If it was so bad, why did you stay in the room all night?

[Midnight]

Oh yeah, had a real winner this morning who checked out.

Now admittedly, the room this lady was in is not in very good shape. It's easily one of the most worn down rooms in the hotel I work at. It was a smoking room we converted to non-smoking a couple of months back due to the state wide smoking ban that went into effect in July and you probably could have shampooed that carpet to hell and back and still never completely gotten the smell out of it. Plus it didn't help we had two idiots over the past three weeks stay in that particular room and decide to smoke to high heaven in there and in the process get socked $100 each for cleaning fees.

Lady walks up to the desk:

SL: Is your manager in?
Me: Unfortunately no, she's out of town today for meetings in another city and won't be back until tomorrow.

(isn't it always the day your bosses aren't in that you get to deal with this? )

SL: Well the room I stayed in reeked so bad of smoke that you might as well call it a smoking room.
Me: (I apologize to her for the issues and explain the situation with that particular room.)
SL: Well that would have been nice to know last night when I checked in! I'm not going to pay for staying in such a terrible room!
Me: (Here's where I'm handcuffed. My GM wants to control all our comps so the most she'll let us clerks and myself allow to give back is 10% off what they paid until they talk to her directly, so I explain that, and of course, that wasn't good enough )
SL: Well that's not good enough! Do you have a personal number where I can reach her.
Me: I'm unfortunately not allowed to give that information out. I can call her, but she's going to be in meetings most of the morning and won't be able to get back to me probably until the afternoon at the earliest.
SL: Well I'm going to call your corporate number then and they'll take care of this! I'm shouldn't have to pay for staying in that room. I couldn't even sleep it smelled so bad!
Me: Did you call down after you checked into the room to see if you couldn't move somewhere else?
SL: It was late when I checked in and I shouldn't have had to move since YOU guys said it was a non-smoking room!
Me: *thinking* So you stayed in a room you thought was awful all night without trying to go rectify the situation with the clerk on duty at the time you checked in?
Me: Well, I apologize again for the problems you had with your stay. (I went ahead and took the 10% off her stay and gave her my manager's card so she could call her the next day when she came back)
SL: Fine then. (then she whips out the huge stack of paper) Do you have fax and copy service for free?
Me: Yes we do.
SL: Can you fax and copy all these for me? (This was literally a stack of well over 150 pages of documents, which our crappy fax/copier combo machine being halfway broken, can pretty much only take one page at a time)
Me: I can, but our fax/copy machine can only do so much at a time. It would definitely take well over an hour to get all that taken care of.
SL: Well I can't wait that long!
Me: Well I apologize, but that is the only machine we have.
SL: I can't believe you aren't equipped for something like this! Fine then! (hands me a stack of a dozen or so pages) Can you AT LEAST do these for me?
Me: Sure. (I copy and fax the pages she wanted, which took about 5 or so minutes)
SL: I'll be leaving in a few minutes! You'll definitely be hearing from your corporate office about this!
Me: Okay, no problem. Sorry again! * thinking to myself*

After she left, our cleaning staff went into her room and she had literally pulled all of the furniture away from the walls to inspect how clean it was. I'm sure she's going to come up with a litany of complaints for our corporate office and my GM will more than likely comp her stay when she comes in tomorrow regardless.

I can understand her being frustrated with the room. It's not a very good shape. My only thing was, if it was in such terrible shape, why the did you not call down to our desk and ask to move rooms shortly after you checked in? I'm supposed to feel sorry for you staying in a room that was not up to your standards and feel bad you couldn't sleep because it still smelled like cigarette smoke?

[Jay 2K Winger]

I never understand people who do this. I mean, if a hotel room is bad, it depends on a couple of things if I'll complain. If I'm going to be staying several days, I'll ask to be moved, or have the problem fixed, whatever. If I'm staying only one night, and leaving the next day, I'll just bear it. That's if it's a mild issue. If it's really bad, I'll ask to be moved.

But we had people at the movie theater I used to work at who'd sit through the entire movie, and ask for refunds because "that movie sucked!" Fortunately, the theater's policy allowed us to tell them to essentially pound sand in such cases.

[Mr Hero]

This would be same type of people who complain about a meal after having eaten every last bite.

