let's start a thread for hospitality workers

[smileyeagle1021]

For those of you who don't know, I work in reservations. So I think we should have a thread for others of us trapped in this hellhole called hospitality to vent.

Who else here has gotten the "well, if I can't get my entertainment card discount I'll go somewhere else"... even though the rate you offer them is better than the other hotels entertainment rate.

or "can you match the rate at (insert name of hotel)"
no, I can't, because that hotel doesn't even have soap in their rooms

and my personal favorite "as a good reservationist you should have some rooms set aside as spare"
um no, if I'm a good i sell out every night.

and the variation "how can you be sold out tonight"
lets see, I have 100 rooms and 100 people have reserved... as per why those people reserved that is between you and them.

feel free to add your own rants at will.

[ajr1971]

I could go on forever, but here are a couple of my favorites.

"What's your rate?"
"$xx.xx"
"Well, Orbitz says $xx.xx"
"Then book it online, then."

Why they call and ask me for a rate, then throw some website deal in my face I don't get. People don't get that a)it's probably a promo rate that can be booked online only, and b) if they actually went through the reservation process, they would see that the rate they think they're going to get isn't available.

"My room never got cleaned today"
"Did you leave a do not disturb sign on your door?"
"Yeah, but....my room didn't get cleaned"

Newsflash, a do not disturb sign means....you guessed it....DO NOT DISTURB! Pretty straightforward concept, if you ask me. A housekeeper knocking on your door, and then entering your room could be construed as, you guessed it, DISTURBING YOU!.

"I want money off my bill..my TV didn't work"
"Sir, did you call down to have it looked at?"
"No, it didn't work."

Sorry, Ace, no discount. I refuse to believe you went 3 days without a TV. Second, the problem was probably your ineptitude..those cable boxes can be tricky, even though they've been around in one form or another for 30 years. Lastly, had we known, we never would have left you in a room all weekend with a busted television. Nice try.

[BookstoreEscapee]

hellhole called hospitality to vent.

For a second I read that word as "hostility"...

"What's your rate?"
"$xx.xx"
"Well, Orbitz says $xx.xx"
"Then book it online, then."

We get the same thing at B&N..."but it's 30% off on the website!" "then order it from them "

[smileyeagle1021]

I could go on forever, but here are a couple of my favorites.

"What's your rate?"
"$xx.xx"
"Well, Orbitz says $xx.xx"
"Then book it online, then."

Why they call and ask me for a rate, then throw some website deal in my face I don't get. People don't get that a)it's probably a promo rate that can be booked online only, and b) if they actually went through the reservation process, they would see that the rate they think they're going to get isn't available.

My other favorite is the
"I guess I'll have to book it online because it's cheaper"
... yeah, and I hope I'm the one who answers the phone when you call to cancel and get to tell you that online reservations can't be cancelled

or
guest- "priceline told me to call you to get a specific room type"
me- "all priceline reservations are on a flow through basis, I can out in requests, but with the exception of medical requests, nothing can be guaranteed"
guest- "but I need 2 beds nonsmoking"
me- "i'll be happy to add the request to your reservation and we'll do our best to accomadate your request"
guest- "well, if you can't guarantee that I want to cancel"
me- "priceline reservations are a prepaid rate and cannot be cancelled or transfered"
guest- "well, no one ever told me any of this stuff"
... well, we kinda hope that you would have read the print before clicking submit... that aside, priceline set these rules not us.... besides, if getting a specific room type is so important why didn't you call us directly...

and my all time favorite
phone- *beep* "san diego macro*, vdn code san web (someone called the 800 number on the san diego website)
me- "thank you for calling san diego area reservations, this is smileyeagle speaking, how may I help you"
guest- "what are your rates this weekend"
me- "which of our san diego properties would you like me to check"
guest- "didn't I call the hotel direct" (umm, no that's why I said thank you for calling san diego area reservations)
me- "no, i'm in the san diego main office"
guest- "oh, i'm looking for the holiday inn bayside, the one by the cruise ship terminal" (btw, they just told me 2 different places, we do have a hotel called the bayside, but it isn't the one by the terminal)
I verify which location he is talking about, get the information I need to give him a quote, number of people, smoking preference, any special rates, etc
me- "ok, we can do (whatever room type it was) for xxx.xx, would you like to reserve that"
guest- "but it says yyy.yy online" (wtf, if you are looking at the rate online, why did you just ask me)
me- "yes, that is our online rate that is non cancellable non transferrable, the rate I just gave you can be cancelled or changed at anytime without penalty"
guest- "oh, i guess I'll have to book it online because it's cheaper"

ugh, morons

[Gravekeeper]

I only endure the hotel reservations part of this equation and I can say, in full confidence, that if you placed me on the frontline of this particular area of customer service I'd have shanked someone in the face with a pen by the end of the month. ^^

[smileyeagle1021]

I only endure the hotel reservations part of this equation and I can say, in full confidence, that if you placed me on the frontline of this particular area of customer service I'd have shanked someone in the face with a pen by the end of the month. ^^

Work at SLCRO and you may still end up shanking someone by the end of the month... I get to go to "training" in 2 weeks... translation, they are shipping me off to san diego to tour our properties... and oh, if there is time they might let us work the desk while the real employees shadow... i'll kill one of the guests for sure if this happens.

