It's checkout time and I'm busy as hell. A guy comes through and asks when breakfast ends and I tell him 9:30 (it was 11am at that point) they're cleaning the breakfast room now. He says oh okay then proceeds to head into the breakfast room anyway. The housekeeper in there doesn't speak English so I didn't want her to have to deal with the confrontation so I called after him to stop him.

He came back out and I told him again that breakfast was over and the door was only open because the housekeeper was in there cleaning. He asked to speak to a manager, I told him the manager would be back in on Tuesday. He then proceeded to spin me sob story about how his family was upstairs and they'd come in late last night, blah blah blah. Would we please extend him the courtesy of letting them have breakfast now?

I reminded him that breakfast ended an hour and a half prior and the room was currently being cleaned. He grumbled a bit and went over to the coffee station, watching me out of the corner of his eye and I watched him out of the corner of my eye to make sure he didn't try to go in the breakfast room again. While making his coffee he got on the phone with someone and started talking about how he didn't even want hotel breakfast, and dining out was much better. I had to fight a laugh.

Edit: And of course I have another fresh tale of entitlement from a different guest. He comes to the desk to check in around 1pm and says he needs his rooms side by side on the first floor. We were busy last night and the housekeepers were still working so I told him I'd check what we had available for early check in. I didn't have first floor or rooms side by side. He tried to argue with me and I suggested that if that wasn't going to work for him that he should come back at check in time.

He didn't like that answer and tried to argue but it's kind of hard to argue with the fact that there were not rooms meeting his criteria available. Finally he decided that he would check in then asked for one room to be moved after three when a room next door was available. I explained that he would have to pay for a third room in that case. He didn't like that answer, once again argued, and I pointed out that he simply couldn't use two rooms for the price of one. To my surprise, he actually understood that and stopped arguing.

Thanks to all that read this! I don't really have a TL;DR, but I did spoiler the things that add context, but aren't completely necessary.

Hi, I'm 22NB, and while this is my second hospitality job, I've been a service worker to the public since I was 16-17. I currently work as a front desk agent at a resort, making $15/hr fulltime, and have been at this particular job since May 2024.

I technically have manager experience on paper; however, that was at Papa Johns, and I sucked at it.>! I struggled with time management, and everything needed to be done in X amount of time, with no help, and an abusive manager.!< Thus, I wouldn't personally call this experience, as I learned nothing to take with me to another job.

That's where I'm at here. I recently accepted the position of OJT (On-The-Job Trainer). I already help out my fellow coworkers where I can, so why not get the title, right?
It doesn't come with any kind of pay raise except for a quarterly $300 bonus, and the only thing I have to do to get that is to not have any disciplinary action beyond a verbal warning issued to me during that quarter. Compared to the many metrics we have to hit as front desk agents alone, smooth sailing. But more importantly to me, I figured it would give me the proper experience to take with me throughout my work career.

Also worthy of note is that I very much dislike this job. It takes a lot of energy out of me, it gets sensorily overwhelming with golf groups/family reunions/busy weekends >!(I'm autistic, and while I am permitted to use my Loop earbuds per discussion with my manager, I have no official accommodations. We do have a means of requesting them, but I haven't had the energy to go through the website)!<. It's also just the same things, over and over again. As I tell many people, it's either overwhelming or underwhelming, seldom in-between.

I'm also studying towards CompTIA+, because I believe that pursuing IT will give me the mental stimulation I need. I like to problem solve and tinker, not delegate everything out to other people, or be yelled at because XYZ. It's the same old, same old. And yes, I know I'll have to start out basically delegating everything, but at least there's opportunity for growth, even if it means switching companies to achieve it.

We just got a new hire, and though I was explicitly told that I wouldn't be the only one training her so that she wasn't "thrown at me", I find that I am the only one training her on our shared shifts. Our supervisor trains her on their shared shifts, but she's otherwise my work responsibility. They tell me what she needs to focus on, and I have to balance that with doing my regular job of checking people in. Even when it's busy and I have to manage not getting overwhelmed with helping her with doing my job.
I haven't received any training myself, as classes don't open up until Jan 2025. Nor am I receiving any coaching unless I reach out and ask, which I don't feel like I should have to do every single time.

My ultimate question: Are these just growing pains, or should I try to cut my losses sooner? I can't up and quit this job, because bills are a thing, and $15 at fulltime just barely lets me scrape by. At the same time, however, I feel my threshold for overwhelm and frustration decreasing by the day, and it's affecting my personal relationships (not to mention having to be extra mindful of how I talk to the new person).

My goal is to switch to IT by the end of next year, but there's still a bunch of time and money that has to go into certification, and then there's actually finding a job.

Long story short....

This just happened today around 4:30am... The hotels in the whole city are SOLD OUT!!!

Not sure what's going on exactly and that all the hotels are sold out, but I had received +30 phones calls of people trying to book rooms in the middle of the night. Had a couple of them mad rude when telling them "I'm sorry but we're sold out."

I had this lady a bit drunk who book a room for 11/10 which check in will be at 3pm but she decided to come at 4:30am which it's super early and we dont have any rooms available. I explained to this lady that we will pre-register her and we will email her when the room is ready, and we can store the bags for the meantime. Lady understood and took her bags to change in the bathroom and refresh herself but tell me why when I go and check she had all her stuff out of her bag and scattered all around the bathroom floor and sink like she's at her house. JEEEEEEZZZZZ, like tf... this is a public bathroom, and ppl will be in and out using it and she has all of her stuff around.

What should I do? should I tell her that she needs to pick up her stuff before breakfast starts and people start coming in?

So I work the front desk/NA at a fairly small pet-friendly hotel. Our pet policy is fairly tame: a single $75 fee for up to two pets for the stay, nonrefundable. Don't bring a pet into the breakfast area, don't let pet walk around with leash, etc. Basic stuff, nothing difficult to understand. If people are chill, I will often let little things slide. If your animal is behaved and not wandering around or bothering other guests, then I will usually not harp on the off-leash rule. The only thing I always stay firm on is the single pet fee at check-in, so the pet is documented, and we are prepared if it causes a mess (too many animals shitting in rooms stories come to mind.)

