This is gonna be a short one. I was minding my own business, going through our inbox when this older lady flies pass the desk walking with her husband, looking at me with an angry eye. Unsure what her deal is, I go on with reading the emails. When she's almost at the door, she blurts out an angry "Good evening". I reply with a goodbye and, as she opens the door to go outside, she blurts out an even more angry: "It would be nice to be told good evening!" And she storms out, leaving me in a slight moment of "wtf just happened?"

I guess I am not getting a good review.

I never really analzyed when I say good evening or not. When thinking about it, if there is a friendly eye contact, I will smile back and nod. If the guests wish me a good evening when they walk past the desk, I will reply to them. If I'm busy, well I'm busy. But when people are talking with each other, seem to be in a hurry or whatever, I indeed don't go out of my way to interrupt them.

The same way I don't like the waiter/waitress to interrupt me every 5 min when I'm at the restaurant to ask me if everything is fine, or I don't like staff to jump at me and start showing me stuff around when I walk into a store. I have my bubble and don't like people to get too much into it.

But I'm an introvert, and not all people are introverts. I will keep that in mind.

Want to talk about something that isn't a front desk tale? Have questions you want to ask? Any comments you'd like to make? Post them here.

​

Also, feel free to join us on our Discord server

So a week ago it was just in one room on the first floor. No apparent source for the odor, put the room on OOO and texted GM and Maint, it was a Sunday and I was off Monday and Tuesday, so I was surprised room was occupied when I came in Wednesday. Maintenance deemed it was the filter in AC was old,changed it and put it back in rotation. My brother is a commercial electrician and I know that smell is an indicator of possible wiring issue. Guest in that room complained of smell today, I inspected myself after moving them. Housekeeping reported that same smell is in room 221/321 so I texted GM. Said he'll check on it MONDAY..just put rooms OOO....Maintenance didn't smell anything...so I guess we wait and hope for the best....

basically the title. i'm an AM front desk agent at a smaller milton property near a major tourist town. we had a big family staying with us for a couple nights split into four different rooms. they had somehow racked up two noise complaints the second night of their stay with us!

I had a gentleman come down and tell me that around one in the morning, a couple kids were running around the hallway laughing for about an hour. not sure why they were put on our top floor or why he never called night audit. he said the noise had since died down so I apologized to him and told him to let us know if it continues.

a few hours later, a woman called complaining about noise coming from the same room. I went up to check it out and as soon as I got out of the elevator it sounded like someone was getting bodyslammed into the floor. I knocked on the door but no answer. when I went down to the desk to call their room, a girl no older than about 6 answered. I asked her if I could speak to her parents and she said they weren't there! I was livid. I was finally able to get a hold of the mother and she told me that she'd "tell her kids to stop having fun". thankfully the noise stopped after that.

when they finally came to check out, I asked her how everything with her stay was. she said it was great but she didn't appreciate being called about the noise. she showed me her diamond member keycard holder and told me she's a super shiny member "just so you know". like that puts her above leaving her kids alone in a hotel room. I love hospitality and I'm so grateful for the connections I've made from it in the short time that I've been here. but some people are crazy haha

update - management ended up DNR'ing them from the property but decided not to involve the authorities. I wish they would've been gone sooner but unfortunately the two noise complaints and the kids being by themselves just wasn't enough to have them kicked out. I wish the best for the kids and hope the parents realize how dangerous that could've been for them.

This story happened earlier this year and thought I would share it to give others a positive tale. I have never worked in a hotel or motel but have great respect for what you all do. I had booked a room for my daughter and myself in a very small - think eight cabin - motel so we could attend a camping event nearby. We belong to a niche group where you don’t necessarily know everyone as we’re scattered across the country but you can often tell by clothing that they’re in the group. I needed the motel for several reasons, one of which is I’m disabled so camping wasn’t an option. I needed electricity as I was writing report cards on my laptop, and my daughter needed to study for exams.

My daughter and I arrived a little later than we had planned but all was good. Walked into the tiny reception area and there are two people who I didn’t know but instantly recognised by their clothing to belong to my group. The receptionist/owner is looking wide eyed and panicked. The two trying to check in are also panicking and the woman looks ready to cry. They had flown from another city, hired a car, and arrived at the motel with their confirmation email only to find that there had been a complete stuff up with their booking. The owner had only recently bought the business so this wasn’t her stuff up. Due to the camping event, there were no spare cabins. The two out of towners were beside themselves as they had no alternatives.

Even though it was a 1.5 to 2 hour drive home for me, I made the decision to let the couple have the room I had booked and travel back and forth. The owner checked my booking which was totally fine and the relief in that room was palpable. All I asked was for the refund be put back on my credit card as I had prepaid.

When I went back to my car to let my daughter know of the change in plans, I got a call from the owner who added an extra $200 to my refund to help pay gas money. I did try to say no but she’d already done it. I still had fun for a shorter time than expected but I was truly happy to be in the right place at the right time to help. Hope you enjoyed my tale and stay safe!

I was tickled to find that a review came in from one of our metallic guests. Said guest was offended that our housekeepers had Thanksgiving off, something that seemed rare in the field of hospitality. His comments read:

"I checked in yesterday for a 3 night stay. I learned from hotel management today that because it's Thanksgiving there will be no house keeping service available. Really?? I've stayed at hotels on major holidays many many times and have never experienced this before. Aren't you in the business of delivering hospitality service!!! It's hard to do when you give your staff the day off. Very disappointing!!!!"

I spoke with this dude and needless to say he was quite flabbergasted that his room was not going to be spick and span for his return from turkey gobbling. He was also the ONLY guest who saw an issue with it, honestly it was pretty funny.

I'm working the night shift the day of Thanksgiving, I got in an hour ago, and it's been a night already.

I got a report from my second shift that cops had been called for some kind of fight in the parking lot (this second shifter is notorious for not paying much attention and being very stingy on any details)

A couple of drunk guests got into the pool room after it had closed. I had to kick them (and their large, mostly full case of beer) out

They settled in the lobby for a bit, and kept trying to convince me to take and drink a beer with them. As drunk folk can be, they were not taking no for an answer until I told one of them "you really need to learn to take no for an answer"

They're now hiding out in the dining area with their beer and a few more friends, which is annoying but at least I can keep an eye on them. I'm working both hotels tonight though, and I got a call from across the street that there's "someone suspicious" walking around the parking lot. No extra details, and the person that called admitted they were parked in a handicapped spot without tags, because " second shifter said I could do that since I'm disabled but don't have the permit"

Here's to hoping the drunk folks on the dining area stay chill, and Mr. Suspicious isn't going to be a bother either

Idk what goes on at everyone else’s properties, but here there is major, perpetual beef between housekeeping and the front desk. For no good reason, it’s mostly a one sided hatred. Housekeeping is constantly talking shit about us or making our lives difficult, most of our hostility comes as a reaction to them starting it with us lol.

