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  • Some hotel guests are nuts

    I don't complain about guests often (most of the time, its small stuff that I've learned to blow off over the years) but sometimes they make me look at them funny.

    So night before last it was really cold. It doesn't happen very often, but very occasionally, it can get below zero here. Because its mostly swampland here, most houses are built above ground a few feet, and the pipes aren't real well insulated in many places, especially if the place is over 100 years old. Without extensive renovation to properly insulate the pipes very very rarely, they freeze. Usually they thaw quick when the sun comes out, but at my house (if we know it's going to be that cold), we leave the hot water on a trickle over night so we have water in the morning.

    I tell you this because this is what happened night before last. It was freezing and the pipes at my work in one building froze overnight. Now, this was unexpected and extremely rare. Like maybe once every couple years, if that.

    A couple guests came and complained to me right about the time a couple other guests (who were doctors in town for a convention) arrived at the door. I apologized and opened an off market room for the guests in that building to use as a hospitality suite so they could shower, use the toilet and brush their teeth, then I informed the owner of this problem so we can get the pipes insulated (as you know, this new owner and my husband and I have only had/worked at this place a little over two months so we're still finding problems and needing to fix them).

    The guests were fine with this and understood that its part of the risk of living here.

    The guests checking in were NOT. To quote "We have never stayed at a place like this before. It's just disgusting. I'm sure it's maybe good for a vacation, but it isn't good enough for me when I'm coming here for the convention. My agency put me here, I would have never chosen it". Now mind you, we had other doctors in house for the convention and none of them were this rude. And then there was "Can we store our stuff here? We will probably be moving to another hotel tonight".

    Well... no, you can't, but ok I'll kiss your butt to get you to say you horrible person you. "Sure, you can put your bags here in the office and I'll make sure to lock the door whenever I leave".

    I was given the most withering look you can imagine but they agreed.

    Three hours later, the same guy that said that stuff to me earlier comes back. Now he has three rooms he wants to cancel in spite of the fact that it's the day of checkin (we have a 7 day cancellation policy) and a 3 night minimum, which the agency knew when they booked it.

    "Well, you're going to just have to work with me here whether you like it or not. If you don't do what I say, I'm going to go to the city and get you sanctioned as a problem business". Never mind that this isn't possible and the city won't give a crap. I imagine he meant the Central Visitors Bureau but even they would have looked at him funny. "Its because of the issues with the hotel. This is not a good place"

    Yes, he wanted a refund in spite of the fact that the entire amount should have been charged in the morning, we hadn't done it yet.

    I asked "May I ask what issues you're talking about so I can address it with my owner?"

    "Well, you know... the water thing."

    "I understand the water was an issue but it's an incredibly rare event and it won't be a problem tonight". To which I received a snear.

    "I want my money back and I want to speak with your manager".

    "I'm sorry sir but the manager will be in tomorrow. I don't have the authority to do what you ask."

    "Then you will call your manager now and get permission".

    By this time I'm starting to get pissed, and I breathed in to say something then just decided to hell with it and called my husband at home on his day off. Needless to say, we kept one night for each room and allowed them to leave.

    They never even saw the rooms or the rest of the hotel. The only thing they saw was the front entrance and the office.
    Last edited by Moirae; 03-04-2013, 09:05 PM.

  • #2
    Much as you hate to reward SC behaviour, sometimes it's just not worth the aggravation to do anything else, if it means they'll GTFO sooner.

    Wouldn't it be really funny if their replacement hotel had its pipes freeze overnight ...

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    • #3
      It never ceases to amaze me the number of people that expect the world for very little. Apparently they thought we'd be a five star hotel. Not every hotel is like the hotels on Bourbon, and if you stay on Bourbon then you will be paying very high prices for it(over this weekend, around $1000 a night).

      For some reason, doctors that come to this particular convention are always skin flints. They expect to be treated like they're Donald Trump but want to pay less than $150 a night when they know the city will be sold out. I don't get it.

      And quite honestly, I always ask people if they have enjoyed their stay when they leave. Probably 98 or 99 % say that they had a wonderful stay (though we're having trouble getting them to go to tripadvisor and yelp to tell people that). Its not like our place is hourly or anything, it's just old. And we ARE getting to the repairs very slowly. We've just been so busy that it's been hard to get in to fix everything.

      What I would personally like to do is shut down one room at a time and replace all the flooring (the owner wants to replace the tiles in the bathrooms and is talking about replacing all wall to wall carpeting with laminate), redo/change the wallpaper/paint, and do any minor repairs that are needed (like fixing the areas where the door handles have damaged the walls). The thing is, it's the busy season and there is no way in hell that the owner will do that until probably summer or he will lose money.

      In the last two months, the hotel has made three times the amount it did last year, and that doesn't include the reservations that we couldn't claim as our own due to the contract with the previous owner (some existing reservations had already been paid for to the previous owner so can't be counted in our totals. If we could have counted all the Superbowl reservations, it would be a heck of alot more money).

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      • #4
        Quoth Moirae View Post
        For some reason, doctors that come to this particular convention are always skin flints. They expect to be treated like they're Donald Trump but want to pay less than $150 a night when they know the city will be sold out. I don't get it.
        I can very easily believe that. Locally, a lot of the doctors think very highly of themselves, 'I'm a doctor, you aren't, therefore your opinion/knowledge/experience on anything doesn't matter, because I'm a doctor.'
        When I've had to do tech work for any of the local doctors, you wouldn't believe the amount of bitching about the call out rates, that it takes time to fix the computer, that if they don't want to pay for a callout the machine has to be disconnected and brought to the shop, etc. A lot of them think that just because they are a doctor, that I should do all the work for free, and be grateful for it.

