The Poster

I am a front desk agent and I am collecting stories of my time as a front desk agent and fellow front desk agent stories, enjoy.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Colors make a difference. - Miss Agent

For those who don't know this; each hotel has a rewards program with levels that they honor. Hotels such as Marriott, Best Western, Comfort Inns, Red Lion, Hiltons and many more have this type of program. The Levels are commonly built in the same fashion; basic, middle, higher and highest. Now, when it comes to usage; the highest spend about 21% plus of their year in hotels due to travel. That, that is a lot of time! Anyway, I have a few stories involving lower levels acting like higher levels and higher levels apologizing for the way the lower levels acted towards me.


So the way I will talk about the levels of my hotel is by colors. Basic will be Brown, middle will be Maroon, higher will be Red and highest will be Purple (just because purple is my favorite color). with this knowledge everyone (all one of you) will be able to understand my stories.

The first story has a gentleman who will be called "Mr. Dog" for the reason that will become clear in a matter of moments. Mr. Dog walks in and is using his credits to stay at the hotel without paying. I check him in and as he's walking away he tells me, “I have my dog with me.” My response to this new information was, “Well, I do have to have you sign a pet police form and the cleaning fee is one hundred dollars, which is non-refundable.” Now before you type comments with dropped jaws, understand this; my hotel rooms are filled with stuff and people tend to stay for no less than a week. The one hundred dollars covers however long you stay with your pet; one day, three months or even a year. Mr. Dog is a Red, so he stays in hotels quite a bit. He stopped in mid-step and was leaning over the counter in the blink of an eye. His face was almost cherry red with anger, “I've never paid that much for my dog to stay at a hotel!!” Apparently my polite response of, “It's hotel and brand policy, and that's how much it costs to steam clean the room after the pet has left.” Mr. Dog claimed that the same brand of hotel down in San Diego never charged him a pet fee. But when I asked him for the name of the hotel, he couldn't remember. With the new found information, he told me he'd be going out to talk to his family about it.
During his time gone, another guest showed up and asked me a few questions; around the fourth question Mr. Dog returned to the desk still red faced. He then blurted into my conversation, “I am a Red member of your rewards program, I should have the pet fee waved.” “I'm sorry sir, but the hotel policy is very clear that we need to have the room cleaned after the pet leaves to keep the room sanitized.” He than threw the room keys at me and said, “The hotel down the street will give me two queen beds and wave their pet fee for ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents. What do you think of that?!” I clicked three times in the computer than responded to him in a very nice tone, “You've been checked out of my hotel, no credits have been taking from your account and nothing will be charged to you.” Mad that I was so nice, he stormed out of the hotel. The person who had been asking me questions was present through the whole thing. This gentleman looked at me and said, “I'm a Purple and I don't act like that...” His annoyed look said enough for the both of us, the Red was a jerk and the Purple knew it.

The last story has a man who will go by Super Dad because this father is attempting to be super dad, which is an honorable thing... until the dad becomes an asshole. Not to brag but my hotel has nice rooms. One of the styles of rooms has two queen sized beds and a couch that pulls out into a full sized sofa bed; pretty cool huh? Well this room runs typically a very expensive price which Super Dad did pay for. He, his wife and three daughters were coming into town and had asked for a lot of extra things. All the requests were met; the extra towels, high floor, extra shampoo and conditioners. The only thing that we weren't able to meet was the request for the roll away bed, all seven were out on loan.
Super Dad and the family checked in with the morning shift who apparently didn't tell them they weren't getting a roll away bed. Eight in the evening came around and I was checking in a Purple who I see often, so she and I were talking when Super Dad flies into the lobby in a rage cutting off my light conversation. With an explosion of, “Why hasn't someone delivered my roll away yet?!” After a quick check of his reservation to see the note that was supposed to be told to him. “I'm so sorry that you weren't informed upon check in! We have all the roll away beds out on loan...” Before I could continue to inform him I had a possible solution for the problem, he decided to open his mouth, “I was guaranteed that I would have a roll away bed.” As you can tell dear reader, this was a request he had made. A request, request! I can't stress that enough and as a blank look moved across my face as I stared at the man; I asked him, “What was the name of the person who you spoke to when you made your reservation?”Since he didn't 'remember' the name; the thought went through my head that he was probably lying. For those who aren't front desk agents; if the front desk agent who booked your reservation makes a promise from you, take down their name. Because if you aren't able to... than you'll be thought of as a liar as I thought of this guy.
My blank stare read 'You're a liar', and he knew he was caught. In an attempt to cover himself and continue to be Super Dad he said, “I'm a Maroon, give me a roll away bed. Take it out of someone's room.” Again I gave him a blank stare while my Purple guest's mouth fell open. “No,” I started, “I will not take it out of someone's room when they're already using it. We meet all requests as best as we can but it is first come first served.” Again a shocked look came about but this time it was from Super Dad. “Oh...” was his only response as he left the desk. The Purple member, with her mouth still open, looked at me and said, “What is with Maroons thinking that they rule the chain? Purple's do not act like that. I'm so sorry he did that to you!” Aw sweet comfort knowing someone else thought he was an asshole.

1 comment:

  1. our pet policy is 20 dollars a day,, but not over 100$ and you wouldn't believe how many people don't want to pay.. they even go as far as telling me they keep their dog in a cage the whole time they are in the room, how cruel, or they tell me they dog never sheds..yeah sure..

    I get the guests that also try the 'I have stayed in hotels all over the US and I have never had this type of fee before,, does your owner know what you are doing.."

    they hate that I smile and ignore them and still charge them .

    ReplyDelete