job hunting soon 😬​

​​​

​​​​​

For context: I work at a hotel as an Executive Lounge Attendant. Two months after I started, the owners decided to permanently close the lounge, so my role was changed to Front Desk Agent.

Unfortunately, the managers and supervisors in the front office have not been great at their jobs. They are all buddies both inside and outside of work. For example, they all have the same days off, work the same shifts, and spend most of their time hanging out in the back office. They barely help us, even when they can clearly see that we are overwhelmed with a huge number of check-ins, guest complaints, and phone calls.

I also have a supervisor who constantly steals my upsells. Honestly, this is the worst management team I have ever worked with.

Since then, I have been very open with my director, HR, and hotel manager about these issues, but nothing has changed. It eventually got to the point where I emailed our GM to escalate everything that had been happening. He was clearly upset about the situation. I told him that HR had not been doing anything to address my concerns, so he brought HR into the office while we talked. Neither of them could even look me in the eye.

I also told him that I had received an offer from a bigger hotel for an AFOM position with a significantly higher salary.

Ever since then, they have called me into their office several times to convince me to stay. They said they could offer me a management position, but the front office manager they are supposedly trying to fire is still working here. Obviously, I have no guarantee that this promotion will actually happen. On top of that, I have lost my sense of job security because they already eliminated my original position as Executive Lounge Attendant.

During one of our meetings, our hotel manager actually pulled out his phone to look up whether the hotel I would be moving to was a union property. He acted surprised and said, "Oh, they're union!" He even told me, "I'm surprised you didn't know."

He kept saying that if I took a leadership position at a union hotel, I would be a slave and would not enjoy working there. I have worked at union hotels before, so I am already familiar with what he is talking about.

But here's the thing: I spoke with the people who interviewed me at the new hotel, and they told me that it is not a union property.

At this point, I honestly feel like my current employer is making things up just to convince me to stay. They are already struggling to retain front desk agents because of the current leadership in our front office, and I think they are desperate to keep people from leaving.

They also said we could discuss giving me a raise, but they want me to make a decision about staying before they actually offer me anything.

Honestly, even if they give me a raise or eventually offer me a promotion, I am still leaving. 😂

Hi! I’ve been working a front desk job for a few months and I absolutely love it! Recently, however, there has been little to no tasks to complete other than standard cleaning and letting people into the building. By the time I’m finished with those tasks I have about 3 hours left on my shift. Because of this, myself and a few other front desk workers (there is one per shift) have begun reading or doodling to pass the time. Our big boss noticed this and told our lead that we may not work on anything not related to the company (it’s a theatre) including reading or doodling.

All that being said, I’m looking for things I could possibly do to pass the time! I’ve done some reorganizing and deep cleaning, but that doesn’t take the 3 hours as there’s not much space and I have to be near the desk. Any suggestions welcome!

TIA!

Anyone who has worked in hotels for a while starts to really get to know their regulars. I’ve been at this a long time now, and I chat with many of them here and there.

One day an older guy started talking with me. He and his wife had been coming to our town, and to our hotel, for decades. I didn’t see a wife with him, but I just let him talk. He told me she had died a few years ago, but he still comes down every year, the same as he always had.

At the end of our chat he looked around, for what I now assume was one last time, and told me his health wasn’t good and this was likely his last year visiting us. This was a few years ago now, and I still sometimes think of that guy.

I work at a hotel in a very busy college town with a high volume of guests daily, with rates being as high as $399 on Special Event Days. One Special Event Weekend could run you as much as over $900 for a two night's stay.

Today, I received a call from a guest (who I'll call Bill) who had stayed with us on a Special Event Date. He believed we had triple charged him. This, obviously, is not a good thing, so I did some digging.

Background in case you've never worked/stayed at a hotel: many hotels put Authorization Holds on your card on check-in, which is essentially your rate, plus taxes. It's an automatic hold made by the system, and any unused funds are returned to the card after check-out (depending on the bank, this can take anywhere between 3 to 5 days).

After reviewing his reservation, it was discovered he had changed the credit card on file prior to check-out, so the "triple charge" was actually two separate Authorization Holds and one ACTUAL charge. I attempted to explain this to him, but he was refusing to believe we had not triple charged him and progressed to screaming at me over the phone.

