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"t2_6765sa41","gingybutt","Hey y'all so we have been seeing an INCREASING number of rule breaker posts.
""Fill out this research!!"" ""I have hotel discounts to trade!!"" ""Whats a good hotel to stay in *insert city*!!""
Guys. Read the rules. Otherwise, your post will be removed and you will banned.
Thanks from your moderator team. 🫶","Hey y'all so we have been seeing an INCREASING number of rule breaker posts.
"Fill out this research!!" "I have hotel discounts to trade!!" "Whats a good hotel to stay in insert city!!"
Guys. Read the rules. Otherwise, your post will be removed and you will banned.
Thanks from your moderator team. 🫶
The Rules
Don't be a dick. Just don't it sucks and no one likes it. Same goes for being a dumbass on purpose, aka sealioning.
No asking for unethical or illegal help, no offering the same. This includes asking for how to bypass a hotel's rules or get discounts.
Bots and novelty accounts only allowed at mod discretion.
No advertising. None, zero. It sucks and no one likes it.
No looking for investors. I can't believe I had to make this rule. Why are you looking for investors on reddit?!
No bad advice. If mods think the advice you're offering is bad, it will be removed and if it seems you offered the advice maliciously you will be banned.
No market research. Everyone hates it. This also includes posts asking how to sell [insert product and/or service here] to hotels.
Posts must be in English. The majority of users here speak English, that's how you're going to get the most help. It doesn't have to be good English, just has to be English.
No homework. We're not filling out your survey for you.
No asking for specific hotel recommendations. If you're looking for advice on what brand's have the best loyalty programs so you can decide where you want to book more often that's one thing, but asking "I'm going to [city] in [month] and I need a hotel by the [landmark] for me and my [#] kids" is not. The sub is not large enough to generally offer a meaningful answer to these questions and they're just not really the point of this subreddit.
If the answer to your question is some variation of "call the hotel" or "only the hotel you booked at can help you" your post will be removed.
No AI.
No questions from the FAQ. There's a lot of questions that get asked over and over again, so let's save some time. Plus, most of these also fall under "call the hotel"
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: "Help! I just realized I booked a hotel but I'm not old enough to check in! What do I do?"
A: Call the hotel.
Q: "Help! I forgot/lost my ID/card I want to pay with! What do I do?"
A: Call the hotel.
Feel free to submit questions you think get asked too often that don't have variable answers, these were the first that came to mind for me.
I’ve seen people talk about banning people from their entire chain and/or from their property via 3rd party sites. I’m not talking about putting them on a particular hotel’s DNR list. But what I’m curious about is what brands enable you to ban someone from all their hotels? And which 3rd party site(s) are you able to prohibit someone from booking at your property?
We had a guest today try to check in early and get upset and verbally abusive to the FD when they told her there was a $15 fee for it. She also didn’t like being told that check-in was at 4pm, not 3pm like she assumed. She then came back again at 3 and got aggressive with the clerks then because we didn’t have a room ready for her. We HAD just checked 3 rooms in just as she arrived, but they were also the only 3 rooms we had as vacant/inspected in the system and of course she didn’t care about any of that. We were being racist and that’s why we were refusing to check her in. We told her we were cancelling her reservation with no fees. When I pulled up her 3rd party reservation on the extranet I didn’t see anywhere to flag a bad guest so I started wondering which sites allow it.
hey yall i have a trip at the holiday inn in canada and my parents told me to use their card to book it (i haven’t booked it yet) but now im finding out the name on the card used has to match your reservation name. will i have any trouble checking in if i use my moms card and she’s not with me? please help
I'm currently staying at a 4 star hotel in Vienna and have found a few silverfish and whilst I know they're not dangerous, they're a bit freaky and I'm quite scared they'll climb onto clothing or into my bags. Like there were loads...I am on murdering spree...
I raised it as an issue, profusely apologised for the inconvenience, they said that there wasn't anything they could do and sent me on my way with new bed linen and that "that's just nature I'm afraid"
Am I being unreasonable? If it's me overreacting to silverfish then I'd like to know...lol
Hiya! Me again! With a question I hope doesn't come across as suspicious!
I'm a night auditor at a relatively large hotel (348 rooms), and I'm being asked to crack down on theft in all the ways I can imagine it could happen.
One way I imagine someone could steal a lot of money at once would be to find a reservation with a VC, charge the customer directly and use a personal terminal to charge the VC. Or, alternatively, take a small amount out of other reservations to cover one VC and charge it, now that the original reservation has technically been covered. In order to combat this, I've been checking all VC movements nightly to make sure the last four digits match the ones on the receipt.
I'm wondering if I'm being paranoid. When you set up an account with an OTA, does it also determine which terminals/ accounts are authorized to receive the payment, or can the charge be made from any old terminal to any account?
Also, I would love to make a thread just with my paranoid ramblings, and how they've paid off at some point in the future, if it helps anyone. Any advice is welcome! :D
So I'm 19 and my girlfriend is 18, we're staying the night at a hotel so we can move into our 2nd year uni accom which is a day after my current uni accommodation ends. I was just wondering if it's likely she'll need to provide ID as she left it at home which is 7 hours away.
I have mine and I'm the lead guest, so that's not an issue, just hers.
I'm British, but she's got dual citizenship so im not sure if that'll change anything. This is a British hotel just FYI
Thanks
Can I check in to a lower-end hotel/motel with cash only, present my ID, and ask for any form of guest logging anonymity? I am trying to flee a stalker/dv situation.
So my family + 2 relative families are staying in a vacation house, and I am booked for these 3 nights in a neighboring hotel. I sleep there and then vanish to the rental house all day and come back to sleep again. It’s my 6 year old son and me.
Tonight I come home, and the dead bolt is pulled out and the door is ajar that inch or whatever, unlocked. Odd. I walk in, and the beds aren’t made and the maid’s tip is on the far bed. But my kid’s water bottle isn’t there, which we left here because my wife was pissed I forgot it.
With no water bottle, I start to question my sanity. Well, maybe we left it downstairs at breakfast. I run that theory. Maybe we’ll check lost and found. Nothing there.
So, then we go to brush our teeth, and my toothbrush and toothpaste are gone. I am 100% positive I didn’t take that. My kid’s electric toothbrush is gone too.
I am 100% sure stuff is missing because I literally only had a backpack of stuff as I only sleep here. So I only left like 3 things here.
But why is the maid tip there still? Why was my door unlocked and left open? Why are my toothbrushes and toothpaste missing? Why was nothing else touched?
Thoughts, hotel employees? For the record, the night guy doesn’t have access to the tapes, but the manager in the morning does. So I may get clarity. In the meantime, I feel like I am losing my mind.
I made up 2 new keys. FYI, my second key was left on the desk in the room. The room is a low level “suites” type hotel, so there is a narrow kitchen on the right, bathroom on the left, before you get to the 2 queen beds and the desk. I don’t believe anyone made it past the bathroom. Towels weren’t moved, nothing extra in the garbage cans.
Anyone else having issues booking any Wyndham property on points for more than two people? Been about a week where it seems 'go free' rooms disappear when you go from 2 to 3 people. I checked multiple properties. Seems to be a Wyndham wide thing. Hopefully just a glitch, as this change would be insane
Yes or no, and if so, how much? And is the Hilton online tipping service okay or would cash be better?
Hello! I am interviewing for a sales coordinator role at a local resort.
Anyone in a similar role that can give day-to-day of what a sales coordinator does?
The resort is huge, and I would be working with many different departments (events/weddings, sales, golf, spa, catering, etc).
Thanks!
We are a small and somewhat remote resort and finally decided to try listing on Booking.com. Guests love us but we need higher visibility so they can find us. Immediately got three bookings. Now have about three more. This is good.
However, on our account it says “You don’t have permission to view credit cards” when I try to see the virtual cards after checkout. I now have three of these. I have messaged multiple times on the extranet. I have called at least three times. No luck. But spent about two hours on hold. Is there some way to rectify this?
I like the visibility but we need to be able to access payments or I guess we’ll have to discontinue either Booking.com payments or Booking.com altogether.
I’m not a fan of OTAs at the best if times but this is a new low. Thanks for any ideas!
Has anyone else noticed that many hotels find seem to not have bathroom fans anymore? The bathrooms get incredibly steamy with one hot shower. Why is this? Are they not worried about moisture issues?
I’m not super old, but I do remember a time when bathroom fans were pretty common and standard. What has changed?
(This is for U.S. hotels at a variety of price points, so I don’t think it’s about the class of the hotel.)
Our property is shifting to PEP soon and I've heard there is a possibility to remotely access that as well
what would be the cost if i have my corporate have me create a remote user
I've heard it requires some VPN connection or something, not sure how it'll work
When I returned to my hotel room there was a sugar packet where the room key card is supposed to go and all the lights were on. What does this mean? Would housekeeping do this on purpose? It spooked me a little that someone did this. Does this mean my room was open the whole time the sugar packet was in there?
I know things like pillows/blankets aren't washed every time and just the covers changed, obviously things like TV remotes or the room phone probably aren't cleaned regularly either.
In the bathroom, do you clean things like the towel rails and the bathroom walls or is it literally just the toilet, shower, sink and countertops that get cleaned?
Also if you clean the toilet before replacing towels or changing bedsheets, do you clean your hands in between or just remove gloves?
Do you have a specific order you clean stuff in, like doing the bathroom or toilet last for example? I assume floors are done at the end?
Do you use the same cloths and mops in several/all of the rooms?
20 year old male from UK that has been working as a crew member in McDonald’s for just over a year and previous experience as customer assistant in Marks and Spencer. Looking to work abroad at the start of next year for a few months to see if I enjoy it - thinking of hospitality sector (bar staff / hotel staff / receptionist). Just looking for advice on what thoughts on my next step should be, currently trying to get myself a job in one of these areas to build experience. Any alternative ideas or countries would be appreciated.
I am FD at a small hotel.
When someone leaves a cash deposit, I go check the room before I give it back.
Like today, a few other times guests have left change (under $1.00) on the bedside table, or even on the floor (why do people do that???)
I get the feeling this was just laziness and not really meant as a tip for Housekeeping, but every time someone does it, I worry that HK will be insulted when they see this. I would ask them, but there is a language barrier.
I have been leaving it, however. But this strikes me as it would leaving a low tip for a server at a restaurant.
I know this is a small thing. I just like our housekeepers and would not want to see them offended.
Thoughts?
Hello! So me and husband recently stayed at a hotel last weekend in Minnesota and we are use to checking out by going to froth desk . Well at this hotel the lady look at us funny when we ask if we need to check out here . So is not common to just leave hotel without checking out ?
Hey everyone, next week 4 of us (all 20 years old) are going on a vacation but we need to stop in a hotel for a night.
I’ve stayed at a real crappy motel that was 18+ before but that wasn’t a great experience. Is there any type of way we can pay a fee, finagle a system etc.? We did once Hilton’s digital check-in process and it was great since there’s no ID check. I know it’s probably not legal, but we aren’t crazy throwing parties damaging things. Anyone have an idea?
Last weekend I stayed one day at a hotel as I was passing through a town. I tapped my card, it beeped, I even got an emailed receipt saying I was charged and my balace at checkout was $0.00, but nothing was charged to my account.
I called and was blown off, so okay?
Its been a week since i stayed there, and nothing. Ive never stayed at a Best Western before, is this normal?
How does opera cloud for Hyatt’s work? Was it difficult the transition?
Last month I dealt with a difficult situation of getting a relative’s car serviced and transported out of a hotel parking lot. The manager was so kind and flexible and helped me coordinate things as I live in another part of the country. What is an appropriate thank you gift? Is something like a gift card a best bet?
Hello good morning.
If the hotel has room service, do they let people from Uber Eats and stuff come in?
Or can they only get to the reception?
Sorry if the question is very stupid, but I'm curious.
Have a good day.
Edit: Thank you all for being so kind and responding.
I'm not staying in a hotel, I'm just curious hahaha
I wish you a great day
If you're here reading this, it may be too late, but in general:
- There are downsides booking via third party tools (Expedia, Agoda, etc) to actually purchase the room (see exceptions)
- Use those tools to find where you want to stay, and then book the room through the hotel's website. The price should be identical, close, or available if you call into reservations and explain the other site's pricing (YMMV - make sure you are speaking in the same currency).
- Do use third party tools if a) you need a special feature/function, like booking and paying for others; b) there is a room or package rate that is impossible to source elsewhere; or c) you enjoy a room between the elevators and the ice machine, without any option of a refund even when housekeeping sets your room on fire.
A guest asked the desk clerk for the number of the nearest Papa John's, and then when they delivered late, she wanted money off her stay because we recommended it. We actually didn't recommend it. She asked for a phone number and he looked it up on Google. She wanted to talk to the manager and he didn't give her anything for that either.
Hi, I am interested in finding out which hotels typically have availability for employees looking to travel to Taipei for 1-2 weeks. Where do you recommend staying and still get to utilize the employee rate? Thanks in advance.
I have been reading all the advice given and I understand the perspective of encouraging people to book directly. I do that for my airline travel.
I have been using TPW 99% of the time for hotels and I've never had a problem to date with how I book. I don't have loyalty to any hotel and often book based on location/price/rating of hotel and what makes sense.
I have had only 1 issue so far which was booking on priceline which has always been prepaid and showing up to hotel and them telling me it was booked through booking.com and I needed to pay them. That was a weird Priceline/Booking confusion.
My question, I have many times considered booking directly but everytime I have looked into it, it has always been more expensive. Every single time. I see that people here say that they can match it. I've asked a few times over the phone and they didnt want to match. What is going on and what am I missing? Are there certain hotels this works better with?
Never been able to match a TPW or get the price online to be same. I'm missing something
Hey everyone, I wanted to open up a little discussion about hotel stays recently. I’ve noticed a few ongoing issues that seem to be happening more often, and I’m curious if others are seeing the same things.
- Cleanliness standards slipping (dirty bathrooms, stained sheets, weird smells)
- Staffing shortages sometimes it feels like there’s just one person running everything
- Prices going way up but service/quality going down
- Weird policies no daily housekeeping, late check-in times, early check-outs, etc.
This has happened in both budget and mid-range hotels for me lately, even in areas that used to be super reliable. Is this the post-COVID reality, or are some places just cutting corners?
Would love to hear your recent hotel stories the good, the bad, or the straight-up “you won’t believe this” kind. And if anyone works in the industry, feel free to drop your take too I know guests aren’t always innocent either.
Would love your thoughts on:
Really awesome personalized services
Best luxury hotel chains (e.g., Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria)
Hidden gems in big cities
Perks or elite membership programs that are actually worth it
Thanks in advance, I’m hoping to make my travel feel a bit more like home !
🙋
Hi!
When you worked at the hotel, what did you expect from guests? Like, reasonable breakfast portions?
(Continental Breakfasts are usually coffee, donuts, apples, yogurt, bananas, coffee...)
Did you expect everyone to grab one item and a coffee? A couple of items and a coffee?
... How did you feel about people who took ALL the cheese danishes?
What is too much for one guest?
How much more do you have in the back?
Did you guys ever run out of food?
Any thoughts/suggestions you'd like to share with future guests?
How to be polite? Cleaner? What is one thing you wish guests would stop doing?
(I'm asking these questions because I noticed...a few things yesterday morning.
I'm curious and I want to get some opinions now lol)
Okay so a little context, I'm 22 now, I've just finished graduation in hotel management with a long internship in a prominent property
I got through in the management trainee program in front office
I really wanna know, why is the pay in hotels so low? And how is the tipping in front office? Are there any other jobs outside of hotels i can take up with hotel management degree? Which do not require me to move around a ton?
Please help! I need to do a refund in hotel key & im lost as hell.
Hey I'm looking to go to gran canaria in November I've never been before and would like some hotel recommendations please :) we are a young couple weeks like good food, cocktails (bar), and we would like to be near maspalomas/playa de ingles in that area would be good, and any restaurant/bar reccomendations also! We like to go out on the night :) thank you!
Nothing like starting your day with a surprise ice bucket challenge or being skinned alive by lava. Who designs these showers? NASA? Meanwhile, Karen from accounting adjusts hers at home by blinking twice. Fellow hoteliers, let’s agree: guests shouldn’t need PPE to bathe.
Sto cercando un partner finanziatore per , la prima piattaforma di prenotazione alberghiera pensata davvero per clienti e hotel, con una logica completamente inversa rispetto alle attuali OTA.
🎯 Cosa fa ?
Permette ai clienti di proporre il prezzo che sono disposti a pagare per il soggiorno, mentre gli hotel decidono se accettare o meno.
Una piattaforma etica, dinamica e trasparente, che chiede solo il 7% di commissione agli hotel, contro il 15-20% delle OTA tradizionali.
🌍 Abbiamo definito tutte le fasi del software , ora serve iniziare ,è un modello scalabile e due piani di sviluppo: uno diretto con gli hotel e uno con le agenzie di viaggio e associazioni di categoria.
🔍 Cosa cerchiamo
Un investitore (anche di profilo medio) o fondo che creda nell’innovazione digitale, nella giustizia economica, e in un’idea di turismo più sostenibile e collaborativo.
L’investimento richiesto è mirato: comunicazione, team, e spinta commerciale.
📈 I numeri sono promettenti, l’opportunità è reale e scalabile anche a livello internazionale.
Se sei interessato o conosci qualcuno che potrebbe esserlo, scrivimi in privato.
Sono disponibile a presentare business plan, mockup, piano marketing e scenari di exit.
Grazie per la condivisione!
I thought in major city there is always cheap basic accommodation like hostels available…. There is literally no where available! Will have to spend like 200 pound on a hotel room
Our family has a situation where our son wanted to watch one specific hockey game in Edmonton, but we are unable to accompany him due to schedule issues. Is there a hotel where a 16 year old can check in? And is the area safe?
I just returned from a girls trip where we stayed in a Hilton Garden inn, in downtown Cleveland. My friend booked these rooms(2) in March. We arrived to check in the front desk person was rude. Then the price had changed and was higher. We paid the price, carried on with our trip. Everything was good until, we needed housekeeping. Then we were told it we had to request it at the main desk. We went there only to be told. That housekeeping is extra, and not included due to us booking through a third party. We were there three days and only got clean towels, because we complained. My friend, she got clean sheets but she had to put them on herself. We stayed at this same hotel last year, and loved it. The extra cost is fine, if you know about it.
The front desk clerk didn't ask for ID when my key didn't work, should I complain to a manager?
Was having a lovely holiday in Spain, when my Wife pointed out that the lads; who had been drinking all day in the pool had not got out for hours…
I’m not a big daytime drinker, at best, can only go a (I think) respectable 3 pints between ‘breaks’. These lads had nom. 8-12 pints through the day, meaning that either they have the constitution of oxen - or, alas more likely, a new level of fear of all hotel swimming pool with bars in close proximity has been unlocked for me.
For humanities sake please tell me that a) If you are a holiday maker you will leave the pool -at any cost- before making yourself more ‘comfortable’. Or b) if you are in the industry, you add a more than appropriate level of chemical countermeasures to neutralise the scenario I now suspect is common.
If you know from personal experience, or otherwise, that neither of the above is true please let us know. Am feeling quite naive and unless suitably reassured will be taking my chances with the sea-life from now on.
Canada and US every hotel I try won't let me check in without a credit card on file for the hold. They WILL NOT let me use my debit visa, prepaid master card, nothing except a credit card.
I posted on another sub recently and TONS of people responded that they never use a credit card but NO ONE would reply to me which hotels specifically 😔.
I can book and pay no problem with debit. But at check in, they say i have to have valid credit card.
Hotels i tried last week:
- comfort inn
- seven oaks
- Hyatt
- atlas hotel
- Wyndham (specifically Travelodge but I assume all Wyndham would be the same?)
Then i got tired of calling lol.