Tonight, my last check in came in around midnight. He had an off leash french bulldog with him, so I brought up the pet fee at check in:

OP: Just to letcha know, there is a single $75 pet fee for keeping your pup here. I can just add it on though as a charge with the check in.

Guest: He is emotional support dog, don't need the fee.

OP: Unfortunately, emotional support animals are charged the pet fee same as any other pet. Only service animals are not charged.

Guest: Yes, then he is a service animal-emotional support dog, same thing. I won't be paying an extra charge. What now?

OP: You can't- sir, they are not the same thing. You already told me your dog is an emotional support animal. I'm sorry, but the charge will have to stand.

Guest: I've been to several 5 star hotels, the did not charge. This has never been a problem.

OP: I cannot speak for those other locations. Like I said, this is per our pet policy. You are free to take it up with the manager when she gets in tomorrow morning.

Guest: You best believe it, this is ridiculous. He is a support animal.

Meanwhile, the dog was wandering all over the place. It tried going into the back office and behind the front desk with me several times. I love dogs, and this one was very cute, but very clearly not very well-trained. I gave the guest his key and he walked away complaining to his mate. I get that emotional support animals are helpful, and I respect them as much as service animals for the purposes they serve. But man, you got caught with your pants down and tried to tell me you didn't. People are hilarious

So last night about 15 minutes before I was getting ready to clock out for the night me and the hotel maintenance man were having a conversation about the local comedy club that is not too far from our hotel. He was asking me if I knew any of the comedians that would be performing there this week. I told him no after getting on the website to look. I was just about to start to print my paperwork so I could leave when out of nowhere both of us look up and see this very creepy looking man looking at us. He was standing in front of me and I did not see him right away because my monitor was raised high over my head. I am very short so yeah..

Anyways this man told us "what famous well known guy did you say you are surprised she does not know?" He said this because I had told our maintenance guy that I did not know who a comedian was on the clubs roster. The creepy guy then goes on to say "I bet she knows me IM REALLY BIG". Both me and our maintenance man were a little creeped out because we had not seen anyone around us while we were talking that was that close to us to where they could over hear our conversation so were were just looking at each other like wtf how did he hear that and how long as he been listening to us?

Anways this guy was a guest and he was also attending a gala that we had at the hotel. He was cleary drunk and possibly under the influence of drugs because we later found out that he had only had two drinks all night from the bar. Our guess was that he was on Xanax and drank. Anyways things got creepier quickly. He asked us if we knew of any places he could go to have fun since our bar had just closed for the night that were close to the hotel. Normal question of course but he was using this as a gateway to creep on me. The maintenance man told him of a bar that was open till 2 am near us and I told him a karaoke bar that he could go to and gave him the address. He then asked me if I had gone to it before. I told him yes with my boyfriend and my best friend and that we had went recently and it was fun..... THIS is when it got creepy.

"oh I see well do you and your boyfriend have children?" He asked me. I said no and I do not want any. Then he asked me if I wanted to be the step mother to his child. I declined and said im not interested at all. The maintenance man got involved and told him "look buddy she has a boyfriend she's not interested" The creep then asks him " what are you the boyfriend are you guys together or something?" Maintenance man lets him know that we are just coworkers. The man then tells him "well there are just SO many beautiful people working in this hotel and I figured since you are beautiful and she is beautiful maybe you were together."

It's FINALLY time for me to clock out so I shut down my computer and leave. I let our front desk supervisor (who was standing there talking to the night auditor) that this man was being creepy and was inebriated and needed to be dealt with. I was ignored of course and brushed off. he told me "oh man you always get the weird guys." Uh yeah and I was telling him that so he could step in and tell the guy to go away like a supervisor should do but he did not.

I went to the go clock out and then came back to the front to leave but I saw that the weird guy was still talking to the maintenance man. I overheard him tell him he NEEDED to go home with SOMEONE tonight. The maintenance guy told him well buddy it's not gonna be me so I think we need to either get you to your room if you have one or get you to a cab.

I decided to wait for my boyfriend in the hotel in the back office area because I had a feeling this guy was going to be the type to try to follow me out to the parking lot. I waited until my boyfriend had texted me to let me know he was in front of the hotel. usually I will wait outside and sit for him cuz our hotel is in a very safe area.

When my boyfriend let me know he was there I walked outside to meet him. he was parked close to the loading area where guests unload luggage but not right in front of the door. As I opened the truck door I noticed my boyfriend looking at someone behind me. he was lookin at this person in a "wtf are you" kind of way. I then turned my head around and saw the creepy guy was about a foot behind me and staring my boyfriend down who was in the drivers seat. I got in fast and slammed the door shut and we drove off. He asked me who that was and I told him this creep who was bothering me. As we drove off we still saw him behind us looking at the truck driving off and then he got on his phone.

My boyfriend was pretty upset after I told him that I had told the supervisor about the guy and that he did not step in and tell the man to stop harassing me or the maintenance man. I called the hotel while on the ride home and told them what had happened to me. He was kicked out today thank god. This is the FIRST time that FINALLY someone has been DNRed at our hotel. I never thought I would see the day. Turns out he was always harassing the female bartender we had on duty that night as well. I am not sure why he was not kicked out of the hotel when he was acting like this in the bar.

I recently posted about hurricane helene in WNC and how my property had switched to only housing emegency workers. So I live in Asheville, NC. Half the city was wiped off the map, we still do not have clean water (our property is currently running off water tanks) and many many roads are closed. Obviously, one would think it's smart to NOT reopen for regular guests, and we had been told that we wouldn't be until next year....

