A Hotel Night Auditor Won’t Give Guests Special Discounts. Pushy Customers Keep Trying to Haggle Their Way Into Cheaper Rooms Anyway
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Apparently, some hotel guests believe room rates are merely opening offers in an ongoing negotiation.
One new night auditor is discovering just how determined customers can be when it comes to saving a few dollars on an overnight stay.
Although the employee has only been working at the hotel for about a month, they’re hardly a stranger to dealing with difficult customers.
After spending several years working at a theme park, they’ve developed a pretty thick skin and aren’t particularly intimidated by demanding guests.
Still, the late-night shift has introduced a new challenge: people who seem convinced that showing up after midnight entitles them to a special deal.
One regular customer keeps referencing discounts supposedly offered by a former employee, while another insists he deserves a cheaper room because he’s trying to avoid driving.
Unfortunately for both men, this night auditor has no intention of becoming the hotel’s unofficial bargain department.
1 Month In and I Refuse to be a Doormat
I started night audit about 1 month ago-never worked at a hotel before that. A bit of a learning curve but I have the basics down.
Overall I am enjoying the job, but because I work in the wee hours of the morning people think that I’m going to be a doormat and bend to their whims. Mostly, this comes down to people wanting a discount on the room rate.
Also, side note, while I am new to the hotel business I worked at a theme park for several years. You don’t scare or intimidate me-I’ve already dealt with worse.
Nothing scares you.
I will do what I can to help you with reasonable requests, but I don’t know you and I won’t give you a discount for breathing the same air as me.
The PT night auditor before me (John) apparently would give this one guy discounts. I heard about this from a coworker, and then one night discount guy walked in and said how “John would always find me a good deal.”
John got fired for stealing. I do not trust John’s judgement.
John, no good.
Anyway, discount guy was the kind of sleazy where he was talking on speakerphone while at the desk, asking me to back him up in whatever side of the conversation he was having, overusing my name, and referring to us as being “friends already.”
Just a constant stream of yapping in between me filling in his information. Said he understood I was new, but said something about a “next time.”
No. If you want a discount so bad, you can book ahead of time instead of after midnight. If he gets too pushy in the future, I’m not afraid to tell him to find business elsewhere.
Heck yes.
Tonight, a different guy walks in-says how he wants a room “only for a few hours.” I tell him the truth, we only have the one-night rate, there is no day rate or anything.
He sighs and asks what kind of deal I can make him, how he’s trying to be responsible by not driving (then how did you get here? There is no bar within walking distance).
So I scroll for a bit and tell him our rate. He sighs and asks if there is a better deal, because if not he’ll have to leave and try a different hotel, and he wants to be responsible, remember?
Come on now.
I say sorry, best I can do. He asks for under $100-I tell him that even the businesses we partner with don’t get deals that good. Finally he begrudgingly pays.
I can’t imagine walking into a business and expecting/asking for “discounts” or a “good deal.”
If you go to McDonald’s you don’t haggle the menu prices, you get coupons on the app or whatever and get rewarded for planning ahead. Otherwise you pay the posted price.
The night auditor is well within their rights to enforce the hotel’s established room rates, particularly if they don’t have the authority to offer additional discounts.
Customers can certainly ask whether promotions or lower rates are available, but repeatedly pressuring an employee after receiving an answer is unlikely to accomplish much.
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The regular guest’s attempts to manufacture a friendship with the new employee seem especially transparent, particularly when he keeps mentioning the deals he received from a former coworker.
However, there’s nothing inherently unreasonable about asking a hotel for its best available rate. Unlike fast-food restaurants, hotels frequently have fluctuating prices, negotiated rates and last-minute availability that can make the question perfectly legitimate.
The second guest’s desire to avoid driving also shouldn’t automatically be dismissed, even if his repeated attempts to negotiate became frustrating.
Ultimately, the employee seems to understand an important distinction: providing good customer service doesn’t require granting every request.
Guests are welcome to ask about discounts, but they shouldn’t expect persistence or manufactured familiarity to guarantee one.
This person has much similar experience.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post customer wants a refund for his faulty brakes, but an inspection finds the brakes aren’t the issue.
This person has some advice.
And this person has a hack they do to help.
These guests keep checking in for a room and checking for a discount, but this night auditor isn’t checking out of hotel policy.
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