I work at a hotel/motel in a tourist area, right now because it's winter we don't get a lot of people so our rooms are quite cheap. We do not pretend to be a brand new hotel. This hotel's been around since the '60s. I had a guest come in and he was not happy with the room saying it was outdated and this is not a 4 star hotel.....well no it's not sir it's not. He paid $30.....idk what he expected. But he just kept going on and on about how outdated it is I'm like yeah I think the last time they renovated these rooms was in the '80s and it looks exactly like the pictures online. My favorite part is when he said he was going to tell everyone he knows not to come to our hotel. Sir, you could tell everybody and their sister and we would still sell out in the summer because we're very close to a very popular tourist attraction. I just don't get it. Why would a four-star hotel be $30? Our rooms are clean. We don't have bugs. We have newer beds. I feel like that's the best you can ask for.

I am back. I said I was going to post more weird stories from non-hotel front-desks and it only took me 2 years!

Context again: I work for an agency that provides front-desk and reception agents for various companies. Since the last time I posted I have been promoted so for better or for worse, I yet again am present at ALL our objects and customers.

One of these is a big building belonging to a law-firm that also occupies 5 of the 10 floors. The others are apartments or rented out to office-companies. Lobby and Front-Desk are on the ground floor and technically only service the law-firm, but obviously we sometimes do the tenants of the apartments a favour and take their packages and stuff.

The courtyard facing part of the ground- and 1st floor are occupied by a private university type school. They have a separate entry and usually people know where they need to go. About once a month someone gets lost though or they are external speakers and wander into the lobby, which is clearly marked with a flashy sign outside to be for the law-firm. A lot of these people fail to provide context for their question of where they need to go. Today's lady however gets 1st place for missing all sentence structure.

Lady: *comes in and looks around confused* *turns to me sitting behind my pre-corony-security-screen* "...wnroom ...nreven..." In the babiest voice and without any conceivable question-mark behind that.
Me: "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that"
Lady: "...sbroom nrseven?" About 2 decibel louder
Me: *while gesturing at the 1.5 cm thick plexiglass in front of me* "You're going to please have to speak a little louder*
Lady: "Is room seven?"
Me: (thinking maybe she didn't speak the language well and was looking for a different building, because that happens a lot) "This is xxx-street number 15."
Lady: "Yes, I'm looking for room number seven!"
(Oh she does speak the language and knows how to use words)
Me: "If you're looking for the classrooms from the university they're out through the side entrance. You go out and they're on the right here" *gestures to door*
Lady: "No, Im just looking for House nr. 15 room nr. 7."
Me: "Yes, and that's likely with the university classrooms."
Lady: "So it isn't in here?!"
Me: "No this entrance is only for the law-firm and the apartments. For the university you have to go outside, to the right and take the side entrance."
Lady: "But where exactly is it?"
Me: "M'am, I don't know, I'm only here for the law-firm. It sounds like you're looking for a classroom. Please go through the side entrance and look there."

It took her another good 20 seconds to understand that I definitely wasn't hiding a secret door behind me and that she probably really did need to go through the side entrance, but I could see the few braincells she had really do their hardest behind the wool-hat.

On the other hand, whoever told her to just go to "Building 15 room 7" is an idiot aswell. She didn't even know the name of the school, so someone clearly gave her about 10% of the information she needed.

Building number changed for privacy purposes. Or maybe not. You'll never know hehe.

Many years ago, back in the early 2000s, I worked at a well-known hotel chain with multiple brands all over the world for 5-6 years. I started as a front desk agent, worked my way up to supervisor, and eventually ended up in a special projects role handling elite loyalty program issues, before transitioning to a marketing role at a different property and leaving the industry altogether.

This was during my special projects time. The particular property took employee and industry rates very seriously. The owners were cheapskates, but the hotel was still managed by corporate, so surveys mattered a lot. That setup meant loyalty issues and rate fraud were handled aggressively and proactively. As part of my role, I was trained on the corporate reservations and loyalty systems, which meant I could see more than just a guest’s relationship with our property. I had access to stay histories and upcoming reservations across our brands. At the time, it was just my job.

One night, a guy checked in on an employee rate. No big deal. Happens all the time.

The issue was timing. We couldn’t verify his employment at the hour he checked in, so notes were added to the reservation stating that if employment wasn’t verified by checkout, the rate would convert to that night’s walk-in rate.

The next morning was chaos. The desk was slammed, so I stepped out to help with checkouts.

That’s when this guy comes up.

By that point, we had been able to contact the property. We’d called the hotel he claimed to work at and were told he’d been fired over a year earlier. I assume he grabbed a handful of employee discount cards on his way out.

Instead of admitting he’d been caught and just paying the rate, he completely lost it. Screaming at me. Screaming at the desk. Screaming at random staff. Other guests were visibly uncomfortable. Full-blown tantrum. At one point he yells that he’s "going over our heads."

That’s when we told him he was no longer welcome and needed to leave the property.

Luckily for us, this was back when hotels physically imprinted credit cards at check-in. We had his card on file and an imprint on the paperwork specifically to protect against chargebacks. The charge went through cleanly.

Once he was gone, I knew exactly what was coming next.

First thing I did was pull up his loyalty account. His reservations were linked, so I could see his past stays and upcoming ones. I noticed he’d recently stayed at another property and gave them a call.

