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 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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 😐

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.

A guest who stayed with us about a month ago came back in today to see if we had his bag that he’d forgotten. I go and check, don’t find it, and let him know. Our hotel has a code you need to exit, so as he’s about to leave I remind him I need to give him the code. The guest is very old, so I offer to write it down for him, and he accepts.
This guest is quite obviously very old school and religious, we get a lot of elderly church groups staying here.
I write down the code and go to hand it to him, and he just looks a bit shocked. As he takes it he says, “You used the wrong hand to write that. I don’t use that hand. That’s bad.”
It’s extremely rare that I actually encounter someone who has an issue with the fact that I’m left handed so I just kinda smile at first, I thought it was funny and unserious. “I’m left handed” I tell him, and he keeps going on a tangent under his breath about left handedness while also thanking me for the code. I couldn’t hear much of what he was saying besides that it’s wrong, but as he was walking out he points to the coffee bar and asks, “Is there hot coffee?” I start to say yes and before I can even finish he cuts me and himself off to retract his question, “Nevermind, if it was made by a left handed person…. They can’t make coffee…” and he continued rambling and then thanked me as he walked out.
I was just confused and stunned but overall it was pretty funny. Most people don’t even notice I write with my left hand, much less being that bothered by it and refusing to drink or use something created by a lefty.
I didn’t even make the coffee.

Just for context, I'm a FDA at a smaller, lower-end hotel. I work evenings so by the time I get there, HK and management are on their way out. We usually have two people working the desk but my coworker was on vacation.

One Friday night, I'm working the desk alone. I get a call from someone asking if we have a double queen available for 2 nights, what our rates were and if we offer AAA rates. I was about to answer these questions when the phone line cut out. Now just to be fair, our phone reception and Wi-Fi are terrible. I've repeatedly told management they should update these two to improve our guest experience numerous times but that's a whole other separate issue.

The guy didn't call back so I went about my night. Fast forward like an hour or so. A guy walks in saying he's there to check in. I ask for his ID and for a CC. I see that he booked through a third party and let him know the card will only be used for incidentals that'll return after he departs. He immediately asks to add a AAA discount to his reservation.

I calmly let him know that since he booked through a third party, I cannot apply any discounts or change his rate, his reservation was prepaid and we didn't charge his card, the third party did, we're really only here to provide the room.

He then gets mad and goes "well I tried calling you and you hung up on me. I tried asking you for the AAA rate. Since I'm not getting the AAA rate, you've cheated me out of $40 or $50". I tried to respond and tell him I didn't hang up on him, the call must have dropped and I apologized for it, trying to let him know it wasn't intentional.

I reminded him again that I couldn't change his rate or apply additional discounts (and even if I could, I definitely wasn't going to now). He kept going on about how I hung up on him and to be honest, I got way more upset than I should have, but I still tried to remain calm as best I could.

Eventually I got fed up and straight up asked the guy if he wanted to stay there or not. He seemed to get the hint that if he wasn't going to cooperate and complete check-in procedures (which takes most guests less than a minute to do) then I was going to tell him to kick rocks. He paused for a bit and then became a little more cooperative. He asked for a room on the top floor away from the elevator which I did have so I gave it to him. He also asked if I could give him some water bottles since I cheated him out of $40-50 dollars and I thought to myself "whatever makes you leave at this point".

At the time, I was too mad to think clearly, which I regret since there's no point or anything gained from getting that upset. But after I was able to calm down a bit, I asked myself "wait, where did he even get $40-50 from"? I checked the AAA and it was $6 less than what a regular double queen goes for so times 2 nights is $12 saved if he had gotten the AAA so there's a possibility he got a better rate from the third party anyhow. Also, it's not like the AAA rate is something that you can only get if you call the hotel, you can book that rate on our website too.

Again, I try my best not to get upset with terrible guests and really don't want to deny service to anyone, but some guests also feel like they can treat you any way they want. Sometimes they need a little reminder that if they don't want to cooperate, they can have fun finding another hotel on a busy Friday night and figure out how to get their money back from the third party. I'm sure that my manager understands that since I was working alone, I'm allowed to make that call.

