Dave, could you take your guests back, please

[smileyeagle1021]

OK, so seriously, I just had a guy at the hotel that made me think immediately of VRS... I think one of his guests escaped and stayed at my hotel.

His complain-
someone had knocked on his door. Yup, this was a crisis, it must be solved immediately... oh hell, I might as well just put the whole thing in, so much easier than trying to make sense of it.

*desk phone rings
Me- front desk, how may I help you
SC- yeah, I need someone to my room immediately.
Me- OK, I can be there in just a few minutes, may I ask what is going on?
SC- there is someone knocking on my door.
Me- knocking on your door?
SC- yes, come, get him quickly.

...ok, I can do that... I go to his room, indeed there is someone knocking on his door. This gentleman appears to be a bit tipsy and a lot confused. I ask him if he needs help and whats going on. He stumbles a few words out about him leaving his key in the room and wanting his roommate to open the door, and before I even say anything he looks at the door again and mentions, "oh, wrong room, no wonder no one was answering" and started walking away. I figure that's the end of it. The guy was harmless and he was no longer bothering the guest, everyone is happy right... wrong

*phone rings
Me- front desk how may I help you?
SC- yeah, I need to know what happened.
Me- well, it seems like he was just lost and confused and thought he was at a different room than where he was. He seems to have found his way now.
SC- OK, so why was he confused... you didn't answer my question, I need to know how and why he was knocking on my door.
Me- well, it appeared he may of had a few drinks... that's the best explanation I can come up with... maybe he's just tired... maybe both.
SC- that is unacceptable. do you have any idea just how terrified my wife was at this intrusion upon us... we feel as if we have no safety here (uhuh, two locks and a latch on an inch thick solid door just aint enough seriously, those doors are fortified, I've seen first hand, unfortunately, just how much they can withstand).
Me- Well, I can do extra security rounds in that part of the hotel.
SC- you just don't get it do you... you should have made sure this never happened in the first place.
Me- ideally, yes we should have, but we don't have the manpower to stop every minor nuisance.
SC- minor nuisance... minor nuisance (he's getting loud by now), that was no minor nuisance, my wife was terrified for her life... you've got drunks running around the hotel and potentially psychos too... how are we supposed to sleep at night.
Me- I doubt highly that he was a psycho, he left when he was asked to, he's not causing harm... all I can do now is offer to do extra security in that area just in case.
SC- well, why didn't you follow him to his room?
Me- to be honest, it didn't seem that important to do. The vast majority of the time the drunks are harmless... after they are brought back to focus for a minute they realize that they should be elsewhere, and they go elsewhere. They don't have malice, they are little more than a nuisance. That and it is easy enough to find them if they don't go back to their room.
SC- well, it's obvious that you don't care about security... do we have to call the police.
Me- that is your option, there is not much they can do for you other than take a report, but you can call them.
SC- well, I want to press charges against him for harassment... what was his name.
Me- I honestly have no idea.
SC- you saw him, how can you not know?
Me- he didn't check in on my shift... and even if he did, I can't remember every person that I've checked in.
SC- well, this is why you should have followed him back to his room... so you could have found out who he was so he could be properly punished.
Me- for knocking on your door...
SC- yes, for knocking on my door. He terrified my wife.
Me- is she ok, does she need assistance?
SC- of course she's OK now... you keep missing the point... you've got drunks running around this hotel and you don't seem to care.
Me- I do care about the safety of our guests. That said, we have more important things to worry about than just some guy who had one too many getting lost
SC- you mean there are worse things that happen?
Me- no, there isn't... and that's because we make sure they don't.
SC- well, I'm going to have to call your corporate over this... you just haven't been helpful in the least.


seriously... this guy sounds like he belongs in one of VRS's stories... not mine... I'm supposed to have to deal with the entitlement whores, the homophobes, and the idiots... not the delusional folk.

[bainsidhe]

I can understand his frustration, to a point. I don't like it when people knock on the door to my home, because I'm usually alone and wasn't expecting anyone. This freaks me out. I'd also be unsettled and possibly alarmed if someone was knocking on my hotel door in a city where I didn't know anyone. Calling the front desk is a sound, safe idea. But then it's time to let it go. I hope it was just the adrenaline of the moment and this guy is normally more reasonable. Course now he's embarrassed about his behavior and inability to "protect" his wife, so he'll probably be a vindictive ass. No doubt the story will morph into one involving scary, abusive drunks who look like ax-murderers (whatever that looks like).