Housekeeping perceives us letting our boss know about certain things as us “snitching” on them constantly. However, when they’re marking rooms as clean and inspected but leaving them dirty so they can go home, and the FD is getting screwed because we’re sold out, what choice do we really have? On top of that, MAJOR hazards have been left in rooms, for example, I have had guests on TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS bring me fentanyl that was left in the room upon their check in. Fentanyl. Again, what choice do I have but to snitch? In return, they’re constantly going over our boss’ head trying to get us fired. Only to result in that department have a massive turnover, meanwhile all the FD has been here for a year at LEAST, if not much longer, which I think says everything it needs to.

Now, for my most recent beef with housekeeping lol. Our FD supervisor took time off this week, requested well in advance of the holiday AND she’s working 2 double shifts to accommodate that this week so we can all have our 2 days off as well. The housekeeping supervisor says she shouldn’t be allowed to take vacation time. Ever. Because she’s a supervisor. The thing is, the assistant housekeeping supervisor is her daughter, and she has taken entire weeks off multiple times. Given far fewer notice and her coworkers picked up the slack for her, she didn’t do it herself. So who tf is this bitch to talk about my supervisor (and good friend) like that? Yet another thing she’s running to the owner to complain about. It’s just getting on my nerves.

If you hate your job, your boss, and your coworkers in other departments this much, FIND A NEW JOB. There have been two attempted coups by housekeeping, but that’s a whole other post on its own lol. I swear I feel like I’m working in a crossover between the Golden Girls and Mean Girls sometimes!! These old ladies are acting like rotten high school brats lol

The hotel I work for focuses mainly on golf, bicycle trips and hiking trips for the summer, and business meetings/conferences, which is the main booking source for November-April. Last week we had the whole hotel (58 rooms [-2 that are currently out of order]) booked by one international company for their annual networking meeting.

When our housekeeping staff cleans the conference rooms on the kast day, they usually find a bunch of stuff left behind (jackets, chargers, pens, umbrellas, USB-sticks, sometimes even laptops). They brought all the items they found over at around 6:30 a.m., so the front desk could list them as "found items" in the system. Usually the morning shift does that, but I was done with everything for the night shift, so I started listing the items to take that off their plate in a busy day. Our fairly new (3 months) front office manager arrived at 7 a.m., counted the cash register and thanked me for starting with the lost&found stuff. So far so good.

Then he started plugging the found USB sticks into the FD computer to "check if there's anything on there, because if not, they're not worth putting into the system." I told him how dangerous and stupid it was to plug random found USB-sticks into the computer that saves a bunch of personal information INCLUDING CREDIT CARD INFORMATION of our guests, but he told me to mind my own business, he always does it that way, besides there's currently only one company in the house anyway.

I left it at that with him but wrote an E-Mail explaining my concerns to the GM. Apparently they had a talk with FOM, because now he's very cold and impolite to me.

So last night during my audit shift a guest comes up to me and asks to extend his stay. This is fairly standard stuff so I open up his folio and get ready to update the needed info when I notice he has been charged 5000 dollars for his deposit when ours is normally 50. I step away and try to call my FDM who the system says is the one who charged him to find out what's going on. She sends me to voicemail which is fairly common for her. So I go ahead and extend and fix the deposit issue and send the guest on his way. 30 minutes or so pass and my FDM finally texts back. I inform her she charged someone a 5000 dollar deposit and she's like nope couldn't have been me must have been someone who didn't log out of my account. Which would fly if she wasn't the only one on shift at the time because the A shifter had called out and we only have 3 non audit front desk staff. I just shook my head and moved on because everyone knows she's useless at her job and only got it because we lost our gm and had no management for front desk and she was the ONLY choice.

Per the title, every other week we end up with families dropping an older relative and then just leaving them here like we're an old-age home. We're not PSWs. I'm disgusted that people just leave family like that.
For the past few day's we've had a lovely lady in house who has dementia. Helping her out is nothing big, helping people is part of why I work this industry.
Today she's been very ill, and not long before writing this post I was at the desk reading the new when she came out of the elevator screaming at the top of her lungs. Very concerned at this point I went to see what was wrong when she started hurling pink all over the lobby and ourselves. I brought her to her room with fresh towels and water. Left a message with her contact on file after cleaning best I could.
I'm really shaken up but I cleaned myself off best I can but I don't have a change of clothes here, and I'm the only staff in the building.

The GiggleSnort is from a TV show in the 70s. I use the name for whatever hotel I'm working at in my stories. Reposting from my alt u/BillieJackson to my main so a new generation can enjoy my tales.

Rm 1xx is a snowflake. He supposedly comes in to the Gigglesnort every couple of months or so and "always gets [his] rate" and "want[s] the same room". I'm sort of new at this particular property so I've not had the chance to meet him yet. My GM has been here for nearly a year and he doesn't know who this guy is either. So he must not actually stay here as often as he says he has. (I looked him up and it's been at least 6 months as far as I can tell.)

But no worries. "His" rate is close enough to my rack so I feel confident in helping this guy out. He can't even tell me what his regular room is so I use the one he stayed in 6 months ago. Its one of the handicap rooms but he swears it's not the one he was in. (He was.) But he's ok with it as long as it's on the first floor.

mental eye roll so why he was giving me grief over it I don't know. I can roll with it without making it seem like he's an idiot.

After checking into his room he calls me for some TV issues.

SnowFlake: This TV isn't working.

Me: Thinking about all the other times people have TV problems. (Because it seems to be THE thing to cause issues around here.) I know how to work through most of the complaints. Is the TV coming on at all? Like is it showing only one channel but won't let you change between any others?

SF: It's not coming on. I just don't want to watch gospel music. I want the news. How do I get Fox News?

BJ: Thinking with another eye roll, "so the answer is yes." Ok, so it's only showing one program but not any others?

SF: Yeah this gospel music stuff.

BJ: Ok, try something out for me. See the SAT button on the top right? Push that. Then try to change the channel.

SF: tries Wait, so it's going to make me flip the channel a thousand times?!!!

BJ: eye roll at ~527833567 mph No sir. there is a quicker way to find what you need. there is a guide button on the right hand side. Do you see it?

SF: I just want fox. Do you know what channel it is?

BJ: No sir. I do not know the number off the top of my head. But the guide is very easy to use. Just push that button.

Silence

BJ: Did you find it?

SF: What is all of this?

BJ: I'm not sure sir. If you hit the guide button then I imagine you are seeing the channel guide.

SF: What is this company? Because I never want to be a customer of theirs.

BJ: Dish Network, sir. I agree the remotes are a bit convoluted and difficult to understand.

SF: I think that I need to just mute the TV when I'm ready to go to bed tonight because I don't want to go through all of this again.

BJ: so, I'm going to assume you're at the guide menu. If you will now press 0-0-2 on the remote it will take you to the top of the list. Fox should be really close.

SF: This is just ridiculous. What company do you use because I never want to buy them. Do you have a contract with them? You should really think about getting a different service. This is just horrible. This TV is enough to make me not want to stay here again.

