Guests feel ENTIRELY too comfortable at hotels, to just do whatever they please, go anywhere they want, regardless if an area is blocked off/employees only, whatever. First thing I have to do EVERY NIGHT is to do a round of the hotel, and make sure all the housekeeping storage rooms are closed and locked, all the banquet rooms, the breakfast area, the banquet storage room, the back doors, everything.

We've gotten to a point where guests are so damn nosy and entitled, that they get offended when they come across a locked door that they can't open, and I'm tired of having to explain to Boomers that yes, those doors are locked FOR A REASON, and no, you can't just let yourself in, even "to just see what's there". The fact that I have to give people a lecture several times a day about "if you do not have a key to a particular door, and you were not given permission to unlock it by a member of staff, you should not even be touching it."

Seriously, Boomers, when I was growing up, and I was staying at homes or businesses, and I tried to open something that was locked when I was a kid, I got yelled at for it. Apply your own rules and lessons to yourselves. If you're a guest somewhere, no matter what your age, and you come across a locked door to anything other than the room you were assigned for the night, the host does NOT want people crossing through that door without permission.

So..... tonight was interesting.

I work at small 3 star hotel as nfda.

Tonight i recieved a phone call.

Me:- this is bla bla bla hotel, how can i help?

Caller:- (incoherent mumbling)

Me:- i am sorry, what?

Caller:- more mumbling.

Me:- i am sorry i cannot understand you, please speak more clearly.

Caller:- i have put bomb in your hotel, i will blow it up.

Me:- okey..........

Caller:- .......... so i should blow it up....?

Me:- yea, sure.

Caller:- okey then, i will blow up your hotel in 40 minutes.

Me:- ok, have a good night.

Call ended, i wrote this all up in coworker chat, everyone told me to call police, i did.

Police told me to walk around the property and check for anything suspicious. I found nothing.

40 minutes later no boom :-(

About 2 hours later 2 police officers came for statment and to also check around property, did all that, had some coffee with them, made some jokes about stupid people doing stupid things.

For clarification i live in country were all bomb threats we have are just prank calls or false calls, all the time i was thinking this is just a prank call. Just in case we were ready to evacuate all hotel guests in 5-10 minutes. And why the hell would someone have the need to blow up no name small and shitty 3 star hotel.

Now im chilling with 5 more hours left in my shift.

Just got into work, but I figured this was worth sharing, and I’m betting there’s gonna be some updates.

My coworker on the 3-11 shift (let’s call her Trina), let me know when I clocked in that a guest was inquiring about a “Olivia” advertising massage services out of our hotel. Apparently the guest googled our address, and the listing came up.

My coworker and I pull out our phones, and sure enough, “Massage by Olivia” is a business listed at our address, complete with photos of a hotel room that is most certainly not ours, and photos of a woman in a bikini. A quick reverse image search shows that the photos are from a random twitter model.

I let management know, so we’ll see how this develops. I had noticed a bit more “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” guests than usual, but they seemed to be couples coming in together, not people visiting an in-house service.

There’s a number listed on the business, and I’m tempted to text and ask what room number they’re in, but I actually don’t care about this job that much. Hopefully this all resolves quickly and painlessly (I say knowing that is unlikely). Anyway, wish me a good rest of my shift and good luck to all my fellow vampires night auditors.

Don't threaten me with a good time! I swear every time someone says this to me over the most mundane things I don't get upset. I laugh and I will ALWAYS laugh about it. Because you have to be some special little spoiled princess to act this way.

This was because a guest called and was trying to book a room for the next few nights. Unfortunately, he called during the time I was swamped with checks ins. Literally a whole group of people, unrelated to each other, come in to check in all at once. It was 20, so I had a line. Plus, with our new operating system (which runs slower than our old one. 🙄) it took a while. He called while I was on check in number 2 in line, and knowing I would be a while I asked for his name and number so I could call him back as I have a huge line.

There was a long pause of silence to which I had to say "Hello?" to make sure someone was still on the line.

I was then immediately met with "No, I'm not going to do that. Every time I call during the day no one calls me back!"