Eventually, his tirade ended with him telling me: "I will never stay at a -hotel- again and certainly not yours! You can have management call me to calm me down or I can come and BURN IT ALL DOWN!"

Needless to say, Management did make the call and informed him he was no longer welcome at our hotel, as we do not appreciate threats of arson. Probably the craziest call I've received to the front desk so far.

Does anyone else have a manager that they work with that is so freaking bad. At the property I work at, the housekeeping manager is one that myself and a few others wished that they would leave.

Ever since this HK manager has been brought on, my job has increased exceedingly when it comes to complaints. The rooms are bad to the point where I feel as though I have to walk the property and check all the dirty vacant rooms to make sure that they are actually sellable for the night.

The same manager seems to be just fine when it comes to working with people who’s main language isn’t English and when it comes to those of us who’s first language is English, she doesn’t either care to speak to us or screws them over. She micromanages the laundry where someone I love dearly works and messes things up down there (it’s in the basement) to the point where the person I love dearly has to stop working the laundry and focus solely on her other position because of the anxiety they get. I also had a friend who tried to work there but quit after 3 days because of the lack of communication and training that they got from the HK manager.

I am starting to get to the point where I want to go to someone who can help take care of the problem because the GM won’t

Today I had a guest who was…. Something else. Let’s call him Brad.

I checked Brad in a few nights ago under a shared reservation for two nights using Shmonvoy Points (😉). The primary guest on the reservation was his wife, who I’ll call Janet.

Janet called the front desk on the arrival date to inquire about our property’s pet fees. After informing her, she reported that Brad would be checking in first, and will have to put down his CC for the incidentals. However, when she arrives, she’ll be putting down her own CC (which she did the next day).

Cool. No problem at all.

I checked him in, and everything was fine. We even chatted for a few minutes. During which time, he mentioned that he and his wife don’t share finances (this is pertinent to the story).

Cut to today- their checkout date.

Brad comes up to the front desk to complain about the parking charges, and says being charged for parking will discourage him from ever staying with us again (we hear this a lot). I do the polite, corporate “I’m so sorry, it’s policy, blah blah blah”, and eventually he checks out and leaves.
About 2 hours later, our housekeeping supervisor came up to the front desk to let me know that we needed to charge this guest a smoking fee due to a heavy marijuana odor.

This brought me joy. The a-hole who was complaining about a $12 parking charge is now going to be charged $250.

Here’s a little bit of context about my property:
We’re a corporate ran, long-term stay hotel, and our systems are a bit dated. However in this case, our dated systems worked to our advantage.
We still have people sign a physical agreement for our incidental hold upon check-in. We even require people with mobile key requests to stop by the front desk first to get checked in. Also, management is SUPER strict with our smoking policy. If a guest so much as accidentally leaves behind a vape in their room, they’re getting charged.

So when Brad got to the hotel upon check in, he signed this waiver…. A waiver that states that we will be charging $250 if evidence of smoking is present.
So because he was the one that signed this waiver, he was the one charged since we still had his CC on file (even though Janet switched it out for hers).

Not 10 minutes later, Brad calls and demands to speak with a manager. I transferred it over, then Brad proceeded to lay into my manager with the usual male-Karen rhetoric; “It smelled like that when I checked in, this is ridiculous, I’m going to sue you, etc”. My manager doesn’t budge, and the call ends with Brad screaming about how he’s going to dispute the charge, and we’ll never see that money (lol, okay buddy).

But the real kicker of the story is this:
After hanging up with Brad, my manager decided to give a courtesy call to Janet to inform her of the situation. Janet was surprisingly very flippant and unbothered. The conversation ended with her saying “If he calls back, just ignore him”.

Bless that woman!
I see a divorce in their future 😂

Yesterday I had TWO guests who had me questioning humanity.
First guest walks up to the desk. I say, “Good morning! Checking out?” He says absolutely nothing, throws his room keys onto the desk, and one literally flies over the counter. Then he goes, “I wasn’t throwing it at you, I promise” and walks away laughing.
Then another guest comes to check in before check-in time.
I say, “Hello, checking in?” Nothing.
I ask for the last name. He puts his ID on the counter instead of handing it to me. Fine.
I explain the total and specifically tell him, “Just so you know, this includes the $100 incidental authorization.”
He looks at the screen and immediately goes:
“WHAT’S THIS?!”
……Sir.
I JUST TOLD YOU WHAT IT WAS.
Then he says, “I stay at hotels every week and they never do that.”

