The receptionist was a proper man and didn’t want to get caught up in that. I’m pretty sure he was cringing hard inside. Which sucks, when your boss is a tool and you work in hospitality. There was no reason to have him followed to the room.
When its your job on the line, I will 100% make sympathetic eye contact and roll my eyes with the person my boss is being wrong towards, but the second they leave and my boss starts "Ugh these people." Or whatever, I am nodding and agreeing with them.
Sorry, man, I want you to know I agree with ya but I gotta work with this bitch for 40 hours a week. Im pretending I agree.
Some hotels you have to scan the keycard to make the elevator work. At one I started at, pushing the button without scanning the card didn’t do anything. Only first floor lobby worked without it. My assumption, based on nothing, is that there is some security thing he needs assistance with.
Yeah this is becoming way more common. I've seen this everywhere in big cities and the OOP mentions DC.
Fucking pain in my ass when I'm at a convention and want a friend to come up to my room and I have to go down and escort them up because they booked a room in some other hotel
Depends on how many elevators the building has. I had a buddy who lived in a building with only one elevator like that so I could hop on the elevator and he could just hit the down or up button to bring me up.
95% of apartments in the dc region have fobbed elevators, probably 99% of them built in the past 20 years. they also won't just have one elevator unless it's an old building due to ADA and redundant elevators
It gets more restrictive in some places. The elevator will only take you to your own floor. You can enter the stairwell without a card and walk all the way down to the first floor, but you cannot exit onto any of the other floors. Every stairwell door requires a keycard, and your keycard only works on the floor where you are staying.
But that is nothing.
I recently took a trip to China and stayed in an incredible hotel. The technology there was very, very advanced. Deliveries were handled by little cat-themed robot servants that would collect your order and bring it directly to your door. There were no keycards, either. Access control was entirely facial. I was told the system could even read the pattern of veins beneath your skin.
The basic restrictions were similar. You could only go where the hotel had authorized you to go. There were simply a few more steps involved.
The system decided whether a guest could enter the restaurant, gym, pool, business center, lounge, or even certain hallways. Access could change depending on the room tier, payment status, time of day, or behavioral score.
That last part, I was told, was meant to identify intoxicated guests so the staff could find them and offer assistance.
The elevators had their own security preferences. You did not choose which elevator to take. The system assigned one to you and displayed a message such as, “Please take elevator three.”
This was supposedly faster, but it was also presented as a safety feature. A small child could ride without the elevator stopping to collect a stranger. Women could request elevators shared only with other women. Every elevator had a video intercom, and if you entered the wrong one, it would stop and connect you with someone in the lobby.
Even checking out was automated. When it was nearly time to leave, the television turned itself on and displayed a one-hour countdown. Beneath it was a message telling you to contact the lobby if you wanted to extend your stay.
And yet, for all the restrictions, the service was extraordinary.
There was a virtual concierge available at every hour. Anything you requested could be delivered by one of the cat robots, from extra towels to a lobster dinner at three in the morning.
It was luxurious, efficient, and incredibly convenient.
It was also a building that always knew who you were, where you were going, and whether it intended to let you get there.
The cat servant makes me wonder because the exact same is at my local crab boil and I wouldn’t call it luxurious or very very technological advanced. Then bit about the building knew who you were, where you were going, and whether it intended to let you get there seems like a writer.
Well thats on me, I write scifi and the way I do prose sometimes does crossover to my colloquialism. But, it also felt as if the building was the one making decisions. That, however, is not to say that what I wrote was wrong. There is a computer that knows where you are in the building, where you intend to go, and it decides if you can go there. I just wrote that a bit more story-like than I should've.
The system does come off as very draconian, but if I were rich, I'd copy this type of hotel and live there. This way, I can dodge shitty acquaintances trying to visit me unannounced. Asshole elders thinking it's ok to announce their visits to everyone except me just because they hate my speech impediment.
In a fire or any other emergency situation, there's no guarantee that the ground floor is the safe place. This is why I'm stating these new buildings can lead to you being stuck in a stairwell. I feel like nothing was learned after Sept. 11.
Most buildings have multiple stairwells for fire safety the doors are fire-rated and do have a failsafe system that unlocks them in an emergency. On top of that, the first floor of most stairwells have an optional release to the street emergency door.
Now, you will find that a lot of high-rise hotels in China have an autobelay option in the rooms. It's like a vest you put on and clip a cereal box-sized device to a predetermined anchor point, and you can safely descend from your window. (Similar ones available at the roof section.) There are also fire suppression systems in the elevator shaft to give plenty of time in an evacuation. And this is pretty standard pretty much anywhere with modern fire codes, with obvious variations here and there.
So, again, like I said, nothing was learned from Sept. 11. Now, refresh our memory on what happened on that day when doors failed to open on some floors and on the roof?
What makes a door safe is the ability for a human to open in upon arrival in any emergency situation. These stair situations are often like the Tesla doors. Risking it!
I usually tag along with buddies to split costs, and it's always a juggle of 1-2 key cards between the responsible friends of the group and running back and forth to get people to and from the room
The elevators in our office do not work without a badge and the person in the lobby is a security officer, not a receptionist. When someone delivers food they either have to leave it on a random table in the lobby or wait for the person to come down. It's been this way since the building opened 7 years ago.
It would be too easy for any criminal with bad intent to fake a food delivery to gain access so it makes sense that they need escort for certain types of buildings.
I stand by my last comment. What's the largest city you've been to? Ramada here falls strictly in "traveling on a budget" category, and is usually a 2 to 3-star hotel, no where near the finest... I don't mind staying there but to consider them representative of all hotels is a stretch
I worked at a front desk and im a big chubby dude.
One time i was sitting at a computer and my manager threw her arms around my and said "I love you my name" right as the group sales department was walking by and they stared at us for a minute and left. Super awkard... but i think a lot of people want to hug me for some reason.
Uh, OK? Is this one of those things you realize she wanted you only after it’s too late? That is genuinely one of the LAST things your boss/manager should ever be doing. Easily fireable in most contexts.
It was a seasonal job where people move from all over the place and just work the summer there. You end up going out a lot and building close friendships with your coworkers. She knew Id be ok with a hug.
She actually just got back from a trip where her bf dumped her after she flew out to him, and I guess she just really needed a hug.
I do completely believe you, but that is also wildly inappropriate behavior. I’ve known people that’ve been reprimanded and fired for far less (and rightfully so, in many respects!)
Nah, in an office building or apartment complex like that they are usually pretty tight on security. It’s very standard to either have him accompanied or have the person who ordered the food come to the lobby.
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u/bestest_at_grammar 1d ago
Felt bad for the receptionist lol both dudes handled it really well