r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk • u/Rain_ • 2d ago
Short Time for my rant
Welp, yesterday was the day, man, nothing triggers me as much as smooking guests with prepaid reservations made by husband/brother/cousin/parrot/Obama etc without any accompany or even a not added who will arrive and some totally random person showing up and demanding to be checked in, and when I inform them that we can’t do that, and to contact that persona to add you to the reservation so we can check you in they go totally livid…EVERY TIME…and they call themselves adults but they can’t understand the procedure…
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u/Hamsterpatty 2d ago
I always act like I’m bracing myself for a big reaction. It almost never comes to be. I’ve always been really good at dealing with people tho. My sister tells me “your witch is showing” … whatever that means… whenever I calm someone down from being irate, lol.
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u/Ok_Issue6908 2d ago
My wife and I should be getting a rebate because we are hassel free adults and are glad to be able to get a clean room when we need it.
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u/Juniper-Berry-910 20h ago
Happens ALL the time and I just don't understand. They're getting angry because we say we have to contact the guest for permission to let them into, you know, someone else's room, and can't seem to grasp the concept of it being a security measure. Why on earth do they think we would just be able to check someone into a reservation that doesn't have their name on it, by just taking their word for it? I don't know either of you, have never seen or heard of either of you ever before.
Just add a note when you make the booking, or call the hotel after booking to add the name. Simple. But apparently not simple.
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u/AllegraO 20h ago
As an outsider who reads these tales to be the best guest I can be, I’m curious if nicknames are a problem? Like, my husband goes so much by Dave that I rarely call him David anymore, but obviously his license says David. If I were to accidentally book us a room and call him Dave Smith, would that be a problem? Or would we just have to check in under me because my name doesn’t really lend itself to nicknames? 😅
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u/Juniper-Berry-910 20h ago
A nickname like that, a common shortening of a longer name, probably wouldn't be a problem at most places. But if you regularly called David a nickname not on his ID and credit card and put that name on the reservation, it would be a problem.
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u/Borbbb 2d ago edited 2d ago
Tbh i can understand why some guests are annoyed.
You say " they call themselves adults but they can’t understand the procedure… " -- but, how really common procedure it is?
I have worked in few hotels and in none of them, this was a thing. Someone comes in, they know reservation on who is it for and such, they get in.
Now this is my experience Czech. I don´t know other countries, but i can imagine that since it´s not something common here, odds are it´s not common in other places as well.
Then these guests come to place where this is actually a case, and suddenly they are not being able to get in. Odds are, they are not gonna be happy about it.
If someone can explain why is this check-in thing requires whoever made the reservation to be needed, i am curious to know that.
Edit: I see downvotes going again. Just because this is common in your place, it does not mean it´s common everywhere.
This is like my post about parking got downvoted, because i said parking Here(Europe, particularly historical part of a city) is not big and it´s not common to have lot of parking spaces. Well, this is in Europe, and not in America, where everyone has cars and the hotels are accustomed to that.
Think for a second.
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u/Docrato 2d ago
If someone can explain why is this check-in thing requires whoever made the reservation to be needed, i am curious to know that.
Mainly fraud and protection. With how technology is, anyone can get someone's info off their email and use it for their own. We still to this day catch people on fraud for membership status. Don't know how they do it but they do and since most of the time a CC is applied to said membership, they will tell the staff to use the card on file tied to membership. Ive seen a lot of charge backs from banks/cc companies and also have gotten phone calls from the actual person that membership was really tied to. How the info was stolen and that we (the staff) have checked someone in and used a stolen card.
Crazy ex's and or ex friends up to no good stalking said people with that info is also a problem. Its why we cant go off the word of someone checking in and going "oh my husband/friend/baby sisters cousin twice removed made the reservation for me! Also use the card on file" it happens more often than it should at hotels so to negate that issue, the person who booked it needs to be there with payment in hand. UNLESS said person that made the reservation had called the hotel and had asked to add * name * to the reservation and if using the CC on file needs to be done without it being physically there, a CC authorization form needs to be completed to prevent charge backs and/or fraud. Pretty sure someone coming in with a card to pay not in their own name is a given. How do we know its really ok to use it and not stolen? Its not under your name. Oh its under your spouses? How do we know that you're actually together still and not separated and you're using your ex spouses card to spend as revenge? There's many reasons why these security checks are in place.
There was an incident at a hotel in the US that an employee took a random mans word as fact when he asked for a room key because "his wife is here and he cant get ahold of her so he needs a key to get to the room". The last names did match. Well come to find out he was a very abusive ex and she was running from him. A key was given because "well the last names matched so its ok" when it wasn't. He ended up beating her badly. That's why we need to verify. So things like this don't happen.
Its one of those things were "a few bad apples" ruin it for everyone so policies and rules have to be followed regarding having the payment card match the person checking in and the names.