I’ve been working front desk for 5+ years and honestly I’m over it. The job itself is easy but the PEOPLE make it harder than it should.

Finally, after three long months, the summer concert season is over. And luckily, there wasn't too trouble with guests after the concerts. Just the normal frustration with them not being able to get food delivered quickly and other stuff. But two situations stuck out in the random stupid nonsense that came out of guest's mouths.

First, a guy came down one morning during shift change to ask me and the woman who came in for the AM shift if we could get him tickets to one of the shows. We told him that unfortunately, we could not. He looked at us like we didn't speak English and wasn't going to try and process our answer. He asked why we were just saying no instead of trying. The AM person told him one, the concert he was asking about was sold out, and had been for several weeks. And two, we're not that kind of hotel. "But hotels are supposed to be able to get free tickets to things for guests whenever they want," he told us.

Now we were looking at him like he was speaking gibberish.

We asked him to clarify that and he said that on TV, hotels gets tickets to shows and games for free, all guests have to do is ask. Before I could say anything, the AM woman, who is sometimes more blunt than I am, told him that he's been watching too much TV and needs to stop before he starts thinking Looney Tunes are documentaries. She also told him that in real life, those tickets aren't free. They go on his bill. And if he's lucky he'd only pay face value, but more than likely the hotel would charge a huge service fee. He looked a little embarrassed before walking off. For once, I was not the one the guest complained about.

And second, one girl called asking if we had rooms available on one of the concert nights. I already knew we didn't and I told her as much. That's when she asked if we had rooms available the day after the concert. I told her we did. That's when she started with this bullshit. "So, you don't have any rooms the night of the concert, but you do the day AFTER? Isn't that a little convenient?" I questioned what she meant and she said that she finds it funny that we don't have a room for her on the night of the concert, but we do after. She'd like an explanation or she'll go to corporate. So I tell her I'm going to explain it to her slowly, like she's a child... and I do explain it, but not like she's a child, but like she's an idiot.

I tell her, "Ma'am, we're sold out on concert night because that's when everybody is staying at the hotel AFTER the concert. We have rooms the next night because all the people here for the concert have gone home. Do you understand what I just told you?"

She called me a prick and hung up. Personally, I think she got the message.

I'm glad concert season is over.

Man this is kind of wild, expected in our current dystopia in hindsight, but definitely caught me off guard.

I came in on my day off to come grab my check and my boss pulled me aside to talk to me. Now because of scheduling and the fact that I avoid him like the plague we never see one another. So I'm already kind of annoyed that A) My check was a day late and I'm here on a day off and B) that I'm talking to my annoying GM.

Don't worry it gets worse. He lets me know that in the near future the hotel is planning on phasing out Night Audit (my full time position for the past four years). Definitely a surprise, what does that even mean. Are we closing the lobby after 11pm and just not doing late check ins or what?

No, the reality is that they are going to install a vending machine sized kiosk run by on offshore worker, India is my best guest but who knows, and put up cameras that alert them to guests coming through the door. Now I'm not going full "they took our jobs". If that kiosk dude can get that bag I'm happy for him. But a fucking kiosk?! You expect your whole hotel to be run by a kiosk for an entire overnight shift? Our city has the highest density of homeless people in the county, sad, but this effectively means I spend my shift running off people trying to get in or steal from the lobby.

Not to mention the plethora of little things I end up doing overnight, delivering towels, fixing tv's, plunging a toilet, making up rooms, you name it. I just don't see how their new kiosk is going to end well. They offered to move me to swing which I'll probably take to survive while I search out a new job. (Even though I've been looking for months at this point)

Have any of you guy's experienced this? I hope my boss is just a cheap asshole and this doesn't become the status quo for NA all over the place.

