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So I had a guest come in starting off the bat asking if we'd match [seedy motel]'s weekly rates. We'll match any major chain since we pride ourselves on being "the lowest price of any national chain", but [seedy motel] is certainly not in that category. He asks about corporate rates, and I explain that our weekly rate beats any corporate rate we would ever offer and that it's the rock bottom best rate I have.
Well, now that's out of the way. He says he has a reservation for "Room 15" tomorrow for a week and wants to see if he can check-in tonight. I tell him that "Room 205" is occupied tonight but if he already booked it then he could move in tomorrow.
Then he gives me his name. Mr. SC. And I pull up his reservation.
And I see a request for "15*". However, (1) 15 is not actually booked for him, and most damningly (2) the room type he booked is a different room type from 15. 15 has two beds, and he booked a single. (He had booked through our 1-800 reservation center, and they have no way of looking up what types of rooms specific room numbers are at our property.)
[*not actual room numbers]
This is a problem, because my doubles are booked on the weekend, so I can't switch the room type to accommodate the request. I'd have to switch someone else's double to his single, and I can't really do that.
I apologize and explain the situation as best as I can, and I offer him a single room ("14") next to the room he wanted. (He had explained during our initial conversation that he liked 15 because he could see his truck in the parking lot, and 14 offers the same vantage point.)
Well, he flips his shit. He starts screaming me and calling me a liar. I apologize again and try to offer what few alternatives I have. I tell him it was just the one night we were booked and he could have his requested room the other nights but would have to move to a single on Saturday.
He tells me to show him "in the computer" where it says 15 is booked. So I open up my availabilities screen to show him and start to turn my monitor around for him to see when he starts waving his hands and saying he doesn't want to see it and that I'm lying. He pulls out his phone and calls Corporate.
Corporate, in turn, calls me. I explain my side of things. Corporate agrees that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place and there was little else to do, and that "I don't think we're gonna get this guy to understand that". The whole time Mr. SC is in the lobby trying to scream over me saying I'm a liar.
Finally I get off the phone and Corporate Guy goes back to finish up with Mr. SC.
While he's on the phone I start checking in a guest. Mr. SC finishes his call and storms up to me in the middle of my check-in demanding my name, my GM's name, and says he's going to trash us on the Internet. I may have gotten a bit snarky at that point.
Me: "My name is bhskittykatt."
Mr. SC: "Is that spelled bhskitidkdygy?" *butchers any sort of spelling of my real name*
Me: "Sure, we'll go with that." *thinking: I'm wearing a very visible nametag you twat*
SC storms out. I laugh about it a bit with my check-in (she's a regular and we can banter about stuff like that). I also filled out an incident report with my side of the story just in case even though Corporate sounded like they were siding with me on the phone. I don't think the complaint will count against us but you can never document too much.
I was getting ready to tell Mr. SC that "perhaps since we can't accommodate your needs, [shady motel] would be better suited to your business", but he was screaming so much I never got the chance to get that in. Seriously once he got on a roll I don't think he let me finish a single sentence, and I didn't really want to rent to him anymore by the end.
I get it sucks that your request didn't get met. 90% of the time we can meet requests and the rest of the time we can usually offer a reasonable alternative (and room 14 I think would have been reasonable). Putting a request in doesn't magically guarantee that it will always be met, though. Especially when you talk to a call center on the other side of the country instead of calling us directly.
Well, now that's out of the way. He says he has a reservation for "Room 15" tomorrow for a week and wants to see if he can check-in tonight. I tell him that "Room 205" is occupied tonight but if he already booked it then he could move in tomorrow.
Then he gives me his name. Mr. SC. And I pull up his reservation.
And I see a request for "15*". However, (1) 15 is not actually booked for him, and most damningly (2) the room type he booked is a different room type from 15. 15 has two beds, and he booked a single. (He had booked through our 1-800 reservation center, and they have no way of looking up what types of rooms specific room numbers are at our property.)
[*not actual room numbers]
This is a problem, because my doubles are booked on the weekend, so I can't switch the room type to accommodate the request. I'd have to switch someone else's double to his single, and I can't really do that.
I apologize and explain the situation as best as I can, and I offer him a single room ("14") next to the room he wanted. (He had explained during our initial conversation that he liked 15 because he could see his truck in the parking lot, and 14 offers the same vantage point.)
Well, he flips his shit. He starts screaming me and calling me a liar. I apologize again and try to offer what few alternatives I have. I tell him it was just the one night we were booked and he could have his requested room the other nights but would have to move to a single on Saturday.
He tells me to show him "in the computer" where it says 15 is booked. So I open up my availabilities screen to show him and start to turn my monitor around for him to see when he starts waving his hands and saying he doesn't want to see it and that I'm lying. He pulls out his phone and calls Corporate.
Corporate, in turn, calls me. I explain my side of things. Corporate agrees that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place and there was little else to do, and that "I don't think we're gonna get this guy to understand that". The whole time Mr. SC is in the lobby trying to scream over me saying I'm a liar.
Finally I get off the phone and Corporate Guy goes back to finish up with Mr. SC.
While he's on the phone I start checking in a guest. Mr. SC finishes his call and storms up to me in the middle of my check-in demanding my name, my GM's name, and says he's going to trash us on the Internet. I may have gotten a bit snarky at that point.
Me: "My name is bhskittykatt."
Mr. SC: "Is that spelled bhskitidkdygy?" *butchers any sort of spelling of my real name*
Me: "Sure, we'll go with that." *thinking: I'm wearing a very visible nametag you twat*
SC storms out. I laugh about it a bit with my check-in (she's a regular and we can banter about stuff like that). I also filled out an incident report with my side of the story just in case even though Corporate sounded like they were siding with me on the phone. I don't think the complaint will count against us but you can never document too much.
I was getting ready to tell Mr. SC that "perhaps since we can't accommodate your needs, [shady motel] would be better suited to your business", but he was screaming so much I never got the chance to get that in. Seriously once he got on a roll I don't think he let me finish a single sentence, and I didn't really want to rent to him anymore by the end.
I get it sucks that your request didn't get met. 90% of the time we can meet requests and the rest of the time we can usually offer a reasonable alternative (and room 14 I think would have been reasonable). Putting a request in doesn't magically guarantee that it will always be met, though. Especially when you talk to a call center on the other side of the country instead of calling us directly.
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