Goings on at the Hotel (Very Long)

[Lostfiniel]

There have been some amazingly poor customers here in the last couple of months. I wanted to share some of the stories. As background, I work at an independent 3 star hotel and I am the front desk supervisor. I have been here almost 2 years now and I am always shocked by people's stupidity.

One monday I came in after having the weekend off. Our night auditor warned me about an older couple I would probably encounter during my stay. As some background, this particular night auditor has a bad habit of giving guests rates which are MUCH lower than they should be. This case was no exception. He had booked them a full 40.00 a night lower than normal. He said our assistant general manager had already talked to him about that so I let it go. He also told me that they MAY stay for a month (which means a slightly lower rating and not having to pay taxes since they would be considered residents of the city.) The last thing he warned me about was that they were very rude people and had been demanding all kinds of things during their stay.

They asked our night auditor to heat up water for them in the kitchen's microwave (All rooms come equipped with microwaves.) They asked for multiple plastic bags during their stay (this will be very relevant later.) They asked for obscene amounts of butter (It is open for taking during breakfast but gets put away in the fridge later.) They made us swear up and down that housekeeping wouldn't go in the room to clean (will also be relevant.) Everytime they asked for something, they were rude. None of us were looking forward to a month of them being here.

The guests went to checkout with me the next day cancelling the rest of their stay. No problem, we don't charge for that. The bill consisted of their quoted rate, the taxes and two local phone calls. They checked out right at the last minute. The conversation is hard to remember exactly but some of the wording won't leave me anytime soon:

Room 108: the guests
Me:
NA: Night Auditor

Me: Alright, would you like the charges put to your American Express card?
Room 108: yeah
Me: Ok, here is your receipt *hands her the receipt* have a nice day!
Room 108: *looks at the receipt* THIS ISN'T RIGHT! NONE OF THIS IS RIGHT!
Me: *Looking at the receipt on the computer* What is wrong, ma'me?
Room 108: Well, you charged me for calls and there are taxes on here!
Me: Yes?
Room 108: No, NA told us we got free calls and we wouldn't pay taxes.
Me: Well, I can adjust the phone charges off (It was only $1, no big deal) But, the room is $____ and you do have to pay taxes on it.
Room 108: No, we don't. When NA sold us the room he told us it would be $_____ without taxes.
Me: I talked to NA and he told me we had offered you a long term stay which would take...
Room 108: You LIAR! YOU ARE A LIAR!!! You couldn't have talked to NA about our room, you didn't know we were going to checkout today! Call NA up at ask him, he will tell you we are supposed to get taxes off!!!
Me: I'm sorry, I'm not going to call NA. I did talk with him and my assistant general manager and we are all aware of the s....
Room 108: I'm not paying this! You are a thief and a liar! Call up NA!!
Me: I'm sorry, no.
Room 108: *turning to her husband* She could call him if there was an emergency
Me: This is hardly an emergency and I wouldn't disturb him now anyway
Room 108: Why not?
Me: He is at work right now and he can't take calls
Room 108: See, you are lying he works HERE
Me: He is part-time here, he has a full-time job too
Room 108: *She turns to talk to her husband quietly* *turns back* Take this off or we are cancelling the charges.

*At this point more guests come into the lobby*

Me: Ma'me, there is nothing I am going to change about this. You did sign the registration card saying that the rate was $_____ it would be illegal for us to remove taxes. I already refunded your phone calls.
Room 108: I want to speak to your supervisor!!
Me: I AM the supervisor
Room 108: Then I want to speak to your manager
Me: She is not here right now, if you would like to call us back she will be here in two hours.
Room 108: I bet you're lying! *Yelling* I WANT SOMEONE TO FIX THIS!!! I AM BEING CHEATED!!!

*Nobody comes*

Me: Ma'me, please, there is absilutely nothing I am going to change about this.
Room 108: Ok, here are your choices, Call NA and get this fixed, take off the taxes or have us call up American Express and tell them you are cheating us.

Me: Would you like me to write down American Express' number for you?