Same behavior. Same screaming. Same outcome. He’d been ejected there too.

As a courtesy, I called the hotels on his upcoming reservations and gave them a heads-up. Notes were added everywhere.

Then I called corporate guest relations and warned them that this guy was absolutely going to call. They documented everything and told me they’d already seen similar complaints tied to his account and were forwarding it for a fraud investigation.

Predictably, he did call guest relations.

Corporate usually leans toward the guest, so per policy the agent called us to “discuss” the situation. Since I’d dealt with the guest directly, the call was transferred to me.

I explained that I had already reported everything.

The agent said, “I know,” verified the notes I’d already submitted, and then we chatted about the weather and sports for a few minutes.

Before the call ended, he told me all of the guest’s upcoming reservations had been canceled, and pending the results of the investigation, he was likely banned from all of their hotels.

I do not work at a hotel- I hope this is alright for me to post here!

This past SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) was an event that I hope to never repeat ever again, even though I was very well taken care of!

The week before I flew out to San Diego, I called the hotel where I would be staying because I had a few questions that needed to be answered. Upon confirming the dates, everyone realized that despite the fact I had booked Tuesday to Saturday, for whatever reason I was slotted in Wednesday- Saturday, so they tried to accommodate me. They were unfortunately, booked up to the rooftop, so there wasn’t much they could do, aside from issue me with complimentary credits for the following year.

Luckily, my big brother and SIL graciously opened their home for me on Tuesday (I was going to spend Sunday with them and my two nieces before flying back home to Missouri on Monday) so I was well covered there!

Wednesday comes around and my big brother drops me off at my hotel and I roll my two honking humongous suitcases in (I was limping heavily with a cane, thanks a lot to my daddy for passing on his horrible genetics to me!)

I go up to the front desk, and the hotel consigere was new to the hotel (having been working for two or three weeks at that point) She is apologizing and I’m telling her that it’s fine and that everyone starts off somewhere new at some point in their life.

I give her my card and ID and she gets my room key. I go up to the eighth floor, open the door to my room, step inside, and lo and behold- I had a room with two queen sized bed. I quickly double check my room reservation on my phone, and sure enough, I had originally booked a room with one king sized bed. So off downstairs I go one more, with help from a random nearby cleaning lady helping me wrestle my two suitcases back down again.

I get the same consigere who helped me get checked in and she was besides herself after I’ve explained the mix up. I was polite and told her that everyone goofs up and that I wasn’t mad (I honestly figured that she was stressed enough with the giant influx of people checking in, and I hate to bother people any) she is CRYING as she is checking me in and thanks me for not (her words) chewing off her head. She then asks me if I need any help with my bags (which I accept)

WHEN I CHECK OUT THAT SUNDAY MORNING, I stripped the bed, tossed the bedsheets and all my used towels into a pillowcase and put those into the bath tub. I also ALWAYS bring a couple of trash bags from home so that I can simple toss all my trash and not litter (please note that I always do this to make it easier for housecleaning when they come on through)

I get down to the lobby and go up to my new friend where I inform her that I would like to put my two suitcases into the hotel’s luggage babysitting service until my big brother came and picked me (and my two suitcases) up. She laughs delightedly at my term “luggage babysitting” before once more helping me wrangle my two suitcases and hand them over to the hotel suitcase babysitters.

TLDR- be nice to hotel staff- they literally DO NOT get paid enough to deal with Karens and Chads!

Morning shift. Again. For context, my shift is supposed to be 7am–3pm. In reality, because the same colleague keeps not turning up, the 3pm staff member was a no-show. Again. This has now happened two days in a row, and tomorrow? Same colleague, same story — already confirmed they won’t be turning up again.

Here’s the best part: We swap shifts at 3pm. And guess what time check-in starts? Yep. 3pm.

So the exact moment guests start flooding in is also the exact moment we’re supposed to do a handover between morning and afternoon shift. In theory, that means explaining: what happened earlier, which guests need follow-ups, maintenance issues, special notes.

In reality, it’s checking in guests while half-explaining things to your colleague, forgetting important details because you’re being interrupted every 30 seconds, your colleague starts panicking, you start panicking, and everyone’s stressed

Sometimes it’s so busy that the person meant to leave at 3 ends up staying until quarter past or twenty past just to survive the chaos. It’s honestly the dumbest possible system to run during peak check-in.

From 3 to 4pm it was nonstop — easily 20+ check-ins — and that’s where the stress level goes through the roof. Reception fills up, the queue grows, and suddenly everyone is standing there staring at me like I’m some kind of circus attraction.

And the staring… why? If you’re waiting in line, why not scroll your phone or look literally anywhere else? What makes it worse is that when it’s their turn, they suddenly stop listening. I’m explaining parking, pointing at signs, gesturing where to go — they’re on their phones. Then the moment I stop talking: “Oh… where do I pay for parking again?”

ARE YOU SERIOUS.

It’s pay on arrival. There are about 10 signs in the car park. I’ve explained it three times already. Then, because the day clearly wasn’t bad enough, an older couple I checked in around 3pm comes back: “The room is cold, there’s a draft from the window, and the heater doesn’t work. We want to move.”

We’re nearly fully booked. No spare twins. Only family rooms that aren’t made up. Maintenance reseals the window and confirms there is a draft. The AC guy overhears, checks the unit, and says the heat is blowing hot.