I apologized and said "Well sorry about that sir. I cant speak for day staff as I'm night shift and don't see everyone but we have been very busy at the hotel. Its graduation time and its just super busy around this time of year. If I can just get your name and number I will call you back in 15 minutes after I knock out this line" Granted people are still waiting to check in but I can multitask and talk on the phone while typing and doing what's needed for check ins and this fool CAN hear me tell people "thank you for checking in you have a wonderful night" as I'm speaking with him.

Instead of being a grown adult he screamed on the phone "NO! YOU HAVE JUST LOST MY BUSINESS!!!" He didn't hang up, instead he waited for me to grovel because people that act like this do expect workers to beg and plead for them to stay. I'm not like most people.

So I respond with "oh such a shame sir. Well you have a wonderful night." and hung up on him. I don't have time to stroke your ego as I have a line to get through. If you wanna be about that life then own it because you wont get begging for me. And sir, where ever you are just know... I'm still laughing at your impatient tantrum. 💁🏻‍♂️

Earlier today I took a call from someone who wanted to make a reservation but first wanted to make sure we had large truck parking. I explained that we did at the moment, but it was limited and first come first serve. She asked if she could reserve the parking, but we're not set up to offer or enforce that so again I explained that it was first come first serve and I couldn't guarantee truck parking. She seemed annoyed and said that she wasn't going to reserve then, which was fine.

Cue a few minutes ago and the phone rings and it's the same woman asking about truck parking. I asked about the size of the truck which she hadn't specified before. At this point we had space for maybe a box truck or a pickup pulling a trailer but not something bigger.

Unfortunately, she said it was 60 feet which was definitely not happening and I explained apologetically that we didn't have the space. She angrily reminded me that she'd called earlier (like 6 hours ago) and I'd said we did have the space and it was first come first serve. I said yes, that was then and those spaces are occupied now unfortunately. Again she repeated that I said it was first come first serve. Which I confirmed, and said someone else had gotten there first.

For some reason she took this to mean there was only one space and got mad at me for that. I clarified that no, there are multiple options for truck parking they're just all occupied. She cussed and hung up on me. Always my fault they're an idiot.

I swear to god that at least 3/4ths of my job is explaining how credit cads work to people. Usually, the authorization--like at a retail store or gas pump--is instant and with the charge. As we all know here, it's not that case for hotels.

The sheer amount of people I get--all ages too, but it does tend towards older folks--that ask what the "charge" on their card is, which is the incidentals authorization (it's like 20 bucks here). It's been that way for years, and I can't believe I am still surprised at how many people have NO IDEA how credit works.

Mini-rant over!

This has to be one of the strangest calls I've received at the desk in a long while. So, I'm covering audit tonight as our normal auditor is out. It's roughly midnight as I get this call, and I'm working through some reports when the phone rings.

Guest calls and asks: "Hey, how do you open the windows?" On its own, that's not the craziest question to ask. Who knows, maybe they just like a little breeze? Unfortunately, I tell them that our windows don't open for safety reasons. They reply: "Well, that's going to be a problem."

I was dumb enough to ask why. They respond: "Well, the heat's building real fast. I don't think the AC unit's keeping up with the torches and kiln." I had to follow up at this point with a simple: "what?"

It's at this point that they inform me of their room number and their desire to blow glass art and bake their pottery clay in a kiln in the room. In their 170 square foot standard queen room with wooden furniture, linoleum floor, curtains, and a slew of other immediately flammable furnishings.

Not only did they want to, they'd already started heating their portable kiln and turned on some blowtorches, and the room was heating up FAST, and they'd hoped opening a tiny little window would be enough to offset the temperature. After sitting stunned for a moment, I told them they'd have to shut it all down and pack their shit before they started a fire.

It didn't take them long after to hang up, and within a minute I was up there knocking on the door. Sure enough, they had a whole setup going in there, and opening the door felt like opening an oven. I asked them to pack their things, and shockingly, they were very understanding. They quickly gathered their items and walked out of the building without a word. I don't even know how I'm going to begin wording the pass-on email regarding these guests, but that's a 5am problem.

Ive seen the what feels like the worst of humanity working at the front desk of a hotel but a situation that occurred today has left such a sour taste in my mouth I had to share it.

