customer is always rrrrrrwrong!

[HotelMinion]

....
This has no preamble.

Me: Underpaid
MB: Mega bitch
HH: Henpecked hubby


(Scene: Busy, sold out night )

Me: Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) SOMEONE SHOOT ME!! X_X

CW: And here is your keys, sir, have a nice stay!

HH: Uh....is this room SMOKING?!

CW: Yes sir.

HH: (glances at wife, who is busy with brats) Don't you have a non smoking, that's what we booked!

CW: No, we're sold out.

HH: But that's what we booked!

CW: According to the computer, you booked a smoking room.

HH: WTF

MB: What's wrong dear?

HH: N-nothing dear.

MB: Well hurry up the kids are tired!

HH: Kay, dear....

(They leave upstairs)

CW: See ya later, HM! (leaves cuz it's the end of her shift)

Me: Bye. Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) Hello? No we're sold out. (phone rings) X_X

(few minutes later)

HH: Er, hi.

Me: (between phone calls) Can I help you?

HH: Yeah. (shows me phone) See, right here it's says Non smoking on my reservation!

Me: Uh? Yes it does say that. Um, let's see. It says nonsmoking on the comment box. NOt in the reservation itself.

HH: So??

Me: That means whoever booked this reservation made a mistake.

HH: I booked this with my travel agent! D:<

Me: Yeah she or he made a mistake. Putting request on the comment box means basically nothing. The room assigners rarely look at that.

HH: WTF

Me: I'm sorry. EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT THE ONE OF MADE THE MISTAKE. DON'T KILL ME PLEASEE I'M ONLY A CLERK.

HH:....argh. Well, can you help me make a reservation at some other place?!

Me: Sure. Unfortunately, due to a tournament, all the other hotels are sold out, too.

HH: WTF D:<

Me: Sorry.

HH: Well what about tommorrow night?

Me: Uh. Yeah we have some rooms tommorrow.

HH: And the day after.

Me: Um. Actually, the day after we're sold out.

HH: WTF I want it for both nights!

Me: Yeah. Sorry about that!

HH: Well, call around and see if they have any room for tommorrow and the day after!

Me: Kay.

So between phone calls, I'm calling around. Luckily the Hellton across the street has rooms for tommorow night. And the day after. So I make a reservation for him, write down his confirmation number, and give it to him. He doesn't seem happy, but I don't give a fuck. He leaves and I hope that's that. But it never is!

Me: Hello, front desk.
MB: Hello, this is Mrs. X in room 666. This room is SMOKING!!!
Me: Uh, yeah, it is.
MB: My hubby was there and he showed you our reservation, and it says NONSMOKING!! My kids all have allergies and this is unacceptable!!!
Me: Ma'am, the resvation was a mistake made by your travel agent.
MB: HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE US OF MAKING A MISTAKE!!!
Me: I wasn't trying to accuse you, unless you are you're own travel agent!
MB: I don't care, my kids are sick now, this room is filthy and it smells! Give me a NONSMOKING ROOM NOWWWW!

Me: Like I told your hubby, we don't have any! I'm sorry!
MB: Well, FIND ONE! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE RITZ!
Me: Okay, I'll try.
MB:...DON'T YOU HAVE ANY ROOMS AT ALL?!
Me: Well, we have one that's coming in, if he doesn't come by three, you can have his room.
MB: I NEED IT NOW!! TELL HIM THAT THERE WAS A MIXUP WITH HIS ROOM AND GIVE ME HIS ROOM!!!
Me: WTF No I will not do that.
MB: DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!
Me: What if it was YOUR reservation and I gave it away??
MB: I DON'T CARE!!!!! IT IS OURS! MY KID IS SICK!!!!
Me: Okay lemme call my manager.

I call OMS, my manager, and he doesn't know what to do. -_- He hems and haws like usual and mutters about stopping by. He tells me to continue calling the other hotels for this woman for tonight. I said I would.
The other hotels are either too busy to pick up or sold out. Every. Last. One. WTF is golf really that popular??
I'm calling and calling, and this MB is calling me every fifteen minutes or so, spouting threats, calling names, mocking us, and so forth. At that point, I was done.
Finally OMS arrives, looking very grim. I'm glad to see him. I'm surre that this MB just needs to be told by a manager and she'll go off in her merry way, like so many others.

I was wrong!

OMS: Hello I'm the manager.
MB: FINALLY! I just spoke with your employee here and we need a new room!!
OMS: Okay. I'm sorry that we don't have any more rooms.
MB: I don't need to hear your sorries! I just need a new room! That room is filthy, and it has ants! Why does this place have smoking room anyway??
OMS: Well-
MB: Never mind that!! This is unacceptable!! My kids are very sick!! Look at them, they are crying and red eyed!!! If they go to the hospital because of your filthy room, I'm suiing!!
OMS: Well, uh-
MB: I've been too many places and the customer is always right!!
OMS: Yes-
MB: Many hotels I tell you! And they had smoking rooms!! But (dramatic pause) YOU NEVER KNOW THAT THEY ARE!

OMS: Yes, uh-

MB: I DON'T CARE! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY JUST GET ME A NEW ROOM NOW AND DON'T ARGUE WITH MEEEE!
OMS: (talking over her) I'M SORRY YOUR KID IS SICK BUT-

MB: NO BUTS! GET ME MY ROOM!!!

OMS: -WE ARE NOT MAGICIANS WE CANNOT MAKE ROOMS APPEAR!

MB: DON'T BE SARCASTIC WITH ME!! AND DON'T ARGUE WITH ME THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!!

On and on it went. The bitch was a friggin broken record. OMS had to call the scary GM, and tell him. This bitch would not be satisfied. What, does she want us to pull a room out of our ass?!