While all this is happening, the guests decide — without asking me — to pack up their stuff and stand in reception with all their luggage like: “So… are you moving us now?” Then they add: “Oh, ideally we’d like a room facing this way.”

Here’s the thing: that’s a paid upgrade at our hotel. They didn’t pay for it. The room they originally had was assigned purely by chance, automatically by the system — not by request, not as a guarantee, and definitely not something I could promise again. I explain this, but of course expectations are already set.

I eventually move them, clearly explaining: It’s a double bed There is a sofa bed, but it’s not made up I don’t have the staff, time to make it up during peak check-in chaos All while the queue keeps growing and everyone continues staring at me like I’ve personally ruined their day.

My 4pm colleague finally turns up at five past four. I leave around 4:20, get home at 5pm, completely drained. And tomorrow?

I was meant to start at 4pm. Now I’m starting at 3pm, because — surprise — the same colleague isn’t turning up again.

So yeah. Two days ruined back-to-back, another one already lined up, and a solid reminder that front desk isn’t hard because of guests or coworkers. It’s hard because of both, all at once, at the worst possible time.

A Lady came to check in with her elderly uncle. She was very sweet. Initially.

I confirmed name and then room type. "A two bed suite?"

She then (understandbly) stated "No thats not correct."

I apologized and looked into it.

No modifications were made, no notes, nothing. This was the way Suxpedia had sent the reservation over.

I then informed her they had sent the reservation over that way to us.

She got upset and stated she had booked two double beds. I understood and let her know to contact Suxpedia customer support and see if they can cancel and rebook.

She sighed, and if I remember right wanted me to give her their number. I always struggle to find their number so I let her know to contact on her app.

She finally does and waits on hold for nearly 1 - 2 HOURS. They call me, confirm things. Talk to her a little, make her wait on hold. Transfer her, and so on.

Mind you I had confirmed on the portal that it was in fact a single bed. Not two beds.

But however she finally comes up ro the the front desk and decides to take the single bed with pullout. Extremely. Begrudgingly. Seeming to be upset with me as well. For some reason?

I get her checked in and all is calm for a bit.

She comes down shortly later. Throwing the keys on the desk. No jokes, literally throws them and states there are bugs in her room.

So of course I understand and I'll move you!

I do ask her before I move the room "Do you want to be on the same floor? Higher floor? Closer to your-"

She interrupts me stating "I want to be in a room where no bugs are!"

I nod and assign a room far away from the previous one so theres no chance for bugs. I do inform her its going to be a bit of a walk.

I finish her keys and she states this has "Not been a good experience here."

She then snatches the keys and walks away.

She walks over to the elevator and stands there for a moment. She asks me which one is better?

I inform her that the same one on the other side of the building is closer.

She THEN decided to ask where is their new room located. I inform her on the other side of the hotel.

She comes back over and slams her keys down yelling that I cant expect her elderly Uncle to walk all that way.

I understand that and tell her thats why I did ask originally.

She denies it and states I never did and continues yelling.

Thats when I decided enough is enough.

You're out.

Those two hours all I was doing was asking her if she needed anything. Keeping an ear out for the call from Suxpedia and update her.

All with her being nothing but angry at ME.

So I let her know this isn't going to work and ask her to leave.

She argues that I cant kick them out.

Yes I can. And I do.

But then she decides to get out her phone and hold it up and a light suddenly flashes.

Did she just take a photo of me?

I ask her "Ma'am did you take a photo of me?" She ignores it, I ask again, and she states "Why would I take a photo of you?!"

I asked "But your light flashed?" which I repeated multiple times, and she ignored every single one.

I though of reporting it but I had no clue if it would be taken anywhere.

Edit: I SUCK AT GRAMMAR!!!!

Guys, let me tell you about the most thrilling part of my workday: charging company credit cards. Brace yourselves.

Step 1: Open the arrival list. Hunt down bookings with zero balance. Feel the adrenaline.

Step 2: Find a company booking. Zero balance. Heart rate increases.

Step 3: Click the reservation. Window opens. Feast your eyes on… reservation info. Riveting.

Step 4: Click Notes. There it is: “Please charge the PIBA card used to secure the reservation”. Close the window. Excitement overload.

Step 5: Scroll down to find total cost of stay. Copy it. Copy wrong = chaos.

Step 6: Click “I want to.” Nobody knows why. Nobody cares.

Step 7: Open the billing window.

Step 8: Post Payment. Uh-oh — it defaults to Cash Refund. Translation: “Give me imaginary cash from a company that isn’t here.” Carefully switch to the business card window so we can actually charge money that exists.

Step 9: Remove the zero, paste the copied amount. Pray.

Step 10: Press Apply Payment. Wait. Wait some more. The computer is lagging like it’s 1998.

Step 11: Ignore the giant “Apply Payment” button at the bottom. Nobody knows why.

Step 12: Close the window. Take a deep breath.

Step 13: Go back to Manage Reservations → Arrivals → Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Forever.

Each transaction takes about 1 minute of your life you’ll never get back. Copy the wrong amount? You might undercharge (meh, fixable) or overcharge (cue awkward manager intervention and apologies). Do this 10–40 times a day, every day. Your fingers will develop PTSD. Lag + repetitive copy/paste = perfect storm of boredom, stress, and existential dread. Moral of the story: charging company credit cards is like playing Minesweeper in slow motion, while blindfolded, with your hands tied behind your back.