BJ: ignoring his tirade. Also, when you are ready to go to bed tonight, do you see two red buttons on the remote? One is smaller than the other? The smaller one is the power button to only the TV. Push the small red button when you are ready to go to bed and then the tv will go off but the dishbox will not. It'll stay on the channel you want it to be on when you wake up. I confirm that he sees the power button. Ok, sir. Glad we could figure that out. Have a great night.

And I took a BIG sigh of relief when I hung up. That phone call wore me out.

Influencers: they're the worst.

I'm sure at least some of you have gotten influencer stay request emails. It's bad enough when they have an actual following, but the ones who have 1100 followers and get mad when you tell them they can't stay for a week in July for free are so far beyond delusional.

The ones that do get free or discounted stays are still the worst. They bring enough luggage to clothe some small towns but never tip the bellmen. They will react negatively to the room you're giving them (for free) if it's not the one they want, ranging from passive-aggressive whining to Pazuzu-possessed shrieking.

"How dare you tell me to turn off my speaker? I don't care if my neighbor is trying to sleep!" "What do you mean you can't get me a last-minute table for 12 at 8 PM at a restaurant that even in a seasonal town is booked 4-6 weeks in advance the entire year?"

I've also heard from friends in multiple resort towns about guys buying one particular influencer and her idiot friends bottles of champagne to impress them, and then they take pictures with it and leave it to be thrown out, wasting $400. I don't feel bad for the suckers who are paying $400 to impress someone who has contributed less than nothing to the world but I do feel bad about the waste. There are sober kids in Africa who would kill for that Veuve Clicquot!

The one good thing about the internet falling apart and turning into a useless, non-functioning collection of spaces where chatbots can sell each other dick pills is that the death of social media will be the end of influencers.

I’m a full time NA and this morning around 5 AM, I get a call from someone whose family is staying here. First of all, I don’t understand why they’re having family call me from out of state when they can just ask the desk themselves, but I digress. He calls asking if his family can have a late checkout, but not before going on a rant about my coworker, first.

Apparently he had called during 3-11 with the same request, and was told to speak with the morning shift. Guy on the phone goes on a tirade about how this was my coworkers “refusing” to help him and how “unhelpful” he was. This is how our convo went after my third attempt to cut him off was finally successful:

“Well, sir, as I’m sure he informed you last night, all late checkouts need to be confirmed through the morning shift, he was not refusing to help you, he was simply following policy.”

“Can I have my late checkout then? I’m tired of arguing about this” (me too, bud. me fucking too)

“Like I said, you would have to speak with the person who gets here at 7.”

“Well, it is 7 here!”

“(Long pause) well, sir, it’s 5 here. The morning shift has not arrived yet. I should warn you it’s unlikely we can accommodate a late checkout due to the holiday, though you can still try again with her when she arrives.”

“(Insert the usual rant about how they’re entitled to a late checkout because of his member status and how outrageous industry standard policies are that he’s certainly heard before) And I want to speak to your supervisor about how unhelpful their staff is!”

“No problem, she gets here at 7. Have a happy Thanksgiving.”

click

Why do people constantly act like they’ve never heard of our policies before, when they’ve almost definitely heard it at every hotel they’ve ever stayed at, ever?

In light of Turkey Day, I actually have a Thanksgiving Day story that happened to pop into my mind.

The area in which I managed my second hotel is the sort of area such that people are more likely to leave for holidays than arrive; consequently, Thanksgiving Day was about average occupancy for us. I didn’t even bother to raise the rates because I wouldn’t be doing it out of supply/demand, but merely because it’s a holiday, which just feels dirty.

I’ve got B-Shift as both my mother and my (at the time) in-laws preferred a very early dinner anyway.

Around 5:00p.m., a seemingly frazzled woman in her early thirties arrives; we’re deliberately going to change a few names and make her Cynthia.

Cynthia: Do you have any rooms available?

Me: (Offering a disarming grin and gesturing to the mostly empty parking lot) I’m pretty sure I can find at least one available.

Cynthia: Do you accept cash?

Me: We do; are you from around here?

Cynthia: I am. I can’t with my fiancée right now. You wouldn’t believe what he said about me at his parents, in front of his whole family, too. MAYBE I’ll go home tomorrow; we’ll see.

Me: Smoking or Non? Also, do you anticipate having visitors?

Cynthia: I don’t smoke and no visitors.

Me: Very good. In light of the circumstances, I’m just going to charge you our normal rate; locals would typically have to pay more, so keep it between the two of us. I’m also waiving the deposit. That’ll be $78.44, please.

Cynthia: Listen, I DO NOT want to see that man today. Thank you for the rate. Under no circumstances are you to tell him I’m here unless I tell you directly.

Me: Understood.

Cynthia: I mean, DIRECTLY. In person.

Me: You’ve had a difficult day, so I understand your concern; I promise that yours is not an unusual request; I hope the room is to your satisfaction. Our bar is closed tonight, but if you decide you want a drink, I’ll go down and grab you something; the first two are on the house.

Cynthia: I don’t drink, but thank you, you’re a sweetheart.

—-Fast forward three hours—-

A gentleman comes in, we’ll call him John, because that wasn’t his name. Interestingly, he doesn’t really have anything to say about how his night’s been going.

John: Hey, do you have any rooms?

Me: (Gesturing at the half empty lot) It’ll be a struggle, but I think I can find one.

John: Okay. How much?

Me: Smoking or Non-Smoking? Also, are you staying alone and are you from the area?

John: Smoking; I’m sure I can find some cigars somewhere. I’ve had a hell of a day. Actually, I am from around here.

Me: Okay, that’s $120, tax is included. Please refrain from smoking large cigars, or you’ll almost definitely set off the smoke detector. Anything about Cheroot sized, or smaller, is fine.

(As I’m putting him in the computer, something occurs to him)

John: Hey, I moved not long ago. My address isn’t what’s on the license. Do you need the correct address?

Me: (Already Basically Done) Nah. You don’t look like the room trashing type; besides, this is enough that I could find you, easily enough.

—-Fast Forward to Two Hours Later—-

I get a call from John’s room, 319.

John: Hey, is there a Cynthia Angeletti staying here? I drove by my house and her car isn’t there; she will answer for embarrassing me in front of my whole family.

Me: (Inwardly saying, “SHIT!) If she were staying here, it’s not as if I could tell you, but she’s not. Have you tried calling other hotels?

John: Yeah, but they all said the same thing you did.

Me: Well, they’re good at their jobs, then.

—-A half hour later, I get a call from 208—

Cynthia: You know, I think I will take you up on a drink, but only one. Do you have any red wine?

Me: I do have red wine. I’ll tell you what, we normally don’t do room service, but you’ve had a Hell of a day. I’ll go grab the best bottle we have and a wine glass; I can either knock or leave it outside the door and call your room when I get back downstairs. The bottle’s on the house.

Cynthia: You’re SO sweet! You can knock; I trust you.

——-

Apparently, they went the entire day (and checked out) without ever running into each other. Eventually, they reconciled and both called me a couple weeks later when they realized they had stayed in the same place.

