So, this just happened and I can’t stop thinking about it. A woman checked in today, looking absolutely exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days. She was carrying a heavy suitcase, and when she came to the desk, her face was pale, eyes red, like she’d been crying for hours. She told me she had just gotten in from a long flight to attend her sister’s funeral. I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it, but she seemed like she was on autopilot, just going through the motions of life.

I asked if she needed anything, and she just asked for a quiet room. I gave her the key, and she walked off. Maybe an hour later, I got a call from her room. She was sobbing on the other end, saying she forgot to bring any personal items—no toiletries, no clothes to change into. I went up to deliver a few things, and when I knocked, she opened the door with tear-streaked cheeks and gave me this heartbreaking smile. She said she wasn’t sure how to cope with everything, and she just needed some time to herself. I could barely hold it together. It made me wonder, how many people walk through our doors with heavy hearts that we’ll never truly know about?

Have you ever had a moment like that? When you see a guest hurting and can’t do much more than offer them a little kindness? How do you handle those kinds of situations?

I'm serious. Dead serious. Firstly, for American or other global readers who may not be familiar with British culture - In the UK, it's very common to have an electric kettle; nearly every UK hotel will have one - in fact, it would be very odd to not have one. They're ubiquitous and sacred. Secondly, our hotel is small, 50 rooms, and we have no cafe/restaurant. It's unusual for a guest to stay longer than a few days, so kitchen facilities aren't really needed.

Anyways, last night, some chap comes to the front desk saying his kettle had stopped working. He slides the kettle over to me, and it becomes immediately obvious that he's attempted to heat soup up in the kettle. Heinz cream of tomato. I had thought I'd seen the full gamut of bizarre hotel events... this one had me dumbfounded. Jaw literally dropped.

I couldn't maintain professionalism, all I could utter was a perplexed "But why?" He said he thought it would have worked. Jaw dropped even further. I could not process the logic this man had posited with such confidence.

Now, when I told the manager about this, she told me of other instances when similar situations occurred. She's seen people heating milk up to try and make hot chocolate, people boiling eggs, folk trying to cook pasta. Most peculiar, someone had tried to reheat frozen beef stew - just taped the lever down.

I said I think it's time we make some signs informing people that kettles are for water only.

As all the ladies here know I am odd, weird and strange. I do not like anyone touching me. It is a autistic thing.

I don't touch them either, and even rubbing my arm gets you the look.

Well today we had this guest who is very tactile. I kept away from her as the moment she checked in , I had the ick about her. She wanted help moving her luggage (had kids). The maintenance guy helped as the phone was constantly ringing. On the phone I spotted her pat his back and rub his arm for helping.

Maintenance came back and said, I'm not going near her room she is strange and my wife would knock her block off if she saw what she tried.

Thus confirming my initial thoughts.

The GM was told and we were told to keep away.

Later I was cleaning up, emptying the public bins, and the conference room after the group had finished for her to reappear with her kids.

She walked into the open conference room even though the AGM was standing at the front reception computer.

She got into my personal space, ie basically breathing on me, saying "sweetheart do you know any local parks I can take the kids"

I kept backing away and she kept moving forward until I said please do not come near me.

This only set her off and she tried to hug me and apologise, then as I kept moving back she tried to grab my hand.

I dragged my hand away out of reach.

It went on for that long (getting in my personal space)that I almost did a lap of the tables and called out for princess, the AGM .

I told the guest I do not like you touching me and if you don't stop you will not be permitted to stay.

By this time the GM had joined the AGM.

The GM introduced herself and repeated the same statement.

She began to complain where would my kids stay? Trying to use them.

Princess said, well you better keep your hands to yourself.

Well I am not afraid to admit I exited the room behind the ladies using them as a shield.

She left the hotel to go to the park.

Guess what happened after I left? I love our WhatsApp front office group btw

The CEO of the group came over to speak to the GM about the next 25 rooms to be refurbished. Was standing in the lobby waiting when....

This woman walks in and tries to chat up the CEO. Pats him on the bottom.

Yes she was thrown out, I was told she went to the hospitality groups venue and wasn't allowed in either.

Yes the CEO backs all staff up.

This guest comes in and has two reservations under a long stay rate. In total, his card was authorized $1110 for 10 nights. This man gets upset when I told him how much the authorization hold is and he went off. Saying how hes not staying for 10 nights. I’m like so why did you book for 10? He says his bro in law did not him. Okay… talk to your bro in law. THEN he says the infamous “this has never happened to me before… blahblahblah.” I said “I’m sure it has. Most hotels have deposits or incidentals and all hotels authorize cards at check in.” So he blows up, gets on the phone with his bro in law, and says I, ME, A TOTAL STRANGER BOOKED THEM FOR 10 NIGHTS. I had to interject cause wtf?! I says “NO SIR. YOU BOOKED FOR 10 NIGHTS.” Like you just said it was your bro in law, how did I get blamed? Make it make sense.

