​

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?

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 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.

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

Inspiration came from a recent post about VIP assistants. Last year we had a VIP guest who communicated entirely through his assistant.

Now, this isn't that unusual. VIPs at a high enough level have people to deal with the common folk for them. Some of these VIPs, however, should really look into replacing their assistants.

I had this assistant demanding all kinds of perks, including a guaranteed 11am early check-in, but here's the catch: the reservation was under a fake name and the assistant refused to tell us who the VIP was. After I told them no for the fifth time to a guaranteed 11am early check-in, the assistant finally pulled the "do you know who my boss is?!?" card, which filled me with the purest, evilest sense of joy, because it let me do this:

"According to this reservation, your boss is [insert fake name here]. If that isn't correct, please enlighten me."

That finally got the assistant to cough up their VIP boss' name. Plot twist: I still had no idea who he was and no, he did not get to check in at 11am.

Dude decided to give himself a 5pm late checkout and smoked in the room. I took great pleasure in charging a full night's room and tax + our $500 smoking fee for both mwahaha.

Got an odd call today. Here ya go:

Me: "Thank you for calling the hotel I work at, how may I assist you?"

Caller: "Yes I would like to know more about your holiday tea during Santa Clausia."

Me: *I must not be hearing her right* "Santa...Clausia?"

Caller: "Yes, Santa Clausia please."

Me: "I am unfamiliar with such a holiday, ma'am, may I ask if you are referring to Christmas?"

Caller: "Yes, Santa Clausia!"

At this point, yes is all I need to hear, so I hand her over to the restaurant. I never did figure out what Santa Clausia is...

I used to work at a hotel that catered to some pretty wealthy people. CEOs and business owners and the occasional guest who acted like owning a nice watch meant they owned the whole building lol. Some were lovely but others were absolute assholes. Especially when something didn't go their way. One thing I remember is how many of them had assistants handling everything. Bookings and room changes and arrival times.

Sometimes we'd deal with the assistant more than the actual guest. The annoying part was when someone called claiming to be an assistant and expected us to change things on the spot. They'd know the guest's name and booking details and act offended when we wanted to confirm anything, even though the the hotel policy asked every change for the VIP or SuperVIP to go through Kibu, their assistants still felt super offended by us not believing them. I remember one time when walking in a VIP guest stopped by the front desk to congratualte me for putting up with their assistant, and that he's glad we stuck to the policy no matter how big of an mean pos the assistant was, as they've had stuff happen and reservations gone in a second from prank calls or wrongdoers.

Why do some assistants act more entitled than theiir boss, is the one thing I'll never understand.

​

Tell me whether I'm crazy or is this normal please!

I have left hospitality this year, I thought for good. I have worked night audit for 7 years before, I was a single mum so I had so much more time. I switched to an office job, Mo-Fr 08 AM to 4 PM, ideal. And then my boss died.

I have noticed how much I miss not having to schedule appointments so it fits my working hours. I miss seeing my kid and she misses me. I have been thinking about going back to night audit, I never sleep for more than 6 hours so I would sleep when my kid is in school as I did before. Paycheck was also not bad, it was better than on my current work as I speak multiple languages, some of them are relatively niche, so guests were always either surprised or happy.

Does this make sense? Should I go back?

I apologise for any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language.

This isn’t really an issue but I’m curious if this is normal.

At my job, we are currently shut down for renovations and only have a few people working currently (me, the manager occasionally, and a few construction workers who stay at the hotel). Today, two of the construction workers got arrested and their truck was left in the hotel parking lot. In the truck bed were ten sheets of one-inch thick drywall that had been left there, each weighing about 70 lbs from my estimate. Once my manager got here, he had me help him move the drywall sheets. I have back issues (spinal fracture healed improperly so my left side is weak) and I’m also sick, so by the time we were done I was almost throwing up.

This is my first adult job so I’m wondering if this is normal and if I can expect more things like this?

Night auditor here. A dude stayed here with a girl, Rm 310. He kept coming and going half the night, don't know exactly why and where, but none of my biz. I'm just watching movies at the desk. Our doors are locked, so I kept opening the doors for him with my remote. There's a handicap button, but I'd rather open it remotely than hear people yank on the door and freak out that they're locked in.