[Gravekeeper]

Work at SLCRO and you may still end up shanking someone by the end of the month... I get to go to "training" in 2 weeks... translation, they are shipping me off to san diego to tour our properties... and oh, if there is time they might let us work the desk while the real employees shadow... i'll kill one of the guests for sure if this happens.

Go for the eyes, Boo.

[Imogene]

Mom & I recently took a driving trip back to St. Louis to get the stuff out of our storage unit, because we'd originally only expected to have that unit 2 months (the deal was the first month was free if you rented for two plus, and we needed somewhere to put the stuff from the house that wouldn't fit in the car on our first trip down here) Mom & I were on our way home, we stopped in a hotel just that side of the Oklahoma border, cause Mom was driving, and she was getting tired. I, on the other hand, was craving a shower, mostly from having stood in the sun for an hour or so while Mom made trips back and forth to Goodwill. I was sticky. So, I turned on the shower, got ready, got in, and adjusted the shower head, only to have it break off in my hand. Turned the water off, stepped out, toweled off, got redressed, and told Mom, we went down and told the desk clerk, he moved us to a different room, where the stopper in the sink wouldn't come up when the thing was pressed down. Mom eventually just pulled it out of the sink entirely.

[hotelnpa]

Since I work mostly night audit now, I don't get too many reservations.

But something that still irks me is when customers call and they act like they have all the time in the world to make a reservation. For example, they ask detailed questions about the hotel, what the rooms are like, local restaurants, etc, etc. That's fine, but they ask the same question over and over again, but in a different way. Or they take forever to retreive their credit card information. This is especially annoying during the AM shift when everyone is checking out and a line develops because you can't just stop what you are doing.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Mom & I were on our way home, we stopped in a hotel just that side of the Oklahoma border, cause Mom was driving, and she was getting tired. I, on the other hand, was craving a shower, mostly from having stood in the sun for an hour or so while Mom made trips back and forth to Goodwill. I was sticky. So, I turned on the shower, got ready, got in, and adjusted the shower head, only to have it break off in my hand. Turned the water off, stepped out, toweled off, got redressed, and told Mom, we went down and told the desk clerk, he moved us to a different room, where the stopper in the sink wouldn't come up when the thing was pressed down. Mom eventually just pulled it out of the sink entirely.

You were a victim of the fact that things inside hotel rooms decay faster than anything else anywhere else on the face of God's grey earth. Watch towels unravel before your very eyes! Marvel as wooden furniture crumbles into dust! Thrill at the sight of clock radios dissolving! Delight as televisions explode with enough force to embed the silver plastic Magnavox logo two inches into a solid concrete floor! Let the flatulent rip of splitting carpet lull you to sleep.

Of course, there's also the problem that what isn't falling apart is often being actively destroyed. We had a guest liberate the shower head once, and why not? It was a spiffy adjustable model, mandated to us by Blah Inn headquarters, just as they'd required we replace our permanent clothes hangers with expensive wooden ones that were easily stolen and which disappeared by the dozens every month.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Should you ever happen to find yourself in the posession of a dead body, take it to a hotel room and leave it for about fifteen minutes. By then, it will be mush and bone dust, or else guests will have stolen it. Either way, you'll come out ahead.

[Eireann]

I dunno... Have you read those stories on snopes.com of people who have discovered they were sharing their hotel room with a corpse beneath the bed?

Scary, scary thought, that is.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't know what's scarier about those stories; the fact that there was a dead body in the room, or the fact that housekeeping didn't notice there was a dead body in the room.

^-.-^

[uthdentroll]

"I am not very happy about my rate, I am paying $250 a night, the guy I med in the garage said he paid $150 a night he said his rate including parking and breakfast."
"Your rate including parking and breakfast for 2. $150 DOES NOT including parking or even breakfast"
"I want a better rate than that."
"I am sorry sir, your rate does including breakfast, and parking. once it is confirmed, we cannot adjust it"


"Sold out? come on you must have a spare room somewhere."


