A Front Desk Hotel Manager Dished the (Literal) Dirty Details of the Job ~ health and fitness,celebrity news,fashion blog,beauty women,whole foods,quotes about love

mardi 6 juin 2017

A Front Desk Hotel Manager Dished the (Literal) Dirty Details of the Job

People are weird. If you work the front desk at a hotel, you've probably seen things you can't unsee. From random sh*t being left behind after a guest checks out and difficult customers to the surprisingly kindhearted overnight traveler, things are usually pretty interesting. A front desk manager at a hotel did an AMA on Reddit, and they broke down the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the job. Read on for the dirty details.

What is the most disgusting situation or condition a guest has left their hotel room in?

"This one couple completely overloaded one of the rooms in baby powder. I'm not just talking one bottle either. It was like a Winter wonderland in there. It was horrible. Everything was coated in baby powder. Really weird. We ended up charging them $300 or so to clean it and have it be out of order while we clean it. Which honestly it cost us more than that because of labor cleaning and it not being able to sell the room for a few days."

If I'm staying at the hotel, how to get the best rate? Book online? Walk in? How much leeway do you have to reduce (or increase) rates based on how much you like or dislike the customer?

"I think it depends on property and management but at our location calling us is the best. Be polite and kind on the phone. So many people are rude you wouldn't believe it. Just early today I answered and gave my shpeel [sic] 'Thank you for calling . . . etc.' and this lady cut me off after me saying the 'for calling' part. She demanded a reservation. I ended up making a reservation for her that was $20 [more] than tonight's rate. On the other hand if you are nice and sincere I've often taken $20 off a room rate.

In your case it's not going to happen every time but if you make a habit of treating hospitality and service industry workers nicely they will reward you. There are too many sh*tty people out there for us not to want to help you. As a FDM and even our front desk associates have a lot of leeway in changing rates. We have a floor rate that we never go below but even that is sometimes 1/2 of what our nightly rate is depending on the night. I've often given people $100 off for various reasons."

What are reasons why a guest would get kicked out?

"We're pretty strict on policy. If you are disturbing other guests after we've asked you to quiet down we will probably ask you to leave. Or at least threaten to do so first and then force them out. If you're trying to 'cheat' the system (always needing to switch rooms, trying to get a free night, etc.) we will say something like 'I'm sorry but we obviously aren't able to accommodate you there is xyz hotel in town that might be able to.'"

What's the grossest thing you've come across?

"The housekeepers see the worst of it. Seriously. Some people are just disgusting. There was this one construction worker who must of inhaled something. I think he had already been in and out of a hospital but he was coughing up a murder scene worth of blood in his room/bathroom. They brought down some towels that we had to throw away because they were just saturated in blood. Pretty gross stuff. I probably don't know the half of what the housekeepers see week by week."

Worst child related experience and most stupid guest?

"The worst child-related experiences have all just been when their parents are stupid as f*ck. Letting their kids scream and run down hallways disturbing other guests and having to tell the parents multiple times that they need to quiet down or we'd have to ask them to leave. I never had to kick out a family because of their loud children but I've come close.

And the most stupid guest had to be when she (mid 20's) checked into our hotel under the assumption that our weekly rate was $120 per week. Not per night. My FDA told her that it was $120 per night as a weekly rate. (We're usually $150+) but if you stay for 7+ days we can cut deals. Anyways she came down later on first night complaining that credit card statement showed closer to $1000 instead of $120 for the authorization. She ended up staying that one night and left the next morning."

What is the most surprising thing a guest has done while staying at your hotel?

"Good question. A really nice surprise was this one time a few months ago a guest brought all some of the staff individual $50 gift cards to a really nice restaurant in town. I think he shelled out maybe $500 dollars in gift cards. Super nice guy, wealthy too apparently."

Do you get requests that are criminal in nature?

"We did have one guy who left his loaded hand gun here and asked if his 'uncle' could pick it up for him. We ended up just giving it to the police. Not sure what came out of that situation. Besides that I don't think so. There's definitely been some prostitutes who have come in I'm sure."

How do you get a free room?

"No."

mardi 6 juin 2017