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So, we've had a slow night here with (for once) no SC's! Amazing. However, we're looking at a situation this next week that reminded me of a wonderful story. The characters in this one really weren't classic SC's, since it was really our fault that they got so pissed...and they did apologize to me, and thank me later on...but it's still a fun story to pass the time.
For those outside the hotel industry, there exists a certain practice amongst most hotel chains of overselling rooms. Basically, reservations sells more rooms than we have available (so if we have 100 rooms, we sell 110) going on the assumption that people will no-show for different reasons. Hotels love no-shows as well, since they charge them 1 night stays, and spend $0, thus making pure profit. However, if too many people show up, we run out of rooms, and have to "walk" guests to other hotels in the area...and sometimes, "in the area" is a bit of a general statement. Now, normally being walked isn't too bad...you get a room still, and you get it for free...and most hotels will give you some other stuff as compensation too, so it's actually pretty nice IMO. However...flash back about a year ago...
The hotel, and city of Denver, is highly oversold...we're hosting a citywide conference, and every hotel in downtown is booked. Solid. Every hotel just outside of downtown is booked too. In fact, every hotel within 20 minutes of us is booked...and every hotel has oversold their rooms, standard practice. However, this group has incentives for its attendees, and every last one of them shows up, which means every hotel in Denver starts scrambling for rooms. On top of that, the most hated companies ever (Expedia.com, hotels.com, etc) did not close their reservations...so MORE people kept reserving for the hotel!!! This puts us in a wonderful situation on the graveyard shift, because now we're left with the following problem: the only hotels we can find with any openings are in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. For you non-Colorado folks, that means they are roughly 60-90 minutes away. Shit.
Now, I'm a security manager, but on graveyards I become the MOD, which means I get called whenever someone is pissed...and the majority of my conversations during the night consisted of the following:
(SC has already been told that the hotel fucked up, and they have no room...they then ask to speak to Yours Truly)
SC: I want to know why they're saying I have no room.
Me: I apologize sir/ma'am/asstart, they unfortunately are correct. Due to a matter outside of our control, our hotel was overbooked tonight, and all of our rooms were filled during the day.
SC: That's bullshit, I want my damn room, and you gave it away? We've been travelling all day to get here, now get me a room.
Me: I'm sorry sir, this is not the news I want to give you, but unfortunately my hands are tied...our rooms have been filled already, I have no beds left in the hotel.
Now, this conversation happens every time...after a certain point, the radio in my head just goes off, and I enjoy the music until the person calms down and realizes there's nothing we can do...we're just the messengers getting slaughtered by the angry generals. The last one I had this night, however, was a real doozy.
I get called back up to the desk, and when I walk out the first thing I see is a couple, and I know I am screwed. The man is wearing nothing but New Jersey Devils gear, he is beet red, and his hands are clinched. I can see the blood vessels bulging from about 15 feet away. The woman is pregnant, and fairly well along, so now I not only know that I am screwed, I feel like a dickhead too since I'm walking a very pregnant woman. Great.
Now, we have the above conversation almost word-for-word, and things start to get progressively worse. Here's the way the rest goes after my last comment above.
SC - Obvious
Me - Why me? Oh yeah, see signature...
SCW - SC's Wife
(Note, I know their suckiness was brought on by what the hotel did, but hey, I've already used the acronym
)
SC: Look asshole, we've been having problems getting here all day. Now either you get me a room, or you and I are going to take a walk outside.
Me: (Appraising...I'm not a small guy, but hockey fans are always a bitch in a fistfight...this could be a problem) Sir, I realize you're upset, but what would you like me to do? Our rooms were filled completely, every one of them. I know you want a room, but there is nothing left here.
SC: Then you go up to our room that you gave away, and you take the people in there out and kick them to another damn hotel.
Me: I can't do that. The rooms are filled, there is nothing I can do to change that.
SCW: That's crap, jackass. You get them out of our room, or we'll call the damn police right now and force you to do it.
Me: (Heh lady, the fact that I know the overnight officers by name and feed them coffee nightly makes me doubt that) I'm sorry, I know you don't believe a word of it, but I really am. If I could do anything with a room, I would, but I have no options; the hotel was unfortunately over-sold tonight, and I have nothing left to give.