My favorite classic here
We locked his room because his departure supposely in the afternoon, and when the housekeepers went to clean the room, the room was occ and dirty at 2pm.
The guest came back at 12am and found out his key didnt work
"Your reservation started on 18th"
"But I arrived on the 19th"
"But your reservation is a pre-paid reservation via a third party website which you cannot change your reservation"
"But I arrived on the 19th"
"Your reservation stated your arrival date was on the 18th, therefor your check out date supposely in the afternoon"
"But I arrived on the 19th"
"Your reservation's arrival date was the 18th"
After 10minutes he knew he wasnt going anywhere, door is locked, his luggages were still in his room
"So what are my options?"
"We have 2 options for you, 1, you can stay for tonight, and pay our today's rate which is $399 a night, 2) if you decided if the rate is too high, I can check you out, and call other hotels to see if they have any rooms available for you tonight at a better rate. However, you must decide right here right now, I cannot let you go back to the room to decide."
"It the middle of the night, you are not going to sell that room."
"Sir, our hotel is overbooked tonight. I am more than happy to have an extra room tonight so I don't have to walk a guest with reservation"
"Can you call other hotels to see if they have other rooms available for one night, then"
before I picked up the phone, he said "I will rather stay here then, moving all the luggages and running around in the middle of the night."

[smileyeagle1021]

Uthdentroll mentioned one that happens to me often

me- you can guess
sg- stupid guest

me- "i'm sorry sir, but I don't have any rooms available" (for some reason corporate hates the term "sold out")
sg- "but you have to have something"
me- "i'm sorry, but we reserved our last room over an hour ago"
sg- "but a good reservationist like you must keep a few rooms in spare"
me- "actually, i'd be very bad at my job if I had rooms that are unused"
sg- "has everyone shown up yet?"
me- "a few, but what does that have to do with anything"
sg- "i'll pay a hundred dollars more than them, give me a room"
me- "that makes no business sense, because if we walk them we have to both pay for their room elsewhere, but refund their stay here... that aside, I'm assuming you made that offer because you've already called around and know that no one else has rooms either, so I won't walk a guest when I know that there isn't anywhere else available. All that aside, you have just offered a bribe and I am required to turn down any offer and disconnect the call immediately, please do not call back tonight" *presses call release button*

[slick]

I'm getting too old for this (only 25, feel like I'm 50).

I pretty much take care of my parents hotel. They are old now (60+) and the only reason they bought the hotel was my future. I work 100-120 hours a week, yet maintain my "cool" with SC's.

But these people love pushing my buttons with stupidity.

Too many times have I seen someone make a reservation through a 3rd party online system, and the reservation is wrong. But of course, its the hotels fault, even though the printout they got from Orbitz or where ever it was shows "Smoking King Regular Room" and not the 2 Queen Non-Smoking Suite they claim it was.

Too many times have I seen people make 3rd party reservations, get the wrong type of room, and still not realize that they did NOT get any type of discount going with the 3rd party. ALL of the rates on Orbitz, Expedia, and Hotels.com are the same as the ones on our OFFICIAL website. So not only do they get the wrong room, we gotta pay a lame commission to the ones that made the "wrong" reservation and endure the crap from the customer.

Too many times do I get a person that thinks that they are smart and have "figured out the system". My rate is $89, don't expect to get it for $35. No, I do not care if the room is not rented tonight, I would rather not rent it than let you take it for less than what it costs to actually rent a room.

Too many times have I been through the "I didn't enjoy my stay, give me something (monetary) now that I gave you no chance of fixing the issue since its checkout time" routine. DO NOT COME TO ME AT CHECKOUT FOR A REFUND/DISCOUNT! You will not be getting it. Had a problem with the A/C when you checked in? CALL THE FRONT DESK! Get the issue addressed and fixed.

Too many times do people bother me to open the pool after its been closed (breakfast also). I don't care if you claim you will be "quiet" while you swim. Its closed, and has been for 3 hours, coming to the front desk in your swimming trunks won't change a thing.

Too many times have I had to deal with "disappointed" people AFTER check in. I know we don't have a fitness room, its not my fault you assumed there was one, and so no, I am not going to feel bad for you. If it were that important, check about it first.

Too many times have I been told that "the other place I stayed at had *insert a hotel specific but in no way required ammenity here*, I thought they all did. No we don't, sorry, but mentioning it 14 times and looking annoyed everytime you mention it won't change a thing. I assure you, you probably won't find many hotels with "outdoor observitory" (basically, a telescope).

Despite the madness that I deal with daily, I convinced my parents to open a new hotel. I guess I love to be depressed