Parking in big cities isn’t easy!

You might spend a good chunk of your day driving in circles looking for a spot in some places, and nobody wants to deal with that.

That situation can get even more annoying if you’re in a European city, because those cities are typically WAY older than American cities, and parking can be sparse.

A hotel worker in Europe wrote the story below and explained why the constant complaints from guests about the lack of parking is starting to drive them crazy.

Let’s take a look!

Parking in the center of a city.

“At the place I am currently at, we have around 7 spots for cars.

We can increase it up to 9, but that is really difficult for guests to move out of that, so we generally do 7, occasionally 8 spots if necessary.

I have been working as a receptionist for couple of years, and most numerous stories were in regard to parking.

That’s just the way it goes!

If your hotel is in a center of the city, you will have limited parking spaces. Nothing you can do about it.

It’s logical and obvious, right?

WRONG!

It seems like it’s something incomprehensible to many guests. It’s in Czech. In Historical center of city. Unlike USA, not everyone has a car, hence hotels do not have that much free parking slots since not everyone has a car. Hell, not even I  have one.

This is why reservations exist.

When our garage is full and a guest asks for parking, they are often confused and can’t understand that our garage is full.

We tell them that is why they were asked upon making reservation, if they want to reserve a parking. Often times, they don’t do it and do it during a check-in. Of course it’s usually full then, and they get mad.

This is even funnier if there is like some event and all the suits check in, and most of them have their own car.

Not gonna happen!

Well, if we have capacity of 40 rooms, do you think we also have garage big enough for 40 cars in the center of a city?

It’s also nice if someone liked that saw the garage and they say ” There are empty spots, I want to park there ” … ” Unfortunately, those are already reserved ” and they often become confused.

And if it’s full and they see it, we had a guy saying ” There is enough space, it’s no problem for me to park there”. And you know what? Yeah. He can get there. But then others will have hard time getting out. Nobody likes that, and it’s easy way to get bad reviews – pass on that. ” It’s full “.

It never ends…

So since we have limited garage, it’s sometimes not just the guests that are the problem. It can be owners/bosses. I have seen that happen occasionally, and it can be rather annoying.

It’s when one of the big boys will talk to his friend who made a reservation, and if the friend asks about parking, they will tell them that of course, that is not a problem!

And if we have a full garage? ” Oh come on, you can get one more car in. That’s your job, and it´s more money !”

And best is if it’s for two friends. Two more cars over the ” limit ” means it will be rather difficult for guests to get in, and we might have to look for parking outside because it’s just not feasible.

Bad reviews are bad for business.

Yet the big boys can’t comprehend that if the parking is full to the brim and it is difficult to get out, guests do not appreciate it at all.

Once, I remember the owner was helping guest to drive out from a particularly bad spot, and it took like 15 minutes.

Owner is then happy that we got few more Euros for parking, but he doesn’t realize that it is the biggest factor why people then give low or bad reviews.

Maybe, once we get a zero score review for that, he will stop doing that. Even though it rarely happens, it is rather stressful for front desk, as everyone is unhappy then.

This is awful!

One interesting story I recall is that we had some scheduled repairs, so we open the garage for the repair guys to park there and do their stuff. Classic stuff. The colleague is checking cameras, and the bozos .. hit her car a bit.

She was not happy at all, came to garage and and was like “what is this, are you kidding me?” and the driver said that her car was already bumped before.

They were not aware we had cameras there.

Now that’s some excellent conduct, and it was a new car.

Some people are pretty bold.

There is also something that occasionally happens, and it’s if we open the entrance to the garage, sometimes someone else sneaks in while its opened. Often it’s another guest and if garage isn’t full, it ´s not a problem – but if it is, we sure have to show them out, and they are often not happy about it all.

What’s even worse outcome that can happen, if someone else, totally unaffiliated with the hotel, comes into the garage while it’s open ( can happen if it’s too busy), and he just parks there and leave.

That happened once to colleague, and if it’s full, it’s nota  pleasant situation at all. Then the guy came later and was like ” Uh, I thought I was at the right place ” – yeah, you weren’t.

But wait, there’s more!

And that reminded me another stressful thing.

If someone parks at the entrance to the garage. The issue is, people often do that – and they just quickly grab something from a shop. That’s not a problem, but – we don’t know if it’s someone who is there to park for few minutes, or if it’s some bozo who is gonna be there for a long time.

Occasionally someone parks in front of the entrance, and goes gamble or something and comes after couple hours or longer. It happened sometimes at night, and it can be stressful – since you don’t know when they will leave, and if some guest might need to go out.

Here’s one example of what happened in this type of situation.

Something like that happened to me I think this year. Car just parks right at the entrance, and it’s close to evening. I check upcoming check-ins and it’s only one person left.

So I think ” Alright, if it’s that last check-in guest, sure. If not, he hopefully goes to shop – either way, I will know it’s not a guest”.

Well, he did not come for check-in and left. The car was there for there for over an hour.

I call the police ( that’s what you do if someone parks at bad spot, in my country), if they can tow him – as this guy is parking where it’s not allowed, and other guests couldn’t leave the garage (at least not very easily).

The guy had a weird excuse.

Police take their time. Like a lot. More than an hour. Even the tow truck comes in, and guess what? The guy comes there at that time. He talks with the police, and they let him go without any fine etc.

Few minutes later, a guy comes to check-in. Yep, it’s the same guy with the car. He probably thought it would be an excellent idea to park in front of the entrance to the garage, do not check-in, and go for chat and a dinner with his friend(who also parked NEXT to him, which also slightly blocked the entrance(not too badly though)).

He was like “I didn’t realize i cant park there ” — well, what do you think, with a yellow color, in front of the entrance, and warnings around it?

What about bicycles?

One more funny thing i recall is when some guests arrived on bicycles, and they asking where they can keep them.

Sure, the garage works, for free – since it’s just two bicycles. They ask if it’s safe.

I say yes. They don´t believe me. I tell them that it’s a private garage, under cameras, and nobody can enter unless I opened the entrance.

While I am telling it to them, another guest is arriving, and I did the unthinkable. I have opened the entrance so the guest can come in with his car.

Uh oh!

Then the bicycle guests, after I am explaining to them that it’s safe, they came to look at garage – and they see the entrance is opened, and they are mad and complain how can it be safe if it’s opened ?!

Well yeah, i just opened it for the guests for a minute, so the guest can enter.

At least they stopped arguing and kept the bicycles there.

How’s you and your experience with parking at your places?

The parking at this place was probably the most stressful thing when I was starting – which i guess is rather funny.”

Check out what readers had to say about this on Reddit.

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If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who got back at slacking coworkers with fresh-baked treats.

And this reader spoke up.

You can understand why they’re frustrated by this, right?

It sounds like the complaints never end!

I sure wouldn’t wan to deal with this every day…

This sounds like a pretty huge headache for this hotel worker…