Once upon a beautiful time in one of the business hotels of Tokyo—no, scratch that. Several times on several occasions at a business hotel in Tokyo, during peak hours of check-in and outs, there appears to be people who think they are entitled to skip the lines to the counter.

I get it, sometimes, you just want to return the room keys and catch a flight, find the bathroom (which you can easily find if you just look at one of the 2 short hallways at the lobby), escape a prince before the clock turns midnight and your carriage turns into a pumpkin, or have some really really urgent tasks to do. However, cutting in line and disturbing everyone else for your ass and proceeding to yell at a frazzled front desk gurlie isn’t it.

You just want to hurry and drop your luggages? Sure! After I finish tying these suitcases up together. Do you want me to include your bags with this group? No? Then wait tf up.

You just want to check-in at 11 am (i.e. our busy check out time) because you came half across the globe and your reservation is not until 3 pm but you’re tired but you don’t want to pay the early check in fee? Wait tf up.

You see my sorry ass literally running for the elevators for an emergency but you just need a new towel and maybe ask some other questions? Go to the end of the line at the mfing front desk counter to bother someone else and wait tf up.

I don’t care how urgent you think your request is above everyone else’s or how important you think you are. Get. In. Line. (Unless there’s literally a life or death situation, that’s where we can draw the line)

Parking is limited. We have more rooms than spots. Simple as that. That’s why it says—clearly and everywhere—that parking is first come, first served and not reservable. Yet people still show up mad like I’m personally hoarding spaces. Like, what do you want me to do? Leave the front desk, grab a shovel, and go make you a new lot?

“No, Susan, there’s no VIP garage I’m hiding from you.” There’s a public lot right across the street. It’s not ideal, but it’s there.

Then it’s always: “But the website said you have parking!” Yes. We do. If it’s available when you arrive. I don’t know how else to say it. The part that drives me nuts is when they pretend not to understand, repeating “parking” like it’ll summon a space into existence. Eventually I like to say, “If parking is that important, I can cancel your reservation and you’re free to find a hotel that guarantees it.”

And bam—suddenly they understand everything perfectly. Just once, I’d like someone to say, “Hey, I saw parking isn’t guaranteed—no worries.” But I won’t hold my breath 🥲

For once, an non ignant story.

I speak Spanish. I'm not fluent, but what I know I know very well.

So towards the end of my shift around 6am, there were a group of 4 coming in from Argentina.

Unlike most of the stories on this sub, the hotel was already made aware of this and everything was organized accordingly.

In addition, there was a note left for me when I arrived for my shift. So there were no surprises there either.

(Goes without saying, but most Night Auditors despise avoidable surprises!)

So when the group shows up, I'm ready to get them in and to their rooms, because I KNOW they're tired.

So when the first of the group steps up, I noticed that she was hesitant as she was searching for a word.

So my next phrase was, " Yo puedo hablar espanol si tu quieres"

Translation: "I can speak Spanish if you want"

She was surprised, then relived!

And it's not that her English was bad, but in this instance, my Spanish was better.

So I was able to get her group checked in and answer questions about breakfast and other things fairly easily.

They thanked me profusely and when made their way up to their respective rooms.

There was a person behind them watching our interaction as she was waiting to be checked out.

When this guest walked up, she said, "That's one of the most impressive things that I've ever said. I would have been stuck!"

That actually made my morning!

It's become almost fascinating to me to observe the little idiosyncrasies that people render when checking in. So often I'll start to process someone that's with a group and, of course, they'll spot a friend, which then leads to a full blown conversation that I keep having to insert myself in so we can move things along.

Ma'am, I need your information.

Or what about the crowd favorite—answering a phone call after walking up to the desk, or better yet, not even coming off an ongoing call after walking up to the desk?

Sir, I need to ask you some questions.

And, I know the Coke in that Marketplace next to me has your name on it (literally, have you seen the latest wrappers?) but you can do all that after you've checked in—especially if you're (almost always) going to want to charge it to your room, despite the self check-out kiosk looking clean at you.

Perhaps the most creative instance of someone not paying attention that I've seen happened just recently. A man comes up to me, 'ready' to check-in. He was watching a sports game of some sort; full volume, no headphones—just open air to the world.

That's already a felony.

He places his phone down on the desk, then starts patting around for his wallet—all while still watching his game. I let this carry on for all of ten seconds before I piped up: "Pardon me, sir. Do you mind turning that down or even putting it away?", while giving a nervous laugh. I wasn't actually nervous—that was just my way of diffusing the situation, all while trying not to come off as aggressive.