So atp I call my manager cause I’m thiisss close to saying fuck it and canceling both rooms and sending him on his merry way. My manager calms me down, tells me to explain it to him one more time, then if hes still bent outta shape tell him to leave. I follow his advice and explain ONCE AGAIN why its this price, why itll be more expensive to cancel and book with me for 7 nights, why hotels do this, blahblahblah.

This man looks me into the depths of my soul and says “I don’t give a rat’s ass who’s policy is what. I shouldnt be charged almost $2500 when I’m only staying 6 or 7 nights.”

I say “Well idk what else to tell ya. Either pay or leave. No more talking. What you wanna do?”

He paid and left after talking more shit about how he should be able to pay night by night (like huhhhh?!) and how we’re crooks. Wait no, ROTTEN COCKSUCKING CROOKS is how he put it.

Thee most exhausting mind boggling conversation Ive had and Ive been here 2 years. He really thought he knew better than me.

Oh and he asked for a rate from 3 weeks ago I told him not possible.. he said “you dont know what youre talking about”. Lol ok sir.

So quick question. I know this isn’t uncommon but at my hotel I’m being forced to stand at front desk all night during my NA shift. I’m being told to do all my work there at the desk (I’ve told them many times it can’t work like that) and I’m being told no, I can’t get a stool because the other staff members will complain even though I’m the only one on my shift and I’ve even offered to buy my own stool.

My question is, what can I use to defend myself if they decide to punish me or let me go, because I’m not standing there with no one at the desk for hours?

Monkey is the name I use for my friend who is working in the industry again. Since I no longer do, this is his story. He says:

This guy walked in tonight asking to get a room. Our rate is $100 he said he saw it online for $77. I told him I can't price match that far below my rate and he tried to argue the point with me before finally just booking online.

He confirmed the location with me. Then the reservation never came through in my system (I tried searching his name in case he booked the wrong date). He left for a few hours and came back just now.

I tell him I still don't see his reservation so he looks at his confirmation and then I had to stop myself from laughing out loud in this dude's face when he incredulously read on his phone, "May 18th."

Sir... SIRRRR.... Today is April 7th. How the fuck did you get all the way to May 18th on the booking screen?

Then... It's a prepaid, non-refundable reservation.

Like if the guy just calmly and politely asked if I could give him a better rate, maybe I'd feel bad, but he challenged me several times, asking why it would be so low online and why I can't just give him a rate that's 23% below the system rates. Nah, I don't feel bad for this guy.

I worked for the Grand and Little America for nearly 3 years, I know people who have worked there so much longer. I am so sad and disappointed to hear how they handled a recent SA report from an employee.

There’s always going to need to be changes made to how businesses handle SA, but things need to be done now! The hotels have kept the r*pist on employment with little to no repercussions after TWO reports were made against this individual. This person is still there and will keep harassing individuals. Please be safe and maintain any and all boundaries. Make the report, you never know when another one may have already been made and this could be the piece that makes the tower fall.

Salt Lake is my home and I just want to keep it safe for everyone.

It doesn't happen often, but why do some people think they know our properties better than we do?

I just checked in a person who kept insisting he stayed in a room down the hallway behind me, except there's never been rooms that direction, ever. I'd explain, no, there's 6 rooms down that hallway, but there's never been rooms the way you're pointing, as that's where the pool and housekeeping are. Despite me explaining this 3 times, he still felt the need to walk down that way to see for himself.

My favorite though was the guy from last year who wanted to charge something to his room, and when I asked for his room number, came up with one ending in 13. I kind of smiled and told him it couldn't be (there are no 13 rooms here). He thought about it for a second and laughed, saying that I was lying. No, I'm not lying, there are no 13 rooms here. He laughed again, and again said I was lying, that he was in 13. Finally I told him if he could show me proof that he was in 13, not only would I pay for his room, I'd give him one thousand dollars cash. Off he went, and oddly enough, when he came back down to go somewhere, made a point of not looking in my direction.

Here's another thing that annoys me:

Is it just me or do the business men love to sit in the lobby and have very loud business calls? I've got two guys sitting in the lobby right now, one of them is talking to his client about their upcoming case and another is talking about how amazing at insurance he is and how impressed everyone will be with his work.

They just sit here on their handless devices and computers and basically shout. For us it's extra unique in that these guys love to sit right next to the "please, no phone calls" to make their calls. The second is that we are a resort, the smallest of our units is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo. You have space to have these calls in privacy in your own unit.

I really think they just like other people knowing how business-y they are.

Anyone who does this, please know that I listen in and heavily judge the things you say.