[IT Grunt]

Geez buddy... aren't just a wee bit paranoid? That guy needs to bring out the tin foil hat. Next thing you know he'll be calling complaining it was man in black coming to abduct him as part of a government conspiracy.

[smileyeagle1021]

I'd also be unsettled and possibly alarmed if someone was knocking on my hotel door in a city where I didn't know anyone. Calling the front desk is a sound, safe idea.

oh, agreed wholeheartedly. Please, by all means, report anything you think is suspicious... I would much rather spend a few minutes chasing after a shadow because someone got spooked than have someone ignore what really is a threat to our guests because they don't want to bother me. The suck lies in refusing to accept that in fact there was no danger and that the guy was just confused and lost.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I for one am glad I am not married to a woman who gets terrified for her life if there's an unexpected knock on the door.

[smileyeagle1021]

update

Well... I never mentioned in the original post that this guy was shirtless... I didn't think it was important... apparently that is part of where I went wrong.

The guest has added to his complaint that this guy was obviously a naked pervert.
Yup... being shirtless=naked and knocking on the wrong door=pervert.

Oh, and of course he is going to call corporate, and he is never staying with us again (yup, because you know those delta passengers are the best of repeat customers), and of course we must compensate him. He is seriously starting to sound a lot like one of Dave's customers.

[Grumpy]

That would have been so fun to go pound on his door every hour or so!

[Sheldonrs]

"Land shark"

[jerkface11]

I wonder if he even tried telling the guy he had the wrong room.

[EricKei]

"Land shark"

"Candygram"

[LillFilly]

Umm...Yeah, sounds like one of Dave's got loose!

Really, I think the guy was overreacting to impress his wife; Most likely she was the calmer of the two but just happened to be a convenient excuse for him to get worked-up.

Because nobody's ever gotten lost in a hotel before.

[IT Grunt]

Because nobody's ever gotten lost in a hotel before.

Heck, I had it one time I was on a business trip. In a lot of hotels, even numbered rooms are on one side of the hallway, odd numbered rooms on the other. In terms of room numbers, this guy had the room right after mine, but since mine was odd and his was even, his was actually across the hall. So he came to room 155, and tried to open my door, 157, when he actually had 156. I came to the door to check, and he apologized and realized he had the wrong room.

Ironically, the guy turned out to be the trainer for the training I was attending that week. He was relaying the story that he had tried to get into the wrong room and this huge guy came to the door (I'm 6'6" with a large frame.), and I recognized who he was and told him that was my room.

So yeah, it happens a lot. The guy needs to take a chill pill and a shot of shut the f*** up.

[Jester]

Every now and then I get a knock on the door that I am not expecting. You know what I do? I go to the door and call out, "Who is it?"

From the sound of things, that is something that this yahoo didn't so. Had he simply done that, then told the drunk, "Buddy, you have the wrong room," things would have probably worked themselves out just fine.

Personally, I would have loved to see the faces of the cops called to THAT major crime scene.

The part that amuses me about all this is that I've stayed at Smiley's hotel. There is all of one bar within walking distance. I know, because I walked there, got drunk, and walked back to the hotel. I am going to assume that the drunk didn't drive (large assumption, I know). Maybe he took a cab from another bar further away? I dunno. I just find it funny, since I can picture myself being that guy. Other than the fact that I wasn't staying with anyone, and even if I had been, had I lost my room key, I would have done what any other person, even a drunk person, with half a brain would have done....gone to the freakin' front desk and asked for a new key!

Both guys in this story were idiots.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Really, I think the guy was overreacting to impress his wife;

I feel sorry for any woman who'd be impressed by that kind of reaction. I sure as hell wouldn't be. I'd tell him to shut the hell up and get over himself if he were my husband. Then again, I don't get terrified by every knock on the door. Every hotel I've ever been in had some sort of latch or chain that allows the door to be opened only a few inches. And a peep hole. It's not that hard.

[Dark Psion]

SC- minor nuisance... minor nuisance (he's getting loud by now), that was no minor nuisance, my wife was terrified for her life... you've got drunks running around the hotel and potentially psychos too... how are we supposed to sleep at night.

Well, the drunk is outside your room, the psycho.........