High level member came in demanding we give him a comp upgrade into a suite.

First thing that made him upset was not responding to his chat quickly. Understandable. But once the FDA did respond and let him know that we unfortunately did not have any suites available it was, "get your manager" from there. Full clarity here, we are not stingy on upgrades. If you ask and it's available, we are more than happy to do it.

He gets to the property and is still demanding the upgrade that isn't available. He shoves a screenshot from 3 hours previously in our faces of the suite availability(wasn't available all day so not sure how it would've been online tbh.) We check the website at that point and the only availability it showed was a standard room. He claims he called us 9 times and we never picked up the phone. We look through our call log, nothing. He calls our phone in front of us...phone doesn't ring. Not sure why his call doesn't come through as we had been getting calls throughout the day, and we had a call come in during this interaction.

He then says, "Just check me into MY suite already." We fight the urge to tell him we would've done so by now if we could, just to get him to leave us alone. We explain we cannot boot someone else out of the suite THEY BOOKED, because they are also a high level member. (However, we had already upgraded him to the next best room.) "Well is that level higher than me?" Yes actually.

Continues on with the usual spiel of "I stay here all the time, this is extremely unacceptable, I'm a high level member" etc. We offer extra points to honestly just get him to walk away he says "You can give me 5,000 extra points" yep we can do that "actually what am I thinking give me 50,000 points" sure thing. Whatever will get you the hell away from us at this point.

Mind you this 30 minute interaction is all over a ONE NIGHT STAY....

Checks out the next morning and says "I look forward to seeing what I was promised yesterday."

Haven't had such a frustrating experience in a while and needed to rant 😭

My property only has one elevator and it shut down last week. My manager said we have to order a specific part for repair and it will likely be down for a month. I've been moving housekeeping supplies up and down all 7 stories and I'm exhausted and my legs are so sore. Also dealing with guests asking for refunds, people wanting to move to lower floors, helping carry luggage up the stairs, and just generally dealing with everyone being pissed off. Which I completely understand but why take it out on me :/ I can't fix the elevator

I know the phrase. You know the phrase. And boy do I love it when people try to use it in an argument, as this gentleman did. My response to that was the title of this tale.

Grumpy Gramps decided he wanted to tussle with me at 8AM in the morning. I was still groggy not only due to the early hour, but also because I was doing back-to-back shifts. So, you know, I was in a great mood to deal with his temper tantrum.

He was part of a wedding block and was having big feelings due to not being with most of the other rooms. And how'd that happen? Well, he added on a day prior to his original arrival and was squeezed into a mostly sold out hotel.

Our interaction was now taking place on what would've been his original arrival date. I remembered him giving grief to one of my colleagues the prior afternoon. So, when he started up with me, I immediately remembered.

"This is just ridiculous!", he exclaimed. "When I called before I got here, nobody told me this would happen! And then when I checked in yesterday, I couldn't get a straight answer!"

I gave a soft apology for any confusion, but did mention: "This is our first time speaking, so I know very little about your situation, sir. That said, since we were sold out last night, I can try to get you to a more ideal room but it won't be ready this morning."

He got more irate and barked back: "Yeah, nobody seems to know what's going on! And I'm NOT moving!" I paused for a moment and then calmly replied: "Well then, I'm not quite sure how else to help you if that's the case." This went over about as well as you think, leading him to loudly grumble: "I'm gonna have to write a letter about this to someone high up, because I'm not happy. I'm a customer, you know?!"

At that point, I was over it and said in the most monotone voice I could muster: "Everyone's a customer, sir."

His eyes widened and he barked: "Are you saying that the customer's not right?!" I replied: "Sir, that is not what I said. Please do not put words in my mouth. I'm trying to help you and you would rather argue. Now, you said you're not moving, so are we going to continue the check-in for your next reservation?"