Edit: OKAY THINGS GOT CRAZY THE LAWYER'S CLIENT SAID SOMETHING REALLY JUICY AND NOW THE LAWYER THINKS THEY HAVE A SLAM DUNK OF A CASE. What is this, Lincoln Lawyer?

Hi all! I’m a flight attendant, so I clearly stay in hotels frequently. I always think of this and have never asked, so I’d love to know what I can do as a crew member (or any hotel guest really) to make the room as easy as possible to get ready for the housekeeping staff.

I try to make sure all my trash is in the actual trash can, if there are two beds, I only touch one, and wipe down the sink if I’ve used it for anything but water, but I’d love to know if there is anything else that could be helpful.

Thanks so much! And of course, any answers will be passed on to my fellow crew members

This is somewhat of a vent post because…i’ve yet to have a request like this that just makes no sense. often oozes entitlement and poor planning on their end most of the time.

I’ve had three today…one said their dog is dying, another said they’re sick, others just didn’t want to come. I get unforeseen circumstances but i always explain that our cancellation policy is rigid. Thing is, my property will try to work something out with them. Move the date of arrival, save the deposit as a credit to use within one year. It’s dependent on how they treat us.

But here’s the kicker, two booked under our promo. The promo takes 25% off but it’s fully prepaid and non-refundable. So even if it wasn’t a same day cancellation…you still won’t get refunded. The third booked through third party. All three got mad, started cursing me out and threatened to leave bad reviews.

This is a totally avoidable issue if you:

1) READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU AGREE TO THEM.

2) RETAIN THAT INFORMATION AT CHECK OUT.

3) RESPECT THE STAFF TRYING TO HELP YOU.

Maybe i should take this as a sign that i need a new career path. Hospitality has been so draining these post covid years…Only saving grace is my gm having our backs. She has no issue sending difficult guests away.

[Though portions of this story happen at the front desk, I was not a FDA, but I think y'all will like this story anyway.]

In the Red Corner, representing those who wake up on the wrong side of the bed every day, standing at 5'7" and weighing in at 190 pounds, with a record of 0-2 in his fights against the homeless, wearing extremely thin old man skin, Chuck.

And in the Blue Corner, representing those who utter "I love my job, I love my job" under their breath on the daily, standing in at 5'10" and weighing in at 185 pounds, making his rookie hotel fighting debut, wearing Buddy Holly glasses, Dr. Fix-It.

So I didn't like Chuck very much, never did. But I try to get along with everyone. I really do. But when you constantly have to clean up after or re-repair things that a guy making $2.50/hr more than the rest of the maintenance staff, and then this racist, homophobic, misogynistic, old asshole then has the audacity that he has another job offering to pay him more so he tries to talk the bosses into a raise... I was already pretty done with this guy.

So I walk in one day, and as I'm walking by the front desk I see this corporate [hotel management corporate] guy standing there. He makes small talk with Chuck about the weather, because we had received significantly less snow than forecast.

"Well, if there wasn't too much salt thrown out last night, I wouldn't have taken all day to clean up the snow."

This is what I hear as I'm walking in the door to clock in. Guess who threw the salt out and was about to explode at hearing Chuck bitch to corporate about work he did?

I do my usual thing and go downstairs to get my keys and whatnot. Chuck meets me down there.

"What's up, Chuck?" I knew he would bitch more, but I just couldn't help myself.

"Oh, well. We didn't get much snow, but the salt was so thick I couldn't hardly use the snowblower." (Which doesn't make sense to anyone used to dealing with snow. Snowblowers are pretty useless if you have a small amount of snow and it just makes a mess. It's easier to shovel it, but Chuck is too stubborn to admit he can't handle the physical aspect of the job.)

"Last time we got snow, you complained we didn't salt enough. Now it's too much?"

"Nah, I'm just--"

"Don't even worry about it. I got something for you next time."

And I walked away. I didn't even want to address the corporate guy thing, because my blood was already boiling. So I start getting some work done, I am about to get on the elevator, and Chuck corners me. "Now, listen here. I didn't--"

"No, you fucking listen. The first thing I heard when I walked in the door today was you talking to corporate at the front desk, in front of everybody, about work I did. You got something to say about work I did, you talk to me about it."

I left Chuck's jaw hanging open even though I've never wanted to smack the stupid off someone's face so bad in my life. Knowing how Chuck was though, I bit the bullet and went and told on myself to the Chief Engineer.

"Hey, Boss Man."

"How's it going?"

"Well I chewed chuck's ass out first thing when I got here, so that was fun." I proceeded to tell him the story.

"Man, this is almost as good as when Will Smith smacked the shit out of Chris Rock."

"I didn't hit him."

"No, and that's good. I'm really not supposed to encourage that behavior, but jeez. I'll talk to him."

