Confessions of a Desk Clerk

  Man, what a crazy, long weekend I just endured. Not only were we completely sold out at my hotel, but the other 6 were sold out too. There were so many desperate people who didn’t make reservations and just came to town thinking they’d just grab a room when they rolled in scrambling to find rooms, where there were none. Every phone call I recieved or person who came in that I had to turn away always resulted in, "Why is everyone sold out. What’s going on this weekend??" What I really wanted to respond with was, "well, what brings YOU to ________?" Instead I stifled my sarcastic response and gave them a bullet point list of why every place was so busy. It was just utter chaos from Friday morning until 3:00pm today when I clocked out and ran out the front door. Friday I worked from 3-11:30 pm and had to be back at work at 7am Saturday to work a double….Again things were so crazy I didn’t get out until after 11:00 sometime…and had to be back again this morning at 7am. I was so tired waking up for work this morning I felt like I could cry…

   The overtime I am about to receive on my next paycheck will be worth all my extra time, but right now I am too exhausted to even look forward to it. By the end of my shift today I didn’t have much patience for my customers, and on top of it all I was training a girl who’s first day was yesterday…and it was a madhouse the entire time she was there. I am surprised she showed up this morning and didn’t run for the hills after she left last night. 

 And do you know what I hate the most? (Btw I am pretty sure all front desk people feel the same way) If you’re the customer and you walk up to the desk…don’t bang your room keys on the desk the second you walk up to it and no one is standing right there. If you wait just a moment, the person you’re needing to talk to is bound to show right back up. Damn, the sound of customers doing that the second I walk into the back to send a fax or make a copy or blow my nose for christ-sake is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO annoying. I want to walk back up to the desk, take the keys and throw them at the customer. Another common trait in customers is their sudden need to clear their throat to announce their presence. This isn’t something that annoyed me just this weekend, it’s every time I work. When I worked at Super 8 we had a bell and people would bang the hell out of that…and then think they were amazingly clever (and the first one) to see me and STILL hit the bell. I couldn’t wait for management to leave so I could hide that sucker. I hate the banging of the keys on the counter as much as that fucking bell. Thank God we don’t have a bell…I think I would start twitching or requiring Prozac.

  Also, if a hotel sells out of a room type you want, like, non-smoking, and you have to take a smoking to get a room don’t check in and complain that it smells like smoke. IT’S A SMOKING ROOM. You knew that when you booked it, or reluctantly took it because that’s all we had left. I had four people this morning who walked in off the street last night and took what we had left (which were smoking rooms) and wanted to gripe about how the room smelled and wanted their money back. Ummm…no. Unless it was smoking from a fire it’s too bad. Not much I can do. Should have called ahead and booked a nonsmoking room when we had it. 🙂 

It’s bad practice to travel ANYWHERE during a weekend and not have reservations somewhere. Weekends are when people do shit away from home…and need hotels. You run a big risk of places being sold out or too expensive because business is booming. 

   Of course I didn’t  convey my frustration towards my customers…instead I plastered on a smile and helped in any way I could to make their stay as comfortable and pleasant as possible…they’d never know that their banging of the keys on the counter while I took a phone call from a customer made me feel like turning into the Incredible Hulk and squeezing them until their head exploded…no…they got the apologetic Hanna for them having to wait while I helped another customer not standing right in front of me, and eager to ease their impatience by providing +1 service and "a happy to see them smile." 

For the most part though people were pretty nice and understanding about how busy the town was. I had more pleasant customers than unpleasant…which made the long hours I worked and the total chaos I worked in worth the time I spent there. 

One cute story came about last night too. Near the end of my shift a bride and groom walked into my lobby and asked if they could take pictures by the fire place and on the stair case and I told them of course they could. Then they told me how they met:  Two years ago the groom was staying at our hotel and the bride was staying at the hotel and had no idea either person every exisited. They met in the lobby and got to talking and spent hours in front of the fireplace chatting and then both decided to each stay one more night…After that stay they started dating!!! They came back to town and got married but couldn’t get a room because when they called we were of course, BOOKED.  I had one room I was holding on a 6pm hold that I could have let go hours before but kind of held onto just in case they showed up….and I was ready to give it to them but they were staying someplace else already. I would have totally done it on the house too just because of their story! I was all gushy about it and Mike (the bellman) kept teasing me about it. It was such a sweet story though! To just randomly meet like that out of town at a hotel and fall in love….and then get married. If I believed in Destiny…man…I almost want to after that… =) I hope they last forever…and don’t fall prey to the difficulties marriages are faced with these days. 

It gives me hope. =)