‘Are you serious?’: Front desk clerk refuses to refund entitled guest whose ID and reservation don't match, guest throws a fit, leading manager to cave in and refund him anyway

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 23, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Anyone who worked in retail or any customer service job knows that the sentence – 'The customer is always right' could not have been further from the truth. Not only is the customer not always right, but the customer is often very very wrong.

The real meaning behind this sentence is that you should make the customers feel like they are always right, so they will end up leaving the business happy. However, that is not an easy task to do, especially when what the customer asks for is against policies and rules you have no authority to change.

The front desk employee in this Reddit story feels pretty outraged by how their manager decided to treat an entitled guest at the hotel. The guest came to the front desk demanding things the clerk could not do for them and eventually asked for a refund on their already used room. While the guest was throwing a fit in front of the clerk, the manager was on the phone hearing the whole ordeal, which is why the clerk was really mad when they learned that the manager decided to give the guest their refund anyway. Luckily, the clerk has one more card up their sleeve…

Keep scrolling to read the full story. After you are done, click here for a story of a company that refused to give their employees the money they are owed.

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  • 01
    "How can you side with the guest?"
    via RonTech2000
  • 02
    I'm cheating on my wife.. and I want a refund!!
    via chlorohydex
  • 03
    So. This happened not even an hour into my shift yesterday. This guy walks up to the desk and I ask him if he's checking in. He says no, he needs a new key. I didn't recognize the guest so I went to look up his
    via chlorohydex
  • 04
    reservation. His name did not match what was on the reservation. I told him that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to make him a key due to him not being on the res and he flipped
    via chlorohydex
  • 05
    his . He also paid cash, there wasn't an email or phone number on file so there was no way that I could verify information. We did have a copy of his ID so I thought that was interesting. He kept saying
    via chlorohydex
  • 06
    how ridiculous it was because he was definitely in the room, cameras could prove that and I needed to call my manager because he has things to do. So. I start dialing my managers number and he back tracks.
    via chlorohydex
  • 07
    Him: Actually, don't. I was going to check out early today anyway so don't even bother. I'll just come back tomorrow for my refund. Me: okay. -continues dialing
    via chlorohydex
  • 08
    Him: didn't you just hear what I said? Why are you calling your manager?! Me: .. because I can? As soon as she picks up he starts yelling over me and demanded to speak to her. She explains that it's a
    via chlorohydex
  • 09
    safety issue due to him not being on the reservation and once they're done "investigating" they will reach back out to him as far as reimbursement. She could barely get that out though because he
    via chlorohydex
  • 10
    kept cutting her off about a refund and tossed the phone back to me and left. Manager tells me to cancel the reservation and check the room to see if it's clean. While doing that she called the previous FDA to see what happened.
    via chlorohydex
  • 11
    Turns out, this guy is a regular that cheats on his wife. He goes the extra mile to call hours in advance and wants to be let in through the back door with his mistress to avoid being seen in the lobby with her. He
    via chlorohydex
  • 12
    pays cash every time but for some reason, yesterday he requested for my coworker to change the name on his reservation. I don't know why but my coworker did it. The room was definitely used. Trash on the desks, the bed was
    via chlorohydex
  • 13
    destroyed, towels and soaps were used along with the room smelling . My manager kept like straight saying she didn't know what to do and I told her that he needs to be charged just like any other day. I looked up his previous reservations
    via chlorohydex
  • 14
    and he's only stayed for a few hours each time. Housekeeping left for the day so the room couldn't be flipped. He needs to be charged full price. She agreed, BUT COME TO FIND OUT TODAY. They left $30 (35% of
    via chlorohydex
  • 15
    the room total) attached to a post it note with the guests name on it the office and apparently it's a partial refund due to the inconvenience yesterday. WHAT INCONVENIENCE??? Realistically if
    via chlorohydex
  • 16
    he was honest about it instead of being a I would've just made the key. But what really ped me off about this is the fact that this is the 3rd or 4th time that I've had a guest act wild for NO REASON while management is on
    via chlorohydex
  • 17
    the phone and can clearly hear what's happening, but still chooses to side with the guest. Like are you serious???
    via chlorohydex
  • 18
    TheGravelNome Send a receipt to his home address. Addressed To his wife. She'll take it from there.
    via TheGravelNome
  • 19
    chlorohydex OP You know, there was one reservation that did have his rewards account attached with his phone number and address.
    via chlorohydex
  • 20
    PENGUINS penguins-and-cake Honestly you could probably call their payment processor — they're probably breaking agreements with the processor &/ the card companies. Then whatever laws may apply on top of that, though the payment processor may also report them.
    via penguins-and-cake
  • 21
    chlorohydex OP I actually just found a complaint form underneath the payment processors privacy notes. I know for sure they're breaking agreements with the card companies
    via chlorohydex
  • 22
    ClerkAnnual3442 How about calling the number and leaving a message to call back about the refund?
    via ClerkAnnual3442
  • 23
    chlorohydex OP • 5d ago It's his phone number, not the wife's
    via chlorohydex
  • 24
    Objective-Ganache 114 The manager(s) wanted to do a favor for a regular paying guest without making a moral judgement. That is a manager decision. As an employee, you want to blow that up?
    via Objective-Ganache114
  • 25
    Yes, the guest was offensive and you don't like his morality. But this really isn't your decision to make, nor is his life yours to sc v up. You should back off and let this lie
    via Objective-Ganache114
  • 26
    chlorohydex OP The guest was aggressive and disrespectful to an employee that was just doing their job. I was following policy. That doesn't have anything to do with his moral. My manager doesn't have a backbone
    via chlorohydex
  • 27
    nor do they stand up for their employees. Also, regardless of the cheating fiasco, he still used the room and should be charged just like any other guest.
    via chlorohydex
  • 28
    -et I asked a guest for ID when he asked for a key to his room at 1am. He's like but I've been staying here for 3 months and I've never seen you before. I'm like yup exactly and I've never seen you before either. Then he had an ahha moment and says: oh right that actually makes sense for security thanks and sorry lol.
    via **-et
  • 29
    chlorohydex OP I love people like that. They get it. D
    via chlorohydex
  • 30
    AgreeableMeringue84 - This is why I left the hotel industry · bad behavior gets rewarded constantly. And the lovely, polite guests rarely get anything in the way of discounts or freebies. This is so gross and I'm sorry it happened to you OP.
    via AgreeableMeringue84
  • 31
    chlorohydex OP I'm hoping to get out of the hotel industry soon too. Out of all of the hotels I've worked at though, I've learned it really depends on who the GM is. I've had GMs that could care less if it was an A list celebrity. They would still kick them out if they were disrespectful to us and then there's my current management lol
    via chlorohydex
  • 32
    Top Listen_1729 Two lessons to be learned here. One for the guests and one for the staff For guests - always treat your FD with respect. They can easily make your life better, or worse. For staff - write stiff like this down in the log book. Review the log book with your relief.
    via Top_Listen_1729
  • 33
    chlorohydex OP Unfortunately my coworkers don't write anything important down in our notes.
    via chlorohydex

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guests workplace-stories hotel guest employee hotel front desk work reservation tales from the front desk reddit story entitled Reddit funny weird entitled people
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