WELL, corporate decided to reopen (they didnt even tell us when they opened back up online booking). So now we have a hotel mixed between aid workers staying months, and guests. We have no valet currently, the only access to parking is through the exit ramp which is now being used for two-way traffic (dangerous). We don't have HSK staff for it either. Am I the only one who thinks this is insanity???

just had encountered a situation with the guests and i am incredibly angry. i work at one of the popular hotel branches in my city and honestly, its not the greatest and i frankly always agree and understand why guests are upset at something, but i find it so astonishing when people start getting angry AT YOU for something you have no control over and when you let them know that, they tell you that they arent actually talking to you, but at the hotel management! which is funny, because who are you yelling at 3 am because the front desk has ran out of adapters? definitely an 18 year old girl is not the fuckass hotel management, and i have already suggested that you either leave your phone on the front desk, or spend extra 3 dollars on an adapter in the supermarket 10 steps away from the hotel. Meanwhile i understand, that its actually super inconsiderate from the hotels side and i get embarassed a lot by how often we ran out/dont have basic necessities that hotel is supposed to have. but what can i do really? i barely make any to care lmao! i think everybody would be happier if people just left a negative review to their agencies or booking, instead of releasing all their anger in their body to the young people on the front desk who are already doing whatever they can to make your stay comfortable. if i can help – i will help, i have noticed a weird tendency within the people thinking i wouldn’t do something out of principle 😭 if youre an asshole, maybe, but this is my job so why wouldnt i dont wanna do something that is apart of my job? sorry for the poor grammar or whatever im from kazakhstan and im too tired to care 🙂‍↕️ i guess its too much to expect some sort of humanity shown to the service workers from the costumers side but whatever

Hello ! For the backstory, I worked for 4 years in a palace hotel in St Barths from 2017 to 2021: I arrived there as an intern, did a few years of reception/conciergerie and then went through to full time Guest Experience/duty manager.

You know how luxury hotels give fancy names to position but basically my job was to handle all complaints, from all departments. In other words i'd just get screamed at all day. And I can tell you I am very good at getting screamed at. In 4 years I have never lost my temper, not even once, which is one of the reason direction gave me this position: and I had experienced all the usual tense situation that makes you want to snap. But even after 12 hours shifts, many insults, threats of violence, i would never falter.

Now this story is the only time I went close to losing my shit:

Its super high season in St Barth and we are welcoming many guests from New York. Now these three couples arrive for check in during the afternoon: typical Park Avenue clientele, absurd amount of money, knows every other guests cause they are all part of the Park avenue jewish community that really, really loves St barth during december.

As it happens many times, one of the couple did not get their luggage while landing in St barth. Its very small planes coming from St Martin and it happens a lot, the airplane companies bring the missing luggage first thing in the morning.

Now i'm around the front desk and see this new guest (lets call her sarah) start screaming at the receptionnist.

I intervene and ask whats wrong:

"Why is my luggage not here ? " "Well Madame unfortunately it happens occasionnally but the airplane company is going to delivery them tomorrow morning, it happens that many guests are concerned by this issue today"

"You don't understand, I'M FROM NEW YORK, I GET MY STUFF"

So I start explaining calmly that there is nothing we can do, our hands are tied, the luggage is in St martin and we are not able to retrieve them tonight (flights don't land during the night)

She then proceeds to absolutely bat shit crazy insult me with all her strengh:

" You are fucking worthless, you piece of shit, I don't fucking care what you have to do but you get me my luggage NOW"

As she proceeds to absolutely destroy me, her husband is sitting on a chair next to us and says absolutely nothing.

Now these kind of guests are really important to the direction (so much money every year), so I go out of my way to find a solution: I call the owner of the plane company, the customs in St martin, even goddam boat charters to try and retrieve the luggage. No way, its in customs and won't move.

Now when she realises its not gonna happen, she throws the ultimate "rich girl that never worked a day in her life" tantrum:

"What am I even going to wear tonight, I can't even go to a restaurant blablabla" and starts crying (while still insulting me by the way).

So I pull out my magic card and give her a hotel driver with a private car to take her shopping for louboutins and a dress for that evening, all free of charge (the driver not the louboutins)

As she grabs her husband credit card and goes to the car, she does not even say a word to me, no thank you, no sorry of any kind, just as if I was the servant to the royal princess.

Now as she walks away, tired of screaming at me "you are so useless, you incompetent dumbass etc " I look at her husband still sitting on a chair with a look that says "Why on earth would you want THAT to be your wife", and I swear to god the guy looks at me and says:

"Hey, happy wife, happy life"

At that moment I thought this is it, I am going to snap at that guy and just walked away.

Hope you will enjoy this story

I have a guest this morning complained about not having power in their room for 30 minutes and they didn't call to report it.

Guest stopped by at the desk and the exact words were :

"There's no power in the room for 30 minutes! are you not going to compensate me ? and because of that "YOU" made my daughter late." (I mean how is this my fault?)

I had another guest from before. This guest has "DND" sign on their door, reason for housekeeping not to clean the room. Guest complained that the room wasn't cleaned and for some reason it ended up "my fault" as guest says "It's your fault!" (Am I the one who put the DND sign on your door?)

I asked the guest sometimes "I'm sorry did you say it was "MY FAULT?" some will catch on to it and will rephrase it or apologized after realizing their mistake.

I'm just ranting here because I find it ridiculous.

The GM of the hotel next door (we’re sister properties) called to ask us to get an explore form for one of our seasonal employees (she’s friends with the family member who needed one). I thought I did it correctly but realized I didn’t. I called the hotel they were at because I realized it had my name on it, not hers. It was an over tired moment as I forgot I was signed into my account. I called the hotel to let them know about the mistake, but I’m worried they are going to take away my explore discount and I’m having major anxiety about it. I hate getting in trouble!!!!!

So i work at the front desk at what I will call Ocean Waves Vacations

When people come in, we have them fill out paperwork followed by a check of their driver's license and a major credit card.

I was told by this Karen that "I talked with Loretta (not her actual name) and I only need to show two picture IDs and I don't need a credit card."

I then let her know in a pretty neutral tone that she needs one as a requirement of attending the tour (vacation club sales presentation). She was not having it.