        At one point, there was a doctor who wanted me to go to his home, after work hours, and do a major reload of his home computer (rough estimate was at least six hours for OS, updates, drivers, software, etc). For free.
        This would also have been after a very busy 11 hour day, and I shouldn't even dare thinking of stopping to grab dinner. Not that he would treat me to a meal, oh no, it would delay getting started on the work. On plus side, I was on very good terms with his boss, and let slip what the doctor wanted me to do, on my own time. That doctor left the practice, and the area, shortly afterwards.

        There is only one doctor that I will do housecalls for on my own time, and that's because when I'm done the work, him, his wife, and I have a glass or two of wine and shoot the breeze for an hour or two just relaxing, trading sucky customer stories, etc. (He retired recently and they have now moved away. I miss them )

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        • #5
          The weird thing is that doctors really make alot of money compared to the rest of the world. I'm always really curious as to why they want to spend so little and be so rude about it.

          My job doesn't require making house calls, which I am very very glad of.

          Every once in a while I get the intense urge to say something, but that would be a bad idea.

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          • #6
            Woah woah woah! Let's not slag off all doctors! The reason it will seem like there are a lot of sucky ones is because the sucky ones are the ones that bring it up and rub their job in your face as though they should get special treatment. just like the ones in the OP. There will be others that are good or even just average customers but you don't know they're doctors because there's no need for them to tell you!

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            • #7
              Don't ya just love it when someone comes in from out of town and threatens to impose local law on you?

              Well, THEIR version of local law, without having read said law first, on you?

              I do.
              - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

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              • #8
                Panda, no not all the doctors. I promise.

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                • #9
                  Quoth Moirae View Post
                  The weird thing is that doctors really make alot of money compared to the rest of the world. I'm always really curious as to why they want to spend so little and be so rude about it.
                  Three words: Student Loan Debt
                  Med School ain't cheap.
                  A lot of them when they first get started truly are living pay check to pay check barely scraping by because of the huge burden of debt, and some never truly get used to what it is like to not be impossibly tight on money.
                  If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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                  • #10
                    There are a lot of generalizing and assumptions going on here regarding doctors.

                    Let's focus more on the sucky behaviour of the customer, and less on his profession.
                    Too tired of living and too tired to end it. What a conundrum.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth PandaHat View Post
                      The reason it will seem like there are a lot of sucky ones is because the sucky ones are the ones that bring it up and rub their job in your face as though they should get special treatment.
                      Just like any other group/subgroup of people, 80% are decent, 10% are wonderful and 10% suck. And it's always the sucky ones that stand out, and that we write about on these boards.
                      I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
                      My LiveJournal
                      A page we can all agree with!

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Argabarga View Post
                        Don't ya just love it when someone comes in from out of town and threatens to impose local law on you?

                        Well, THEIR version of local law, without having read said law first, on you?

                        I do.
                        O yes, it's always funny when I see SCs try to force companies to adhere to their own imaginary sets of laws. And how pissy they get when these fantasy-laws are being openly violated by the business.

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                        • #13
                          Quoth XCashier View Post
                          Just like any other group/subgroup of people, 80% are decent, 10% are wonderful and 10% suck. And it's always the sucky ones that stand out, and that we write about on these boards.

                          Exactly what I wanted to say but I wasn't eloquent enough to express!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            And it's not just one career path that breeds 'em. When I worked at the repair center, I had the "career card," played so many times that the techs knew who to put at the back of the stack for the day. I'd had doctors, politicians, news anchors and a horse breeder act as though they knew how I should do my job.. and not know the first thing, including answering the damned questions I have to ask to see that their product got repaired. I'm supposed to read their minds and give them exactly what they want, because they are oh, so important!

                            Sorry, my Smartpost order for telepathy has gone on a walkabout and is probably in China at the moment. Once I get it, however, I will read your mind and make you think that you are a monkey crossed with a chicken whose butt is on fire.
                            If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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                            • #15
                              Quoth raudf View Post
                              And it's not just one career path that breeds 'em. When I worked at the repair center, I had the "career card," played so many times that the techs knew who to put at the back of the stack for the day. I'd had doctors, politicians, news anchors and a horse breeder act as though they knew how I should do my job.. and not know the first thing, including answering the damned questions I have to ask to see that their product got repaired. I'm supposed to read their minds and give them exactly what they want, because they are oh, so important!

                              Sorry, my Smartpost order for telepathy has gone on a walkabout and is probably in China at the moment. Once I get it, however, I will read your mind and make you think that you are a monkey crossed with a chicken whose butt is on fire.
                              lol. Oh wow. That sounds like whats happened to me so many times.

                              I really get tired of people acting this way.

                              I once had someone tell me they found a roach in their room. Well... yeah, because they are absolutely everywhere. And they don't care about you, they're banana tree roaches that eat the bananas. Unfortunately they get inside sometimes like a fly.

                              Four times I repeated that until some guy freaked on me and said "They do not. I lived there for 4 years and have never had that happen to me". If you've lived here for 4 years? Oh yes, you have. They are like spiders and flies. You do your best to keep them out but once in a while they wheedle their way in.

                              And if he did live here, why did it take me saying that four times before he said he did? Answer: Because he didn't and was trying to pressure me for a refund.

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