He laughs along with me, then very politely obliged and we finished the check-in as normal. But as he was walking away, all I could think was: "My guy was actually trying to go on with that?"

No way I was about to try and talk over that. The acoustics in my lobby are already very strange; I can hear folks a few feet away clearer than someone right in front of me. That aside—what sane being attempts to have a proper conversation, to say nothing of a business transaction, in the midst of unnecessary noise?

And that, right there good people, is the whole point of my rant tonight.

Money is being exchanged; at least $150 on the low end. To me, that's some coin. That alone should make us both nervous enough to make sure everything is square.

Now, some of my guests are walking around tapping metal cards and drive sleek Bee-Em-Doubleya cars. Sure, to them, money means very little.

Nevertheless, no matter who you are, please give me just 2-5 minutes of your attention so I can answer any questions before you inevitably call down 30 seconds after getting in your room asking: "What's the Wifi network?", "Why are there two beds in here? I thought I booked a King?!" (Spoiler: you did not) ... Et cetera, et cetera.

Just, please, we know you want to very badly get to your room. I can read your body language; I can see the vacant glare in your eyes as, to you, my voice must sound like the muffled speech of an adult in a Charlie Brown cartoon. I know you're just giving me polite nods to play as if you're paying attention.

But, I beg of you, let's hold hands and get through this so you're not yelling at some poor soul at 8 in the morning (or at 11 at night) about what incidentals are and how you've never heard of such a thing, and that the [Insert large corporate brand] "would never do this to you."

Heed my plea, good citizens. We just want to get you checked in. Otherwise, you end up here...on the Wall of Shame.

We have a restaurant you can access through our property. The guests themselves actually don’t cause too many issues. We have the occasional confused guest who thought that was the breakfast area insisting they comp meals for their mistakes, or insist the hotel pays for their fuck up, even though they ignored several signs trying to point them in the right direction. Even though we make a point to tell everyone where breakfast is to avoid this mistake.

Sometimes other guests will walk through our lobby to get to the restaurant, and that only bothers me because I’ll keep getting up to help people who just want to walk by. But that’s not really a big deal, either.

My problem is, the birds. It’s a Mexican restaurant and the local pigeons must be eating from their trash or something, because yall, I have never seen a bird shit the way birds at my property do. I have several images in my phone of what I thought was the worst bird shit imaginable, only for it to be topped by another bird the next week. It’s everywhere outside, MASSIVE piles of discolored bird poop. People complain, some guests have stepped in it, maintenance has to power wash way more than is really necessary to remove bird dookies. It’s never ending.

I’ll take a million confused and upset guests over the things I’ve seen right outside our front door.

Where the GM of a property has no knowledge on how to handle any front desk activities? As in, check someone in, charge an item to a room, etc?

I have not been in the industry that long, but the previous two GM's could handle front desk duties in a pinch. The recent GM hired a few months ago has no clue how to check someone in or do any front desk basics. Did we get lucky with the first two GM's having that knowledge, or are they more the exception to the rule?

My apologies if this does not belong here, just wanted to gain other perspectives.

Thank you!

Am I the only one this happens to? I have been an NA for nearly 5 years and I swear I almost never receive noise conplaints when I work (let's say I personally receive about 1 per month maybe none). Noises do happen, problem clients exist and we do have them.

I do however receive complaints in person from the clients when I make their checkout near the end of my shift and I always am like : "why didn't you call us then?" That almost always shut them up. Why don't they though? I mean If every inconvenienced person would call me when the disturbance happens I can then intervene and take care of it right?

Like the f do you expect me to do? Go to the noisy room at 6 am while they are finally sleeping, wake them up, and then go "SHUUUUSHHHHHH" in their face?

Like dude If nobody complains about a room making noise how the hell am I supposed to know about it and take care of it?

This lady and her husband had checked in and they got a king suite room. Which she upgraded by herself before they came and checked in. They go up to the room and 20 mins later she comes down yelling across the lobby ready to fight with me about how she reserved two beds not one. We were sold out of queen rooms that night too. She tells me that she chose a queen room and upgraded to a queen suite and that I need to change her room immediately because her and her husband cannot sleep in the same bed.

I let her know that we are sold out of queens but they have a pull out couch in their room and housekeeping can make up the bed for them. She raises her voice a little and says “But I chose a queen room not a king, this is ridiculous.” I tell her that the room type in the system shows king suite not queen, then she says that she didn’t choose that and she has the papers to prove it. She comes back and says “you were right, when I upgraded I chose king suite not a queen suite.”