They left in a great huff after calling me some more unpleasant names. We did send an email to NA. They were fulling wrong. Even about the phone calls. When housekeeping went in the room to clean, the room smells awfull. They had a dog in there against our no-pet policy. There was urine everywhere. The bags were being used to pick up the dog's droppings. We tried to call them about this, they hung up on our managers.

They never got the charges refunded. By the way, the difference in price from what they had and what they wanted? 28.00 and something cents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We occasionally get people in who are trying to get away from an abusive spouse or boy/girlfriend. Generally, I try and give them a discount get them on a third floor room and make a note that we are to deny they are here for anyone who asks.

A couple weeks ago right as I was leaving, we had a woman come in with a claim that she was being abused. I was almost out the door but I came back and told our newest employee, who had just started her shift, to lower the price to the manager's special and put a note in her room about the privacy. The guest started in on a bizarre mangling of stories. She pulled a photo of herself out of her purse. It was her in a bed (not a hospital) with a swollen nose and bruise on her face. It was sad, but as she talked, it turned weird.

She said her husband was the head of a major Mexican mafia and he wanted her killed. She claimed that no matter where she went, they found her. She said they put bricks in her path to make her trip and die. She said the last hotel she stayed at, they crept into her room and took her room key from the dresser and put it under her pillow.

I left at that point. Traffic was pilling up and I had a feeling she was crazy.

I was proved right when I recieved a call from the newer employee later that night.

Employee: Oh, I'm so worked up, I don't know what to do about this guest. (She is a newer employee and a bit older, she gets upset over the simplest things but she was really really upset over this.)
Me: The one who came in as I was leaving?
Employee: Yes! It has ben a nightmare since she came in.
Me: Well, what happened?
Employee: She says she is going to die here. She said we put her in danger. We kept changing rooms and she said they have been in them all.
Me: .....
Employee: Here, talk to maintenance.

(Our company doesn't handle security, the front desk and maintenance department cover any security issues on site.)

Maintenance: Hey, something is wrong here. I went in the room she was in and it is a mess! I don't know if it was housekeeping or her. But, the TV is pulled out of the wall and on the other side of the room, the door no longer fits in the frame right, the phones are all pulled out, there is dirt everywhere....
Me: How long was she in the room?
Maintenance: I don't know, maybe an hour?

The guest asked to leave just after that. She didn't want to pay and we wanted her out of there so we didn't charge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had someone during spring break who came in and said they were supposed to get a free room. They had no reservation, no comp voucher and they looked like red-neck hillbillies. Their story was that they had stayed with us last summer and got the room for free because they got so many bug bites from sleeping in our rooms. I looked at their stay from then and we had given them a discount because of complaints but even the notes from back then had said that we doubted the validity of their story. In fact, when we called in our extermination expert, he found no bugs at all. Especially the bed bugs they said we had.

The people said they were promised free stay from now on whenever they wanted. The fact that it is against company policy and we were sold-out didn't seem to be an obstacle to them.

They did some name-dropping and threatening. I mentioned the report of the exterminators. I also mentioned that, if they continued to talk about "being attacked by bed bugs last time we were here" I would suggest our company sue them for slander. They slincked off never to be heard from again.

Anyways, why would someone want to stay at a place with bugs???

[RetailWorkhorse]

her husband was the head of a major Mexican mafia

..........................the ones who are REALLY in the Mafia...yeah, they don't talk about it.

And "Mafia" is a word that the Media came up with.

[Evil Queen]

Yay! Another hotel desk jockey, welcome!

Man, and I thought I had bad guests. I think yours are as bad as mine, if not worse!

[Andara Bledin]

On those Room 108 people, couldn't you have charged them a cleaning fee for having the dog? It's presence is pretty much a given, after all; you had bags of it's droppings.

And "Mafia" is a word that the Media came up with.

Actually, it's an older word that's been around for at least a couple of centuries in Italian, and most likely came from either Arabic or Old French, and has to do mostly with being aggressive and the like. It's been used in it's current form since the late 1800's.