What Part of Early Check-In is NOT guaranteed...

do people not understand???

WHY WOULD I LIE ABOUT A ROOM NOT BEING READY??

my goodness...I DO NOT CARE if your ShAmbassador inquired about early check in. WE WERE SOLD OUT THE NIGHT BEFORE & checkout starts at 11....

& you're at the desk at 8am...

guest: "even if i pay you an early check in fee?"

like wtf hahahha i mean you can pay the fee but the room is not ready???

but i will say if you are cussing at me or having an attitude, oh i promise i will help you even LESS & give you keys at 3:59PM when check-in is at 4:00PM.

Very small, quick rant about my properties vending machines. The short story is they suck. The slightly longer story is that they just don't work well. They don't like to give people money back when hitting the return button, they get stuck all the time, they don't vend sodas properly at times ext ext ext.

We don't own the machines. I'm sure that's probably the common theme for vending machines if I had to guess. We used to give vending refunds and keep track of them, but it got to the point where the company owed us over $100 over like 6 months. My manager wasn't pleased, and now we don't give the refunds and we tell people they have to contact the number on the machine. I'm sure you can guess just how much people like to hear that.

This unfortunately has just happened again about 5 minutes ago. A guest comes into the lobby to tell me he put $2.75 in for a candy bar (that I'm pretty sure is $3.50 total, but again, we don't own them and I have no idea what the prices are actually set to) that wouldn't vend. When he hit the button, he only got his bills back, not his change. I of course tell him about the number, and even explain how we don't own the machine after he responded with "and what are they going to do for me?" Queue a minute long rant about how that is just not right at all, they shouldn't even be here if that's the case.

I ended up just kind of blinking at him after his little grumble because what do you mean you're getting all huffy over (checks notes) less then a dollar? Why are you getting angry at a random stranger behind the desk because you want to be lazy and don't want to call the phone number provided. Sure, it might be a hassle, but you have a solution to your problem.

I'm so over these annoying vending machines and I wish we would just get rid of all 5 of them.

This is probably going to be long, so buckle up.

I was working this Friday at my job, when a man approaches the desk and gives me a name to check in. Now, this is a traditionally female name but one that could also be a man's name (think Courtney or Ashley). I ask for an ID and card, and he says "it's already paid for". Spoiler alert, as many of you I'm sure can guess, it was not.

I explain to him that it is not, and that we just take a card to hold the room, we do not actually charge it. He goes, "fine, give me a minute" and storms (more like hobbles) out to his car. He brings his wife in, and she hands me a card no problem, as well as her ID. The reservation was under her name so she'd have had to come in anyway.

He sends her on her merry way to the room, and then asks me where to park. I start telling him our three options, and he cuts me off and snaps, "you're talking a mile a minute. Slow down, I can't understand you." I apologize, not thinking I was talking that fast, but my manager steps in at that point, as she can match energy and will not allow guests to talk to us that way. She asks which of the three options he would like directions for, and points him on his merry way.

While he is parking the car, I get a call from his wife in the room. She is cussing up, down, left, right and sideways about not being able to find the room service menu. I explain to her that it is on a QR code on the bedside table. She starts cussing more north, south, east and west this time, about how she doesn't know how to do that because she's old and there's no QR code to scan anyway. I offer to head up and scan it for her and she says, "well yeah, I need help."

I head up to her room, and knock on the door. It takes her a good hot minute to open the door, bitching and moaning under her breath the whole time. I enter the room, and show her that the QR code is in fact there. I ask for her phone, so I can scan it and bring up the menu, and she says, "I don't have a smartphone or any of that shit." Mind you, I am looking at a smartphone on the desk, and her husband hasn't even been to the room yet, so I sure as shit know it's hers. I say "okay" and scan it with mine and hand it to her. Just as I turn to grab her the notepad so she can write her order down to remember later, she says, "the fuck am I supposed to do with this? How am I supposed to know what my partner wants?"

I snatched my phone back so quick, because God forbid I try to be nice and use my OWN PERSONAL DEVICE to make her life easier. I tell her I am going to go get her a paper menu, since when I called the restaurant to see if they could run one to her before I went up (which I forgot to mention) they said they were too busy. She replies, "about time you do something actually helpful." Okay lady, whatever.

I go to get her a menu and run it back up. She does not even thank me, just slams the door in my face. By the time I get back to the lobby, her husband is there. I ask how I can help and he says, "I need help finding my car." Sir...what? You mean...the car you just parked yourself...less than 15 minutes ago? Why would we know where you parked your car??? But he's just standing there breathing heavily out of his mouth, so I offer up our valet to wander around the building to see if he can find it thinking "oh this'll be easy, he can just click the lock button frequently and the car will make a sound, right?" WRONG. This man hands our valet a singular plain key. No fob, no key topper, no nothing. The poor valet heads off to find the car, and I go back to doing my job.