Checked into a hotel today (beginning of vacation) and immediately noticed the room was musty. Not a big deal. Changed rooms and was getting ready to take a nap when I noticed that the blanket was NASTY. I then looked in the ac vent and it was disgusting as well. I brought it up with the manager at the hotel and they told me It was just an old goosefeather blanket and some dust in the vents. I'll add pictures below.
They're refusing to refund me, should I refute the charge on my credit card and try to find another place to stay?? Or am I just tripping.
EDIT: I just wanted a refund so I could leave. I am not trying to stay for free just to clarify. I booked this hotel as a 3 star, and as I was talking to their customer support, they told me this hotel is a category 1 out of 8!! I'm not trying to stay for free, I just want my money back so I can get another hotel.
I reserved a very cheap, iffy hotel online while traveling. We showed up very late, planned to only sleep, get up, and continue traveling. However, we realized that we could cancel the hotel for the next night, stay at this one twice, and sleep in rather than get 3 hours of sleep.
When we arrived, we were given our rooms. We reserved two rooms with two beds, four total. We were given rooms with one bed. I mentioned it to the guy at the desk and he admitted his error, he had given away the rooms we reserved and did not have any available. He said he had a smoking room, but only one, which would be three beds total. I said we would take it if it didn't smell bad. He instead gave us a third room, three beds total. When we left in the morning, planning to come back late again, he approached the van and told us he had given out the room he had given us, and we needed to return the key. Rather than argue, we needed to leave, we gave it back. When we came back that night, we tried to argue that he took back a room he gave us due to his error, but he insisted on us proving it, something he had previously admitted to. Rather than argue, we slept uncomfortably and left the next morning.
I emailed the hotel but expect no reply. What is a reasonable thing to demand? Should I file a chargeback? We got rooms, but not what we reserved, and he clearly admitted fault, gave us something to somewhat improve the issue, then took it back.
Hi guys I really need advice on a situation. A group of us booked a holiday, one of us will still be 17, we emailed the hotel to make sure they’d allow her to stay without a parent, they said yes, this was maybe two months ago, yesterday we double check their website and they’ve added that under 18s cannot check in without a parent/ official guardian. We’re desperately emailing back but we are meant to leave in a week. I’m wondering what to do, whether to risk going and show the email proof of them saying yes, or playing it safe with the friend not going, but then she’s wasted money on a holiday she couldn’t go in?
Thanks :)
Hi everyone! I am a 29yoM really considering a career change into hotels/hospitality. I lost my job back in December & have really struggled with what I want to do going forward. Lately, hotels and hospitality have really resonated with me, more & more I think this is the path forward for me. I guess I just don't know where to start, I don't really have any experience except customer service. I'm thinking I need to just start at being a front desk agent & go from there, but I want your advice as well.
One of the world’s largest hotel chains has been lined up to operate North America’s tallest mass timber hotel, planned for Granville Island in Vancouver. It comes after Wyndham Hotels & Resorts revealed that the ‘WaterWalk by Wyndham’ brand would operate a 160-room hotel on the site of Vancouver’s disused rail yards. That is according to new project plans and renderings submitted by Arno Matis Architecture to redevelop 1500-1588 West 3rd Ave. into a 162-ft-tall, 18-storey hotel tower.
Hi all! I am going to be in Nice with my best friend for 5 nights in August and was wondering if anyone had any budget friendly recommendations for an accommodation. We are fine with either a hotel or an Airbnb just somewhere bed-bug free and reliable with air conditioning and a private bathroom. Location wise, ideally near the Promenade des Anglais but I know that can get pricey, so hopefully just a short walk to the beach and train station for day trips. We are both very active young men and so we won’t be spending much time in the hotel outside of sleeping and showering and so it doesn’t need to be huge or fancy. We’re willing to pay up to $850 (total) for all 5 nights. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or ideas, even if they are slightly out of our price range! Thank you in advanced!
So I went to the Crowne plaza in Burr ridge, Illinois. It's a pretty exclusive area. So the first issue I had was basically I used one card to pay the bill and another card which was my debit card as the hold for incidentals so I had to call the bank about fraud related to a 96.30 charge And they said that's from the hotel. So I talked to two different front desk managers and the hotel manager and tried to get them to fix it but they were saying there was nothing they could do. The good news is it came off after 5 days but it really caused me to scramble. Then on top of that, I checked into the hotel Monday June 23rd and they wound up charging me $50 for incidentals and they have a hold on that $50 until August 5th. When I call them now again they're like there's nothing we can do. I checked with the bank and they said it's definitely not on their end. I have used this Bank since the '80s and I've never heard of any hotel holding a charge from this long. I did reach out to the states attorney in Illinois and thinking about better Business bureau. I'm getting some traction finally from high-end management but still no resolution. What are all your thoughts? Do they have a right to keep doing this. Have you ever heard of such nonsense? Do you have any suggestions as how I could speed up the refund instead of waiting till August?
Last month I dealt with a difficult situation of getting a relative’s car serviced and transported out of a hotel parking lot. The manager was so kind and flexible and helped me coordinate things as I live in another part of the country. What is an appropriate thank you gift? Is something like a gift card a best bet?
I've found a Starbie's gift card to be a pretty good gift for just about anyone. Even if they don't drink coffee, there's sbacks to be had.
Hey y'all so we have been seeing an INCREASING number of rule breaker posts.
"Fill out this research!!" "I have hotel discounts to trade!!" "Whats a good hotel to stay in insert city!!"
Guys. Read the rules. Otherwise, your post will be removed and you will banned.
Thanks from your moderator team. 🫶
Violators will be poked with sticks.
Violators will be forced to interact with night team
Violators will be forced into 1 year of night audit service at a high-traffic property
Violators will be forced to walk guests on sold out nights. We call that a rite of passage 🫠🫠
Why do the auditors need to be punished. :(
Y'know, I've only had to walk someone twice. First time was due to a small fire that left our second floor a bit of a mess, the other time resulted in me having a two-beer buzz for an entire shift.
The ones that need to receive this message, won't read this post. They aren't on this sub to read or participate.
It's pinned as an announcement on top of page but heard!
Damn, and I thought I was a nerd for actually reading the rules of a subreddit before posting on it.
Good Luck, same issue on TFTFD... its in our sidebar and the pinned post lol
i just send automod removal message and be done, unless its one of the people who post it 4 times in a row after automod catches them each time... then its removal and instaban lol
Do you know how hard it is for smart arses like me not to make a post with all of these included ?
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Old man has read the rules. But as a gen X rebel his sense of humour is barely contained
You get a one time pass and that's only if you include every rule and break it in the post.
Ciao Bella
Help needed. I need to do research on mental health services available to Night Auditors . We all are aware how bat shit crazy the resident NAs are.
I can send emails to all interested parties
Anyone interested in funding can contact me too
I really need everyone to help me with my paper. Its important work to save the lives of guests all around the world
I am offering hotel discounts for all participants.
Any suggestions of what area would be appropriate for these discounts to capture maximum responses?
As always Birdman is ready to respond to all enquiries.
No market research, selling, advertising or asking how to better sell your stuff to hotels.
I’ve seen people talk about banning people from their entire chain and/or from their property via 3rd party sites. I’m not talking about putting them on a particular hotel’s DNR list. But what I’m curious about is what brands enable you to ban someone from all their hotels? And which 3rd party site(s) are you able to prohibit someone from booking at your property?
We had a guest today try to check in early and get upset and verbally abusive to the FD when they told her there was a $15 fee for it. She also didn’t like being told that check-in was at 4pm, not 3pm like she assumed. She then came back again at 3 and got aggressive with the clerks then because we didn’t have a room ready for her. We HAD just checked 3 rooms in just as she arrived, but they were also the only 3 rooms we had as vacant/inspected in the system and of course she didn’t care about any of that. We were being racist and that’s why we were refusing to check her in. We told her we were cancelling her reservation with no fees. When I pulled up her 3rd party reservation on the extranet I didn’t see anywhere to flag a bad guest so I started wondering which sites allow it.
Booking.com lets you block someone from staying at the hotel, but there is nothing stopping someone from creating a new account and booking at your hotel anyway. That’s the only one I know of and it doesn’t work very well.
That's why I keep my own blacklist. And I try to memorise their names.
Most third party OTAs don't allow that, it's down to the property to maintain a list. Obviously implementing something like that is quite difficult so I recommend it be used sparingly.
Yep but I wouldn’t be surprised if a OTA agent lied to a FDA saying they’re put on a list just to end the call.
If they’ll lie to guests, they’ll lie to us.
It varies by the hotel corporation and the OTA.
Our hotel chain used to have a company-wide blacklist. It took a LOT to get on there - police report ideally - but when you were on it, none of the hotels in our chain would rent to you. THEN we merged with a bigger umbrella company. That one also had a blacklist, which was even nastier, but they discontinued it as being 'not friendly'. Cowards.
OTAs will have ban lists as well. If you go to the hotel extranet, there is usually a 'Report Guest Misbehavior' button.
I’ve only worked at franchises and neither did a chain ban. Our owner was great and we could add to the DNR at will. We had more business than we needed and he didn’t want any damage to his property.
I'm currently staying at a 4 star hotel in Vienna and have found a few silverfish and whilst I know they're not dangerous, they're a bit freaky and I'm quite scared they'll climb onto clothing or into my bags. Like there were loads...I am on murdering spree...
I raised it as an issue, profusely apologised for the inconvenience, they said that there wasn't anything they could do and sent me on my way with new bed linen and that "that's just nature I'm afraid"
Am I being unreasonable? If it's me overreacting to silverfish then I'd like to know...lol
Where I work bugs are typically a 50% discount and if you leave early due to pests it’s 100% refund then we mark the room for pest service. And I do not work at a “nice” hotel so there response is strange…Did they even offer to change rooms?
It was 11pm, person at the front desk said they were alone on the night shift and that there were no rooms the same as mine available (I'm in a standard room solo). If I wanted to switch rooms, I'd have to ask morning staff which I think is reasonable...but he said it in a "I mean ...? We could?"
i just wasn't sure if I was being a dick for asking to begin with as the response made me feel I was overreacting
I do understand he's working a rough shift lmfao, think he wasn't equipped to handle it.
in the event of an issue, he should be able to give you a different room. also for a 4 star property to have one person on the overnight seems crazy. 2 minimum for any 4 star in the US.
I have upgraded rooms with no extra charge for issues like this because we likely weren’t going to sell the rooms anyways if it’s after 11 (I’m also a night person). It makes more sense to turn a potentially terrible stay/review around into a positive experience through the “upgrade.” It’s surprising to me that a nicer luxury hotel runs with just one person at night! It can also be hard to learn the ins and outs of the job because they may only get a week of training and then they’re SOL with no one to ask questions to in the middle of the night lol.
1 dead one missed as it hid behind something. I did find one hiding from the pest control a week ago on top of the cupboard ( it lost its battle)
Stayed a week at The Hotel del Coronado. Our room was infested with ants. They were everywhere. All in the sheets, drawers, and furniture. The hallways hadn't been vacuumed. There were dust bunnies and that layer of carpet fluff built up everywhere.
Brought it up with the front desk. Didn't have any response. Upon leaving I left a candid "survey" the property requested. Not a peep. This was well before Covid and the immigration bs.
If you decide to switch hotels, consider the Regina. I've always found it spotless.
Uhh idk man, probably zero. That’s crazy. I’d want compensation unless this is some outdoor villa type deal
It's not an outdoor villa, they're just in a hotel room. I've found 3 in bathroom and 2 in bed. I did not like the fellas invading the bed ...
take pictures if you can, speak with the morning person tomorrow, night shifts can't do much, if no manager is working, ask for an email to send the pictures and change hotels, I think 1 is too many, I'd be freaked out too, and since you're changing hotels due to a pest, I'd suggest for you to ask for a partial refund or something like that
So I'm 19 and my girlfriend is 18, we're staying the night at a hotel so we can move into our 2nd year uni accom which is a day after my current uni accommodation ends. I was just wondering if it's likely she'll need to provide ID as she left it at home which is 7 hours away.
I have mine and I'm the lead guest, so that's not an issue, just hers.
I'm British, but she's got dual citizenship so im not sure if that'll change anything. This is a British hotel just FYI
Thanks
Some jurisdictions have legal requirements regarding documentation of hotel guests. What country/region will you be staying in?
Some properties have their own policies which may be more stringent than the local laws--but which may be more flexible, too.
The easiest and most reliable way to know for certain is to call the property and ask.
Exactly.
Depends on jurisdiction and on hotel policy.
In the UK there is *not* a legal obligation to show ID when a U.K. citizen is checking into a hotel. Hotel policy may require it and they can refuse you service, but it's policy, not law. It will likely depend on the hotel.
Budget hotels in the UK like Premier Inn, Travelodge, etc. often don't even ask for ID if you have the booking information and a credit card.
My suggestion would be not to make a big deal of it. Walk in, say your name and that you're checking in. Only give your ID if they ask. Only mention about your girlfriend's ID if they explicitly ask for that (don't say, oh sorry, I don't have hers if they only ask for yours.) It may also help if she's not hovering over you when you check in. Have her sit elsewhere in the lobby, she could stay outside to get some fresh air, she forgot something in your car, etc. etc.
Only going to need the ID of the person whose name is on the booking.
Unless she's paying....
Okay so here in the US I was NA in Myrtle Beach.
We were told we needed ID on every person in that room over the age of 18 if they were under the age of 18 guess what they needed a parent or legal guardian and they had to prove their age. Did we always enforce this rule? No. Not if it was a late night booking they're leaving first thing in the morning but if they look young we usually try to get all IDs because usually that meant a party.
If you call and ask them they are going to tell you yes. And all honesty your best bet is you be the only one to walk in to get the room say there are two adults. That your wife is in the car you do not need a key card for her otherwise they may ask her to come in with an ID just leave her in the car, claim the second guest don't try to sneak her in because then they're going to get you. But that's at a two-star hotel that's at a super 8.
Sorry edited to add that yes I believe in a lot of places in the US by law everyone has to have an ID if I remember correctly it was even posted on this little 8-in sign behind the front desk that you pretty much had to stand right in front of to read. Also, make sure your payment method is in your name matching your id.
does she not have her college ID? OR a drivers permit, if you're in t he usa, she got at 16? I would imagine a photo ID with her name would suffice unless, as others have said, she is paying.
In Germany: no. We need the ID of the main booker, and the person providing the credit card on file for incidentals (if that's in a different name).
Most won't allow under 21
you must be making the assumption it's in the US or everywhere is like the US
It’s not even true for at least large portions of the US, if not just flat out uncommon
So my family + 2 relative families are staying in a vacation house, and I am booked for these 3 nights in a neighboring hotel. I sleep there and then vanish to the rental house all day and come back to sleep again. It’s my 6 year old son and me.
Tonight I come home, and the dead bolt is pulled out and the door is ajar that inch or whatever, unlocked. Odd. I walk in, and the beds aren’t made and the maid’s tip is on the far bed. But my kid’s water bottle isn’t there, which we left here because my wife was pissed I forgot it.
With no water bottle, I start to question my sanity. Well, maybe we left it downstairs at breakfast. I run that theory. Maybe we’ll check lost and found. Nothing there.
So, then we go to brush our teeth, and my toothbrush and toothpaste are gone. I am 100% positive I didn’t take that. My kid’s electric toothbrush is gone too.
I am 100% sure stuff is missing because I literally only had a backpack of stuff as I only sleep here. So I only left like 3 things here.
But why is the maid tip there still? Why was my door unlocked and left open? Why are my toothbrushes and toothpaste missing? Why was nothing else touched?
Thoughts, hotel employees? For the record, the night guy doesn’t have access to the tapes, but the manager in the morning does. So I may get clarity. In the meantime, I feel like I am losing my mind.
I made up 2 new keys. FYI, my second key was left on the desk in the room. The room is a low level “suites” type hotel, so there is a narrow kitchen on the right, bathroom on the left, before you get to the 2 queen beds and the desk. I don’t believe anyone made it past the bathroom. Towels weren’t moved, nothing extra in the garbage cans.
Maid thought you had checked out and started cleaning, but got called away on something unrelated. Then, because you weren’t on the check-out list and the maid thought they had been to the room already, nobody came to finish and somehow your stuff ended up somewhere in the hotel but not in the lost and found.
Speak to the manager on duty. Explain the situation and ask for them to interrogate the lock.
That will outline who entered the room and start the process of putting the pieces together.
I forgot I reported a running toilet in the morning before I left. It was maintenance. What happened to the stuff remains a mystery til Monday when the manager comes back to review the tapes
If there were no other personal effects in the room other than the water bottle and toiletries, it’s likely an honest misunderstanding.
You’d likely be shocked by the amount of items left behind by guests that checked out.
The hotel should compensate you for the costs of what was removed. Someone clearly made a mistake, the hotel should rectify it.
I am still questioning my sanity. But once we realized I mentioned the toilet, it all fit together
Anyone else having issues booking any Wyndham property on points for more than two people? Been about a week where it seems 'go free' rooms disappear when you go from 2 to 3 people. I checked multiple properties. Seems to be a Wyndham wide thing. Hopefully just a glitch, as this change would be insane
Yes or no, and if so, how much? And is the Hilton online tipping service okay or would cash be better?
Tipping housekeeping: ALWAYS! And not just on checkout. If you have your room cleaned during your stay, leave a few bucks in an obvious spot. Cash is king...the online tipping is better than nothing though
Give it directly to the house keeper if you can, we had issue with laundry people taking tips because they get to the room first
Cash is best. The online tipping goes directly to the housekeeper you select; it is taxed though. The managing company only sees what was tipped so they can out it on the W2 for the employee. Otherwise the company doesn't interact with it. As stated in other threads, the total amount of digital tips has been about 10x what my managing company pays for the tipping service yearly. So yes, the management company could pay pennies more per hour to the housekeepers, but combined, they make more with digital tipping.
As for how much. I usually leave $5 for anything less than a week. I also do not get daily service as I can keep a room clean and dont really need extra people in my room. If Im in a room with a kitchen(ette) and I use the plated and such, but don't wash them, ill tip more.
I dont really leave a dirty room, but I spread my belongings all over the place without much rhyme or reason, so I know housekeeping cant really clean much. I also know if I need more towels, I can swap them at the desk as needed.
Hello! I am interviewing for a sales coordinator role at a local resort.
Anyone in a similar role that can give day-to-day of what a sales coordinator does?
The resort is huge, and I would be working with many different departments (events/weddings, sales, golf, spa, catering, etc).
Thanks!
Each property defines a sales coordinator differently. Personally when I was a SC, I received incoming inquiries and qualified them before sending it up the chain.
When I got a rate, I’d send over the proposal and or contract. Sending booking instructions etc.
I would send updated rooming lists so leads knew who booked vs not. If it was a group who provided the names, I would input the resv and send confirmation numbers.
Answer the odds and ends.
Seeing as you’re a resort, I could imagine that you’d make sure everything is set up properly and teams are communicated with regarding BEOs, menus etc.
We are a small and somewhat remote resort and finally decided to try listing on Booking.com. Guests love us but we need higher visibility so they can find us. Immediately got three bookings. Now have about three more. This is good.
However, on our account it says “You don’t have permission to view credit cards” when I try to see the virtual cards after checkout. I now have three of these. I have messaged multiple times on the extranet. I have called at least three times. No luck. But spent about two hours on hold. Is there some way to rectify this?
I like the visibility but we need to be able to access payments or I guess we’ll have to discontinue either Booking.com payments or Booking.com altogether.
I’m not a fan of OTAs at the best if times but this is a new low. Thanks for any ideas!
Please contact the booking OTA representative who is overseeing hotels in your area. Could you please ask how to obtain the owner's permission for the hotel listing to ensure you can make changes and process virtual payments?
How would I find out who the Booking OTA rep that oversees hotels in our remote area is? That would be super helpful if I knew how to do that! Thank you!