SC: Well we're not leaving. You get us a damn room, throw someone out, and do it now.
Me: Sir...
SC: Right fucking now!
I'll stop for a moment and note that, once again, I'm not a small guy (about 6'3", 200, and a fairly good build). I do some wrestling and Jujitsu, so I can defend myself if needed, but I'm a very defensive-minded guy and I would never punch someone unless I had zero options left, and it was a matter of saving my health. That said, I am on my toes at this point: he has made one threat early on, and as of his last shout, he looked like he was damn near ready to jump over the counter and have a go at it.
Suddenly I become aware of just how much attention we're gathering, since I've been focused 100% on him and his wife at this point. I see movement and notice that my entire security staff has heard the commotion from 3 hallways away, and come out to make sure nothing's getting violent. This makes me less nervous, until I notice that a line about 6 deep has just formed...and SC and SCW catch my eye movement, and notice them as well.
SC: I hope you're not checking in, because they gave your rooms away.
Shit. The entire line has just turned hostile, and I can see them getting out their torches and pitchforks, and I die a little more inside. Anyway, the back-and-forth between Me, and SC/SCW goes on and on, and generally repeats what it says above numerous times. This goes on for, truthfully, long enough for the front desk folks to get through the ENTIRE line that formed, and get them sent off to their hotels. One of the night auditors, S, passes me a note that they found a hotel 20 minutes away with a room (as opposed to the one 90 minutes away that they were going to originally), and I relay this. We go back and forth some more, but I can tell SC is running out of steam. SCW is now crying (and I feel like even more of a dickhead), and I'm doing everything I can to make them realize that I really am honestly sorry about all of this.
Finally, after 1 hour of arguing and placating, I manage to calm them enough to get them sent off to their new hotel. They end up getting an entirely free stay, free food and beverage, free amenities sent to their room, the whole works, and they actually end up sending me a thank you and an apology, which I guess redeems them from any SC-ness to a certain degree.
It was one of those encounters that just left me drained...and I could sum it up easily: Who really wants to walk a man and his pregnant wife after they've spent 13 hours travelling due to airport delays? Not me!
I hate the oversell policy.
For those outside the hotel industry, there exists a certain practice amongst most hotel chains of overselling rooms. Basically, reservations sells more rooms than we have available (so if we have 100 rooms, we sell 110) going on the assumption that people will no-show for different reasons. Hotels love no-shows as well, since they charge them 1 night stays, and spend $0, thus making pure profit. However, if too many people show up, we run out of rooms, and have to "walk" guests to other hotels in the area...and sometimes, "in the area" is a bit of a general statement. Now, normally being walked isn't too bad...you get a room still, and you get it for free...and most hotels will give you some other stuff as compensation too, so it's actually pretty nice IMO. However...flash back about a year ago...
The hotel, and city of Denver, is highly oversold...we're hosting a citywide conference, and every hotel in downtown is booked. Solid. Every hotel just outside of downtown is booked too. In fact, every hotel within 20 minutes of us is booked...and every hotel has oversold their rooms, standard practice. However, this group has incentives for its attendees, and every last one of them shows up, which means every hotel in Denver starts scrambling for rooms. On top of that, the most hated companies ever (Expedia.com, hotels.com, etc) did not close their reservations...so MORE people kept reserving for the hotel!!! This puts us in a wonderful situation on the graveyard shift, because now we're left with the following problem: the only hotels we can find with any openings are in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. For you non-Colorado folks, that means they are roughly 60-90 minutes away. Shit.
Now, I'm a security manager, but on graveyards I become the MOD, which means I get called whenever someone is pissed...and the majority of my conversations during the night consisted of the following:
(SC has already been told that the hotel fucked up, and they have no room...they then ask to speak to Yours Truly)
SC: I want to know why they're saying I have no room.
Me: I apologize sir/ma'am/asstart, they unfortunately are correct. Due to a matter outside of our control, our hotel was overbooked tonight, and all of our rooms were filled during the day.
SC: That's bullshit, I want my damn room, and you gave it away? We've been travelling all day to get here, now get me a room.
Me: I'm sorry sir, this is not the news I want to give you, but unfortunately my hands are tied...our rooms have been filled already, I have no beds left in the hotel.
