I work in a call center doing reservations for a casino corporation's players club (basically I book free rooms for gamblers based on offers they are sent).
Most of the time we can just provide the player with ONE free room. If they have family and friends who want separate rooms we book those at a discounted rate. I spoke to a woman who happened to have two coupons we rarely send out for a free room for her family and friends.
She calls to see if I can use both of the coupons to give her a total of 3 free rooms (one for her and her husband, one for her son and his wife, and one for her daughter and her husband). I find out that YES! I can. I book the two extra rooms and tie them together so that when the front desk assigns them they will be somewhat close together.
It should be noted when we give free rooms all that is promised is a basic room of some sort, we never promise suites (even to our biggest players). Guests are often upgraded to suites based on availability but this doesn't happen until they check in (and if we don't happen to have a suite available then tough luck). The coupons for her son and daughter are very specific that they are for a basic room type.
After I'm done the guest asks if she has been assigned a suite. I see that no she is not showing a suite request but I'd be glad to leave a request for the front desk to see when she checks in but no I cannot promise it will be available. She gets in a huff saying that she has always had a suite every time she'd stayed with us so expects one this time as well. I admit to her that though it is possible for her to be upgraded to a suite it is almost impossible her children on the coupons could be upgraded too (suites are for payed guests or players who are likely to play lots of players families don't play very much in general). So I ask what is more important to her having a suite for her and her husband or a room close to her family? She choose the suite. So now my note to the front desk reads "if possible upgrade guest to a suite, this takes higher preference than being close to the parties she is traveling with".
After the call I take a look at her previous reservations. She has been visiting us every 2 months for a while and yes each time stayed in a suite (and often a "real" suite not just a fancy dressed up basic room we call a suite). I take a look at the notes, every single reservation has a note that was left by the front desk at arrival "guest is celebrating 40th wedding anniversary upgraded to suite".
Uh, I hate when people work the system in a way that could cause others to suffer (what if she got the last suite left open on her next stay and right after her a "real" couple of newlyweds checked in?). Instead of giving a once in a life time surprise to a happy couple, we'd have taught an EW that she is more speshul than others.
So now her reservation has a note for the desk "please see all previous reservations before upgrading"
I wonder what will happen when she checks in this time. My prediction is all the suites will be full (even if they are not) and she'll be close to her family.
She already had worked the system enough in my mind. She originally had booked for a week when we were slow and she had comps showing up (the next week we were busier and a low level player like her likely wouldn't have comps show up). So she booked the week she had comps then called her host and he moved her reservation to the week she really wanted but keeping the rates (free) the way she booked (hosts can do whatever they want).
Thanks for reading my ramble. Hope it made sense.
Most of the time we can just provide the player with ONE free room. If they have family and friends who want separate rooms we book those at a discounted rate. I spoke to a woman who happened to have two coupons we rarely send out for a free room for her family and friends.
She calls to see if I can use both of the coupons to give her a total of 3 free rooms (one for her and her husband, one for her son and his wife, and one for her daughter and her husband). I find out that YES! I can. I book the two extra rooms and tie them together so that when the front desk assigns them they will be somewhat close together.
It should be noted when we give free rooms all that is promised is a basic room of some sort, we never promise suites (even to our biggest players). Guests are often upgraded to suites based on availability but this doesn't happen until they check in (and if we don't happen to have a suite available then tough luck). The coupons for her son and daughter are very specific that they are for a basic room type.
After I'm done the guest asks if she has been assigned a suite. I see that no she is not showing a suite request but I'd be glad to leave a request for the front desk to see when she checks in but no I cannot promise it will be available. She gets in a huff saying that she has always had a suite every time she'd stayed with us so expects one this time as well. I admit to her that though it is possible for her to be upgraded to a suite it is almost impossible her children on the coupons could be upgraded too (suites are for payed guests or players who are likely to play lots of players families don't play very much in general). So I ask what is more important to her having a suite for her and her husband or a room close to her family? She choose the suite. So now my note to the front desk reads "if possible upgrade guest to a suite, this takes higher preference than being close to the parties she is traveling with".
After the call I take a look at her previous reservations. She has been visiting us every 2 months for a while and yes each time stayed in a suite (and often a "real" suite not just a fancy dressed up basic room we call a suite). I take a look at the notes, every single reservation has a note that was left by the front desk at arrival "guest is celebrating 40th wedding anniversary upgraded to suite".
Uh, I hate when people work the system in a way that could cause others to suffer (what if she got the last suite left open on her next stay and right after her a "real" couple of newlyweds checked in?). Instead of giving a once in a life time surprise to a happy couple, we'd have taught an EW that she is more speshul than others.
So now her reservation has a note for the desk "please see all previous reservations before upgrading"

She already had worked the system enough in my mind. She originally had booked for a week when we were slow and she had comps showing up (the next week we were busier and a low level player like her likely wouldn't have comps show up). So she booked the week she had comps then called her host and he moved her reservation to the week she really wanted but keeping the rates (free) the way she booked (hosts can do whatever they want).
Thanks for reading my ramble. Hope it made sense.
Comment