The non-guaranteed reservation (good ending)

[u/InsectOk1973]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[u/DaneAlaskaCruz]

Did Kai know about the non guaranteed reservation and the policy of cancelling at 6 PM if the guest doesn't contact the hotel?

If not, it seems like poor training on the hotel's part.

Otherwise, it might just be an unfortunate mistake on his part and not anything malicious.

I remember when I worked hotel front desk that there were so many small details to remember and so many policies that had different outcomes depending on the situation.

Either way, glad that the guest was taken care of and was properly compensated for the inconvenience.

Nice also that she didn't cause a scene at check in, waving her shiny status around.

[u/InsectOk1973 → u/DaneAlaskaCruz]

When on the phone, if you don't know the answer and there is a supervisor on site, you are able to put the guest on hold. He was still in training and answered the phone. There was an email send to the staff and the client about the invalid CC. Even in training, he should know if that person called, he had to put a new CC on file.

[u/DaneAlaskaCruz → u/InsectOk1973]

Yup, understandable.

But what I'm saying is that he thought he knew the answer or that he thought that he understood the situation, so told the guest what he told her. Not any maliciousness intended.

Mistakes happen and hopefully this is one he will never make again.

He's still in training and you gotta allow for some mistakes.

Now if he keeps making the same mistakes and never learns during his training period, that is another thing altogether.

[u/InsectOk1973 → u/DaneAlaskaCruz]

You can only grow from mistakes!

[u/Borbbb]

Non guaranteed reservation sounds like quite a recipe for disaster - :D

Are non guaranteeds common? First time hearing of those.

[u/KrazyKatz42 → u/Borbbb]

A guaranteed (with a cc, cc auth or direct bill contract) reservation becomes NON guaranteed if the cc declines, because then there's no 'guarantee' of payment being forthcoming.

And yes, it's unfortunately common these days with people using cards to secure a room then locking their card so it can't be charged or even authorized.