Now, this conversation happens every time...after a certain point, the radio in my head just goes off, and I enjoy the music until the person calms down and realizes there's nothing we can do...we're just the messengers getting slaughtered by the angry generals. The last one I had this night, however, was a real doozy.
I get called back up to the desk, and when I walk out the first thing I see is a couple, and I know I am screwed. The man is wearing nothing but New Jersey Devils gear, he is beet red, and his hands are clinched. I can see the blood vessels bulging from about 15 feet away. The woman is pregnant, and fairly well along, so now I not only know that I am screwed, I feel like a dickhead too since I'm walking a very pregnant woman. Great.
Now, we have the above conversation almost word-for-word, and things start to get progressively worse. Here's the way the rest goes after my last comment above.
SC - Obvious
Me - Why me? Oh yeah, see signature...
SCW - SC's Wife
(Note, I know their suckiness was brought on by what the hotel did, but hey, I've already used the acronym
)SC: Look asshole, we've been having problems getting here all day. Now either you get me a room, or you and I are going to take a walk outside.
Me: (Appraising...I'm not a small guy, but hockey fans are always a bitch in a fistfight...this could be a problem) Sir, I realize you're upset, but what would you like me to do? Our rooms were filled completely, every one of them. I know you want a room, but there is nothing left here.
SC: Then you go up to our room that you gave away, and you take the people in there out and kick them to another damn hotel.
Me: I can't do that. The rooms are filled, there is nothing I can do to change that.
SCW: That's crap, jackass. You get them out of our room, or we'll call the damn police right now and force you to do it.
Me: (Heh lady, the fact that I know the overnight officers by name and feed them coffee nightly makes me doubt that) I'm sorry, I know you don't believe a word of it, but I really am. If I could do anything with a room, I would, but I have no options; the hotel was unfortunately over-sold tonight, and I have nothing left to give.
SC: Well we're not leaving. You get us a damn room, throw someone out, and do it now.
Me: Sir...
SC: Right fucking now!
I'll stop for a moment and note that, once again, I'm not a small guy (about 6'3", 200, and a fairly good build). I do some wrestling and Jujitsu, so I can defend myself if needed, but I'm a very defensive-minded guy and I would never punch someone unless I had zero options left, and it was a matter of saving my health. That said, I am on my toes at this point: he has made one threat early on, and as of his last shout, he looked like he was damn near ready to jump over the counter and have a go at it.
Suddenly I become aware of just how much attention we're gathering, since I've been focused 100% on him and his wife at this point. I see movement and notice that my entire security staff has heard the commotion from 3 hallways away, and come out to make sure nothing's getting violent. This makes me less nervous, until I notice that a line about 6 deep has just formed...and SC and SCW catch my eye movement, and notice them as well.
SC: I hope you're not checking in, because they gave your rooms away.
Shit. The entire line has just turned hostile, and I can see them getting out their torches and pitchforks, and I die a little more inside. Anyway, the back-and-forth between Me, and SC/SCW goes on and on, and generally repeats what it says above numerous times. This goes on for, truthfully, long enough for the front desk folks to get through the ENTIRE line that formed, and get them sent off to their hotels. One of the night auditors, S, passes me a note that they found a hotel 20 minutes away with a room (as opposed to the one 90 minutes away that they were going to originally), and I relay this. We go back and forth some more, but I can tell SC is running out of steam. SCW is now crying (and I feel like even more of a dickhead), and I'm doing everything I can to make them realize that I really am honestly sorry about all of this.
Finally, after 1 hour of arguing and placating, I manage to calm them enough to get them sent off to their new hotel. They end up getting an entirely free stay, free food and beverage, free amenities sent to their room, the whole works, and they actually end up sending me a thank you and an apology, which I guess redeems them from any SC-ness to a certain degree.
It was one of those encounters that just left me drained...and I could sum it up easily: Who really wants to walk a man and his pregnant wife after they've spent 13 hours travelling due to airport delays? Not me!
I hate the oversell policy.
It's now a 10:00 flight. Mind you my minion's bed time is normally 8 at this time. So the minion is bored out of his skull at the airport and cranky from not getting bed time.
How is it profitable?
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