Turns out this was the group I was calling previously via an 800 number. But you brought me good luck! After 15 calls back and forth and numerous messages through the extranet since June 25, I have finally resolved this. With the correct person it took about one second. Thank you!
You are very welcome. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions in the future.
Has anyone else noticed that many hotels find seem to not have bathroom fans anymore? The bathrooms get incredibly steamy with one hot shower. Why is this? Are they not worried about moisture issues?
I’m not super old, but I do remember a time when bathroom fans were pretty common and standard. What has changed?
(This is for U.S. hotels at a variety of price points, so I don’t think it’s about the class of the hotel.)
At our hotels, we are using the HVAC system in operation as well as a pressurized system throughout the venting to eliminate the need for fans in bathrooms.
The older fans caused so many issues. They broke down often, and sometimes became noisy.
Yeah, the bearings go and you have a shrieking banshee.
And that method deals with the moisture effectively?
Great, if so, I’m just also sorta skeptical when the walls are getting wet with just a normal shower.
This has been my experience with pressurized systems. They work much better than fans IMHO.
We had one of these at my first high school. I would plug it in and after a day or so it would quiet down anx make for a nice background drone if you were trying to shit. Someone would always unplug it though.
Exactly- whatever method they claim they're using now clearly doesn't work very well.
There are let's rivulets of water dripping off the walls after a shower.
Also, the fan is nice bc it hides the bathroom noises.
What does pressurized system mean? The bathroom is at positive pressure relative to elsewhere, so air is forced through the bathroom vent? That must mean some fans somewhere, mustn't it?
I think the idea is they are always on now, so while they don't work as well as the noisy jet engines, they putter away enough that they get the job done before mold is an issue.
Ditto. No bathroom fans in the last 20 hotels I went to. Mostly Marriott, some Hilton, comfort, Holiday Inn, Wyndam.
I also miss the heat lamps
Heat lamps in the bath and mattresses that would vibrate for a quarter. Bring them back!
I think they mad about smokers, idk
Firefighters say bathroom fans cause a lot of fires, especially if they are left running constantly. They could get dusty and be hard to clean regularly. Pure speculation on my part for hotels specifically.
Huh, that’s interesting. Never heard that before.
I worked at an insurance company headquarters for a while and desk (or any other kind of) fans were absolutely banned because they are a common source of fires in offices.
Huh, I didn’t think people even left them on for days.
I've had mine running for months because I have a disabled family member who doesnt like to turn in on when they shower and will take 20 min steam showers and everything in the room would be pouring water. My solution was to turn in on and put a child lock over the switch. Guess i need to look into one of the moisture sensing switches.
I rent a couple rooms in the house I own to friends and one constantly let's the fan in the guest bathroom run. Even though there is a window he can crack for smells or moisture. I constantly tell him to stop using the fan due to it could be a fire hazard. He never listens.
They have moisture sensing ones and also fans with built in timers.
Fans in the bathroom are loud. You might not care that it's noisy, because you turned it on...but the room next door isn't happy.
Most newer building use a positive pressure system. There's still an exhaust in the bathroom, the fan just ins't also located there. It's much further down the line where the noise can be isolated.
Once or twice a year, I rent a room where turning the bathroom light on also starts a noisy fan.
I feel sorry for my neighbors, as I generally use the bathroom a couple times in the middle of the night.
They are using a system that provides building wide exhaust. I miss the extra switch for the fart fan.
I haven;t been a fan of a lot of hotel bathroms ever since they started using thos horrible rainfall showers.
*thick hair club checking in
I have ultra thick hair and actually kind of like the rainfall showers. It’s a bit more effort to get all the shampoo and such out of my hair, but I like the feel.
(Assuming they have any water pressure at all, that’s its own issue.)
And at least warm water. If the water is 'hard' it takes mine forever to rinse.
More like they are using a system that provides building wide exhaust. think of it like a vacuum on the roof
Yes! After a shower
I’m literally sweating. It like defeats the purpose.
We added bathroom fan just to shut up the guests. They don’t really work. 🤷🏻♂️
Mine works. Night and day difference in steam if you have it on versus not.
Just one more expense and thing to break, people leave them on forever.
People smoke weed or whatever and an active fan takes it away, hotels looooove charging that smoking fee
Yep. And even ones that have them, have been disconnecting them. :/
Ya moving parts. Its easier, cheaper, quieter, and more efficient to just have the neutral passive airflow.
Doesn’t feel like there’s enough airflow though.
There isn't! But its cheap.
Bathroom fans are pretty much extinct.
I've only been in a few, very few hotels with ventilation systems that had a perceptible effect.
Most, including and especially the most expensive I've been in, move no air whatsoever, so any, er, "scents" or, uh, "vapors" produced in the bathroom simply disperse into the room. Hours later the room is still stanky and damp.
I guess rich people really do love to smell their own poos.
When I returned to my hotel room there was a sugar packet where the room key card is supposed to go and all the lights were on. What does this mean? Would housekeeping do this on purpose? It spooked me a little that someone did this. Does this mean my room was open the whole time the sugar packet was in there?
The power saver slots are just a switch, like a light switch that does not stay down. It does not know what you have put in there, it does not have to be your room key, it does not have a reader in it to check that the key you opened the door with is what you put into it. you can shove anything that fits, and has the strength to keep the switch depressed, into them to keep the lights on. Common for housekeeping to use whatever they have in their hand, also means they don’t leave their master key in a room and having to call a colleague to come and open the door for them. They just left it there by mistake.
Okay that makes sense thank you
All it means is that the lights were on all the time the sugar sachet was there
It means the housekeeper didn’t clean your room in the dark
There is a light on one side, and a sensor on the other.
If the sensor sees the light, the power stays off. When you put your key in there, it blocks the light from getting to the sensor and the lights go on.
Anything can block that light. A piece of cardboard, your visa or Mastercard , a business card, or a sugar packet.
Thanks! I wound up calling tech support and made it with their help..
I am FD at a small hotel.
When someone leaves a cash deposit, I go check the room before I give it back.
Like today, a few other times guests have left change (under $1.00) on the bedside table, or even on the floor (why do people do that???)
I get the feeling this was just laziness and not really meant as a tip for Housekeeping, but every time someone does it, I worry that HK will be insulted when they see this. I would ask them, but there is a language barrier.
I have been leaving it, however. But this strikes me as it would leaving a low tip for a server at a restaurant.
I know this is a small thing. I just like our housekeepers and would not want to see them offended.
Thoughts?
Whether it's meant as an insult or not (and I SERIOUSLY doubt that it is), it's meant for HK to take. I know that not everyone leaves tips for housekeeping, but I would imagine that they'd be MORE upset if they found out you were removing even the change that was left.
I think most assume it’s pocket change and our housekeepers are still grateful. That stuff adds up.
Probably change that they took out of their pocket at the end of the night, or was forgotten in the pocket and fell to the floor when they were packing, I highly doubt its intentional or meant to be a slap in the face just accidental :)
If you really like your housekeepers, why have you not figured out a way to communicate with them? I get language barriers, what I don't get is letting the language barrier win without a fight and being unable to communicate with the your coworkers at all
Google translate app is what I use to help communicate. It isn't perfect but it is better than my attempts at remembering the very little words I know of the other language and gestures
True. Ok. I'll stop worrying then. Thanks all
I think you taking it would actually be offensive
I wasn't planning on taking it. I was actually thinking about putting it aside until it accumulated to an amount that wasn't insulting and then giving it to them.
I'm talking ten cents here. Yes, it adds up. But I did not want their feelings hurt while it did.
We found $15,000 under the mattress and $25,000 in the room safe two different times. Turned it over to Federal Building.
Ever any followup on those incidents? You would think the hotel would get a panicked call over that!
"I would ask them, but there is a language barrier"
You know there's google translate nowadays right?
As for the change, as someone who's currently in housekeeping, we love it no matter how much is it, it's always good to have some new coins or money, it's like having a reward from all the work
Probably just lose change someone forgot about or didn't care too. I've been working at hotels for 3 years, so if not explicitly stated so, i always leave leftover money/change to HSKP, just a little know?
Don’t touch it, always leave it. Some people are cheap, others don’t know that they should and can tip and others are just lazy. Never touch it and leave it for the housekeepers.
You think their tip is so low that it's better in your pocket than theirs? Nah dawg
Whether you find it an offensive amount of not, it's presumably left for the housekeepers. Not leaving it for them isn't just wrong, it's also very illegal.
Language barriers are always hard, but there are a ot of good online resources for picking up basic phrases. Doing so makes you a better FD agent, both in efficieny for interdepartment communication and for being able to better communicate with guests. And worst case scenario, google translate offers a speech to speech translation service through their web interface in addition to the typed interface.
Quite often leave small change as too much hassle to carry/use when juggling carried items, or when leaving country 😁😁 no insult intended👍
don’t touch it unless you want to be accused of stealing tips. housekeepers will test other staff to see if they steal. if you walk into a room to do something just do what you need to do and go, leave everything as it is for housekeeping.
also you’re choosing to make no attempt at communication because of a “language barrier” i work with 15 filipinos who speak maybe 10 words of english each and we still communicate. it’s hard but we get there. you’re being a bit ignorant. how do you work with a language barrier between yourself and guests?
As a former HK who laundry person was stealing my small tips before I got there, It isn't gonna insult them. They will be thankful for it, even if it just is enough to grab a cold drink or a snack from the vending machines
Thank you, yours was exactly the response I was looking for! Someone who actually is in the position. I appreciate your response.
I know things like pillows/blankets aren't washed every time and just the covers changed, obviously things like TV remotes or the room phone probably aren't cleaned regularly either.
In the bathroom, do you clean things like the towel rails and the bathroom walls or is it literally just the toilet, shower, sink and countertops that get cleaned?
Also if you clean the toilet before replacing towels or changing bedsheets, do you clean your hands in between or just remove gloves?
Do you have a specific order you clean stuff in, like doing the bathroom or toilet last for example? I assume floors are done at the end?
Do you use the same cloths and mops in several/all of the rooms?
Basically yes and no to all of it lol.
Ive been housekeeping for years now and it really comes down to the housekeeper and the hotel.
I personally wipe down phones and remotes.
Bathrooms walls are typically a deep clean thing (usually every three months or so) so yes they do get cleaned but again comes down to the hotel and housekeeper.
I always work in a circle or out of the room. So ill clean the bedroom portion before the bathroom then floors last.
I also wear gloves and take them off as soon as i finish the bathroom lol
The order i do things is strip room, take out all trash and stuff on counters,clean bathroom with gloves on. Take off gloves and start on the bed. Finish bed then get a duster to dust then grab a rag with solution and wipe of counters and everything like remote,lamps, windowsill,sometimes doors, we deep clean walls and stuff if we have some extra time which is not everyday. After that just vacuum and spray with perfume
i clean down to the dusting the lightbulbs, polishing silver, the grout in the shower is done once a week in every room.
i change gloves every room and where them everywhere except making the bed as it’s impossible.
i wipe the minibar (fridge and bottles, then reposition) the towel rack. i do my best to high dust but it’s difficult for me personally but it gets done.
hell i vacuum the beds and check for bed bugs regularly.
i still get shit for my productivity being low, when it’s not i’m just tired in the morning.
edit: i clean a floor in a 5 star hotel in a decent sized city. 8 king rooms on a bad day, up to 16 legally as that would be my hours for the day.
The last place i was at they wanted us to get 20+ rooms done. One day i had 32 rooms. Quit like a week later lol
That sounds like a lot! Where I work, I try not to assign more than 5 rooms per HK.
16 checkouts would be a legal limit at 30 mins each, half an hour each, maybe 15 with a lunch break but some cleaners zoom
20+ rooms is unrealistic and impressive at the same time. My housekeepers can barely do 10-12 checkouts within 8 hours
Holy cow like what??? My first hotel was 1,408 rooms and I believe our housekeepers were at 16 rooms each. When I was an ADOS at Le Meridien, my housekeepers only did 12-14 based on occupancy
Worked a summer job at 400ish room hotel. I helped out at housekeeping for a few weeks. The general vibe was very positive. Many of the housekeepers have been there a very long time and they could do 44 rooms a day in pairs. Sometimes we would have “races” lmao. But I think the only reason the culture was that positive was because of management. During covid a-lot of large hotels just stopped paying back of house staff like housekeeping. The hotel was in a relatively rural area so they had no one during covid, but they didn’t do mass layoffs and still payed everyone a good wage in a very low min wage area.
see depending on room size, in my head i can do 5 checkouts by 11, 5 rooms total would get me no bills paid 😆 but whatever works.
That would be a dream lol your awesome 👍🏻 😎
Yeah my bosses didnt give a fuck about legalities unfortunately. Im at a much better place where they very much follow that law.
Im not sure how i did it honestly. Or how anyone continues to do it. And i worked that job for a year and a half. Housekeepers deserve so much better than that. I will not work for another hotel that does that. My mental health declined so much in that year and half.
personally i’m in my early 20s and able to attack those rooms like the Tasmanian devil from looney tunes.
Man at least they got a buddy to team up with lol thats impressive tho. Management definitely matters 100%. My managers now will be up in rooms stripping and making beds for us. Those the real mvps lol.
I think it just depends on the hotel. I work for a 5 star boutique hotel in a building that is 300 years old. We only have shit i think 67 or 68 rooms. They want us spending about 30/40 minutes a room depending on the room type. Sometimes our rooms take a full hour depending on how bad they are. We also just have to be careful when we are cleaning. A lot of the things we have are imported from italy so we just have to make sure we aren't moving too fast or something and end up damaging something. So we specifically have to take a little more time. But no yeah at the other hotel they didnt give a fuck about anything. Literally knew three housekeepers not cleaning their floors AT ALL. And did absolutely nothing about it.
Where I work HK gets assigned 6 or 8 hour shifts, they get paid the same if they clean two rooms or 10. They are paid more than me hourly too. They deserve it, I treat them like gold.
Ya'll know there is no law saying you can't work more than 8 hours, right?
Im 31 and have been doing it for about 10 years give or take. Had a few retail jobs in-between. On a good day i can get about 20 check outs done. But thats me not taking any breaks and barely getting them done in an 8 hour shift.
If theres any advice i can give you (not that you asked) if you like this job and wanna continue to do it and not ruin your body. Stretch! lol.
We love managers that don’t think manual labour is beneath them. When I was a concierge, our chief concierge would constantly be running around and never took a break. Always would come up to us after a while and say “go take a break, ill watch ur position for u”.
i am not in the usa therefore your laws are not mine. if we work more than 8 hours or do more than 15 rooms or so, it becomes a health and safety issue and the company also has to start paying overtime and there’s a whole process, so we just finish before 5 n pick it up the next day.
I might be wrong, but I think if a place pays you per room vs per hour, they can only legally give you up to 8 hours worth of work for the day since they aren’t going to pay overtime.
absolutely!!! warm that body up!! i’ve felt myself nearly pull muscles that if i didn’t stretch i’d of been in the emergency room. and i’ve already got a really hard mattress for my back 😂 it makes me feel old already.
i started when i was 15 while still in school and im on my 7th year straight 🫠 i definitely hate the job some days because there is quite a big mental barrier going the same thing over and over again. like you literally do one room then hit the reset button and usually they get worse as you go. then the same the next day, but it’s worth it for the people i get to connect with. one week it’s a big headliner dj, the next it’s some sweet elderly who need a hand with something. i always do my best to make time for my guests.
sorry to ramble, not usual i get to talk about my job like that. if i ever think of anything i will definitely ask!!
Oh I agree. Im a housekeeping manager and will not give out more than 12 checkouts unless i absolutely have to.and usually when I do.i know that it's likely some of those checkouts or full service will be changing to stayovers or have dnds.
You are correct depending on your state.However, some Management still expects more than 12 a day. I worked at a holiday inn Express. It was the norm to get 10-20+ rooms a day (not even stayovers all checkouts) And they expected us to stay overtime if they needed it, but then we would get bitched at for working overtime by the payroll management.
in my part of the world if you work more than 8 they legally have to give you over time and an extra break.
My new manager was out for like two weeks from throwing her back out just vacuuming 😳 they are pretty heavy to be fair ..like unnecessarily heavy 😂 you definitely meet some interesting people along the way. And no worries! Im actually enjoying talking about work 😂😂😂
Thank you for not expecting robots out of humans lol 🖤
Yeah we get the same thing here lol. It gets quiet when people start leaving before their rooms are finished because they’re out of hours for the week and management has to finish their rooms 😂
We pay by the hour, though, so our HK would actually get overtime.
(Not an expert or a lawyer, just what I picked up from another hotel that does this)
Overtime only applies to hourly workers here (US, KY). If you work a job that pays per task - in this case $x per room cleaned - you can only be assigned enough work that would be able to be completed within 8 hours.
If the business estimates that it should take 30 minutes to clean a room, then they can only assign one housekeeper a maximum of 16 rooms for the day.
I think if more work is given, they can get around it by paying 1.5x the normal pay, the equivalent of overtime.
Every day (even if it's the same guest):
- vacuuming
- duvet and pillow covers
- towels
- toilet bowl only if there are marks
- anything chrome in the bathroom (Hard water in Germany:()
- towels
- used mugs
- ash tray if used
Additionally between different guests:
- window sills
- all surfaces
- showers and bathtubs, including the drains
- wiping down the mini fridge
- the whole toilet and walls and floors around the toilet
- mirror
- kettle
- tooth brush holder
- door handles
- remote & phone
About every week:
- full dusting
- windows
- exchanging unused cups and mugs
Very rarely:
- Lounge cushions
- decorative pillows
- curtains
- hair dryer
- full duvet and pillow
- mattress
Never:
- Coat hangers
Ash tray? They let people smoke in rooms? 😱 You'll get charged a lot of money here in Canada if you smoke in your room.
Right.. this is different in all hotels so this is only specific to the one I work in.
Beds are made first, dirty towels removed and all the linen is put in a bag for the linen cleaners to take away to boil wash.
The whole bathroom is sprayed with cleaner - walls, toilet, shower stall, sink. The glass gets cleaned while the bleach spray works, and then everything is wiped down. Items like the toilet roll holder and the towel rail get wiped down with a wet cloth.
There are different cloths for different things. The one for wiping round the outside or the toilet is used solely for that purpose. There’s one that’s only used for the cups and classes.
Floors are done very last, after the toilet. It gets a mop with bleach/water.
This is such a hotel-specific question I would caution anyone reading this to apply anything discussed here to your hotel room.
It is highly likely to not be accurate, in either direction
I don’t understand why hotels put DIRTY pillows and blankets on top for clean fresh sheets. It’s disgusting! People usually throw them on the floor. Nasty’
I wish i knew as well. Its a part of the room and if its not there we get bitched at. The reason why most hotels dont wash those things is because there is no time to wash and dry them and have them ready for the room, or they dont have enough supply for demand. I work at a 5 star boutique hotel and the laundry situation is not ideal. In fact. Its costing most hotels a lot of money.
Do most of you just clean room by room down the hall, or do any of your hotels prioritize checkin rooms over current stay rooms???
Depends on hotel, I can only speak for my hotel. We are a small boutique hotel. We clean EVERYTHING. Like literally everything. Genuinely never seen a cleaner more well put together hotel staff than what we have here. And I’m seriously not just saying that. My managers attention to detail is fuckin insane. He’ll make them wipe a single water drop 7 feet up in the shower. Or clean the underside of the desk. Like straight up EVERYTHING. And we have extremely regular period maintenance for the harder to clean stuff like behind fridges and such.
We are an anomaly. I know this. But it IS possible to have good rates and good housekeeping. You just gotta know what ur doing.
HK adjacent at an extended-stay property by very large brand:
We clean the bathroom first, specifically toilet first. Change gloves, clean the tub/shower, then sink and vanity counter. Walls, racks, sides of vanity aren’t washed unless theyre visibly dirty/dusty, and bathroom gloves and rags dont touch anything else in the room.
