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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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 work at a hotel front desk. I like my job usually. I like the work and it's fun to meet new people. But we have a new front desk supervisor that is just awful.

They don't know how to make a schedule and there are people regularly working PM shifts then scheduled the next day for a AM shift, and people working NA shifts and scheduled the next day for PM shift. Once in a while sometimes can't be avoided but this happens all the time.

They lie about front desk staff to get their own way. It's clear they don't like me because I challenge them on their garbage, and have sat in meetings with me and the manager where they straight out lied about me. One time I brought up a situation where they raised their voice at me and they lied outright to the manager and said it didn't happen and that I was the one lying. They lied about me another time and I almost got fired over it. They've probably lied about me other times that I don't know about.

They point out every tiny mistake that anyone makes and turn it into a big deal, or if someone doesn't put something away where THEY decided it should go even though it's never gone there, and sending out reminders all the time. But they forget stuff all the time, then makes excuses if anyone points anything out to them. It's exhausting. I guarantee that no one except them cares if a pen gets forgotten on the side of the counter and not put in the pen holder "where it should go".

They keep passing their work over to other front desk staff and everyone's getting annoyed. It's their job, what they were hired for, not front desk staff. They are supposed to be doing it not us but they get us to do it and make it look like they're the one doing it and getting all their work done.

I feel like I'm stuck there, because I definitely wouldn't get a good reference from the supervisor because they clearly don't like me, and because of everything that has happened. Yet I'm so stressed working there.

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.

Even when we do everything right, something outside our control makes it go wrong.

So, for context, we're next to a major sports venue and there was a game tonight. As usually happems, we sell out on those nights. The house is balanced. Everybody has a room.

Then, we had a guy show up whose reservation was stuck in the system so it never showed up on our end. When he activated the mobile check in option, it pushed the reservation through. He's at a membership level that requires us to give him a room.

As a result of that, we wind up having to walk another guest to another hotel for the night because we're sold out and the guy who's reservation was stuck pushed us into oversell territory. That guy, naturally, isn't happy but the hotel we're sending him to is literally across the street and we have plenty of availability for the rest of his stay starting tomorrow.

Then I get a call from a guy who's in house and with a group that's all financial people. He complains that his room is too close to the HVAC system and his bed is vibrating and he can't sleep.

I explain to him multiple times through both two phone calls and an online chat that we are sold out and have nowhere we can move him. He's only staying one night, so there isn't any good solution here.

He gets huffy about his status level and how this is unacceptable and why would we put him in a substandard room.

I offered to send our engineer to look at the situation and see if there's anything they can do, but dude declines. I offer him points for the inconvenience but he declines. I let him vent at me and offer what few platitudes I can and tell him I will let management know about the situation and they will contact him in the morning.

I'm ready to just walk out the door. I am so tired of all of this. I'm sick of everything going wrong even when we do everything right.

UPDATE: And an hour ago, the fireproof can the kitchen uses to dump ashes out of the grill started smoking. The housekeeper who comes in early to clean the kitchen and dining area spotted it soon enough that Security and I could get it out of the building and soak the now burning ashes before the smoke triggered the detectors.

This is not helping.

Its a quiet second shift. We've got few construction crews and couples in house. One of said couples who appears to be in their 80s requested a handicapped room.

Now at our hotel all handicap rooms come with two double beds. At check in this upset the gentlemen of the greatly. He could only be calmed down when his wife assured him they would make it work and he would get his as she put it very loudly in my lobby "special cuddle time". I finally get them sent to their room while trying to get the mental images out of my poor brain. (Being a visual thinker sucks sometimes) and I go on about my evening playing skyrim in the office.(yes stealth archer duh). A few hours have gone by and cuddle man is again at my desk asking if someone can come change his sheets because they are wet. I explain that since we are a small property there are no housekeepers this late. And as im preparing myself to go change wet sheets I ask him so I'll know what to grab from laundry what kind of wet. He asks what do you mean? I say water, some other liquid an accident perhaps. Cuddle man looks me dead in my eyes and says "sexual"... I then tell him I'll grab him some sheets as I won't be changing them. And get him a garbage bag to put his sexually wet sheets into for housekeeping to pick up in the morning. My poor goddamn brain!

It's been a while since I've posted here for the last time. It means things have been going relatively smoothly. Fall has been busy, but it has been busy-good. No major complaints or issues, some nice guests here and there.

Today is dead quiet. I have three check-ins only. Yet, since the start of my shift, it has been one phone call after the other.

The most recent phone call left me with a knot in my stomach.

