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***Morons-in-Management BG: The owner of my hotel owns several other hotels. My location and a couple others share a name, but a few more have individual names. Despite this, he runs them all as though it's one franchise. He has this policy we all hate: that no hotel he owns is allowed to turn on the 'no-vacancy' sign until ALL his hotels are sold out, INCLUDING the ones that aren't even in this city. We're just supposed to refer guests to another one of his hotels, even if it's more than an hour's drive out of town. As I say very often when explaining anything to a new employee, 'I don't make policy, I just make fun of it.' End BG***
It's the height of tourist season, this is a tourist town, it's Saturday night.
There are no rooms to be had anywhere in the city.
Guy comes in around midnight, looking for a room for himself & his wife. He's nice, he's polite, and it's still quiet since the booze parade* won't start up for another 2 hours when the bars let out, so I agree to call around for him, and see if I can find him accomodations.
He's in luck. my 4th or 5th call just had a cancellation, I ask them to hold the room for this guy. He thanks me, and heads on his way.
Half an hour later, I get a call from the night auditor at that hotel; turns out this guy decided to argue the rate for 10 minutes (which was cheaper than my location anyway) and he turned the guy away, sold the room less than a minute later to someone else.
Shortly after thay, I get a call from a fellow night auditor; He's got a group of 16 people trying to find 4 adjoining 2-bed rooms. I have a good laugh that he can't audibly join in with, and wish him good luck.
Just before 2am, yet another room-seeker comes into my lobby. I inform him we're sold out, as is everywhere else in town, and he freaks out: screaming and cursing, he tells me he's never coming back.
Aw shucks, we lost the business of a random asshole because we're at maximum capacity with guests who either made reservations, or at least thought to seek accomodation BEFORE spending 7 hours drinking. When I inform the boss, I know he's going to be so distraught he'll just cry and cry and cry all night, into his giant pillow of money.
So remember people: As soon as you know you're going to need to spend the night in whichever area, whether it's 6 months in advance, or even just an hour, call ahead and MAKE A RESERVATION.
*Booze parade: The nightly stream of over 1000 loud sloppy drunks that emerge from all the downtown bars & clubs at closing time, and walk/stumble/crawl/are dragged home, yelling, screaming and fighting with each other while they all compete for the 30 or so on-duty cabs.
It's the height of tourist season, this is a tourist town, it's Saturday night.
There are no rooms to be had anywhere in the city.
Guy comes in around midnight, looking for a room for himself & his wife. He's nice, he's polite, and it's still quiet since the booze parade* won't start up for another 2 hours when the bars let out, so I agree to call around for him, and see if I can find him accomodations.
He's in luck. my 4th or 5th call just had a cancellation, I ask them to hold the room for this guy. He thanks me, and heads on his way.
Half an hour later, I get a call from the night auditor at that hotel; turns out this guy decided to argue the rate for 10 minutes (which was cheaper than my location anyway) and he turned the guy away, sold the room less than a minute later to someone else.
Shortly after thay, I get a call from a fellow night auditor; He's got a group of 16 people trying to find 4 adjoining 2-bed rooms. I have a good laugh that he can't audibly join in with, and wish him good luck.
Just before 2am, yet another room-seeker comes into my lobby. I inform him we're sold out, as is everywhere else in town, and he freaks out: screaming and cursing, he tells me he's never coming back.
Aw shucks, we lost the business of a random asshole because we're at maximum capacity with guests who either made reservations, or at least thought to seek accomodation BEFORE spending 7 hours drinking. When I inform the boss, I know he's going to be so distraught he'll just cry and cry and cry all night, into his giant pillow of money.
So remember people: As soon as you know you're going to need to spend the night in whichever area, whether it's 6 months in advance, or even just an hour, call ahead and MAKE A RESERVATION.
*Booze parade: The nightly stream of over 1000 loud sloppy drunks that emerge from all the downtown bars & clubs at closing time, and walk/stumble/crawl/are dragged home, yelling, screaming and fighting with each other while they all compete for the 30 or so on-duty cabs.
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