Next make the bed. New pillow cases, fitted, flat, and over sheets every time. Duvet/comforters and pillow inserts don’t get changed between guests until there’s noticeable dirtiness, but that’s more often than it sounds…. Then dust and clean furniture, phones, remotes, and kitchen.
Mop the bathroom, vacuum the room, new mop pad to mop kitchen. Always changing gloves, rags, and mop pads between rooms.
As someone who works in hotels and have seen even less be done in a room clean, i travel with clorox wipes and my own pillow/blanket 👍
So I went to the Crowne plaza in Burr ridge, Illinois. It's a pretty exclusive area. So the first issue I had was basically I used one card to pay the bill and another card which was my debit card as the hold for incidentals so I had to call the bank about fraud related to a 96.30 charge And they said that's from the hotel. So I talked to two different front desk managers and the hotel manager and tried to get them to fix it but they were saying there was nothing they could do. The good news is it came off after 5 days but it really caused me to scramble. Then on top of that, I checked into the hotel Monday June 23rd and they wound up charging me $50 for incidentals and they have a hold on that $50 until August 5th. When I call them now again they're like there's nothing we can do. I checked with the bank and they said it's definitely not on their end. I have used this Bank since the '80s and I've never heard of any hotel holding a charge from this long. I did reach out to the states attorney in Illinois and thinking about better Business bureau. I'm getting some traction finally from high-end management but still no resolution. What are all your thoughts? Do they have a right to keep doing this. Have you ever heard of such nonsense? Do you have any suggestions as how I could speed up the refund instead of waiting till August?
This is hilarious.....'bank account since the 80's" you have to be 50 years old and still don't know how hotels, credit card holds or debit cards work.
Has to be rage bait
They don't normally put holds on cards this long. This is for 6 weeks. It's usually five to seven business days. Max. I only posted this here instead of Facebook because I was hoping to not be trolled
The hold is released as soon as you check out. There is no set date on a hold, your bank lied to you.
Wow. This a whole lot of over reaction to a $50 credit card hold. The length of hold is actually not determined by the hotel, despite what whomever you talked to at the bank said. And the only time I have ever seen holds that long were when they were foreign banks or Cash App cards, etc (which I believe use foreign banks).
Edit to add: the bank DOES have the ability to drop the hold. Usually they just require letterhead from the hotel stating that they are not going to charge the card. But you will need to initiate this with your bank.
Yeah, that's on you for using a debit card for the incidentals. Use your credit card next time for the incidental. The hold will drop right off. Debit cards and credit cards are not the same thing.
If you're here reading this, it may be too late, but in general:
- There are downsides booking via third party tools (Expedia, Agoda, etc) to actually purchase the room (see exceptions)
- Use those tools to find where you want to stay, and then book the room through the hotel's website. The price should be identical, close, or available if you call into reservations and explain the other site's pricing (YMMV - make sure you are speaking in the same currency).
- Do use third party tools if a) you need a special feature/function, like booking and paying for others; b) there is a room or package rate that is impossible to source elsewhere; or c) you enjoy a room between the elevators and the ice machine, without any option of a refund even when housekeeping sets your room on fire.
I never use 3rd party to book anything, however, i use orbitz to check prices then go to the airline’s web site and book directly with my airline of choice, same for hotels and rental cars, i used “expedia” 1 time, that was all it took, i never knew what hotel or car i was going to get, until after i paid. My 5* hotel ended up being a 0*, and my rental car was non existent. Lesson learned about 3rd party bookings.
Some independent hotels websites are awful. Leave you stuck after paying but not getting confirmation. Booking a lot of rooms for business trip easier on ota and I haven’t seen the downsides everyone mentions
I’ve always just went straight to the hotel website there’s no need to do that other crap
Same here. I actually always go out of my way to find the hotel's website. Why should a company other than the hotel get a kickback from me staying at a hotel? Kind of frustrating sometimes to try to find the actual hotel website, ugh!
108 days late but you can download IHG app, Hilton app, Choice app ( I’m sure there are more hotel brands but those are the first 3 main ones that come to mind) to book directly with the hotels company instead of a third party
or just go to their websites..
No worries. Thanks for the tip.
Buddy if you were to say book a room at a holiday inn & search the exact one & “ go to their” website it will bring you to ihg. Idk what you on about but get your facts straight. Ihg has multiple hotels.
I'm on about not having to clutter my phone with snoopy apps just for a one off room rental..
I’m going to hit you guys with some straight truth, from the standpoint of a former economy hotel manager.
For the last half of my tenure, the franchisor required something called, ‘Rate parody,’ so basically what that means is that, on the franchisor’s website, the rate shown has to either be the lowest rack rate online, or be equal to the lowest.
In itself, that’s not really a problem. If they’re taking the lowest cut out of any online booking channel, of course I’d have them be the lowest.
The problem is the third-party website system that they used for the entire franchise (and the fact that there was no way around it). Basically, it transmitted the rates that I put on the franchisor website to the TPW’s, who would then adjust those rates (a couple added fees and it was the same total price for the guest that it would have been using our site) downward or keep them the same.
The problem with the TPW’s is that they’ve made themselves a necessary, and inescapable, evil. They get a piece of the hotel’s revenues and do nothing to improve the guest experience. The piece was usually 10-20%, now I ask you, did they really earn 20% of that revenue when all they did, essentially, was collect info (almost all of which is automated copy/paste) from different hotel websites and put it on one?
That’s also why if there’s temporary property information (such as an out of service amenity) I can put it on the franchisor’s website instantly, but it takes forever to get on the TPW? Why? Because it would take a human being, on their end, to either put this info on their site or maybe hit a button to retrawl/recopy our pages from the franchisor’s site.
What does all of this mean for you as a guest? Well, it means that I barely give a fuck; I’m not even going to lie. Here are a few examples:
- Room types aren’t guaranteed.
-Did you book a non-smoking room? I guess you’d better hope that I’m not sold out of two Queen non-smoking, because if I am, and someone walks-in wanting one…they just bought yours. Enjoy the smoking floor; I hope nobody’s smoking weed this evening, because if you think a little smoke in the hallway is irksome, you ain’t smelled nothing yet.
-Four adults in the room and you booked two beds…but I’m nearly sold out and I have a walk-in who’s staying for a week and wants two beds. What to do? What to do?
Oh, I know! I hope two of the people in your room enjoy the pull-out couch in one of our suites, TPW booker.
- Refund? Good luck!
-If you want a refund, for any reason, the TPW is going to be the one paying it.
-Why? Well, I’ve already refunded 10-20% of that room the second that you booked it. Also, I didn’t necessarily expect you to be happy with your room since I gave you the room, of that type (maybe) in the worst condition. You were also directly beside the elevator, by a room with kids/dogs or by guest laundry, so I hope you also enjoyed that.
-Anyway, I’m not refunding shit for any reason. Corporate also won’t help you because you booked TPW; they can’t touch it. I guess you can still complain to corporate, and it WOULD count against us, except I offered you a no-charge cancellation (based on a complaint that you didn’t actually make) as soon as you came in and you ‘Declined,’ and chose to stay. LOOK! It’s right there in the guest notes. (Actually, if we would sell out anyway, I probably did actually offer this to you and you did actually decline.)
- Check in is 3p-11p. Did you come in after 11p and fail to tell us you’d be a late check-in? Well, that’s bad news for you, because I’ve now sold your room.
-Did I try to reach out to you before selling your room? No. Would I have reached out if you didn’t book TPW? Yes.
- You will not cancel unless I want you to anyway.
-The cancellation deadline is the cancellation deadline. Unless you give me one of the few reasons that the franchisor says I have no choice (and I might even ask for proof), then no, you’re not canceling and you will be charged for a no-show.
-The best part is, if I’m sold out, not only am I charging you for a no-show, but if I’m sure you’re not coming, I’m also double renting your room out of the computer. I have a stand-alone credit card machine and old school thick paper registration cards just for this occasion! “I know I said I wouldn’t charge the no-show if I could rent the room, but nobody came in, sorry.”
- Bare minimum service.
-I’m only on TPW’s because the franchisor gives us no choice. I don’t want to be on them. I don’t want to pay 10-20%. I don’t want you here.
-Consequently, unless you’re super nice, you get the least of everything that I can actually offer you.
-Also, due to some, ‘Glitch,’ your franchise rewards number may have accidentally been removed from this stay. I mean, yeah, I’ll put it back if you somehow notice…but I’m going to save that 2% if I can.
—-It’s rare, but some of you are reasonable. If it’s not one of the sites that gives us a one-shot credit card, but instead uses yours, I’ll kind of do a quick personality analysis and maybe say, “$100? Tell you what, you let me cancel your reservation and redo you as a walk-in, then you pay $87 instead AND I’ll upgrade you to a suite, what do you say?”
I can’t do that if you look/act like an uptight person, but some of you are okay, other than the fact that you use TPW’s.
This actually sucks and it's a you problem. You like the advertising, but don't want to accept that it's not free.
That is what these companies offer. Are you aYware that some of these sites pay upwards of $4 for a click from Google, regardless of whether the user books or not?
I bet you never actually upgrade rooms or offer any real perks. All while not understand the sphere in which you operate. Hotel rewards are some of the lowest value and least reliable rewards around.
This is great information, thank you. I think it very much explains the differences we've seen when not booking direct. We're also open to someone who works for one of the TPWs posting here with reasons why someone should use them.
Not really; I didn’t like the advertising, either. If I’d had my choice, then I’d have been on Hotels.com and that’s it, but the franchisor had a whole list we were required to be listed on.
Of course I’d do upgrades and offer some perks; why wouldn’t I? I had partner restaurants that would give you 25% off and also comped drinks at our bar all the time.
Staying with your kids? Would you rather have two rooms? I’ll give you adjoining and knock 50% off the second one, if I’m not going to sell out and you booked directly.
I mean, we weren’t a luxury hotel by any stretch, but I did the best I could with direct bookers and repeat guests. We mainly catered to individuals working in the area for long stretches; they were the, ‘Shady characters hanging out in the parking lot,’ I got to read about, every third review, from the TPW types.
You’re welcome! I’m definitely open to hearing that. If nothing else, it would be entertaining. I can think of reasons to use their sites, but only for information as to what hotels are available in an area, but not to actually book through.
I’ve been in the industry about 15 years- I would only recommend booking on a 3rd party if you are saving more than 25% AFTER taxes and fees.
Can you explain why that would be?
- Just general issue of going through a middle man vs. a hotel directly. I’ve seen so many issues in my years.
- General inability to change, cancel or modify (in most cases). Even if you can you likely have to deal with both hotel AND 3rd party for approval.
- Inability to use loyalty programs. No room upgrades, no points through the hotel, no status. Expedia or Priceline status has pretty much zero value in the hotels eyes. Just to be honest.
- Unless you are using opaque all major chains have price match guarantee.
Why would you go through a middle man unless you get a SIGNIFICANT discount? Hotels will always provide best service to loyal members.
Thanks for taking the time to respond in detail. I guess that I find myself not consistently using the same hotel groups. I do enjoy some Accor properties. That’s probably the group that is most likely a regular for me.
Seems as though this might work more like frequent flier miles than I had imagined.
This post is weird. I have issues going directly to hotels, their booking systems are often bizarre and confusing. And point #2 is just way off the mark. I use 3rd party sites for the ease of cancelation and changes, in a few clicks I can change anything vs usually having to email a hotel and wait a few days, email back and wait a few days...
And as for price matching, why go though all that for the exact same price?
They absolutely do and then you accumulate more once you have status.
Hey feel free to continue to use a middleman. Just know you are paying the same or more for less service in most cases. Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, Choice and others all have great apps that allow you to change cancel in one click. The only ease of use advantage might be with an independent/non-branded property.
I also heard that 3rd parties usually charge ~ 15%-20% commission for a room booked through them. So booking through a hotel directly should be a no-brainer but hotels are not always offering a better deal for some reason...🤔
I am either paying the same or less, plus I can still cancel in one click. No idea what all the fud is about.
Those apps are good . The problem are the smaller hotels. I never have problems cancelling a hotel — I look at the cancellation policy on OTA and click and cancelled. I probably cancel due to change in p,and 10 times a year and it is easier on hotels.com or the large brand sites than individual hotel sites
I will never understand why some hotels won’t match. It’s better for everyone.
Speaking as an employee, something as simple as today we had an Expedia prepaid that was checking out a day early because the weather is bad and they think it's best to head home.
Direct booking: okay drive safe, we won't charge you for tonight!
OTA: you pre-paid room and tax through whatever.com so we can't refund you for the last night. Drive safe!
You can cancel in one click unless you are already at the hotel and want to cancel the remaining nights. It happened to me, and believe me, it was really complicated to do. The hotel told me to call Booking, which was supposed to contact the hotel, and then call me back. I called Booking. It seems simple, but it was not, I had to try several times before I could get somebody on the phone. You basically have to convince a machine to get a human to talk to you, and the machine is stubborn. When I finally was able to talk to a human being, they said they would call the hotel and call me back, but they never called back. In the end, I was able to cancel the remaining nights, but it took hours and was overly complicated. For hours, I didn't know whether or not I would be able to leave the hotel without paying for the remaining nights.
So, now, I don't use 3rd party brokers anymore, except for independent hotels that have poor online booking systems that I don't trust. For big chains (Hilton, Marriott, etc.), I believe that using a 3rd party broker only has disadvantages. Most of the time, you will pay more and have worse cancellation conditions.
As a former economy hotel manager, I don’t understand that either. I even have to pay a small commission if you book on the franchisor’s website.
If you’re a walk-in, then I’m going to open up with online rack rate and be very willing to negotiate downward; most people are lay downs, though. Everyone claims to have AAA discount, so for walk-ins, I’ll say, with AAA discount it’s (quotes the rack rate.) Some people will then say they don’t have AAA, so then I’ll say, “That’s fine. I can give you the same discounted rate at my discretion.”
When it comes to booking in advance, I’d beat any online price you could find. Again, don’t even have to pay the online commission to the franchisor; I’ll have to pay Rewards commission if you have the program, but I don’t really care.
Rewards members are actually awesome when guests have a complaint because you can throw them some number of points that’s negligible and they’re usually happy with it. Where I might have to offer a 25% refund to satisfy a non-rewards person, I can offer to throw 1,000 extra points “For the trouble,” to a rewards person and they’re just thrilled. That costs the hotel $10.
Back to the booking, of course I’ll beat online if you call directly. I’ll beat the online AAA rate, even, because that’s 10% off and I made my online rates expecting at least that and then to eat 5%-20% commission on the new price. I’d typically just quote call-in reservations 15% under rack.
*Keep in mind, this might not be typical of most hotels. I worked for a mid-sized economy hotel and was one of the rare managers who worked mainly B-Shift (read: afternoon/evening), so I can do anything the hell I wanted. Most hotel desk people you’d talk to can only operate within parameters that management has decided for them.
Well I booked a hotel directly through their site, but 6 weeks before I needed to cancel (as the hotel advertised itself as close to the event I was attending, but in reality there was an impassable mountain range in the way). They ghosted me and kept the money, all $1100. This would never have happened if I booked through an app.
Title: How to Get a Refund for a Non-Refundable Hotel Reservation (Yes, It’s Possible)
I've used Expedia for 25 years. It was fine—until it wasn’t. Last week, I discovered just how frustratingly unhelpful a company can be. Here’s my story and, more importantly, a step-by-step guide to getting your refund when everyone says it’s “impossible.”
The Backstory In January, I booked a hotel for August and accidentally selected the non-refundable option. My mistake, sure, but I realized this eight months in advance. Plenty of time to fix it, right? Oh, how naive I was.
I canceled the booking and called Expedia customer service, explaining my error. The representative assured me they’d handle it and I’d hear back in 72 hours. Spoiler: I didn’t.
Meanwhile, I called the hotel directly. The employee I spoke with was eager to sell me a room but utterly uninterested in helping with my issue. He didn’t have the knowledge or authority to assist. Back to waiting on Expedia.
The Waiting Game A week passed. Nothing. I called Expedia again. They said they were “locking into it.” Another week, another round of calls and emails. Their new excuse? The hotel wasn’t responding to their inquiries. They claimed they needed written confirmation from the hotel approving my cancellation.
Another 72 hours passed. Then another. Finally, an email:
“Unfortunately, after speaking with the hotel, they’re holding to the original refund policy for your booking and have declined your refund request.”
Naturally, I called back. Why was my request declined? They reiterated the same nonsense: “We need written approval from the hotel.” I asked if I should call the hotel myself. Their response? “We don’t recommend that. We have more influence, and the hotel wants to keep us as a customer.”
Oh, really?
How I Got My Refund
Step 1: Call the hotel directly. Skip the junior staff. Politely ask to speak to the front desk manager. Get their name.
Step 2: Explain your situation. Be polite but firm. The manager at my hotel could see that my reservation was canceled through Expedia. She initiated a request to reverse the charges. When I asked for a confirmation number or email, she explained it’s an internal process involving a virtual credit card. She assured me Expedia would process my refund within 48 hours and gave me her contact info in case anything went wrong.
Step 3: Call Expedia immediately. Now armed with proof, I called Expedia and asked them to check on the hotel’s approval. I insisted they call the manager directly. After being put on hold (again), the agent came back with the magic words: “Your refund has been approved, and we’ll send you a confirmation email.”
The Takeaways
- Fact: Expedia charges your credit card, not the hotel.
- Fact: Call center workers are trained to follow scripts designed to stall, misinform, and discourage you.
- Fact: Expedia’s strategy involves relentless finger-pointing at the hotel. Don’t fall for it.
Final Thoughts After three weeks of stress and countless calls, I finally got my refund. If I’d known the process from the start, I could’ve resolved this in a day.
Lesson learned: I’ll never use Expedia again. Book directly with the hotel. Avoid the middleman—and the migraine.
Glad you could yet any result that isn't resolved quickly by any sites like that let alone 3 weeks is crazy. With my luck they just want to stop listening to me complaining lol
This is great if you are booking a hotel in a country where you speak the native language fluently.
I use Expedia in places I don't have the language skills to dicker on the phone.
What if you want to find out what is available? I go to a lot of different cities. I find the information on Booking very useful. I have had situations where I want to stay another day and they want to charge me near double what I got on booking and in fact a couple of times was told by the front desk to use Booking again rather than have them add the extra day.
Hard to say. I don’t know why anyone would instruct their front desk clerks in a way that leads to the hotel paying MORE in commissions, but they can do them and might not put thought and focus into maximizing revenues. I did. I’d not only extend your stay and match Booking’s rate, I’d reduce your rate by half of whatever I was paying them in commission.
Only thing I can think of is if the rate on Booking would have been significantly higher because the extra day was a Friday, or something. Even then, I’d show you whatever Booking was saying and tell you that I’d extend your stay, but we’d have to create a new one day stay, and I’d beat their rate.
Last thing, I’d tell you if you ever wanted to stay in the future just to call me and I’d always beat whatever rate Booking had for you.
I do find it puzzling when I run into these situations; even frustration at times.
Im too late to this party. I booked a dot com and had to leave after the first night. Their support is a joke. (Jokes on me) I had no outlets and there was exposed wiring. Hotel tried to give me a different room which was just as bad. Hotel refuses to refund and support is saying they cannot do anything. Sonia a charge back now the only issue?
Was staying in Paris and selected the hotel based on proximity to a concert I was attending. Now I am out the extra cost of the night and the almost 90€ in cab fare. Any suggestions welcomed.
30+ years in hospitality here, all brands, please book direct. Join their rewards programs. OTA reservations are downgraded, bumped, and have terms I guarantee you did not read in the fine print. The customer service on any booking issue is horrendous and the hotel will not be willing to go the extra mile for you. If you see a third party rate lower than the hotel brand rates, a wholesaler has likely poached in violation of their agreement ( to bundle air/hotel/car) and that’s a rabbit hole you really don’t want to go down as the hotels will cancel without notice. Often, once you click into the site, the displayed rate is no longer visible.
