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  • Motel PSA

    It's been one thing after another lately but let me offer a few tips so you don't annoy the staff at your next accommodation.

    1) If you need to make an adjustment to a booking you made online, make it through the channel you booked through and do not call the place you're staying at. Many reasons why. If you want to add nights we have to offer the standard rate and not the discounted one you see online. Applies for shortening nights as well, we need to receive the request to change the stay, especially if it's prepaid.

    Also if you need to change the date, do it on the site. If you prepay your stay and call us directly to change the date ahead of the original, we will charge the agent on the day you were supposed to check out. If you change your mind afterwards, you will not get a refund unless you dispute it with the agent. So always go through the site.

    2) Make sure you are the only person managing a booking. Do not give someone else access to your account to change the booking. It leads to confusion if you do not communicate with the person you are making the reservation for or if it's someone else's booking.

    3) I get that our place is weird for having a reception that closes in the evening, but still all the information about our place is online so you should know about the operating hours. As a result, please give us a heads up if you are running late so we can prepare a late check in for you.

    This is especially annoying for certain channels that don't leave the guest's phone number on the booking note because of 'privacy' issues and don't even allow online messaging through the channel portals. It's even worse with foreign numbers as it essentially leaves us dead in the water.

    4) If you are traveling, please bring a credit or debit card for security. EFTPOS cards can't be used for security as they're essentially cash cards. Temporary cards, like travel cards or ones you can buy at post offices are not allowed either. If you don't have a card, at the very least bring some cash so we can use it as a security deposit. This is especially worse with elderly guests as they don't carry credit cards (wish I knew why pardon me). Had to bend over the other day for this girl with only a travel card since it was the only card she had and it was already a long night.

    5) Minor annoyance but if you leave early please put the key in the after hours box outside reception. Creates less of a headache for us to go key hunting on busy days.

  • #2
    Credit and debit cards are fairly new - IIRC Diners Club was the first [please correct me if I am wrong] before that you either carried cash and securities or letters of credit that basically allowed a person or business to draw on money from a local business or person [the original banking was actually the Knights Templar, Knights Maltaise and the Catholic Church. The major deal was taking the 'moneylending' and letters of credit role away from the Jewish community. Though House of Rothschild has been a bank since it was a family that used letters of credit between family members to shift monies from one city and country to another, Joe had gotten 10 000 ducats from Manfried, gave Manfried a letter saying he had given Joe the gold so Manfried turns up at Stefan's house, hands over the letter and gets a bag of gold.]

    Men were always able to bank, women were the chattel possession of their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons ... my mom did not *ever* have credit in her own name, even after my Dad passed almost 15 years ago, the bank accounts were dad's with her as an accepted signer, then the estate was in my brother's care until he passed [which I personally found hysterical because my Dad named me the head of the family trust in his will ... ]

    So, unless you were rich, and had a good line of credit with your bank, you did not really get a credit card originally because they used to work on the system that American Express worked, you got billed every month and were expected to pay the entire balance, the carried balance is derivative of the old revolving charge account that was based on your personal relationship with a store and then later with a bank.

    Hold up hands, who here remembers when the debit cards first came in? I remember there were no actual ATMs, they ran a credit card slip at the customer service desk of a grocery and then they handed the money over =)
    EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

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    • #3
      *holds hand up*
      “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
      One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
      The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

      Comment


      • #4
        Back in the early 1990s a friend told me that no wife of his would have her own checkbook and credit cards. I told him to wake up and join the 20th century.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hold up hands, who here remembers when the debit cards first came in? I remember there were no actual ATMs, they ran a credit card slip at the customer service desk of a grocery and then they handed the money over =)
          In my case, they were printing the transactions in my bankbook. Remember bankbooks?

          Comment


          • #6
            I had an atm card back, I think, by the late-ish '70's. It morphed into a debit card I could use somewhere besides the atm within 10 years, as best I recall.

            Comment


            • #7
              I vaguely remember when credit card -- sans images of their owners -- were accepted as valid ID in some places. I guess they figured, if you managed to score a card, you must be an honest/rich person.
              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth Sparklyturtle View Post
                Back in the early 1990s a friend told me that no wife of his would have her own checkbook and credit cards. I told him to wake up and join the 20th century.
                Actually, it was at least the 60s or 70s before most banks would let a woman have an account without their husband's permission.

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                • #9
                  I worked with a guy who got married. The names on their checks were Mr David Michael So-and-So and Mrs David Michael So-and-So. When I asked him why her NAME wasn't on the checks he got huffy and offended...

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                  • #10
                    Minflick - There was a time when it was typical for mail to be addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Man'sName" -- I can only hypothesize that some folks (such as your guy above) take that to a [Fratchworthy] extreme.
                    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
                      In my case, they were printing the transactions in my bankbook. Remember bankbooks?
                      I still have a couple old ones I hung on to!
                      There's no such thing as a stupid question... just stupid people.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth EricKei View Post
                        Minflick - There was a time when it was typical for mail to be addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Man'sName" ....
                        Evidently one term for that is "male-identified". Used as an insult in the feminist community, as I found out when my GF's roommate was mad at her.
                        “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
                        One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
                        The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
                          Hold up hands, who here remembers when the debit cards first came in? I remember there were no actual ATMs, they ran a credit card slip at the customer service desk of a grocery and then they handed the money over =)
                          I remember back in the 1960's everything was on paper in triplicate with carbon paper. parents had a Sears CC and all of the registers were eletro-mechanical no internet or network and I believe all of the transactions had to be entered and "uploaded" by hand every day. NO instant access to anything.

                          Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
                          In my case, they were printing the transactions in my bankbook. Remember bankbooks?
                          yes I do remember the printed passbook. that stayed around til the early 1980's when networks got better and faster. Then remote ATMs became a thing
                          I'm lost without a paddle and headed up SH*T creek.
                          -- Life Sucks Then You Die.


                          "I'll believe corp. are people when Texas executes one."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            My Grandmother was widowed around 1950. Between that time and her death 48 years later, she had a checking account. As far back as I can remember, my mother had a her own checking account, but she also had a job.

                            Many of Grammie's generation or the next didn't have credit cards though. They saved up and paid for things rather than use credit. Buying something 'on time' was restricted to once in a lifetime purchases, like a house. Remember Christmas Clubs and lay-away? I don't think my parents (father born in 1919, mother in 1929) ever took out a loan for a car.

                            I also remember the devices that imprinted the credit card info on the three-piece receipt with carbon paper in between. We were instructed to make sure the customer SAW us tear up the carbons, so no one would accuse our personnel of holding onto the number and using it later.
                            Last edited by workerbee222; 12-08-2019, 01:33 PM.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Quoth EricKei View Post
                              Minflick - There was a time when it was typical for mail to be addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Man'sName" -- I can only hypothesize that some folks (such as your guy above) take that to a [Fratchworthy] extreme.
                              Yeah, I know. But even my grandmother, born in 1901, had her own name on the checks. Grandpa's name was top line. Grandma's name was second line. And I never thought of my grandparents are particularly forward thinking, you know? They were plenty conservative about a lot of things, but her name was on the money. Mom was single, so dad's name wasn't on checks by the time I knew what a check was. So to see somebody my age be so retro really threw me for a loop! I felt like her identity wasn't important to him or it wouldn't have been like that. That she was more My Wife than Actual Woman's Name, who is my wife. They were newly married, so in one fell swoop, her name vanished, at least on the check book. That really struck me, and offended me, so deeply I nearly couldn't put it into words. It was just WRONG!

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