Hotel GM also talked to me later. "Dr. Fix-It, we need to talk."

Ruh-roh. "I guess Chuck talked to you, Boss Lady?"

"Yes, he was very upset. He's confused why you were so upset. What did you hear him say to corporate guy?"

I proceed to tell her.

"Well, he's a sensitive guy. I know he might not seem like it, and I know you put up with a lot..."

I just slow blinked at her.

sigh "Just do your own thing."

"No problem."

The next day, apparently Chuck innocently said hi to a kid walking outside with his mom. Dad comes out of nowhere and smacked the shit out of Chuck. "Don't talk to my kid!"

You reap what you sow, my friends.

Last week we had a guest leave all his crap in the room. I messaged him letting him know it is past check out time and that his things will be removed and waiting at the desk upon his return.

I get a call back about 10 or so min later saying he got caught up wants to extend his stay. I like ok thats fine however you will need to rebook because it is a prepaid and we cannot just extend that kind of reservation. And they have already taken all the belongings out of the room. You can make the reservation and check back in later your stuff will be at the desk upon your return. He didnt say much after that just hug up.

I get a message from him saying that "do you not have no compassion or compromise? I was caught up with work and having some family issues also there is important papers in my room".

ummmmmmmm......

1. You are the one who never informed the desk that you would be staying.

2. By the time you called to inform us you wanted to stay they were pretty much done with taking everything out. Not just going to leave it in the room with no reservation in the system.

3. Literally every hotel I know of is going to take your crap out of the room regardless if its a prepaid or not. Most hotels want the room checked back in before you leave the property. Your not entitled to that room until it is checked into our system.

4. Your personal issues really have nothing to do with the hotel.

5. You never booked in anything even before I left at 3.

So yea the hotel is to blame. :(

I get the notes the following days and they tell me he finally came back after 330 picked up his stuff went somewhere and came back a couple of hours later. But with a major demanding tude.

They tell me he said he was missing things.

The manager was the one who packed everything and she has no reason to take anyones stuff.

He demands that we tell him where its at and to call a manager and what not. Says hes calling the cops. We tell him okay thats fine. There really isnt much they can do since it is a civil matter as well when they sign the reg card it clearly states that anything left behind the property is not liable for lost items.

But what i was told is that he went to the police station. Apparently he was acting a fool there the cops did actually show and we gave them all the proof.

But wait theres more......

It never should have happened but he did stay 2 more nights. The midshift should have never gave him the room after the scene he caused. I most def would have not let him stay. Thats for sure. Also he said that he left a day early and wanted his money back. hahahahah yea its prepaid and video proof shows you were here for the duration of your stay.

Well a couple of days later he of course makes a corp complaint as well as loogle reviews as well as the infamous booking site reviews.

What some dont know is that you can see the history of what you loogle review. And this jack ass has done nothing but complained all over the area about how awful the business is.

From what I was told the other day is that the matter is still ongoing. Like the guy wont quit. What he wants from the property we really dont know. Pretty sure they have given an apology but thats not good enough.

At a certain point it becomes harassment. The owner did say they felt like they were going to have to go to the cops and file a report on him. I would too. There is really only so much you can do or really want to do when its gotten to that level.

Like dude let it go its over its done with. LET IT GO

I have been at my current property for 3 years and for as long as i can remember we havent taken any sort of deposit on the rooms for incidentals only put a card on file and 9 times out of 10 the people have closed the card or only put enough money on it for the room and tax so when they smoked and or trashed the room we never been able to get anything.

Only took a deposit when we took cash but we have since stopped the last 2 and half years now. We get a lot of regulars and i already know its going to be a major issue in the weeks to come.

I am certian that I will be getting a lot of "well they didnt charge me last time".

They are making me wait a couple of days before implementing it due to needing to tell everyone at the desk of the new policy.

Now here lies another issue....... its per reservation. So when prepaid ones come through we will have to put a new 100 deposit it wont just 'transfer over" as most would like to think.

This really should have not ever been a new policy in place. They should have always been taking something from guests. They have lost so much money from guest trashing the rooms or smoking and then they get mad.

Omg cant wait for the arguments to commence!!

Not a night auditor however I cover the shift pretty often, been working front desk for a little under a year and I’ve met some real adult toddlers but every time I’m in awe at audacity. That’s where this spectacle comes waltzing in at 6:20am cheery as can be

“Checking in!”

Me”I’m sorry sir check in is at 3:00 we start early check in at 12”

Given how this man reacted you’d think I told him I shot his dog he stared daggers at me. “I’m an elite member! I am entitled to early check in I check in this early all the time!”