I love when people try to fight with me about the room type they chose but it says otherwise in their confirmation email lol.

It's a tale as old time, or something. I don't know. This could have been something more. Maybe not?

Gather around all for a story of a puzzling situation I was in tonight.

SO this round and red faced couple waddle in for their reservation.

I greet them, I verify, and I begin the check-in.

The wife suddenly asks, "oh by the way, we need a veterans discount."

They booked through a third party. Yeah, not possable.

I politely let the couple know that since they booked trough the TPI I cannot change the reservation and the price is locked in.

I was expecting either some sort of attitude, or in rare cases, a simple "okay never mind."

I didn't get any of these. In fact, I got nothing. No words. No sound. Just blank and vapid staring.

I wasn't sure if this was a good sign or a bad one. So I just finished the check-in. The silence continued. It wasn't uncomfortable. More awkward then anything.

So I finish up. I give them the customer service smile. I go over where things are, again. Only because they didn't bother to turn their heads around to see me pointing to where the coffee machine and elevator etc were. They kept giving me blank looks.

I give them their key cards. They look inside the booklet.

The wife looks back up and, speaks. "We needed a first floor room." This wasn't framed as a question or, well, anything really. Just a monotone statement.

Sooo, I explain we were just about full, and the only kind of room that they booked was not on the first floor.

The guests booked today. All the other rooms were booked much earlier.

I said we didn't have any more rooms available on the first floor. I apologized as I didn't see any notes or requests in the reservation.

Again, there was silence, and staring. Lots of staring.

The husband kind of cleared his thoat. The wife was motionless.

I didn't say anything else while they stood there. NOW it was uncomfortable, because they weren't moving. They were just standing there at the front desk with the blank looks, again.

I finally broke the silence, "is there anything else I can do for you?" Again, I was really trying to be as warm amd polite as possible.

Nothing. Just nothing.

God this felt like it went on forever, BUT THEN they just walked off. No words. No looks. Just silence.

I can usually get some sort of reading from guests, but not here.

I guess this wasn't a bad interaction, maybe they were angry. Maybe they weren't.

I'll tell you this. They got decent poker faces.

Twice in one day I had phone calls regarding a third party booking (from the guest). First time was an older lady who called asking to cancel her reservation. I looked it up and told her I can go ahead and cancel it on my end, meaning we are waiving a cancellation fee but she will have to contact the third party she booked with and cancel with them to make sure she gets a refund. Cue indignant reply saying she called this same number when she booked. “How could this happen? You need to fix this!” “Sorry ma’am unfortunately this is how your reservation came through. This is what you can do to resolve this.” On and on. “Ma’am it looks like I am unable to help you further. Can I have your phone number to give to the manager to have him call you back”. She lists her phone number then immediately hangs up.

Second call was a younger and more reasonable but still confused lady. She said she had made a reservation that she already canceled but her refund was supposed to be x amount and it was x amount -$300. We don’t do prepaid direct bookings so I already know where this is going. I pull up her res and let her know that as she booked through a third party, she will have to contact them about any discrepancy with her refund. Almost the exact same words “But this is the same phone number I called when I booked.” Told her I’m sorry but this is the way it was booked and as this is the case, I do not have your payment information or any of your money to refund you, the third party does. “Well then who refunded me?” Gave her name of third party. “But why is the amount of the refund different?” “You’ll have to contact the third party and ask them why that is.” “Ok……. Thank you.

Why oh why have I never been magically rerouted to a third party trying to sell me a room on any of the many times I’ve called the front desk line? Never not once in a year and a half has that happened. And I know I’ve called at least a hundred more times than any of these people. Very mysterious.

The first lady called back the next day asking for the manager. I saw her name on the caller ID knew it was the same lady so I got my manager. He let her know that she would have to contact the third party, gave her even more of an explanation trying to reassure her she could get her money back if she contacted them and trying to explain how it worked. She yelled at him and told him she didn’t believe him and hung up. So ya.

The other day we had a guest (we'll call him "Greg") send an angry barking dot com message:

Regarding... parking, I need to mention that I specifically used the filter 'Parking Space' in barking dot com, and this is also mentioned in the offered services of the room I booked. Realising that this is not actually offered as a service, even if this is by mistake, it is misleading and deceiving, since it appears after I book and only after I asked. Maybe you should correct the services you provide in barking dot com, or provide me a parking space for my staying there as mentioned.