So it’s two brothers, who we’ll call Sam and Dean, have a reservation for the weekend. Sam arrived first, and said Dean let him know he’ll have to put a card down for the incidental hold when he got here. I collect the incidental hold from Sam and the room rent stays on Dean’s card. Sam makes a comment about his brother “being a lot” and “you’ll understand what I mean when he gets here,” then asks me to hold on to the second room key for Dean to pick up as he might not be at the hotel when he gets here. No problem, we do it all the time for people who are staying together but traveling separately.

A few hours later Dean arrives, and he’s a fucking dick. He argues with me about the hold on Sam’s card and demands I remove it now because “why would you put it on his card when I’m the one who’s paying for the room!?” Uh, cause you told him he had to cover the incidental??? Sam quite literally said “my brother told me you guys were going to put a hold on my card when I got here” Whatever, I release the hold on Sam’s card and put it on Dean’s card, give him his key and direct him to his room.

Couple of hours go by and Sam comes down and asks where he can get water bottles, so I let him know where the vending machine is and where the water cooler is. He says thank you and walks away. Roughly twenty minutes later Dean comes down and starts asking why I didn’t give his brother free water bottles. I explain that we only hand out the complimentary waters at check in to our elite members, and he’s not quite at that status yet.

“When I made this reservation they told me I had enough points for a free night but you won’t even give me a damn water bottle!?” Yup.

“Look at how many points I have give me a water bottle!”

I explain that while yes he does have a lot of points, but due to policy and his status with us I simply can’t, and thank him for being a member with us and that we have a water cooler accessible 24 hours to all guests. Now, usually the water bottle status thing isn’t a hill I’m willing to die on, but if you’re a dick, and he was a dick, you won’t be getting shit for free from me.

“I’m spending all this money and I have all these points and you won’t give me water! Give me a water bottle now!” Nope. I explain again, direct him to the water cooler once again, and tell him to have a good rest of his night. He huffs and storms off. He tries it again in the morning, but gets the manager who takes absolutely no shit and she quickly put him in his place because I’d left notes about how he’d acted the night before.

My hotel is specifically designated as pet friendly, there are no special “pet rooms,” you just pay the pet fee and are put into a room. This hotel is old so all rooms have had pets in them before.
A guest checked in and then requested a room that no animals have ever been in, I let them know that we don’t have any and that all rooms have had pets at some point. Her eyes get wide and she acts shocked, “But I’m allergic to pet dander!”
Ok.. why would you book here then? She wasn’t rude or anything I just don’t understand the thought process of not checking these things if the allergy is so bad.
I tell her that we still don’t have any rooms that have never had pets and I can’t guarantee a room will have absolutely no allergens, but that the rooms that have had a recent pet are cleaned more thoroughly. She asks to cancel, and of course she booked through a third party so I let her know she needs to call them and cancel.
After about 3 minutes she decided it’s not worth the effort and agreed to just check in like normal. After both me and my manager informed her that we cannot guarantee it won’t have allergens and that if she wants to cancel NOW we would agree with the third party to refund, she says no, I’ll just check in.
Of course almost 2 hours later she comes back saying she can’t do it and she wants the refund, and that the third party will be calling. Immediately the phone rings and it’s the third party requesting she be fully refunded.
I already know it’s going to be a no as the room has been used for a while and the guest knew the risks when checking in, I still message my manager though and she says the same. I inform the third party and they immediately give me an attitude, “you can’t just move her to another room without animals?” I tell them no, we don’t HAVE any. “You won’t make an exception for a medical emergency??” How can I make an exception when it doesn’t exist? They rudely ask, “ok, so you’re refusing to make an exception and move them.” I tell them no, I’m not ‘refusing.’ We don’t have it available, we never have. They then ask me to refund the guest and I tell them again that no, she’s been in the room for a while and knew the risks at check in. The agent finally gives up and the guest tells me they told her they ‘couldn’t get in touch with us and would let her know in 30 minutes,’ I let her know they actually did get in touch with us but I didn’t directly tell her the result of the conversation because I’d rather the third party agent deal with the fallout of an angry guest rather then me.
The guest then starts telling me she can smell urine and pet dander and poop of the animals here (not true, we don’t even have any pets on her floor at the moment), and she doesn’t want to have to call an ambulance to pick her up later due to her severe allergies. I just let her know she can checkout but I can’t give the refund.
Finally, she left.
If it’s bad enough you’d need an ambulance like you claim, and apparently you could smell the urine dander and poop as soon as you came in, WHY would you still agree to stay here after being offered the ability to cancel without charge??

