Mere moments into tonight's coustomer, and I knew this would be fun. I asked for his credit card and ID, as normal, and he produced the credit card but was skeptical as to why I needed his ID. The room was pre-paid, why would I need it? (I admit to being curious as to why he wasn't more skeptical about my asking for his credit card, but hey.)
After securing his credit card (AND ID) and gliding him through the check-in process as painlessly as possible. It was a terrible ordeal for him, though, as I would ask him such questions as, since the address on his reservation differed from the one on his license, which would he prefer I use? He apparently owns five homes, so it really doesn't matter which I use.
He then asked about breakfast, since we have some of the aparatus permanently set up in the lobby. The food itself comes out later, but we keep out the cereal for ease's sake. He asked if he could have a cup of it, since he hadn't eaten. While I should've perhaps said "Begging your pardon sir, but that's only available during Breakfast which is set out betwee 7 and 10", this would not have, whatever my boss thinks, aided matters. Because instead of wandering around, eating his cereal, opening drawers, contemplating the leak that we were trying to get fixed (my boss and hotel owner was leaning against a table, making faces behind this guy's back. He's a young man for an owner of a franchised hotel, so was mistaken for the repairman) and generally making a slightly creepy nuisance of himself, he would've spent the exact same amount of time spreading his entitlement wings about how come we couldn't just let him have one little cup of cereal.
But I let him have his cup of cereal, knowing him to be the type to make a fuss. Normally I don't mind a fuss, safe behind my blithe and bottom-rung-of-the-food-chain indifference, but I wanted this leak fixed, and thus wanted him out of there. So he had his cereal, and his wandering, drawer-openings, and creepyness. I eventually eased him out the door, where unfortunately it was not his last word.
His sheets were dirty. "Soiled", he put it. Some hairs on them, I believe. I moved him to another room, where the sheets were, very unfortunately, dirty as well. We're the cleanest hotel on this street (which is chock full of hotels), but we occasionally have a lazy housekeeper. Or maybe he's just insanely picky. Difficult to say, given the volume of fuss he makes. He demanded I let him stay there free, and when I said I didn't have that authority, that he would take pictures of the sheets with his digital camera and upload them to the internet if I didn't give him what he wanted. Direct quote. He demanded I come up and see the room. That I send some sort of night watchman. I HAVE to have SOMEBODY on shift with me, and I am of course lying when I say that I don't. I'm not, I tell him truthfully, allowed to leave the lobby, as I'm the only one here. It will not, I tell him truthfully, work to let him come and stay in the lobby while I check his room for him.
Bossman had gone by this time, the leak being fixed, so I had to wake his wife to find out what she wanted me to do with this man. Gave him fresh sheets, endured his attempts at wit as I handed them over, and NOW, hopefully, he's sleeping until his wake-up call, which is one blessed half hour after I get off-shift. It will be a beautiful life if I don't see this man again.
He did, however, do me a favor. When he came down to get the key for his first room change, he asked to speak to my manager. Bossman was standing right there, fixing the leak, but was assumed to be the handyman. I told Mr.Entitled the not-lie that I was the only night-shift person on duty right then. Bossman didn't want this guy foisted off on him. And in preserving the person of my boss, I equalized what I owed him from the time he took the shift I'd requested off and was traumatized by the sight of two drunk guys having sex on the grass next to our sign.
But that's another story.
After securing his credit card (AND ID) and gliding him through the check-in process as painlessly as possible. It was a terrible ordeal for him, though, as I would ask him such questions as, since the address on his reservation differed from the one on his license, which would he prefer I use? He apparently owns five homes, so it really doesn't matter which I use.
He then asked about breakfast, since we have some of the aparatus permanently set up in the lobby. The food itself comes out later, but we keep out the cereal for ease's sake. He asked if he could have a cup of it, since he hadn't eaten. While I should've perhaps said "Begging your pardon sir, but that's only available during Breakfast which is set out betwee 7 and 10", this would not have, whatever my boss thinks, aided matters. Because instead of wandering around, eating his cereal, opening drawers, contemplating the leak that we were trying to get fixed (my boss and hotel owner was leaning against a table, making faces behind this guy's back. He's a young man for an owner of a franchised hotel, so was mistaken for the repairman) and generally making a slightly creepy nuisance of himself, he would've spent the exact same amount of time spreading his entitlement wings about how come we couldn't just let him have one little cup of cereal.
But I let him have his cup of cereal, knowing him to be the type to make a fuss. Normally I don't mind a fuss, safe behind my blithe and bottom-rung-of-the-food-chain indifference, but I wanted this leak fixed, and thus wanted him out of there. So he had his cereal, and his wandering, drawer-openings, and creepyness. I eventually eased him out the door, where unfortunately it was not his last word.
His sheets were dirty. "Soiled", he put it. Some hairs on them, I believe. I moved him to another room, where the sheets were, very unfortunately, dirty as well. We're the cleanest hotel on this street (which is chock full of hotels), but we occasionally have a lazy housekeeper. Or maybe he's just insanely picky. Difficult to say, given the volume of fuss he makes. He demanded I let him stay there free, and when I said I didn't have that authority, that he would take pictures of the sheets with his digital camera and upload them to the internet if I didn't give him what he wanted. Direct quote. He demanded I come up and see the room. That I send some sort of night watchman. I HAVE to have SOMEBODY on shift with me, and I am of course lying when I say that I don't. I'm not, I tell him truthfully, allowed to leave the lobby, as I'm the only one here. It will not, I tell him truthfully, work to let him come and stay in the lobby while I check his room for him.
Bossman had gone by this time, the leak being fixed, so I had to wake his wife to find out what she wanted me to do with this man. Gave him fresh sheets, endured his attempts at wit as I handed them over, and NOW, hopefully, he's sleeping until his wake-up call, which is one blessed half hour after I get off-shift. It will be a beautiful life if I don't see this man again.
He did, however, do me a favor. When he came down to get the key for his first room change, he asked to speak to my manager. Bossman was standing right there, fixing the leak, but was assumed to be the handyman. I told Mr.Entitled the not-lie that I was the only night-shift person on duty right then. Bossman didn't want this guy foisted off on him. And in preserving the person of my boss, I equalized what I owed him from the time he took the shift I'd requested off and was traumatized by the sight of two drunk guys having sex on the grass next to our sign.
But that's another story.
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