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Dining woes
So with last night being Valentine's, our dining booked up quick. We tried to contact all the guests staying with us to persuade them to make dining reservations. Our special banquet filled up, our on-site restaurant was VERY close to capacity, and our off-site restaurant was fully committed.
Unfortunately, a certain 3rd party site is not very good about forwarding us guest info. We get the guest name and the room info/payment, and that is it. No phone number, email address, or physical address. We have no way to contact these guests, so we just have to hope they're smart enough to book their dining options ahead. (Yeah, right!)
A woman and her son come to check in around 4pm. They are very nice. I hand the woman a rose as I check her in as we were giving them out and she's flattered.
She asks about dining. The restaurant has a few tables at 4:45 and 5pm and nothing else until 9:30pm. They just ate so the earlier times won't work and the 9:30pm is too late. I suggest the in-room dining option and the woman seems fine with that.
Then the father comes in. We shall call him Sucky Dad.
Woman: "So they have in room dining tonight."
Sucky Dad: "What about the restaurant?"
Me: "They have a 4:45 and a 5pm, and they have a 9:30."
SD: "So there's no food?"
Me: "We do have in room dining tonight."
SD: "So you don't take care of your guests?"
Woman: "Oh, stop it!"
Me: "Unfortunately it is Valentine's Day evening so they are very busy, but we do have in room dining if those times don't suit you."
SD: "So you don't take care of your guests. You know, guests should have priority here."
Me: *didn't want to mention that we would have called them but didn't have their number* "We do everything we can to give guests priority. We are just very, very busy tonight."
SD: "Don't lie to me."
Woman: "Stop it!" *turning to me* "The in-room dining will be fine."
The woman managed to drag her husband off, with son following, and that was the last I heard of them for the evening.
If you give one person a freebie...
We are doing renovations. Some people who booked rooms a while ago had their reservations bumped because of this. They were bumped to upgrades.
One person was part of a small group that checked in Thursday night and they got bumped to waterview. Of course, we're not charging them for this, since we're the ones that oversold our non-waterview.
Their friends threw a fit. Why should this person get to pay X rate and get waterview when they're paying X rate and not getting waterview? They should get a discount! Supervisor explained to them that they were getting the proper rate and that it was the waterview room that was really at the discounted rate.
Unfortunately Friday morning it seems management caved and gave the complainers gift cards.
At least they didn't do a straight refund; with a gift card they have to spend it with us so we'll still come out with a profit when you consider how things get marked up (pretty sure that's what the bosses were thinking).
So with last night being Valentine's, our dining booked up quick. We tried to contact all the guests staying with us to persuade them to make dining reservations. Our special banquet filled up, our on-site restaurant was VERY close to capacity, and our off-site restaurant was fully committed.
Unfortunately, a certain 3rd party site is not very good about forwarding us guest info. We get the guest name and the room info/payment, and that is it. No phone number, email address, or physical address. We have no way to contact these guests, so we just have to hope they're smart enough to book their dining options ahead. (Yeah, right!)
A woman and her son come to check in around 4pm. They are very nice. I hand the woman a rose as I check her in as we were giving them out and she's flattered.
She asks about dining. The restaurant has a few tables at 4:45 and 5pm and nothing else until 9:30pm. They just ate so the earlier times won't work and the 9:30pm is too late. I suggest the in-room dining option and the woman seems fine with that.Then the father comes in. We shall call him Sucky Dad.
Woman: "So they have in room dining tonight."
Sucky Dad: "What about the restaurant?"
Me: "They have a 4:45 and a 5pm, and they have a 9:30."
SD: "So there's no food?"
Me: "We do have in room dining tonight."
SD: "So you don't take care of your guests?"
Woman: "Oh, stop it!"
Me: "Unfortunately it is Valentine's Day evening so they are very busy, but we do have in room dining if those times don't suit you."
SD: "So you don't take care of your guests. You know, guests should have priority here."
Me: *didn't want to mention that we would have called them but didn't have their number* "We do everything we can to give guests priority. We are just very, very busy tonight."
SD: "Don't lie to me."
Woman: "Stop it!" *turning to me* "The in-room dining will be fine."
The woman managed to drag her husband off, with son following, and that was the last I heard of them for the evening.
If you give one person a freebie...
We are doing renovations. Some people who booked rooms a while ago had their reservations bumped because of this. They were bumped to upgrades.
One person was part of a small group that checked in Thursday night and they got bumped to waterview. Of course, we're not charging them for this, since we're the ones that oversold our non-waterview.
Their friends threw a fit. Why should this person get to pay X rate and get waterview when they're paying X rate and not getting waterview? They should get a discount! Supervisor explained to them that they were getting the proper rate and that it was the waterview room that was really at the discounted rate.
Unfortunately Friday morning it seems management caved and gave the complainers gift cards.
At least they didn't do a straight refund; with a gift card they have to spend it with us so we'll still come out with a profit when you consider how things get marked up (pretty sure that's what the bosses were thinking).
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