Evidently, Cynthia figured John would go looking for her car if she wasn’t home, so she parked at a friend’s house and her friend drove her to the hotel.

Even if I had gotten the correct address for John, and made the connection, I probably would have still had to rent to him, or that would seem unusual. His call just wouldn’t have taken me by surprise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lady came to the front desk to request a late check out for both of her two rooms today. I explained that I couldn’t fulfill her request because the housekeepers are going to have limited service so they can go home a little early to be with their families on Thanksgiving. She got upset, demanding I give her a late check out because she requested it the day before and she is a high tier member. I was pretty shocked she didn’t even acknowledge or seem to care that it is in fact a holiday and our housekeepers have lives and families outside of work.

I explained late check outs are never guaranteed and based on availability regardless of status. She was not having it and saying stuff like “so my status and the money I spend annually mean nothing? This is ridiculous etc etc”. I held my ground and they stormed off, saying they would make a complaint to management.

While people being rude to me and giving me a hard time when their requests aren’t fulfilled isn’t uncommon, I was pretty appalled by the lack of consideration for our hard working housekeepers she displayed. How could you have so little empathy for others? Will not having those couple of hours really inconvenience you so much that you would make someone wait around for you when they could be spending time with their families on Thanksgiving? Our lives as customer service workers don’t revolve around you. Some people really need to learn some human decency. Hope all my fellow holiday workers are being treated with respect and kindness today, happy Thanksgiving!

Have you ever had someone who just doesn't take 'No' for an answer? Who just decides that you must have meant 'Yes' instead?

Tonight gentle readers, we have a tale of entitlement made manifest, of boundaries crossed, and the conventions of polite society ignored for the sake of convenience.

So of course I'm talking about water bottles.

Buttercup the emotional support unicorn is in her usual spot by the coffee station if anyone needs some magical sparkles or has some leftover pumpkin pie to share with a friendly unicorn.

So it came to pass that I was printing off a few reports when a guest comes to the desk. He's got a small fluffy white dog with him. No leash, but he's holding it, so I'm not going to gripe. But he is.

"There's no water in the room."

Well hello and good evening to you too sir... But no water, that's a problem! Is it just the sink, or are the toilet and shower... Oh. He means there's no bottles of water in his room. We are a small hotel, we don't do that. I point out the water dispenser behind him, the drinking fountain around the corner, and the soda machine down the hall.

He is not happy, but he shuffles off towards the soda machine.

There is some puttering about, and then I notice him on one of the cameras. That's odd, the soda machine is over there, the only things that way is the breakfast storage room and the laundry. But he's holding two bottles of...Oh no the hell he didn't.

I hop out of the back room and startle him. Clutched in his hands are two bottles of "LickRand" water. These are the brand that are in our back room for making Shiny Member Goodie Bags. The vending machine is stocked with "Insaned" brand.

"Excuse me. Did you just grab those from our Employees Only area?"

"Oh! ... There wasn't anyone there..."

He has very clearly grabbed those from our breakfast strorage room, the normally closed door standing wide open.

"Did you open a marked Employees Only area, go inside, and grab two bottles of water, without asking anyone?" I don't often get to use Dad Voice, but at this point I'm making sure every word is being delivered in a way that conveys exactly how disappointed I am.

"... There wasn't anyone there?"

"You went into an area that was clearly marked as off limits to guests. You rummaged around where you were not supposed to be and you stole two bottles of water. Why did you think that was an okay thing to do?" This is a nasty trick by the way. Framing a question that way forces him to realize that he had no real justification or valid reason for what he did.

"I... I can pay for them..?"

"If they were for sale, I would have told you when you asked. There is bottled water for sale in the vending machine behind you." I hold out my hand and he glumly relents, giving me the bottles. I went past him, placed the bottles back onto their shelf, and made a point of closing and locking the door. He shuffled dejectedly away, never to bother anyone...

....oh, he's trying to chat up the gal who's enjoying a quiet evening in our lobby, finishing her paperwork while watching Golden Girls and drinking some beer. Ugh. I kept in view, in case she wanted an out, but she managed to convince him that she really did want to be left alone thanks.

In any case, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day, which for many of us may involve roast turkey and stuffing and pie. Again, if you have too much pie, Buttercup will happily help. Take care, all!

Teal Deer; guest brazenly steals water bottles.

Good evening all you beautiful night owls and auditors!

This one is a short, definitely not sweet, but 100% eye roll worthy (as you can guess from the title) story.

A few months back - a guest came to check in. We’ll call him Barney. No. Not the purple dinosaur. Barney the Barn Barn. I don’t know. I’m not a night owl so my brain tends to get delirious around this time.

Anyway Barney checks in, asks if they got the QQ and lo and behold, they were in a DD. I investigated because the guest was chill and nice and turns out they booked with shitty OTA. They paid QQ, but the whole OTA to OTA switchamaroo resulted in their QQ becoming a DD when it came into our system.

I explain the situation. Warn them against booking third parties. Explain we aren’t allowed to modify third party reservations and warned them about booking with OTAs. We’ll match rates and promos so just call us directly.

So lovely OTA calls. The one with all about their Ex’s pee and the Spanish word for day. They wanted to confirm the room type booked. I open the reservation and I read the notes. It went something like:

HoeFeetia - virtual card - 1 non smoking double bed. booked a QQ last time and received a DD. I wanted to make sure that I get QQ for this booking.

So I check the extranet and guess what room type we received? A lovely DD.

So I relayed the info and told them there would be a price difference. They agreed and said they’ll call the guest and confirm any changes. I feel bad but at the same time - I did tell you to avoid OTAs.

So we have been having key coding issues with our Onity system off an on all year with some nights not even being able to key in summer and having to escort people to their rooms. They "sent" us our new equipment to update the whole hotel in like April so that's clearly not coming any time soon and we were meant to get a loaner in like August because ours wasn't working but that never arrived either.

Tonight, I get in and there's some key issue but my key reader seems to be working so I am not too worried. As we start checking people in it becomes clear that while the keys are coding on our end the doors aren't working and guests come right back down. Nothing we try works and resetting the server and the readers doesn't do a thing. I call support but I'm 4th in line and they say they will call me when someone is available to trouble shoot. Hours go by, guests are getting agitated and we are running around trying to let people into rooms.

Finally a sales manager stops by and helps us locate a guide to reset the system PROPERLY which we do to no avail but something in me has me try a few things with our readers and I override and re-check in a room on the key machine instead of the PMS system and that works! Finally we can get people in rooms.

We figured out that apparently when our pool door got reset this morning it was hours off so they updated the system to the correct local time and the doors now didn't match so they locked up when a key was introduced. We got the doors reset and all is well now and I just got the call from support almost five hours too late. He confirmed we figured out the issue and that we diagnosed and fixed it correctly.

Turns out the doors can only hold so many "calendars" to know when to work and when not to work so you have to update them regularly. They recommend two times a year after daylight savings changes so if your property doesn't have them reset on a schedule, start!

TLDR: Onity didn't call me back about an issue until it was five hours later and the problem was solved. Also, you should be resetting all your hotel's doors two times a year to keep them working properly.