After having a Department Manager and Site Manager repeat the same requirements to this woman, she demands her gifts.

She was informed she wouldn't get them,and she told us we "wasted 30 minutes of her time" and we "prejudiced against her "

No Karen, we told you that you needed a credit card and you decided to act entitled.

Bye,don't let the door hit you on the way out.

I live in a college town and we happen to be really good at sports. 🙃

Home College Football games always go something like this: Caller: “So we have a reservation with your hotel tomorrow, we were wondering about an early check in” Me: “If we have anything available, we would be happy to get you in early- What time do you think you’d be in the area” (assuming they were flying in) Caller: “So we live out of town- 2 hours away, we’re going to start driving at 8am” Me: “Ma’am, our check out time is hours after that, the likelihood will be slim” Called: “Well we’re going to the game, so if we can’t check in you’ll have to store our stuff because we’re planning on driving to the stadium and we can’t leave our stuff in the car” Me: “We might be able to do something for you…”

I just don’t understand how people are so incredibly inconvenient and then get upset with you when they can’t have everything their way.

Hi there!

So we have an akward situation right now affecting all FD collagues here in my workplace

Our system is a piece of 💩 and the reservations for our apartments are not coming into our system from OTA sites and before we found it guests shouted at us literally every day because we were fully booked when they have arrived and since their reservation did not get into the system we were not aware of their reservation only when we checked the third party site… I reported the issue to the back office, our system’s support, manager, third party sites and still the new reservations are NOT appearing in our system…

Right now I have made an excel with 50 RESERVATIONS only for november not existing in our system and I have to contact them individually to either cancell or recollact them and I am exhausted…

I have no choice but to keep up with all the new reservations from different sites but no one is helping me, if I don’t do it people will scream to my face not to the manager (he is never here) or to the back office colleagues

Please send some love😢🫶🏻

I work night audit at a hotel in a bar district.

I just watched a girl walk onto the property, fall flat on her face in the drive... Proceeded to get up, pull her skirt down (not up), sits on a park bench we have in front of the hotel, and urinated.

She then pulls her skirt up, all drunk & trying to be covert... walks over to our parking garage & calls me trying to get into the garage on foot. I denied her entry.

Now she is circling our property, stumbling about staring at maps on her phone... I think she has someone located here?

Cray yall, cray.

Just had a sweet older gentleman walk in, looking for a room. He smells like booze, but he’s being friendly. Whatever. He gets checked in, all is well. I give him directions to the room, with visual aids, and he leaves the lobby. About fifteen minutes later he comes back to the lobby in a huff. “Idk where you told me to go but I can’t find [rm#] anywhere, I’ve been to all the buildings and it’s not there. I don’t want to deal with this, I want a refund.” I crack my mouth the begin a response, maybe offering to walk him to the room, when he cuts me off and says he just wants the refund. “Yeah, I still have to refer to the map a lot, I’m still pretty new here, and the layout isn’t very intuitive. Sorry you’re having a hard time. Since it’s my first refund, I have to call the manager and make sure I’m doing it right. I would hate to fudge it up.” This is about when he realized he was being a mega butthole. Now he starts apologizing over and over. I wish he would just stop, the alcohol on his breath is making me queasy. After he left, before processing the refund, I went to check that the room was in fact still there, and that he hadn’t gone in and wrecked up the place. It was right where I left it, lol.

Then, as I’m processing the refund, I notice the name on the card he swiped, did not match his name.. wtf? I think he must have gotten a call from whoever owns the card telling him to check out right now and get a refund. Not sure. Just a guess.

Thanks for reading.

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Probably not the most dramatic story, but still thought I'd share.
So I walk in to do my shift (I work exclusively night shift) and while the Duty Manager is explaining what needs to be done, he mentions that an invoice I have is for a guy who had a couple of drinks. Apparently one of the waitresses earlier had told him that he seemed a little too drunk after one glass (the theory we all agreed on was that he already had some drinks before coming here). Fine, this happens. He hasn't caused any real issue yet so whatever.
Half 12, I'm about to start cleaning down the bar, and a guest walks in. You know when you see someone and you know on sight there's something "off" about them? I was getting major vibes of that from this guy. Couple that with the earlier warning that one of our guests had been drunk, I assumed this was the guy. So he asks for a drink.
Now I don't wanna serve him because, like I said, the vibes were off. Also, and I probably shouldn't admit to this, I don't like serving drinks. I don't like dealing with drunks at all. So I lie and tell him "Sorry the bar is closed" (for context we're allowed to serve drink all night to residents provided they behave themselves). He seems down and starts to leave before turning around and saying "Could you do me a favour? I have work tomorrow".

OK, first of all, I already told you the bar was closed. Secondly, by your own admonition you have work in the morning. So if you go in hungover and have an accident, guess which one of us is in trouble? "Well I'm sorry, but like I said the bar is closed". To my surprise he doesn't argue back and leaves. Managed to get to the cameras quick enough to seem him go back to his room, sure enough it's the guy I was warned about earlier. I also caught him sneaking outside to smoke and I'm not even kidding, at one point he does that temper-tantrum stomp kids do (if you've seen Thor: Ragnarok, it's the same sulky stomp that Hulk does at one point).
A couple hours later I slip his invoice under his door, no issue, all's fine.

