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I'm working another hotel's front desk. Guy calls in, tells me he and his family come every year. I know from experience (the "I have cancer, you will break the rules for me!" guest of yore) this is going nowhere good. Basically if someone tells you they come every year and they're not in front of you, nothing good will come of the conversation. They're trying to play the "you want my business, so you will do as I say" card. He wants to change his reservation. I tell him we only book x days in advance (it's less than a week ahead) and advise him to speak to Reservations. NO, NO, NO. He doesn't want to talk to them because he already talked to them (and presumably they didn't help with this desire). I will give him a view room at <slightly higher rate>. Well, I explain that I can't do that as I can't look at freaking October. Technically I can, but if I were to change someone's room type that far in advance (even if the view rooms WERE available), I would get written up, and I'm not going there.
We go round and round like this a few times. He demands that someone at that desk, specifically, be the one to change him to a view room. I explain again that we can't do it until October. We absolutely cannot do it until (date slightly before his reservation). He says he will call in on that date and we will change his reservation.
I tell him we can't guarantee that view rooms will even be available on that date. He says he will call us on that date and we will give him view rooms.
At this point I finally manage to extricate myself from the call and leave behind a small novel in the notes. I really, truly feel sorry for whatever poor schlub gets that phonecall...and the one who checks him in.
After he hung up I looked over at the manager and asked her if I should stick a warning tag on the account (essentially "THIS IS A DIFFICULT GUEST" in terms so polite we can claim the instructions were for how we were to handle their luggage). She said the three two-paragraph notes already on his account were plenty.
One note essentially stated that he was difficult to speak to and had made an ass of himself to the person who initially made his reservation. Essentially he stomped all over him/her when they were trying to talk, and would not allow them to speak unless they were answering one of his questions. He also kept interrupting when they tried to explain our cancellation policy, which is very very required information for us to give out. Another said that some distant relative of the guest had called in already trying to get view rooms. I just...gah. If they were handing out superpowers, the ability to punch people over the phone would be temptingly high on my list.
We go round and round like this a few times. He demands that someone at that desk, specifically, be the one to change him to a view room. I explain again that we can't do it until October. We absolutely cannot do it until (date slightly before his reservation). He says he will call in on that date and we will change his reservation.
I tell him we can't guarantee that view rooms will even be available on that date. He says he will call us on that date and we will give him view rooms. At this point I finally manage to extricate myself from the call and leave behind a small novel in the notes. I really, truly feel sorry for whatever poor schlub gets that phonecall...and the one who checks him in.
After he hung up I looked over at the manager and asked her if I should stick a warning tag on the account (essentially "THIS IS A DIFFICULT GUEST" in terms so polite we can claim the instructions were for how we were to handle their luggage). She said the three two-paragraph notes already on his account were plenty.
One note essentially stated that he was difficult to speak to and had made an ass of himself to the person who initially made his reservation. Essentially he stomped all over him/her when they were trying to talk, and would not allow them to speak unless they were answering one of his questions. He also kept interrupting when they tried to explain our cancellation policy, which is very very required information for us to give out. Another said that some distant relative of the guest had called in already trying to get view rooms. I just...gah. If they were handing out superpowers, the ability to punch people over the phone would be temptingly high on my list.
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