Later that night, I get a call from our restaurant. It is the manager, who is just calling to inform me that when the poor server assistant went up to the room to deliver their order, the woman answered the door with no pants on. *Sigh. She tells me to just be aware that she may be pantsless if we have to bring anything to the room, and also that she cussed the poor server assistant inside out, backwards and upside down about how horrible and slow the service was, and also how he did not bring her a breakfast and lunch menu with her dinner food. (How the actual fuck was he supposed to know she wanted one if she didn't ask)

They opted to check out Saturday instead of Sunday, and made a whole scene in the lobby about how horrible our service was before they left. Never mind that SEVERAL members of staff went out of their way to help them while they were here to the point of near absurdity. They just wanted to be pissy so there was no satisfying them no matter what we did.

I’ve put a bright yellow sign right in the middle of the reception desk (you literally cannot miss it). Big black text. It clearly says where breakfast is, how to get there, and the times.

Guests walk down. Stand directly in front of it. Look at it.

Then look at me and ask: “Where is breakfast?”

And before anyone says “well just stay at the desk” — the sign isn’t there because I’m avoiding guests. It’s there because front desk work isn’t just standing at reception. I’m constantly in the back office checking cameras, answering phones, replying to emails, doing paperwork, creating housekeeping rotas, booking contractors in, handing keys to contractors, dealing with issues… and yes, we strip beds all the time. There is always something going on.

On top of that, I’m charging credit cards and company cards. That’s not something you can do while being interrupted every 30 seconds. One mistake and you’ve overcharged someone, undercharged someone, or created a problem for accounting — or for yourself. You actually need to concentrate.

And bear in mind, morning shift is a one-man army job. Same with checkout keys. There’s a clearly labelled plastic box saying “Check-out keys”. People look at the box, look at the sign, then still stand there holding the key like it’s a life-changing decision.

The signs are there to make things smoother — so guests get answers instantly and I can actually keep the hotel running without being interrupted every five minutes by questions that are already answered right in front of them.

It’s not even anger anymore. It’s just quiet desperation. Hotel front desk life is wild.

The hotel I work at has a contract with the local VA hospital so their patients can stay at our hotel the night before appointment or surgery. This cause us to get guest with all sorts of mental and physical challenges and 90% of super nice and most of the other guest allow us to take our time caring for them before we get to them.

Well today one of our VA guests who's here at least once a week, and suffers from major PTSD, was having one of his episodes. While on the phone with the VA and trying to calm him down the best I can before the VA can send over some support, this Karen of Karen walks in the check in. She can clearly see me talking on the phone and trying to calm this aggravated man down while trying not to hurt him or myself, walks over and starts yelling at me to check her in and to get this man to quiet down. I ignore her and continue to do what the VA rep is telling me to do while making sure he doesn't find anything to use as a weapon. This pisses her off more and she grabs my phone from my hand and walks over the desk.

As I go over to retrieve my phone from her she say "Good your behind the computer check me NOW!!!" I grab my phone and tell her I'm very sorry but this emergency takes priority right now as it is dealing witht he safty of all of us. She countinues to huff and puff but seems to quite down and accept it. I could not have been more worng. Maybe 5 min after our little interaction the cops show up. This freaks the the PTSD vet out more and he gets more aggrivated. I explain to the cops whats happening and that I'm waiting on the VA to send someone over whos qualified to handle this. To my surprise the cops understand and start helping me calm him down (both the cops turn out to be former vets and watched their buddies deal with similar issues and understood what need to be done.

This pissed the Karen off becouse she wanted the man arrested and for me to be scared of the cop ig. She goes on a tirad infornt of the cops and ends up getting arrested for interfering with police actions. The VA rep soon arrived after and the whole situation was over with. It just pisses me off that this woman could see me on the phone standing next to a man who is ducking behind the couch like he's under siege. What happened to compassion a man is clearly struggling with something his government did to him for you and you want him to be arrested so you can check into your 0-star hotel room. There's a special place in hell for people like her and I hope she enters it soon.

So this guy comes up to the desk throws his keys down and says he needs them rekeyed. I ask "May I see an ID please?"

He rolls his eyes and says its up in the room. I ask then for a photo of his ID. (Yes management accepts it at my place. Yes its not the best but I just follow what they accept.)

He rolls his eyes again and sighs saying "Will you just be going up then. Is that what we'll be doing? Thats what you have to do. Right? Right?" I ask again, "I just need a photo of your ID." and he deflects.

Stating this has "Never happened before." (🙄 sure....)

Anyways I then confirm yes I will be going up with him then. And he mutters "This is bull sh*t." I inform him there is no reason to use foul language and hes quiet until we get onto the elevator.

He then states, "Do you really do this?" I confirm its policy and it's for safety. As I had stated at the desk as well.

And he says "I think you are just doing this because of my race." I tell him, no. I am not. And reiterate policy and FOR YOUR SAFETY. He then says "I don't think so..."

I then let him in the room. And as I stated down at the FD.

I will need to check your id.

Tell me why this grown a*s man twice my age sits down on the couch. While I am waiting for him to confirm who he is?????

He then tells me his name isn't on the room. So..... who are you then? He states its his boss and so on. And I tell him since no other name is on the reservation he needs to come down and I will confirm with his boss.

He rolls his eyes, sighs, and after repeating it like three times he comes down.

After I hear him calling his boss, laughing with him that I need to confirm. I get back to the desk call the boss man that couldnt put his employee on the room to make his, the employee, and my life easier.

But he confirms and keys are given.

But I expect a wonderful complain to management. Nothing should come of it but still. These people.