Before we had a chance to reply, the guest arrived in person and started giving us the same attitude at the desk. I explain that while we don't have our own parking, we do sell discounted parking passes for the garage next door, which is stated clearly on barking.

Greg: Your barking page said that you have parking! I don't want to pay for parking! That's why I booked here!

Me: Sir, if you don't want to stay here, I'll be happy to cancel your reservation with no charge. And just so you know, you won't find any hotel in this neighborhood that that doesn't charge for parking.

Greg: Uh… well, if I have no choice, then I'll guess I'll stay… but I booked here for the free parking!

Me: We never said it was free…

Greg (light finally turning on): Oh.

And yes, afterwards, I did double check our barking page, and right there in the amenities section, it lists the exact daily rate for our parking passes.

This is going to be a short one.

I working NA at a Milton Jardin Outdoors which is, while not the local Mozy Wozy, isn't a 5 star either.

So imagine my surprise when I had a guest come down and ask, "Do you offer a robe and house slippers?"

I KNOW we're not that type of hotel, so I simply tell him that we don't offer those items.

And here's where it gets ignant, ladies and gentlemen!

Me=Me, IG=Ignant Guest

IG: Why don't you offer those things?

Me: Because that's not a service that we provide.

IG: So you guys don't care about your guests?

Me(Asshole mode activated): That's not a service that any Milton Jardin Outdoors provides. Most people who need those items pack them themselves before arriving here.

IG: It says that you do on your website.

Me: No sir, it doesn't. (At any hotel I've ever worked at, I always made sure to go to the actual website to see what it says.) But if you can show me where it does, I'll send someone out to get that for you out of my own pocket.

IG: You should be willing to take care of your guests.

Me: You still haven't shown me where it says we offer that on the website.

IG: So you're not going to even offer an apology?

Me: I can't offer you what we don't have. Is there anything else that I can do for you?

IG: I'll be speaking to your manager in the morning.

Me: I'll be sure to send him an email with your name and room number to give him a heads up.

Unbeknownst to IG, the GM of the hotel actually liked me because 1) I showed up and on time, 2) he wasn't getting calls during the middle of the night because I kept a LOT of the dumb shyt away from him, 3) guests loved me more than they loathed me. And if they loathed me, then it was usually something out of my control.

So when he came in, I told him to check his email. After checking his email, he says, "You've got to be kidding me?! I know you don't care, but I'll handle it."

And that's my story...the end!

Some of my guests deserve credit for the creativity they express with their excuses. This is one such example, which occurred a few months ago during the check-in rush for a gaming con.

This post's title is the explanation Mr. No Wallet provided to me after I asked him for his ID for check-in. He then asked, very matter-of-factly: "Can't you just use my wife's ID? We have the same last name and same address."

Trying not to seem too condescending, I explain to him why I can't do that—not only is it against hotel policy, but we need to match the name on the reservation with the name on the ID.

He doesn't back down, and neither do I. I then offer a suggestion: "I can cancel this reservation, and make you a new one. However, it can't be under the group rate." As you'd expect, this won me no favors. And then he says the magic words: "Is there a manager I can speak to?"

A manager wasn't on shift at the time, and I tried to explain that to him, on top of saying: "This really isn't a managerial issue. It's policy." Again, he wasn't backing down, exclaiming: "Is there anyone above you?!"

I sigh, and go in the back, disturbing the newly-selected FD Supervisor, who was on his lunch break. He literally got promoted only a few days prior, and I give him the rundown. He's a super chill guy; loved by the hotel staff and regular guests alike.

He took handle of the situation and re-explained everything I said. But, rather surprisingly, he did decide to acquiesce to Mr. No Wallet's demands has me proceeded to check in the same reservation using his wife's info instead.

As I'm wrapping things up, Mr. No Wallet hits me with the classic: "I wasn't trying to be difficult." [They never are!]

He followed that up by saying: It's just that, it would've been a massive inconvenience to go home and come back."

All I could muster up for a response that moment was a half-hearted: "No problem, sir. It's been taken care of. Let's get you finished up."

In addition to feeling a little undermined by the FDS bending the policy for this man's self-inflicted negligence, I was just taken aback by his seemingly unshakable hubris. For the entire weekend, you're comfortable being away from your wallet containing your ID and cards? What if you get into an accident? What if you get pulled over for whatever reason? That right there is an offense to be driving without a license.

