It’s normal for hotel staff to deal with complaints about various things, but usually guests ask politely and wait politely. But what happens when a situation deviates from the norm?

In this case, only a few weeks into working at the front desk of a hotel, the employee received a call from a frustrated guest complaining about a duvet that had feathers when she had already informed the hotel about her feather allergy.

The thing is, according to the reservation notes, there was no data proving that she informed them beforehand.

While hotel staff told her the issue would be solved, she felt offended at the waiting time and things took a dramatic turn.

The guest was so upset that she brought the duvet with her to the front desk.

Keep reading to see what happened.

Fake Feather allergy

So, I’ve only worked front desk at a hotel for about a year. This happened around my third week on the job and probably only the second time I was left to man the desk all alone.

My supervisor who was working the desk with me that evening had gone on break because it had been quiet.

Someone called down from their room about a feather allergy, she was really frustrated as she had apparently informed us of her allergy before checking in.

I checked her in, there was no mention of it.

Of course, I apologise for the inconvenience and explain that I will send housekeeping up as soon as possible to replace the duvet.

But the guest was in a hurry.

Well, a magical line appears of people who suddenly need to check in, but I made a note of the issue and texted housekeeping.

Not even five minutes had gone by when the lady appears at the front desk and throws the duvet over at me.

Yelling about how “incompetent you people are” and “I said I was allergic to feathers, this could have killed me!”.

Yes, the feather duvet you just carried down from the 3rd floor and threw over the desk was going to kill you.

As this is happening, I have a line of people waiting to be checked in.

It was chaotic.

I just ignore the absolutely insane thing she has done, apologise again and ask her to take a seat as my supervisor will return shortly.

I apologise to the guest I was checking in, move the toxic feather duvet to the back office and then deal with the rest of the line.

Kudos to the bar manager who witnessed what happened and pulled my supervisor off his break.

I’m so lucky that management is so good where I work, because my supervisor is an absolute star. I explained what happened.

Things get heated.

He called the woman over, explained to her that her behaviour is unacceptable.

She argues and he straight up says “you can’t be that allergic if you could carry it down and throw it over the desk”.

We offered to fix the issue, she claims we are bullying her. So he offers to cancel her reservation with no penalty.

She left and our manager asked for the gossip the next day, so of course I told her and she told me I have better temperament than her cause if a guest threw something at her, they would be packing right away.

It’s routine.

It was my first incident but definitely was NOT my last.

I’m away at college at the moment but returning to work there in the summer and I lowkey cannot wait to hear the top ten craziest things that happened while I was gone.

She could be upset without humiliating the employees.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.

What did Reddit think?

It’s possible.

Good one.

Someone with a feather allergy shares their thoughts.

Something to consider.

Wise words.

This is the first time I’ve heard of a feather allergy, but indeed, assuming it’s not real is a bad idea. Not just because you’d be rude, but it’s also legally a bad idea, especially as an employee.

Having said that, it’s not easy dealing with so much demand plus rude guests at the same time.

Instead of waiting a few minutes, the guest carried the duvet from her room down to the front desk and threw it across the counter while loudly accusing the hotel staff. This happened in front of everyone, creating an uncomfortable situation.

The guest was upset, but what happened wasn’t enough for her to react the way she did. It just makes everything harder for everyone.

The employee remained professional despite being caught off guard, continuing to check guests in while waiting for a supervisor to return. Once management became involved, the guest learned that that behavior wasn’t going to be rewarded.

The supervisor was right to point out that if her allergy were that bad, she wouldn’t be able to carry the duvet all the way downstairs to throw it at someone instead of leaving it alone.

Turns out the customer isn’t always right, especially when behaving this way.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a young woman who struggles with her new reality after learning her adoption story was a lie.