The last thing anyone wants to deal with is an angry guest in the middle of the night.

So, what would you do if management told you to book more hotel rooms than you actually have available? Would you push back and question their logic? Or would you do as you’re told and handle the fallout as it comes?

In the following story, a front desk worker finds themselves in this situation and has no choice but to listen. Here’s what happened.

The airlines overbook so why can’t we?

We got a new manager who tried very hard to sell out our rooms every night.

We had 2 types of reservations: a “6 pm” did not have a credit card associated with it, so if the customer did not arrive by 6, then we were not obligated to hold the reservation.

And a “guaranteed reservation” did have a credit card number, and we were obligated to hold the reservation with the understanding that a “no show” would be charged.

The new manager never had to answer to the guests.

The new manager did not like to charge “no shows, “ so she encouraged the reservationist to reserve more rooms than we actually had. The assumption was that someone would miss their flight, or get sick, or their plans would change at the last minute.

Of course, she was not there at 10 pm when people did show up, and we had no available rooms.

The unlucky night shift employee had to explain, “Yes, sir, you did have a guaranteed reservation. I understand you flew from Tokyo, but we have no rooms available.”

She definitely had some unique ways about her.

The euphemism for this situation was “we had to walk” a guest last night. Good luck trying to find an available room for the traveler at this late hour, then driving him there.

Does your hotel overbook the reservations? I always felt it was unethical.

When the manager would ask, “Did we sell out last night?” and the front desk clerk said, “No,” the manager would erupt and yell, “What!?”

She did not like bad news, so she pretended not to hear the answer. Always had to deliver the bad news twice.

Eek! Managers like this are tough to deal with.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about overbooking hotel rooms.

Workers will lie to get you out of their faces.

This hotel loses when they walk guests.

This seems true.

Here’s a guest who had a good experience being walked.

What terrible management! For the sake of everyone, let’s hope she didn’t last long.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.