let's start a thread for hospitality workers

[slick]

Its weird to me that the often, the large downtown properties that charge $150+ consistently have no complimentary internet or breakfast but that the cheaper, average $75 hotels off of highways outside the city almost always have it. I have never worked at a large hotel, but even though I have stayed at big hotels, I am really interested in seeing the type of guests that come through there.
We are currently working on getting wireless internet working in the hotel, but on an almost daily basis, I have people bitch at me because its "hard wired, great". I would almost expect to be shot if I asked $10 a night for internet.
My parents are thinking about investing in a new hotel, and I am currently scouting different brands and locations. We got an idea to open a downtown hotel, probably 125 rooms, in an office building that is for sale. I really like this opportunity, it would be a huge step for us, but I wonder as to how different it would be to run it compared to a Comfort Inn.

I understand if you guys don't want to divulge information about where you work, but to help me out, is it a downtown hotel (aka large, full service, fee based internet, etc.) or a midsize located off a highway exit hotel (aka Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield, Comfort, Best Western, etc.)?

[Broomjockey]

Well, where I work is a college residence. But we've got 9 hotel style rooms for rent, plus during summer term, when we've got almost no students, we operate as a cheaper alternative for large groups and conferences. Apparently, we're something like 2.5 stars on the star ranking system. I have no idea what that means, but the bossman said it, and he worked in Dubai for the longest time, so I'll trust him on that.

[ajr1971]

Personally, in this day and age, I think hotels charging for room-based internet access is just gouging.

However, if a hotel I was staying at were going to charge for it, I certainly wouldn't harrass the desk clerk about it.

^-.-^

I work for a mid priced chain, and we don't charge for internet service (although I don't see anything wrong with those hotels that do). But, and what a lot of people don't seem to consider is, the overhead in a hotel.

I quoted a walk-in our rack rate a few weeks ago ($112), which she just thought outrageous. She demanded to know why hotels in general "charge so much" for a room to sleep in. I tried in vain to give the pat "rates are set by the owners based on season, amenities and what other hotels in the area charge" speech, but she was insistant. I was finally honest with her. It's partly the industry, partly the customer.

In an effort to compete with each other, hotel chains constantly try and outdo their comeptition with new amenities that no one else offers. This in and of itself has created the "entitled SC". Customers now expect swimming pools, hot tubs, saunas, excercise equipment, high speed internet, free breakfast, cable/satilite TV, microwaves, refridgerators, business centers, etc. etc. etc. What I tried to get this woman to see was that, while you are being charged for a "room", you are actually paying for all of the these amenities as well, which cost money to keep and maintain. Add to that utility bills, employee paychecks, taxes, insurance, etc. Hell, my hotel's electric bill alone is $40,000 a month (no, I didn't tell her this bit of info). The days of just getting a room to sleep in for the night are over.

The woman said she was sorry she asked, but thanked me for being honest with her. And, she did stay the night.

[Andara Bledin]

If all you want is a room, then go to a motel. They're usually cheap, quiet, and lacking in amenities.

As for the whole Internet thing: Since the hotel is paying for the Internet access regardless of use, it should be part of the room charge on all rooms, just like the pool and sauna. Hotels that charge are losing business. My boss (who doesn't travel cheap) has actually had his reservations changed over this issue.

^-.-^

[ajr1971]

If all you want is a room, then go to a motel. They're usually cheap, quiet, and lacking in amenities.

Unfortunately, not in my town. The cheap, no amenitity motels in my area are where the crack whores and hookers hang out.

As for the whole Internet thing: Since the hotel is paying for the Internet access regardless of use, it should be part of the room charge on all rooms, just like the pool and sauna. Hotels that charge are losing business. My boss (who doesn't travel cheap) has actually had his reservations changed over this issue.

In my hotel, we had to set up a separate network when we wired the guest rooms. But, I agree, it's worked out well for us to have complimentary internet. It is a huge draw for us. Unfortunately, it seems everyone else has it as well.

[angelicafire]

My family owns a campground in an area that has a huge tourist season, especially this past year (think 400th anniversary). My brother is running it right now and actually had a camper demand a refund because we didn't have lake access. The thing is, the closest thing we have to a lake is a reservoir that is 2 or 3 miles up the road. No where on our website, in our brochure, in ANY publication we are mentioned does it say we offer lake access. What was his response?

"Well every other campground I've stayed at had lake access!"

So if you stayed at a campground in a desert in Arizona, you would expect lake access? Yeah... no refund for you.

[TruthHurts]

My major pet peeves are people who ask if they can have the Triple A or the AARP discount even if they aren't members. That sorta defeats the purpose of having those discounts.

People who have issues with their room but don't contact us. And of course demand a discount because of the problems with their room.

And last but certainly not least are people who confuse ocean view rooms with ocean front rooms. We'll get someone at least once a week rip into us because we not on the beach like they assumed.