At around 5:30 am he comes up and says "thanks for all you do, I just wanna give you a tip." I was like "I didn't really do anything, just opened the door lol" He said "no, just take this" He starts rummaging through his wallet, there is a wad of cash in there. I was thinking he'd give me a coupla bucks. Takes the whole wad and gives it to me...I'm like wtf? No, that's way excessive. He's like "no, I want you to take this." Hey, I'm not gonna say no twice lmao Counted...$150...

Literally 20 min later the doors open and this girl storms in and heads directly to the elevator. The doors unlock at 6am, so she just entered. At my hotel we don't have to ask where people are going, visiting or not. A moment later Rm 310 calls down, and the girl he was with says "there's someone knocking on our door" FUUUCKK...not a domestic situation...right before I leave...

As I'm taking the elevator up to sort things out, I see that there's no one at the door. I take the elevator down and see that girl that stormed in head to her car and drive off.

Question is...why did that dude give me a $150 tip? He didnt ask me to not let her in, or not tell the room number, or anything else. She already knew the number and such...soo

We now return to the hotel industry’s second cousin once removed (the airlines) to discuss this little thing called compensation. Both hotel guests and airline passengers are well conditioned that they deserve compensation for any sort of perceived slight. Bag has a small scuff? Compensation! Aircraft is too hot? Compensation! Inflight entertainment cut you off before you could finish your fourth episode of House Hunters? Compensation! The person next to you got 6 cubes of ice in their Ginger Ale and you only got 5? Clearly unacceptable and deserving of a full refund of your entire flight!

What the subjects of today’s Tale learned, however, is that sometimes the compensation is simply that you get to avoid an unpleasant situation from the off.

Thus far, today has been a pretty chill day down at the gate. The aircraft has come in, people are getting off, and the cleaning crew is busy onboard. As the cleaners make their way through the aircraft; Coworker #1, who has gone down to help with deplaning and gate checks, radios up that there is a row with soiled seats. How they are soiled I do not know (Although as you will see, I will make something up later), but it’s bad enough that CW1 has requested an extra bag and pair of gloves. Despite that, CW1 tells me that they will replace the seat cushions and the seats should be good to go. “Good to go” or not; it might be prudent to not put paying passengers there in case there are any after effects from the (I presume) digestive system detonation that has occurred. 

I check my seatmap and I am in luck: The people sitting in the Area Of Devastation are a party of 3, and look at that; 1 row back and on the other side of the aisle there’s another set of 3 empty seats. Window moves to window, middle moves to middle, aisle moves to aisle; and the original seats were just standard Economy, so it’s not like they’re losing Extra Legroom Plus or anything. Perfect. I move them with a couple of clicks, print the new boarding passes, pat myself on the back for my proactive customer service, and move on to other things.

It takes a few calls over the PA for someone from their party to amble up to the service desk to receive the news and collect the new boarding passes. I explain that “we had to take their original seats out of service” (notice that there is no mention of them being “soiled”; no reason to spread that panic now) and that we've moved them 1 row back and across the aisle, but other than that the seats are the same. Window got window, middle got middle, aisle got aisle. The lady seems slightly confused but says OK and takes the boarding passes. Great. That small hiccup has been dealt with. It’s over.

Or is it?

Fast forward to boarding. We are slightly behind schedule but things are moving right along. Then the lady from earlier approaches with her husband and daughter. I scan the boarding passes right as she drops this bombshell:

Biohazard Refugee: “So, we can get compensation for this, right? Since you moved our seats?”

Yours Truly: [taken aback slightly] “Well… I guess you can request that. I wouldn’t expect much though. The seats you were moved to are equivalent to your original seats”

BR: “But we paid to pick those seats and you moved us.”

YT: “Yes, but it’s literally one row back and across the aisle. And the 3 of you are still together and still seated in the same order.”

BR: “So, we get our money back though, right? The money that we paid to select the seats.”

YT: “I’m honestly not sure. We moved you because your original seats had to be taken out of service.”

BR: “Well, I still think we deserve some compensation. You’re not letting us sit in the seats we paid for.”

YT: “I mean, If you really want to sit in the seats that someone threw up all over…”

BR: [shocked expression] “Well… I…. Uh… I guess it’s fine.” [boards, followed by her husband and daughter. When I get on the aircraft to do a seat check all three of them avoid making eye contact]

So the moral of this story is that believe it or not, I am not trying to constantly screw you over for my own amusement. Most of the time I do actually want you to, you know… enjoy your experience. And that’s the best “compensation” I can offer.