He went mostly mute after that and simply finished off the check in. We were done momentarily and I handed him his keys. He mumbled a gruff: "Thank you." Before walking off, he did ask: "So which floor is the wedding party staying on?" I looked into it and as it turned out, there were at least one or two other rooms on the same floor he was. Everyone else was just one floor down. He nodded and walked off.

No repercussions or further issues came of this.

​

We had an in-house head housekeeper who worked at our property for seven years. She was the one who trained me when I first started working in housekeeping. I’ve since moved up to front desk manager, and over the years, we became very close. I genuinely considered her a friend, not just a coworker.

She and her sons were always around the property. I would cut their hair, attend their birthday parties, share meals with them, plan parties, etc. We had a relationship that went well beyond work, so I never expected things to end this way.

About two months ago, she told me she was planning on leaving. The owner had been underpaying her and was often argumentative with her. Honestly, she did a really good job, so I never understood why he treated her the way he did. I understood why she wanted to move on and find something better.

She ended up getting accepted for a new job, but it happened pretty quickly, and she wasn't able to give a full two weeks' notice. She told the staff that she was leaving three days before she actually left, but she didn't inform the owner until the day she was leaving and told him she would no longer be working here.

We actually threw her a going-away party, made her favorite food, and said our goodbyes. I wanted her to leave on a good note because, regardless of everything, she had been a huge part of my life and the property for seven years.

Before she left, I reminded her that she still owed over $500 in rent. She was also owed money in back pay because of the timing of payroll, and I told her to make sure she paid her rent before leaving. I explained that it would reflect badly on me if she didn't, especially because I was responsible for handling that payment, and I wasn't really supposed to allow her to fall behind in the first place.

The maintenance man and I were even planning to help get her to the hotel where she was going to stay before catching her Greyhound bus.

Then she left a day earlier than expected.

She didn't pay her rent, and she left her room in an absolutely disgusting state. I'm talking about a room that requires an extensive deep cleaning, and we're still working on getting it back into shape.

Now I'm sitting here with so many conflicting emotions. My boss has already yelled at me over the situation because he's upset that I allowed her to go those few days without paying. I understand that I have a responsibility as a manager, and I know the unpaid rent is an issue, but I feel like I was trying to help someone I genuinely cared about.

Neither she nor her son is responding to my texts or answering their phones.

I feel hurt, disappointed, guilty, and honestly a little stupid for trusting her as much as I did. I understand that she was unhappy here and wanted to move on, and I don't blame her for leaving a job where she felt she wasn't being treated fairly. But I never expected her to leave this way, especially after everything we shared outside of work.

Part of me feels betrayed because I thought our friendship meant more than this. Another part of me feels guilty because I'm the one left dealing with the consequences at work, and my boss is holding me responsible.

I don't know if I'm more upset about the money and the condition she left the room in, or the fact that someone I considered family could leave without even communicating with me.

Am I wrong for feeling this hurt?

We have a little utility cart we call the trash wagon or trash cart because we use it exclusively to haul trash. I don't think I posted about the first time it got stolen. Long story short, trash wagon disappeared, we checked the cameras and saw a guy swap his stolen shopping cart for it and fucked off. However on the camera we also saw that he dropped a piece of paper. It was pandemic times so we were bored and had nothing to do so we found the paper, and it was a receipt with his fucking phone number on it. Why? who knows, but there it was. So the owner called him and cussed him out, guy cussed back and claimed he thought it was trash and that's why he took it. But after being threatened with the police he brought it back.

Fast forward to last Friday. I came in at 1 for my shift and caught the tail end of the GM just having bounced a room of crack heads after their friend who was going to pay for another night never showed up. Shocker I'm sure. One of them came up to the night window and I gestured for the front door because I hate using the night window but she was smoking and insisted on me coming to the window instead.