^-.-^

[Lostfiniel]

We had talked about charging them with a cleaning fee. The housekeeping department threw away any evidence though, including all of the white hair around the room.

While it was extra trouble to clean the room, we were so sick of them and their trouble, we didn't want to deal with anymore.

[thehippie777]

For the most part our guests are pretty easy going. I try my hardest not to check in people who seem like they are not mentally healthy. I believe in filling the hotel, but not if it's going to cost the hotel in the long-run. When I first started working in hotels, I soon found out that those people were far more a problem then they are worth.

I guess there are been times in the past that our hotel has had the "we will call our credit card company" threat, but if they actually do their request gets denied because we tend to have ample evidence that they are not people we want here anyway So, they are almost happy to anger them. Mostly, though, our hotel buckles under nearly every situation where the guest isn't happy, because we want them to be.

[bainsidhe]

I still think it's too bad the first couple weren't charged a cleaning fee. Besides having the benefit of charging them for their assholiness, customers like that have a way of coming back to haunt you. I won't be surprised if they try to cancell charges with Amex (good luck with that) or otherwise try to get free stuff from corporate. I hope you noted their account with great detail of what transpired. We all know how corporate likes to give out free perks, whether one deserves them or not.

[smileyeagle1021]

I still think it's too bad the first couple weren't charged a cleaning fee. Besides having the benefit of charging them for their assholiness, customers like that have a way of coming back to haunt you. I won't be surprised if they try to cancell charges with Amex (good luck with that) or otherwise try to get free stuff from corporate. I hope you noted their account with great detail of what transpired. We all know how corporate likes to give out free perks, whether one deserves them or not.

that is so very true... our guest relations agents can without any approval from supervisors give out $30 worth... granted there have been many times where I've transfered a call to them that $30 would be reasonable (ie, person was told that fridges for medical purposes were free of charge but when they checked out there was a charge for the fridge) but I'm pretty sure most of the stuff they give out is to sooth the entitlement whores.

oh and if you're wondering, sups apparently can do everything up to full refund of the stay or credit towards a future stay of equal value.

[Getoutofmylobby]

Me: Ma'me, please, there is absilutely nothing I am going to change about this.
Room 108: Ok, here are your choices, Call NA and get this fixed, take off the taxes or have us call up American Express and tell them you are cheating us.

Me: Would you like me to write down American Express' number for you?

I cheered when i read this. Nice job.

I get alot of people, regular weekend guests, who are "surprised" when they are charged taxes. And they aren't a small thing, around $30 per night here, but whenever we quote someone a rate, its ingrained in our very souls to say "XXX plus tax." And for the monthly stays (which for us is rare since we don't have a monthly rate) we try our best to explain the tax situation to them. Most understand, a few don't/won't/can't.

Gotta hand it to these SC's though, they put alot of effort in their bitching, especially since they completely trashed the room.

And what is with the delusional customers who think we deliberately lie and steal from them? I know we all work for greedy, evil corporations but so far I haven't been instructed to target an individual person to rip off.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm thinking that hotels should have the head of housekeeping outfitted with a decent digital camera for photo evidence when they charge people for trashing rooms. That way, when they try to get the credit card to deny it, the hotel can just send over the pictures of what the guest did to the room to incur the charges.

And the pics can be referenced in the guest notes as a reminder to corporate why they suck.

^-.-^

[Lostfiniel]

I'm thinking that hotels should have the head of housekeeping outfitted with a decent digital camera for photo evidence when they charge people for trashing rooms. That way, when they try to get the credit card to deny it, the hotel can just send over the pictures of what the guest did to the room to incur the charges.

And the pics can be referenced in the guest notes as a reminder to corporate why they suck.

^-.-^

And, you know, one of the things that really bothered me is that we DO keep a camera on property for such things! Sure, it is a really old polaroid, but it gets the job done. I don't know why housekeeping decided to clean it up so quickly. We could have taken pictures, saved a couple of the hairs, etc.

[Evil Queen]

I keep telling my Boss I'm going to buy a polaroid and just leave it here until I move away. (I'm supposed to be moving back to New Mexico this november).