On the late checkout...

[Skarredmind]

Look sparky, if you want a favor from me, and make no mistakes me giving you a late check out time IS a favor, then you need to at least start with being polite.

I don't get the streak of this I've got lately. This morning I had someone come to the Front Desk and ask what time check out was. I told him, and *INSTANT* cat butt face...

Sparky - "Is that the LATEST you can do?!"
Me - "Well let me..."
S - "Where is my group paperwork?" (Then he reaches over the desk, rummages through my inbox, and grabs his billing sheet. He's a repeat group leader from a company so he knew it was in that box... but don't you effing reach your hand over my desk if you want to keep it!)
Me - "Uh, yeah... which room are you in?"
Sparky throws the sheet at me.
S - "I need all of these rooms."
They only have 7 rooms, so it usually wouldn't be a big deal... but Sparky is being a douche, none of us at the front desk can fathom why our company still puts up with his company... Without revealing too much they do manual labor at a job that frequently leaves them with mud, and grease, and other unsavory things (think rolling in the gutter ditch by the side of a busy highway and you wouldn't be far off) they track all of that nastiness into the property and just leave it dirty (the poor Housekeepers have to scrub double to clean up after these morons). Then to make things even better, they company has *VERY SPECIFIC* ways we need to fill out *THEIR* paperwork to bill them, and, if anything is the slightest bit wrong, they simply refuse to pay for the room. We've lost THOUSANDS in revenue to these clowns... over typos, and other small defects to their paperwork (many caused by their own employees!). All that stuff combined (but mostly his attitude) lead to.
Me - :With my Happiest grin: "Oh I'm sorry! I can't give that many rooms a late checkout today. We have a small Housekeeping crew in and a bus arriving tonight! I am so sorry!"
S - "Blarg! Well we'll be out, but it will be right at 11am then!"
Me - "No problem! Thanks!"

Minor? Yep. Petty? Kinda. Feels good? Feels great.

I am all about giving great customer service, but come on, you need to give a little to get a little.

[EricKei]

There's no legitimate way the hotel should be losing money over stupid mistakes like that >_> Accounting/Collections should be trying harder -- or, at the very least, they can just correct the mistakes and re-send the invoices. Barring that, ban them. A customer that loses the company money isn't a customer. Not yer fault, tho.

[MoonCat]

I'd love to know why any company can legally get away with that. If a word was misspelled on my electric bill, I'd still be liable for it. Why shouldn't these clowns still pay their bills?

Any unpaid bills should be assessed late charges and if they remain unpaid for more than 90 days, blacklist 'em until they pay up. From then on it should be prepay in full, every time. Ah, well, it's a nice dream...

[Brojekk]

Time to cut them loose. Should have cut them loose a long time ago.

[tilly101]

GRRRR. I would be happy to see the back of them, but if theyre bringing in the cashish them corporate would want to keep them....blergh.

[BroSCFischer]

There's no legitimate way the hotel should be losing money over stupid mistakes like that >_> Accounting/Collections should be trying harder -- or, at the very least, they can just correct the mistakes and re-send the invoices. Barring that, ban them. A customer that loses the company money isn't a customer. Not yer fault, tho.

Uh, yeah. What he said. I don't know any hotel that would continue giving rooms to a company that did not fulfill their end of the contract by paying for the services they received. At my hotel, the contract rate would be out the window, and the individual employees of that company would have to present some form of payment at check in, or go elsewhere.

And that would be after the first instance of this. If the company paid their bill, had the contract reinstated, and then pulled this same crap again, there would be no third chance, and they would be informed that payment must be provided at check in, and that we would no longer be Direct Billing the rooms to the company.

Or we would simply inform the individual workers that they weren't welcome at the hotel any longer, considering the mess they make on a regular basis.

SC

[PepperElf]

many caused by their own employees!

... i wonder if that's on purpose.

[sms001]

Hey Skarredmind, glad you could disaccommodate asshat.

Let me give you a VERY plausible defense when you take Sparky's hand off at the wrist someday. If I was a hotel customer, and saw another customer going through your paperwork I'd be IRKED. I trust a deskclerk, some bozo off the street, not so much, and you've got a lot of personal info on me back there. So if the bosses raise a stink, tell 'em you were safeguarding guest information.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'd love to know why any company can legally get away with that. If a word was misspelled on my electric bill, I'd still be liable for it. Why shouldn't these clowns still pay their bills?

Does the hotel have a contract with this other company? If so, does the contract state the other company has the right to withhold payment if the invoices aren't done just so?

If so, then they probably can legally get away with it. Contracts are much easier to enforce when signed.

If nothing else, hotel staff is going to have to be very careful when doing this company's invoices. But I personally would be digging out any contracts with this other company and re-reading them very carefully to find out what options I may have when dealing with them.

[Gizmo]

As above I have dealt with one company that put similar in the contracts - any invoices received after 8 weeks after the work done were void and would not be paid. Unsurprisingly they also had a postal problem and wouldn't accept electronic copies either..... I was working for a third part business debts collector and we were unable to get our client to let us try to pursue it through the courts unfortunately.

[Skarredmind]

At the end of the day it falls back to what Tilly said, they still send business our way, and hey EXPECT us to jump through hoops. The burden of doing everything correctly is put on the front desk too, which I just don't understand. Even down to the "We need to collect a method of payment on the room for incidentals." A lot of these guys show up, insist that they don't have a credit card or something, and we're stuck. The higher ups won't back us on refusing them a room (though we'll hear about it if they DON'T pay) and of course, you'll have the raging idiot stampeding around the lobby pissed off if you tell him to find another property.

Honestly, we wonder if the employees of that company cause the errors on purpose at times too. On the plus side though, our new Accounting manager has basically just this week given us permission to disinvite these guests from the property if they don't have their right cards and such. We'll see if it sticks.

[JarethsPet]

Companies we contract for do the same thing when it comes to nonpayment. If we miss client information, even spelling a name wrong it will come out that they refuse to pay us.

We dot our i's and cross our t's

[wolfie]

At the end of the day it falls back to what Tilly said, they still send business our way, and hey EXPECT us to jump through hoops. The burden of doing everything correctly is put on the front desk too, which I just don't understand. Even down to the "We need to collect a method of payment on the room for incidentals."

Honestly, we wonder if the employees of that company cause the errors on purpose at times too. On the plus side though, our new Accounting manager has basically just this week given us permission to disinvite these gupests from the property if they don't have their right cards and such. We'll see if it sticks.

They still send business your way, but (with the "our guys filled out the paperwork incorrectly, so no payment for you", increased cleaning costs, and lack of means of payment for the incidentals they use) is the hotel better off with them, or with the random mix of empty (i.e. no ongoing costs) rooms and ordinary PAYING guests who you wouldn't have to turn away due to these people occupying the rooms?

BTW, fixed a typo for you.

[Skarredmind]

LOL Thanks for the correction.

Of course, you're preaching to the choir for the most part on this. I'd be just as happy to see them leave and not return. Its the management types at out main property (who don't have to deal with this stuff directly) who call the shots. I don't get it, but I imagine the fact that they don't personally have to deal with it, or clean the rooms, they don't care.