We got the new a week ago that the hotel was being sold to a new company. Initially I was expecting it to be a really good thing because I thought maybe we would get benefits and potentially also hire some people to help us out at the front desk. As it is most nights I’m by myself trying to run a sold out hotel and I would really appreciate having another person to help.

The new company held an orientation for all of the people who already worked there so we could get to know the company. They told us they weren’t interested in taking our jobs from us and they wanted this process to go as smoothly as possible. They mentioned good benefits and basically acted like they were trying to improve our experience working for the hotel overall.

I was actually getting really excited for the switch over to happen. But then last night as I handed the hotel over to our night auditor he informed me they had sent him an email implying they were rescinding his offer for employment. Apparently the he had a felony from 30 years ago that they didn’t not like. And he isn’t the only one that got this email. Some of our best workers are being fired because of things they did decades ago. I understand that the new company comes with anew insurance that doesn’t feel comfortable insuring a hotel that hires felons. But like I said these are some of our best workers, they are reliable and enjoyable to talk to, they have never caused any problems.

Honestly I don’t know if I’m interested in working for a company that’s gonna fire people who worked really hard to get to where they are now. I’m sure it’s not going to be easy for these people to find a new job around here that actually pays enough for them to live. They have kids and families and it just breaks my heart to see them get booted out of a job they are so good at.

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.

So, this happened a few months ago. I genuinely don’t know how anyone in their right mind could possibly ever fall for this. Receiving a call in the middle of the night from someone claiming to be from ‘Windhem,” that they need to personally message you, an FDA, on Watzap, and then that number is from Mexico?
I’m sure many other hotels get calls like this, but how the hell could you ever believe they are telling the truth? Without even calling a manager to ask?

The story starts when my coworker, we’ll call her L, is working night shift. Now, L doesn’t have the best reputation in being a capable employee. She was relatively new yet had a good number of call ins, no shows, and just being extremely late, even over an hour late on a few occasions. She makes mistakes regularly, and management was looking to replace her.
I come in to relieve her as I was working morning that day, and she says something about having taking the money to the bank. I didn’t really get what she meant but I just brushed it off and started my shift.

A little while after my manager comes in, and shortly after that she hurried to the front desk, and asks me worriedly, “Are the deposits there?” (Our location accepts cash deposits)
Confused, I reach for the deposit box. Why wouldn’t they be here? We have check outs today, customers who are going to want their money back. What’s going on, I wonder?
And then, I open it.
Empty.
Not one single deposit left, the box has been cleared of everything.
Me and my manager look at eachother, eyes wide. My manager, M, is texting L frantically. “She took the deposits.” She tells me. I just open my mouth in shock, and reach for the register. I open it, also empty. “Did she rob us?!” I asked her, trying to figure out what this means.
My manager says she is trying to figure out what happened, the breakfast lady is telling my manager that L randomly left during her shift and came back, and L messaged M saying she took care of the bill we received from “Windhem” and went to the bank to drop off the money, but that she couldn’t get into the safe for the rest of the money. The managers office had been broken into, with a mess inside and empty deposit papers piled on the desk. My manager is stressing out, messaging both L and the owner. I’m freaking out, because I have guests coming to checkout and requesting back their deposits, and my manager is forced to open the safe and pull money from there in order to reimburse the guests.

I go back there, and just.. wow. I just couldn’t believe this wasn’t malicious on my coworkers end.
The managers office door had red marks all over it from being beaten with the fire extinguisher in order to break it open. The door knob had broken, the door itself had small dents.
The safe was busted up and dented as well, red marks all over it from, again, being beaten with the fire extinguisher in an attempt to break it open.
Now, I knew one of my other coworkers from outside of work, we’re friends, so I start messaging him that L just straight up robbed us. What other explanation makes sense? All the money she could find was gone, the deposits, the payment for the pool guy, and she tried to break into the safe as well. Everyone’s confused and, of course, nosy asf excited for an update to wtf L was doing last night.
And then, the full story comes out, and I don’t understand how someone could possibly be this stupid.