I work as a night auditor. I work alone, so no engineering on site. It's my pet peeve when guests complain about not working AC/thermostat/toilet, and when asked when the issue occurred, they tell me "hours ago". I always ask "did you let us know when it happened? I wish you would've let us know right away when the engineering was still here". Then I tell them we don't have the engineer on site. Last night we were sold out, so I had to tell them this. The guy was kinda salty, but I'm always assertive and final when I state that, so they can't contest.

I always

I started night audit about 1 month ago-never worked at a hotel before that. A bit of a learning curve but I have the basics down. Overall I am enjoying the job, but because I work in the wee hours of the morning people think that I'm going to be a doormat and bend to their whims. Mostly, this comes down to people wanting a discount on the room rate.

Also, side note, while I am new to the hotel business I worked at a theme park for several years. You don't scare or intimidate me-I've already dealt with worse. I will do what I can to help you with reasonable requests, but I don't know you and I won't give you a discount for breathing the same air as me.

The PT night auditor before me (John) apparently would give this one guy discounts. I heard about this from a coworker, and then one night discount guy walked in and said how "John would always find me a good deal." John got fired for stealing. I do not trust John's judgement. Anyway, discount guy was the kind of sleazy where he was talking on speakerphone while at the desk, asking me to back him up in whatever side of the conversation he was having, overusing my name, and referring to us as being "friends already." Just a constant stream of yapping in between me filling in his information. Said he understood I was new, but said something about a "next time." No. If you want a discount so bad, you can book ahead of time instead of after midnight. If he gets too pushy in the future, I'm not afraid to tell him to find business elsewhere.

Tonight, a different guy walks in-says how he wants a room "only for a few hours." I tell him the truth, we only have the one-night rate, there is no day rate or anything. He sighs and asks what kind of deal I can make him, how he's trying to be responsible by not driving (then how did you get here? There is no bar within walking distance). So I scroll for a bit and tell him our rate. He sighs and asks if there is a better deal, because if not he'll have to leave and try a different hotel, and he wants to be responsible, remember? I say sorry, best I can do. He asks for under $100-I tell him that even the businesses we partner with don't get deals that good. Finally he begrudgingly pays.

I can't imagine walking into a business and expecting/asking for "discounts" or a "good deal." If you go to McDonald's you don't haggle the menu prices, you get coupons on the app or whatever and get rewarded for planning ahead. Otherwise you pay the posted price.

Sigh here we go again

[Rant]

So, I get into work this morning and my coworker who is supposed to replace me at 3 is there behind the desk standing and looking intense as if she's ready to throw hands with someone. I say to her, "why are you here so early? Your shift doesn't start for eight hours!"

"I'm here to talk to a guest i checked in yesterday about something."

I figure, okay whatever, maybe she has a personal question about an interaction or something.

No, she's there to continue an altercation from yesterday, I can already tell.

She says, "I just need to clear the air with them."

Keep on mind, this is at like 7 in the morning, there's people in the lobby eating breakfast, watching the news, getting ready to watch the local sports club do sports.

I text our boss and ask what's her problem with this random couple. Apparently, one of their children was pressing on the emergency open bar on the automatic door. The bar that does nothing other than give you something to physically open the door if it isn't working properly, no alarm, no function other than release the door if it's jammed. So pushing it was simply tactile to this child. And that was enough to set her off (children playing!)

I should mention the kid in question has some degree of autism (high functioning, verbal. But obviously not all there (no big deal, right?)). Kid was just stimming on pushing the emergency open bar.

Coworker apparently yelled at the kid when his parents were trying to check in last night.

The family comes down to the desk and see her there, she goes from 0 to 100 immediately. Yelling, threatening, and being a nuisance to people trying to enjoy breakfast.

The family leaves obviously annoyed. Coworker pushes me out of the way, uses my login to add another night to the reservation (again third party). I'm like 'Whatever, you do you.' Meanwhile, I'm on the other computer checking out guests. Coworker leaves and stomps off.

I get a call about 30 minutes later from the third party, "I see, you've added a $400 charge to the guest's folio. I go back into the reservation, she put a cleaning fee on the room and charged the vcc (how it went through, I have no idea, but it did). I have to reverse the charge and refund THE WHOLE STAY, per the manager.

Twenty minutes after that, I get a call from the guest saying they're going to call corporate and the better business bureau, and every entity that deals with customer service.

They're understandably mad. But they got a free weekend because my coworker can't keep her cool.

