When you work at a hotel you can be confident that you will get some guests that are a little bit crazy, and some workers can get a sense for this type of thing.

What would you do if you had a guest that was acting very oddly and causing problems, but your manager still said to renew their stay?

That is what happened in this story, and sure enough, the guest really lost it and ended up calling 911 on the hotel because their fire escape door was not locked.

I refused a guests ridiculous complaint, refused his demands, so he called 911. And somehow management has a soft spot for him.

This story starts yesterday.

What does that customer want?

So, yesterday as I’m first starting my audit shift, logging into my terminal at the front desk, I notice a man pacing back and forth in the lobby. I quickly recognize all the tells.

This man has been waiting for the next shift to come on. Its an ambush!

This auditor knows what he is doing.

He approaches the desk and tells me of his woes. He tells me of his (clearly false) past of being a firefighter and how our back door is a safety violation.

I humor him. He goes on and explains that it needs to lock so that people can’t come in through it. I try to explain to him that as a fire escape door, we cannot lock it, and that he shouldn’t be concerned about people coming in as there is no handle on the outside.

Why does this guy even care?

Looking back I should have invited him to try to gain entry from the outside. He is unconvinced, so I further detail the many security features.

External cameras. Internal cameras. Locked outside doors (During my shift, at least.) Then the guests door, which is keycard only and has the standard bolt and latch.

He doesn’t care. His only cares are that of the clear safety issue. (Reminder: This is not a safety issue.)

Why won’t this guest let the issue go?

I try explaining to him that there is, simply, nothing that can be done about this at the time. He still doesn’t budge. We go back and forth on the issue, while he also adds the odd bit of his past to somehow tie into how this is an issue.

I start getting less patient at this point and ask him what solution he had in mind.

“Call managers name”

I love it when employees stand up to bad customers.

Now I’m just annoyed. I tell him absolutely not. I tell him his complaint has no merit and that his demand is ridiculous. I turn it back on him and grill him a bit about why he’s messing with a door that has 3 different signs on it, all of which very clearly state “DO NOT OPEN.”

He gives me his story of his past as a firefighter again, as if that would make an inch of a difference.

Oh, I can see where this is going.

I’d also noticed there was a balance due on his reservation. I was very pleased to bring that one up, but he claimed it was cleared through management. To my surprise, he wasn’t lying.

I’d had enough at this point and told him unless he has anything else I can assist him with, that I am returning to my other duties. The guest returns to his room within minutes of me leaving the desk.

You know a complaint would be filed.

Night becomes day. I go home. I anxiously await the impending interrogation, assuming the guest would offer his own version of events or that management would make their own assumptions.

To my surprise I am offered an apology from the GM for having to deal with a stressful situation, as well as a thank you, for not calling and waking him over it.

What a weird arrangement.

And that he has allowed the guest to extend his reservation. For 9 more nights. AND WILL PAY EACH DAY, THE NIGHT AFTER. There has to be something going on there.

Day becomes night again. I head into work. I don’t hear from the guest. All seems fine.

I’m sure this is always stressful.

4:00AM rolls around and the 911 alarm on our phone switch is going off. Anxiety and dread floods every fiber of my being. Its not a good feeling. And I just made my lunch!

Of course its the same person. I don’t make any assumptions, but I prepare for emergency services to arrive, and then, as much as I didn’t want to, check on the guest and make sure he’s okay.

Why did this guy call 911?

Yeah he’s fine and he refuses to tell me why he called 911. That’s fine, 25 minutes later I started getting phone calls from various local fire stations.

He wanted to put in formal complaints about the issue. (That the back fire escape door doesn’t lock.)

The guy was clearly a little crazy.

I just about lost it on my supervisors. They should and do know better. The last thing I texted them was “How could you not see this coming”

His extension has been revoked and he’ll be asked to leave later today.

Sometimes you can just tell when someone is going to be a problem, but in this case, the supervisors wouldn’t listen.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

I don’t think the guest would have even understood.

Yup, this commenter is right.

I would hope the police would tell the guest not to call 911.

This commenter has a great way to handle difficult situations.

This guest definitely had some mental issues.

He knew this guest was going to be trouble.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about an IT worker who tried to tell his boss a backlog was coming, but when he was told to shut up and do his job, he let everything pile up.