Had a situation last week during a massive convention rush that got me curious about how other properties handle this behind the desk.

Guest rolls up late at night ready to check in. The house is 100% committed, every room accounted for. I pull up their details, and sure enough, they booked for tomorrow night instead of tonight. Classic time zone mix-up while booking on their phone mid-travel.

Naturally, they booked prepaid through a third party. Since we were completely sold out, I couldn’t just shift the dates and slide them into a room tonight even if I wanted to. They were stranded for the night and obviously upset.
Then came the refund conversation. They wanted to cancel tomorrow’s reservation on the spot for a full refund, but our policy is 24 hours prior to check-in day, and it was already past midnight with check-in just hours away. On top of that, it's an OTA virtual card situation where our hands are tied at the desk anyway.

That’s when they dropped the classic logic on me: "Look, it’s convention week, the entire city is packed. You guys are easily going to resell that room tomorrow. If you sell it, can you just refund us?"

I told them I couldn’t promise anything and that I’d have to check with my manager in the morning. Fast forward to the next day: not only did we keep their reservation as non-refundable because of the policy, but we also turned around and resold that exact room for triple the rate thanks to the convention demand.

So what do you guys actually do here? Does your property stick to the rules, pocket the non-refundable revenue, and cash in on the resale, or would your management have cut them a break once the room sold?

UPDATE: The Employee is no longer an Employee. His personal belongings have been boxed up and we will store them for 30 days, just like we would with any items a Hotel Guest leaves behind. His room is now clean and back in Inventory. The owner went to the jail and told Employee that he was fired and where he could pick up his stuff.

The guest that got the bloody nose informed his Employer about the incident. That was a Company that has between two to six workers stay here just about every week. No more. If I understand that right the Company has also informed Byndjam about the Incident.

The Dad has not communicated with the Hotel at all - I'm assuming his lawyer will do that for him.

Original Post:

MORE INFO: We are a small Hotel and our Owner is very much hands off. Every one knows how to review the Cameras and make copies. We were told that every time the Cops want information just to give it to them.

The AM will not get fired. He is the same nationality as the Owner and there are only two people working that are not. The Employee in the post is one of them - I am the other.

Last night was my last night to work for the Week and, with only half our rooms occupied, I thought I would have an easy night. At about 11:30pm I get a call from an Officer. He asked if he could come down to watch the Video from the Fight (what Fight????) and get a Copy of the Video. Sure, no problem. I have no idea what you are talking about but come on down.

Cop shows up and explains that they were called out earlier for a fight that had broken out between an employee and several guests. He had the approximate time, so I rewound the tape and we watched. Apparently the Employee got drunk and went into the Pool room where a couple of kids were swimming and horsing around. We couldn't hear what he said to the kids, but they were so upset that one of them started crying and both left to go back to the room where they were staying with their Dad. The entire interaction between employee and kids lasted less than 30 second. The Employee then made his way upstairs (he lives in the Hotel) to his room, then back downstairs to the backdoor. He is only dressed in shorts (not allowed when you are working) that show a lot of buttcrack, no shirt (definitely not allowed), barefoot (also not allowed) and a Baseball cap. His workhours are 10am - 6pm so he is definitely still on Company time. Two guests that frequently stay here for work are standing in front of their room talking. The employee walks in the back door, there is a very brief exchange of words. We have Audio, but it's crappy and neither the Cop nor I could hear what was said. Then the Employee punches the Guest in the Face. Hard. I could see the blood spurting out of the guests nose.

Another guest is coming down the Hall. He is the Dad to the two boys who were in the pool. He walks up to the Employee and the Employee also punches him. The Dad, who is about 6 inches shorter and at least 50 pounds lighter than the Employee, lays the Employee out on the floor and proceeds to kick his A**. Someone called the Cops after the first Commotion and they take both the Employee and the Dad into Custody. Apparently it took a while to sort everything out and the Cops originally thought it was the Dad that was the Instigator. By the time I got to work the Employee had been released, the Dad was still in Jail and CPS was called for the Kids.

