Poaching

[KhirasHY]

This one just made me chuckle a little...we handle a lot of walks from one of our neighboring hotels, mainly because while we tend to pre-walk (ie, offer people a free night and some member points to walk early in the day, while everyone has rooms), they do the normal hotel thing where they walk the last people to arrive. There are several problems with this technique (which I've railed about to various hotel managers at several chains while working there in the past), the worst of which is simple: anyone arriving at 1am is already tired, and probably frustrated by delays in their trip. And you're now telling them you sold their room, and they have to go somewhere else.

Note the difference in approaches: we tell someone "free room and bonus points!" and they tell them "We're sorry, we oversold and need to send you to Khiras' hotel." People are often upset when they get to me, but I'm good at shmoozing and making them at least happy with me...which makes me look good

Anyway, taking to the night manager at the neighboring hotel, he mentioned that they have an open night position if I was interested...I don't think he knows what a terrible person I am. Nice to know I'm apparently making an impact though. Don't think I'll take them up on it (I even applied there once and never got a callback before I got this job), but it's nice to know you're wanted.

[Gilhelmi]

Wow. I know you can not tell me, so I ask rhetorically. What hotel do you work for that gives "free nights and points" if they are overbooked?

I mean, that is really good customer service, I would like to stay at that hotel chain. Personally, I have never been in that situation, where the hotel was full and I did not have a room. But, Wow, that is really good service. I am really impressed.

[Geek King]

(I even applied there once and never got a callback before I got this job)

I wouldn't get too hung up on that, unless you actually got an interview and they didn't call you. So many places hiring these days get swamped with applications, they would have to hire two people to do nothing but make calls for a month if they called for every application.

Irritating? Sure. But it just isn't practical in some businesses.

[KhirasHY]

Wow. I know you can not tell me, so I ask rhetorically. What hotel do you work for that gives "free nights and points" if they are overbooked?

I mean, that is really good customer service, I would like to stay at that hotel chain. Personally, I have never been in that situation, where the hotel was full and I did not have a room. But, Wow, that is really good service. I am really impressed.

Well, usually not free nights as a plural, but any place that walks you pays for that night, so that's normal. They add a few member points on top as an incentive to get people pre-walked, and while we've ended up with an empty room a time or two, we never have someone pissed off at us at 1am.