I can’t believe this happened lol, a guest came 2 hours late to their reservation and we left him a voicemail for his 12pm service stating the service will be charged out in full and if he does show up he will only receive the remainder time of his service and still pay the full price, guest comes at 2pm saying the email states 2pm, the person who booked the reservation was at lunch so our management team moved the reservation over due to us being the inconvenience and he checked in and went inside the spa, the receptionist who booked the reservation comes back and management team pulls her aside to let her know her mistake and she actually pulls up the email and on her side it states exactly 12pm, one of the receptionists prior took a photo of the email to show to the managers and apologized to the guest. as I see the email it was clearly edited with different a different font from our original font. the guest is actually an actor and we looked at his Instagram and he was hanging out in F1 cars…..quite literally during his 12pm original service time lol Although we knew this information our management team didn’t do anything due to it honestly just being bogus. But it honestly goes to show how people will straight up lie and even edit an email to avoid paying fees that were their own fault. If we didn’t have a trail on email our receptionist would have gotten in trouble.

Ok this all happened yesterday afternoon. middle aged woman and man walk in and want to book as it wasn't allowing them online.

Hint tonight, Friday and Saturday are full, so is Tuesday and Thursday. (Monday and Wednesday has 3 rooms left of not the same type for next week.

They are locals (strike one) Known relatives of the town dealers (son and daughter) strike two Blacklisted at every hotel in town, even the ones who take cash (strike three)

They claim they are getting their bathroom renovated.

They thus are told , there is no room at the inn for Jesus C and mary

They are also not permitted to stay here anyway and suggested they try other hotels who may have rooms.

They openly say, we can't, everyone won't allow us.

Now the fun part....

The suggestion was to look further afield like 15 KMs away.

The reply...... We need to stay in town, our son told us to book him in, he needs to be near so his friends can come and get their share of the delivery he just got.

He needs to sell all of it cause the cops stole the last lot.

Bad people want him to pay for it.

They couldn't even keep up the lie for 5ins

Before we begin, shout out to overall nice guest who just checked out, asked for a receipt for her entire (multiple reservation) stay, and then told me that it was our fault she booked through third party for her first night's stay. Make it make sense.

With that blessing out of the way, let's begin the day of despair.

Where do we begin ... oh where do we begin? Let's start with the lady whose dog peed on the floor. To sum it up - lady thinks that dog pee can't go through flooring so she only wanted to pay for surface level cleaning because #logic. She did agree to higher fees if the

WE PAUSE THIS IMPORTANT STORY TO UPDATE YOU ON ANOTHER TANTALIZING LIVE EVENT ...

Another Guest: Thank you for kicking me out *huff puff*. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Me: Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. Same to you I guess. What the fuck?

(her story was someone was paying for her - but they were being stupid with sending the auth form, so we told the guest that she would have to leave if we don't get the money - she didn't want to, blah blah blah. Eventually the guy who was paying for her just comes down and pays and ask to pay through the weekend and I say that we are sold out on Thanksgiving so that's the story? I have no clue).

OKAY BACK TO BUSINESS.

So dog pee lady. She was making a big stink about it saying it's a surface level problem. We don't need to call maintenance to check the floors and I had to explain the basic logic that pee is pee. Floors are floors. There is a possibility that pee went beneath the floor (LVT flooring) and we don't want the next guest to complain. She's like I'm not paying for that unless I have to. Long story short - she paid the damages. We'll have to do a deeper inspection on her current room because her excuse was "if I noticed and cleaned it, you wouldn't have noticed it" - ma'am it's pee. It smells.

Now to the main event. She-Crazy. Apparently She-Crazy said that she got robbed at gunpoint two days ago and lost everything (I guess her black eye was the result?). Her boyfriend pays for the room via MotelMorning and it's a struggle to get the security deposit (I don't know - night guy?). Night guy bends policy and takes the BF's CC via picture he sent - but no CC auth form filled out [yes, I spoke to him about it].

In the morning, we call the lady and she wants to extend. Great. We tell her we have to collect payment. Here's where I fucked up. I gave her the benefit of the doubt that she would show up and pay. I didn't know about the BF paying the deposit, I didn't know the lady had no cards, etc. So I approved it because we were slow.

So when the lady comes back, Front Desk (FD) asks for ID and CC to pay for the room. That's when She-Crazy explodes and rants about "how she is a paying guest; how we are trying to prevent her from entering the room; how she has her stuff in the room; etc." She's being an asshole, so that's when FD calls me and I tell She-Crazy that she hasn't paid for tonight, she isn't a paying guest, but we'll let her in her room - but she has 5 minutes to pack and leave. I tell FD to stand by the door while she gets her stuff and she takes Maintenance with her as well.

The moment they get to the room, She-Crazy opens her crazy mouth and says "I'm going to take my sweet time." So FD is like "okay, I won't open the door then." She-Crazy foams at the mouth and explodes saying she can't do that; she's a paying guest. we're robbing her; we're stealing her stuff; we're blah blah blah. So I tell her (over the phone) that listen, we're not taking your stuff - but now you're being loud, obnoxious, and not listening to us so you can wait in your car and you will get access to your belongings when the cops arrive.

She listens and goes to her car. Apparently, she flags down another guest who just parked and asked him for help. Now, this guy is a regular and super nice. So he listened to her and tried to calm her down and so on. I guess it worked because she settled into her car. That's when another guest arrived to check in.

Note - I did ask FD multiple times if she was okay, if she needed me to come, etc. She said she could handle it. Cool.

While the couple was checking in, the BF calls and asks what's going on, blah blah. FD quickly explains and the BF says that he can pay for 2 more nights. But FD says nope, she's no longer welcome at this property.

Per FD - he does call back a few times for updates and FD is chill. She-Crazy waddles back in and tells the guests check in that we rob people. We steal credit card information. We are holding her stuff hostage. We aren't letting her in the room. FD told her to shut up.

She-Crazy goes back out. And then she comes back in with a wooden rod thing and approaches teh front desk and goes batshit crazy. "Im going to fuck you up. You can't keep my stuff from me." And she starts whacking the stick on the counter. BAM BAM BAM.

HD isn't fazed so She-Crazy starts to grab stuff at the front desk. We have little cute decor items to bring out the vibes. I put some strong adhesive so guests won't steal it, but we have a shell decor thingy that we use to keep candy. She grabbed that and threw it to the ground. But that wasn't enough. Dumbass started grabbing the little candies and throwing it at FD.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting patiently on dispatch (non-emergency line) to pick up. When I hear / see this going on, I'm like helllll no. And I dial 9-1-1. Apparently, She-Crazy also did the same thing and we basically all ended up speaking to the same dispatcher because when I talked to him, he already knew what was going on. I told him my story, told him what's up, and he sent a beam to his officers.

A guest comes down to just witness it all (the regular I mentioned above) - just in case we needed a witness. She looked at him and says "fuck off. You paid actor. I know they hired you. They rob and steal and then they send you to calm people down so they can rob people. Fuck off x12".