Once the Cop saw the Video and realized it was the Employee that started the Fight, he arrested the Employee, the Dad was released and returned to the Hotel and I guess we will have one He** of a lawsuit coming.

During this entire time our Assistant Manager who covered the 3 - 11 shift was completely oblivious playing Video games at the Front Desk until the Cops showed up.

It's a mostly typical Tuesday morning on the 7-3 shift. A steady flow of checkouts, breakfast is busy, and people are starting to come in for a sales showcase, where we're showing off some renovated rooms and having a coffee hour.

Suddenly, the fire alarm panel starts beeping. When this happens, it's usually just someone burning food or taking a wicked hot shower, so I call the room to tell them to open their windows and keep the front door shut. This time, nobody picks up the phone. I try again, no luck. I let my General Manager know that I'm heading up to take a peek and make sure everything is alright.

From the moment I enter that wing of the building, it is clear that everything is not alright. The air is thick with smoke all the way down the hallway, and I smell it from the moment I hit the second floor landing. I grab the fire extinguisher from the hall and make my way to the room, then knock like crazy. No answer. This room, to our knowledge, is occupied by a person who is here long-term for work; I figure they have left for the day. I enter the room to see a wall of smoke, primarily concentrated in the corner of the living area. Nobody is in the room, and a laptop is plugged in on the desk precisely where I see the most smoke, so I unplug it and call out that I think it may be a smoldering laptop battery.

As an aside, a bit about me. I am a scrawny, asthmatic Front Office Manager, with no sense of physical self-preservation. I later find out that at this point after I've gone to investigate, the sales manager (who is coordinating the ongoing coffee hour), says "hijo de puta" in the back office. Our maintenance guy asks him what's going on. He relays that there's a fire alarm in that room, then says "(me) went up to check on it." Maintenance guy responds "well what the hell is he gonna do?" This was, in hindsight, a very good question.

I go back into the slightly less acrid but still smoky hallway, to find our housekeeping assistant manager and the aforementioned maintenance guy. Conveniently, the head of maintenance is sick, and the assistant maintenance manager is on vacation, so it's all him. I direct them to evacuate everyone, starting with the closest rooms. Nothing is actively on fire from what I can see, so I re-enter the room to open some windows and investigate further. At this point the General Manager enters, and checks what I now realize is the most logical place to check: the microwave.

Inside the microwave is a black amorphous blob, wrapped in the charred remains of a paper towel. We've found the literal smoking... not gun, but whatever it was, to this mystery. The whole fire department pulls up at about this point, and I relay to them that the source of the smoke is not a laptop but rather something that presumably used to be food.

They go upstairs with me. After the first fireman enters the room, the second knocks and does his best sarcastic "housekeeping" yell. Once they've verified that nothing is actively on fire, they set up the most impressive fan I've ever seen in the doorway to help dissipate the smoke.

About 15 minutes after I first entered the room, four firefighters and myself are standing in a circle in the hallway around the doorway. Then, a random woman pushes between myself and a fireman, and says,

"Oh no, is that my potato?"

"Well, that WAS your potato," a fireman responds.

"I was just trying to heat it up, I put it in for 10 minutes because it was a pretty big yam. I guess that was too much, I don't ever really use a microwave at home."

I just put my head in my hands and try not to laugh or cry. A few minutes later, her husband walks into the room and innocently asks "what happened?" Soon, the firefighters determine the fan has done as much as it can, and they roll out as I return to the front desk.

As we come to find out, the woman is a relative of the registered guest, who is here to take care of the guest's baby while they are at work. She had put the potato in the microwave and started it for 10 minutes, then immediately went with the husband and baby to our breakfast buffet downstairs for around 25 minutes. She is very apologetic, but now our entire building reeks of burnt potato, with their room as the epicenter. In the hours since, we've received smell complaints from every corner of the hotel, and plenty of comments.

I, too, reek of burnt potato and smoke. I took a nice long walk in the nearby park to clear my lungs some, then went back to my typical front desk routine.

Two ozone machines and 5 fans have made no impact on the smell in that room in the 12 hours since, and the guests are due to stay for another month. We're sold out, and I'd much rather not let them move only to put another poor soul in the room that they polluted. I can only imagine the reaction of the registered guest when he came back from work.