Apparently, L got a call from some guy speaking in a thick Mexican accent claiming to be from “Windhem.” He claims he needs to message her on Watzapp, and video call. He asks to see the fire extinguisher, safe, etc. Very common in order to seem more legitimate. However, he also claims the hotel owes money and needs to send it tonight. He tells her she needs to gather all of the money she can, and deposit it for them. And for some reason she just.. believes him. She gets the deposits, the register money, the pool guys payment, all that is accessible to her, and counts it out for him. Over $800. But it’s not enough.
She is told to use the fire extinguisher to break into the safe and office for any other money she can find, that it’s been “cleared by management” and she doesn’t need to double check with them since they’re calling from the big W themself.
Again, she believes this, and does it. Truly embarrassing. At least she is unsuccessful in accessing the safe.
After all this, she takes all the money, having counted it on video call in front of these scammers, and listens to their instructions in driving to the nearest bank ATM and depositing it into their account. Not only does she deposit all the hotel dollars she could find, but the scammers tell her they need her bank information as well. That the $800 something doesn’t cover the full bill, and they will compensate her if she gives them her bank information so that they can take money from her and repay her shortly after. And wouldn’t you believe it? Because she did!

So here we are. The hotel owner is screwed out of hundreds. Her account is emptied and compromised. The office and safe is scarred by the stupidity.
And she wasn’t even fired that day. In fact, she was allowed to work a few more days afterwards, and was fired for calling out once again. She agreed to pay back what was lost with her next check, which is why the owner allowed her to keep working (despite the obvious liability), but her check only covered some of what was lost.

And yeah, that’s basically it. I don’t really understand how someone could fall for a scam like that. Didn’t even try calling the manager for confirmation.

One thing that really irritates me about working the front desk is how guests will show up completely unprepared to check in and then get an attitude with YOU because you’re following hotel policy.
For example, a guest will come in and say, “The reservation is under my boss’s name.” Okay, that’s fine, but when I pull up the reservation, YOUR name is nowhere to be found. You’re not listed as an additional guest or authorized to check in. Then they act shocked when I explain that I can’t just hand over keys to a reservation that doesn’t have their name on it.

Or my personal favorite: “There should be a card on file.”Okay??? That doesn’t automatically mean I can just charge whatever card is attached to the reservation. At our property, we require a physical card at check-in unless there’s an approved credit card authorization form. If your company or boss is paying for your room, they need to arrange that with the hotel beforehand.

I’m just so tired of guests acting like we’re personally inconveniencing them for simply doing our job.

Sorry for the long and hopefully humorous title

[Scene comes into focus. 9pm at night. a humble hotel AGM at home on his couch watching Haunted Hotel after a long day at work]

AGM: wow this show is actually pretty charming

[phone on the couch next to him buzzes with a new text message]

AGM: … (peers down a phone with a nervous sweat)

[phone buzzes again]

[zooms in on phone screen, violins screeching]

Night Auditor (text):I can’t make it in tonight and the other auditors aren’t responding to my messages to see if they can cover.

AGM: (horror movie ingenue scream in terror)

AGM (text): okay I’ll head in then.

Night auditor (text): Thank You!

[Scene Ends]

How do you handle guests who are very visibly drunk ? I work at a hotel in the center of downtown and the amount of people who come to check in who are literally slurring their words and stumbling to the front desk is actually insane. I get so genuinely irritated, they drive here in that condition after a night out and come to check in. Our parking lot is very small so we have an overflow lot we direct guests to when our main one is full. Am I wrong for catching an attitude with them? I just can’t believe they do not care about driving in that condition, and have absolutely no shame. And then on top of that, having to check them in and explain breakfast, where there room is, how to get there, etc. I end up repeating myself at least 5 times. I get people wanna have fun and enjoy themselves. I just find it hard to interact with them in a professional way when they can barely form a sentence let alone think for themselves. I’ve had guests tell me their coke didn’t dispense from the vending machine, just for me to find their coke can literally right in front of them. then there’s the guests who want to have the complimentary breakfast at 11pm bc they’re drunk, and won’t take no for an answer. I end up just walking away. Perhaps customer service is not my strong suit. Sigh.

Working in hospitality, you HAVE to have that happy personality. The one you fake with guests trying to be interested in their career, or why they are here on vacation when all you really want to do is get them checked in and up to their room so you can get on with your tasks or next guest.

Thing is if youre too friendly, the guest starts being friendlier. And thinking that because you listened to their inane story or helped them with groceries, theres a bond of friendliness now. Thats NOT how that works.

