things a hotel cannot control?

[Getoutofmylobby]

Also, if you don't call the desk to complain when it's happening not only can they do nothing about it, but you'll look suspicious when you mention it the next morning. How many crackpots do the hotel people post about who say nothing their entire stay, but when it comes time to check out, suddenly nothing was good enough and now they want everything comped?

^-.-^

This.

This happens plenty of times. Especially since the geniuses in charge of things in our chain of hotels started this "100% Guarantee" BS. Anyone with the smallest complaint and a nose for getting refunds will come by during checkout to tell us about something they found wrong with their stay. People demand refunds for everything from noisy neighbors they didn't tell us about to the broken air conditioner they didn't tell us about or the special request that we didn't honor that they didn't tell us about.

And in extreme cases if we mention that we cannot fix things we don't know about, they point to the metal plaque imbedded in the front counter emblazoned with "100% Guarantee" and raise more hell.

Do any of the hotel employees on this site LOVE their job? If you do please post and tell me why because i'm not seeing it.

[Saydrah]

As others have mentioned ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accomodations, may I make one suggestion for OP and other hotel employees?

If someone asks an odd question- "Is that room on the quiet side?" "Will the room stay cool?" they may be an SC, or just making conversation, or trying to annoy you, or a poor communicator, but whatever the case may be, do NOT tell a white lie if you don't know.

In other words, wrong:

Customer: "Is that room adequately cooled?"

Employee: (with wtf face, recalling all rooms have AC) "Uh... yes."

Later, the customer arrives in their room to find the window faces the setting sun, making it so toasty that a barely-functioning air conditioner has little effect. Unfortunately, said customer did not tell the employee she has a condition causing extreme heat intolerance and that a shift upwards of a few degrees in temperature can cause her to pass out.

This happened to a friend of mine in Japan recently- she couldn't communicate her condition to the employee between her little bit of Japanese and their little bit of English, and was passing out repeatedly all night.


Right:

Customer: "Is that a cool room?"

Employee: (wtfing, but accomodating) "Um, all our rooms have AC, but let me have someone double check that the cooling system is working in that room and it's not unusually hot at this time of day."


Sometimes really oddball requests are really important.

[BlaqueKatt]

No, you got the awful pleasure of sharing the room with a circus?

what kind of circus? A flea circus would be quiet(just itchy), but a Felini circus with killer clowns would kinda suck.........

[karath]

"Well, I never have heard the room itself make any noise, so I think it is safe to state that the room is a quiet one. Then again, it may just be a little shy."

My first time breaking rule #1:

[Evil Queen]

Normally when someone says ADA they mean they need a room that meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements (i know that's what our chain calls rooms that can be accessed by wheelchairs)

I never get asked for that. I get asked for handicapped rooms.

Honestly, I prefer a handicapped room because they tend to have much bigger bathtubs.

Do any of the hotel employees on this site LOVE their job? If you do please post and tell me why because i'm not seeing it.

I love my job. I've worked in hotels for two and a half years (three years this summer) for three different hotels; The Carolina Motel (Mom and Pop place in NC), Econo Lodge (New Mexico) and my current hotel is [name edited to protect the company and myself].

I like meeting new people at my job because I tend to travel a lot and inquire about their place of residence (say, Chicago, for example), how they pronounce their name and nationality of it ("is your name pronounced <blah>? Oh, is that German?"). I, particularly, enjoy talking to Canadians. I have one guy that has agreed to bring me Canadian money the next time he's in the city (I like the coinage and he can always use american bills to tip when he's out having business meals).

What do you not like about your job?

[Stryker One]

Maybe they wanted to make sure that the room would keep THEIR noises IN.

[RetailWorkhorse]

This happened to a friend of mine in Japan recently- she couldn't communicate her condition to the employee between her little bit of Japanese and their little bit of English, and was passing out repeatedly all night.

Question! Why did you friend go to a foreign country like Japan when she didn't speak very Japanese very well?

[thehippie777]

Oh, yes ma'm, the room was at the end of the building, farthest from the bar and traffic. And once the bar closed at 1 am the real fun started, squealing tires, shouted obscenities, sex noises from adjoining rooms, running, screaming, yelling, etc. No one slept a wink and calling the front desk did no good at all. I would have switched hotels but, there ARE no other hotels there in rural Georgia... What do you do in a situation like that without coming off as a SC?