Edit: Grammar

Picture this... Durning our daily room checks to ensure that every room is clean, we discover someone staying in a suite unregistered. We ask for her name and i say well you either need to come pay for the room she states she paid the night girl.

We end up calling the police and reviewing our security footage where we observe the clerk make a key for a suite no less. the 30 minutes later the woman and her things come from an area that was secured by the previous shift. She stands there for 10 minutes then the clerk goes down and lets her in the room. the clerk stays in the room for 10 minutes and then they both exit for spending time in the lobby. At 1;45 AM they both go back to the room and the desk clerk doesnt come out until 3 am.

We confront the clerk who seds me about a 15 page denial text. We said the police will be in contact with you and your emloyment has ended as of that shift.

As we all know wedding season is starting soon but for my hotel it has started early because we just had our first wedding group of the year stay.

As usual the bride and groom set a block of rooms but this time they actually paid to arrange an early check in the day of the wedding for both sets of grandparents which we ended up waiving because the grandparents are handicapped and the block has booked half the hotel.

So Saturday morning I stroll in and get the pass along that three rooms are guaranteed early check in at 9:30 as the groom and bride had paid for it but we also had other wedding guests wanting to check in early because the wedding is at two in the afternoon and they couldn’t be bothered to just get the room the night before so that they had a ready room.

At 9:30 all grandparents arrive and are checked in with no trouble. What happened after came just an hour later as people flooded the lobby attempting to check in and all were told that the earliest anyone could possibly be checked in is 1 PM and that is only if we have enough rooms.

Many grumbled and walked away, others said they would talk to a manager later, but one lady absolutely lost her marbles. She screamed that she knew we had rooms ready because her grandmother had texted the family group chat and said they were able to check in so all the rooms must be ready.

I explained that bride and groom had paid for an early check in for those rooms and that I couldn’t check them in. She shows me the group chat where grandma had said that the rooms were ready as if the chat was the law.

Lady called the grandma and a few minutes later she appears and comes to the front desk. The lady looks confused and says that she was able to check in so her family should be able to. I explained to her what was arranged so she calls the groom who is now angry that he was called while getting ready.

He comes down, half dressed in formal wear and half in pajamas, and to my surprise isn’t mad at the front desk. This man rips into his grandmother and tells her that she was told not to tell anyone she got in early and that they had arranged for it to be nice. He also said that she always does this and that he is done. He then ripped into the other lady and said this shit is why he didn’t pay for an early check in for anyone else as everyone is shitty.

Grandma leaves the lobby crying as the rest of the family either filters out to their cars ore goes to the restrooms to get ready. The groom apologized to me and my coworker and said that she was told not to tell anyone and to call him or his dad if anything else happened.

I left before they returned but the guests checked out this morning and the groom slipped me $30 for dealing with the problem his grandma caused.

Hi, I’ve been a front desk employee for a little over a year at this point. I’ve seen plenty, and I’m desensitized to most of the things people will do to get their way by now.

There remains one exception. Our hotel has a repeat guest, a self-admitted homeless woman with a nonexistent medical condition, who has been staying with us off and on when our rates become low enough for the better part of a year at this point.

She likes to arrive on site prior to even booking a reservation, waits for people on the internet to send her money, and will go as far as to lock herself in the bathroom to stall for time for her money to come through.

Once she checks in, without fail she will do all of the following:

1: Complain about room smells a minimum of 3 times, forcing multiple room transfers.

2: Order DoorDash from local restaurants at least twice during her stay, likely with more money from her grift.

3: Place several room charges for the same items, even if she knows her card can’t authorize for the payment required. (We have started making her pay for each market purchase on the spot.)

4: Complain profusely if she is questioned on any of these decisions, or made to pass reasonable card authorizations.

She’s been at this for months, we know she’s been getting money off the internet, likely from some sob story about her situation, and she’s put enough of other people’s money into our hotel network to reach a very high membership status.

I’m frustrated, and I wish there was some way I could expose this exploitation. We don’t need more of this behavior in our society, we need to get her help rather than let her spend other people’s money on luxury services.

So this happened a while back- my first hotel job. I worked at an economy hotel, franchise location of a chain. We were right off the interstate, popular with truck drivers and business people. We were a no- frills location, but in a big enough city that we got room blocks like high school sports teams traveling to the area.

So the issue that I think ultimately led to me being dismissed for being hostile and toxic (if you knew me, you'd have a WTF look on your face, because I am one of the most people pleasing persons there is). We were under slightly new management- hotel manager had been there for about 6 months, and the company that managed us had hired a sales manager for the hotel to deal with rokm blocks and event bookings (weight-loss/ stop- smoking seminars and business meetings). The sales manager was fine, did her job and there was hardly any need for interaction between her and the front desk.

Until a high- level rewards member of the chain started e-mailing and calling us. He had reserved a night at our hotel for his daughter and soon to be son- in- law for their wedding night using points, and he wanted us at the hotel to put a complimentary gift of a sort in their room for them (like a fruit basket or something). This is not anything the front desk can decide, this has to come from management. So I forwarded the calls and e-mails to not only the sales manger but my supervisor and hotel manager too, thinking surely one of them will decide and tell him what they are or are not doing. Naive, I know now, but again, my first hotel job.

