Taming the Guest from Hell

[Theme Park Where]

I sent it on to my Dad who works in the hospitality industry too. We were discussing the concept of a national database, and agreeing that in order for this not to be punitive on the part of the front desk employees, the idea of what constitutes a SG under this list must be clearly defined. We talk about our SGs on this board, and most are just unaware, or uninformed, or ocassionally just leave common sense at home. Very few are actually intentionally deceptive or vindictive. There are guests, though, who do use complaints, and typically not valid ones at that, as a means to get something for nothing, or worse, to get payoffs from hotels and theme parks by making false claims. That constitutes fraud and theft of service, and people who do that should be banned. I had a general manager once at a hotel where I was MOD give a speech about our guests. His comment was that we should as a hospitality provider be going out of our way to provide over the top hospitality and to exceed the expectations of our guests, even the difficult ones. However, there are some guests we don't WANT as guests. They are people who steal from us, emotionally or physically harm our employees, cause damage freely and then refuse to accept responsibility for it, or defraud us with false claims or litigation. We don't need to bend over backwards to make those guests happy, because 1) they never will be, and 2) we don't want to keep them as customers as they actually cost us money.

I had a guest once at that same hotel. It was during the election fiasco in south florida, and many members of the press were in town covering West Palm Beach's inability to vote. One guest was a lady reporter from one of the big networks (CNN maybe) and she was trouble the day she checked in. She wanted the room only to put her stuff into and actually didn't sleep there - using the shower only. She wanted to be treated like a VIP and demanded all sorts of additional services, wanting her room cleaned multiple times a day, etc. and she wasn't even using the room as anything more than a quick change room. She was sleeping at another hotel with a friend. On the day she checked out, she left the room about an hour after checkout time, having finally come in from the friend's hotel. She returned to the room, took a shower, picked up her belongings, checked out at the front desk, and turned in her keys. About 2 hours later she called. She had forgotten her earrings in the room. We checked to see if it had been cleaned yet. It was about halfway through the cleaning process (the linens had been stripped, but nothing much else done). No earrings. We told the guest. She insisted that we not go into the room again, she was coming back to look for her jewelery. We told housekeeping who closed the door (they propped doors when they were cleaning checked out rooms) and put a notice that it not be cleaned until cleared by front desk. I was MOD. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be pretty, especially since she'd called security instead of just calling the front desk which was what most people did if they lost something in a room. I called my buddy in security and asked him to come meet her and walk her to the room. He came out with me when we did the inspection and closed off the room while waiting for her arrival. Soon, here came the guest, in a huff that she had to come back to look for her earrings. She entered the room, and guess what, they weren't there. She then began to berate the housekeeper, who was in the room next door. She called her a thief, and accused her of stealing them from her room. She wanted to search the housekeeper's cart, locker and person. She wanted us to interrogate the housekeeper and make her confess. We explained that we wouldn't do any of that. The housekeeper was asked if she'd seen the earrings, she'd said no, end of story. We advised that she call the police to file a report for her insurance as she was now claiming the earrings were $2000 diamond antiques. The police came, and she again insisted that they arrest the housekeeper and me for harboring a thief. The police officer was getting annoyed and finally told her that he didn't believe she even HAD earrings, let alone $2000 ones, and if she did, he suspected they were packed in her suitcase. He suggested that she leave the property before he arrested her for tresspassing. She threatened to sue us, and the officer and our security guard basically told her, "go for it - you'll lose." She ended up being banned from our hotel. Story is, she had checked into OUR hotel because she had previously been banned from the one she was actually sleeping at with her friend. THAT'S the kind of guest who belongs on this database.

[hobie16]

You should have called Fox News and given them the story. :twisted:

[Theme Park Where]

Or CNN. A few of her coworkers were in the elevator talking about the employee they couldn't stand. Turns out it was her. They were all shaking their heads in disgust as they checked out and she was still in the lobby yelling at our security guard, the police officer, and me. :(

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

I have to agree with Hobie, a call to a different network would have made a GOOD story!

[WWWD]

"staying with another reporter" that doesn't sound like either 1) Hanky-panky or 2) Expense report fraud? Oh, no, of course not!

[Main Streeter]

We like to tease new drivers with telling them they havent earned the right to be a driver until they go out and service a customer call "Itchy". Shes a person, kinda old hippy type that has all these big dogs, drives an old orange dodge pick-up with heavy wire mesh on the windows so the dogs dont get at you. Live on a sorta farm,
Steve

Funny story Steve. Itchy is known by another tow company in Sac. also. Probably Chimas too, as they are so large. I thought Itchy lived in Del Paso area?