Cut to breakfast time! He comes down and I'm convinced he's still drunk, Invoice in hand, he shows it to me saying "I have this invoice for £400". He didn't, I don't think the number 4 was on there at all, let along £400. So I look at it and explain to him that the £50-odd invoice was for the food and drinks order he had the night before. "But it's already been paid!". "No sir, the room has already been paid for, your food and drink order wasn't covered in that". And without another word he starts to go through to the restaurant area for breakfast. I say "OK, we'll deal with this after breakfast then". "It's been paid!"
So I explain this to the Duty Manager, he goes through and explains it to him the same way I did and suddenly it all makes sense (my guess is he was hoping it would be a different manager on so he could argue he already paid it, which he couldn't do considering it was the same manger who served him the night before).
So then! He sits down for breakfast at one of maybe 3 tables that wasn't set up for breakfast. Fine, no big deal, this happens all the time. So we move some stuff from one table to his, he orders, OK great. We go through to cook his breakfast, and in that time he must have figured out that almost every other table except for his was set up for breakfast. Like I said this happens all the time, here's the thing though. Every other time this has happened, they wait at their current table and when we come back with their food they apologize, saying they only just now noticed, we laugh it off because it's not a big deal, etc. But not this guy! He decides he wants to go to the table where we moved stuff from, but also not take that stuff back with him. So when he gets his breakfast, he doesn't have cutlery, so we have to move it all back again.
Now, because he wasn't quite done being annoying, the night before he asked that we book a taxi for him for half 8 in the morning. Easy done. Taxi arrives... and he's waiting... and waiting... and waiting... 8:45 the driver walks in and asks where the guy is. We phone his room, tell him the taxi is here, "Oh, yep, great, I'll be down in 5 minutes".
... 10 minutes later, taxi driver is getting impatient. For added context, this is usually a busy hour for taxi's around here. And by busy, I mean a good time for fares. And he's stuck here waiting for this guy. So we go up to his room, and... it turns out he doesn't need the taxi anymore. He just forgot to tell us. Thankfully the taxi driver, while understandably annoyed, wasn't annoyed with us.

So to summarize. This guy came in probably drunk, wanted more drink, pretty much tried to guilt-trip me into giving him drink after already being told no, insisted he didn't have a bill to pay until he conveniently noticed it was the same manager who served him the night before, had us move stuff from one table to another just to move it all back again, and to top it all off he had to waste some taxi driers time.

Just finish checking in a nice couple, the lady waiting behind them walks up. She smiles and asks how my day is, and says she’s looking to get a room for the night.

Awesome! Love friendly walk-ins.

She starts to tell me how she lives in a nearby town and is looking for a room with a nice view for the night. She begins to tell me how her father had just been diagnosed with cancer and begins chemo tomorrow…

“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. I can see what we have available for you.”

She pulls the sunglasses from the top of her head down on to her face as she begins to weep.

“Yeah, I just need a night to myself before I tell my kids… he’s the only father figure they ever had…”

As I’m listening to her story, ensuring her that I understand (my grandfather died of cancer when I was a kid), I apply whatever I can to drop her price. Throw on the lowest discount I can for the cheapest room with the plan of upgrading her to our best room free of charge. Why not, it’s a slow week, and I love when I have the chance to help make somebody’s day better.

Now, we’re a pricier place. Even with the absolute lowest I can do, it’s just under $200; but thats a helluva lot better than the extra $150 she’d have had to pay if she walked in a couple weeks before this.

I let her know the price and as I’m beginning to explain that I’m going to also upgrade her to…

“Almost $200? Are you fucking kidding me? I could take my kids on vacation for that much.”

Completely blindsided, I just kind of stand and stare for a second.

She raises her hand up, “yeah, you look SO busy right now. I’M BEING SARCASTIC.”

“Well, I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m not a manager and am applying everything I am able to. I was going to move you up to-“

She scoffs, “fucking ridiculous,” turns around and walks out.

Flabbergasted, to say the least.

I have been a front desk agent for about four months now, and I have gone through more trauma at this desk than I have in my entire 25 years of life. I have been physically and verbally assaulted, sexually harassed by drunk men who come in and try to get with anything that moves, and just overall treated abhorrently the entire time. I have had to call the cops on six different occasions, mostly for disgruntled guests taking everything way too far, but once was on a man who broke into our pool and started flashing a bunch of small children.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the last shift I worked was the straw that broke the camels back. I want to preface this story by saying I am not a small woman. I am six foot tall and I’m built like a linebacker. I took martial arts classes all through my childhood and I definitely know how to defend myself if need be.

Three days ago, I was just sitting at the front desk minding my own business when a frequent flyer, I’ll call him Mr. Buttface, walked in. I have personally checked him in multiple times. This hotel has a very strict no smoking policy, meaning we put anyone who leaves any evidence of smoking in their room on a do not rent list. Previously, Mr. Buttface has not had any issues with just going outside to smoke, but recent bad weather made him decide he would just stay in the room, consequently getting himself placed on said do not rent list. As soon as he walked through the doors, I knew I would have to tell him I would not be able to rent him a room.

He had always been cordial to me and the other employees at the hotel, but his whole demeanor changed as soon as I told him he would no longer be able to stay here. He immediately started yelling, calling me stupid and saying that he had no choice but to smoke in the room because of the weather. I tried to very calmly explain to him that he signed a contract when he checked in that he would not, under any circumstances, smoke inside the room. He yelled that he did no such thing. So I decided to go into our filing cabinet and pull out the physical copy of the contract he had signed. While I had my head down, he jumped over the counter (not completely, but just enough that the top half of his body was over the counter), and grabbed me by the hair. I was obviously taken off guard, but I was able to yank his hand off my hair, and my fight or flight response switched on, deciding to fight. I instinctually punched him square in the nose, causing a whole lot of blood to pour out onto the counter and the floor in front of the desk. He looked at me with shock, called me a crazy bitch, and then left.

I called the cops no longer than 30 seconds after he went out my door, and explained the whole situation. They showed up as I was cleaning the blood off the floor. They had me explain everything again, and told me that Mr. Buttface had actually called the cops on me at the same time that I called. He said Mr. Buttface claimed that I had attacked him unprovoked. I tried to tell them that that was absolutely not the case, but they assured me they fully believed me. Apparently, they had issues in the past with Mr. Buttface and we were one of the only hotels in the area that hadn’t banned him already. They took the rest of my statement, and went on their way.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I was opening the store at my second job, when I got a message from the owner of the hotel. He told me that he got a nasty review from Mr. Buttface saying that he was attacked by an angry black lady working the front desk and that I should be fired and/or arrested. I messaged back as quickly as I could explaining the situation to the owner, and sent him a copy of the police report that was made. His reply was that I should have just “deescalated the situation and it never should have gone that far.” I tried to explain that I was just trying to defend myself, but he kept repeating that it didn’t matter and it was my fault. I asked him what he would rather I done, and he said I should not have hit him back. So my boss basically told me I should’ve just let this man beat me up. I got written up, and he told me I was lucky I didn’t get fired.