Ive had guests ask me to extend their reservation on sold out nights when told no by other staff because we ARE sold out. When I tell them the same thing they take it as Ive stabbed their firstborn with a pencil. Or the favorite of all FDA's is the hyped up FAF discount. Asking me to give them my discount because we had a mutual conversation about One Punch Man or how drivers are getting worse. I dont even give my real friends my discount, so Im definitely not giving it to you! Ive had guests cut in line to ask me a question cuz they thought we were friends or aquaintances. I tell them back of the line and they looked shocked I would treat my "friends" this way. Ive had some ask me to discount their rate for them, and Ive told them straight up, "Do you have 65K available? Cuz thats how much you will need to give me because I WILL get fired for doing that and you will have to pay me for that." That usually shuts them up and keeps them from harassing me for stuff again.

Ive even had a few guests ask me out. And these guests were old women, like 60's 70s. Im in my 40's btw. But still its unprofessional, in my opinion, to go on a date with any guest even if they are around your age, let alone some older 20+ yrs asking you to her room. THATS how you get in trouble for sure. But I digress.... Guests asking you for favors that have anything to do with you breaking policy at the property arent your friends in the first place for one asking for those kind of things and 2, not even knowing them really.

There are a few things I will do for guests who are recurring guests. I wont check their ID. I will have them show me their Credit Card and insert their card. But seeing as I know who they are I dont check for ID.

Another situation that has happened with me was a guest tried checking in early, like 5am early, for a room. I was sold out the night before, but had a check out after my audit was ran. I told her that I was sold out and even jokingly said "Ive only had one check out." She took that to mean theres a room available and asked me to clean it. And SHE MEANT IT. I told her no Im not gonna clean a room for her to check in 10 hours early! And that she could try again around noon. When we would have a better idea about availability. But did she think Id go above and beyond for her on this cuz we're aquaintances?

But yeah. Guests arent are friends, they are people that want to manipulate us for their gain and they dont give 2 shits if we get fired just so they can save $20!

I’m a 21 yr old female and when I was 19 years old, I got my first job as a front desk agent for a hotel chain I will refer to as “Vaction Inn”. I genuinely liked my job. My coworkers were always very sweet to me despite me being much younger than they were and I had no problems with the guests. No problems until this one night…

For a bit of context my hotel was located in a very big college town in Texas. For those who don’t know, college football in Texas is taken VERY seriously. People throw huge events, have parties, and even us hotel staff were allowed to wear team jerseys on home game days to work so during the season, we would constantly get bookings from guests from all over just to attend the games. People would usually book Friday night and go to the games on Saturday morning.

When this incident happened, college football season had just begun and as soon as teams announce their game schedules, the rooms get sold very quickly. Every hotel in the area was completely sold out, except for mine. The location of my hotel was about 25 minutes away from the stadium on a regular day so the first hotels to be sold out were always the ones closest to the stadium (Keep this in mind). I was working the front desk and all of my arrivals have checked in. I refresh the page and see a booking made about 15 minutes ago through a third party for Friday and Saturday night.

The lobby is completely empty for a few hours until around midnight. A man arrives with his two teenage sons in tow. Let’s call this guest Mr. D as in Douchebag. He whistles and snaps to get my attention and I greet him welcoming him in. Without saying a word, he waves his phone in my face to show me his confirmation email. I ask for the name on the reservation, and he sighs like an annoyed child who is being forced to go to the grocery store with his mother before giving me his name. I pull up the reservation, ask for his ID and credit card and the look on his face is pure annoyance as I take his ID and credit card to check him in.

I notice he is wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of the college in town. I ask if he is here to watch the game and he says “What the hell do you think?” while scrolling on his phone without looking up. I make his keys and attempt to hand them to him. He is still not looking up from his phone so I just tell him that his keys are ready before setting them on the desk across from him. He stands there for a moment still not looking up from his phone and he asks “How far is ***** Stadium from here?” I told him “On a regular day it’s about 25 minutes but since you are in town for the game, I would plan on 45 minutes to 1 hour of traffic with an additional 15 to 30 minutes to find parking.” When I tell him this information, he looked at me like I threw a drink at him and rear ended his car… He immediately starts yelling at me asking me how I expect him to get up that early to get to the game. I simply explain that due to the large number of people that attend these games, traffic will always be inevitable. He rubs his temples and starts droning on about how important and legendary this game is supposed to be and how I wouldn’t understand it because I’m a woman.