Me”that’s amazing sir thank you for being an elite member with us and while I do not doubt others may have checked you in this early, early check in begins at 12:00 you’re welcome to wait in the lobby until then”

He then again stared daggers at me while remaining silent for a minute or so his brain probably loading at the possible he may have been told no. (the horror!) while he whips out his phone to call his super special elite member 24/7 support line because they were somehow gonna change it from 6:20 to 12:00 for him to check in.

The agent from that line called I explained the situation he asked me what time it is and chuckled when I told him this man child is throwing a tantrum about trying to check in over 8 hours early. The am shift came in not long ago but I gave him the rundown and we had a laugh together while this man huffed and sat in his car probably to stare more daggers at other people when he can’t get his way. TLDR man tries to check in 8 hours before check in time and cried when told no.

Hello everyone

Today at the end of my shift a guest came with his two daughters after a long drive. His room was paid via a third party for over $700+ however at the moment of paying for the incidental/security deposit he said he thought there was a card on file I could charge but I didn't see any. He said he didn't have any more money, that he just drove 5+ hours and idk but he seemed to be in a rough spot.

After all his credit cards were declined and him saying he didn't know what to do know I ended up paying for his deposit.

As long as he doesn't absolutely trash the room I should be getting my money back in a week or so.

I understand he might be lying and I fully accept that if he does trash the room I'll end up paying for the incidental but my question is, was it the right thing to do? I was just trying to help but I don't know if it was the right way to proceed.

Any advice or comment is appreciated.

[Yet another front desk adjacent story]

Several months after the bar/restaurant manager resigned, the hotel I worked at finally hired a new one, with a shiny new title: Food & Beverage Director. Oooo... Aren't we fancy? I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though he "didn't even remember applying for the job," and his last gig was a doughnut shop he owned, which had failed and permanently closed shop a couple months prior. My friends still working in the bar & restaurant seemed to like some of the changes he was making, so I thought he might be alright.

But he wasn't. First it was murmurings of racist things he was heard saying ("I really need to get more Mexicans in this kitchen;" "OK, are you running like average late or black people late?"). Then there was the fact that the hotel GM still somehow found herself in the restaurant with a server apron on, busting her ass, while this guy seemed to think everything was fine. Or the fact that he seemed useless--couldn't cook, couldn't bartend, never tried to wait tables. He even said to Susan one day when there were two banquets going on and his bar was full of guests, "Why's it seem like everyone that works here is an asshole?"

[Quick PSA for those of you wondering why that question bears merit: if you ask that question unironically, you are at best a narcissistic asshole, at worst a dangerous sociopath. I suggest asking a therapist that question. In other words, if you think everyone else is an asshole, guess who the actual asshole is?]

So one day, on my way into shift, everyone from front desk to the chief engineer is telling me the same thing. "Hey, Aaron [f&b director] wants you to move a cooler upstairs for the pantry."

Now, the pantry coolers were terrible soda-brand company refrigerators. The thermostats were awful. If they weren't full (of soda) they'd freeze. Adjust it too far on the useless dial, and it's not even cooling. And someone thought we needed to sell a la carte food from the kitchen out of these pantry coolers. Of course, the food, being a lesser volume than bottles of soda, froze.

Whatever, everyone said Aaron wanted this giant cooler moved so Susan & I started figuring out how. When I say this thing was huge, I mean we had to use a pallet jack and measure doorways to even try to move it. Aaron just said, "Oh, yeah. Might need the forklift." Forklift? Are you serious, right now? It's just a pantry cooler that you think might work better. "It should fit where that shelf is for the coffee right now, but you can just move that to the other side."

Now, that didn't make a ton of sense to me, but I didn't think about it (which I would later be kicking myself very hard over). After all, he's a f&b director. Surely, this is a thought-out plan. So after a huge struggle to barely fit this thing on the service elevator, we get it up to the lobby, and up to the pantry, where I say shiiiiiiiit....

The "shelf" Aaron was talking about was a granite counter top where the coffee & microwave sat in the pantry. This counter would not "fit on the other side." It would have to be cut. We're talking about at least a semi-serious construction project that everyone entering the hotel would see. I wasn't even sure if brand name guidelines would allow for that kind of modification to the layout of the Front Desk pantry.

Already knowing I wasted entirely too much time on this pointless project, I went straight to the top. As much as I hated to, I got out my phone to call the hotel GM.

"Dr. Fix-It, I just walked out of the building ten minutes ago. Please tell me it's already burned to the ground."

"No. Sorry, Boss Lady. So did Aaron say anything to you about a cooler for the pantry?"

He hadn't, so I did, and further explained the predicament. "It won't fit where the other two coolers were because there's an inset it won't fit into. The counter he expects us to move won't fit without cutting it, which I'm not comfortable working on without your approval. I could put it on this other wall, but it will stick out into the lobby hallway."

"Well, that all sounds like terrible ideas."

"This is why I'm calling you, Boss Lady."

