‘You need to pay before I give you the room’: Hotel guest's card gets declined, front desk clerk refuses to check him in

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Jan 8, 2024 12:00 PM EST

You pay, you get a room, simple as that, right? 

Sometimes, people go to elaborate lengths to get a room for free, and it seems as though this was one of those times. OP was working as a front desk clerk at a hotel when they were approached by a young man who came to check in for the night. He showed OP his ID, but it turns out, the room he had booked was not yet paid for. So OP told him that they had to pay up, leading to a very suspicious turn of events that led OP to believe that they might just be trying to scam them. I wouldn't be surprised, as stranger things have happened…

Scroll down to read about the hilariously sad chain of events that led to the guest walking off, and then check out this choosing beggar who ordered $250 worth of products from an online seller, only to let the seller know (in person) that they didn't have a dime to their name. Thus, they were unable to pay for the products… Could they have them for free, please? You can imagine how that went.

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  • 01
    "Sorry, your card got declined... You don't get a room."
    via Canva
  • 02
    If You're Going to Book the Room, Know How You're Booking
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  • 03
    I have been headdesking so much over this. So, a guest comes to check in. No problem, even found his ID. But we run into an issue. His parents are paying, and in fact booked the room. But they thought it was already paid for. See, they booked third party. Selected "book now, pay later!". Insist that that means they get to pay after checkout, and will be
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  • 04
    paying the third party. Oh, and the parents are not here. This is all over the phone with them. On speakerphone. I manage to convince them that I need payment for the room before check in. The parents debate over transferring money to their son or making a new third party reservation. They decide to
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  • 05
    make a new reservation. I just know it's going to be a pain, so instead I offer a CCA, that seems to work. Emailed over, waiting on them to fill it out. Hear over speakerphone that they're having trouble logging into their email, because they've forgotten where the password is.
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  • 06
    The email they're logging into is on a phone. This is truly when the headdesking begins. Finally, I'm waiting for the form. This takes 20 minutes, and I get a call from his dad. Just confirmation that they won't be paying twice. No worries, only the once. He assures me I should be
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  • 07
    getting an email with the filled out form soon. Twenty minutes later, the guest comes back and says his mother insists that the money is already taken out of her account. I wonder if she's trying to scam in some elaborate way. I tell her to call
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  • 08
    the third party. I'm now waiting to see if we're cancelling. Over an hour later, no sign of an emailed CCA, no sign of the guest, nothing. I call the number on file, if nothing else to warn that the card on file will be charged a no show fee of the night's stay if we don't get this figured out. The number
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  • 09
    gets me the mom. She yells at me about how it's her mom's card, I'll be stealing money from an eighty-year old, and how her son is going to have to sleep outside. I try to get the CCA again, and she tells me she's already paid, and in any case it's her mom's card and she's not going to drive 45 minutes at midnight back to her house. She hangs up on me.
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  • 10
    Fine, whatever. I have spent way too much time on this. If a CCA comes through before the audit, great. If not, not my problem. Audit processes, and guess who's card declined the fee?
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  • 11
    Did feel a bit sorry for the actual supposed-to-be guest, since it was his parents who were the problem, but there wasn't much I could do for him. He wandered off for a smoke and never came back to check on the room, so who knows what happened there.
    via u/Horror_Style_2289
  • 12
    Healthy-Library4521 - 5 hr. ago Sounds like it was fraud from the start. Parents are paying then it changes to grandma when you talk to the parent. Vote Reply Share
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  • 13
    FuzzelFox. 1 hr. ago The moment she said it wasn't even hers I would have told them all to shove it. Sounds way too much like fraud/a scam and I would not be dealing with it lol Vote Reply Share
    via u/FuzzelFox
  • 14
    JustanOldBabyBoomer · 5 hr. ago I'm seeing Red Flags with this one! Reply Share Vote
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  • 15
    SkwrlTail · 2 min. ago I rather like "more red flags than a matador convention." Vote Reply Share
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  • 16
    crippletown 52 min. ago Some folks are too dumb to go out in public. Vote Reply Share
    via u/crippletown
  • 17
    cassandraterra. 12 min. ago Scam. Scam. Scam. Probably a stolen card. You don't know if the people on the phone are even related to the person trying to check in. It's all BS. Good job! ↑ Vote ↓ Reply Share
    via ucassandraterra

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Tags

customer service check in young guest hospitality credit card prepaid room payment tales from the front desk key card hotel room card declined payment third party front desk clerk
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