If you’re looking for an economy class hotel, fine, but for 3-diamond plus, book direct. Please and thank you.
-Hoteliers everywhere
from my experience, booking is in 1st place, if you compare it with agoda, it is cheaper, and sometimes the opposite is true
Agoda is not a convenient application and support.
As I do if I travel to very expensive countries where housing starts from 150 dollars, then I use agoda, any other countries I just take on booking
I have found the same. I have had a few problems with Agoda and it was never resolved in my favor. I have been pretty happy with Booking A few times I have used the find a stay near me and it was terrific. Expedia used to be really good but their prices are absolute crap now. The main reason that I liked Expedia was that their gold level service was awesome. They really helped me out some years back.
I used to use hotels.com as they had a pretty decent rewards system. 10 nights and you get a free night worth the average of your 10 nights of stays. Basically a 10% reward system. Now with their 1% reward I book direct and have even gotten some perks like a $25 breakfast voucher at a local restaurant for booking direct.
That being said, I'm going to risk booking through Delta stays for room through the end of October. They are giving 1:1 Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) that should help bump me up to the next status level with Delta.
Yeah hotels.com was good if you dont like stick with particular hotel groups.
Third part sites to no verify the legality of listings and often don't post negative reviews.
Reason: I charge you more to compensate for thier finders fee. Usually around 10%. I even reply to inquiries with just enough info where you can find our website directly without breaking any terms of service agreement.
Expedia charges between 18-33%. Booking 15-18%. Travel agents get 7-10% and are actually helpful and may get you an upgrade. Book direct on the hotel website and the hotel may pay 0 to a couple $ to a couple percent max. If the hotel isn’t savvy and won’t meet the price you find on Expedia or Booking, I punish them. I’ve stood in the lobby and booked on Expedia because they refused to give me the same rate. Basically they threw away 25% of what I paid them out of ignorance.
Ah, those were the days. The franchisor kind of removed our ability to do that halfway through my run.
Actually booking.com charges 10%, it's only higher if the company needs to use bookingpal to integrate with thier software.
There's no advantage for the hotel to price match, they're promoted more on the OTA for the reservations made through the OTA. Usually there's a quota for status so by price matching all they do is lose the income without gaining anything towards their matrix. And sometimes OTAs purchase blocks in bulk and only pass some of the discount onto you. Price matching those would mean undercutting the OTA and reducing the likelihood of future bulk blocks.
Same. I’m broke and when I say in a motel or hotel, it’s because I have no other choice. I’m not trying to pay more than I already have to pay, which is already too much for a nasty ass room where people have done all sorts of disgusting things and housekeeping did the bare minimum of making the bed. I car camp anytime I can because motels and hotels are a fucking racket. I will say that I will no longer book a third-party site if the motel or hotel can match the price, because I have had major issues with not getting a refund after walking in the hotel or motel being a complete fucking dump, but in my experience, I’ve never had anyone match the price. (Voice texted)
What hotel do you work at that’s only paying 10% to Booking? The 3 I work with are all paying 15-18%.
I'm the financial manager at a coastal florida resort. They were paying that until I took over 3 years ago and cut out bookingpal since our software integrated directly with booking.com.
I know if I don’t have a contract with Booking or Expedia, they pull my rates and availability from the GDS and then I pay 10% commission. This is fully interfaced to my PMS but I pay a $3 transaction fee plus $7 GDS fee. But I’ll also be on page 5 and never get booked anyway. My PMS integrates directly with Booking.com as well and I pay my PMS company $40/mo for the interface.
Do I just call my local rep and ask? How do you deal with the new Booking Genius program. They force another 10% discount on us for that. So if my rate is $290, they sell it at $261 and then take 15% so I net $221.85 - basically they are forcing me to give up 25%. Ugh! 😩
Is this sub run by hotel owners or something?
I've used third-party sites for dozens, perhaps a hundred, hotel stays over the last several years, and never had any problem whatsoever. I've also had them save me a couple of times when unscrupulous hotel owners tried to take advantage.
In most cases, the "problems" people report when using third-party sites are their own fault (not reading properly) or the fault of the hotel (which thinks they can get away with it because you will blame someone else).
Nope. I'm just someone who loves hotels.
I have also used the booking sites, but to be honest - the lack of accountability we see reported here constantly means people need to be aware of the risks associated. If the price is equivalent to the hotel's price, why not book direct and avoid the potential problem?
Feel free to post positive reviews of the sites that have saved you. Always good to hear those stories as well.
General question - at the moment I'm seeing a hotel I'd like to book but looking direct they list no availability. There are a handful of third party sites that are selling rooms however. How can this be? My inclination is not to trust these as I don't want to wind up arriving to find they actually didn't have a room after all.
It’s hard to say; are all the TPW sites not cancellable? Maybe they just don’t want to take a reservation that could be cancelled; of course, we could set that up for certain dates on the franchise site.
Could it be the TPWs are out of sync/delayed? Do hotels ever set aside rooms specifically for TPW use?
To the first question: it’s unlikely that all of them would be impacted by any delay. Granted, there is a typical delay, but it’s a matter of under a minute.
I suppose a hotel, in theory, could; I don’t know why one would set aside rooms for TPW’s.
Use those tools to find where you want to stay, and then book the room through the hotel's website. The price should be identical, close, or available if you call into reservations and explain the other site's pricing (YMMV - make sure you are speaking in the same currency).
This might be good advice for some places, but I'm typically booking worldwide destinations with people with limited English. It's tough enough sometimes even at check in in person trying to communicate, nevermind trying to do complex price matches over the phone.
I'm in Thailand at the moment booking lots of 3/4/5* hotels, and I know for sure it would be far far more hassle than it was worth to try and have this conversation.
Plus, I do regularly check the official hotel website (if indeed there is one) and the price is typically 20% more, and I also often get 10% rebates from using my amex card for using expedia/trip.com, so the price difference is even more substantial.
Yes. There are certainly exceptions. For LDNs where they don't have a traditional web presence, use Facebook or other apps, sites like hotels.com are an excellent method of booking. Although I might say that most 5* - even in Thailand - should have some English-friendly websites for direct booking.
So definitely a plus for the third-parties in this use case.
Why would use a third-party booking is my question? There's absolutely no customer service because the agents can't do anything, and they put the blame on the hotel.
There are some reasons. Booking smaller hotels that don't have a booking website, in other countries, etc. Sometimes, the price difference justifies the "risk".
Lots of boutique hotels have non-working websites.
I use Expedia in countries where I cannot speak the language to cut my own deal over the phone.
Risk? Even independent hotels can be called directly by phone. The independent hotels I've looked at either have a website not kept updated or no website at all. And some a dead phone number altho apparently noone remembered to let people know that they were actually closed lol and to remove their info on Google Maps! Lol! Hotels in other countries I don't know about esp the independent hotels. I would think that independent hotels would do their best to draw in guests but what do I know 🤷♀️
If hotels want to encourage direct booking then i would suggest they do a few things:_
1) make sure the price on their own site is cheaper than on 3rd party- soften it is same and often 10-30% cheaper on third party.
2) make the website much easier- and ensure that confirmations sent straight away
And just for argument's sake that they did lower their rates as you suggest and these 3rd party sites drop theirs again?
I'm just a regular guest currently residing with my husband & our fuzzball in a hotel and by no means an expert by any means but I do firmly believe strongly that Hotel chains do not lower their rates to compete with these types of budget booking sites....EVER! Besides why should they lower their own rates to compete with these budget booking sites? They're doing just fine as they have been since these sites popped up & went crazy. 🤷♀️
And about your suggestion that these Hotel chains making them "much easier and ensure that confirmations sent straight away". Why? How should they do that exactly? It's not exactly easy for computer geeks to sit at a computer and presto! it's fixed! Why spend a ton of time & money and brains to write code for nothing?
I don't know the details of how exactly it works between the Hotels and these sites or if any of those bookings actually shows up or not. Taking an educated guess and say that some brief alert goes to the hotel to let them know to hold a room or rooms. Beyond the "Alert" to the hotel the rest is the guest's responsibility{& not the hotel's}
Was inspired to make 3 hotel bookings direct by this sub just to see how compares with Hotels.com
One was a chain that had an ok booking site - took a couple of minutes longer but maybe as I am less familiar. The second was an independent hotel whose website froze on me and then at end of payment said try again and deleted all the info I gave ( I didn’t try again). $0;tried third which was reasonable. In no case did I save any money or feel any benefit at check in,.
Not saying any hotel should change policy .. just from business travelers perspective
Good for you to try! It's still better in the long run to book directly with the Hotel itself or their website! Perhaps call the hotel? Hotels are better for canceling than 3rd party sites
You say that but it’s not my experience. If I have free cancellation with hotels.conn until a certain time and date I can cancel online in about 30 secs and I have never not got full refund
I never said that every situation is exactly like the others!
Learned my lesson today! I booked a hotel through Hotels .com but had to change my reservation to a later check-in date. When I got to the hotel, front desk told me they saw my previous reservation which was cancelled, and could not see the new reservation. I showed them my Hotels app and confirmation emails but this did not change the fact that they were not made aware of the new reservation. They even told me I should have called Hotels/Expedia to make sure they notified the hotel of the change…. I was baffled. If I have to call the booking service just to ensure they did the only thing I hired them to do, what the heck is the point? Not to mention I had no reason to think there was a problem since I got confirmation emails and everything.
From now on I am booking directly with hotels.
And the "Price Match" guarantee from 3rd party sites are pure slogans!! they would never actually proceed with your claims.
How does this advice apply for the siters that offer great pricing but anonymize the actual hotels until after the booking is paid for? I have stayed at some super nice hotels over the years using the anonymized hotel feature.
Just recently, I stayed at a 5 star hotel in Dallas for something like $160 a night (after the fees; it was closer to $128 before the fees). I checked on the hotel website after I knew the name and they didn't even show vacancies at all. That was in November of 2024.
EDIT: The hotel was THE JOULE, btw.
I've been using Hotwire Hot Rate deals for years. Even though the hotel name is hidden, there are ways to discover what hotel you'll be getting before you pay. I do this almost every time I book a hotel and I always save money, frequently around 25%. If I were only saving a few dollars I would opt to book directly with the hotel, but with the savings Hotwire offers, I can't pass that up.
Do you have a website that helps you determine which hotel is being advertised? That would be very helpful!
Yeah! The Hot Rate deal will show a hotel star rating, a customer rating (e.g., 4.0/5), the number of reviews (from Expedia), and the original non-discounted price (also from Expedia). Often, there will also be a picture of an actual room from the hotel.
Using this information, you can scroll through the Hotwire search results to find a hotel that matches the Hot Rate deal details. While the star rating or customer rating alone might not be enough, specific details like the number of Expedia reviews or a matching picture can help you identify the hotel for sure.
You can also check Expedia's website with the same search criteria. The price listed there should closely match the non-discounted rate shown on Hotwire, give or take a dollar or two.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions, let me know.
I have an example of when third party booking was actually CHEAPER. I walked in to a Holiday Inn hotel in Thailand during Christmas holidays, I asked them about their rates and I wanted to check in the same day and stay there for a few nights. And the rate that they gave me was higher than the rate I found on Trip.com. I also showed them the price on Trip.com and asked if they can match the price, but they said they couldn’t and they told me that I can book on Trip.com if I want to, to save money. How do you explain this? 🤷🏻♀️
Yes but that's a different country with different rules etc. I honestly don't know how hotels run there and I do not know nor would say I know how every hotel everywhere runs their hotel because the hotels that are franchises have to follow what the Corporation says and how much must be followed. At this hotel it's "98%" leaving them a 2% leeway. Personally in my opinion that stinks! Especially when the city they're in throws on their rules on top as well as County & State! It doesn't help having a questionable "reputation" that started when the hotel you ran had a different name and mistakenly thinking changing it's name will erase that. Add that altho not as bad as it's former name's reputation the things I've seen and heard aren't exactly kosher and a few well placed complaints would cause headaches. But ya would really have to put alot of effort and never ever call the corporate office! Despite them encouraging customers to call never helps and only angers the GM/Owners and they hate it! Even a simple innocent inquiry can cause a GM to scream at a guest! And a demand of calling and canceling your questions. Sound made up? Happened to me here. I was told that if I didn't I'd be forcefully removed by local cops. I knew that the cops can't as they have no authority like that just as they can't remove tenants by force. It's a civil matter. Only exceptions are lives in danger or violent people or crimes being committed that they are witnessing. The cops will always say that unless they see something actually happening or see actual illegal items they can't do anything. And sometimes that is acceptable and other times I feel they should take action. Such as an incident with several guests staying an extended time and being rowdy noisy crew guys and yet another Friday night inevitable fight. This was a really bad one between 2 crews and girlfriends and young kids were dragged into the brawl. Apparently calling 911 and the dispatch officer hearing it from my end and sending help didn't mean squat. And alot of grief for me! Of course my sarcastic reply was ok next time anything happens I hope you don't yell at me for not calling! Lol
You know is what’s funny tho is I was looking at rooms through Expedia and Hilton’s app and I usually book through Hilton. The thing is Expedia was charging over $100 less than Hilton was for the same room and the semi flex member rate. And Expedia book now pay later rates. I like getting the points but $100 difference I’ll save my money.
I use 3rd party bookings because it's easy for me to have all of my hotel bookings in one place instead of scattered around in different hotels systems. I travel a lot and stay in all kinds of hotels across the globe, many of them are not part of any chains. it's always easier to book in one place and get the 3P manager call the hotel to settle any problems / questions / cancellation instead of my doing it myself.
BTW, is booking.com considered a 3rd party?
1) yes. 2) if you travel/stay that much, why not be in a rewards program? 3) there are a ton of threads on this subreddit where the "just have the 3P manager call the hotel" isn't a really workable option.
rewards program by whom? a hotel chain? I mentioned that I stay in different kinds of hotels, many of which are not part of any chains. otherwise I might now understand which reward systems you mean.
also, I normally use the hotel aggregator provided by my bank and they have a dedicated manager who sorts out all of my hotel questions. I also enjoy having all of my bookings in one app without searching around for them.
Sure. I use 3P when hotels don't have their own web page. And everyone's experience is different. If the convenience to you outweighs the risk, then that's great. We aren't saying never to use 3P, just be aware of the reality.
I know this is months old so I am sorry about that. My wife booked a Best Western hotel through booking.com to stay in one of their hotels 8-10 April. When they took payment for some reason it doubled booked the room so we had two £200 pound rooms. I called booking.com and they said they don't refund but they will contact the hotel and ask if the manager would do this for us.
Anyway to cut a long story short the manager would not reply to any messages and because booking.com do not issue refunds we could not even get a chargeback on the credit card. I talked with the receptionists and I said why would a mother with a young child need two rooms in the same hotel on the same days, they don't want to know.
So now we are trying to fight it through resolver website. The entire thing has been a nightmare. I have no idea why a huge hotel chain would want the negative PR when the cost of them to refund us is basically nothing. Also it is the last time any of us will stay in a Best Western hotel again.
I’ve worked in hospitality for over 20yrs, I’ve worked almost every position in a hotel from housekeeping to management in 2 different countries and I will NEVER book 3rd parties. You might pay $10 more booking via the hotel but same day cancellation policies are amazing when you have an emergency pop up. Also don’t forget to join the rewards programs they have some amazing perks and basically same deals as 3rd party sites
They do bait and switches with the rooms. I had a sea view room in Spain and they changed it to a pool view room. They cannot be trusted.
As a hotel employee, another reason I can name is that you won't get the reward points if you book 3rd party. Also, the hotel has very little flexibility to upgrade you if they can and very little flexibility to make exceptions to the cancellation policy or offer a partial refund for any problems. If people come and don't like the room or want to cancel because the pool is closed or something similar, we can't really do anything about cancelling their reservation so they can go somewhere else. They have to go through several channels of communication with no guarantee they'll get a refund just for leaving the hotel and booking elsewhere.
A guest asked the desk clerk for the number of the nearest Papa John's, and then when they delivered late, she wanted money off her stay because we recommended it. We actually didn't recommend it. She asked for a phone number and he looked it up on Google. She wanted to talk to the manager and he didn't give her anything for that either.
The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.
I used to think stupidity until I seen how often these exact antics actually more often than not work bc people just don’t want to deal with the hassle or being bashed on social media.
Did she not enjoy the pizza?
She only ate half, which is why she only wants half off her room.
Maybe she didn't give the front desk the other half, and that's why they wouldn't give her half credit 🤔
Once had a lady want a full refund because she showed up in the middle of a hurricane and was pissed she couldnt lay out on the beach.
Did you slap her before or after she wanted the refund...during a Hurricane???
Hopefully the alarm went off all night like it did for me in a hurricane.
God thing the guest didn’t count the pieces of pepperoni
Should give her the number of a competing hotel to prank them
The audacity of Karens never ceases to amaze me.
That's normal.
One here wanted a refund as the taxi she looked up and called firstly dropped her off at another hotel
I got people yelling about that all the time. They just told the driver they wanted to go to The Embassy Suites but there were 4 in the area and they didn’t specify
But the customer is always right. In matters of taste. And that late pizza didn’t taste very good.
Yes, so she deserved a refund. From Papa John’s
I'll see what I can do! Then call Papa John's and get a couple of coupons
If it was Domino's, she would of asked for a free night because she arrived 30 minutes after check in time started.
Refund grabbers. We get people who will think of any reason to ask for compensation. The problem for them is we are a small franchise of only a few hotels, so we're less inclined to give refunds for stupid things the way large management companies and corporate owned properties do. They're used to management being so afraid to have to answer to the main hubs for negative reviews with their names attached that they'll give them a refund just for not liking the color of their carpeting. It's bad enough when they do that, but even lower when they make phony complaints like when someone tried to get a refund with some phony story saying an employee was looking at porn in the lobby on his PC in front of customers, when it was actually just Rosetta Stone language learning software. They have no shame in knowing they could be possibly costing someone their job and harming their families with a lie just so they can get a free night worth about 150 dollars.
Guest ordered Indian food at 4am. Dasher put it in our designated spot.
Guest came down at 9:30am to collect only to find out someone had taken it. Found it was another guest at 8am.
Demanded a free night.
Ma’am, don’t order breakfast at 4am if you want to eat at 9:30am… that’s on you.
Did you just stare at her, like a bug under a microscope? Because she doesn't even deserve an explanation.
tryingiton
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"t2_1ppot21sxx","Therisu_VG66","How does opera cloud for Hyatt’s work? Was it difficult the transition?","How does opera cloud for Hyatt’s work? Was it difficult the transition?
It does not matter if its cloud or another application. It is hard to transition and needs really proper training. However, If your skills and awarness about application is good, transition can be a little smooth.
Would love your thoughts on:
Really awesome personalized services
Best luxury hotel chains (e.g., Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria)
Hidden gems in big cities
Perks or elite membership programs that are actually worth it
Thanks in advance, I’m hoping to make my travel feel a bit more like home !
🙋
define frequent because I am just going to tell you none of the above. If your a traveling business person and your out of town 2 weeks a month, then you need to start thinking loyalty points but honestly the volume of nights you have to stay and money you have to spend at these places to even get a free night...its hardly worth paying the extra money. My advice, if your the kind of person who can afford the ritz and the waldorf on the regular, then investing $500 a year in the top of the line travel credit card and just max the hell out of the rewards from that will be in your best interest.
Thanks I'm paying for a travel credit card.
We just did 4 nights at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. The staff was very friendly. They have a house driver who will transport guests around downtown (they don't offer pick up).
IN all of the USA?
There will never be a consensus in a post like that.
Heard a lot of good things about FS Boston and Philadelphia
You need to add The Fairmont to your luxury list. I can't afford to stay in them, but I dine in them. The ones in Canada are breathtaking and the Royal families stay in them. I would imagine their USA locations are equally beautiful.
