Hotel Guest Praises A Front Desk Employee For Handling His Constant Complaints, But His Final Reviews Get Him Banned
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Every hotel has that one guest who seems determined to find something wrong with every stay. The room isn’t right, an amenity is missing, or something breaks at the worst possible moment. Sometimes the complaints are legitimate. Other times, the front desk starts bracing itself the second a familiar face walks through the door.
One hotel employee spent two and a half months dealing with a recurring guest who managed to be both incredibly appreciative and spectacularly unpleasant, depending on how his day was going.
The man stayed at the property nearly every week for work and quickly developed a reputation for complaining. From the fitness center being closed for renovations to the size of his ironing board, there always seemed to be another problem requiring immediate attention.
Despite his temper, one front desk employee consistently handled his requests and eventually became his preferred person to deal with.
He even praised the employee in a review.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only review he left. And by the time his final stay ended, hotel management had apparently decided they’d heard quite enough.
The Two-Faced Guest
So the past 2 and a half months we had this guest who works for Panera Bread and he stayed every week for a varying amount of days. They had a credit card auth for him and everything.
He was an older gentleman (early 50s). I didn’t check him in the first time he stayed but he was immediately a problem.
He caused a huge stink because our fitness center was out of order due to minor renovations and we had to reimburse him so he can go to a local gym.
Oh please.
I got a little bit of his wrath when I checked him out from his stay early in the morning. He asked for a receipt to be sent to the email. I confirmed the email aloud and he immediately interrupted me with a nasty tone that it was the wrong email. I was stunned and switched the email over.
Next time he stays, he was assigned to a King accessible room (that was the last standard room we had that week and it comes with a tub so it’s not fully accessible) and he called down flipping out because the ironing board in the room wasn’t full sized. I didnt know at the time that the ADA requires smaller ironing boards?? But I brought him up a full sized one instead.
He had consistent issues every week and he always came down to complain. Some I can’t remember, but every single time he was nasty and he had this angry look on his face with a distinctive jaw twitch. Made me feel very dehumanized if that makes sense??
What a meanie.
However, every time he addressed something, I handled it promptly and politely…..as you do when you work the hotel front desk.
He had a clogged sink drain one day. I apologized and asked when someone can come to the room to fix it. It was fixed and he ended up being very grateful for it.
I ended up becoming his “go-to” person and he was pleasant for the most part, but again, if anything goes wrong he becomes a completely different person.
How unfun for you.
But, this past two weeks of his last stays ended up becoming worse somehow….
He left us a 5/10 review complaining about the room’s being inconsistent and one of my coworkers, but praising me and saying that I’ve treated him very well and helped him out.
Last week he demanded a mini fridge with a freezer. Last time I was able to get someone to do that for him, but last week he didn’t get one. I asked maintenance (one older guy) if he can find a room that has a freezer and he refused to do it.
Oh boy.
I then found out that the mini fridges with freezers are as old as the hotel (20 years) and that we’re doing away with them. I didn’t know this but when the guest asked for an update, I lied and said that we checked the vacant rooms and couldn’t find one. Mentioned that there isn’t many of them but offered that he can use one of the freezers we have in the back.
He refused and said he doesn’t want anyone to access his stuff. I promised him no one would touch them unless he asks but whatever…. He said that he’s only staying 2 days so he’ll live without it. Okay, fine.
Now this week was his last week. Thank. God. But sh*t hit the fan quick.
Oh brother…
He complained that there was no pad on the ironing board?? Then that night we had a wedding. Now, this is valid because depending on the noise complaint, it’s definitely valid. He called down after 10pm that the room next to him is being very loud and he’s trying to sleep and “this is unacceptable”.
Since I didn’t know what room was the issue, I went up to address it. Had to bang on the door 3 times to get them to be quiet. Not even 10 minutes later, he comes to the front desk to tell me it hasn’t stopped. I apologized and I called the room in front of him, told them they can either hang out in the breakfast, be quiet or I’ll call the cops.
Night Audit did have to call the cops on them and he didn’t complain again.
Wow.
The following day, he came to the desk and I apologized to him. He was quite pleasant and he understood, he heard and saw me take action. Did tell him we had to call the cops on them. He thanked me for addressing the issue.
And the finale? His sink was clogged again. Also, the landscapers came by yesterday. He was outside, came in to the desk and said “I hate to complain about this but I was sitting in my car on the phone and the guy just blew sh*t all over my car.”
I frowned and shook my head, trying to be disappointed on his behalf. Then he continued “At this point I’m just done” and “I just got my car detailed and now I’m gonna have to wash it again” and “This is costing me money” and I told him that I can’t do much from there.
Good for you.
But now he’s gone and he’s going to a different location. Apparently he gave us two more bad reviews, 1/10s. I know my GM has gotta be FUMING because our scores are already not great for the month and this asshole just dragged it through the mud.
Because of that, he is on the DNR list. I think he even talked to the Panera representative (?) to let them know, but I’m not sure.
I’m back on Thursday so I’ll have to confirm but I won’t be surprised.
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The interesting thing about this guest is that not all of his complaints were unreasonable. A clogged sink, loud wedding guests keeping him awake and landscaping debris covering a freshly detailed car are legitimate frustrations. In the case of the noise complaint, the hotel ultimately had to call the police, suggesting the disturbance was hardly imaginary.
But having a valid complaint doesn’t automatically justify treating the person trying to resolve it poorly.
The employee repeatedly went out of their way to help, whether that meant finding a different ironing board, arranging maintenance or confronting noisy guests. The man clearly recognized those efforts, considering he specifically praised the employee in one of his reviews.
That makes the relationship particularly exhausting. When a guest alternates between gratitude and hostility, employees never quite know which version of him they’ll encounter next.
There were also situations where the hotel couldn’t reasonably meet every preference, such as providing an increasingly rare refrigerator with a freezer. Offering access to another freezer was an attempt to accommodate him, even if it wasn’t his preferred solution.
Ultimately, management apparently decided that the repeated complaints and extremely low reviews outweighed the benefits of his recurring business.
And while the employee can finally enjoy a shift without anticipating his next grievance, another hotel may soon be getting acquainted with his ironing board preferences.
This person has some questions.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who made sure that firing him would be a major inconvenience.
This person makes some jokes (but real ones).
And this person calls OP out on their mistakes (even though they’re obviously NTA).
He finally found a hotel amenity he couldn’t complain about: a permanent reservation somewhere else.
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