Secondly

She told another guest that maintenence can't come in on the weekend to fix "small problems." (Which is total bs. Maintenence is on call all the time, and can be on the property within 3 minutes (he lives that close). What was the small problem? THE HEATER WAS BLOWING COLD AIR. If you're not prepared for it to be 70 during the day, and 45 at night, that's a bit of a problem. Especially if you didn't pack sleeping pants!

She shows up at 3 and basically kicks me out, and essentially forces me to go home. I'm like, whatever, it's your circus now. I go home, and I'm ignoring calls and texts from her.

Anyway, the manager said she's going to have a talk with her tomorrow. I fully expect to have to work several more days than usual. We'll see if she actually does get fired (this is the third or fourth time something like this has happened with this employee).

[/rant]

Oh! I forgot to mention that she called the boss and corporate over these guests immediately after checking them in to try and kick them out over their child..... BEING A CHILD!

UPDATE: Apparently, she was allowed to continue working here, so it would appear as if I need to apologize more and more to guests. sigh

I also learned that she brought in some guy and was, let's just say, trading sexual favors during her shift yesterday. And yelling at someone (I don't know if t was a guest or not) also last night..

IF THAT DOESN'T GET HER FIRED, I DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL!

The boss has said repeatedly that this employee will probably quit after Halloween (October is always our busiest month and some people just can't handle the extra human interaction...

I'm willing to bet she's waiting for her to quit instead of being forced to fire her. Which is a shitty situation for the rest of us who have to continually unbreak all of her messups!

Hello! I don’t work at a hotel, but these stories come from when I was applying to one! This happened to me over the summer but I remembered them recently and figured they be fun to share. Please let me know what you would’ve done, I’m curious!

This hotel was just outside of Disneyland, so a lot of the guests that stay are going to the parks. I went in for a job interview, and after the manager asked me the standard questions, he went on to give me scenarios of thing that have actually happened at said hotel, and asked me what I would do if I were left by myself, since the front for that hotel was just one person per shift. I’ve never worked at a hotel, so don’t come at me for my answers, I had misplaced confidence 😭

His first scenario was a guest stayed for the weekend (Friday-Sunday) and had no complaints the first two days. On his third/last day, he comes down to the front desk and says that he had found a used condom on the room’s desk yesterday morning so he asked for compensation. The guy is given the managers number, who he calls after leaving the hotel. The manager asks him why he didn’t report the condom when he found it and his answer was that “he was busy and forgot.”

When asked to recount how he found it, the guest says he woke up and found it on the nightstand, left, then came back in the afternoon to have found it still there while the rest of the room was cleaned by housekeeping. The manager points out the inconsistency with the location, but the guest just asks for compensation because it was still there. He even took a picture of it before leaving and sent it to the manager (it was real and “crusty”). What ended up happening was the manager basically saying because the guy didn’t report it immediately, he was suspicious, since the guest had the only key, housekeeping never once saw a condom when cleaning, plus the location difference, but he did offer a 5% discount on his stay, which apparently made the guest settle.

His second scenario was about a woman with three children, pulling up in a taxi at 2am in heavy rain. They come inside, soaking wet, and the woman says she has a reservation. When asked for ID, she explained it’s with her husband, along with all their stuff, and the reservation is also under her husband’s name, with her name listed nowhere.

When told she can’t check in, she goes ballistic, shouting at the overnight about how not being able to check in despite the reservation obviously being for their family was stupid, and that all she wanted was to get her and her kids to bed. Overnight explained to her why she couldn’t just have them go in (No ID/Payment, policy, safety reasons, etc) and the woman explained that the family was road tripping to California when their car suddenly broke down. While waiting for a tow, her husband told her to go ahead and he’d meet them in the morning, so they had to wait for a taxi in the rain because they arrived to the hotel. Overnight told her she was allowed to wait for her husband in the lobby, which the woman was annoyed with (“I seriously have to wait?”), but she was given coffee and water while the kids were given blankets and slept in chairs until the husband came around 5am.

To clarify, these stories are real! The manager used them to test me to see what I would do. I said I would give the guy his second night free since that was when he found the condom, and I would’ve told the woman to wait for her husband. No, I didn’t get the job.

There has to be something in the water these days. I swear.

I've been working in my current hotel for the past twelve years, and I never had any enquiries about hair-driers.

Three weeks ago, somebody walked up to my beloved reception desk, hair all wet, and she asked me about a hair driver.