Thanks sounds very interesting appreciate it I'll check it out I have never stayed in one !
Okay so a little context, I'm 22 now, I've just finished graduation in hotel management with a long internship in a prominent property
I got through in the management trainee program in front office
I really wanna know, why is the pay in hotels so low? And how is the tipping in front office? Are there any other jobs outside of hotels i can take up with hotel management degree? Which do not require me to move around a ton?
Like most jobs, pay starts low but increases as you move up. GMs at nicer hotels (doesn't have to even be a luxury resort) can easily make well over 100k. I know a GM at a Canopy in Texas making 175k.
GMs can make much much more in the 250-400k range!
Hello! That's for the insight! Much appreciated.
On an average how many years does it take to reach that position of GM? Like for me, i ended up with a 2 year management trainee program post which I'll end up assistant manager in front office, what kinda wages can i expect at those posts?
Where? Pay varies greatly around the country and around the world.
The hospitality industry is notorious for low-ish pay.
Entry level at the majority of jobs is low pay.
That's definitely true, I'm just looking for guidance when it comes to how pay scales up and if it's worthwhile to continue pursuing hotels
Conflicted about my first job i guess
AI Engineer if you want high pay. Investment Banking and Private Equity.
Pay reflects skill set and unfortunately also proximity to power. So rich kids can get into banking and business via Nepotism and connections.
Tech is one of the few routes to higher pay without a rich daddy.
I assume I'd need to go for an MBA at least to have enough qualification for investment banking and equity
Idk anything about AI engineering cuz I'm totally from a commerce background
Now front desk workers think they should get tips. Jesus Christ.
I wouldn't care too much about that except hotel REIT management is rubbing their hands in anticipation of paying the workers even less because customers will cover the difference in tips.
Well unfortunately the cost of living here is just painfully high and i got a very sick family member who's med bills i cover and the pay is genuinely really bad, it's close to 300 usd for the month.....
So yeah, i could definitely use tips at work
Please help! I need to do a refund in hotel key & im lost as hell.
Call support...or have your accounting department help.
Nothing like starting your day with a surprise ice bucket challenge or being skinned alive by lava. Who designs these showers? NASA? Meanwhile, Karen from accounting adjusts hers at home by blinking twice. Fellow hoteliers, let’s agree: guests shouldn’t need PPE to bathe.
People that turn the water on after they get in the shower, then complain about it, are idiots.
I’m just n a hotel that requires I turn it on from inside the shower because there is glass that doesn’t move at the shower noon end. But I aim the shower head as close to the wall as possible so I don’t get it in my face.
That’s what I was saying, who gets in and stands directly under the shower head and turns it in? Turn it on, adjust the temperature to your liking, then take a shower.
Recently stayed in a hotel with a sliding glass door on the shower stall. 2/3rds was a fixed glass partition that was closest to the shower knob and nozzle, with the other third the sliding door. So unless your arms are over 4 feet long, it's a physical impossibility not to have your body in the direct path of the water while turning it on.
Too many hotel showers have that immobile sheet of glass that makes it impossible to turn on the shower without being under it!
Shower heads usually swivel
It’s that or the newest trend, no glass at all.
There is no in between.
You can still just reach in though.
I have yet to stay in any hotel where I was physically required to be naked and under the shower head before turning it on.
I read that in another comment. Turn the head towards the wall and adjust the temp.
The shower control should be reachable from outside the shower.
Blame the designers. I swear these people make everything as unusable as possible.
It's a mandatory cold plunge. You now have extreme levels of energy and your depression and cancer are cured.
The designers also cannot imagine a scenario where you may not want water beating on your head first, then trickling down the rest of your body It's a raiiiinstorm No it's not Derek.
Highlights of hotel showers:
- it's a handle to control flow and temperature, placed such that you're guaranteed to bump into it while showering.
- no clear markings to indicate what direction is warm or cold. Maybe it's standardized in your country, if you run a hotel or B&B, you cater for tourists.
- the markings are blue and red on the moving part. To make it warm, should the red part be on top or should you move in the red direction until the blue part is on top? FFS manufacturers, put the marking on the stationary part and an arrow on the moving part.
- various unlabeled knobs to select hand shower, filling the bathtub, or rain shower.
- UK's electric showers. No instructions; temperature adjustments come with half a minute delay.
- somehow it's impossible to shower without flooding half the bathroom floor.
Turn shower head away and reach from outside
Or, if the sink is connected to the water but before the shower, run the hot water tap a bit. At the very least it’ll draw hot water most of the way before the shower is on
I am annoyed by how short the shower heads are. I am 6’2” and I keep bumping my head.
Can't you change the temperature in hotels you're visiting?
It would be very strange if you couldn't do this
What does the design have to do with the infracture?
I love sarcasm as much as the next person, but this aint it. This critique hits all wrong.
What’s an infracture? I love a critique of a critique but not when it’s incomprehensible
I thought in major city there is always cheap basic accommodation like hostels available…. There is literally no where available! Will have to spend like 200 pound on a hotel room
Your friend is going to London at the height of summer travel season (and during Wimbledon) and booking accommodation at the last minute. This is what’s known as supply and demand and not understanding it.
I don't know what tour market is like, but in CAD, 80 pounds is $148. That's well below my medium sized city average rate. Do you book rooms or travel a lot?
He stays in hostel rooms in major cities around the world for 20uk pounds max….
Not in London in the summer
Going there at the beginning of summer expecting to find cheap last-minute accommodation was naive.
Peak tourist season, during a major sporting event, in one of the most expensive cities in the world…
That's normal for London. Indeed it seems quite cheap for a last minute booking on a Friday night in July
But in all major cities around the world there are always hostels for like 20pounds available
Will have to spend like 200 pound on a hotel room
Why not stay in a hostel for 50 pounds?
Is too much should be 15pounds…
Checked into a hotel today (beginning of vacation) and immediately noticed the room was musty. Not a big deal. Changed rooms and was getting ready to take a nap when I noticed that the blanket was NASTY. I then looked in the ac vent and it was disgusting as well. I brought it up with the manager at the hotel and they told me It was just an old goosefeather blanket and some dust in the vents. I'll add pictures below.
They're refusing to refund me, should I refute the charge on my credit card and try to find another place to stay?? Or am I just tripping.
EDIT: I just wanted a refund so I could leave. I am not trying to stay for free just to clarify. I booked this hotel as a 3 star, and as I was talking to their customer support, they told me this hotel is a category 1 out of 8!! I'm not trying to stay for free, I just want my money back so I can get another hotel.
So did you ask for a checkout and refund, or just to be able to stay for free?
Because the first one will probably work.
The second? Not so much.
I asked them for a refund and they refused. They told me I could checkout but with no refund. Then I brought down the blanket, they told me It was goosefeathers, when I brought up the moldy ac unit, they told me It was just some dust.
You sound like a hotwire guest.
Did you look at the photos?
The definition of gaslighting is lying ***with the intention of making you feel insane.
If it’s a dirty hotel, and they are making excuses for filth, check out, find another hotel.
Also you looked inside the vent? You are very particular about your cleanliness standards.
It's one of those old ac units you can clearly see into the vent on, that is usually installed near the bottom of the wall sometimes under a window. It's very clearly mold and dust, which is very harmful to breathe in. I have MCAS from mold exposure and would be incredibly sick having to stay here, I would have immediately checked out.
Just FYI the star rating is about the amenities it offers and not the cleanliness or guest satisfaction ratings
they moved you. You're not entitled to a refund.
If you're not happy. ask can you check out with no fees. If yes book another property
What hotel?
How did you book, direct or via a third party?
I booked direct on their website. Not sure if I should mention hotel until resolved
tell us. Why would you come here and complain, but not share a bad hotel?
Informing us could possibly prevent someone else from booking a property with a bad physical plant and questionable customer service?????
The blanket is fine. Feathered comforters look that way when they're machine washed, which they aren't supposed to be.
The ptac is disgusting.
Gosh I hate the term ‘gaslighting’, especially because most people use it wrong.
Gaslighting is lying to you and purposely trying to mislead you in believing something that's not true, or twist the truth. That's not what they're doing. They just run a nasty hotel (not the desk workers fault, by the way) and can't afford to refund you as they're probably already not doing well financially.
Crappy situation though and the only time you may have wished to book through a third party as they can sometimes help.
If you booked multiple nights, try to get a refund for the 2nd up to the last night, and let them keep the rate for the first night as compensation for them for not being able to sell that room anymore. Promise them that if they agree to this, you won't write a bad review. (even though you could still do that anonymously later) Good luck!
That's disgusting. I'd leave. You won't get a refund if you stay.
Checkout immediately and do a charge back with your bank, don't stay and then ask for a refund. Submit the pictures with the charge back and then leave a Google review for others.
There are situations in which I would not feel comfortable staying at a hotel. This might be one of them. Give the hotel the opportunity to make it right; I've had to change hotel rooms twice before being given an acceptable room. If you still feel the same way and continue staying at the hotel, it seriously undermines your argument.
If I were you, I would find another place to stay that you are comfortable with. Keep in mind that you might pay much more for a last-minute booking with no guarantee of getting your current hotel refunded. Document everything in detail, including your communications with the hotel and its staff. Work with the hotel on a refund, and if that fails, you have the documentation to support a credit card dispute, including the key facts that you didn't stay at (and use the services of) the hotel and paid for a different one.
If they are gaslighting you, go on Google reviews, post a review with the pictures, then head down to reception and show them.
They will change their tune very quickly.
https://imgur.com/a/yWyxZlF
link to photos of stuff. Not sure if this is against sub rules, mods let me know if I need to change anything
If you don't leave, you have no chance of any refund or compensation. You gotta decide if you can live with that or not, but there's no recourse if you stay. Does look nasty, I wouldn't.
That PTAC is moldy for sure, but that blanket is normal for goose feathers. It's not dirty.
Those vents are terrible. I have a wool filled quilted blanket and the distribution of the filling sometimes gets clumped so that, when looked through light like you’ve done, it shows somewhat similarly. I thought it was moldy so cut into it, just to discover the wool clumped and no mold present. Doesn’t mean there isn’t any in your case, but just my two cents
I can't tell about the comforter, that could just be what they look like if it's older feathers when you hold it up to the light, but those vents look like disease vectors.
The comforter is just old and was machine washed without any care.
The PTAC unit though hasn't been cleaned in years. The vent where the air blows out, that's mold growing.
Based on your photos, the room would have been absolutely unacceptable to me, also.
I feel like since they'd already moved you once, and both rooms were unacceptable, that your request for a refund (while not staying) is perfectly reasonable.
If they refuse that, personally I would find another (acceptable) property to stay at, and dispute the charge on my card.
Looked at those pictures and yea it’s gnarly. Is it possible you booked a prepay no refunds room when you were on the hotels website. I know our guests sometimes do that because it’s cheaper. Pending on the brand and your status I’d get on the phone with customer service and let them know what’s going on. You should get a refund or at the very least point credit that way.
I reserved a very cheap, iffy hotel online while traveling. We showed up very late, planned to only sleep, get up, and continue traveling. However, we realized that we could cancel the hotel for the next night, stay at this one twice, and sleep in rather than get 3 hours of sleep.
When we arrived, we were given our rooms. We reserved two rooms with two beds, four total. We were given rooms with one bed. I mentioned it to the guy at the desk and he admitted his error, he had given away the rooms we reserved and did not have any available. He said he had a smoking room, but only one, which would be three beds total. I said we would take it if it didn't smell bad. He instead gave us a third room, three beds total. When we left in the morning, planning to come back late again, he approached the van and told us he had given out the room he had given us, and we needed to return the key. Rather than argue, we needed to leave, we gave it back. When we came back that night, we tried to argue that he took back a room he gave us due to his error, but he insisted on us proving it, something he had previously admitted to. Rather than argue, we slept uncomfortably and left the next morning.
I emailed the hotel but expect no reply. What is a reasonable thing to demand? Should I file a chargeback? We got rooms, but not what we reserved, and he clearly admitted fault, gave us something to somewhat improve the issue, then took it back.
Take care of the problem when it occurs, not after you’ve used the services that were inadequate. It’s like complaining that a meal didn’t taste good after you’ve eaten all of it.
And you dont demand. You explain the situation and ASK for some kind of compensation.
To be fair, we really didn't have time and the guy was very poor at communicating.
We took care of the issue as best we could at 5am after being up for 24 hours when he offered a solution that he couldn't otherwise solve; he didn't have the room to give us. The bigger issue is then taking it away. What was I supposed to do, say no?
He knows the situation. At this point, asking did not work.
Based solely on what you have written, your communication is not very clear either.
It's travel 101, to deal with issues while on site.
I mean literally did not speak English. I think you can fully understand what I am saying, butn thank you for the unneeded insult.
Now you're adding to the story/narrative.
I did not insult you. I'm not sure how you translated a comment into an insult. However, I the way I read the above, this is an example of poor communication.
Did you book third party?
Why did you accept the rooms?
If they didn't have what you reserved available, they could have walked you to a compatible property that did at no extra charge (and possibly even get some compensation)
I'm also a bit confused. Did you extend the stay with the shitty room situation and then they snagged it out from under you? If so, and if you were charged for that night then you are eligible for a charge back bc it was a service not rendered for that night
No, we booked directly.
This property was in the middle of nowhere. The first night, the only rooms they had available were smoking, which he seemed uninterested in offering when we asked if we could smell the room before accepting, and the third room, which we took. That meant, rather than two rooms with two beds, we got three with one, three beds.
The second morning he took back the third room, leaving us with two beds.
The issue became when he then took the third room away. I wouldn't be bothered by it if he didn't take back his offer.
Yes, we extended when he offered a third room. Three beds would have been fine. Two beds was unacceptable for five adult men.
He didn't charge for the third room, so it is difficult to argue what service wasn't rendered. We at no point got what we paid for, but we took a fix. He revoked the fix, so we not only didn't get the rooms we reserved the second night we got no fix.
Hotel room bookings always come with the bedding ‘disclosure’. While you reserve a particular room, they can’t guarantee the room bedding type. Someone comes and wants 10 nights of which you have 2, they won’t turn away the 8 nights to accommodate 2, unless they’ve guaranteed you the bedding configuration, there’s no recourse for this.
There is no such disclosure on the website or in the email. I just checked.
Regardless, that is not my concern. He resolved the issue well enough then revoked it. He admitted fault, accepted blame, offered something to make it right, then took it away again.
A big majority of travel problems posted in travel-centric subs boil down to communication problems. People stay mute while the issue plays out but want something afterwards, or will turn handstands to avoid a face-to-face moment or making a voice call to customer service, or didn’t absorb the terms and conditions they agreed to.
In this case OP reserved a “cheap, iffy” hotel and had a cheap, iffy experience. They tried to change the stay window, which probably changed the hotel’s room-allocation calculus, and did not get everything expected. They did not counter the staffer’s moves on the spot, but acquiesced, and now want to do a chargeback after the fact.
I don’t see it. Life would be a helluva lot easier if we could just converse in a civil manner, ask for what we want, and participate in problem-solving when necessary.
We didn't stay mute. We addressed it. He admitted error. He resolved the issue as best as he could. Then he revoked it as we left for the day. We didn't have time to fuck with some guy who could barely communicate with us because of a language barrier being unreasonable. Civility was already out the window. We had to get somewhere.
As I said, I sent an email. A phone call would be even less useful than speaking in person if I get the same person. I assume written communication would be easier for him.
I didn't try to change the stay window. I did change the stay window. That wasn't an issue. The issue was having what we were given to resolve their mistake revoked. We literally were given rooms and then had a room taken back. Please read the post.
If you booked with a third party, you can complain to them and they will often either force the hotel to refund you, or move you to a different hotel.
If you booked directly, you may be out of luck.
The front desk clerk didn't ask for ID when my key didn't work, should I complain to a manager?
Have you been at the hotel before? If not have you talked to the front desk on a few occasions during this stay?
Yeah, sometimes you can be very memorable without meaning to be.
Was it the first time seeing you?
There's so much context missing here.
If you think they had no good reason to think you were the right person, perhaps.
Yes. This is a security flaw. I would also asked to be relocated.
I'm sure the staff would be more than happy to relocate them as far as possible
Had the clerk seen you before? Sometimes they have a good memory.
Did they take a copy of your ID when you checked in? If so, they can look at it and see who you are.
About 40 per cent I don't ask during the week
As I KNOW THEM as they have stayed for a yr or 8
Was having a lovely holiday in Spain, when my Wife pointed out that the lads; who had been drinking all day in the pool had not got out for hours…
I’m not a big daytime drinker, at best, can only go a (I think) respectable 3 pints between ‘breaks’. These lads had nom. 8-12 pints through the day, meaning that either they have the constitution of oxen - or, alas more likely, a new level of fear of all hotel swimming pool with bars in close proximity has been unlocked for me.
For humanities sake please tell me that a) If you are a holiday maker you will leave the pool -at any cost- before making yourself more ‘comfortable’. Or b) if you are in the industry, you add a more than appropriate level of chemical countermeasures to neutralise the scenario I now suspect is common.
If you know from personal experience, or otherwise, that neither of the above is true please let us know. Am feeling quite naive and unless suitably reassured will be taking my chances with the sea-life from now on.
So…I’m a nurse. I’ve sent lots of human secretions to the lab and then read the report later.
The most horrifying bodily secretions are from infected wounds, liquid stool (diarrhea) and…nasal secretions from someone who does not feel well. The viral load from the nostril of a child who is about to get a high fever in a few hours? Frightening.
Runners up? Vaginal secretions, blood, saliva, and normal poop.
Sweat is almost entirely safe, along with breast milk.
The most innocuous? Urine. Unless you have a raging urinary tract infection, it’s basically just water, salt, and some minerals.
Ocean water is filled with way nastier stuff. Lakes? Even worse.
All that said, yes it’s socially disgusting when people pee in the pool.
Thanks, you've managed to make me feel both better and dramatically worse?
How about the viral load of vomit?
Well now you know if you want PINK EYE where to go.
The issue with bodily fluids in the pool, including sweat, is the amine build-up. Shocking a pool drives them out.
Oh, that heavy "chlorine" smell? Nope, Chlor-amines.
Really high if it’s a GI illness!!!
I specifically farted on hotel room pillows when I was a manger.
You know for shits and giggles
Growing up we had a pool (for which I did 90% of the maintenance) and for whatever reason I'd heard that the smell of "chlorine" actually meant the water needed treatment. Perhaps in my copious free time I'll look up those terms you mentioned.
Really low if it’s from excess alcohol?
Probably? They don’t tend to run labs on people throwing up from over indulgence. Unless they are unconscious, in which case they pull some blood and dump activated charcoal into your stomach, since they rarely do gastric lavage (pump your stomach) anymore.
I would guess that vomit from a person with a stomach full of alcohol is basically somewhat digested food, stomach acid, and the alcohol. Nothing really exciting as far as pathogens.
Now imagine the swim up bar
Miasmic ooze by the end of the day
“Barkeep, this seat is sticky even though it’s underwater”
For all the people saying everyone pees in the pool, no. Not everyone pees in the pool. It’s disgusting and the fact that you’re so comfortable swimming in a toilet speaks volumes.
I think they’re saying you swim in it too
How many volumes does that speak?
I don’t swim in pools, not just because of the ick factor but I’m not a strong swimmer.
Have you seen a pool?
There’s toddlers in them
This is a constant thought in my head when I'm considering a hotel pool.
Never go in Las Vegas pools in the summer.
Yeah it’s so hot I burn my feet running to the pool to piss
Many people pee in the pool (which is very gross), but peeing in the pool then refilling your bladder and doing that repeatedly is disgusting
My hotel takes a good 2 hours daily before it opens to balance chemicals to counteract pool pissers. Lord forbid we have a pool shitter…
Thanks for all the comments, interesting and informative. From now on will be at least keeping my head out of the water and my mouth closed!
I am stunned that most of the responses here are pro-pee-in-pools. GOD!