-Hello, I want to know if the jacuzzis are intimate. (Red flag 1: a never-asked question in 3 years working here)

-Uh, well, we have the public jacuzzi where every guest can go, beside the swimming pool. Are you looking to book a room with a jacuzzi in it?

-Yes (Red flag 2. Very often, it's a red flag when someone wants to book a jacuzzi room over the phone. For some reason, these guests seem to bring more issues than others). Are these rooms intimate? (Red flag 3: another never-asked question before)

You can now imagine questions marks floating above my head, like in a cartoon.

-Uh, well, uh, what do you mean, sir, by intimate?

-Could somebody see my wife in the room?

Imagine more question marks floating above my head.

-Uh, well, uh, not if you close the curtains?

-Are you sure? You don't seem sure. I need to be sure nobody can see my wife.

-Well, uh, sir, I never made the test to go outside and try to look through the windows to verify if we can see or not. Normally, if you close the curtains, it's fine.

-Normally? I need a certainty. You understand, my wife wears a scarf and everything, I need to be sure nobody can see her from outside the room. And from the hallways, can we see the jacuzzi? Are the walls made of glass? (Red flag 4: the knot in my stomach is getting bigger)

The questions marks floating above my head are dancing and having a party.

-Uh, no, uh it's normal walls around the rooms??

-Can you confirm that the room is intimate?

(At this point, I have a feeling that it would be better if this guest didn't come here)

-Well, sir, your expectations seem very high, I'm unsure we can meet them. Maybe this is not the right hotel for your expectations.

-I just need to know that the rooms are intimate and that we cannot see the jacuzzi from outside the room.

-I don't know, sir.

*hangs up*

I stayed for a moment, with the phone in my hand, staring at the wall.

I work part time Front Desk at a small-mid sized H branded property that's adjacent to a major stadium that's home to an NFL team. Game days are big business, but we have them down to a pretty smooth process at this point. This story took place on a recent Sunday for a 1 PM kick off game.

As per usual we were sold out the Saturday before the game with about a 50% turn for a sold out Sunday. The person showed up to "check in" around 8:30 AM. We stored their luggage added them to the pending list and sent them on their way with a "See you after the game." We have a ballroom set aside to store luggage for both arrivals and departures that will be around through the game.

As a rarity we actually started the day with 2 rooms to sell with a BAR of $700 before taxes. I sold the first room to someone over the phone pretty early on. The remaining room didn't move for a good chunk of the morning.

About 10:30 AM Mr. & Mrs. Pantsonfire approached the desk with luggage to store. At first, it seemed like a pretty normal transaction.

I asked for their name for the luggage tag and if they were checking in.

They gave their name, but said "Oh no, we checked out this morning."

I knew that despite being about 30 minutes before departure, we still hadn't processed many check outs because plenty of people just walk out the doors without acknowledging there are humans behind the desk. I did a quick key on of the name they gave and didn't see them registered at all, not departures, arrivals, or stay overs.

Red flags started popping. See we get lots of people going to the game trying to store their bags with us and we have a pretty strict policy against holding bags for non-guests.

I asked the husband—Mrs. Pantsonfire had gone to the bathroom—what his room number had been.

"Uh, I dunno. Something up on the 4th floor." And he vaguely gestured upstairs.

"Well, before I check the bags, I need to verify you're a guest."

"Well, my wife has all of that." He slinks off to have a seat.

She comes back and he whispers something to her. She walks up and flashes her HH app screen at me saying "This is our reservation. We checked out this morning."

"I'm sorry. I didn't get to see the details on that. Can I have another look?"

She holds it out so that I can actually read the screen as I examine the reservation details the truth starts to come out. "We checked out from an H-brand hotel on Indianapolis this morning and just flew in. Their girl at the Front Desk said you'd store our bags for us while we're at the game."

Indianapolis is several states away.

"Well, they shouldn't promise things for other properties. For security and liability reasons we can't store luggage for non-guests."

"We are guests."

"You were guests in Indianapolis. But we're different properties and you need to be registered at this hotel to leave your bags with us."

"We go to stadiums all across the country and do this."

"Well, it's not allowed here."

Long unblinking look at me as a line builds up behind her until she says. "Fine I'll book a room. Where is this?" Punctuated with an exasperated sigh she starts scrolling her phone.

"We're the SPECIFIC PROPERTY NAME. But I can book for you here at the desk. My rate—”

"I'll use my Diamond points." Holds out her phone "Is this you?"

"No that's two towns over and OTHER H BRAND. We're in TOWN and a OUR BRAND."

"Ugh." Starts rapidly scrolling and showing me the screen.

"Slower please." I say. "That's us." I point.

Furious tapping while I help two other parties seemlessly. "Here." She flashes the screen at me again. "What do you need?"