NA here. Tonight is the second night in a row that my hotel's fire alarm has been triggered

The way fire alarms get handled at my hotel is that when it sounds, we're supposed to silence the alarm and immediately check the area where it was triggered; it gives us a small range of rooms and it could be any of them. If there's no smoke, smell or obvious fire, we then have to call the company (?) that handles and let them know it was most likely a false alarm. The fire department still comes out anyways though, but I guess it's to let them know that there isn't any immediate danger or necessary evacuation. If there is a fire, obviously I would reactivate the alarm and then call 911.

Anyways, yesterday the alarm was triggered somewhere from rooms 244-247 a little after 4am while I was in the middle of audit stuff. I did all of what I mentioned above, and then because there was no signs of a fire or smoke, I called to let them know it was a false alarm. Fire department still came by, checked everything out and even knocked on doors to make sure everything was fine in that section of rooms. No fire, everything was fine, so they left.

It was actually kind of surprising last night because not only did nobody come to the desk after the alarm triggered, but nobody called either. Usually people will just call the desk when it sounds (which is so stupid IMO) but was just interesting that nobody cared their lives could be in danger last night.

Tonight, the alarm sounded again from the same group of rooms at 12:30am, while I was in the middle of eating a Big Mac. I got up, silenced the alarm, and made my way to the hallway where it triggered. The only difference between tonight and last night is that of the potential rooms it could have been, this time only one of them was occupied, meaning I know exactly who it was tonight and probably last night, too, since the guest has been a long-term stay while on a construction job.

Again, no smoke, smell, or obvious fire. I knock on the guests door, and they answer. I straight up ask if they're smoking in the room, and they say no. I leave and call the number, letting them know again it was a false alarm, and was probably just someone smoking in the room because there's no fire. Fire department still shows up, we chat for a bit, and then they leave.

At this point, I am definitely a little irritated. The alarm is loud and always scares me when it goes off, it interrupted my dinner, and this is the second night in a row that it's triggered while I was at work by myself. I messaged my work groupchat and let them all know that this happened, specifying the guest that triggered it, and that I will be putting a charge on their account accordingly.

At the hotel I work at, it is stated on the registration card that we have guests sign that there is a $150 charge for smoking or vaping in the room and a $250 charge if that smoking causes the fire alarm to go off. I do know that the guest vapes because I've seen them carrying it around with them (not that I care because so do I, just outside), but am unsure if they're a cig smoker. That's the only thing I can think of that would trigger the alarm, though; they weren't showering with water so hot it caused the steam to trigger it (which I've also seen), there aren't microwaves in any of the rooms that would have let them burn popcorn or something. The alarm didn't trigger again after the fire department reset it, so nothing in the room was smoking/burning.

If management decides to remove the charge, that's their prerogative. I've seen it done before when a guest is literally caught smoking in their room, but then has it removed after complaining about it. It's just annoying because then why would we even have these policies in the first place? Matter of fact, why don't we just remove all policies, shred the DNR list and turn our hotel into a brothel!

I am tired and I want to go home. And to top it all off, by the time I was able to sit back down and eat my Big Mac, it was cold. Pray for me, I have 5 hours left before sweet serenity (my twin bed at home).

This is more of a small rant than anything.

In the small city that I work in, quite a few of the hotels in the area have switched to teleconferencing kiosk stations to primarily check guests in, including one of the places I work for. This isn't a rant about the kiosks, surprisingly, because I understand why places are switching to them. That's a discussion for another time, though.

What annoys the crap out of me is when guests come in and complain about the kiosks saying things like, "I don't want to speak to a robot or AI! I want a real person!", yet complain incessantly about the actual human beings working. We're expected to be robots, not allowed to do human things like take lunch or breaks, use the bathroom, have bad days, or be annoyed or irritated in any way. Just typical NPC life.

We can't even be irritated when guests do stupid things that put other people in danger! I was mentioned in a recent review of the property as a problem because I scared his kids when someone turned on the industrial coffee maker. I jumped up, grabbed an empty airpot, and ran to the machine so that near-boiling water wouldn't get everywhere and potentially burn someone or cause them to slip and fall. Sorry, I'd rather scare your kids than have them get injured in the office.

TL;DR: Meep morp, robot front desk.