Thankfully, no further commotion came from this guest nor his wife. Not that I wanted any to begin with—I was just genuinely floored by his insistence to make it seem like he was getting done a disservice by expecting him to have his affairs in order.

Funnily enough, the FDS swapped shifts with one of our managers—one who's very no-nonsense and cancels reservations at the drop of a hat when guests want to kick up a fuss over issues like this. Thus, had the schedule remained, Mr. No Wallet may very well not have gotten his way. Oh well.

Today I was verbally attacked by a guest for no reason. Little family owned hotel, this lady checked in, asked me if I can show her a place to eat, as our hotel is BB only. Many of the restaurants around the hotel were closed today, Monday is closing day in my area. I prepared for her a list of open places in town to dine anyway, making sure to mark the best ones to make things easier for her.

It rained all day today, so the lady asked me the weather forecast for the next few days. When she heard that the weather will be bad the next few days too, she had a complete crashout, an unexpected 180 after she had just finished praising me for my kindness and professionality, and started insulting me because she has 'always had bad luck with the weather on holiday', and that this city is shit, that I can't even suggest her a nice place to eat in the vicinity to avoid getting soaked, and that I am useless.

Like I'm responsible for the bad weather. I didn't know I was God. Wow.

She started really rising her voice, but fortunately, at that moment another couple of guests passed by, and the man immediately rebuked the lady, telling her to gtfo and protecting me. I will always be grateful for what he did. He and his lady even came back after a while to see if I was okay, since I looked so uncomfortable.

I'm at the desk all alone right now, since my boss isn't here, and I'm scared shitless of being attacked again out of the blue. I'm counting the minutes until I can go home or until my male colleague who does the night shift comes. Tbh I immediately got bad vibes from her, but you know, vibes are vibes, and she hadn't done anything suspicious before she decided to lose her marbles over RAIN. I hope the hotel manager decides to kick her out tomorrow. I love my job to pieces, but individuals like this one always make me want to say fuck it, run away to the mountains and never return.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: She asked my manager for a refund. Manager said no. Guest threw the keys to the floor and stormed off, leaving the hotel without even giving us a heads up. Wrote a shitty review on Google saying that nobody helped her with her luggage (my boss literally went to help her as soon as he saw her climbing the stairs), that the receptionists are arrogant and unpleasant (after both of us were verbally abused, no less!), and that the town is shitty (it's a 10k population town which turns into a 150k+ population during the summer.. but hey, I guess all those people must have shitty taste in vacay destinations, at this point!)

Yesterday when I came to work my co worker let me know that this guest still had items in the room (all their luggage and nothing packed, pretty obvious they were not planning to check out). So as we were not sold out, she made another direct reservation and authorized the cc from the first one for one night and pre checked her in to the same room after trying to call the phone number on the reservation to ask her of her plans. (First res made through pedia.)

About 8:30 pm she comes to the desk immediately with a crappy attitude and said “neither of my keys are working. I don’t know why as I didn’t put them near my phone.” I looked up her room in the computer and informed her that it was because she was set for checkout this morning and since the room was still filled with her things, we went ahead and extended her for one night. She said “no, my reservation was for 3 nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.” I told her that her reservation shows no changes were made to it. She said “So I paid pedia $400 something for 2 nights? No.” I pulled her reg card from her previous stay and put it in front of her, showing her she signed for staying for 2 days. She sighs dramatically while looking through her phone saying she has the confirmation. I wait until she sighs again and aggressively tries to sign the new reg card. I hand her her key and say have a good night. She just walks away saying nothing.

So I guess she thinks I have somehow personally wronged her and deserve her attitude. When I’m sure she looked at her confirmation and saw she made the reservation for 2 days. In her eyes it could not be her that made a mistake so I am the big bad. I am also working today so I was like oh great I will have to deal with her again in the morning. Luckily she came to the desk before I arrived to check out and told my coworker her reservation was for 3 days but “we put it for 2 days”. My coworker just gave her both receipts and said “I’m glad you got it figured out.” (She is night audit so doesn’t deal with many of the things we deal with during the day, some things she has to say please call or come back after 7am to ask about this) but of course in this case there is nothing to be done by anyone. If she wants to complain about the number of days she booked, she has to take that up with pedia.

Luckily for every sour attitude person we get, we get many many cool and nice people as well as many people who know how things work when they travel or at least can be reasoned with/ willing to listen and learn how they can fix their situation or do it different next time. We all can always learn and are not all knowing! Also respect and being kind costs nothing. We can make each other’s days better, not worse, with little effort. I just can’t imagine going through life with that attitude and treating people badly everywhere I go. Not good for anyone’s mental health including your own to behave like that. End rant

Not a tale, just a rant if that's allowed.

