'Ma'am, you do know Google is free right?': Hotel clerk gets fed up with demanding guest who expects clerk to be an encyclopedia

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Mar 16, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Do you even stop to think - how on earth did people manage to live their lives before the internet existed? Sure, it might have been more peaceful and carefree times, but how did they go places without GPS? How did they find information without Google? 

I know this sounds completely ignorant of me, but I can't wrap my head around it. Last week my mom and I talked about this long trip she took after high school, in which she spent 3 months traveling with a friend all across Europe, and I was amazed by the fact that she managed to do that with no cell phone, without knowing the languages, with only physical maps and travel books. Mindblowing.

This Reddit story might help bring my point across. This front desk employee complained about a guest who kept coming up to them and asking them questions that could literally be answered with one Google search. The employee was trying to be polite and helpful, but couldn't understand why this guest couldn't just use their own phone.

Scroll down to read the full story and some of the hilarious responses from other front desk clerks. Once you are done with this story, click here for some hilarious Friends memes.

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  • 01
    Google is free
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 02
    I don't know if any of you fellow FD workers have experienced this, but it seems like this happens to me all the time. Wherein a guest will ask me to google something for them. This happened this evening,
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 03
    and I'm about at my breaking point with it. I'm working the 2nd shift during an unseasonably busy shift by myself. A guest, maybe mid 50s woman, walks up to the desk
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 04
    and I still can't believe why she thought I would know this. She asks me, "we're traveling to (I forget the city, but it's in a completely different state that we're in now) tomorrow and
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 05
    staying at x hotel. How old is that hotel? What year was it built?" Camera cut to me, dumbfounded, because how in the | am I supposed to
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 06
    know that?? I don't work there, live there, nor have I even been to that state. So I said to her that I had no idea, and she replies "well can you find out?"
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 07
    After a google search came up empty, I told her as much and suggested she call the property directly.
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 08
    I get asked these stupid questions often. Now, I don't mind googling things for a guest, for example, if I recommend them a restaurant and they ask what time it closes
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 09
    or something like that, but going out of their way to come have me google something for them when GOOGLE IS LITERALLY FREE drives me nuts.
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 10
    Ps, she had her iPhone in her hand the whole time this conversation was happening.
    via u/jamiejams2648
  • 11
    Lonni24 · 22 hr. ago I usually just make stuff up.
    via u/Lonni24
  • 12
    trip6s6i6x 19 hr. ago "Oh, the Random Hotel? Yeah, it's old. Goes back to colonial times. Eventually it was fitted with indoor plumbing and electric lighting. Oh, google says to definitely watch out for ghosts, if you're into that sort of thing."
    via u/trip6s6i6x
  • 13
    80sCrackBBY 21 hr. ago im guilty of this, also if you ask me how far somewhere is, i always say "about 15-20 min"
    via u/80sCrackBBY
  • 14
    codepl76761 · 22 hr. ago I get asked that a bout the property I work at which was built 27 yrs ago when I say this to them they say that can't be right I was here X number of years ago and didn't see it.
    via u/codepl76761
  • 15
    No-Importance973 · 20 hr. ago I had a gentleman tell me he didn't believe our hotel was on x street. That it had to be on y street. Took 10 minutes, maps and pointing at street signs to get him to understand, English was his second language but still.
    via u/No-Importance973
  • 16
    Thisisurcaptspeaking 22 hr. ago Or when they ask you to make reservations for them at another Schmilton or Harriott property because even though you work for the competitor! Even then I can't cuz I don't have YOUR info!
    via u/Thisisurcaptspeaking
  • 17
    LuminescentToad · 20 hr. ago "Sure, I can google that for you. Let's use your phone. [holds out hand]"
    via u/LuminescentToad
  • 18
    Bondknowitall · 18 hr. ago I usually say that our front desk computers don't allow us to go on a web browser and we can only access certain programs. I then point them over to our copy lobby computer.
    via u/Bondknowitall
  • 19
    Foreverbostick - 21 hr. ago It's like when people ask me what there is to do around here and expect me to give them a complete rundown of every possible activity within a 20 mile radius. I'm a
    via u/Foreverbostick
  • 20
    homebody that lives in the next town over, I have no idea what's going on in town tonight. I ask what they like to do so I can look up specifics and they hit me with the "no
    via u/Foreverbostick
  • 21
    u." Bro, I like spending time with my family and drinking at home, I can't help you. But this post brings up another question: why do so many people want to know when a place was built? Unless
    via u/Foreverbostick
  • 22
    you're thinking about buying the place, or it's obviously a historical building, I can't think of a single reason anybody would care. The only reason I
    via u/Foreverbostick
  • 23
    know when my hotel was built was because I dug through a bunch of old documents to find out when our last remodel was.
    via u/Foreverbostick

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guests workplace-stories employee hotel job front desk tales-from-the-workplace tales from the front desk reddit story entitled customers workplace Reddit funny
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