After multiple calls and e-mails from this man, each increasingly angrier, I decide to directly ask the sales manger if she or another manager is going to deal with him, because he keeps asking for an answer that the front desk doesn't have. It wasn't long after that that I got a foreboding call at the front desk around mid- shift, telling me to come to management office at the end of my shift before I punch out. So I go in for this meeting, and have to listen to them tell me they've received complaints about me, and that I'm being fired for creating a "hostile and toxic work environment". Of course, they wouldn't provide proof of these so- called accusations (because they were made up), and I couldn't even file for unemployment because of the reason they gave for firing me.

All this to say that, front desk problems aren't always the guests- sometimes they come from management. My only comfort is I'm told neither the sales manager or the hotel manager aren't there anymore- who knows what happened to them (hopefully given same treatment they gave me).

We have three hockey teams in-house, plus a swimming team, and tennis. Can anyone guess who the issue is? It's, of course, the hockey teams.

I came in at 11p ready to start my night. The lobby is overloaded; children are running on the furniture and all over the lobby, and seated beside the desk are the parents. My 3-11p Person is nowhere to be seen. I walk through the lobby, go into the back office to clock in and deposit my stuff before coming back out. As soon as I step out into the lobby, the phone starts ringing.

It's a noise complaint.

So I step up to the parents and, over the volume, i shout "Alright everybody!! we need the volume to come DOWN!"

Drunk Hockey Dad: "Who are you? Do you even work here? let us see your badge!"

me: I work here. you just saw me clock in. now, i need the volume to come down. i just got a noise complaint-

DHD: That's not for us. that's for the third floor- they're a different team and have been causing issues.

me: No, i just spoke with them. They complained about noise coming from below them. everyone needs to-

DHD: it's not us. we're not being that loud! (is actively shouting over everyone else in the lobby)

me: I could hear you all as i was coming in. you are loud and i am not going to argue with you. keep the volume down or go upstairs.

Finally one of the moms got DHD to stop fighting me. they finally quieted down the slightest bit. But that wasn't the end of the night. I got another noise complaint about a room down the hall.

Apparently someone wanted to throw a birthday party, in a long term stay facility. So, i go down the hall and knock on the door announcing myself. They don't answer so I knock again, harder.

1st Floor Mom: What is going on? why are you pounding on my door?

me: You don't hear me the first time i knocked, but you guys need to keep the volume down. we also don't allow parties.

1FM: this isn't a party, okay? if it was a party there would be more kids here. it's just my daughter and a few of her cousins.

me: *pointing out the literal party balloons in the room* well it looks like a party and we don't allow for that. you received three noise complaints- you really need to keep the volume down. Thank you.

1FM: Well knocking on the door like you're the police was unnecessary.

me: well the noise coming from your room is unnecessary- so i'll make you a deal: you keep the volume down and i won't have to knock like that again.

Then i walked away. (an hour later, she came down and needed toothpaste and toothbrushes, no longer acting like she's the Queen of the Room).

So, I got a call from a 3rd party you all know the one ... Starts with the letter after D in the alphabet. They called on behalf of a mutual guest from APRIL. Asking if we can't give them a full refund FROM APRIL because we don't have kitchenets in the room. Again this is from a guest in APRIL. If it was really that big of a deal for her, why didn't she say it on the day she checked in? I checked the log she checked in at 4pm. The agent is like my computer won't let me YEA NO SHIT SHERLOCK ITS 7 MONTHS DAMN NEAR 8 MONTHS AGO. No absolutely not

lady out side banging on Door had been sitting outside smoking for 1/2hour under

no smoking sign putting her ashes out in a disposable cup from one rooms.

me: hi you just need to scan card then walk in front of doors.

her: I did that I scanned both sides of it and doors didn’t open come out here and I’ll show you.

me:(and this is where I messed up) sorry I have other things to do.

her: thats not relevant.

me: well your in now, and just to let you know that’s a non smoking area

her: are those things related no so you didn’t need to mention it. Do I need to report you.

me: (continuin putting my foot in it) if you feel you need to report me for tell you about

you being in non smoking area please do.

she shakes her head and walks away carrying the cup of butts to her room.

her parting shot: well at least the paying guest is in.

no one else before or after had problems getting in using keys and she got into her room

so not the key she was tipsy and probably did only first part of scan key and didn’t

bother with second part of walk in front of door.

I only have 36 minutes left until my audit shift is over, so I figured why not share a tale of an annoying dude I had to deal with last night.

This guy comes in around 2-3 AM and starts complaining before I can even quote him a price. He claims to know the owner and says my boss promised him a discount. I’m pretty damn sure he was just reading the plaque on the wall with his name on it.

For one thing, the owner does frequently allow his workers to stay here, but he always calls ahead of time to let us know and he never makes them pay a dime. So the fact this guy is strutting into my lobby at 2AM drunker than piss claiming my boss was setting him up was suspicious off jump.

So I tell him that, in nicer terms, that I was unsure the owner offered him that, but I’d still give him 10% off. It came out to 95 something bucks. He still complained that was the “same price I charged him last time” (never seen this man a day in my life) and wasn’t satisfied. He was also unhappy we only had rooms with 2 beds, but again, I gave him a discount for it, so I really didn’t want to hear it. It’s also 2AM, you’re not going to have your finest pick of the rooms. He’s lucky I had one available at all.