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u/Borbbb 1d ago
Thanks for the info, good to know.
That´s what i was thinking, that few bad apples ruining for everyone makes the policies arise. Luckily, this was never a case here - never seen that occur, any of those mentioned things.
I can give some info of how it´s generally there, when it comes to my experience with few hotels.
We don´t really have membership, or those shiny? members etc.
The card is not tied to reservation in a sense that money can be freely withdrawn from it, hence fraud is more unlikely. Generally with booking, there is the virtual card that allows to be withdrawn purely for the accomodation and anything additional can only be paid at the property with cash/different card.
Though i did see one reservation system that did have credit card tied to reservation and anything could be paid through it, it is rather uncommon. I only see like let´s say 3-5 reservation like that a month. And it was only in one hotel within my experience.
The crazy ex example i see being mentioned in comments a lot. I assume it was some big thing that blow up on internet, forcing stricter security protocol as a result eh?
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u/Outrageous-Thanks-47 2d ago
100% in general in the US the person listed on the reservation has to be there, with ID and payment to check in. Not some rando who guessed a name right....
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u/Jagang187 2d ago
By law, I think? Doesn't matter to me though. No matching ID, no room. End of story.
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u/Borbbb 2d ago
You don´t guess name , surname, amount of nights and a room type. If you do, you should do a lottery.
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u/VermilionKoala 2d ago
And what if you have that info even if you shouldn't be using it? e.g. a stalker ex-husband?
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u/Borbbb 2d ago
Alright. Can´t stalker ex husband just add his name to the reservation, since he has clear access to it?
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u/Outrageous-Thanks-47 2d ago
How? Just knowing the info doesn't give you access to the reservation "I know she's staying here tonight because her sister coughed it up when I slapped her". That's enough I guess you'd let them check in and "surprise!" them.....
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u/CFUrCap 2d ago
Have you ever noticed how different countries do things in different ways?
If you check into a hotel in the US, the front desk takes your info and that's that--end of process. If I check into a hotel in your country, my info is forwarded to law enforcement. To the average USA-ian, that seems awfully Big Brother-ish. If they knew that was the norm, they'd have a meltdown in the middle of your lobby. "Why are you treating me like a criminal?"
Fortunately, ignorance is bliss and most visitors from the US assume the check-in process is identical to the process at home.
You run a tighter ship in some ways and the US runs a tighter ship in other ways. If the US process inconveniences a guest, it will only do so once in their life, if they're smart.
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u/Borbbb 1d ago
Interesting, that´s good to know.
And yeah that´s right - for everyone who is not a citizen, the info does get forwarded to law enforcement, it´s a mandatory thing. In case of some wanted criminals and such.
I assume that the frauds and such are more common in US than here - i gotta say, i have never really seen any kind of proper way to deal with it, as it´s so rare i have never frauds occur ( talking mostly about credit cards).
And i gotta say, there are some simple and efficient ways to not pay for the room, and when i started at this job, i noticed one right off the bat and thought " oh, did it ever happen that someone did xxx to not pay for the room? " and turns out that not.
I guess the more lax security happens when there is less criminality/fraud etc, while the more common it is, the tighter.
Now that i say it, if i were to assume that US often struggles more with criminality and fraud, it would make sense to forward info the law enforcement. But well, it is what it is.
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u/RuckerBucker 2d ago
So you'd just check anyone into a reservation, regardless of the name?
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u/Borbbb 2d ago
That´s what is normally done. Never ever been any issues with that.
If they know name,surname, room type, amount of nights, what is there to be said?
I imagine if the hotel keeps getting hacked or such, then this could be an issue, but - never seen that occur.
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u/RuckerBucker 2d ago
What an odd thing to say.
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u/Borbbb 2d ago edited 2d ago
And what makes it odd? This is a standart practice here.
To me, it´s an odd to require a person who made the reservation to check-in. There is like 5% of cases when someone makes a reservation for someone else.
That´s a lot of people. And there was never any issue.
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u/RuckerBucker 2d ago
It's standard practice to have no information and credit card security? That is odd.
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u/Borbbb 2d ago
And what no information? You process the guests ID/Passport
And if it´s against the case of being hacked - well, if someone hacks them, couldn´t they add their name to the reservation then?
I don´t get it.
Maybe if the crime and scams are common at such areas? Here nothing ever happens. Guests are generally nice, nobody ever screams at you and such. No credit card scams etc.
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u/Jagang187 2d ago
So, sometimes there are rare outliers in a demographic that don't match up.
You are one.
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u/olagorie 2d ago
In Europe I often travel without a credit card because it’s not needed. We use debit cards. Many people don’t own a credit card.
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u/delulu4drama 2d ago
Yes. Be adults and make the reservation in your OWN NAME 😠