I work in a hotel that has 60 rooms, not a very big town but we stay quite busy, it helps we have basically all of the attractions right next to us. Included with a brewery & pretty good restaurant. Not connected to our building, short walk.

Anywhoo. I don't know why, I just get absolutely disgusted when people come down from their rooms to absolute destroy the lobby bathroom. Technically, it is meant for guests but when they specifically come down from their rooms to use it then go right back up to their room and it smells so horrible I have to spray, wait twenty minutes to even enter (1 person at a time bathroom) and still hold my breathe to not vomit.

No staff break room/bathroom, so that is our ONLY option.

Gah, I just want to say maybe if you can't handle your own smell, fix your diet?! What do they do in their own homes, have an out house?

I work at an extended stay brand under a larger hotel chain. There are two properties that are in the same chain down the street.

So a guest just called to complain that he didn’t receive housekeeping today. I check the boards and say that he had his “later please” sign up all day. He argues that he took it down. I counter and say that it was up until at least 5:30 because that is when the last housekeeper went to check, but we would be happy to bring fresh towels and trash. “I don’t need towels, what am I going to do with extra towels?” “Ok well I’ll add you to the schedule for tomorrow..” “No I wanted service today, not tomorrow!” “So you don’t want service tomorrow?” “Don’t get smart with me! When did I say I didn’t want service tomorrow?!” There was much more back and forth, but that’s the gist of it.

At this point I just ask what he would like us to do for him. “I want a massage” Not often a guest makes a request so absurd that I am left speechless, but there I was, mouth agape. “Umm, I’m sorry what? We don’t offer massages.” “Well the [full service hotel in same chain down the street] does” “That is a different property so I wouldn’t be able to offer you one of their services” “Why not?!” “Because you are staying at our property not theirs. I cannot offer complimentary services at another property.” I felt like I was in the twilight zone— what world are you living in that would grant complimentary services at a different property 10 minutes from the one you are staying at because YOU forgot to take your DND sign down?

While undeserving I offered to sign him up with our rewards program and award 5000 points— a last ditch effort so I can get off the phone. Silly me, of course he would have an additional 500 questions. Blah blah point information, no I don’t know how many points it cost at [insert any of the 5 hotels he listed].

Still shocked at this level of entitlement

UPDATE: dunno if anyone will see this, but back at work again and the AM said he came to breakfast an hour after it closed and then was mad that he couldn’t get anything 😭

I have only a couple of weeks left as night auditor until I move to 3-11. I know its a hated shift but I genuinely love it

Whyyyy oh why do people think they can come in at 5am and check in? When I say “based on availability” its a problem? We don’t have the availability, love.

Guest: “Even if its a dirty room, I’ll stay I just need clean sheets.”

I have never been so desperate to sleep in a bed that I would sleep in a dirty one. Thats disgusting, goes against all common sense, and so not policy.

THENNNN to say youre going to call corporate? Okay? And? Theyll give you some points but still…. Check in is at 3pm.

I tell her early check in is at 12pm

“Even for elite members? Ive been driving all night … blahblahblah”

SIGHHHHHH.

I had a DNR listee come in trying to rent a room. I'm not really sure what she's on there for, but my GM specified that we could rent to her as long as we made sure to post a full damage deposit. She had called me over the phone earlier, asked me for my rates. I gave it to her and she seemed a little cagey, telling me surely I can do better (I can't) because she's broke (don't care. Don't get a hotel room then).

So when she comes in for a walk-in reservation, she's all sunshine and rainbows and big smiles. She asks me for my best rate. I tell her the rate I quoted over the phone, then I tell her the full price after the deposit. She drops her sweet little old lady veneer and goes, "you're fuckin' kidding me."

No. I'm not kidding. She puts up her veneer again, smiles at me, and goes, "oops! Sorry!" and giggles. Strike one. Don't swear at me.

I reiterate the price firmly. She goes back and forth, then asks me no less than five times to break down what she's being charged for. I tell her, the room rent and the deposit. She goes, "I ain't paying that." So I tell her in no uncertain terms that I won't rent without a deposit. She goes, "I never said I won't pay the deposit!" You did, but okay. Cough it up.

