Imagine working at a hotel, and a guest is being very rude while complaining about multiple things that are out of your control. If she told you that she wanted to speak to your supervisor, what would you do if you didn’t have a supervisor?

In this story, the general manager at a hotel is in this exact situation. Let’s see how they handle it.

“I want to speak to your supervisor”

I am the General Manager for a independently owned boutique hotel in San Francisco.

I worked the front desk last night and had the pleasure of interacting with a woman who, to make a long story short, complained that I was rude to her.

She assumed our shuttle was free. I had to tell her it wasn’t, and she didn’t like that answer.

Being nice to another guest only made the situation worse.

As we were going back and forth, a guest I checked in earlier had come back from dinner and I welcomed the other guest in a “much nicer tone” than I was using with her.

The guest who wanted the free shuttle is black. The woman who came back from dinner is white.

Anyway, she emails her complaints to our generic front desk email.

I respond from my work email, and we go back and forth. I’ve responded to her other complaints (over charging, extra fees, etc, etc) and I hear nothing back for about twenty minutes.

There’s literally nobody for the guest to talk to.

Then she sends me this gem: I want to speak with your supervisor because you make excuses and they need to know how you treat guest of color!!! Do not communicate with me. I will only communicate with your supervisors.

Here’s where the malicious compliance comes in.

I don’t have a supervisor. The hotel’s owner signs my checks, but he doesn’t deal with guest issues at all.

She knows I’m the General Manager (I told her in person and it’s in my email signature), so I don’t know. Since she doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, I can’t tell her that I don’t have a supervisor. I can’t tell her that there’s no one else to hear her concerns. I can’t tell her anything, so I guess we’re done.

Oh well.

That’s funny! Responding to the guest would make the guest mad. I wonder how long the guest will go before she complains again.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

The problem most likely isn’t over.

One person shares a funny translation of the email.

Here’s a pun.

Here’s a funny suggestion about how to respond.

A former hotel employee weighs in.

Some people are impossible to please.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.