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Sometimes, I want to smack the people at corporate for making life harder (one day, I will, it will be on the news "Short Indian man is slapping people working at the hotels headquarters......more at 10")
Lady complained about cockroaches in the room. I go to check it out (and of course, the problem just happened to occur right before check out time, how convenient). I see nothing. Lady is becoming more and more irate. I ask if they were indeed cockroaches, or crickets. She keeps saying its roaches, dirty dirty roaches. It turns out, it was a cricket. The husband admitted that it was probably a cricket, wife doesn't agree. I apologize, but inform them that crickets are harmless and hard to get rid of. I live in Oklahoma, and have lived here for 10 years. Crickets are everywhere. In my apartment, hell, in my car too if I leave my door open too long. They cling to anything and anyone. I have seen customers walk in the door with a cricket or two on them. Misinformed people mistake crickets for roaches, but are cool after I explain to them about crickets (most have heard crickets chirp, but never seen one).
This lady however, didn't want to give up. Considering it was just a cricket (could have come into the room with the guests when they checked in for all I know), and they saw it right before they were ready to check out, I didn't see that they deserved anything really. But with the way the lady yelling, I thought something small would shut her up. Well I dealt with the husband for the most part, and he seemed understanding. He said that he understands that it was probably just a cricket and that its no big deal since they are leaving anyways. Since he was so nice, I gave them 15% off. He was thankful, and everything seemed good.
Of course life isn't so good. Lady called the 1-800 number and complained. Of course the complaint said that there were roaches "all over the place" and that the hotel staff claimed it was normal. Nice way to spin my words.
I was pissed because I had given them a discount to avoid a complaint, something corporate told us to do to help ensure "happy" customers and it failed on me, I gave a discount and still got the complaint. So I call corporate to get some insight on this and clear my head.
I wanted them to remove the complaint from the system since I feel I helped the guest. They told me to go ahead and write a letter of apology. I told them I didn't want to since I personally apologized, addressed the issue and also gave a discount. Complaints on our account look bad, thats why I want it removed, but they wouldn't. So I asked, "Whats my motive to help out a customer and even give them a discount if I am going to get a complaint and have to deal with the issue a second time?". There response, "Well, maybe a bigger discount is in order, or a full refund, either way, you gotta do whatever to make this customer happy.". I asked him, "What if I give a full refund, and the guest still complains, then what?". The response, "Maybe you should then give a coupon for a free night at your hotel to win back there confidence.". What in the world, when is corporate going to take the "If you are a sucky customer, we will not help you" stance? Before I hung up, I asked "Have you worked at a hotel, ever?", "No". Thats what I thought.
I guess from now on, no more discounts given from the hotel, since it won't matter when a complaint comes in anyways
Lady complained about cockroaches in the room. I go to check it out (and of course, the problem just happened to occur right before check out time, how convenient). I see nothing. Lady is becoming more and more irate. I ask if they were indeed cockroaches, or crickets. She keeps saying its roaches, dirty dirty roaches. It turns out, it was a cricket. The husband admitted that it was probably a cricket, wife doesn't agree. I apologize, but inform them that crickets are harmless and hard to get rid of. I live in Oklahoma, and have lived here for 10 years. Crickets are everywhere. In my apartment, hell, in my car too if I leave my door open too long. They cling to anything and anyone. I have seen customers walk in the door with a cricket or two on them. Misinformed people mistake crickets for roaches, but are cool after I explain to them about crickets (most have heard crickets chirp, but never seen one).
This lady however, didn't want to give up. Considering it was just a cricket (could have come into the room with the guests when they checked in for all I know), and they saw it right before they were ready to check out, I didn't see that they deserved anything really. But with the way the lady yelling, I thought something small would shut her up. Well I dealt with the husband for the most part, and he seemed understanding. He said that he understands that it was probably just a cricket and that its no big deal since they are leaving anyways. Since he was so nice, I gave them 15% off. He was thankful, and everything seemed good.
Of course life isn't so good. Lady called the 1-800 number and complained. Of course the complaint said that there were roaches "all over the place" and that the hotel staff claimed it was normal. Nice way to spin my words.
I was pissed because I had given them a discount to avoid a complaint, something corporate told us to do to help ensure "happy" customers and it failed on me, I gave a discount and still got the complaint. So I call corporate to get some insight on this and clear my head.
I wanted them to remove the complaint from the system since I feel I helped the guest. They told me to go ahead and write a letter of apology. I told them I didn't want to since I personally apologized, addressed the issue and also gave a discount. Complaints on our account look bad, thats why I want it removed, but they wouldn't. So I asked, "Whats my motive to help out a customer and even give them a discount if I am going to get a complaint and have to deal with the issue a second time?". There response, "Well, maybe a bigger discount is in order, or a full refund, either way, you gotta do whatever to make this customer happy.". I asked him, "What if I give a full refund, and the guest still complains, then what?". The response, "Maybe you should then give a coupon for a free night at your hotel to win back there confidence.". What in the world, when is corporate going to take the "If you are a sucky customer, we will not help you" stance? Before I hung up, I asked "Have you worked at a hotel, ever?", "No". Thats what I thought.
I guess from now on, no more discounts given from the hotel, since it won't matter when a complaint comes in anyways
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