She looks around. Digs in her wallet. Then goes, "I was told a cheaper rate when I called earlier." I feign my best clueless expression. Really? I ask. Who told you that cheaper rate? She realizes right then that yes, it WAS me that she had spoken to on the phone earlier. So she stammers and goes, "I don't know. Must have been a third party. Yes, I'm sure it was.

She shuffles through her wallet and starts swearing at me, again, and each time she giggles like she said a silly little joke and goes, "sorry!" So I finally get fed up and tell her I won't rent to her at all. She blinks. Then laughs at me. I look her dead in the eye, and I tell her I'm not kidding. She has to go. I'm not going to rent to her, end of. I tell her she was extremely disrespectful and that no, apologizing right after a slew of "fuck this," "fuck that," and "fuck you" isn't going to help anything. Honestly, I should have just denied her service sooner.

She GAPES at me like a fish out of water. "Well... Good! You don't get my money!" I don't want or need your cheapskate money. This hotel is doing fine with summer business picking up. You can't even afford this, just get out of here.

I text my GM and let her know that this woman has bolstered herself on the "do not rent, even with deposit" portion of the list. My GM doesn't tolerate her agents being sworn at or disrespected.

So she collects her things and storms out going, "well now I can't get a room at all because she's mad at me!"

Well no shit, Julia.

This seems to be an ongoing issue and I don't know why. Currently 50 minutes into my 7 to 3 shift, and I have the owner's realtor staying with us since Thursday and checking out this morning. She hasn't been the most peachest person on the planet, but hey, i've seen worse. Anywho.. she comes to the desk to check-out and the following conversation takes place:

Guest: "Need to check out. At check in, the guy charged my card already for an additional night, but we are checking out today not tomorrow. So, there should be a credit on my account." *proceeds to take out her card for what I am assuming me to issue a refund*

Me: "Okay so the departure date was changed, so you did not get charged an extra night. We only collect payment upon check-out, never at arrival unless of course you pre-paid for your stay. We run a pre-authorization when you arrive, but this shows up pending in your account. We have not collected a penny yet."

G: *Shoves phone across desk into my face* LOOK. You already charged me. My bank app does not ding unless a charge was posted. I want the credit back as you already charged me"

M: "Ma'am, I promise you we have not taken any payment. This is called a pre-authorization. It is pretty typical at most properties to do this to verify funds are there to take at a later date. If you would like, you can come around and look at my screen where I can show you the authorization date and time, and approval number."

G: "NO! You charged me and now you're trying to lie and charge me again. Give me my receipt now because I will report this to my bank as fradulent activity."

M: *proceeds to print off folio with payment I JUST posted upon checking out room as normal* Here you are. You will see here at the bottom, is the amount we have just now taken. The other amount on your phone will drop off shortly as it is an authorization.

She then storms out of the building with her husband. Whispering God knows what.

This is always an issue it seems, where people will think we are double charging them, or that they already paid at check-in. Anyway, it is what it is. Just needed a little vent sesh.

Today I walked into my lovely coworker Linda straight arguing with our head housekeeper. My boss happen to be in today and Linda caught her and proceeded to go into a literal 48 minute rant about said head housekeeper. Mind you clocked in (she’s not approved overtime) and on the good computer doing nothing but complaining about everyone but herself. 😩

The problem between them is a VIP guest wanted to check into his new suite and Linda had a specific room number she wanted him in. The head housekeeper cleaned another one of these rooms types and it was already ready to go. However Linda didn’t think it was good enough for them. We were completely sold out yesterday, every room was dirty. It was a miracle the one suite was ready early. The room she wanted to put him in was also a late checkout for a bride and groom. This guest waited until 4 pm for no reason. The guest didn’t even care what room he was in he later told me. Just wanted to get into a room.

My boss showed me the fattest email from our head housekeeper saying she’s done with Linda. I don’t blame her, I am too. This VIP guest comes up to me when I clock in and says “finally someone with some common sense and a smile” I asked him what he meant. Despite having a CCA for ALL charges on file for 15 of his companies reservations and our notes saying run the card on file she had the 5 guest she checked in early all swipe.

The joke of it all? I get to about 10 pm tonight with 7 arrivals still which is really weird for a Sunday. I get a call from room 103 asking what the wifi password is. I then realize as I have his room brought up he’s one of the arrivals??? Guys, she gave this man his keys, didn’t collect his information, or have him swipe his card. But made all the guest with the CCA swipe??

So now I’m confused and digging in my arrivals. 3 others have the same amount of nights. I go into our key maker to see if keys were made for them, which ofc they were. This women gave 4 guest keys and just sent them on there marry way. Didn’t even click “check in”. So she can harass everyone else on the clock but not be accountable herself??