I am opposed to peeing in pools, but I understand that I live in a world where a hell of a lot of people don’t share my values.
Jesus Christ, no not everyone pees in the pool, wtf?? What are these responses except confirmation for me to continue to never set foot in public pools.
Most people stop doing that after childhood, pretending like it's fucking normal doesn't make it not fucking disgusting.
If you see a crowd in the pool, it's just become an outdoor toilet. Best to avoid it.
The best thing my parents ever did was put in a back door from the pool directly to the master bathroom. You don't even need to dry off before you use the bathroom.
That being said, everyone pees in the pool. Its polite to get out at least once during your bender to show you're a gentleman.
Literally everyone pees in the pool
I really hope you are trolling.
This... The unspoken rule is that the hotel pool is the public toilet, saves time & spot
The only pool without piss is one you own. And you live alone. And probably still has piss somehow
I am horrified by how this is a thing.
Pee... It's not a bad word
It took me way too long to realize OP was worried about urine and not concerned for their well-being and possible dehydration.
Right?? I was like... What the fuck are you talking about? For over half of that!
So much talking around the issue.
Sorry, am British. Although admittedly seems some of my countryman have no problem whatsoever with pee.
I live in hotels and travel the United States mostly. We normally sit in the hot tub and drink and pee on each other, more than the pool, but I can see kids especially just weeing in the pool the whole time. I never go under the water (in a hot tub, but pools have a lot more dilution, it doesn't bother me to go under in a larger pool), and I shower when I get out, cuz I know it aint just my pee, but strangers pee...which, is kinda sterile, but still a little icky. There is also some poop in there probably, a few other nasty things. But like, at the end of the day, you're at a hotel, the handle to your room door probably hasn't been wiped with bleach ever, and everyone was just in a giant metal tube in the sky for hours coughing and breathing on each other to get there...I chalk it up to the hazards of traveling.
I have had confirmed covid 3 times, and that is with me being vaccinated and boosted, so that might explain some of that, lol. Hotels are fucking nasty places.
Inside doorknob of the bathroom. Handles of the sink faucets too…..but yeah flying is a great way to catch a respiratory illness. Runner up, preschool classroom.
First, 3 pint intervals are respectable. I am happy when I manage to maintain that rate and probably average out lower if I stay long enough in a pub.
There is a difference though when you're drinking in the pool though. In the pool you sweat without noticing it. If you're in a bar sweating, you'll drink faster hoping it will somehow negate the discomfort (it doesn't), so even though you're sweating, as your intake speed just went up, your still on the bathroom carousel. However, in the pool you just keep normal drinking speed, while you will sweat a lot (especially if it is rather warm water and your stupid body doesn't realize that sweating makes absolutely no difference in regulating your temperature for all submerged body parts). So when in a pool bar I can drink much more without having to go.
I am sure there also will be people that just piss in the pool. Some of them will while they are drinking.
Just one little fact that will haunt you every time you enter a pool from now on. When you put chlorine in clean water you barely can smell it, even at concentrations higher than what you have in a pool. However, once that chlorine starts reacting with biological stuff, that is when you smell it. Biological stuff is everything that comes from or out of your body.
Second disturbing fact, given that in -especially indoor- pools barely any water is added once the pool is filled once, the amount of pee (but sterilized and broken down by the chemicals) will take up a larger and larger percentage in "how did that water get into this pool".
People say this about chlorine but I have my own pool. I do not pee in it. After adding chlorine,I can smell it.
You do have skin cells, and dirt and grease on your skin.
My assumption when I see large number of adults in a pool or hot tub with alcohol they are peeing.
Same as a large number of kids in a pool.
Basically I rarely use hotel or resorts hot tubs or pools.
First thing in the morning after they have been running and filtering all night maybe. But later in the day or evening I give it a miss. Skipped swimming on a roof top pool in a lovely hotel in Manila for this reason last month. It was a beautiful evening, warm, stars out, and perfect for a late night dip. Alas all the pools were full of kids … no way.
I’ve noticed this on weekends at my neighborhood pool. This is why I immediately shower when I get out of the pool. I don’t really like the feel of sunset and chlorine either, but knowing so many people pee in the pool is the biggest reason.
Having said that, I’ve used to be a competitive diver and have spent loads of time over my life in pools, and I don’t believe swimming has ever made me sick.
I had the same realization while in the pool at the Flamingo in Vegas. I kept hopping out to run to the bathroom, and noticed the bathrooms were empty every time I went...
I call pools people soup and won’t go in.
If you’re wondering if they pissed in the pool, I think you’re safe in assuming “yes.”
My apology in advance for the length of this...
I worked a summer as a pool attendant at a LARGE timeshare resort with 4 pool areas.
I was basically someone with a walkie talkie who watched the pool & guests, monitored the weather (for thunderstorms/lightening), enforced pool rules (things like no glass, no running, no kids under 13 without an adult, & no visible alcohol), & made sure that only guests were allowed in), but I was NOT a lifeguard (although I did have CPR/first aid training).
It was a VERY eye-opening experience that showed me just how many disgusting & inconsiderate people that there are in the world.
Here are the rules I had to follow (as best I can recall...This was about 16 or so years ago, but I don't think much has changed [at least where I live]):
+If we knew that someone had peed in the pool (which, honestly, didn't occur during the entire summer that I worked, since it was so hard to identify), we'd close the pool for one hour to "shock" it.
+If someone threw up in the pool, or pooped (hard stool) & it was possible for us to skim all the chunks out, we'd close the pool for one hour to "shock" it.
+If someone had diarrhea or very watery vomit, we would close the pool for 24 hours for a more intensive "shock."
[I honestly don't remember the protocol for blood, but it was either a 1 hr or 24 hr closure with shocking.]
I could tell MANY stories, but the one that is the most relevant to OP's post is this...[It happened just before I started my shift for the day but I had to deal with the angry aftermath].
[Warning...gross stuff done by humans]
One VERY busy 3-day weekend, a large family group (of maybe 8+?) had a child (5 or 6 y/o) with them, who had come down with a bad stomach bug.
It caused the poor kid to have recurring, horrible diarrhea.
So, what did the parents/family do? They decided to go enjoy the sun at the nearest pool, and have [adult] drinks & snacks poolside, while they watched the kids (including the sick one) swim.
Within a relatively short period of time, nature took its course and the kid "got sick" in the pool.
My poor coworker immediately got everyone out of the pool area, radioed maintenance, & then closed it (as it was very obviously going to be a case where the pool would be shut for 24 hours.
Since the closure of that pool then caused of all the people who had been at it to migrate to the 3 remaining (still open) pools, my coworker then went to the (now) busiest of the remaining pools to help out, as soon as that initial pool was shutdown.
While that coworker was assisting at the busiest pool, a call came on the radio from another pool (the smallest & the closest to where that family was staying).
As you can probably already guess, it hadn't taken long before history repeated itself, and that pool had to be shut down as well.
This left only 2 pools open, for a very large resort that usually was either close to, or at max occupancy on most pools, during the busiest days of summer.
So, with only 2 pools still open, can you guess who ended up showing up at another pool?
If you said the same large family, & the sick kid, you win a gold star!!!
Once again it didn't take long before the sick kid got sick AGAIN, which once AGAIN caused a pool to be shut down.
[In all, this kid managed to close 3 pools in less than 3 hours!]
At that point (with hundreds of guests who were seething about the pool closures [and limited occupancy available for the one remaining pool]), management stepped in and the guests were pulled into a back office.
They were told to pack their bags and leave the property immediately--NO refund. [As this was a timeshare resort, these guests paid to have a 1 week stay, each year].
When the guests complained, the resort threatened to pursue legal damages related to the closure of 3 of the 4 resort pools (all due to their negligence), and the guests gave in & left.
So, for TLDR -- people can be very sh*tty when it comes to how they treat public pools.
[That said, I still do swim in them, and I've never gotten sick...(but I DO pay a lot more attention to how things are run and maintained!)]
Two types of people, people who pee in pools and people who lie about not peeing in pools
Or how about #3?
Those would be people who MIGHT'VE peed in a pool when they were very small & didn't know better, but who were then taught by parents/other responsible adults around them (at an early age) that they needed to be respectful to others and to get out of the water (to use the proper facilities) if they were feeling "the call of nature."
[Sadly, my guess (which seems to be confirmed by many of the reddit comments) is that the number of folks in the #3 group is a LOT smaller than the first two groups. I'm thinking this is mainly due to a lack of good parenting, and/or a lack of adult self control & maturity.]
As a swimmer, we pee in the pool.
Hi guys I really need advice on a situation. A group of us booked a holiday, one of us will still be 17, we emailed the hotel to make sure they’d allow her to stay without a parent, they said yes, this was maybe two months ago, yesterday we double check their website and they’ve added that under 18s cannot check in without a parent/ official guardian. We’re desperately emailing back but we are meant to leave in a week. I’m wondering what to do, whether to risk going and show the email proof of them saying yes, or playing it safe with the friend not going, but then she’s wasted money on a holiday she couldn’t go in?
Thanks :)
If they are traveling with someone over 18, you should good
Seems likely the website is sloppily written, and the actual rule is that under 18s can't check in without someone older, whether or not they're specifically a parent or legal guardian. (For one thing, I'm guessing hotel front desk staff are not about to review legal documents proving a guardianship.)
Will the 17-year-old have her own room? It might go better if she doesn't, and is technically a "child" staying with an adult.
If email doesn't get a response within 24 hours, try calling.
Which brand of hotel are you staying at? You will need to change the name on the reservation to the person who is 18 or older. If you booked through a 3rd party website you will have to contact them directly to change the name
Where is the hotel located? Because a minor having to stay with a guardian or a parent is a legal requirement in some countries, so the specific hotel policy does not really matter.
In Italy for example the law requires it, but it also allows the minor to check-in if they have a written authorisation from the parent/guardian, accompanied by a copy of the passport/ID of said tutor.
So try that route and get in touch with the hotel.
Don't ignore the issue, because if the law actually requires it where you are going, the hotel would be much less likely to bend the rules, since they would be doing it at their own risk.
The hotels in Majorca, she’ll be in a room with someone 18 and we’re bringing a letter from her parents with permission. I’ll definitely call the hotel to get more information, just frustrating that they’ve added this much later when they’ve originally said it was okay :)
I am not familiar with the Spanish laws in the matter, but from a cursory glance on Google, it looks similar to the Italian one, where a written authorisation from a parent is enough.
Not sure why the hotel initially said it was okay, but I assume it was a misunderstanding since they would be unlikely to defer from the law, especially if we are speaking of minors.
That being said, get in touch with and explain the situation.
It's unlikely to be a big deal as long as they are duly informed and she has her paperwork.
Okay will do, thanks so much :)
Should be fine as long as the 17 year old is not the one signing for the room and paying. That's what "must be 18 to check-in" means.
One of the world’s largest hotel chains has been lined up to operate North America’s tallest mass timber hotel, planned for Granville Island in Vancouver. It comes after Wyndham Hotels & Resorts revealed that the ‘WaterWalk by Wyndham’ brand would operate a 160-room hotel on the site of Vancouver’s disused rail yards. That is according to new project plans and renderings submitted by Arno Matis Architecture to redevelop 1500-1588 West 3rd Ave. into a 162-ft-tall, 18-storey hotel tower.
Hello good morning.
If the hotel has room service, do they let people from Uber Eats and stuff come in?
Or can they only get to the reception?
Sorry if the question is very stupid, but I'm curious.
Have a good day.
Edit: Thank you all for being so kind and responding.
I'm not staying in a hotel, I'm just curious hahaha
I wish you a great day
It depends tbh.
My current property; for guest safety & security; we tell any food delivery service to drop off at the concierge desk & let guest know to come pick It up.
Previous property, we let them deliver to the guest door.
It really depends.
That's it in a nutshell.
I deliver pizza and the hotels here are pretty good about letting us go up the room, partly because we have uniforms. I don't know if they do the same thing with DD and UE, but it's a small town and we have a very low crime rate, so they might be able to.
I know in the cities, it's a safety issue, so it would not be unusual to have to leave the order at the desk.
We let them go up to the room, but only after a call and confirmation from the guest that it is ok
I’ve seen more places now say leave it at the desk and the hotel will still deliver it for saftey and still a service type thing.
when i am at a hotel, i prefer picking it up at the front desk - i have this fear that someone will see me & try to come back to my room to kill me lmao.
Perhaps you shield have paranoia treated
Just have them leave it at the door? You don’t have to interact with them.
Some hotels, yes. Other hotels, no.
It depends upon the hotel. Ask them.
Um its dependent on the hotel, check with fd . For security reasons you most likely need to pick up your order from the lobby
It's very location dependent
It depends on the property.
An "Uber Eats delivery person" could be anybody walking in the front door with a bag. Many properties don't want anyone who is not a registered guest (or, at the very least, accompanied by a registered guest) wandering around the property.
Most properties will expect you to come down to the front desk/lobby to meet the delivery person. For your safety and security, the front desk shouldn't even confirm to the person with the bag of food that you're a guest of the property--the driver should contact you directly.
Whether or not the hotel has room service doesn't make a difference; room service is provided (in almost all cases) by the hotel's own employees.
Depends on the hotel. I’ve found 90% of the time I have to go down as they can’t let them up on the floor.
hell, it depends on the night and guest for me. we’re a combination short term/long term property, but i’ve notice short stays get more deliveries. if someone’s been in house for a few days, talking to staff, has a long res, etc., i’ll tell them to buzz me when they place an order and i’ll send the driver up.
Friday and Saturday, EVERYONE picks up at the desk. we’re JUST busy enough on the weekends that i can’t reliably monitor non-guests in the building, so they’re not allowed past the lobby.
Not standard. Ask front desk.
Hotels in Asia do it best: food is delivered to the hotel’s foyer, staff put it in a robot which delivers it to your room.
No delivery people in secure areas, just robots wheeling around
Shit
If this is real, I'll shit if I see Bender as a delivery man
his name is bender, not deliverer
We do not offer room service, and we still do not allow delivery people to access guest floors.
It is a security issue, not a money issue. I do not want some random person, whom we may or may not be able to identify, wandering the hallways.
The delivery person can wait comfortably in the lobby for the guest to come down and get their order.
I just meet them at the door. Easier, faster, more secure.
I have mobility issues, so most hotels will allow delivery to my room even if they don't generally. I just make the request going in. One place had to escort the delivery person, most just let them pass.
It depends on the hotel.
Our hotel doesn't allow food deliveries to be left at the desk or lobby, they must be taken to the room or handed to the client.
It depends. I've been in a hotel where food deliveries were left at the front desk, and hotel staff then delivered it to the room with cutlery. I've also been in a hotel where food delivery people weren't even allowed in the lobby, and guests had to meet them in the car park. I imagine there's every variation in between, depending on the hotel.
If they have a room number, I direct them to the room. If they weren’t given a room number, I tell them to call the guest or leave it at the desk & let them know it’s there.
If they didn’t get a room number from the guest, they aren’t getting it from me. If the guest felt comfortable giving it to them, I assume that’s consent for them to bring it to their door. 🤷🏻♀️
Varies from property to property
It depends on the property policy.
I know at our hotel, we allow it, but after the front doors lock, any orders have to be picked up from the desk or met in the lobby for guest security.
Just had food delivered to a Miami Sheraton. Was given a pin thru uber eats app. Met delivery person in lobby. Gave him pin. He plugged it into his app and it was accepted and he gave me my food and I took it to my room.
I’ve been at a Hyatt property that had an excessive number of signs stating that no delivery personnel beyond this point. Looked like it was typed in MS Word on Hyatt letterhead and laminated.
In a previous hotel, delivery driver slipped menus under every door on the floor he delivered on. So we didn't let go up anymore.
Also happened with a prostitute. Guests called down, some disgusted, some wondering if it was a service the hotel offered.
I delivered to a hospital one time and they wouldn't even let me leave it at the front desk. customer wasnt answering, no idea if it was a patient or employee. I just left that shit on the desk and left.
Depends entiely on the hotel.
The state run casno in the catskills of NY would not let delivery people deliver to the hotel. (That place has a bunch of other horrible practices as well, but I digress).
Some hotels don;t let the delivery people up to the rooms, but they can deliver and wait in the lobby.
Some hotels will sign for it at the desk and hold the food for you so that the driver isn;t waiting 5 minutes for you to come down.
It depends entirely on the hotel.
I won;t stay at a hotel that will only let you get food from them and not from at least lobby delivery.
Need a valid guest room key to get to guest floors at my place, so it’s not possible. Not a fan of random people wandering the hotel.
a lot of places dont have room service anymore and make you use those places now i hear.
but when i order pizza i just meet them in the lobby.
Depends on hotel. We do allow deliveries to rooms. Typically it is left outside the door, no contact.
I call the guest and ask if they want it brought up or left at the desk
Door dash comes to my hotel all the time. I order lunch as well from them and Walmart delivery
If you are not handicapped, get off the bed and turn the tv off and walk down to the front desk, it’s great exercise to burn off in advance those calories you are about to eat. If you can walk down to the bar for drinks you can walk down to the FD for your food. Personally I don’t want a bunch of delivery people roaming the hotel halls and it’s taking their time away from more trips. If they do deliver to the room a $5 to $10 tip is in order. I assume the laziest people tip the least.
Someone didn't read the whole post 🍼
Hi all! I am going to be in Nice with my best friend for 5 nights in August and was wondering if anyone had any budget friendly recommendations for an accommodation. We are fine with either a hotel or an Airbnb just somewhere bed-bug free and reliable with air conditioning and a private bathroom. Location wise, ideally near the Promenade des Anglais but I know that can get pricey, so hopefully just a short walk to the beach and train station for day trips. We are both very active young men and so we won’t be spending much time in the hotel outside of sleeping and showering and so it doesn’t need to be huge or fancy. We’re willing to pay up to $850 (total) for all 5 nights. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or ideas, even if they are slightly out of our price range! Thank you in advanced!
Can I check in to a lower-end hotel/motel with cash only, present my ID, and ask for any form of guest logging anonymity? I am trying to flee a stalker/dv situation.
I've worked at both 4 & 5 star hotels that would use a pseudonym for these situations.
Yep. I buried her real name deep in the comments but checked her in under something totally ridiculous like Isabella de la Fontaine Arbuthnot.
Often places do the same for famous guests
Tell front desk to put you on Incognito
I’ve never heard of it. I obviously know what incognito means, but what does that look like for the agent? I’ve worked at 3 well known brands and this is the first I’m hearing of this. It’s actually an interesting topic cause there’s been no training on this.
The explanation has been put on incognito.
From my experience and what I have seen in hotels - upkeep of guest privacy is important for hotels.
When a guest tells the front desk or front office to put him or her on Incognito - it would imply that that there would be no calls transfered to the guest room, nor any information would be shared about the guest residing (which anyways most good hotels don't disclose)
In the system the agent would add a comment or an alert. Also, a $$ would be added before and after the name.
So if someone searches by the name within the hotel they wouldn't find it.
Your request of being anonymous during a hotel stay is not uncommon. Just tell them about your situation. That's all.
It just means to put a fake name down. Probably also put notes in the res of who is actually allowed in the room.
In 5 years I’ve never encountered that situation, so for me it’s very uncommon.
It doesn’t mean a fake name. It means that if anyone asks for you, we say you’re not here.
Uh now I'm seriously concerned about your practices. That should be standard for ALL guests whether they tell you that or not. Guest privacy is LAW.
Well, it’s not LAW but it is standard policy for pretty much every brand in the business. If somebody calls for a guest, you say “let me put you on hold and see if I have that name” and call the guests room. If they don’t want to talk, “sorry, nothing by that name here.”
That article literally doesn't reference any laws.
Oh I'm sorry go ahead and Google the laws and read through the dense text of guest privacy laws and all subsequent court cases. Literally most of the subtitles say "law" in them
I'll pass thanks. You're the one making the claim it's on you to prove it. I'm not doing your work for you.