I tap in the name she originally gave and see her in arrivals "I've got you here. Thank you." As I speak, I charge the card booked with to secure the payment. "Let me get your bags tagged and I'll add you to our list of arrivals that are waiting for a room, but we'll probably just see you after the game."

Of note, Mrs Pantsonfire isn't a Diamond. She's Gold and she didn't book a points room, she booked the AAA rate.

"Great." Mrs. Pantsonfire says very unenthusiastic.

She and Mr. Pantsonfire head out the doors and I honestly hoped that was the end of it, but had a bad feeling.

About an hour later, the other desk agent with me is grumbling about a message on our texting service from a guest that booked by mistake and needs to cancel. I mostly ignore it. We get a ton of those, but then she says that it's for someone that booked today for today and I get interested fast, because the only 2 same day reservations were mine.

I start reading the chat real quick. It's Mrs Pantsonfire. Of course.

Her story in the text was that the reservation was made by mistake and that she was just shopping and didn't mean to book it and she's about to get on a flight back home to LAX.

"Ali, I've got this." I tell my colleague. "This lady is full of shit."

"Hi, Mrs Pantsonfire. This is MyName. I helped you at the Desk this morning when you booked. This reservation is not eligible for cancelation. I hope you enjoy the game!"

Her reply: "Well, I just need to cancel and rebook on points."

"I'm sorry, but we'd need the points reservation to be made first. And since we're already sold out. That isn't possible. The reservation can't be changed in that way at this point. Besides, you Gold HH account only has about 14,000 points on it and that's not enough for a free night or cash and points discount with us tonight anyway. Your room will be waiting for you as booked after the game." I typed back.

No reply after that, but I begin documenting the whole story in our Pass Along log and the reservation notes because I knew I'd be leaving before the game ended and I was off the next day for departure.

This was yesterday and for once—since leaving management—I've been eagerly checking the shift Pass Alongs in my email while off shift to see if anything new has been added to the story. I'll edit with an update if there are further developments, but hopefully Mr & Mrs Pantsonfire realized they were cooked already.

i apologize in advance, if you aren’t comfortable reading about sexual content then please scroll.

tonight is the fourth time in three months that i have been working a night audit shift and received a phone call from somebody who was pleasuring themselves on the other end of the line, and i know i’m not the only person that has dealt with this. i’ve worked in hospitality for a really long time, and prank calls are one thing, but it wasn’t until i started working at a hotel that i started getting calls from people wanting to inflict their weird sex fantasies on unwilling employees. it makes me sick every time.
this time, it was a relatively normal call at the start of breakfast where the caller was asking about availability for two days next week, and if we had a pool. super normal, i answer twenty calls like this every day. until i heard a squelching noise and the caller asked if i could “hear what he was doing to himself” and i immediately slammed the receiver down. has anyone else dealt with this bullshit before?

So I work front desk for a hotel. We have this guy who has been staying with us as a guest for a few weeks. He has this special feature on his phone for people hard of hearing, so he always calls the front desk thru his own phone rather than the hotel room phones. When he comes to the front desk to complain about how he wants to switch rooms for the hundredth time, he doesn’t seem deaf although he will speak half of a sentence & then start scribbling the rest of the sentence he was saying in this little notebook he carries around, & then holds it up for us to read. We have moved his room so many times that the system won’t even let us move him anymore. Last time he wanted to switch rooms he said it was because there was a smell he didn’t like. I’ve smelled him in the morning before a shower & there’s no way the room was that bad compared to him. I know for a fact he isn’t at the hotel with anyone else so I assume maybe he’s there on business? Anyways, I wanted to ask any other picky folks what could possibly be going thru his mind as to why he wants to move rooms so much? We got an email from our manager saying he’s taken an hour to show him multiple rooms & has told the guest we will not accommodate any more moves on his stay. I wanted to tell the guest “look, if you aren’t happy with the first four rooms, what makes you think you’ll be happy with the fifth? Maybe it’s just you or you need to find another hotel.” LOL. We already know what he’s gonna say every time he comes downstairs to the front desk & starts scribbling in his notebook.

First night back after four days off. The 3-11 person alerted me that two guests had apparently left their dogs in their Car when they found out there is a $10 non-refundable deposit per pet per stay. Daytime temps hit the 90s and they didn't even bother to crack a window. Another guest saw the dogs in the car and called the police who contacted Animal control. Animal control office talked to the desk guy who gave them the room numbers and told them to bring the dogs inside, we will waive the deposit. Seriously people, if you travel with Animals call ahead and find out if there is a deposit. We charge $10 - the Loopy 9 across the highway charges $50 per pet per night.