Because as everyone knows, when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of "u" and "umption" 10 points to whoever gets that movie reference.

[hotelnpa]

Our complimentary breakfast starts at 6:00 AM, but lately some guests have been coming at 4:30. Also the lights are turned off where the breakfast is served, so that would be a clue that breakfast is not being served yet. And people miss those signs that state our breakfast hours. While we have coffee, tea, and hot chocolate available all day, breakfast hours are pretty set. Most people understand, but some just huff and go back to their rooms.

As I was setting out breakfast once, around 5:20, one guest just followed me around, watching me as I put the food out. Once I was done, around 5:45, the guest said "FINALLY!"

[TruthHurts]

We have the opposite problems with our continental breakfast. There are people who come in after it's done. Despite the signs posted that it ends at 11am people will wander in at 11:30, Noon, and in one case 3pm and ask if there's any way we could give them food despite the fact that we are obviously closed down for the day.

[ajr1971]

We have the opposite problems with our continental breakfast are people who come in after it's done. Despite the signs posted that it ends at 11am people will wander in at 11:30, Noon, and in one case 3pm and ask if there's any way we could give them food despite the fact that we are obviously closed down for the day.

Sounds like my place, and I love the ones who think we'll give them something at lunch time because they couldn't get down when the continental was served (we have a full restaurant on site). Also love the ones who miss it, then want money off the room because they didn't eat, or they try and say we don't tell them what time it ends. They are given tickets at check in for our continental, with huge bold italic letters stating the breakfast's hours right across the top.

[cinema guy]

The cheap, no amenitity motels in my area are where the crack whores and hookers hang out.

Surely hookers count as amenities.

[Andara Bledin]

Surely hookers count as amenities.

No, those would come under the heading of "available services." (and, yes, I did that) They're not covered by the room fee.

^-.-^

[TruthHurts]

Surely hookers count as amenities.

That would be an upgrade over the mint on the pillow lol

[Antisocial_Worker]

Reading back through this thread, I noticed some hotel workers griping about third-party sites. I'm dealing with an issue with one of those right now.

For the past few weeks, we've had a guy bouncing letters back and forth to us and the Better Business Bureau. His complaint is that the hotels.com website has pictures and a description that are incorrect for this property and that when he made his reservation some time in September, he called this hotel directly and was told that we're about 15 miles closer to Asheville than we actually are. He's furious, and he wants money back from us.

Problem is, we never checked him in, never charged him, and it was hotels.com that assessed a penalty fee on him for canceling. We can't make him see the light. I've written two letters to him, and in the first one, I quoted verbatim what hotels.com had to say about this property. All the info is correct. I told him then that we're not giving him any money back because his money never came to us in the first place, and in the second one I reiterated that by saying the following:

In regards to your continued demand for compensation, I do not care what hotels.com may or may not have told you, but I can tell you that when you pay them, your money goes to them, not us. If your money was in our possession, rest assured that we would have refunded it to you if for no other reason than to get you to leave us alone. For the last time, any request for compensation should be made to hotels.com, not us. We will not give you money that was never paid to us. We will not, in essence, pay you not to stay here, and we will certainly not pay you an award for your continued belligerence.

Not as professional as it could be? Probably not, but I don't care. This guy was a dick from the word go. We're not going to be able to make him happy, and he's not going to stay here again, so we have no stake in kissing his ass anymore. After all, as I also pointed out to him...

As far as we are concerned, the matter is settled. We realize that we have lost you permanently as a guest, but we feel that this is a turn of circumstances that will make us both happy.

When it becomes apparent that we're just not going to be able to fix the problem, the gloves come off.

[ajr1971]

I just went through something similar.

Guest booked several rooms through a third party site. She cancelled all of her rooms a week prior to arrival, except the site she booked/cancelled through did not cancel one of the rooms. So, of course, when this room didn't show, we charged it.

So begins a week of her calling, the T/A calling, she of course wants her money back. She wanted a direct credit from us, even though the T/A said they would refund her with a check at the end of the month. This was unacceptable to her. We could have told her tough, and let her deal with the T/A only. It was clearly their fault. But, to make things easier for all, I went ahead and agreed to credit her direct, and then let the T/A issue the check to us instead.

But, then of course, she calls every day, she still hasn't received the credit, despite the fact that we faxed a copy of the credit to the T/A and to her direct. And so begins the unenviable task of getting her to understand that once we process said credit, it's up to her bank to process it to her account. Not good enough for her. And, so this is where I had to get a little beligerant, and demand that she not call or come to the hotel again, or we would start proceedings against her for harrassment (we would never do that, but it was fun to threaten to).

When you bend over backwards to make a situation right. despite the fact that we were not at fault, and the customer continues to harrass us about it, then, I agree with hauntedhead, the gloves come off.