I calmly offer to call other hotels in the area to see if they have any availability and he waves dismissively at me and says “Do that”. I call around and like I suspected they are all fully booked. As soon as I let him know that there is no availability for the other hotels in the area, he completely loses his shit. He starts cussing me out while calling me an uncultured bimbo for not understanding the importance of this game. At this point I’m getting pissed off. Like bro do you expect me to care about a fucking football game? I’m sorry that I don’t see the importance of sweaty college boys throwing around a leather ball like you do. If you’ve ever been to a big event like a concert or a sports game, you would know exactly how crowded the streets get with traffic. I honestly fail to understand how some people who attend large events don’t account for the horrific traffic on the way there

Anyways he has his little tantrum, snatches up the keys, and heads to the hotel pantry. My GM who happens to be my uncle comes down to the front desk to check how everything is going. I say that the last guest was a bit difficult and my GM asks me to explain the encounter with said guest. I explain the story start to finish and my GM is instantly upset. Out of curiosity of what type of guest Mr. D was, my GM reviews Mr. D’s information and recognizes the name and phone number. He pulls out his personal cellphone to confirm and sure enough my GM knew Mr. D personally. This guest was a childhood friend of my general manager. He tells me that he grew up in the same town as Mr. D and his parents are very close with his own. (My grandparents)

After the revelation, I know this is going to be good so I patiently waited for him to return to the desk. As soon as he approaches his attitude completely changes when he notices my GM is standing right there. He instantly starts talking to my GM about how long it’s been since they’ve seen each other and how they haven’t some catching up to do. My GM plays along and then says “I assume my niece here has checked you in?”.

The way the color drained from his face when he realized the 19 year old girl he just yelled at and cussed out for 2 minutes straight was the niece of not only the GM but one of his old friends. My GM goes on to explain that he heard exactly the way he treated me and suddenly he became super apologetic and mumbled something about how he didn’t know. My GM let him know if he catches him being rude and belittling to any of the other staff at the hotel, he will no longer be welcome here. Mr. D gives another apology and awkwardly shuffles to his room. As soon as he’s out of sight, I can’t help but laugh. I honestly think this should be used as an example of how you shouldn’t mess with anyone in customer service because you never know who you’re truly dealing with. Witnessing this type of instant karma was absolutely worth getting yelled at 😂

Edit: I completely forgot to mention the aftermath of this (first time posting on reddit lol) My uncle let Mr. D’s parents know exactly how he was acting towards hotel staff and his parents were not happy. Come to find out, Mr. D paid for the hotel using a company credit card. The company he worked for was his father’s landscaping equipment company. Once his father heard about his behavior towards hotel staff, he revoked Mr. D’s privilege of being able to use the company credit card for any hotel stays in the future. His father assured my uncle that it had been taken care of and I found out a few weeks later. Karma is good!

Hello, folks. So, firstly, for clarity, I don't work at a hotel. As I said in one of my previous posts -although it's been like a year -my position is a really weird mix between receptionist and security at a production plant.

Because this is relevant, a little bit of background: the plant I work at has four different 'sections'. There's the plant proper (production), the warehouse, offices, and then storage rooms. One of my (too) many jobs is access control, aka, making sure no one goes into a place where their ID card doesn't give them access. Essentially, this means without prior authorization onto their ID card, so basically (for example) people who work in the plant can't go into the executive offices, or the storage areas, and so on.

So Monday night, there I am, doing my thing. Which is basically watching cameras while listening to audiobooks and trying not to die of boredom, since there were no deliveries, no guests (companies send over representatives a lot), and -due to the holiday - no executives.

So needless to say, when one of the production department supervisors came into the lobby, I nearly cried with joy. Something to do? Hell yeah, how can I help you, my dude?

Now, Mark has been with the company for a few years, very nice guy. Not all that bright though (his wife works in HR, which is how he got the job), but nice. This is relevant, I promise.

"Hey, Morrighan," says he, holding up some long, black thing, roughly the size of my arm, with a blue tab on the end. "I need a new printer cartridge, and I can't get into the storage area; mind going up with me?"

