Drunken Operator Error... not my fault.

[Skarredmind]

Hi Drunk guy!

I know, you're mad that your hotel room keys aren't working.

No I am sure that the keys are fine...

How do I know that? Well, your room is on the first floor, but every time you come to see me, you get off the elevator.

How about this, I'll just show you where your room is.

See? The keys are fine.

No your drunken stupidity isn't my fault. Oh, you're gonna call the property's owner on me for messing with your room keys... Thanks for that. Glad I helped you to your room...

[Jester]

Years ago, bartending at the hotel....

ME: "And did you want to pay cash, credit card, or charge this to your room?"
HER: "My room, please."
ME: "And what room is that?"
HER: "804."
ME: "That would be impossible, ma'am."
HER: "Why is that?"
ME: "This hotel only has seven floors."

[I am the Lizard Queen!!]

To both!!!!!!!
I get a lot of "room charges" too, with extremely fictional numbers. Nice try asshole!

[Desk clerk knows all]

One night I had a guy, interrupt the guest I was checking in and angrily threw his keys at me and yelled that they didn't work. The fun part was they weren't our keys he was at the wrong hotel. Of course he didn't apologize for being such a dick, he just grab his keys and stomped out. I guess it's some how my fault he was too stupid to know what hotel he checked into.

[Alpha Strike]

Years ago, bartending at the hotel....

ME: "And did you want to pay cash, credit card, or charge this to your room?"
HER: "My room, please."
ME: "And what room is that?"
HER: "804."
ME: "That would be impossible, ma'am."
HER: "Why is that?"
ME: "This hotel only has seven floors."

To both!!!!!!!
I get a lot of "room charges" too, with extremely fictional numbers. Nice try asshole!

So to those of you who have to deal with this on a regular basis and short of having someone stupid or drunk enough to come up with a non-existant room phone, how do you make sure you're not getting screwed?

[HeroOfNotBashingSkulls]

It's ALL YOUR FAULT...





... if you can fault someone for being sober/smart. Aahhh... Had you going, didn't I? ;D

[I am the Lizard Queen!!]

[QUOTE][So to those of you who have to deal with this on a regular basis and short of having someone stupid or drunk enough to come up with a non-existant room phone, how do you make sure you're not getting screwed?/QUOTE]

We aren't able to verify a room number to a name until we close the cheque; after we type in the room number the system searches for the name of the person registered. If it matches, all is well.
Often it doesn't and if we are lucky the customer is still in the lounge so we can go back and try to confirm the room number with them (it helps to run through a room charge as soon as possible after the customer fills it out so you can confirm the number) Most of the time it's an innocent mistake of getting two numbers in the wrong order or the name is registered under a spouses name, etc.
If we are too busy to close the bill right away, the person has wandered off and the names don't match we will go to the front desk to see if any other guests are registered which match the name. If not, depending on the size of the cheque, the front desk staff will review the video of the patron and be on the lookout for them to ask them about their bill (we had to do this last week. A guy and his girlfriend ran up a huuuge tab but gave us a great tip. The sucky thing? Wrong room number. Seached the name. Nothing even close. The front desk was awesome, they used their crack CSI skills to track the guy down the next time he walked throught he lobby. The name he had signed? His middle name, apparently. Whatever. we got paid in the end)
Otherwise, if all else fails, the hotel takes a loss.

[Raveni]

A guy and his girlfriend ran up a huuuge tab but gave us a great tip.
...
The name he had signed? His middle name, apparently.

As long as his wife doesn't mind...

[wolfie]

So to those of you who have to deal with this on a regular basis and short of having someone stupid or drunk enough to come up with a non-existant room phone, how do you make sure you're not getting screwed?

For a non-existent room number, it should be fairly easy - bartender/waitress who's been there more than a week or so is likely going to know how many floors and how many "lines" (xx01, xx02, xx03, etc.) the hotel has, so they'd recognize a non-existent number right away (like "804" on a 7-floor hotel). It's the "room exists but isn't theirs" number that's the problem - and IATLQ explained that.