Hotel Musings

When the hotel is full, there is always a better chance for a good story. Especially with Leisure Guests....

I've been amazed lately at the ease at which people can lie, cheat, and scam. Clearly these people have never been involved in scouting! Anyway, I have had the pleasure of dealing with a few interesting guests the past few days. One in particular happened yesterday (on my birthday...maybe it was a sign). Here's what happened...

A Guest checks in the other day (we'll call them the Browns...) Thursday night the Browns order Room Service. Fillet of Salmon, Chicken Chopped Salad, bowl of berries and yogurt. Room Service delivers the meal and when he is setting the tray down, he notices that they didn't get Forks, only knives and spoons. "I'm so sorry" he says to Mrs. Brown, "It looks like we didn't put forks on your tray, let me go get some for you and bring them back."
"Well I don't need a fork for my food, but I think my husband does, so if you could bring one back that would be great." The Room Service Attendant leaves and returns 5 minutes later with a fork for Mr. Brown. They sign the check (with a tip, which means they weren't terribly upset at the moment) and retire for the evening. Fast forward to Friday night...As the Brown's are ordering room service for dinner again, Mr. Brown goes off on how ridiculous it was that they didn't get any forks last night!
"This is a five diamond property! We've been coming here for 9 years! I've never had such a disastrous meal!!"
"I'm so sorry Mr. Brown, let me follow up with Room Service and see what happened." replies the operator. She calls room service, who apologizes to the operator and tells the story of the previous night. It was an honest mistake, but if the guest is that upset, room service is happy to give them free dessert tonight ($15 or so). The operator calls the guest back apologizes again for not bringing forks up last night, assures him everything will be in place for his order this evening, and lets him know that his dessert is on us. this is not enough for him, he wants to speak with the Manager on Duty.

(enter stage left: Me).

I call the guest back, inquire as to how I may be of assistance. He retells me the fork story, and how it ruined his dinner because both he and his wife had to eat with spoons. On top of that, the yogurt was horrible (he said it was raw, or plain, or awful, or all three, I had a hard time understanding him through his thick NY accent and what sounded like muffled expletives.

"Mr. Brown, I apologize for the trouble you had last night during your dinner. I think there was a misunderstanding, As I understand it, the room service attendant apologized for not bringing up forks and explained that he would go get some, at which time your wife said that you only needed one. Does this sound like what happened?"
"Absolutely not! he said that you all 'ran out of forks' and that's why there weren't any on the tray!" (side note, we have some 12,000 forks on this property. The room service attendant has worked here for quite some time and would never tell someone "we ran out of forks")
Then I said "But I do understand that he did bring you back a fork?"
"yes, but we needed two"
so up to this point the guest said that He didn't get forks at all, and ate his meal with a spoon, then when I told him I knew that he got at least one fork, he changed his story. this is awesome.
"well I apologize again for the inconvenience Mr. Brown. I was here last night and would have loved to fix the problem for you then, but I'm only hearing about this just now. I have been assured by room service that everything is correct on your order tonight and they even took care of dessert for you."
"well, it was late last night and we were tired" (I've learned that people who are merely looking for free bees never call/complain the day of the issue. It's always at check out or later in the stay so we can't actually fix whatever was wrong, all we can do at that point is give them something.
Mr. Brown went on to say, "and I don't think a free dessert for all of our trouble is enough."

Usually at this point I have a few decisions to make. 1- I can just comp their meal and be done with them. on one hand it saves me a lot of time, and ultimately that's what this guy wants, but on the other hand, he doesn't deserve a $90 meal just because we forgot forks, especially when we offered to go get them for him. 2- I can remain firm and say that I'm not doing anything else for them. On one hand this will make me feel better for not giving in to such a cheapskate. but on the other, if he's persistent enough it may go above me and he'll get a free meal anyway, so why go through the whole ordeal.

well, I wasn't in the best of moods that night and this guy was really upsetting me, so I chose option 2!
"Mr. Brown, I do feel really bad about this misunderstanding and I know that you know that this is a rare mishap for us. Since you are repeat customers and have come back for 9 years, I know that you enjoy the service we provide and recognize that this was an honest mistake. But since it was a mistake, we did want to do something on our end to show you our sincerity. So Room Service has taken care of your dessert as a good will gesture. I am not willing to comp any thing above and beyond the dessert, but if you would like, I can have the Room Service Manager call you in the morning and she may want to do something more for you."

"well, aren't you the MOD? Don't you have the authority to do more?"
"That is correct Mr. Brown, but I feel like the current compensation is appropriate given the circumstances, so it's not that I'm unable to take more off your bill, it's just that I don't feel comfortable doing it."

In the end, Mr. Brown did complain once more about the yogurt from the previous night, so I told him I would take that off his bill. But that was it.

I ask you America (and when I say America, I really mean my friends and family who I have guilted into reading my blog), what kind of society have we become when an honest mistake like forgetting forks, and one that is easily fixed nonetheless, has become so egregious that the only compensation acceptable is taking off the entire dinner charge of $90? I'm appalled.