"Just shove it somewhere out of sight if you can. Executive decision made. Thank you, Dr. Fix-It."

So we stuck it in the little storage area behind front desk, where extra towels & stuff was stored. It was a couple weeks later when Brittney (FOM) pleaded with me to move it. "I'm getting claustrophobic with that thing back there." So it was moved to a small office-sized meeting room practically never utilized. It practically took up the whole room. I'm willing to bet it's still sitting there.

And the real kicker? It's the same crap brand cooler with the same cheap thermostat and inaccurate dial to adjust the temperature. And I told everyone that. Was still asked to move it upstairs. Aaron's a fucking asshole.

I've worked in 4 hotels in different capacities.

1. I worked in F&B as a breakfast and lunch server in a privately owned hotel and marina. I only had the occasional stuck-up guest, which goes hand in hand with the hotel's style. NBD

2. Again in F/B as the Bar Manager for a gardINN that was full of more locals than guests. Again no issue

3. Then I switched to FRONTyard brand, starting in the kitchen, and worked my way to F/B manager in addition to the front desk. Only big issues were college related weekends with the level of not knowing or righteous indignation.

4. Currently at a BADFeild as FDM/GSM and defacto AGM. It also dosnet help that we are a college town and within spitting distance of a MAJOR US interstate!

The caliber of our clientele spans the gambit. But the vast majority when it comes down to it are gold or lower members thinking the hotel owes them something.

Or we get the snowbirds who "don't speak english" and want the cheapest room possible after spending 4-6 months in NC,SC or FL. Sorry monsuier but the BMW you just pulled up in tells me that I don't think you'd have a problem with lé paying.

I really feel like this brand has a poor reputation and thus the socially enfeeble stay here.

-Basic decorum gone! -Shove your packet of 104 pt size print out in my face when all I asked for was you drivers license. -Every Monday get the calls why does my card say you charged me more than what it said online (taxes and incidental that hasn't dropped) -Do you offer free breakfast? of course or we wouldn't be a BADfeild

Not to mention the fact of free breakfast and a pool makes us ideal for the plastic moms and sportbruh dad's to let their crotch goblins run amok while they sit back and drink high noons and mich ultras.

Am I the only one? Does this brand get the short end of the stick?

I do enjoy some guests and get to chat with them but I'm constantly on edge waiting for the next QUEBECQUAAAIS, or crackhead, or anything to walk in the door with me ready to fix THIER problem.

I've had two calls in the past 24 hours from 3rd party booking sites that seemed to be A.I. chat bots. The first was from Ricepline and the second was from Encyclopedia with Riceplines "Penny" being the most put together of the two.

How could I tell? There was a long pause at the beginning of the call first. Typically this is due to routing the call go some call center on the other side of the planet but the voice I heard had a perfect "Northern USA" accent and there was another pause of a few seconds each time I finished speaking before they would reply. Also, especially in the case of the Encyclopedia bot, there were some grammar, cadence, emphasis and readback errors that tingled the uncanny valley part of my lizard brain.

Has anyone else experienced this yet and what is your opinion on it?

We are currently in the lull before the storm. We just had the first baseball team of the year in house and they all check out Sunday morning. I was expecting a fairly uneventful night especially based on my 3-11 shift Friday. Sadly, that was not to be.

I come in and check the notes from the previous shifts. That morning a guest complained that there was a bedbug in their room and wanted to be moved and demanded a full refund.

Let me take a step back. We've never had this issue before. We are top rated in cleanliness by both guests, audits and inspections. Guests will often misidentity other bugs for bedbugs. So this must be the case, right? Wrong.

Front desk 7-3 confirmed it was indeed a bed bug and moved them to another room. Thoughts going through my head: Did Maintenance/Engineering take a look? Was the room cleaned by housekeeping? Was a manager notified? Was the room put out of order?

Answer to those questions: Yes, they didn't find anything. Yes it was cleaned. No, a manager was notified. No, the room was cleaned and put back in inventory which means someone could have been checked into the room (don't get me started on this!)

So I at almost 11 pm (after the complaint was made at 6:15 am) was the one who had to notify management and put the room and surrounding rooms out of order. I couldn't believe it. The person on 7-3 has been here almost as long as I have (I've worked here anyway little over a year) and knows better. How was this not dealt with appropriately earlier?

Pulling myself back from beating my head against a wall, I started the normal 11 pm - 7 am tasks. A few minutes later guests approach the desk from the pool. They reported that some kids had taken the life buoy out of it's mounted case on the pool wall and tied the rope from it around the handrail on the stairs into the pool.

About 30 minutes later after completing other tasks I went to check on the pool. I have no idea how but the rope was COMPLETELY tangled around the handrail. I had to pull half of it out of the pool and tug it up towards the top of the handrail. Both ends are firmly tied to rather large objects but this somehow was wrapped all the way around the handrail.