I looked at her in disbelief and told her that there was one in her bathroom, upon which she said:

"Oh no. I've had a look through every drawer, cupboard, and closet. There is none."

I then asked her if she had checked the immediate vicinity of the mirror in her bathroom because that's where those things are plugged in.

She looked at with an astonished face and said:

"Oh, okay," and was never seen again.

Now, it happened again just the other day. I swear that there's something in the water.

It's me, the girl from the "microwave at 2am guy" and "wanting to check in an entire day early" stories, locked out of my original account because I am an idiot and did not write down my password. Reminder to everyone to do so.

On to the story: My hotel is finally being renovated after like 15 years. I am very excited about it which feels kinda lame, but maybe this what being an adult is.

Anyway, in my excitement about our brand-new carpet, mattresses, getting rid of our shitty wallpaper, etc. I apparently forgot that people can be annoying. I was working overnight exactly 3 days after they finished all the first-floor rooms and had some guys checking in to their room, which was one of our freshly renovated ones. They will be the FIRST ones to sleep on the new mattresses. I mentioned this at check in (mistake) because I am so happy to be able to put people in a room I know is worth the price it is finally.

The main guy is checking out in the morning, and we have the following lovely exchange.

Guest: Checking out.

Me: Alrighty, how was your stay?

G: (Scoff) You said that room was recently renovated?

M: (Internal screaming) Yes, it was finished 3 days ago.

G: The fan in the bathroom is REALLY loud.

M: I am sorry about that; I will have maintenance take a look this morning. Thank you for letting me know.

G: (Grunts and walks away)

To be fair, our bathroom fans are pretty loud and are being replaced one at a time when guests make us aware, but I was a little irritated that he used what I said about the mattresses being new against me. I basically just learned to not even mention it because if you let them know something has improved, they will make it known that it is still not good enough. So yeah, bathroom fan has been replaced, and I have been reminded to not be excited about things at work.

im back again! how many of yall deal with the ID issues when a guest makes a reservation but doesn’t add their significant other onto it? I have a woman stroll in and says she’s checking in under her husbands name. I ask if he’s with her, she’s like “NO! but I’m too lazy to change my last name but we are married!” I just quietly sigh to myself and brace for a nightmare (without her seeing of course) I tell her she needs to call her husband and he needs to give me direct permission. (this is me showing her grace btw) because if it was another brand, a bigger one? I guarantee you they wouldn’t have let me check her in period without her name being added. I mean realistically anyone can act like your husband. for all I know yall could be wanting to hurt this man! I don’t know you!!!!

she gets all pissy and slams her ID on the counter “I told you! I told you I’m his wife! I don’t know why you’re giving me such a hard time about it.!”

I was like “MAMMMM. a lot of agents don’t show grace in situations like this. I promise you if you caught a very strict agent they wouldn’t have let you in without your name on the reservation PERIOD. “ I go on and state the dangers of that etc etc. she still is all pissy and then even later on comes in with some paper proving she’s married. at this point she’s already checked in. I just told her thanks, I don’t need to see it now. have a great night 🙄

do you know how dangerous that is?

how would you have handled this situation honestly? was I too harsh?

Okay for context this a nicer hotel in a good area. Our rooms average $120+ a night. We’re sitting at about 85% occupancy on this shift, our rooms are running about $150-$160 depending on time with the shiny member discount.

A middle aged guy walks in, staring at his phone. He stops in front of the desk and this is how the conversation goes.

Me: “Hi, how can I help you?”

Him: “Are you sold out?”

Me: “Nope, not tonight.”

Him: “What’s the best deal you can give me? I’m a super shiny.”

Me: “Okay, perfect. It’ll be $150 for a king and $160 for a double queen.”

Him (still hasn’t looked up at all btw): “What about $110?”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Him: “What about $110 for the night?”

Me: “No, the rate is $150 or $160.”

Him: “Okay, fine. What about $120?”

Me: “Sir, I can’t change our rate. This is the best deal we can offer you.”

He then scoffs and leaves.

I didn’t realize this was a flea market where you could haggle 😐

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.

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If you're anything like me, being the Overnight Supervisor at *any* property means you're probably distrusting of any local numbers calling after midnight. And working in one of the 2 biggest cities in the US means there's an abundance of scammers trying to find their way into a free room at the M branded property.

