Merry Ho-Ho-spitality

I think I am all set for Christmas festivities tomorrow. Presents have been bought and wrapped and I am excited to hand them out. I am the type of person who would rather give presents than receive. I love looking for that perfect gift and tend to go a bit over board with those I buy for. I put myself into a small debt because I want to keep buying and buying, ha! The only thing I am a bit disappointed in myself about is the gifts I got for B and DB. The gift I wanted to get B I couldn’t find anywhere in town and by the time I found (if I even did) it online it wouldn’t have gotten here in time for Christmas. Her biggest love in life is Dr. Pepper so I got her a crap ton of that and a gift card to her favorite restaurant. I wasn’t sure what to get DB that wouldn’t come across as too personal so I settled for a gift card to the movie theater and a card. I am usually more thoughtful about my gifts but I still kinda think we’re at that stage where we’re pretty random and up in the air so it seemed neutral and relatively safe.

Things at work have been pretty interesting this past week. For the most part the customers have been jolly and pleasant to handle which has made the month tolerable. Although last weekend one of the properties I work at had a fire in one of the rooms. I kept meaning to get in here and write about it but things have been moving so fast pace these past couple of weeks I just haven’t found the time! So last Saturday/Sunday (as it was 4:00am) our General Manager got a call from our night auditor who said the third floor was full of smoke and he had called the fire department. Turns out some couple were in there cooking up what is supposedly called "Shake-N-Bake" meth and there was some kind of small explosion or fire as a result of it. They were not in the room when the fire happened but were nice enough to leave behind their I.D.’s so the fire department and police department could have the necessary information to have the proper people arrested. The funniest part of the story (Which is what lead me to believe they weren’t in the room when the fire started) is that they called the next morning and asked the desk clerk if they could come in and pay for another night by 11:00. The desk clerk told them they could of course come back and rent the room again. When the idiots showed up and paid for another night the police were pulling up outside to arrest them. The man and women were both arrested and all of their belongings in the room and their car was confiscated for evidence. The man and the car were both found with LOTS of drugs. I am not sure what’s going to happen on the hotel end of it regarding law suits and court-room drama but these guys are in BIG trouble.

You know, when I work I almost never have these sorts of problems. Not that it isn’t possible but, I am so crazy selective on who I rent to. I tend to jack up the prices crazy high to locals or just straight up tell them I am sold out, even if there isn’t a single car in the parking lot. When working in this industry you learn to get a feel for what kind of person is standing in front of you the minute they walk in the door. It doesn’t help that the property where the fire happened is a more "economical" hotel so it tends to attract lower-budget patrons, so you end up having to weed through a lot more riff-raff. Other desk clerks just seem to rent the rooms to whoever and at low costs! I don’t want that crap in my hotel when I am working though so I make a mental "No Rent List" and stick to it. I have a pretty good knack for remembering names and faces. I’ll go as far as to be so unhelpful to these people that they wont return or they leave early. I sure as hell don’t lose sleep at night about it either! Anyway, the room didn’t have much fire damage but it had a lot of smoke damage and we had to evacuate the entire property at 4:00 am and refund everyone their money ON A FREAKING SATURDAY NIGHT. Ugh, what a blow. I hope those people get hit hard with charges.

ALSO on Saturday night 4 of our properties had automobile break ins along the highway. I am not sure if the culprits were going north or south but they hit my other property and 3 others that night, and just our properties, not even other chains. Sunday was an interesting day. I almost wonder if the Crack Heads were to blame, might explain why they weren’t in the room when the fire went down, and why our properties were the only ones hit. It’s just a theory I can’t prove and since they happened in separate towns for 45 miles I am not even sure police would tie them together. It is kind of ironic though that it happened to us. I’ve never heard of it happening before at our hotels. My mom of course freaked out when I told her and now she’s all worried I am not safe at work. In the 8 or 9 years I have been working at hotels this is the first occurrence of known crime going down at my place of employment. I am just glad anyways that I was off that night and it didn’t happen on my watch. Whew. Sure dodged all that drama.

   Speaking of work I better get into uniform and enjoy the quiet Christmas Eve that awaits me there. 

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope all your holiday wishes come true. =)