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SCs, more often than not, amuse me way more than they annoy me. I'll say that with the understanding that I'm merely forgetting the numerous times I've seen red.
On my last shift, I was VERY entertained by this travel agent that called while I was checking in a guest. I can multi-task alright, so I went ahead and answered. First off, she asked if my manager was there. So much for the pleasentries. I asked her "which one", first off, as we have two owners and a manager. None of whom, of course, are going to be present on a regular afternoon shift, so I asked if I could take a message. She asked, instead, what non-smoking rooms we had available. Pretty full up, we were, so just our most basic room, which I, I'll admit, confusingly referred to as a "single double". One bed of a double size, I clarified.
SC: Alright, we'll take that and stick a king in there.
Me: ...? I beg your pardon? No, ma'am, it's just a double.
She said she was looking at our rates, and wanted the "$49.99" rate. I explained to her that that was our coupon rate, and is not available for reservation. I would like to mention that she sends "thousands of dollars of buisness" to our hotel and that our owner "calls her personally" when he needs something. Like hell, but these claims were interspersed throughout this conversation. She really, really wanted that coupon rate. Because she's a "very good travel agent" and wants to give her customers the very best rate. The room itself was only five dollars more sold regularly. If she was any sort of cooperative person, we would've knocked a percentage off, even though we would've been able to rent it at-price (which we later did). So take my polite yet firm intonation of "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's our coupon rate, which is for walk-ins only." and rinse/repete, since aside from appeals to authority and threatening the removal of her very crucial buisness, her argument style was "I'm not listening to a damn thing you say".
I kid you not, I had at least three instances of this:
Me: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's our coupon rate, which is for walk-ins only."
SC: "So we'll set that up for the $49.99 rate, then."
Me: "...No, ma'am... that's our coupon rate."
I eventually stuck her on hold and ignored her until I was done with the customers. Emmy, my exquisitely soft-spoken and polite middle-aged coworker, picked up and had the exact same conversation, except that since we had no more guests in the lobby, she made faces at me over the phone, covered the mouthpiece to agree when I muttered that she was so full of shit, and eventually just hung up on her. This lady took Emmy's name, threatened that our boss was going to be SO UPSET with us, she was never booking people with us again.
Seriously, she made my day. I was entertained throughout the rest of the shift.
---one last note about that shift: A lady came in, wanting to pay for the stay of one of our guests. The guest's name: Leroy Brown. Baddest man in the whole damn town...
On my last shift, I was VERY entertained by this travel agent that called while I was checking in a guest. I can multi-task alright, so I went ahead and answered. First off, she asked if my manager was there. So much for the pleasentries. I asked her "which one", first off, as we have two owners and a manager. None of whom, of course, are going to be present on a regular afternoon shift, so I asked if I could take a message. She asked, instead, what non-smoking rooms we had available. Pretty full up, we were, so just our most basic room, which I, I'll admit, confusingly referred to as a "single double". One bed of a double size, I clarified.
SC: Alright, we'll take that and stick a king in there.
Me: ...? I beg your pardon? No, ma'am, it's just a double.
She said she was looking at our rates, and wanted the "$49.99" rate. I explained to her that that was our coupon rate, and is not available for reservation. I would like to mention that she sends "thousands of dollars of buisness" to our hotel and that our owner "calls her personally" when he needs something. Like hell, but these claims were interspersed throughout this conversation. She really, really wanted that coupon rate. Because she's a "very good travel agent" and wants to give her customers the very best rate. The room itself was only five dollars more sold regularly. If she was any sort of cooperative person, we would've knocked a percentage off, even though we would've been able to rent it at-price (which we later did). So take my polite yet firm intonation of "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's our coupon rate, which is for walk-ins only." and rinse/repete, since aside from appeals to authority and threatening the removal of her very crucial buisness, her argument style was "I'm not listening to a damn thing you say".
I kid you not, I had at least three instances of this:
Me: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's our coupon rate, which is for walk-ins only."
SC: "So we'll set that up for the $49.99 rate, then."
Me: "...No, ma'am... that's our coupon rate."
I eventually stuck her on hold and ignored her until I was done with the customers. Emmy, my exquisitely soft-spoken and polite middle-aged coworker, picked up and had the exact same conversation, except that since we had no more guests in the lobby, she made faces at me over the phone, covered the mouthpiece to agree when I muttered that she was so full of shit, and eventually just hung up on her. This lady took Emmy's name, threatened that our boss was going to be SO UPSET with us, she was never booking people with us again.
Seriously, she made my day. I was entertained throughout the rest of the shift.
---one last note about that shift: A lady came in, wanting to pay for the stay of one of our guests. The guest's name: Leroy Brown. Baddest man in the whole damn town...
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