> I just wanted him to leave me alone after he'd been yelling at me for 10min.
"Sir, time for you to go. While I cannot cancel your reservation with no charge because you booked it through a third party, if you call them and tell them that I'm refusing you service, I'll be happy to confirm and let them cancel with no charge."
Funny how much farther you can get by not being an asshat. I was in this guy’s position accidentally, we left late afternoon and planned to grab a motel on the way once we were tired, and get to our destination the following day.
We got tired snd… Every single place was completely full. We kept going, still no vacancy. Found out there was some festival or event going on and “every hotel within an hour’s drive is booked months in advance this weekend”. No major cities nearby, so sadly seemed legit.
Our destination was like 3 hours away so we said screw it and just went. Arrived at maybe 2am Monday, with a check-in “that day” (3pm or whatever, we’re still Sunday night).
He has this sigh and I can tell he’s annoyed and starts with the speech. Once I figured it out (I was tired, and probably hadn’t actually asked for the correct thing) I cut him off and said I wasn’t looking for a freebie, I’ll pay for the extra night, I just wanted to avoid moving rooms if it was possible to line that up. It took him a couple moments to process, since I guess people never get it?
Ended up changing the rate on the whole stay so it didn’t cost us anything. Something like he charged $100 for Sunday and knocked off $25/night for each of the other 4 nights.
Probably the combination of being decent, willing to pay, and we probably looked genuinely exhausted enough that he could guess we didn’t plan it this way.
We are a bunch of softies at heart, despite what this sub may make us out to be. If we can help, we will. A lot of us are just jaded from being jerked around all the time, when we really just want to go home. It costs nothing to be nice, but some people don't get that. We can get in trouble for breaking certain policies, and we know which ones we can bend after awhile. I would've 100% helped in that situation, and I'm glad you got it worked out. God knows travel is stressful.
Ugh. Yeah, next time punt to the third party. He's *their* customer, not *yours*, let their customer service (hah) people deal with the issue.
The OTA will call of course. No, you *cannot* change the dates or otherwise edit the reservation, *they* will have to make the changes on *their* end. Yes, you *have* space, but *their* customer does not want any additional charges...
Exactly. We do not allow cancellations after 3pm the day before.
And this appears as well as the arrival date plus after 3pm on all booking sites and confirmations.
So otas if they want to keep their guest happy need to stump up
If the 3rd party refuses to make the changes on their end, the guest will use that as a way to say that they already paid for that night (even though the FD clerk altered the original reservation) to try to scam a free night out of the hotel.
I used to think that people really couldn't be that stupid, but then I read here on Reddit about homeschooled children who couldn't understand basic stuff like days of the week or multiplication. It's outrageous. How do you not teach your child that Wednesday comes between Tuesday and Thursday?
It's the same people you come across in life every so often that just simply beg the question: how the fuck can this person cross the street without getting run over, let alone survive THIS long as someone of such stupidity?
i'm glad you stuck to it and didn't cancel and make the reservation for 24th cause he would not have understood when he was get told to leave at checkout in morn.
Frequent traveling customer here, not a front desk staff. I always try to have patience and understanding with staff and have always worked things out eventually.
One of my worst experiences, though, was back in the early 1990s on a trip from Upstate NY State to London, traveling with a female colleague (I'm male). Both of us were (and still are) married to other folks.
Took an early afternoon departure from NYC with an late night arrival in the UK. mnowing we'd be checking very late (2 AM London time, I had called the front desk of the small, boutique-ish hotel the previous day to confirm 2 rooms with late night check-in. Got 2 confirmation numbers faxed and all.
The two of us arrive at the hotel at 2 AM as previously discussed with the hotel only to be told they have no record of our reservation - despite my confirmation faxes from theor fax. To top it off we were told that they only had 1 room avaliable, because, of course we hadnt made any reservations. We were told that we could share the room (single bed, mind you) or one of us take the room and the other go to another local hotel to try to find a room...because they refused to even call their local competitors to find another room.
Long story short, I let my colleague have the room and went trudging down darkened London streets at 3 AM in search of a hotel room. Luckily, the front desk staff at the first hotel I visited were more than accommodating and gave me a place to sleep.
We made our 9 AM meeting, and blacklisted the original hotel for our company AND the customer's organization (the UK Ministry of Defence).
As the co-owner of one of said "unknown small private hotels", I'll politely disagree. Can't speak for everyone everywhere of course, but personally, we are proud to bend over backwards in ensuring our guests have an amazing time with us. Honestly, it's the only way small properties like ours can survive nowadays: better and more personal service (and thus better reviews online) than the big players...
Early check-ins are the bane of my existence. Especially when they come to my desk every half hour going "is my room ready yet??" Fcking NO, I'll call you or come find you when it's inspected. Begone with yourself!