Maintenance guy just kept watching too (FD told everyone to not get involved because woman and she didn't want her to escalate with BS). He also got a couple of fuck you's.

Cops come. And they loudly ask "where is she". She had gone upstairs and sat herself in front of her door. She was being obnoxious to the guest that checked in, but I told FD to not bother her and just keep an eye on the camera until cops come. She was getting aggressive so best to keep distance.

We tell the cops, cops ask her to come down, and she makes a big deal about it but eventually comes down and steps outside with them to chat. I don't know what happened outside what regular guest told me, but apparently she was also telling the cops that they were paid actors, etc.

One cop comes in to check up on things. We had left the mess how it was to show the cops. That's when the cops asked to see the footage, so yours truly had to drive over. I step out the car, greet the cops, tell them I'm a manager and they wanted to see the footage ... and She-Crazy looks at me with crazy in her eyes and is like "oh so you're the one. It's nice to have a face to go with it."

I tried to hide a laugh and a sarcastic reply because I didn't want to escalate. So I just tell her that my business is with the cops and not her. She's like "no, but my business is with you because you stole my BLAH BLAH BLAH." The cops were just staring with a "kill me now" look.

One cop finally tells me to come inside to show the footage, and I show them the footage on my phone. They're like okay and they step out. I chat with the front desk, make sure she's okay, and we just laugh the entire time about how stupid this turned out to be. She's the one who collected payment from Dog Pee lady, so she's like I thought I was gonna have problems with her - but she surprisingly paid it with little hassle. So I thought easy night. And then this happened.

We started cleaning up the mess too (cops had looked at it while I was driving over) and She-Crazy was staring at us through the window the entire time, making faces, being obnoxious. I just laughed and rolled down the blinds. I ain't dealing with crazy AND CREEPY together. She can fuck right off.

Cops come, ask if we want to press charges and have her arrested, and I laugh saying who's going to go to court for this. lol.

BF calls again, and I'm there so I ask for the phone and tell him to stop annoying us. Front desk was nice about it, I'm not. I told him that if he wants updates - he can get it from his GF. But he's like I can't get through, I think her phone is dead - but she was chatting with her mother and complaining 10 minutes ago. So I'm like that's not my problem. So he's like she has a mental illness. I stopped him right there and told him - "I'm sorry to hear that, but that isn't my concern. She was treating my staff and guests disrespectfully, she threatened my staff, and threw stuff at her. I don't want to know nor does it make a difference to me. I don't want to hear an excuse." His main concern seemed to be to whether she'll be arrested or not.

But alls well that ends well I guess. She left with the cops, cops gave me her info in case I wanted to file a trespass thingy with the cops so if she trespasses again, she'll be arrested, etc.. I doubt she'll come back but what a day. I official hate Tuesdays lmao.

This is kind of a rant but, along with my hotel job, I have this internship at a cat lounge. The cat lounge is kinda like a cat cafe, but without the cafe, and its run by a Non-Profit organization that works with cats. Either way, I LOVE this job and would do full time here over the hotel if they let me but, back to the story.

I work in the back usually for cat care, but one of the owners has to bring cats to the vet, so I've been running the Front Desk for a few sessions while I've Interned here.

The most recent session... Was hell.

For context, from the hours of 10 to 1, it's the youth block, which means kids 3 and up are allowed at sessions. From 2 until close, only kids 13 and up can be in a session.

This session had 5 kids and 3 parents. The owner was a bit skeptical because the kids were being loud, but gave me the go ahead to give them the rules and show them in.

The rules are pretty basic, just wash hands, remove shoes, no chasing or picking up the cats, indoor voices, and just be respectful in general.

The kids did not listen

They were screaming, running, chasing the brand new kittens, SCRUFFING SOME OF THE KITTENS, and in general being unruly. I gave them multiple reminders to quiet down, and even asked the parents to please control them, but they just kept gossiping.

The cats were noticeably scared and disturbed by all of this, so I got a bit heated. Especially since I have a soft spot for cats, and will get very defensive of them due to some past stuff.

It got to the point where I was considering texting the owner asking if I could DNR them, but I calmed down a bit before going to text her.

But then, A kid screams "OH MY GOD THE CATS ARE PEEING!!!" And it's one of the cats who is NEVER skittish who was peeing. The parents didn't scold the kids for yelling, or anything that they did, and were TRYING TO COVER IT UP BEFORE I WENT IN.

That was my last straw.

I kinda went full on passive aggressive manager mode, which I NEVER do. I went in and told them "I'm sorry, but your session has come to an end. Please gather your things and head out."

"But there's still 20 min-"

"Please gather your things and head out." I used the kindest voice I could, but inside I was PISSED OFF at the lack of parenting/awareness these mothers had. They all left, the kids a little sad since they had to leave, but I did not care.

After that, I contacted the owner about what happened, and she told me to end the session. I told her I already did 5 minutes prior, and that I was gonna contact her to ask, but I felt like I had to ASAP for the cats safety/wellbeing. She said that it was okay, and the right call. After that, I made sure to clean the pee as best I could and checked up on the cat. He snuggled against me, so at least he's ok.

I am now advocating for these parents to be banned/DNR'ed for their lack of concern, disregard for the rules set in place for both them and their kids, and just generally distressing a LOT of the cats.

I don't know why some parents will just let their kids run haywire, especially in a place like this, or a hotel.

There's a couple more sessions that have kids today, so hopefully they don't go as bad as this one... The session that's happening as I'm typing this though is a LOT more respectful and calm, both parent and kid wise.

Long rant but yeah.

Parents, please do your job and don't leave it to workers to manage your kids 🙂

A while ago, I posted about my fear of losing our awesome maintenance guy. Well, he quit. Just up and walked out. I miss him every day, especially when I have to talk to his replacement.

The owner hired a guy who I’ll call Giggles… because he giggles at EVERY FUCKING THING and I HATE IT. There was a lot of handholding with Giggles as opposed to Tyler (our last guy) who was self sufficient af! But I would often see Giggles standing around wondering where a manager was.

Giggles is okay as far as having a maintenance man on property. He’s at least present. But there’s a lot that management has had to re-explain to him. For instance, some of our door locks have needed reprogramming. I know my GM has showed him how to do it a few times. He still needs help. The owner has come done it a couple times. He still needs help. After all these times, he’s gone as far as to say that NO ONE HAS SHOWED HIM HOW TO DO THIS.

We had a room we couldn’t rent for a week because he couldn’t figure it the whole lock issue. I saw him with a book, trying his hardest to figure it out. I decided to be nice and help simplify some of the instructions. Turns out the book was just on how to order replacement parts. Hmm.

We got a new tv ordered for the lobby, and it was his job to set it up. The screen kept glitching for some reason, and instead of trying to figure it out himself, he again turned to management, who promptly directed him to the instruction manual.

The tv sat unfixed for 6 days.

The GM and I have some suspicions about this guy, but they were never really confirmed. Still not confirmed today, but our suspicions are stronger.