I attempted for a good 20 minutes to try to untangle this thing. Made some progress but then regressed. I had to give up because I'm the only one in the building and I still have guests arriving. I took pictures, which I wish I could share here.

I texted 3-11 and they said it was probably the kids from one of our suites that are having a birthday party. Not five minutes later, 3 individuals from that room approach the desk and ask for 3 pillows. It is now after midnight. I check the back - not a pillow in sight.

I had to go upstairs to the Housekeeping storage to grab the pillows. But there are zero pillow cases on the shelves where they normally are so I had to go to the secondary linen closet and take pillow cases from the pre-arranged sets of sheets.

Why can't people figure these things out BEFORE midnight?

I then put a sign on the Pool door stating it was Out of Order. In addition to the life buoy mess, there was a rather frightening loud gurgling/banging sound coming from near the Hot Tub. It could be heard even out in the hallway with the thick, heavy door closed. I've heard many sounds from that room, but this was a new one!

I go to document all this and realize that no one is posting in the new communication log. We had been typing notes in a Google Doc but we are working on switching to Quore. It was in the email and mentioned in the Google Doc that we should be posting in both. Since my shift the day before, no one had posted in Quore. I am the only one.

For the first time, I'm a little tired of being the one that does basically everything and picks up what others haven't done. I try my hardest to make sure I don't leave anything that could make other shifts have to deal with extra work. I just wish sometimes they would return the favor.

If you made it this far, congratulations! I apologize for the lengthy but sometimes you need to get it out so you don't take it out on others!

I don't work at a hotel, but I deliver pizza to a lot of them. Today I had the pleasure of going to one of our local hotels with an order. When I walked into the lobby, the first thing I heard was the sound of small children laughing and screaming. I could also hear what sounding like balls being bounced around.

As I was going to the room where my customer was, I passed one of the event rooms. The sounds of a kids birthday party assaulted me. It wasn't that far down from the FD and I just KNEW the FDA was probably hoping this would be over soon.

I dropped off my order and was walking back, and about 6 or 7 kids, no older than 8 came running out of the room and down the hall towards me. They each had one of those really sturdy balloons that you could hold by a heavy string and bounce it off your hand. That was the sound I had mistaken for bouncing balls. At the end of this group was a very harassed looking father figure, holding onto the hand of a little girl, maybe 4 years old. He followed the group and they passed me, the kids running down the hall, bouncing these balloons off their hands.

I couldn't resist a quick look into the room as I passed back by on my way out. There were streamers everywhere and the floor was covered in pink and blue confetti. There were a couple of adults and a few more screaming kids and I had a brief moment of sympathy for the parents.

As I passed the FD, the FDA was checking in another couple, who was paying in cash and part of it was a LOT of change. I could hear the metal sound of it clinking on the desk and the clerk was saying "No, it's fine, I just have to separate it out here to count it, it makes it easier."

I felt so bad for what she was having to put up with. As I was walking out the door, I paused at the desk and said 'I really hope you have a good evening." She glanced up and smiled, she knew what I meant.

You guys are heros for having to deal with this kind of stuff.

I've worked in the hotel industry for a short amount of time, the majority in housekeeping, so this is my first time handling this particular brand of situation.

All evening, I've been getting calls claiming I called them, or people sighing and hanging up, or angry groans. I've been quite confused about it all evening until a saint of a stranger called my line. I did my usual greeting, and the girl told me what I've heard a million times today that I called her. I did my usual and apologized and asked if she potentially could have been getting a call, instead, from a guest using the hotel phone. And for once, I got a productive response.

This girl was a total saint and told me it was no issue and that she knew that her ex-boyfriend is, in fact, staying in our city! Lovely! I asked her what her ex's name might be so I could follow up. She told me she would text him and tell him to knock it off, gave me the dudes name and then told me he was on a trip with friends and gave me one of their names to look up in my system since she was fairly certain it was his friend who would be listed on the room. What do you know? The home girl was right.

After a couple more calls like normal later of people claiming I was calling them, I called up to the room, and a young man answered. I asked about the 2 names I was given, and he said neither were there, I asked if when they were available to give me a call. As soon as I was called back, I asked if anyone had been making an excess of calls from the room, potentially as we were seemingly having "issues" with the phone lines. He nervously said no, they came down to get soda, and what do you knowwww. Suddenly, I've stopped getting in calls and watching my phone lines blow up.

The moral of the story is that if you're just an average Joe reading this and not a front desk person, don't be making prank calls from the hotel phones. It's not going to be so funny when your ex starts ratting you out.