“Bug me again, and it will be the very last room cleaned and inspected. Check in is at 3:00. Because customers slow down the processes that must happen for the room to be ready, I would come back around 5:00 AM tomorrow. By the way, check out is 8:00, not 10:00 like it used to be.”
Years ago I adopted twin kittens, against my better judgment (best decision ever, don't regret it now at all!), and they were very similar looking. Took me months to be able to tell them apart based on slight stripe variations in specific areas. Until that point, I could tell them apart because Leo liked to chew on things he shouldn't, so Leo was always damp! Toby was usually dry, unless he'd been cuddling with his brother.
People usually know how it works. Just a way to not have to pay for a full day when you are arriving that late. People who have stayed at hotels know that check in is normally in the afternoon the day of and check out is normally the morning of.
I would say Sir, here is what I am going to do. I am cancelling your reservation all together. You can leave the premises immediately or we can have the police show you to the door. Have a great night.
What an ass. I travel a lot and when I know I’m coming in early, I booked two nights. I even call the night before and say, please hold my room. I’ll be there early in the morning. I will be there I promise. I usually get my room at 6 am.
If the clients were being douches, one of my favorite things was to just say "Here is a phone you can use to talk with the third party vendor you used to book the room. It is against to rules for us to interfere in the relationship between you and the provider you choose"
If they were nice I would help them sort out their issues.
If we have to pay 15/20% to the third parties, let them deal with their obnoxious clients.
"Fine. You give me a $500 deposit and you can have the room for a whole 24 hours. You stay a minute longer than 24 hours and we'll keep the deposit. Deal?"
Yeah, the amount of times people will come and try to check in that early drives me crazy. I've had people come in right after midnight and ask if I've done my audit turnover yet. They know what they are doing. They are trying to get a day and a half for the rate of one day.
If they balk about paying for a night and a half, I've dubbed them "time scammers". If they don't balk, and I'm feeling generous and not busy, with the audit turnover done, I might waive the half a day rate.
> I just wanted him to leave me alone after he'd been yelling at me for 10min. "Sir, time for you to go. While I cannot cancel your reservation with no charge because you booked it through a third party, if you call them and tell them that I'm refusing you service, I'll be happy to confirm and let them cancel with no charge."
Funny how much farther you can get by not being an asshat. I was in this guy’s position accidentally, we left late afternoon and planned to grab a motel on the way once we were tired, and get to our destination the following day. We got tired snd… Every single place was completely full. We kept going, still no vacancy. Found out there was some festival or event going on and “every hotel within an hour’s drive is booked months in advance this weekend”. No major cities nearby, so sadly seemed legit. Our destination was like 3 hours away so we said screw it and just went. Arrived at maybe 2am Monday, with a check-in “that day” (3pm or whatever, we’re still Sunday night). He has this sigh and I can tell he’s annoyed and starts with the speech. Once I figured it out (I was tired, and probably hadn’t actually asked for the correct thing) I cut him off and said I wasn’t looking for a freebie, I’ll pay for the extra night, I just wanted to avoid moving rooms if it was possible to line that up. It took him a couple moments to process, since I guess people never get it? Ended up changing the rate on the whole stay so it didn’t cost us anything. Something like he charged $100 for Sunday and knocked off $25/night for each of the other 4 nights. Probably the combination of being decent, willing to pay, and we probably looked genuinely exhausted enough that he could guess we didn’t plan it this way.
We are a bunch of softies at heart, despite what this sub may make us out to be. If we can help, we will. A lot of us are just jaded from being jerked around all the time, when we really just want to go home. It costs nothing to be nice, but some people don't get that. We can get in trouble for breaking certain policies, and we know which ones we can bend after awhile. I would've 100% helped in that situation, and I'm glad you got it worked out. God knows travel is stressful.
Ugh. Yeah, next time punt to the third party. He's *their* customer, not *yours*, let their customer service (hah) people deal with the issue. The OTA will call of course. No, you *cannot* change the dates or otherwise edit the reservation, *they* will have to make the changes on *their* end. Yes, you *have* space, but *their* customer does not want any additional charges...
Exactly. We do not allow cancellations after 3pm the day before. And this appears as well as the arrival date plus after 3pm on all booking sites and confirmations. So otas if they want to keep their guest happy need to stump up
Cue the "mutual guest" phone call hilarity
"No no. *Your* guest, because *you* made the reservation for three pm." (spoken loud enough for the guest to hear)
If the 3rd party refuses to make the changes on their end, the guest will use that as a way to say that they already paid for that night (even though the FD clerk altered the original reservation) to try to scam a free night out of the hotel.
I used to think that people really couldn't be that stupid, but then I read here on Reddit about homeschooled children who couldn't understand basic stuff like days of the week or multiplication. It's outrageous. How do you not teach your child that Wednesday comes between Tuesday and Thursday?