3 - 11 guy also had a call from a very young sounding female asking how old you have to be to rent a room. He told her 21. She hung up and that was that until I came on at 11. Little after midnight this girl walks in, sees me and walks right back out. We are in an incredibly small town with one very small High School and I know pretty much most of the Students. I knew her and knew that she was only 15. A few minutes later a guy walks in, wanting to rent a room and keeps on looking outside into the parking lot. I could just about see a corner of the girls Hoodie on the Camera. I wasn't about to deal with Underage Crap so I said "BTW the age of consent in this State is 17. I know who the girl is, I know she's only 15. Do you still want the room?" He blustered a bit but decided not to rent a room after all. He left in his car and a half hour later the girl came back in asking if she can wait in the Lobby for her Mom to come pick her up. She didn't even give me a dirty look.

Gearing up for Day 2.

Well gentle readers, it's been a while since - wait, no it hasn't been a while. Well that's surprising. In any event, tonight we have a Tale of what happens when someone decides to book late.

If anyone needs some unicorn time, Buttercup is in her usual spot, with lots of pretty fall-themed ribbons and some festive bales of hay for the whole "harvest" theme.

Our tale begins at midnight. Exactly at midnight, which is what seems to have caused some of the problems tonight. I am watching a farm boy trusting in the goodness of his father's heart when the phone rings.

"Standard Greeting, this is Skwrl speaking, how may I help you tonight?"

"So uh, yeah, I'm wondering if you can help me? I booked online through Cooking Dot Bom, and the payment went through on Benmo, but the reservation didn't?"

I sigh inwardly (and maybe a little bit outwardly), not just because the phone number on the caller ID shows the caller to be a local, but because post-midnight reservations are nigh-impossible to book online. I rummage through the reservations for tonight and tomorrow to see if I can find him.

"Okay, it looks like the reservation didn't come through. We do have plenty of availability, but since it's after midnight, you won't be able to book it online."

"But they took my money, I got a notification and everything..?"

"Yes, but we don't have anything to do with that end of things. You'll need to call Cooking's customer service and they'll get you the refund."

"Oh, okay, thanks..."

Fast forward exactly one hour. At one in the morning, our wayward guest wanders in. I hit pause.

"Uh yeah, I called earlier?"

"Ah yes. Get things straightened out on the refund?"

"Yeah, they're gonna process it. Can I get a room?"

"Sure thing. Did you want a single King for $xxx, or two Queens for $yyy?"

"Online it said $zz?" This rate is thirty dollars less than our already low rates for the night. Not unheard-of for Cooking, but still very low.

"Sorry, I have no control on the rates, and cannot price match. In order to get the online rate, you have to book online, which will be for tomorrow, since it's after midnight."

"Oh. Could I book it, and then you change it to tonight?"

"Dates on third party reservations are locked, and cannot be changed. Even if I could, it's after midnight, so I couldn't set it back."

"What about an early check-in?" Ahh, I know that smile, he thinks he's found the loophole that lets him have what he needs.

"So... Checking in at 2 PM, rather than 3 PM?" I look pointedly at him, "Early check-in is no more than an hour, sorry."

"Well, can't you just go ahead and give me the online rate?"

I did tell him I can't change the rates.. "I'm afraid the walk-in rate is what I have."

I can see the cogs turning in his head until he deflates a bit, shaking his head, "Sorry, I'll check somewhere else."

"I understand, good night and good luck."

And so he went off into the night. Who knows, he may have found a hotel at his preferred price point, but I doubt it.

Take some time to say goodnight to Buttercup, and always book before midnight kids. It'll save you a lot of headaches down the road.

Teal deer; guest is thwarted from his cheap online booking by the stroke of midnight.

Sold out this weekend. probably our busiest weekend of the year, honestly. We've been sold out since MAY.

And all of the check outs this morning were the same people i checked in on Friday. I felt like this weekend was just one giant, pain in the ass, never ending shift.

But i digress. That is not the point of this post. That is the context.

The point of this post is that i had a woman demand i give her a partial refund before she left us this morning. Her reasoning? She felt taken advantage of by our company. She's a frequent flier at our many properties. And she just did not appreciate how expensive our rooms were (the one's that have been sold out since MAY of this year, for an event they alllllllllllll knew about and were attending). Especially because the guy checking in next to her didn't pay as much as she did. So yeah. I needed to take half off of her stay, the morning she is leaving, because she didn't appreciate the cost of the room she booked. The room she spent all weekend in. The room that had zero issues.

I had to bite my tongue until it bled.

Yeah, lady, probably not gonna see that money again.

