And so it begins... Mardi Gras suckage

[Moirae]

More Mardi Gras Suckage...

So one of my employees decided she would leave before the other today. When I asked about work that needed to be done while she was clocking out, she ignored me. So I asked again. She said she wanted to leave before the parades and told me that she worked alone this morning before anyone else got there (so what, though I didn't actually say that). I told her we had to work together and that this was a very stressful weekend. She turned around and walked out without a word.

[wolfie]

So one of my employees decided she would leave before the other today. When I asked about work that needed to be done while she was clocking out, she ignored me. <Mr. Snippy was here> She turned around and walked out without a word.

Is this one of the housekeepers from your other thread? If so, I would have been tempted to tell her "Your shift is not over, and there is work to be done. If you leave now, I will assume that you are quitting without notice."

[Moirae]

Yep, it is. And I would have loved to, but we are in the middle of Mardi Gras and need her. However, Mardi Gras last day is Tuesday. After that...

I'm tired of this employees attitude. Her fourth day with us, she blew up at me for telling her to clean a door in front of another housekeeper and a maintenance man. This time she did this in front of one of my agents.

[Moirae]

Oh, I almost forgot... hooker bitch came back apparently and was propositioning one of our guests (reported after the fact by the guest). My agents have instructions, if the bitch shows up again, they are to call the police.

[Seshat]

I'm tired of this employees attitude. Her fourth day with us, she blew up at me for telling her to clean a door

... She's a cleaner. Her job is to clean. What the hell is wrong with her?

I can see refusing to clean a biohazard or other hazardous waste without the appropriate gear. But 'this door is dirty, please clean it' ... is her JOB!

[Moirae]

That's what I thought. Man, she has a huge chip on her shoulder. Not to mention, we pay higher than most of the high end hotels in the city, so what the hell...

[Aethian]

What's sad is if I wasn't trying to get a guy to Michigan I would have the perfect worker for you.

[Moirae]

Next bit of Mardi Gras suckage... had to kick a room out today for smoking pot in the room. They didn't think they should be charged and denied it. I even had one tell me "You know, a room can smell like pot without anyone having smoked it". I looked right at him and said "No it can't". It was verified by more than one person and you agreed to it when you checked in. The entire stay is non-refundable and you knew you'd be charged $300 if you smoked in the room.

So umm, yeah. Nope. Bye bye pothead. No tolerance.

[siskaren]

I even had one tell me "You know, a room can smell like pot without anyone having smoked it". I looked right at him and said "No it can't".

Actually, I think it can. I've occasionally smelled it in my apartment, and I don't smoke it and I live alone. I think it's coming from the apartment directly below mine, and in fact, when I noticed a faint scent of it last night, I went downstairs (not to confront, just to see if I could smell it outside the door) and the hallway reeked of it. I will concede though that I doubt that the smell in another room could be strong enough for someone to think that the smoking had taken place in that room.

[Moirae]

Yeah, but we checked the rooms around them. It was the only room with the smell. I've been doing this a very long time.

[Moirae]

And so it ends, the last day of Mardi Gras. But it couldn't end easily...

There was a family that came in last night. They were kind of rude to my night clerk but people sometimes do that, especially with how busy it is, the alcohol, and this year the insane level of cold that was Mardi Gras day that meant that not all of our heaters could keep up.

Today they came and dropped off their keys, but for some reason put their stuff outside the room and expected to continue sitting there and using the room as though they were still checked in. Then the man got angry when my housekeeper wouldn't let him in to use the bathroom after she cleaned the room. Why would she do that exactly? He was officially checked out. There's no way in hell. So he started swearing at her and calling her a bitch.

They talked to my husband about how to bring their car around. The thing is... where we are, that's a very difficult proposition on Mardi Gras day. Most of the roads are blocked off nearby and they changed some things this year so we honestly don't know which streets were blocked and which ones weren't. If you want to be on the main Mardi Gras route, there are two things you will need to accept... that parking/driving is a bitch, and that it will be loud as hell (we do NOT recommend bringing pets in during this time. The noise and level of people is very frightening to most pets).

They couldn't get to the hotel with their vehicle for about an hour and a half and the woman came in while I was in the bathroom. And she laid right into my clerk, yelling at the top of her lungs while my agent was trying very hard to talk and be polite. The woman wouldn't let my agent finish a word. I swear I heard her threaten to hit my agent because she told her that she didn't have a bathroom for her to use (our bathroom went down last night and we came in to a massive water spill in the morning. Looks like a pipe burst in the wall behind the toilet).

I burst out of the bathroom and confronted her right off. I outright pointed my finger in my face and said "Ok, that's it. This stops now. You do not speak to my staff that way. Do you understand? You do NOT speak to my staff like that."

She actually whimpered and said "Ok then. But I really need to use the bathroom. We've been driving around for an hour and a half and can't get back in to the room, and couldn't get our stuff. I just really need to go".

So I told her that I'd take her to a dirty room and let her use the bathroom. She left quietly after that.

Ok so here's the thing... I don't care what has been happening, or how upset you are, the moment you threaten my staff is the moment I get pissed. I don't want to make peoples lives hard but we can't help it that the bathroom sprung a leak, and we couldn't use it either. But no one, and I do mean NO ONE threatens my staff. I can and will call the police and I will do what it takes to protect my staff. I may have the occasional problem with my staff myself but they are MY staff, and NO ONE gets to abuse them, not even me.

I'm fully expecting a bad review on tripadvisor or something. Frankly, I don't care. It's just a damned party.

Anyway, so tired and worn out, and SOOOO happy that Mardi Gras is over.

On the plus side... I caught the following set of beads at Zulu.

[earl colby pottinger]

Reading reviews

And gee, now come the negative reviews. Never mind that around 100 guests stayed with us last weekend, the only ones that bothered to post anything about their stay are the few that had any kind of issue. The others told us about how absolutely wonderful their stay was and how they would definitely come here again.

It takes care to write a good negative review. My friend and I when planning a trip always like reading the reviews in TripAdvisor to help us decide where to go.

Self-service bad/good reviews usual stick out like a sore thumb, if you have 100 reviews with +5 score then you know the three +1 scores are junk. Also any reviews that mention things that NO-ONE would miss yet there is no mention of in any of the other reviews are questionable.

Best one was a cruise I went on where a previous reviewer claimed he could not find the thermostat to adjust the air conditioning, I arrived to the room - laid down in the bed, and there it was in-front of on the ceiling was the control and main vent - he never looked, just assumed.