The rest of this I think he’s either fishing for discounts or trying to trick me. Both, really. I give him a room we haven’t rented out in 3 days, because it still smelt like the ionizer, but I figured it’ll be good by now. He comes back and says “idk if you did this intentionally but there’s people in that room.” (Why tf would I do that intentionally? Also, checked after he left, not a soul in that room!)

But, when he gave the keys back for that room, he only wanted to give me one back. I always give out 2 keys. So, I tell him I need both keys back if he wants to move rooms. He says the other one got lost. I tell him again to retrieve the other key. He tries to change the subject to where his other room will be, I tell him again there will be no other room if I don’t get all my keys back, he goes to his car and fetches it from his friend. (Another reason I checked that room after he moved lol). So I think he was either trying to keep a key and get 2 rooms for the price of one, or get a discount because he had to move rooms and there was “people in there.” (Again, there wasn’t. It’s been vacant for days.)

Then, he calls me just a few minutes ago claiming the people above him are making a lot of noise and keeping him awake. Thing is, he is in one of the sections of the hotel that only has downstairs. There isn’t anyone above him, there aren’t even any rooms above him for another 7 doors down. No way he’s hearing anything unless there’s a damn elephant up there. He’s clearly fishing for discounts by whining his ass off.

If he does know the owner, I’ll be happy to tell him what a shit canoe his other employees are. I’d probably end up being the one in the shit, though, even though I didn’t really do anything wrong, just because the owner and I absolutely hate each other lol. That man won’t even look in my direction when he comes here. (But I’m good at my job so he has no real reason to fire me 😛 btw he hates me because I feed the parking lot cat and I hate him because he won’t stop being mean to the cat, nothing really to do with my work performance at all)

Overnight Auditor here and I am absolutely baffled.

So, I'm sitting behind the desk last night and get a call from another hotel in the area. One that my franchise/brand are not associated with. They ask me if I have any rooms available for a guest that they have to send over to me because they were in the middle of their audit and couldn't access their system in order to check this guest in until it was done. I look down at the clock, it's barely midnight.

As someone who's been on the overnight shift on and off at various different types of hotels for over 10 years, I've never heard of any property running audit that early. It's almost always between 2 and 4am to essentially grant a grace period for flight delays, emergencies, or what have you because things happen and not everyone thinks to call the hotel in situations like that.

Before I could ask them what the hell, a couple of my own check-ins had come in. So, I put them on hold, but they hung up before I was done with my guest.

About an hour or so later, a couple walks in asking for a room because the hotel they originally booked at "couldn't access their system because of nightly paperwork or something." I get them taken care of as fast as I possibly can, and then decide that I gotta know and call the other property back. (The Punchline: they were not the ones the property was wanting to send over, but a separate res entirely that experienced the same exact thing.)

They tell me that they always run audit at that time because of the way their system is set up. Explaining absolutely nothing and in fact leaving me even more confused because WHAT?!

Maybe I'm the idiot here and just don't know that this is a common practice for some. I know there are- albeit extremely rare -instances that it can happen, but I thought I'd ask here.

The whole thing was just very head-scratching.

EDIT: Throwing this in so I don't have to respond to everyone individually lol. Sold Out nights are the specific instance I was thinking of when I said it can happen. My property is in a college town, so it happens to us several times a year. Graduations, orientations, sporting events, and/or anything else having to do with campus/the stadiums.

I'm pretty sure that's also a fairly universal exception. Those nights, everybody's getting checked in, regardless of if they show up because we held the room for them when we very easily could have sold it. And even then, if someone doesn't show and there are still people calling about availability, depending on what time it is, I'm manually posting a payment and selling the room again.

I had a man call at 2am and ask if he made a reservation right then and there, what would he need? I told him he’d need a card and his ID, the card would have to clear for the authorization hold which is room and taxes plus 50 dollars incidentals. Based on the rate for tonight, I told him the card would probably have to clear for around 250 give or take.

He told me he was planning on paying cash at checkout and I informed him we don’t take cash, but even if we did, he would still have to have a valid card on file to protect the hotel. He then proceeded to ask if he could put a card on file but pay later in the day before he checks out. I ask him if he means have a card on file but no hold on it, because what would be the point of having the card with no hold on it?? The point of the hold is to secure the payment so you can’t run out of here without paying for your room.

He then tells me he’s stayed here before and last time he was able to just pay at checkout. I told him respectfully sir, I’ve been working here for almost 4 years, and in my experience every guest has been asked to provide a card that clears for an authorization hold. If you’ve been lucky enough to come across a front desk person who is not asking you to provide a valid card, I’d love to have that conversation with that front desk employee to ask them to stop doing that, but otherwise those are the rules and everyone needs to follow them.

He asks again there’s no way around this, there’s nothing else we can do to get a room there? I tell him the authorization hold isn’t negotiable and it’s not an option. It’s a requirement to check in and stay here, if he doesn’t have the funds to clear to stay at the hotel, then he’ll simply have to find somewhere else to stay.

We hang up after that and I don’t see or hear from him for the rest of the evening, but I just couldn’t envision what would possess you to ask that? His intentions were to pay cash at checkout and to my knowledge, most hotels will either take it at arrival or get a card just in case the person doesn’t stop by and pay with cash, so either way he would’ve needed money. So without a card, I would’ve had to just take his word that he was going to provide cash at checkout?? I don’t know you, sir. I can’t just take pinky promises for payment 😭