Well, our hotel is an upper class hotel. I kick out anyone who tries to make a peep, and that of course makes the noise-makers very angry but oh well. Wed have an Irish-themed pub next door. They are completely unassociated we us. They do what they want. I have had to call over there to inquire about loud music for our guests, but in all honesty they don't have to do anything since they are also privately owned. Mostly, however, they are respectful if I call over there.

Also, if you don't call the desk to complain when it's happening not only can they do nothing about it, but you'll look suspicious when you mention it the next morning. How many crackpots do the hotel people post about who say nothing their entire stay, but when it comes time to check out, suddenly nothing was good enough and now they want everything comped?

^-.-^

That is always wise. But, also on that note, realize those people are disrespectful & they lie to the front desk. That is why I no longer put up with any noise past a second warning. none.

Do any of the hotel employees on this site LOVE their job? If you do please post and tell me why because i'm not seeing it.

I also love where I work, and most of our guests are members of the frequent stayers club and honestly...they are the easiest to deal with for the most part.

[Pagan]

I feel sorry for all of you people who can't sleep around traffic.

I'm a city girl, so traffic to me is no more distracting than a fan; it's just white noise.

Our house in Las Cruces is about 1/2 mile from I-10 and the railroad tracks. We moved in when I was not quite 3 in 1971, so after awhile, it all just got tuned out. Even when the lettuce crop has come in and there's trains, I swear, every 5 minutes. What will get us sometimes are the ones that blow the whistle reall-l-l-ly long in the middle of the night. Of course, if the air is moving the right direction, it sounds like they're going through the back yard! The only reason we started noticing the trains again was our second dog would howl at the whistles. Sounded like the Hound of the Baskervilles sometimes!

[Pheonixfyre]

Question! Why did you friend go to a foreign country like Japan when she didn't speak very Japanese very well?

Probably because of her job. She might not have had enough time to become acquainted with the language before she had to go to Japan. And Japanese is well known for being one of the harder languages to learn.

[ebonyknight]

Probably because of her job. She might not have had enough time to become acquainted with the language before she had to go to Japan. And Japanese is well known for being one of the harder languages to learn.

Not true.

It is one of the easiest spoken languages to learn. Perhaps written language is what you are referring to. Japanese is a very general language and doesn't have all the nuances that other spoken languages do. For example, where we have to add words and tenses to our language to indicate a question. In Japanese all you have to do is add "en". Warikarimasu (I understand), to Wakarimasen (Do you understand?)

Now German is a hard spoken language to learn, especially since the sentence structure is weird where the verb is usually at the end of the sentence (IIRC). And you have gender and neutral based modifiers (DAS, Die and Der all mean "The").

Sorry to ramble....

[Yfandes]

Jobs can land you in many places where you don't know the language. I just got out of a last-minute trip to Kuala Lumpur.

I just realized that I may be the idea hotel guest. I usually show up after a couple of weeks on a ship (which are incredibly noisy). You can put me between the elevator and the ice maker with a window overlooking the train tracks and disco and I am perfectly happy

Just please make sure I have the promised broadband and hot water.

[auntiem]

what kind of circus? A flea circus would be quiet(just itchy), but a Felini circus with killer clowns would kinda suck.........

Dang it - I just got the nightmares to stop!

I actually have people ask the weirdest questions about their room - that they are booking on a package - months ahead of time. I have to explain the whole name list three days beforehand thing. And why to people who when you say "I can put that in the room request" hear "I quarantee it is a done deal"?

[Saydrah]

There's also no better way to learn a language than immersion. What takes months to learn through classes or Rosetta Stone etc., takes a couple weeks if you actually go live in the culture. 10 days in Paris had me thinking and dreaming in French by day 5, and speaking fairly fluently by the end of the trip. Prior knowledge of French was one class and a bunch of TinTin comics!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have a very effective way of dealing with noises in hotel rooms, including my wife's snoring. Earplugs. I never travel without them. They also come in handy at home when I want to sleep in, and neighbors are mowing their yards, or the birds nesting in the eaves are chipping, chirpping, chirpping...arrRRGH!!!.