So which route to take?

[TruthHurts]

We have a lady who has been coming into our hotel and taking a cup of ice from our ice machine. She is not, has not and probably won't ever be a guest here. At first we allowed it back when she was only showing up a couple of times and now every freaking day she shows up.

She has never asked us if it was alright nor does she even seem to acknowledge that the hotel even exists. Now we have the choice to either A.) put up a sign "Ice is for guests use only" and then confront her if she chooses to ignore it or B.) Confront her the second we see her doing it. I know it's only a cup of ice but she does this every day and it's pretty annoying.

If I had my way I'd put a fake shrunken head in the ice chest and scare the crap out of her. But that's probably illegal or lawsuit worthy.

[Imogene]

Not to mention, probably against health code.

[myswtghst]

I think you're probably on the right track with posting a sign before you say anything. Then give her one chance to read the sign and stop, if she doesn't, bring it up. That way you didn't just put up the sign, and she has no room to argue, as there is a sign in place.

If there is no sign and no written policy, trust me, any SC worth their salt will bitch and try to find a way around it.

[customersruinmylife]

DEFINATELY put a sign up.

Although it is only a small thing like ice, she is not a guest or a customer. That ice machine is a service for paying guests. If she wants ice, why doesn't she just make her own? It must be easier than wandering into a hotel every day

[Salesmonkey]

In many icemaker machines the unused ice would eventually melt away anyway. I figure the route I took would have to do more with the attitude of the lady who uses ice daily. At my old hotel job we had a lady who would stop by and use our house phone about once a month. It was limited to local calls only so there wasn't any charge for this. We used to call her "crazy hippie lady" because her conversations were very, very liberal but on the whole she was okay. She also proved her intentions by occasionally giving the front desk nominal gifts- like cuttings from her houseplants, fruit (ugh! I'm prejudiced against veggies!), picked seasonal flowers (hippie!) etc. You know, things like this show that it's the intention and thought that count.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

That's a hard call to make.

One hand it's an ice machine that runs 24/7 regardless if anyone uses the ice or not. The unused ice generally melts away since the ice hopper isn't kept at super cold temps so the ice she didn't use would likely be nullified by a similar amount of ice going down the drain. So one arguement is "What's the harm?"

The other hand there is the fact that she assumes she can do this on a regular basis and doesn't even thank anyone.

My suggestion would be to put up a sign and wait in ambush for her. When you have her confronted, you gently inform her that the ice is for customers only. What happens next depends on her.

Possible outcome 1 - she gets pissy and tears into you.
Throw her ass out into the street and never allow her into the building again and strictly enforce the policy.

Possible outcome 2 - she is nice and apologizes
Then you can let her take some ice saying that you're making an exception in her case.

If #2 is what happens you might generate some business from her if she ever has friends or family travel out to visit. She may think of your hotel first.

When dealing with customers I try the nice approach since if the situation can be resolved fairly to everyone's satisfaction, you get a good customer/store relationship and repeat business. If they are choads then you dump them.

M

[draftermatt]

I can almost hear what she'll say:

"I've been doing this forever and no one has said anything before, why are you stopping me now?!"

[MadMike]

I don't know how difficult or expensive a change this would be to make, but I stayed at this one place where the ice machine was locked, but any room key could unlock it. That way, anyone staying at the motel could get ice, but anyone who wasn't could not, because they didn't have a key.

[TruthHurts]

Thanks MadMike I never thought of that, I'll have to bring it up to the owner We had some problems last summer with non-guests trying to fill up their ice chests so that could solve a lot of problems. My manager said it wasn't the fact that she took the ice that bothered her it was the fact that the woman never once asked for permission or even acknowledged us.

Just shows how much easier things can go if a person just shows some politeness and respect once in awhile.

[JuniorMintz]

I'd post a sign, myself. What a wierdo.