And what's this BS about the customer is always right? Right, lady, when you're the customer right? Dumb bitch.

Finally the MB takes her wailing brats outside, and OMS calls the scary GM, Mr. Drill Sarge. Mr. DS is NOT a people person, like me. He told OMS to tell MB to throw her and her rotten family out and call the cops if they whine! He didn't want evil people in his hotel and neither do I. And he meant it too. Ah, to be a GM...

OMS, instead, comped her night and set it up so our hotel pays for the reservation at Hellton. WTF She bitches, and she gets free nights?! Call the cops on this crazy bitch! Why oh why won't OMS grow some ballz already?

Well at least they are leaving and won't be here tomorrow. That guy that was supposed to come in, never did, so his clean, non smoking room was freed up. I don't think I'll tell them that though. I have to work tomorrow night

[Ellf]

Wait. The GM said no. Yet your OMS said "Okay, here you go."? Something's mismatched there.

[Bright_Star]

From time to time I've stayed in hotels & sometimes there have been problems. I've NEVER behaved like that. I kept my cool, stayed calm & whatever situation needing fixing was taken care of. Yelling, screaming & acting like a diva doesn't help a situation get better.

[bhskittykatt]

Reminds me of a customer I had once. Except, in that case, he knew he'd booked a smoking room, but had written a request in for a non-smoking room. (And yes, those requests boxes are a joke...we don't see it until we look at that specific reservation, which usually isn't until day of arrival, and sometimes not even until the afternoon since Day Shift often doesn't look at requests at all.)

But this guy...

Me: But you booked a smoking room.
SC: Yeah, and then I requested to be moved to a nonsmoking room.
Me: But you booked a smoking room.
SC: Yes.
Me: If we had a nonsmoking room open up, I could have moved you, but we didn't, so I can only give you the smoking room you booked.
SC: But I requested nonsmoking!
Me: I'm sorry, but when you book a smoking room because we are out of nonsmoking, writing something in the request box doesn't magically make a nonsmoking room appear.

Yeah, I said that, and I think he finally got it. He was disappointed, but I did let him look at a few so he could take the less-stinky room. Then he wanted a discount. Sorry, buddy, take it or leave it, 'cause one way or another I'm selling that room at full price tonight.


And don't get me started on some of the travel agents. They'll book a smoking room for their client and write "Move to non-smoking room." Yeah, if I had a non-smoking room, you would have been able to just book that. Of course, they then tell the guest that they've gotten them a smoking room, and leave us no phone number to contact the guest with, so we can't call them and give them a heads up that no, they're stuck in a smoking room.

[hotelslave]

Reading this story has made my eye start twitching uncontrollably now. This store has brought back some very strong memories from when I was MOD at HI which was always sold out. A lot of travel agents are evil and can't tell the truth. Will continue to lie to customers.

[Canarr]

Yelling, screaming & acting like a diva doesn't help a situation get better.

Well, in this case... it did. Sucks that the manager didn't have a spine, even though his GM gave him the Go on kicking the family.

[morgana]

....
Finally the MB takes her wailing brats outside, and OMS calls the scary GM, Mr. Drill Sarge. Mr. DS is NOT a people person, like me. He told OMS to tell MB to throw her and her rotten family out and call the cops if they whine! He didn't want evil people in his hotel and neither do I. And he meant it too. Ah, to be a GM...

OMS, instead, comped her night and set it up so our hotel pays for the reservation at Hellton. WTF She bitches, and she gets free nights?! Call the cops on this crazy bitch! Why oh why won't OMS grow some ballz already?

You know, I think I'd be letting Mr. Drill Sarge know about this. OMS ignores the boss' orders, AND costs your hotel money? If I were his boss, I'd want to know . . .

[Antisocial_Worker]

Oh, the memories...

I have no doubt whatsoever that a great many people are actually allergic to cigarette smoke. However, it always irritated me to no end how very many of those people stayed at my hotel on sold-out nights and had no choice but to take a smoking room or had accidentally booked a smoking room.

Similarly, our hotel had no elevator and to ascend to the second floor you had to take the stairs. That was how I found out that entire population of the free world (plus a surprisingly large number of dogs) has bad knees.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Ah, yes, the golf tournament. I do not like how it has severely effed up the traffic on my commute (and that's before you take into consideration the construction work they're doing on the route I take).

Sorry to hear about Mega Bitch and her evil. Any chance you could pass the word up to Mr. Drill Sarge that OMS caved and comped them instead of kicking them out like he was told to do?

[LillFilly]

Ugh! I hope the GM flips out when he sees they got comped and free hotel rooms; maybe THEN OMS might grow a pair! There wasn't any justification for you guys to foot the bill, maybe you can recoup it from her travel agent

[Moirae]

Wow, thats sounds like a bootable offense. I can't believe she got the room comped. I'd just boot her and her nasty family and give the next guy a higher rate. Better than constantly dealing with the whining.

I have so been in your place and I don't envy you. I'm getting so sick of the guests, and of the management garbage, that I'm almost to the point I don't want to work in hotels anymore and I've been considering looking elsewhere.

[Betweenshades]

Wait, your manager ignored the GM and comped her room? WTF is that??

[dendawg]

Wait, your manager ignored the GM and comped her room? WTF is that??

Sounds like insubordination, at minimum.

[Geek King]

Honestly, were I in your position, I'd speak privatly to the GM and ask for permission to call him directly with these extreme cases in the future.

[slavetotheman]

It took one time for this mix-up to occur for me -- and let me tell you, you could *definitely * tell it was a smoking room -- and ever since then, regardless of how I book, once the reservation is made I call ahead at least a few days in advance just to reconfirm that I have a nonsmoking room reserved.