Work at a hotel. One of my coworkers asked a flight attendant if she could put her bags in the shuttle van. The FA said no, and that was the end of it and my coworker just walked off.

I asked her if she was bored because she was trying to load the shuttle early, and she said “nah, that’s just something I do on first shift because first shift moves fast.”

Then the flight attendant jumps in out of nowhere going on about how she always needs to keep her bag with her, it’s a security risk, and it’s her company’s policy… when nobody even asked. We thought she was still talking to my coworker (or maybe to us), so we just said “yeah, it’s good to be cautious.” Should’ve been done.

But then she hits us with “I don’t appreciate you continuing the conversation after you walked away.”
Funny part is, she’s the one who started talking to us again about the security risk and all that. She just assumed we were talking about her and why she didn’t want her bag put in the van without her.

I was so irritated. After the flight attendants left, my coworker was like “what was that about?” and I just said that woman was already a victim. We were literally just having a normal conversation about first shift and the shuttle. She overheard the word “bag” and somehow decided we were talking about her, then got mad that we kept talking.

Anyway, first weird little confrontation of the morning. Just needed to vent.

I work in a small hotel/motel in a small town. We are right off the interstate though so we get plenty of weary travelers coming in off the street looking for a reasonably priced room to crash in before heading on their journey down the road.

We have two floors but we have no elevator so we offer a few dollars off the per night cost for our upstairs rooms. I have walked those steps and counted. There are literally fifteen steps from the first floor to the second floor but some people just cannot be bothered to climb the stairs. I understand some people literally cannot climb stairs though.

For some reason, my mouth keeps moving faster than my brain and I keep telling people we don’t have stairs to the second floor. The first time I did it I giggled like an idiot and, thankfully, so did the guest.

I guess I expect them to Spider-Man up the side of the building to get to their rooms.

I am so sick of people complaining about check in time. its always someone coming in at flipping 11am wanting an early check in. check in is at 3pm and they give me an attitude about it. had a situation where this girl and her boyfriend are trying to check in at 1pm. be aware, we just got our lights back on in the hotel at 11:40ish AM after the lights went off because of a HURRICANE. we have a generator but it only covers certain things so the lights were partially out everywhere. she comes in strolling “I REALLY NEED TO GET TO THIS CONCERT AND CHANGE” I tell her I’m so sorry nothing is ready due to the outage (housekeepers had just started cleaning) classic “well what’s the estimated time?” … uhm mam I don’t know, I’m sorry, our washing machines JUST got the towels and sheets in it & still need drying. I’ll call you when it’s ready . I kid you not, 30 minutes passes. “can you just give me my room number and I can change?” I tell her no, you’re not assigned a room… because NOTHING IS FFFFFF**********N READY!!!! (didn’t say that but I did tell her we hadn’t assigned rooms yet because nothing is ready) she rolls her eyes. then her boyfriend suggests “you could change in the public bathroom” when I tell you this girls face got so red. she sits on the couch huffin n puffin . i’m not gonna lie one of the housekeepers called and told me a room was ready that was her room type and I purposely dragged on doing other things for like 10 minutes just to be petty because she was being a pain. I know that’s messsd up but I don’t care. like lady the world doesn’t revolve around you, we just had an effing hurricane, and check in is at 3pm. Shut up.

if I have to hear

“well why are they the housekeepers taking forever? what’s a EST time? any updates? (after 5 minutes) it’s 2:58pm that means in two minutes my room should be ready? 🙄 every other hotel checks me in early! BUT IM A DIAMOND MEMBER”

im gonna flipping flip my flip .

to make all of this better, lady comes around the corner screaming about a refund cause she “came to this hotel to escape the storm and it’s not fair the lights went out!” as if we control the weather.

we had a lady stand in front of the AUTOMATIC door with a cigarette in her mouth and asks “can I go outside and smoke or are we locked in because of the outage?” lady….. PLEASE

goodness ppl just never fail to amaze me

This isn’t a big deal, but it kind of annoyed me after a long night.

Whoever took care of the pancake machine yesterday morning left a burnt, stuck pancake in the machine and did not tell anyone or clean it out, leaving it for me to find. I didn’t even notice until I started smelling burning coming from that way. I hurried to unplug the machine just in case, then finished making breakfast. The smell definitely lessened, but wasn’t quite gone.

Honestly, I kind of forgot to put an Out of Order sign out until the morning person got there and asked if I did, so this is probably my fault… but I went back over there to the smell of burning again, only to find that some guest plugged the machine back in.

Why, when you see an off machine, with a charcoal pancake inside that smells like burning, would you plug it back in? Even without the OOO sign, I can’t understand how they’d miss the warnings.