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Imagine staying at a hotel. What would you expect to happen if you didn’t check out by the hotel’s check out time? Would you assume it’s no big deal and that check out time is only a suggestion, or would you expect there to be some sort of extra fee?

In this story, one hotel front desk worker explains what happens when some hotel guests fail to check out on time. The situation gets even worse for them when their child pulls the fire alarm in the hotel lobby.

This stay is going to cost them a pretty penny!

Let’s read all about it.

The time I made money from a false fire alarm!

This happened to me several years ago. I worked as manager for a major chain 2 star hotel next to an airport in north eastern US state.

I receive a page over the radio at 2 in the afternoon, asking if room 105 was checked out or not from the cleaners.

I check the computers, and they were only booked for the night. They never checked out, but I assumed they didn’t bother checking out with front desk, and just left.

The cleaners told me that all their belongings were still scattered around, and nobody was in. Hotel policy dictates that we can’t touch the belongings and treat it as an extension until the next day before we can do anything else.

The hotel guests eventually came back.

I try to call the phone on their record, but of course, nobody answers. So I make a note of it in the folio, lock their doors and go on about my day.

About 5PM, a couple comes in with their child claiming their room key wasn’t working.

No worries, can I get some ID along with your room number. Room 105.

Ah. I politely inform them that because they never checked out, they need to pay for an extra day before I can open the room back up for them.

She’s really frustrated with these hotel guests.

They start flipping out, claiming I am trying to rip them off ,etc etc.

Keep in mind that 1- our (published) checkout time is at 12 noon, though we can extend it a bit if you call ahead of time and be polite about it, and 2- our ADR hovers around 40 dollars, and most people pay by cash, because credit cards are an issue for our target market 3- I actually tried calling them to see what is going on!

I am annoyed, since these guys took a room off my inventory for the next day since my cleaners have left for the day already.

After a bit of arguing back and forth, I am about to relent and just get them out of my hair. Until… my fire alarm goes off!

She found out who pulled the fire alarm.

I quickly check my security cameras, nothing out of the ordinary, no fires.

And I see the fire alarm toggle by the front door pulled, with their very guilty looking son standing near by.

“Did your son just pull the fire alarm?”

“No!”

These people are clearly liars.

It’s pretty obvious who was responsible, since nobody else was in the lobby for the past half hour.

I go kill the alarm in the back.

I ask again, “are you sure?”

“No, are you accusing me of being a liar?!”

She had proof.

“Well, today is your lucky day. You see that camera over there? It is pointing directly at the fire alarm toggle. Give me one second”

I go to the back office, rewind the video, and pause at the kid red handed, and show them the video still.

“Here is my situation right now. The local fire department bills this hotel $500 every time they receive a false alarm. We are going to need you to settle that before I can even begin open the door for you”

They flipped out, but I held my position.

They reached a compromise.

They reluctantly went to the bank and paid $300, since that was all they could get.

Afterwards, I called the fire office, and told them it was a false alarm. They’re usually quite forgiving about these scenarios when we keep them up to date on situations like this.

I called my boss afterwards, and we had a good chuckle, and contributed the extra cash to the office party.

Normally, I wouldn’t be such a jerk about situations like this. I know being a parent can be very stressful as it is. But here is my situation.

They were clearly bad hotel guests.

You blocked off one of my rooms from my inventory, expecting to check out at 5PM, despite the fact that I have a very big sign by the front desk claiming our checkout is at 12 noon.

I tried to co-operate, but you don’t answer your phone when I tried to call you.

Your son just set off the fire alarm for my whole hotel, and even when I presented you with evidence that he was the guilty one, refuse to acknowledge or apologize for causing the trouble.

Parent of the year over here…

Check out at noon is actually really good. Most hotels I’ve stayed at have check out time at 10am or 11am. Expecting to check out at 5pm is ridiculous!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Exactly! Unless they confused check in time and check out time.

This person would love to be honest with customers.

But this person points out fraud.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an American who is confused about why they can’t use their American dollars at a Canadian grocery store.

I assume this is because OP canceled the alarm.

Those hotel guests truly sound awful! Why would they think it was okay to leave their stuff all over the room and come back to check out hours later? That’s crazy! They also need to learn to keep a better eye on their child.