I have never sent in a notice quicker. I would have quit on the spot, but I knew that my absence would very much inconvenience my amazing manager. She already works multiple 16 hour shifts a week, and if I quit with no notice, she would have to work about 56 hours straight this weekend. I messaged her and told her I could work the rest of my scheduled shifts for this weekend, but after that I am done. She had already been informed of everything that happened, so she completely understood and didn’t try to fight me on it. Tomorrow is my last day 🥳🥳🥳

The owner messaged me a few hours later asking if I had just quit, and when I said yes, he tried to backtrack and beg me to stay. I am one of five employees at this hotel, and he can’t really afford to lose any of us. I told him that I cannot and will not continue to work for a man who cares more about his image than the health and safety of his employees. He has continued to send me messages, but I have not read any of them. I am finishing off this week, and then the only time I will ever come back will be to pick up my last paycheck.

This is mostly a problem in the summer, but as we're getting toward the end of the season (two days left!), we're getting it again: people who want rooms that don't exist.

• "You're not that busy, upgrade me to the beachfront." We're not that busy overall, but the best rooms are the first to go, especially when rates are as low as they get for the year.
• "I need a room with a king connecting to a room with two queens, beachfront." Okay, well, none of our beachfront rooms connect, and none of them have two queens.
• "I need a beachfront two-bedroom suite away from the pool and the spa, next to two of the cheapest rooms you have for our nanny and my mother-in-law." Those suites are between the main pool and the spa, and the cheapest rooms are on the opposite side of the property, a golf cart ride away.
• "I need a room facing the fire pits with two queens." Those are our dozen smallest rooms, they don't have two queens, and two queens wouldn't fit. "Well, how can we make it happen?" We can't. "I don't understand what's so hard to understand. I need a room in this area, but with two queens." It's not that it's hard to understand, it's that it's hard to do, mostly because it's not physically possible. One queen barely fits in these rooms, they're cartoonishly small, they don't feel like they're even part of the same hotel, they're the second-cheapest rooms for a reason (well, a few reasons, including size and constantly smelling like the cabins at sleepaway camp).

And after each of these, I get, "But why?" and feel like David Duchovny in Zoolander.

Two more days, and then I am, to quote Jay-Z, "going somewhere nice where no mosquitos at."

Hello hello! I’ve been lurking on this sub since I started my front desk job 15 or so months ago. I could write a book on my hotel and all of its quirks, but I’ll just start with this lukewarm series of events instead. I apologize in advance for bad formatting!

I work at a large property, with a convention center. For all you convention center hotel workers, you know how it is. We have about 400 or so rooms, which are sold out frequently due to our hotel being consistently booked with conferences, meetings, expos, retreats, etc. On a daily basis most of our guests are here for one thing or another involving our convention center. Some days the entire hotel is occupied by cops, the next day furry anime fans. While it has its cons, I do like having groups in house as groups tend to be full of people are similar.

They are all there for one reason, all have the same job/ambitions/work together they tend to all behave similarly. Law enforcement varies by status and department, they can be kind and fun or stern and argumentative. Teachers are understanding and patient. Anything government is a wild card but they will all be drinkers to an astonishing level. You know what to expect with groups most of the time, and that’s a win in this industry that can be so unpredictable. That brings us to the opposite of groups, transient guests. Transient guests are what I’m assuming most hotels deal with, so the general public, any and every body. Like clockwork, when the hotel is almost sold out but it’s mostly transient guests, we know it’s gonna be some shit.

Transient guests are guests that are just here for any reason other than an event in the convention center. They are wild cards, people here for child sports games, family visits, concerts, etc. They have no reason to be on good behavior because the person that signs their checks is 10 ft away at all times like at work conventions. In fact, this is the best time to be entitled, demanding, and test how poorly they can treat their fellow man. We get the most complaints, demands, issues, and more when they’re here. Let’s get into situation #1.

“I have no responsibility for my own belongings”

I had just got in, and answered the phone to a distressed woman speaking quickly and panicked about a lost item. She says she thought her friend had the item, but they actually don’t. “Something something dead family members something bracelet it’s super important you don’t understand something something” using language to make me understand I NEED to help her. I ask her, “When was your stay?” Her: “I don’t know the exact date???” Me: “Okay….. (so this is how it’s gonna go)… what month was your stay?” Her: “Honestly I don’t know it was like over a month ago” Me: “Was it in October? Do you remember your room number?” I’m just trying to get a ballpark of where to start looking as she is calling me in a panic, but offering no helpful information, a classic move. Her: “Ma’am I’m trying to look for this right now hold on can’t you just hold on second” Me, with all empathy leaving my body: silence Her: “Okay, my stay was in September.” No other info provided. Me: “Okay, I’m going to put you on a hold and go check out lost and found.”

Our lost and found is a decent sized closet with all lost items of a certain month thrown into bags. I just rummaged through the entire closet a few days prior and was sure I didn’t see a bracelet, but I went for another dive for her anyway. I looked through august and october bags just in case. No bracelet. I come back out and tell her I had no luck finding her items and lead her to our lost and found site just in case it pops up, somehow. I’ve done this long enough to know that I was well over due to get an earful from someone who cant take accountability for their own actions, like losing your own belongings.

