She Recognized the Returning Guest Right Away—But One New Policy Turned the Check-In Into an Argument
Pexels
Some guests think the rules don’t apply to them.
In this story, a man was working at a hotel when a former long-term guest unexpectedly returned and asked for a room. Like before, the guest paid in cash for his room, so he immediately informed the guest that the hotel had a new policy requiring him to provide his credit card information. The guest refused, and the conversation quickly turned into a frustrating standoff.
If you love going to hotels, this story is something you can relate to because it narrates a classic customer-service encounter where a guest believes their history with a business should exempt them from current rules. Read the full story below.
A Previous Guest Doesn’t Like Our “New” Credit Card Policy
I had a guy walk in wanting a room. I recognized him. He last stayed with us years ago.
He was a lawyer for an oil company, and they paid for him to stay with us like they did their other employees.
He was with us for like a year and a half, almost two years. He was a weird guest. Not bad. He didn’t demand a whole lot of the staff, and he didn’t cause any massive problems.
Well, beyond the occasional normal stuff that luckily didn’t make us hate him. No, he was just… weird.
This employee welcomed the guest back.
There was a vibe to him that gave us the impression that he was into some freaky stuff.
Anyway, it had been years since he’d been to my hotel. In fact, the last time he was with us, our previous GM was still the one in charge.
So he walked in and said he needed a room while throwing his ID and three hundred dollars down onto the desk.
I say hello and welcome him back, but then inform him that, unfortunately, I’m going to need a credit card to check him in.
He says the cash on the desk should cover the room.
He told the guest that he now needed to put a credit card on file as a new policy.
Realistically, he’s not wrong. But what I tell him is that we no longer accept cash at check in. We stopped five years ago when our new GM took over. I said he will need to put a credit card on file.
He says he’s not doing that and to take his cash.
That right there is telling me that he’s doing something, or someone, he shouldn’t be doing. And he doesn’t want a credit card trail.
Like I said, we used to think that he was into some freaky stuff.
The guest got annoyed and demanded to talk to the former GM.
He didn’t like it when I repeated the hotel’s new policy.
He then reminds me about how much business he gave the hotel last time.
And I tell him I remember how much his company spent for him to stay with us.
He looked a little annoyed at my response. He then demanded that I call the GM, whom he referred to by name, to fix this.
I inform him that the GM he’s just requested I call no longer works for the hotel.
The guest was infuriated and left.
Instead of accepting that, he actually demanded that I call her anyway.
So I offered to call our current GM to explain the hotel’s policy since he clearly didn’t want to accept my explanation of it.
He ended up leaving, angered and ranting that he can’t believe name dropping the GM’s name didn’t get him anything.
Never mind the fact that he’s dropping the name of someone who doesn’t work there anymore.
Never Miss a StorySign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
He also just moved himself from being just an annoying guest to just another entitled jerk of a guest.
OP handled the situation perfectly by sticking to the policy instead of making exceptions. Just because the guest was a regular customer in the past doesn’t mean he gets to break the rules. At the end of the day, rules are there for everyone, not just for new customers.
Trending and Popular
Let’s see the comments of other Reddit users.
This user shares their experience.
Here’s a personal thought.
Here are some useful tips.
Short but true.
And lastly, here’s some interesting information.
Entitlement rarely gets better service.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