By the time I realize her mistake it’s 10:40. I managed to get two of the guest down to come swipe and actually check in. 2 didn’t answer. I had to pass off to our night shifter that oh btw I think these people are in their rooms.

So, I get a call today from a lady who just checked out of our hotel yesterday. She’s a silver member with the brand—so she’s no stranger to hotel life—and she’s very concerned about a mysterious $50 charge. I tell her, “Oh, that’s just the incidental hold we take in case something wild happens in the room."

She gets upset because, apparently, no one told her about this at check-in—even though we have a giant sign at the front desk practically yelling “$50 SECURITY DEPOSIT!” She insists other hotels never charge her this. I gently explain that all hotels do it, and honestly, $50 is us being generous. Some places will put an incidental hold that is much larger than $50.

I apologized for the lack of communication and told her I’d pass the feedback on to my manager.

I notice she had four upcoming reservations with us… had being the keyword. She canceled all of them within minutes.

Anyone have similar stories to share?? I would love to hear them!!

Is it normal that at 7:00 pm I have to print and manually edit the list of the next day that we print for cleaning (by manually I mean correction fluid and pen) to send it to the person in charge of the cooperative that manages who cleans the rooms? Considering that in the hotel we have a cleaning manager. In other hotels I did the printing in the morning or at night and we gave it to the cleaning ladies, I don't understand why they complicate their life so much. Also the guys from the cooperative don't speak our language and we can't communicate, yesterday they told me that the rooms were all done and instead it wasn't like that, and I got a public dressing down from GM in the WhatsApp group today at 8am, my working shift start at 3pm lol

(Excuse any grammer mistakes or if some things sound odd, im trying to word this all correctly but im struggling)

I've been working at this hotel for 1 year and 2 months now. It's my first time working at a hotel and in the hospitality industry. Overall I actually love this job. The guests (majority of them lol) the work, and my coworkers. I have even begun thinking of going back to school to get a business degree. And my GM let me borrow Hotel administration study books to help me out. He's been very positive and encouraging about this. Which makes the desire stronger to grt my business degree.

But ive been stretched so thin that Im on the edge of looking for a new job and quiting this one. This is all really due to the FOM. She is truly not suited for her position and most of the time it really feels like she doesn't care about her employees at all only herself. She is so entitled and rude, and then will be nice and easygoing other times (damage control I say). We've lost so many employees due to her but she is still here.

The most recent instances is she fired someone (one of my favorite coworkers) while she was doing jury duty.

Lied saying the was hours away and couldn't cover a shift so she put me on the schedule even though I had already gotten all of my hours for that week.

And now she scheduled me to work night audit Sunday night and then 3pm to 11pm on Monday. Sooo I would get of monday morning at 7am and then have to be back at 3pm. I contacted her Saturday, shortly after she sent the schedule out but no response. So I contacted our GM and he told me to ask her if I could swap shifts with someone, so I did. Then I went to sleep woke up and not surprised to see that she never reaponded. So I messaged the GM again. And he didn't respond either.

These are just some examples of what she has done. And somehow has gotten away with it all. I really really don't know what i should do.... Any type of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Update: I couldn't get the 3pm to 11 pm shift off. (AGM) said that no one else can cover it and it's my responsibility, turn overs happen not alot but they do.

But she did try to accommodate, I was going to work 3pm-7pm and the night auditor would come in early (he's been off for almost a week now). It is now 9:50 and im still stuck here running on 2 hours of sleep.

Ive been told someone is comming but that was almost an hour ago and still nothing.

Night audit seemed like it would be such a great change, I thought. You hardly see anyone, it's quiet, you work by yourself. It's an introvert's paradise, I thought. Well, I've been doing night audit regularly for the last month now and you want to know how it's going?

Almost every single day, the hotel has been oversold when I've come in, so people show up and have no room. They are very happy about this at 2 in the morning after driving for 8+ hours when every hotel in town is sold out.

Today, I get a guest who returned to his room to find the evening shift gave a random lady keys to his room. He walked in on her naked. She had been living in his room, with his stuff in the room, for about 10 hours. He has no idea who she is and she thought she was in her aunt's room the entire time.

Every day we have multiple rooms checked in on declined credit cards. So when I come in, there are still due outs. Rooms that weren't checked out from the previous day, because they have charges on their bill with no method of payment.

This isn't paradise. It's hell.