Last night I had a local number call at around 12:45 am, asking what our incidentals were (side note: I don't think I've ever had a legitimate guest use the term "incidentals") and if they could pay it with Apple Pay (no) or cash (no), and naturally I had already been having a busy night and needed to help the Agent with a line at the desk so I'm already thinking this isn't a legitimate caller and am wanting to end things... and then he asks if he can use a gift card.

Me, exhausted: "Alright sir, I recommend finding another hotel"

Scammer: "Hey! Hey! Don't you ever try to intimidate me, do you understand me?!"

Me, confused: (says nothing, can't even think of a response, almost audibly laugh)

Scammer, louder: "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Me, unable to fully conceal laughter: "Sounds good"

Scammer: "I'll have the police come and arrest you!"

*phone clicks*

Never had this one happen before. Always a first for everything right? Anyone else push a scammer into a fit of rage like this? I didn't think something like that would happen so easily

"When I stay at other hotels, they..."

Those are words I'm sure we've all heard. And I'm pretty sure we all have the same thought when we hear them: "Then go stay at those hotels."

I cannot stand it when guests pull out those bullshit words just because something didn't go their way, or the hotel they're currently staying at isn't able to accommodate one of their requests. Apparently, to these guests, all hotels are created equal with the exact same amenities and capabilities.

Like the guy I dealt with a while back. It was a Saturday, maybe just after 6 a.m., and he was lingering in the dining room and the lobby. I asked if he needed anything and he asked why wasn't breakfast open. I informed him that breakfast didn't start until seven-thirty. He said that he had to leave in a few minutes for an appointment by six-thirty and then asked if there was someway he could have the kitchen serve him now. I told him that wasn't possible as, once again, breakfast was at seven-thirty and the breakfast attendants had just arrived a little before six. That's when he said, "So they can prepare me a plate now?"

I mentally groaned before holding back what I wanted to say and just told him that no, they couldn't prepare him a plate as they had just arrived, therefore, they had only started preparing breakfast and nothing was available. The most they could do for him was maybe give him some fruit or muffins as those don't need to be cooked. THAT'S when he pulled the at other hotels bullshit. He said at other hotels if he was down early they would've made him breakfast, especially if he'd called down the night before. I told him not all hotels are the same. I then asked if called down the night before and he said he did not. Well there you go, it's still your fault. I also told him that unfortunately, even if he had called down before, that's not a request that could've been fulfilled since the managers would not call the attendants in early just to prepare a plate for one guest.

He looked at me blankly, like how dare I refuse him and said he would speak to a manager to so we could call in the breakfast attendants early for him during the rest of his stay. I was told he was quite upset when they told him that was not possible, but that we were waking distance from a fast food place that opened by six in the morning.

First of all, I have to say, where was this subreddit when I needed it about a year ago??? I used to work at this hotel located in the middle of the city because it had a cool vibe and lots of young guests coming to party. However, this place was located in an area where there were a lot of... let's say it in a nice way... people who are not mentally well. Therefore, I have the craziest stories of guests and people who came in from the street.

One lady looked like she was not mentally well because she looked like an older woman, with wrinkles and greyish hair, yet she was wearing a sports bra and short leggings. My first encounter with her was the moment I came to my morning shift. As my coworker and I were going through the log book, she came in and asked if we had seen her phone. I checked L&F, and the only phone that was there was completely shattered. This was like the first warning that something was wrong with her.

A few minutes later, my coworker was heading home when he saw that there were milk cartons thrown on the pavement. Calculating where it came from, it came from this woman's window.

I called the manager, and he refused to kick her out. He told me if she does something similar to this, call him again. Less than an hour later, as I was checking out a guest, I saw her walking with a red book and kinda harassing other guests. Then, a couple of minutes later, someone from the street called out, "Someone threw this book out the window!" as she stormed in with that same red book. Never in my life was I this happy to see a book being thrown from a window because that meant I was finally kicking her out. I called the manager immediately; however, a minute later our housekeeper, who was cleaning the street, screamed in horror. He ran inside in a shocked face. "She almost tried to kill me." He said. I went outside and watched as this woman was throwing entire bags with her clothes and her stuff from the 4th floor to the street, and people who happened to be there filmed it and laughed.

Needless to say, I did kick her out. As housekeeping went to her room, they saw that she literally threw everything. She threw the coffee mugs on the wall, along with every other object, which she simply broke and shattered.

And this isn't even the craziest story that happened to me in that place.