She starts going off about how the housekeeper probably found it and stole it and then asked me “So what are you going to do about that? What if that’s what happened here?” I told her it’s also possible they just didn’t find it and didn’t steal it, but if she felt that way she could speak with our housekeeping manager tomorrow who could find out who cleaned her room and go from there. She then says she lost it in the bed, so the housekeeper must’ve stripped the sheets and put it in the wash and the person who took it out of the dryer is the one who stole it. Realizing this woman is now jumping through hoops to create a narrative in which this is not all her fault, I had to get off the phone and now before the insults and/or slurs start coming out. It never goes well after that. I tell her, again (professionally), housekeeping manager. tomorrow. not my field. would LOVE to help but can’t. Her: “SO NOW IM JUST OUT OF $3,500??? BECAUSE YALL CANT FIND MY BRACELET FROM MY FAMILY MEMBER WHO PASSED? YALL STOLE I-“ Me: There is nothing I can do for you further, you will need to call for the housekeeping manager tomorrow -“ Her: incoherent rambles while saying she will definitely call back. I said K and hung up. All I’ll say is, you stayed over a month ago, lost something that is incredibly important to you and you’re just NOW raising hell about it and shifting the blame on to others? While yelling?

“But I’m a…. vendor 🥺”

While we do have tons of transients today, we do have a show in house. Similar to a hot tub expo if you’ve ever seen those advertised. We have this show regularly, and it attracts people from neighboring cities who want to come check it out. With this, comes vendors as well. Pretty much all vendors for this show have been here 15-20 times this year so they know the how, when, what, where, and why about the hotel and don’t cause any issues (besides accidentally stabbing themselves, story for another time).

For those who aren’t familiar with how group blocks work with conventions: When a convention is held, the group holding it can purchases rooms that will be offered to those invited/attending the con can booked at a usually discounted rate. There’s also perks of free wifi, waived parking fees, etc when booked under that rate. These rates are only available for a week or two after the group rates are released to the public/members. It is almost always closed days to weeks before the actual con starts as its first come, first serve and there’s only a certain amount of rooms available at that rate. Once it’s sold out, even if you’re booking within the dates, it’s sold out unless the group contracts more rooms and pay up. Now to the story:

This guys saunters up to me from a lobby couch and asks if we have any rooms. I ask for a moment to check for him, and he drapes himself over the germy desk and pops our halloween candy in his mouth. I tell him our rate, which is a bit high due to almost being sold out. He tells me he’s a vendor at the show and asks for a vendor rate. I tell him there isn’t one technically only a rate for the show that is no longer available. He asks again, I answer the same, again. Because they always like to ask one more time in the same way, as if I was just kidding the first time. He walks away down the conference hall.

A few hours later, I see him and 3 more men with the same ~ vibe ~ as him beelining for me. I brace myself. This time a different guy leads the conversation, he tells me he’d like a room tonight, and that he just got done being a vendor and that he heard over there that there’s a vendor rate. I’m not surprised at all that his friend ran back to him and lied. I tell him we only have our general availability rates. “But I’m a vendor! Can I get the vendor rate” I explain to him what I explained to y’all about how rates work, I also tell him there isn’t really a vendor rate/discount, that would fall under the regular show rate. He says “That wasn’t in the email they sent…. so can I get the rate?” The email they send is literally only about that. It’s the booking link + the code you use to book under the rate. The rate is still not available whether you saw that in the email or not. I’m not going to bore you with the exact dialog, but we did this exchange 3 more times, his rebuttal always being, “I vendor, I get rate?”. His friends start chiming in saying “they just wanna know if I can pull some strings, help them out you know? If you can’t, who can pull some strings for us.?” I reluctantly gaze at my supervisor, knowing she doesn’t the deserve this, but she’s the only one who can settle it.

I tell them if someone can, it’s her. I telepathically try and tell her to not budge. I help people out regularly with discounts and lowered rates, but once you’re entitled, pompous, or just straight up stupid about it, I have no desire to do it. I see them crowd around her desk and I try to listen in as I’m helping other guests. I see them leave and when they’re out of earshot I ask “You said no, right?!” Her: “Oh yeah of course I did.” They essentially went round and round with her like they did me, but she found out they already have another place booked, just really wanted to stay here instead. And that they might not actually be vendors after all 😑 a friend who was not present was a vendor and they were just there.

“I’m taking the roach with me”

My coworker and I are enjoying a free moment to chit chat, when a guest approaches holding a cup. He has a baby in a stroller with him, and says he just found a roach in his room. Now this will sound bad, and it is, but this does not shock us. We have heard this and many variations of it daily, truly countless times. We are tired of faking shock at this, then offering sympathy and an apology (which is real, I don’t want anyone finding critters in their room), but we do it anyway.

He says the room isn’t even his, it’s under his dad’s name and on his rewards account. We offer to come spray a bug repellent or change him to a new room, knowing there’s not much we can do but it’s something. He declines as it’s late but says maybe issuing points would make up for it. Ahhhh, the points. A transient guests favorite compensation lately, after the free drink tickets. Id already heard 3 other people explicitly ask for points to be issued to their rewards account, my favorite reason being because they were late to happy hour because THEY read our amenity times wrong.

In the moment we are apologetic and say yes to the points, because whatever at this point. We are still chatting with him and I look at the cup, it’s clear, and there’s a brown bug frantically running around in it. I realize he brought the live roach with him, okay. 👍. As he starts walking away, I ask him “Umm sir? Would you like me to get rid of that for you?” I point to the roach, he holds the cup closer to him and says he wants to take it with him. I’m sure my face showed what I was thinking. He follows up with “It’s not that I don’t trust y’all it’s just that I… don’t trust…. mumbles as he walks away, with his baby and his roach” My coworker and I just look at each other. Taking the live roach up back to your room was definitely a choice, sir.

During handover the next day, I find out he brought the roach back down in the cup to the desk at check out, waving it around to prove to our NA that he wasn’t lying. Yes, it was still alive…

While these are pretty tame situations that happen regularly, I thought I’d share! I’ve kinda hit burn out with this job, and I’m doing my best to hide the symptoms from the guests. I hope everyone else feeling it too is holding on 🖤.

Really a question about this trend.. Just returned from my latest resort vacation in California and during all of this years travel I used the honors app, picked room of choice, used a digital key and checked out all without ever visiting the front desk. My question is do you think they will go in this direction more and more as older non technical age out? Maybe just a phone for the third party checkins?

