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  • You can want in one hand and crap in the other...

    So I am in the midst of dealing with a couple guests from hell.

    They want to stay for a week, and they reserved a basic smoking room. We had one left upstairs to assign them.

    Quick BG: my motel is the absolute bare-basics, cheapest chain. We don't even give you a bottle of shampoo, that is how cheap we are. We don't have a lot of extra amenities. If you need a clean bed and a warm shower for the night at a low cost, that's what we provide. No breakfast, no jacuzzi suites, no pay-per-view porn. Just cheap and simple.

    When they came in, they overheard me asking the guest I was checking in if he wanted WiFi (we charge extra for it), and they began to flip immediately.

    Apparently they were promised free Wifi ("Your website says you have it!" No, it doesn't.), a downstairs room and a kitchenette.

    A few problems: there were absolutely no requests for a downstairs room, and we don't have kitchenettes. We have a very limited number of rooms with fridges and microwaves, but these were all taken, and of course there had been no requests entered for such a room. All I could do was see if I could move a fridge/microwave to the room if one opened up later. (If they had let me get more than a few words in edgewise, I would have also been willing to waive the WiFi charges, but they were teaming up on me and I was barely able to explain anything at all.)

    I had to deal with the girlfriend screaming at me while the guy tried to pull up the reservation on his phone because "they promised us downstairs and a kitchenette!" (As an aside, he either never successfully pulled it up, or he did and realized he was wrong, because he never tried to wave the reservation in front of me and just said "I know it's here; I'm looking it up; I know this is what we reserved".)

    Eventually, they decided to take the room anyway. I asked if they wanted it just for a night or for a full week. They went ahead and took the full week.

    I had to run outside to get another guest pillows, and the girlfriend accosted me in the store room.

    SCG: "There's no bathtub in the room!"
    Me: "None of our rooms have bathtubs, just the stand-in showers."
    SCG: "I can't believe this! I told the person on the phone that he couldn't be standing and they said no problem. He just got out of surgery and needs to stay off his feet. You know, you aren't being very helpful. You work in hospitality and you're suppose to help us!"
    Me: "Ma'am, if I had a room with a bathtub, or a kitchenette, or something downstairs, I would gladly give it to you. I can't give you something I don't have."
    SCG: "Do you know who does? I want a refund and we're leaving!"
    Me: "You can check around. I don't know the specific amenities of all the places up the street, but..."

    SCG stormed off. I was going to suggest a few of the more likely candidates that would better suit them, but whatever.

    They haven't checked out. They want to talk to Boss Lady in the morning. I can't be sure, but something tells me Boss Lady is no more capable of pulling kitchenettes and bathtubs out of her ass than I am.

    ETA: The girlfriend finally calmed down enough and asked about WiFi, and I gave her some WiFi codes for the night, re-apologized, and re-iterated when Boss Lady will be in the office in the morning. She also apologized for chewing me out so badly.
    Last edited by bhskittykatt; 03-07-2013, 01:55 AM.
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

  • #2
    At least the girl had enough brains in her head to apologize in the end! Most customers will rather die than ever admit that they were in the wrong with their behavior.

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    • #3
      Ya know, our water tank blew out on Friday morning. Rob started replacing it saturday morning, but the 6 INCHES of water in the crawlspace under the house took pumping out overnight so we ended up in a hotel saturday night [sorry, I am physically incapable of peeing outside in a foot of snow any more. I need a toilet, and hopefully a hot shower *inside*] and I didn't whinge because they didn't have a handicapped room available - and I forgot the damned shower seat. That was *my* fault. I didn't complain when I had to have Rob take a shower with me to hold me upright while I took a shower ... if you have a problem that needs something like a shower seat, or some other sort of aid, it is really up to yourself to see that you bring it, or call ahead and ask if something is available ... [hell, I was happy to have a working toilet!]
      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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      • #4
        AccountingDrone, you and I have that amazing thing called "common sense".

        Most of the world was over at the "entitlement" queue when "common sense" was being handed out.
        Seshat's self-help guide:
        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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        • #5
          I think this pic might help explain some customers:
          Attached Files

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          • #6
            Quoth Mriswith View Post
            I think this pic might help explain some customers:
            I remember that pic. I used to have that comment on common sense = superpower as my signature on the board here.
            PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

            There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

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            • #7
              Question: Why does your hotel charge for the WiFi? Considering that the ISP's feed costs a monthly fee regardless of how many people are using it...charging for the WiFi makes little sense as anyone who is not willing to pay for the service is therefore not contributing to the cost of the internet feed.

              Wouldn't it make more sense to do as so many other hotels do and raise up the room price a buck or two per night to cover the cost of the feed?
              I never lost my faith in humanity. Can't lose what you never had right?

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              • #8
                i was disappointed when i rented a hotel room in HI that didn't have a bath tub... until I found out that the rooms with tubs were much more expensive. That's what you get when you get hotels down by Waikiki.

                want a tub? go someplace farther away from the beach.

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                • #9
                  Quoth Mongo Skruddgemire View Post
                  Question: Why does your hotel charge for the WiFi?
                  For the same reason that car manufacturers charge for luxury add-ons like Air Conditioning ^_^

                  Put simply, "Because They Can." In other words, it's standard industry practice. Not all hotels do it, but many do. I would *guess* that the pricier hotels are more likely to have "free wi-fi" (read: it's already included in the inflated price). You're paying for it either way.

                  It's in demand, those who want it will pay for it -- although, those who do not will be mad if they ARE charged for it, even if it's a small amount.
                  "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

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                  • #10
                    and even the ones with free wifi often have a "paid" wifi available as well - one that's faster than the free version.

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                    • #11
                      Our chain has talked about including WiFi in the price. Even with the added WiFi charge, we're still cheaper than many other places that have "free" WiFi.

                      I would prefer it if we just rolled it all in with the room rate. So many people expect it to be free nowadays.

                      Of course, many people who regularly travel just use their phones these days.
                      Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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                      • #12
                        Stayed at a hotel recently. Cheap place. Close to the event I was going to. The toilet stopped up and water got on the floor before we could get the blasted thing to stop. Used towels to clean up the water. Called the desk, and the girl sounded confused as to what to do until I asked if she had a plunger. She did, and I ran down to get it, then we worked on the thing for 20 minutes, and it did not work, still kept wanting to try to overflow. Finally, went down to the desk and let the girl know that we were sorry, but we had not been able to fix it. She told us they don't have anyone available to look at it until Monday and there were no rooms available to move us too. We shrugged, let her know we'd use the public bathrooms in the meanwhile and try to plunge it again later (which actually worked).

                        Annoying, yes, especially since we hadn't done anything that would cause us to expect the toilet to start overflowing. But it wasn't the poor girl's fault, and it was a cheap hotel. I felt bad that I forgot to tip housekeeping for cleaning up the mass of towels we'd left in the bathroom after cleaning up the water.

                        Place did have free wi-fi. No code even, just all-around free.

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