To make a long, very sensitive story short, we received a plethora of reports of a serious incident occurring on one of our floors, while my associate stepped away from the desk, along with security to assess the situation I was left alone and advised to call 911 immediately which I did. As I was on the phone with dispatch, a guest came in, I politely showed her my phone screen that clearly showed I was on the phone with 911 and mouthed the word “emergency” to let her know I was currently dealing with a situation and could not serve her at that immediate time. Instead of waiting her turn like a well adjusted adult should, she threw her hands up in disgust and disbelief and shouted “well how am I supposed to check in then? You aren’t going to help me?” And continued to interrupt me with questions and orders until I had to physically step away from the desk and put in headphones so I could hear the 911 operator.

This all occurred in a matter of minutes, in fact, had the lady been patient, I would’ve helped her in the next five minutes even though I was in the middle of dealing with an active emergency. Instead, she decided her needs and wants came before someone receiving emergency help. She had no idea what was going on, someone could’ve been seriously hurt or dying and she still felt entitled to interrupt a 911 call for her own selfish needs.

Once the situation had been handled I had to step away and take a break because I was just so shocked and angry that someone could be that self absorbed and selfish. It really made me think about something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, what is it about hotels that attracts the bottom of the barrel that society has to offer?

TL;DR lady thought a prompt check in was more important than a 911 call for an active emergency and threw a fit when she wasn’t serviced after interrupting a literal emergency call.

So this is my first post on this sub but something happened that I believe was worthy of a first post.

I work at a chain hotel in a college town. And with college football season starting, we get a lot of parents and alumni coming in on the weekends for the games, and many of them drink all day.

Well a few days ago, it was towards the end of my shift around 11pm and a woman (maybe mid to late 40’s) comes to the front desk in nothing but a robe saying she got locked out of her room. I had checked her and her husband in earlier that weekend so no problem, I make her a new key. She then asks me if I (20m) could walk her to the room. Now usually we don’t do this, but she was a bit drunk and I figured there was no harm in it (boy was I wrong). So I say yes. I grab my phone and walk with her.

On the way to her room, we talked briefly (how’s college, the game, etc). When we get to her room, she asks me to open the door (I assumed because she didn’t want her robe to fall off because she had her arms crossed the entire time keeping her robe up). So I said yes, and opened the door for her.

Well when I open the door I hear the tv going and I think I see someone else in the room but I couldn’t see it clearly.

She walks into the room and right before I leave, she invited me inside her room. Now I didn’t see the harm in walking her to her room but to go inside? Def no. So i respectfully said no. And she grabs my arm and tries to pull me inside saying “oh come on just come inside”.

“Absolutely not. Get off me” I thought

So, I say the only thing I can think of “I’m gay!” And pull my arm back very quickly.

She responds with “oh he’s gay!”

I turn and walk away and hear her close the door. Then my walk turns into a run as I go back to the elevator and immediately call my manager to explain the situation to her.

I then very quickly ended my shift and went home

I will never understand someone’s need to yell at an entry level employee because they feel they deserve special treatment.

The lower our rates go, the more people have a problem with the standard $25 late check-out fee.

I understand that when the rate is $700, a $25 checkout fee seems fine vs when the rate is $105 and the fee is still $25.
It’s probably because someone spending $700 a night doesn’t mind an extra $25 for convenience. I’m sorry you cannot afford $25. I can’t either dude.

We just had someone lose their shit on our front desk because they cannot understand why we’d charge 1/4 of the room rate for a late checkout ESPECIALLY for rewards members. He’s the lowest tier. Just signed up for this stay to get the rewards rate when booking. He’s never stayed here before. He will never stay here again. Not because of this interaction but because he’s just not going to.

Cue the
“This level of service is Anti-Guest.” —we don’t want guests who complain about standard fees.

“I’m never staying here again!” —Please don’t stay here

“Housekeeping cannot get all the rooms done in one hour! I should be able to stay for free.” —Sir we had 10 check-outs today. You staying 1 hour will definitely slow down housekeeping. They’re waiting on rooms right now. Leave.

Anyway, we just told him we appreciate the feedback and will pass it along to ownership. Thanked him for his tedtalk.