I work in a hotel. It baffles me that so many random people walk in and say they would like an upgrade. It doesn’t work like that. We don’t just give free upgrades to anyone who asks. We don’t even randomly upgrade the [Rewards Program] members. If we make a mistake with your room or reservation, we’ll ask if it’s okay to upgrade you. If we accidentally overbook a certain room type, then we’ll offer someone an upgrade. If something in your room is not functioning and it doesn’t represent the standards we keep, we’ll upgrade you. If it’s a slow night and we know you’re having a hard time, (e.g., you had a car accident, you’re escaping domestic violence, you unexpectedly lost someone close to you, etc.), we’ll quietly ask if it’s okay to upgrade you.
Sometimes, third parties upgrade people without asking them first, and I’m the one who has to take the s*** when they don’t want that room. Sometimes, (a lot of the time), third parties literally just lie to people. And sometimes, people are entitled bungholes. Even worse are the entitled bungholes who book using third parties. That’s the type of person this story is about.
It’s a very busy night. We are completely booked and have no rooms left to sell. [Guest] comes in around 9:30 pm having booked a pet-friendly single room (one queen bed) as a prepaid, nonrefundable reservation made through a third-party booking site.
Guest: “My name is [Guest], and I’ll take a free upgrade, thanks.”
And then, she just keeps going through her purse as if she didn’t just say some entitled s***. That ain’t how it works, ma’am. I blink at her a few times until she looks up.
Me: “I’m sold out. There aren’t any other rooms available to upgrade you to.”
Guest: “Well, [Booking Site] told me I could book this room and then ask for an upgrade when I got here, and you’d give it to me.”
Did they now? I can’t say whether they did or not. To be honest, it could go either way; I can see [Booking Site] doing that s***, and I can also see [Guest] making that up. Let me also say that if you book through a third party, we aren’t giving you an upgrade unless something in your room is seriously messed up and another room of that same type isn’t available. If you book a prepaid, nonrefundable reservation, I can’t put you in any other room type anyway. When thinking about who to upgrade, we cross off third-party reservations first.
Me: “Ma’am, even if I did have a room to give you, I wouldn’t be able to switch you because you booked a prepaid nonrefundable reservation, and I’m not able to edit those in that way.”
Guest: “But [Booking Site] said you would give me an upgrade!”
Well, [Booking Site] lied to you, bro.
Me: “Like I said, this is the room you booked. I’m all sold out and I can’t change your reservation.”
Guest: “Well, what am I supposed to do now? Huh? I have my kids and husband with me, and we can’t all sleep in a single room!!”
Okay, then don’t BOOK a single room for your whole family and assume I’ll give you another one for free when you show up. The entitlement! I can’t believe I have to say this, but if you’re traveling with your whole family, you need to book a room that accommodates YOUR WHOLE FAMILY.
Me: “That’s up to you. I can bring some extra pillows and blankets if you’d like, and I think I still have a rollaway available if you want that.”
[Guest] primarily speaks another language, so she has trouble understanding what I mean by a rollaway. I try using a few synonyms (cot, portable bed, etc.) and describing it, but she’s not getting it. That’s fine; I deal with language barriers on the daily with this job. Meanwhile, her two daughters are standing a bit behind her while this is all going down, and the older one — probably about ten or eleven — steps in to translate for her, which is super helpful.
Guest: “That’s not acceptable! I want to be upgraded!”
Me: “That’s the best I can do. Bottom line. Would you like the rollaway bed I offered?”
[Guest] starts to take a breath, but her daughter interrupts her and says yes.
Me: *To the daughter* “Sounds good. I’ll bring it to your room when I have a minute.”
And then I finished checking them in.
It’s pretty bad when your ten-year-old kid is more reasonable than you are.
I told my manager about it, and she checked the cameras. I thought [Guest] was just going to have four people in the room. My manager told me she counted nine people going into that room. She said, “Holy s***, it was like a clown car; all these people kept packing in there. All I could think was, ‘Yep, that’s a fire hazard.’”
Insane. People, book the room you need. Don’t walk in and expect us to give you a free upgrade. A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.