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Imagine working at a hotel when a teenage couple comes in saying they have a reservation. Would their age be a red flag, or would you proceed with the reservation like usual?

In this story, one front desk worker was in this situation right at the beginning of his shift. Their age wasn’t the biggest red flag; although, it did lead him to make some assumptions about what they were up to.

Keep reading to see if you think he made the right decision.

If Mom Says No, Maybe Dad Says Yes

A tale of sketchy behavior and sticking to policy winning out the day.

As usual, Buttercup the emotional support unicorn is over in her paddock, finishing off her pumpkin spice hay before the gingerbread hay arrives.

It’s actually the same hay.

Time to go to work.

So last night I roll into Lacking Tea with a spring in my step. Odd for the first day of my work week, but I’d managed to get some good sleep and had a nice lunch.

My coworker, Eliza is there and gives me the rundown of the day’s foibles.

“-so she’s going to need a replacement refrigerator at some point. And last, I had a couple of kids who wanted to check in. Like, teenagers. They wanted to check in, but they didn’t have a valid card OR identification, wanted to pay with Apple Pay.”

But that’s not going to work.

“Which our system won’t take.”

“Exactly. Got some sketchy vibes from the whole thing. They kept saying it was prepaid, but it’s not…”

“Yeah, that’s sketchy. They’ve probably got a stolen card or something.”

The exchange of information concluded, my coworker goes into the back to get her bike while I settle in to enjoy my dinner/breakfast/whatever. Before I can even get my first bite, in walks a teenage couple.

He knew what they were up to.

Ah. It’s them. And they’ve very noticably come in the instant I’m visible at the front desk. Lovely.

This is a college town, and I’ve seen my share of young college kids (my god when did I get so old I call college students ‘kids’…), but no, these are high schoolers. Sigh. Time to educate the young’uns.

“Hi there… we came in earlier, and we have a reservation, but it wasn’t working…?”

Sure enough, they’re pulling the thing where they hope that talking to a different person will get them the answer that they want. Maybe I’m willing to bend the rules, or are less familiar with policy.

He explained the situation.

I briefly consider calling my coworker in from the back room, to let these two know that they’re not fooling anyone. But no, she’s off, and I can do just fine on my own. She ducks out the side door as I address the two.

“Yes, my coworker told me about that.” Pointed look at each of them. “She told you that we would need a valid physical card for payment, with matching identification.”

“Well, yes, but I don’t have that.. I’ve only got a virtual card, but I can give you the numbers…”

“That. will. not. work. The system will not accept that. We require a valid credit or debit card – from a major company not prepaid – which will be authorized for the full amount of the stay at check-in. We also require identification matching the card and the reservation. If you don’t have that, then I cannot check you in.”

The kids are insistent that the booking is prepaid.

“Can’t you just use the card on file? It’s already paid for…”

“It is not. You would have put your card down to reserve the room, but this reservation is not prepaid.” I am finding myself slipping more and more into Dad Voice as I talk to these kids.

“Okay, so how do we get our money back onto the card, then?”

“. . . Once again, this is not a prepaid reservation. We do not have your money.”

He gave them another option.

“No no, the thing said we’d paid…”

Sigh. “If you need your money refunded, you will have to call CookingDotBom. They’ll get that all set up.” They have customer service folks, let them explain to these kids the difference between giving a card to hold a room and paying for it.

Now, it’s entirely possible that they were perfectly legitimate in their desire for a room, and were just inexperienced in how to go about doing so. But far more likely that I was dealing with a couple of minors looking for a place to fool around. And while we’ll technically rent to minors, there is a very involved process for doing so.

Realizing they’re not getting anywhere, the two shuffle dejectedly into the night.

He doubts that they’ve learned their lesson.

It’s worth noting that they got into a car and drove off, so presumably they have a driver’s license. This tells me the card they used to make the reservation doesn’t match, and is probably not theirs…

I am hopeful that their failure to scam a hotel room for whatever shenanegains they had planned will dissuade them from future attempts at petty fraud. But I’m not holding my breath.

Take some time to say good night to Buttercup, and I hope your evening is free of sketchy teenagers.

If they weren’t trying to scam him, they probably had to provide a credit card to hold the reservation. But did they even have a reservation? Did he try to look it up?

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

It definitely didn’t work the way the teens hoped it would.

This person feels bad for Buttercup.

A minimum age to check in makes sense.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a manager who wonders why productivity dropped after he banned overtime with no exceptions.

They must not.

A minimum age to check in or make a reservation would put an end to situations like this one.

The hotel worker handled the situation well. It’s a good thing the coworker filled him in before leaving.

The hotel worker clearly won this round. The teens did not.