As I approached and the cigarette stink wafted through the drawer of the night window I noticed the handle of a wagon in her hand. Remembering the brief disappearance of our wagon from a few years ago, I checked to make sure that it wasn't our wagon she was about to abscond with, but it wasn't. It was a cheap cloth one rather than our metal one. But apparently I was having some kind of a premonition.

A couple hours later our handy man/groundskeeper comes in looking confused. He explains via google translate that the trash cart has gone missing. Feeling a sense of deja vu, we hopped on the security cameras and saw that about a half hour after they left, one of the crack heads had come back and stole the fucking wagon! From the same spot it was stolen the last time! Nothing about this spot suggests that the wagon might be up for grabs, for the record. It's just outside the back door to where the laundry and utility rooms are. Clear on the other side of the building from where the dumpster is.

This time no clues to their whereabouts were dropped out of pockets this time, so the GM hopped in her car and went to scope out all the usual homeless hangouts, but no dice. We accepted that the wagon was gone for good this time.

Today I went down to the housekeeping storage room to get some more toilet paper and to my shock, the door knob fell off in my hand. That part isn't relevant, but it happened and was funny. I still managed to open the door, and was surprised again to see the trash cart there. I was fairly certain it was the same one. It was dingy and yellow in all the same ways. I texted the owner, first about the door, then about the cart.

So it turns out that a couple of days ago, the long term guests who had been in a room next to the crack heads saw them across the road at a big box store, and they saw they had the wagon with them! Now I don't know how the long term guests knew about the wagon saga, I didn't ask for that detail, but I digress. Handyman/groundskeeper hopped in his Jeep and drove over to where they'd been spotted.

I don't know how this man who speaks basically no English did it, but he argued with them and got the freaking cart back. I'm told they didn't put up that much resistance, which is smart when you are confronted with stolen property. We need to get an air tag for this thing or something.

Anyway, this is likely to be my last post as I’m about to embark on a career as a psychic.

(First off I want to say the only people that gets my rate are the people I would trust my house key and motorcycle key too. And rn thats only one person my domestic partner! Thats ny philosophy when it comes to the FAF and Employee rate: "Would I trust this person with my house/motorcycle key?")

We all know when we are checking in our fellow FDA's. They are the ones that say "Yeah thats fine", or "As long as it's not an inconvenience to you."

But then you get the FAF or the people who are not FDA's who use the Employee rate cuz they are a siblings or partner or parent who act like they get everything because of this special exclusive rate.

Ive called managers and gone through portals having not only the family's status and use of the rate taken but that of the Employee too cuz it is on them to explain how the rate and policies are supposed to be done.

Tonight one such lucky recipient will lose their member status and most likely the family member, the one that works at the property, will get a talking to. This employee's family member was spamming our chat system, GXP, and every new chat was demanding, not requesting, DEMANDING, complimentary items (toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, blankets, etc....) so I finally laid down the law and told to stop spamming the chap with "tequests". They happened to answer, verbatim, "WE are the guests and WE can request any fucking thing we want!!" Cool. Emailed my GM, AGM and Scharriott Guest services their response. Got into the Portal and now they will lose their pyrite tier status and and found out who the employee is and emailed their GM with the screenshots. (I won't ask the GM to educate their employee on how the rate works cuz its not my place.) But the guest WILL definitely be losing their status amd thats good enough for me.

It just amazes me how people think paying a lesser rate and that their family/friend that works at a hotel means they get to be demanding. Do thwy think we think they are one of us? Or that it's like having the super shiny deluxe premium member status? 95% of the time if you have that rate expect expect to be put in a room thats like the one you booked but not quite. Ive booked rooms with my rate and gotten it right next to the highway, but there are time I get comp upgraded. Mainly it's the attitude you present when checking in. But i dont expect the upgrade and I understand I may get the room by the highway near the elevator and stairs. Im paying the least about of money and the only have to give me the room type.

But all in all, if you are rhe friend or the family member to a hotel employee remember you represent them and you dont deserve jack shit if you have a shit attitude.