Our shuttle driver didn’t show up today (she’s another irritating story), so the GM asked me to ask Giggles to make a pick up run. I said okay. I saw his car pull up and I braced myself for another day of needless tittering. I relayed the message and Giggles went on his way.

A few moments later, the owner came to the desk and asked who had the shuttle. I told him Giggles did, and he’d be right back.

“He should not drive the shuttle,” he said plainly. No explanation. I explained that the GM gave him the okay, presumably so we didn’t bother the owner with this matter. But whatevs, you’re the boss bro.

About an hour later, the GM came to me wide eyed, telling me what the owner said about Giggles and the shuttle.

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess he doesn’t want Maintenance taking the shuttle anymore.”

Nope. Giggles doesn’t have a driver’s license!

Most of us know that obtaining a driver’s license involves a skill component and a written test. We gathered that Giggles probably didn’t pass (or take) the written portion because

GIGGLES DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO READ!

With that said, I will be slowly training myself to become the new maintenance man, because we can’t trust this guy.

I am the hospitality manager for a huge private country club. We have golf courses, two club houses that are massive, two restaurants and a bar on site, and a bunch of other amenities. This week, as I know it is for a lot of you, is our Hell week. Maybe the only other week that’s worse is the week of Christmas.

Our club is ultra ritzy, members pay an incredible amount of money to belong. And we have a policy that you can’t “ever say NO to a member.” This week, we’re offering brunch and dinner services at the club that are themed “Anything but turkey” and it’s a big deal. Both dining rooms are full, the bar is full, and one of the function rooms is packed.

I was fronting the member desk as always, basically getting yelled at because people had to wait 5 minutes to get seated, (one lady literally told me “well, it’s a good thing you’re pretty because you aren’t too smart!”) when I look and see an older member waiting in line to talk to me. He’s on our Board and, those of you in private clubs will understand this, his name and picture are on our wall, a big deal. I have a mini panic attack because I’ve never talked to him, and he shouldn’t be waiting in line, and something if obviously wrong if he needs to talk to me.

I go out from the desk and greet him, “Hello, Mr. Big Shot, welcome back.” Etc. He says, “well you’re certainly busy, but can I ask you for some help? We might need some strong guys too.” I say “certainly sir, can you tell me what you might needing help with today?” He says, “follow me, please.”

We walk..very slowly…to the front entrance, the whole time I’m thinking about the desk going crazy and what he could possibly need help with. I legit thought he might have driven his car into the main fountain - it has happened.

We get to the main entrance and it’s his car and a delivery truck. I’m like, uh-oh, what did we miss? The driver gets out and opens the back of the truck.

Inside are tons and tons of…pies! Each in nice box and a ribbon. I’m like, “oh sir, that’s very thoughtful, are these gifts for your fellow members?” He smiles and says, “no, they are for you folks, the staff!” This sweet little man bought every staff member a pie for Thanksgiving. And, with each pie, he had a little note with $50 bill, that said “Thank you for making this our special place! From Mr. And Mrs. “Big shot”.

I went to my office and cried lol. Not ashamed to say it.

There is hope!

I work the front desk at a chiropractor and I’ve had to deal with rudest patient I’ve ever seen in the 2 years I’ve been there! I’ve had my fair share of rude patients but once they leave I get on with day and that’s that, but this guy made me anxious for the rest of my shift! Long story short, he is only allowed to book in with one specific practitioner after being rude and not showing up/ being late to all his appointments, when I told him this on the phone he got so angry! I told him why this was and how we really can’t accommodate being late all the time because it messes up our schedule but he just wouldn’t have it. For the first time at my job I had to hang up on him, he then called us 4 more times but I refused to answer the phone. I was so anxious the rest of the day that he might come in to continue verbally abusing me! My boss told me I did the right thing, so I’m not worried about how I handled it but just don’t understand how people can act this way and get away with it all the time.

Hello all. It’s that night auditor again. I haven’t posted a tale but man I got a juicy one today.

Also I made it two years with my parent company black in June. Two years of night audit. It’s been a hell of a ride.

On to the story. Grab your coffee, tea, and snacks. I’ll make the popcorn.

It’s my first day back of the week after my days off and that’s always rough due to having to adjust to my nightly schedule (and daily sleep).

Our building is doing an emergency water repair, so water’s shut off for all rooms and our common areas. Not a biggie for me-at least our sister hotel next door lets me use their restrooms… as long as I slide into their messages first.

But of course I get people complaining and some of them claiming they weren’t informed… despite the signs at the front desk and the big ones at the elevator. I do ponder the reading comprehension of this world…

But that was not the most stressful situation, oh no.

Gather around, for this may have been the most stressful thing to have happen to me and I thought I’ve dealt with it all.

So I’m sitting at the front desk doing my daily reading when suddenly I hear a dreadful, loud alarm. I’m shook because I almost thought the fire alarm went off. Then I head to the front because the noise seemed louder there.

(Small context: next door to us is a brunch cafe that serves sandwiches and drinks and fruit bowls. The hotel leases the space and they pay rent, basically. But we do not own that cafe, it’s owned by someone).

Initially the dread settles: did someone break in? I radio my security to call police because I have to deal with a break in?! I don’t even know how to contact the cafe owner.

Then when I get closer to our lobby entrance, I then realize with more dread that it was not a break in at all-IT WAS THE PULL STATION THAT HAS A BROKEN* COVER ON IT

*(I did think it was broken, fyi).

So I’m freaking out because what in the hell do I do?! I call the Engineer Director (he’s in house because he’s assisting with the repairs that necessitated the water shutoff). He comes down and just… pops the cover back on, which turns the alarm off.

Cue the sweat of relief. I’m even more relieved because it didn’t even trigger our building alarm to pop off. THAT would’ve been real bad.

Anyways.

Someone who likes to hang out at the bust stop near our building informs me that some crazy lady came from the building down from us and did that, and also tried breaking into the cafe. I also had a guest doing some work and was feet away from that pull station and he corroborated the outsider’s story as well.

After that relief, I arm myself with my trusty phone and march to the back where we have our camera monitors and grab as much footage of that event for recording purposes. That nasty son of a nice lady. I share that with my security guard. Fortunate for us, there were police next door at the hotel and my security gave it to them. (I did see my security on the phone calling police so he might have informed them then what happened, as I did informed him initially we might be dealing with a break-in before the realization of the source of the noise).

I can breathe now since all seems well.

I do hope that is the only thing I’ll be dealing with tonight. Water is still off, too. I’m not a happy camper having to field the complaints about no water…

So.. I work at a timeshare resort. We have different types of timeshare owners. We've got OUR owners, then we have exchanges and another timeshare company that owns about half our inventory. This guest, I will call him Mr. Inappropriate, is one of OUR owners. Meaning he has owned with us for at least 30 years. He checked in a few days ago. He's an older man, staying here alone, has had no visitors, doesnt appear to leave the property. He spends a lot of time wandering around the property, talking to other guest, other employees, myself included. First few days seemed pretty innocent, just a lonely old man who wanted to talk to someone. Conversations were light and friendly. One night I noticed something weird, he was walking the property (about 1am) and found his way into the employee smoking area where there are a few maintenance items and a water tank or something. He was snooping around that stuff and security had to tell him he couldnt be back there.