[JarethsPet]

When I worked for certain hotel chain, we had a policy that was:
100% money back if you are unsatisfied with your stay
Below that was a statement that read something like "only if you give us ample time to rectify the situation. if it can't be resolved then you'd receive the night free"

All hotels should have that. People don't read the damn sign and try to get free rooms anyway but without documentation we were never allowed to comp a stay.

[SarcasticJerk]

This would be same type of people who complain about a meal after having eaten every last bite.

And let's not forget that they didn't eat it just now. It was last month, and they didn't say anything at the time. But they should get something for free this time, right?

[Kristev]

How patently absurd, really. I find it so contempt-worthy, that people would complain about a hotel room after they stay the whole night in it. If there's a problem, you should discuss it as soon as possible. Oh well.

It's one thing to walk out of a movie an hour into it, and request your money back. To watch the whole movie, then come back later on and demand your money back is quite another.

[superhotelworker]

Kristev: I happens alot. Had a lady come down last weekend and tell me that she heard noise about 12:30 and nobody had fixed it. When I asked (Even with knowing) if she called down, I heard the magic words, I didn't want to bother the desk clerk.
Me: "Ma'am, I cant help you if you don't let me know of problems."
Yeah.. that just doesn't help.

Midnight: Yours sounds like a bit odd lady.

[TelephoneAngel]

Now admittedly, the room this lady was in is not in very good shape. It's easily one of the most worn down rooms in the hotel I work at. ?

Just wondering why you gave her that particular one if she could have changed rooms if she had asked?

[vikingchyk]

I've been in smoky non-smoking rooms. Is it just me? I never thought to complain. After a little while, we got used to the smell. I figured most of the rooms would be like that, since they had just converted to all-nonsmoking.

DH and I were just away for the weekend, and if I had wanted to nitpick, I might have had enough to ask for a room change (maybe.) I figure since I was using a AAA discount, I needed to accept being next to the ice machine, exterior door that other guests kept slamming ; noisy air conditioning; slow internet connection (oh noes, my crops are withering, and some mafia just whacked me!); spackle-accented walls and grimy grout in the bathroom; and spider infestation (there were two! TWO! They were ugly! I hate spiders! Mommy! OK, one was a daddy longlegs, and the other had the courtesy to go titsup soon after I noticed it, but still - brrrrr! spiders! )

Or.... I could enjoy my discount and STFU

[Midnight]

Just wondering why you gave her that particular one if she could have changed rooms if she had asked?

If I had been working when the lady checked in, I would not have put her in that particular room because I at least have the common sense to know which rooms in this hotel are better than others. That room would probably be one of the last ones I'd sell before a completely selling out if it were up to me.

The problem was the girl who checked her in the previous night is basically oblivious to things like this despite being told over and over again and having notes left in the employee journal about issues with rooms, guests, etc. When a guest is a walk-in, she'll just check them into the next room that the system pops in regardless of the people around that room, it's condition, etc. I suppose the fact she's 19, basically a partier/lush, and basically does the bare minimum when here probably contributes to that. She's pretty much the definition of "marginal employee".

[Bright_Star]

Within 5 minutes of going into a hotel room, I would know real quick if I had to go back to the front desk to switch rooms. Most people do that. Those who don't are too stupid for words...lol.

[underemployeed]

My sister used to work in a hotel for a cheap bastard who refused to fix rooms up. However, I do side with the point of being pissed at the non-smoking room covered in smoke smell after how many years of smoking did they change the ban? About the only thing to do is completely change all the furniture and carpets and even then it probably still will be bad. Of course with me I would have been down there 5 minutes after opening the door bitching it was unacceptable because I don't need to be choking on the smell of smoke.

I love how many people feel entitled to smoke where ever and when ever they want, regardless of the laws, like right next to a gas pump.

[superhotelworker]

My sister used to work in a hotel for a cheap bastard who refused to fix rooms up. However, I do side with the point of being pissed at the non-smoking room covered in smoke smell after how many years of smoking did they change the ban? About the only thing to do is completely change all the furniture and carpets and even then it probably still will be bad. Of course with me I would have been down there 5 minutes after opening the door bitching it was unacceptable because I don't need to be choking on the smell of smoke.

I love how many people feel entitled to smoke where ever and when ever they want, regardless of the laws, like right next to a gas pump.

I agree that the furniture and everything needs to be changed. However, you can't do all the rooms at once, and I think people forget this. It took us a few months to change the rooms over (least I think it was that long) because you can't shut down your business completely.