"Sure thing, man! Damn, that's one helluva cartridge," I say with a laugh, as we ascend into the upstairs maze that's required to access the storage area.

"Yeah. It's for the printer that prints box labels," he says, chuckling himself as he hoists the thing onto his shoulder, like a man going off to war.

We make idle chitchat for the approximately ten thousand years it takes us to navigate the maze (no exaggeration, it actually takes a good ten minutes to get to the storage area, which is almost directly above the lobby.

We arrive at the storage area where most of the printers cartridges are stored. Sure, this one's big but... well, truthfully, I'm not sure where it will be, if it's not in this room, so we're starting here! I unlock the door, we go in, and...

Well. Imagine a room roughly the size of the average garage. Now imagine it filled with rack-style, floor-to-ceiling shelves. With nothing but printer cartridges.

Maybe listening to my book on Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor wasn't so boring after all. But here I am, and it's too late to turn back now without being rude.

So we start the scavenger hunt. And we manage to find the cartridge sizes he needs relatively quickly (not surprising, given that they weigh as much as a toddler, but I digress). The problem being... They're all in individually wrapped cardboard boxes. And since the cartridge Mark has doesn't have its box... We have no idea what the code is. So we're left to open a few of these boxes, check the color tab on it, and see if it matches.

Great.

So we start digging. And while we're doing so... Mark grumbles, "I don't even know why we have to do this; we don't print anything that isn't black and white."

I stop for a second. Stare at him, and the cartridge he's lugging around. "Is... that one not empty?"

"Oh, it is. We only print black and white, but the printer won't work if any of the cartridges are empty," Mark says blithely.

I stare some more. "Well... If it's... empty... clearly, it's being used. I know some printers use colored ink even in black and white jobs, to change the gradient and -"

"No," Mark says firmly. "We select the black and white option whenever we print things. So we don't even use this color."

"But... It's... empty," I say again. Still staring. "So obviously it's being used."

"No, it's not," Mark says, getting a little snappish now. Which, again, I can understand him being annoyed, this scavenger hunt is not going well for us right now. But he doubles down, "The black and white option is the default option, and that's all we use. Nobody uses anything but the black and white."

"Okay, but... Mark... If the cartridge is empty... clearly it's being used... right?" I try, one more time. For posterity's sake.

Mark just... stares at me. Like I'm the idiot who can't grasp what he's saying. "No, we only. print. in. black. and. white."

As if punctuating every single word is going to change the fact that clearly the cartridge is being used if it's empty. But at this point, dear reader... I've decided that listening to Charles V being a royal asshole to his mother is definitely more entertaining than this. So I start checking boxes on the bottom three levels of shelves, while he checks the top four. And eventually... Mark lets out a 'AH HA!', Sherlock Holmes style, as he reveals a blue tab on the cartridge in the box he just opened.

"Well, there you go then!" I say, as cheerfully as I possibly can while we head out of the storage area, and back into the maze.

"Yeah," Mark says, sounding relieved. "It's just so stupid that we have to do this, when we don't even use anything but black and white in that printer! Just wasting money by making us put these other colors in there!"

And at that point... Charles V's wedding to his first cousin (twice over) is sounding pretty damn good. So I just keep my mouth shut, and smile as I lead us back through the maze.

So, right before I left Tuesday morning after my Monday night audit shift, a regular asked me for the remote for the lobby in the TV. She said that she wanted to turn on the news.

I got the remote and said "Sure thing! Just as long as it's not a partisan channel like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc."

She asked why and I explained that one or the other will cause the other side to complain. If you put on Fox, the CNN lovers will complain and vice versa.

She handed me back the remote silently...so I guess she was going to put on a partisan channel. I don't know which one. I didn't ask.

This has been our policy for as long as I've been here. I have no problem with someone putting on, say...Good Morning America or some local channel's morning news program. But people will bicker and lose their shit if you put on one that's considered too much on one side or the other.

(Hell, some people even consider the local news shows or GMA to be 'too partisan', which I would disagree with.)

The way I see it is if they really want to watch CNN, Fox, OAN, MSNOW...whatever... they can put it on in their rooms. They're paying for a room, after all.

I'm just trying to keep the peace.