Fast forward to tonight... I arrive for my shift at 9pm and I stop by the soda machine on the back patio to buy myself a root beer and Mr. Inappropriate is out there having a cigarette. He starts to talk to me about some random stuff, something about storing luggage, I don't know.. But I kept trying to sneak away. Slowly walking backwards and just nodding, not really engaging with the conversation. He followed me all the way back to the sliding door and he stood right at the entrance trying to continue the conversation. Finally I was just like, "Okay, I'll see you later." and walked away. After I got to my desk and set up and pulled up the cameras, I noticed he was still out there and acting strange... My supervisor was still here for another 30 minutes so I pointed it out to her. Mr. Inappropriate was standing, with his hand inside his pants on his crotch, "itching" himself? AND, he was having a full on conversation with... a wall. He was facing a wall and just talking. He definitely was NOT on the phone. My supervisor had the security guard go speak to him and he did. When security came back inside, he returned to acting weird. Again.. hand in his pants, talking to himself.

When Mr. Inappropriate came back inside, he came up to the desk to talk to me again and was asking who to talk to about feedback. He said he was really enjoying his stay and wanted to talk to a manager about it. I informed him of the appropriate channels and he tried to continue the conversation. "Oh well, should I set up an appointment with the manager? What time of the day would be best for me to call her?" Stuff like that... Both my supervisor and I told him he can call the extension during the day at any point.

After that, he goes into the elevator, goes up to the top floor where our laundry room is located and... yep you guessed it. Stood in the laundry room, hands in his pants, scratching away, and FULL conversation with a wall. By this point it was fully shift change, and the third shift security guard was now on duty instead. I let him know about this weird guest and to keep an eye on him. Security watched him continue this behavior for 30 minutes... before finally going up there to remind him that we have cameras and he probably shouldnt be touching himself in public. I guess the guest apologized and said he would stop.

Rest of the night was pretty busy for me, a lot of check ins and guest requests and phone calls. And there was one guest in particular that I checked in. Let's call him.. Mr. Fan. I checked this guest into room 824 (very close to Mr. Inappropriate's room..) and Mr. Fan returned very shortly after visiting his room. He requested a room change because there were very loud fans in the hallway. (We had a flood due to a faulty sprinkler so they were trying to dry the hallways). When Mr Fan approached the desk... Mr Inappropriate followed up very quickly behind him. He was trying to take control of the situation. Mr Inappropriate was telling me how I should handle it and that "maybe you can turn the fans off for Mr. Fan for the night?" I advised we can not do that and while I appreciate his input.. I have the situation handled. He continued to try to speak for Mr. Fan and then also speak for myself. I reminded him that I did not need his help and that I can take care of Mr. Fan. Mr Inappropriate thanked me for helping Mr Fan and he went back outside to smoke and I was able to get the situation resolved.

I thought this was going to be it for the night since it was getting late and he mentioned a few time that he would be going to bed but uh... boy was I in for a treat...

Mr. Inappropriate comes to the lobby, first approached the security guard and asked her about something. Then he starts to walk back over to me... He said, "I need to ask for a favor." ..

Me: "Okay, what do you need?"

Him: "Well.. my wife divorced me because of the election. She said she wanted to shoot me and threatened to kill me. *laughs* And my attorney, who is a good friend of mine, suggested that I take this trip. And that I hire a prostitute. And film it for evidence, or to get an eye witness."

Mind you... he started this by saying he was going to ask for a favor and I was very terrified of where this conversation was going.

Him: "Can you testify in court for me that you've witnessed me here at the hotel? Just that I checked in and checked out with no problems. That we talked for a bit and I was normal."

Me: "No, sorry.. I am not comfortable with that.."

He then started to say he was sorry for making me uncomfortable and that he will just talk to a manager instead. I was so dumbfounded at what even just happened that I don't think I even said anything besides 'uh huh'... He is still here until 12.1 but I sent an email to management. I doubt they will do anything because they let our owner do whatever they want. But this was just... weird.

EDIT* Next day update for anyone interested: I came in tonight to several emails from my AGM. She first tried to call the guest's room and left him a voicemail. She threw me under the bus fully and said "The night auditor told me that you were asking her strange questions and I wanted to talk to you about that." She later got ahold of the guest and this was that followup email:

I spoke with him and started off by asking about the conversation he had with OP last night. Explained I wanted to discuss the unusual comments he said at the desk. He first went on to say he just came from the Dr., and he had a bad reaction to his Covid shot.?? He then went on to say the same thing about his ex-wife and prostitutes, etc. I reviewed we do not get involved any personal matters and no employee or the hotel will be able to give a statement or go on record that he was not seen with a prostitute. Advised we can however give him a receipt of his stay that shows he stayed here, but that is all.

He apologized if he made any one feel uncomfortable and praised the staff he has encounter so far. Went on to say he has owned since 1993 and appreciates all we have done with the property. Thanked him for calling me back so we could discuss the matter.

As for the issue of him with his hands in his pants. I would leave this one alone if you see it again unless it becomes indecent. I believe Security said something to him last night and he assured me that he would refrain from asking any unusual questions from the staff.

Please let me know if anything else comes up. I will out of the office but will be more than happy to assist if any other issues come up with this owner.

I get it, but it’s not my problem.

10:00 AM. A woman shows up at the reception desk and says she wants to check in. I check the system, and yes, she has a reservation. But guess what? None of the rooms in her category are ready yet. I politely explain that check-in starts at 2:00 PM and suggest she leave her luggage with us in the meantime.

And that’s when the demon awakens (you know the one… Karen).

"You don’t understand! I am f**ing tired. I’ve traveled for 10 hours from the UK!"*

...10 hours?! To Kraków, Poland?! Did she swim the English Channel?!

Here’s the thing, people:

• Maybe plan ahead.
• Book the previous night if you know you’ll arrive early and want a room right away.
• Or at the very least, read the guaranteed check-in time before you show up with that energy.

Receptionists are not magicians. 🧙‍♀️

I had a guest show up tonight. He reserved through a third-party site and showed me the confirmation e-mail, so I ask him for his ID and start the check-in process. Everything is fine until I ask him to pay.

He tells me it was already paid so I check just to make sure there wasn't an error on our system and it wasn't paid. I explain to him that the third-party site asks for the credit card number and we need it for the garanty but we don't take the payment until the guest shows up or if they don't show up before the end of check-ins at 3AM.

The guys barely speaks any french (I'm from a place where we speak french) and no english so I try to explain everything to him in the simplest terms I can find and he keeps repeating that he already paid. Eventually, after several minutes, he apologizes and just leaves.

I truly don't understand. If he was so sure he jad already paid, he could have just paid was I asked for and spoke to a manager tomorrow for a refund. I'm gonna have to take the payment anyway and mark him as a no-show.