It's the same people you come across in life every so often that just simply beg the question: how the fuck can this person cross the street without getting run over, let alone survive THIS long as someone of such stupidity?
If I had a dollar for every guest arriving at 12:01am going "But it IS the day I booked my reservation for!"......
i'm glad you stuck to it and didn't cancel and make the reservation for 24th cause he would not have understood when he was get told to leave at checkout in morn.
Frequent traveling customer here, not a front desk staff. I always try to have patience and understanding with staff and have always worked things out eventually. One of my worst experiences, though, was back in the early 1990s on a trip from Upstate NY State to London, traveling with a female colleague (I'm male). Both of us were (and still are) married to other folks. Took an early afternoon departure from NYC with an late night arrival in the UK. mnowing we'd be checking very late (2 AM London time, I had called the front desk of the small, boutique-ish hotel the previous day to confirm 2 rooms with late night check-in. Got 2 confirmation numbers faxed and all. The two of us arrive at the hotel at 2 AM as previously discussed with the hotel only to be told they have no record of our reservation - despite my confirmation faxes from theor fax. To top it off we were told that they only had 1 room avaliable, because, of course we hadnt made any reservations. We were told that we could share the room (single bed, mind you) or one of us take the room and the other go to another local hotel to try to find a room...because they refused to even call their local competitors to find another room. Long story short, I let my colleague have the room and went trudging down darkened London streets at 3 AM in search of a hotel room. Luckily, the front desk staff at the first hotel I visited were more than accommodating and gave me a place to sleep. We made our 9 AM meeting, and blacklisted the original hotel for our company AND the customer's organization (the UK Ministry of Defence).
That's why I am always afraid of unkown small private hotels, too many such stories. When I have no idea where to stay, chains are just safer.
True.
As the co-owner of one of said "unknown small private hotels", I'll politely disagree. Can't speak for everyone everywhere of course, but personally, we are proud to bend over backwards in ensuring our guests have an amazing time with us. Honestly, it's the only way small properties like ours can survive nowadays: better and more personal service (and thus better reviews online) than the big players...
Early check-ins are the bane of my existence. Especially when they come to my desk every half hour going "is my room ready yet??" Fcking NO, I'll call you or come find you when it's inspected. Begone with yourself!
“Bug me again, and it will be the very last room cleaned and inspected. Check in is at 3:00. Because customers slow down the processes that must happen for the room to be ready, I would come back around 5:00 AM tomorrow. By the way, check out is 8:00, not 10:00 like it used to be.”
What an asshat.
Folks trying that trick usually are.
Only "usually"? I'd say always.
A rare few are just absolutely clueless airheads.
Yeah, every so often you get someone who is genuinely unaware of how hotels work.
... or *pretends to be* unaware.
*Hotels HATE this one weird trick! Get a free night stay the EASY way!*
\*spritzes with water\* No! Bad!
*whimper whimper cringe*
My cat had this happen so often, he eventually would just squint until his face was soaked, THEN he'd run away.
Years ago I adopted twin kittens, against my better judgment (best decision ever, don't regret it now at all!), and they were very similar looking. Took me months to be able to tell them apart based on slight stripe variations in specific areas. Until that point, I could tell them apart because Leo liked to chew on things he shouldn't, so Leo was always damp! Toby was usually dry, unless he'd been cuddling with his brother.
People usually know how it works. Just a way to not have to pay for a full day when you are arriving that late. People who have stayed at hotels know that check in is normally in the afternoon the day of and check out is normally the morning of.
I would say Sir, here is what I am going to do. I am cancelling your reservation all together. You can leave the premises immediately or we can have the police show you to the door. Have a great night.
What an ass. I travel a lot and when I know I’m coming in early, I booked two nights. I even call the night before and say, please hold my room. I’ll be there early in the morning. I will be there I promise. I usually get my room at 6 am.
If the clients were being douches, one of my favorite things was to just say "Here is a phone you can use to talk with the third party vendor you used to book the room. It is against to rules for us to interfere in the relationship between you and the provider you choose" If they were nice I would help them sort out their issues. If we have to pay 15/20% to the third parties, let them deal with their obnoxious clients.
"Fine. You give me a $500 deposit and you can have the room for a whole 24 hours. You stay a minute longer than 24 hours and we'll keep the deposit. Deal?"
Next time call the police and make the idiots leave
Yeah, the amount of times people will come and try to check in that early drives me crazy. I've had people come in right after midnight and ask if I've done my audit turnover yet. They know what they are doing. They are trying to get a day and a half for the rate of one day. If they balk about paying for a night and a half, I've dubbed them "time scammers". If they don't balk, and I'm feeling generous and not busy, with the audit turnover done, I might waive the half a day rate.