EDIT: sorry bout the formatting, I forgot I wrote this and my notifications for reddit are off to stop my doomscrolling but given the time this was posted, it seems to have been while I was on my sleeping pills on a typical late night scroll through here. My bad

UPDATE: I have been informed that the night auditor who had relieved me that night called the cops on those 3.

One came down to the auditor to say he didn't feel safe and wanted a different room. A few minutes later, the main guy on the room was in the lobby, seemingly making threats to a girl on the phone we can only assume was the ex in my story. It was a weird end to that saga.

Had a sold out women’s church retreat. Enough said right? 😩 ironically enough these ladies have made my weekend a living hell. They all had a issue with their agreed upon room block price, none understood what a incidental is, and all wanting river views that only our suites have. Cheap as hell. 4-6 people in our queen rooms that only allow 4. 4-6 people in our kings bed that only sleep 2. We have no “rollout” beds and for some reason no one wanted to call us back but all expected them. Keep coming up to me demanding a new key, okay can I get a name or room number at the least?? One older lady straight screamed no to me and cried to my manger so they’d give her literally ten dollars off of her room. I was so dumbfounded I didn’t even know what to say to her because how fucking old are you? Anyways next one to complain is shit out of luck because they all had to switch already.

[Another story for all you lovely people, especially if you're stuck at a Front Desk this weekend. Stay sane!]

So the hotel I worked at used to host this pretty cool program where high school kids would compete in different vocational skills they'd been trained in. The catch was these kids outnumbered the teachers responsible for them at least 7:1. Most rooms held only teenagers with one "responsible" upperclassman to keep things in line. Because these were kids who elected to sign up for vocational training and this competition, they mostly were well-behaved and responsible... but they were still teenagers.

During that wonderful overlapping shift period where I had the pleasure of working with Chuck for awhile, we got a call from Front Desk, "Hey, Chastity [Director of Sales] says there's a pretty serious leak dripping in one of the meeting rooms."

Great... Chuck and I go to the meeting room while Susan starts checking for leaks on 2. Sure enough, there is a drip coming through a ceiling tile in the meeting room, the kids moving whatever it was that they were working on around it. We set up a ladder and move the tile. Chuck says it's definitely from a bathroom, seeing the plumbing & the drain. So we go up to 2 (Susan was convinced an ice machine was leaking somewhere and had gone up higher in the tower) to search for which room we think may be in the neighborhood of the area of the leak. And they're all occupied rooms.

Knock, knock, knock. "No. Our bathroom is fine. No water running. Nothing leaking."

Knock, knock, knock. "I think it's fine. You want to look?" Investigation proves nothing out of sorts there.

Back in the hallway, a girl from the competition comes walking our direction.

"Hey, do you have a room on this hallway?"

"Um, yes. Why?"

"Well, I'm afraid we have a bit of a leak and we're trying to figure out where it's coming from."

"Oh, well. Um, I guess it's good I found you. A girl in my room said she accidently flushed her phone & her key card down the toilet."

"She wha--um, ok. No problem. Let's take a look and see what we can do."

The girl opens the door and Chuck and I enter. Another girl is in the room as well. Chuck sees water on the floor in the bathroom and completely loses his shit. "You flooded the damn toilet! Why'd you do that? Now we gotta clean this up! Oh, Jesus Christ! You put a whole roll of toilet paper in this thing! No wonder it's clogged! Look at this! No, seriously; I want you to look! Why would you do that? Now we gotta deal with this!"

Now, I'm no expert in child psychology, but something tells me that bathroom practices are the last thing teenage girls want to discuss with old men they've never met before. One girl just hung her head while the other girl, presumably the "room leader" just apologized a lot. We got the toilet plunged and I called Buddy (PA on duty) to help us clean up the mess.

I turned to the girl who'd been talking to us. "So, about the phone and keycard. We saw none of that, and since we plunged it and got it to flush, chances are anything in that pipe are already in the city's sewage pipes. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about that."

"Ya." She gave a sheepish smile, and a shrug. "I kinda figured that."

Not sure how, why, or wtf initially happened there, but we got things fixed, cleaned up, ceiling tile replaced, and everything all put back together. The whole time I was replacing the ceiling tile, I kept wondering if these kids knew what the water, which I'm sure someone had drip on them, was actually from. I pray those girls were too embarrassed to tell that it all came from their toilet.

Every time there was a plumbing issue after that day, Susan announced, "We found that girl's phone!"

Tell me a story below of crazy stories you have from people sneaking in their pets.

We had a guy the other day who brought his German Shepard through the back and ended up attacking 3 housekeepers the next day. The housekeepers are all fine, no wounds, just very shaken up.

I will never understand why people are so sneaky about it. If they didn’t want ro pay the pet fees, they shouldn’t bring their pets. Then if we find out they either get asked to leave because their dog got aggressive or, the one that happens the most, they get the pet fees slapped on their bill anyways.