On the flip side of using the digital key, they are able to track every door and access. From ice machine to pool access to walking on/off property which is kind of creepy as every movement is tracked.

Lately we have had many issues regarding domestic violence situations in our guestrooms where the cops need to get involved. NYC hotel. More than the average (it used to be 1-3x a year, now it seems to be 1-3x a month). We had to place rooms out of order because furniture and TV were damaged and having to charge damage fees and blacklist guests. It is very sad that people think this is okay and we have to get authorities involved and we have to discuss it during the daily operations meeting. We have to place rooms out of order, unable to resell, and lose revenue that we need. People let's normalize therapy - I know it has been a hard 4 years for all of us but no need to bring violence into any situation.

"Of course, whenever you're ready" customer pulls out phone, a line of 4 other guests behind them "Is this a Swearaton hotel?" "No it's not, I need a IHB number" "The signal in here is terrible, what's the wifi?" "It's not letting me connect" "Oh there we go ok now where did I put that member app" "Ah there we go, my number is blah blah blah" "That didn't pull anything up, let me read it back" "Yep that's the right number, I've been a super shiny member of Charriot hotels for years" "Ma'am once again this is an IHB hotel, I can't use that number" line has now grown to 5 or 6 disgruntled impatient guests waiting to check in "Okay well I guess I'll just find it later and call you"

Why do guests seem so oblivious to the fact they aren't the only people in the world. I'd feel so embarrassed holding up a line just so I can fumble though my phone for a number that isn't even really important.

Does anyone else get random phone calls when working at the front desk, and when you answer and say your speech, they just hang up? I mean, I’m starting to notice I get at least 5x calls like this on a shift, and it’s always a different number... Also, any advice on how to go about a guest that keeps trying to hint that they’re interested in me but I don’t want to purse anything? Guest keeps asking my name every day and the time I get off (if it matters, I’m a guy and part of the lgbtq). Any advice be appreciated :)

I just got a phone call from someone who asked to speak to a manager. It's not even 6 AM yet but he had a strong accent and didn't speak french so I assumed he was not from Quebec so it's fine that he doesn't know what time it is. I just told him that the manager wasn't there yet and thought it would end there but that man sounds like he's suddenly walking through a crowd and starts trying to tell me something. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I'm pretty sure he was on speaker phone in the middle of a crowd. I told him several times, I couldn't understand or hear what he was saying until he just got mad, gave a number, which I assumed was a reservation number. I entered it in the system and before I could tell him that I can't find his reservation, he just hung up. I still have no idea what he wanted and what the number was for (and honestly I probably got the number wrong because I couldn't hear half of what he was saying.

I don't know why half the time I answer the phone it's someone on speaker phone in what sounds like a bus in the middle of rush hour...

Short but sweet…

An Uber driver had dropped someone off at my hotel earlier. Moments later, I see him wandering around the lobby looking lost. I asked him if I could help him with something, and he says he just needs the bathroom. I show him the way.

He came out, thanked me, and was almost out the door when I offered him a cup of coffee. He short circuited for a second, and then said “You’re awesome!” He grabbed his coffee and came to the desk and asked my name.

“I’m gonna make sure you get a raise! Not that you need one, you probably make more than me driving for Uber!” I laughed as he walked out.

Another moment later, he came back in and said “You’re so sweet, I just had to come back in and see you!” and he dropped $10 on my desk.

Never been tipped by an Uber driver before… and I’m super appreciative cuz I’m broke af 😅

I had a guest who's a higher tier requesting for a late check out of 4PM.

That day we are sold out as we have multiple conferences going on. This makes it obvious that we are a conference hotel and the late check out request depends on the availability.

During our turnover managers brief us that we won't be able to accommodate any late check out for any tier due to high occupancy. I explained this to the guest that upon checking the availability we won't be able to accommodate the request and offered that we can store his luggage and can still give him access to the lounge until he departs.

But this guest won't accept NO for an aswer. He Kept repeating himself that he's a high elite member like a broken sound record and won't leave. We are just going back and forth and ofcourse nothing changed. Still can't accommodate the late check out.

Got tired of explaining the same thing over and over again so I printed the rules/policy for late check out from the loyalty program website and showed it to him.

He got offended. That I had to print it out and showed it to him. "REALLY DO YOU HAVE TO PRINT THIS OUT?" I mean what else could be done ?

Nothing frustrates me more than an entitled Shiny Member that think because they used to be a Ultra Shiny Member, that they can still get a late checkout up to 4pm. Sorry but the latest you can get complimentary is 2pm, you will have to pay half a night's rate for a late checkout past 2pm, I really do not care who you are. Rules are rules and you are NOT above them. I dont know if it is the election that got people acting weird and pissy but come on, dont fucking take that out on us, we didnt do shit to you

Currently doing my internship as it’s a required part of my university course for hospitality management, and I feel very conflicted about this industry. I’ll try to keep it short but I joined the course cause I wanted a career that wasn’t boring and required me to move around and interact with people and hospitality just seemed right for me. After a few months of being a FOA i’m kinda second guessing my future career choices. My main concern is that as a FOA I would work abnormal hours, I would have to work on weekends and the salary doesn’t seem that much? I just am wondering if I should continue to be in the hotel industry or finish my diploma and switch to smth else? I know i’m still quite young and all but I do hope to have a family and be able to spend time with my friends, and working has been really limiting the amount of time i get to spend with my loved ones and the time I get to spend doing things I like. I pretty much enjoy being a FOA but just unsure whether it’s worth sacrificing so much stuff in the future. I would appreciate advice from those who somehow found a balance with family, themselves, and working in this industry.

p.s this is also my first job so maybe i’m just getting used to the reality of working :’) I also always had this thought that I would hate to have a 9-5, staring at a computer the whole day kind of office job, but seeing how I get to rest on weekends, and not have to work on public holidays i’m seriously reconsidering just looking for a job like that.