1000%. Almost any hotel will do this for you if you explain the situation.
So long as I have your id you get to pick a new name, that name gets tied to your name in the front desk information with a note on your room to see notes before releasing any information.
You get the same treatment as a celebrity.
Is your true name still uploaded to an online ledger? Not that I think it matters too much, just want to know exactly what happens.
Your real name will be saved in reservation notes. There is no way to check-in to a hotel without disclosing your name because you're going to need to show it to get new keys or extend your stay. Nothing is ever accessible to the public. Even if you book using your real name no one should ever disclose who is staying with them.
Just tell the ask. We deal with these occasionally.
They’ll put it under a false name.
I worked in a Sheraton for over 10 years. If someone request anonymity we could tick a box on the reservation that marked it as incognito meaning that anything short of a police officer with a signed search warrant was told you’re not here.
Worked front desk at a 4 star hotel in China. We had the same policy.
When you check in, let the front desk agent know the situation, that you would ask for their assistance in fleeing a DV situation, to not give any information about you to anyone. I would advise looking at the more well-known brands, as their parent companies (Hilton, Marriott) take these kinds of situations very serious, and have policies and protections in place. Don’t be afraid to ask for a manager or supervisor about the situation, and ask them for assistance in that. They should change the name on your reservation, and make note not to give out your room number or transfer any calls to your room, unless you specify otherwise.
As for the cash, you might be able to at some hotels, and some not. I would even look into a prepaid/reloadable card as an alternative if there isn’t anywhere that will work with you on cash. There are some hotels that don’t take them, but there are many that will, or make an exception.
Just about every single hotel I have worked for has made it a point to drill into the staff that guest confidentiality is paramount and opens the hotel to hefty lawsuits if they violate those policies and protections, including termination. And hotels talk to each other, so if they get fired for something like that, it means the chances of working in another hotel in that area is pretty much nil.
You might be able to do this. A well trained team would not disclose to anyone who is staying so I wouldn't stay at a low end anything if that was my situation.
It depends on just how low end you’re going, but no matter what you’ll want to call them (or stop by) and ask directly.
We’ve put pseudonyms on guests reservations before, but we still have to note down the real names in the comments (which aren’t searchable) and usually a phone number.
If you have anybody you trust who might come visit, let the front desk know so they can get IDs.
Everywhere I've worked would not confirm or deny a guest was in house, wouldn't even transfer a call unless the caller had the room number.
I've also had situations where the police department brought someone in, under the officers name or other name used for police business (different rules at different properties)
We're not a low end hotel, but here's how it works lawfully I'm Germany:
- We do have the Meldescheinpflicht (mandatory personal registration form) which needs to include every bookers real data. I some cases (like with celebrities) the Meldeschein is filled out in paper form only to fulfill the legal requirements, but is then locked away so no employees could potentially photograph an adress or phone number. The data in the system then usually just includes management's details, sometimes pseudonyms.
- We either need a credit card on file or a ridiculously high cash "incidental deposit" (200€/day) which is only so high because our managers don't actually want guests to do that. However the credit card data in the system is only stored on the local computer and not accessible for anyone without access to it. Even if they were a mastermind hacker. Even with data stored on online servers it is very unlikely that someone will find you.
The most important part is: tell the staff about your situation. Because even though we're not allowed to answer to "Is this person currently staying with you?" some people fumble and will either believe stories like "I want to surprise my wife for our anniversary?", or answer "No" when asked about people who aren't staying with us, and "I'm legally not allowed to tell you whether a person is staying with us."
Hey everyone, next week 4 of us (all 20 years old) are going on a vacation but we need to stop in a hotel for a night.
I’ve stayed at a real crappy motel that was 18+ before but that wasn’t a great experience. Is there any type of way we can pay a fee, finagle a system etc.? We did once Hilton’s digital check-in process and it was great since there’s no ID check. I know it’s probably not legal, but we aren’t crazy throwing parties damaging things. Anyone have an idea?
Call the hotels that you want to stay at and ask them. If the employee says you are good to go, get their name and thank them for their help.
👆 This right here.
Usually the reason a hotel will be 21+ is if they have room service or mini-bars, aka anonymous methods of getting alcohol. If you stick with the smaller hotels, you should have better luck.
PLEASE dont do the digital check in thing. They can absolutely make you go to the desk for a few reasons and you will be kicked out. You’re putting the FDA’s job in danger. I’ve had someone try to pull that with me before and the girl ended up with nowhere to stay at like 2am. I did feel horrible but that shit is taken extremely seriously
Any other options you could think of? I’m trying to scour every hotel in the Omaha area and I’ve only found one that is 18+ and not 21
You’ll just have to find an 18+ hotel unless someone in your group is over 21 and can book the hotel in their name. Some people might suggest calling hotels to see if they’ll make an exception and you can absolutely do that but be prepared for them to say no.
Honestly, most decent hotels are strict about being 21+ to check in because of liability and alcohol laws, so “finagling” it is risky. Digital check-in like Hilton’s sometimes skips ID, but not always, and you could get denied if they ask at the desk or later. Some chains like Motel 6 or Red Roof let 18-year-olds check in, so I’d call ahead and confirm policies. It’s not worth getting stranded because the hotel turns you away.
Hi everyone! I am a 29yoM really considering a career change into hotels/hospitality. I lost my job back in December & have really struggled with what I want to do going forward. Lately, hotels and hospitality have really resonated with me, more & more I think this is the path forward for me. I guess I just don't know where to start, I don't really have any experience except customer service. I'm thinking I need to just start at being a front desk agent & go from there, but I want your advice as well.
Guest are mixed. Good and bad. Housekeeping same. Depends on owner how well runned. Management once again hit and miss.
First of all hospitality can be an incredibly fun and rewarding industry. The benefits and people you meet can be simply awesome.
When you get an interview I would recommend highlighting any problem solving skills you have. The front desk is a lot of problem solving. I would also recommend highlighting any examples of staying cool under pressure. In addition if you have any cash handling skills I would share those as well. Not every hotel has a cash drawer, but a lot do and you’d be surprised at the amount of people that can’t work a cash drawer.
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but don’t do it. The hospitality Industry is in a flux right now. Lots of owners are trying to catch up with lost revenue from pandemic and the drive is to save not spend. Wages are low, shifts are erratic and stress is high.
Kann ich eigentlich nicht bestätigen. In der Pandemie sind so viele Kräfte in andere Branchen abgewandert, dass händeringend Personal gesucht wird. Und entsprechend auch tiefer in die Tasche gegriffen wird, um gute Angestellte für sich zu gewinnen.
This part. I work night audit and it’s generally pretty chill and I enjoy it but our owner built a pickleball court recently so that’s getting ALL of his attention, including using our staff to do maintenance at the court
Make sure you really look into any hotels you're applying to. Comments so far are great advice, but you also wanna check out the location of the hotel and if it is in a problem area, you also wanna know how far away a police station would be if anything happened.
Pay is gonna vary everywhere, personally I'm making $16 at mine but work part-time and 2nd shift, I know some of my other coworkers are making $15. (Front Desk)
Keep in mind in smaller properties it is normal for Front Desk to help with other areas of the hotel. Just as an example, but Front Desk during 1st shift at my hotel helps with breakfast, and one of the usual employees checks to make sure housekeeping got a room ready for guests. 2nd shift (me) helps out with laundry on most days, and is usually left alone for at least half of their shift, so any problems in guest rooms are their responsibility (which includes going up to a room at times to fix a TV -- usually fixed by unplugging it and plugging it back in -- but replacing a TV would be left till maintenance is there in the morning).
Housekeeping is easy enough to train into, if that's what you'd prefer to do. A hotel should have some kind of check-list of their standards for you to follow. I'm not housekeeping, so I can't speak much on that part, but some hotels pay housekeeping based off of how many rooms they've cleaned.
Also, make sure to ask in interviews about the work culture! You want supportive managers but not micromanagers, pretty similar everywhere else. If a problem arises with a guest, which it almost definitely will at some point if you work Front Desk, you need to make sure that the management would prioritize your well-being over accommodating an unruly guest if the guest went too far.
In what state or what country? Are there a lot of higher-end hotels that you can move up to once you have some experience? Are you in a high-tourist area that's busy all year round ?
Canada and US every hotel I try won't let me check in without a credit card on file for the hold. They WILL NOT let me use my debit visa, prepaid master card, nothing except a credit card.
I posted on another sub recently and TONS of people responded that they never use a credit card but NO ONE would reply to me which hotels specifically 😔.
I can book and pay no problem with debit. But at check in, they say i have to have valid credit card.
Hotels i tried last week:
- comfort inn
- seven oaks
- Hyatt
- atlas hotel
- Wyndham (specifically Travelodge but I assume all Wyndham would be the same?)
Then i got tired of calling lol.
You can use a debit, just be prepared to either ride your bank or expect to wait a month or more.
But most hotels are moving away from cash incidentals. That way lies just too much grief.
Okay..... so i listed all the ones I've tried and not a single one will let me check in without credit card? I'm asking specifically which hotels let you use debit and no one is answering me lol
Does your debit card say visa or master card on it ? Then youre fine run it as credit no pin when you check in
Ok the answer is none. You need a credit card to stay at a hotel its common practice
Those are hotel brands not individual hotels.
Hotel 101: Never use a debit card at a hotel, as it does not have the same protections as a credit card.
This is not hotel 101. This is finance 101. Debit cards, the burden is typically on the account holder, some banks may claim to be zero liability etc but legally they are not. That is just a marketing promise for debit cards.
As for credit cards The burden legally is on the credit card issuer and or the merchant depending on the exact situation especially in cases of fraud or misuse.
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Yes because generally hotels brands run the same at their individual hotels? I have in have called the individual locations and got the same answer but it's easier to type the brand then every individual one...
*depends on the country. Guessing you’re American. It’s not the same everywhere
This is not necessarily true. Most hotels (the physical buildings) have individual owners. They are franchises.
Our hotel won't let you use a prepaid card because when we hold anything on it, it will add an automatic 20% onto it because we are a hotel or restaurant, in addition, we may release your hold tomorrow, but most prepaid cards hold them up to 90 days, this is especially true of Amex prepaid cards.
We run, as do most hotels actually, debit cards as credit, this removes the money from your account. At our hotel. Hotel we cannot do a true debit which is a pin only debit, this is because of the way authorizations work. If you swipe your Visa or MasterCard debit card, as long as your bank doesn't block it and lets us run it as credit, we don't care. Just know that the authorization hold will take between 4 and 14 business days to release even whenwe release it right away at checkout. This is in addition to sometimes appearing that you were double charged even though we only finalized the authorization instead of charged it.
If you can I would get a secured credit card with a $500 to $1,000 balance, use that for things like hotel authorizations etc. Pay for it with your regular debit if you really want to but have the credit card available if possible. A secured card through a normal Bank will allow you to put down either half or the full amount ahead of time and for a year. As long as you pay your balance back will let you have a credit card even with very little to no credit. After a year usually they become unsecured cards and you get your deposit back in the form of statement credits.
Why don't you get a credit card? You don't have to carry a balance. Just pay it off every month. It will help build your credit score, which most people need.
I claimed bankruptcy for a failed business so it will be a few years before i can get a credit card
My ex husband claimed bankruptcy and had a credit card within 6 months. It was a low limit high % but he was absolutely able to get one and then bought a house 3 years later. Have you tried for any of the shitty cards out there?
Most debit cards can be used as a credit card... the hold is just usually higher.
OPs post history implies they are Canadian.
This means their "debit" card is a bank card with access to Interac network, it will mostly likely not have direct access to function like a CC.
Okay..... so i listed all the ones I've tried and not a single one will let me check in without credit card? I'm asking specifically which hotels let you use debit and no one is answering me lol
Because everyone is assuming you have a debit check card with a visa logo. You clearly dont thats your issue
....I do lol. It's a debit visa. They will not accept it. I've been denied reservation in person twice so now I call....
It has the cvv number and every thing. But they say it's not a credit card and they won't proceed.
Im not sure you clearly understand the principle behind a incidental hold, they cant do it on your debit card, I understand the bankruptcy but just look for credit cards for bad credit and get one.
So why are all the comments saying they do it with no credit card all all the time?
You say your in Canada your debit cards work differently then the check cards we get in the us very differently but in any case its really a bad idea to use a debit card at a hotel just get a credit card, there are many for bad credit
I don't work for a chain, but an independent hotel company. Our hotel does allow debit cards, and we've had Canadian debit cards. As long as they're MC or Visa they go through with no issues.
I've worked for two chains and four other independent hotels over the last 30 years and all will take debit, have our agents very strongly advise against it because those are typically the holds that we get people that can no longer pay their bills or buy gas because their Bank hold was higher or took longer to release than expected, Pat as long as it swipes in the machine. None of the properties I've ever worked at have straight up declined debit cards. ATM only cards or check cards only won't go through our PMS system so those ones won't work.
If you were to call our front desk right now, they would suggest not using a debit card, but they wouldn't tell you they're banned.
Try a cheap motel - pay in cash. Those places are owned by Indian families that usually live on site. They will take a look at you and decide if you are a risk of damaging their room. And take a photocopy of your debit card.
I stay in a lot of cheap places. The people that are actually owners are pretty easy to work with.
This reminded me of a motel 6 in Wichita Texas. The guy sized me up and down and allowed me to just pay cash for that one night. I’m always willing to give a credit card to hold but I guess I looked solid enough to not have to 🤷♀️
They deal with a lot of people. If you look like you've been driving all day, you just want to sleep. If you have lots of energy, you're a local wanting to party.
I've been in hotels / motels that had signs up specifically advising that they would not rent to locals within XX miles.
You can use a debit card, as long as it has your name on it and can be used for purchases. But they put a hold on your account and with debit it takes longer to release after checkout, so it’s not suggested. Sometimes the hold is several times higher than the room rate. And if you don’t have the funds in your account it will decline and you won’t be able to check in.
Okay..... so i listed all the ones I've tried and not a single one will let me check in without credit card? I'm asking specifically which hotels let you use debit and no one is answering me lol
It's a Scotiabank card with enough money and more for the hold but the hotels will not even entertain it, they only accept credit card
I worked for several different Hilton branded properties and we let guests check in with debit cards. I left the industry in 2017, so it has been a bit. Your other option is to book third party. You’ll still need a card on file for incidentals, but it’s a smaller hold on the card.
Thank you. Yes i do book third party but during check in they require a credit card. Happened twice so now I call ahead :(
I'll try the Hilton in my city and see if I get different results!
I've used debit cards and never had issues with holds. 🤷♀️
Okay..... so i listed all the ones I've tried and not a single one will let me check in without credit card? I'm asking specifically which hotels let you use debit and no one is answering me lol
Does it say visa or Mastercard on your debit card?? Hell ive checked into places with my ex husband's debit card in his name only (was for our college daughters shit) without him there without an issue.
I've used debit cards instead of credit cards at a bunch of different Marriotts and Hiltons throughout the US. You have to have enough in your account to cover the deposit - you'll get it back but it will be unavailable for a couple of days to a week (depending on your bank).
To be clear, they won't take prepaid cards, but regular debit cards are just run as credit. So as long as you have enough money in your account, and your bank doesn't block transactions over $x it will be fine.
Do you mean a normal bank issued debit card linked to your bank account or a prepaid debit card?
I always use a bank debit card and never had problems. Last time I used cash at a hotel, it was for a pet deposit and they put it in an envelope and gave us back the sealed envelope when we checked out without checking the room. It was a mom and pop hotel. though..
Get a credit card, just use it for hotels
Some hotels will take cash for deposit
People saying hotels don't take incidentals/deposits isn't a thing.
Obviously if I could I would. I claimed bankruptcy for a failed business and it will be a few years before I can get one.
Sorry to hear...can't your bank issue you one?
Unfortunately not yet. I just claimed a few months back so they said it will be a few years before my credit is high enough again.
Look into getting a secured credit card, it's a legitimate credit card with a spending limit that is either fully secured or partially secured with an upfront deposit. It does require having enough money to put the deposit on, and usually they're capped to $1,000 to $1,500 but that might be enough for hotel stays for you, or at least for the deposits if they won't actually take a debit.
Debit. I know others have said this and I said this in a previous comment but as long as it's Visa or MasterCard and is not a prepaid card that requires you to put money on it, most hotels will run it as credit as long as your bank issuer allows that and it is a a Visa Mastercard, not just a 'star' Network card or ATM card.
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Stop listening to Dave Ramsey. Get a credit card and pay it off on time & in full, monthly. It’s good for you and helps your “I love debt” (credit) score
I claimed bankruptcy for a failed business and it will be a few years before i can get one....
Hyatt absolutely let's you use a debit card to check in and authorize for your stay. Assuming your talking about. A debit card and not an ATM card.
Hospitality professional here, the reason most will discourage if not ban debit cards is that the authorization amount is much higher than the actual room charge. Most hotels will authorize an additional $50-$100 more per night in case you charge to your room from the restaurant or bar. With a debit card it immedi6sucks those funds out of your bank account and that $150 hotel bill takes $300 from your account, potential overdrafts. The same happens when you use debit at a gas pump, it can suck $200 from your account when you only charge $40. The extra authorization can stay on your account for 10 days
That does suck because I would totally do all that! I even offer extra hold amount. No go. :(
Long story short they need a credit card on file period. Try roadside motels, they may allow a debit card but its unlikely
Yeah it's just weird that EVERYONE is saying they use debit but that's not my experience at all lol
Its really not a good idea to use debit cards at all.
I’ve never had a credit card and have checked into all sorts of hotels across so many brands. There might be a deposit hold put on my card, but I’ve never had an issue.
Why is it so hard to get a credit card? You are not required to use it other than to ensure it stays valid (some will close themselves with extended non-use) and it's a great thing to have in an emergent situation as well as in situations like this where a credit card is required for purchase or hold. Most even have apps where you can lock the card against use when you don't need it if you're worried about it being stolen or otherwise misused.
...I claimed bankruptcy for a failed business so it'll be a few years while I rebuild my credit....
I worked in hotel business 30 years ago. Back then credit card was already pretty much the standard and only acceptable method to hold a reservation and check in to hotel. Things have only become more and more strict in this time.
In almost all cases, name on credit card, name on reservation and person checking in all have to match.
I’ve used my Wise debit card recently in the Bay Area at Hilton (Doubletree, Tru) hotels without issue, for anything from $25 to $375 in preauthorization. They were released/part captured the same or next day after checkout.
No problems at all. Mostly run as an Apple Pay tap transaction.
Most cheap motels I’ve stayed at will take a debit payment for room charges only.
I only stay at Hilton hotels. I use a debt card for hundreds of nights a year. My incidental hold is between $15-25 per night and the final authorization is completed within 24 hours of my stay. I’ve never had an issue.
Marriotts accept debit cards.
Extended stay America. Cash upfront for the stay plus a 100 dollar deposit gets your room.
Right but your not saying wich hotel? None that I've tried would allow cash or debit....I lost 2 reservations because of it....
The name of the hotel is Extended Stay America
Extended stay America you don’t even need a reso just walk in they will have rooms. And prostitutes too it’s actually awesome.
A prepaid card will probably not work, but a regular debit card that is connected to a bank account should work everywhere.
EDIT: I see you're Canadian, so ignore this.
Options
A) just don’t tell them and use it, most machines won’t stop you
B) use cash
C) find a hotel that accepts debit card like mine in NYC
Then you don't get a room...? What are you trying to accomplish/avoid?
What’s stopping you from using a CC?
In Canada they are called Visa/Mastercard debit cards. They let you buy stuff online without an actual credit card. The money comes straight out of your bank immediately. But they function just like a normal debit card as well for ATMs and stuff.
They don't generally work at hotels tho or they require a large deposit.
They normally work just fine. Just don't show the card to the employee, just tap or insert it yourself so they don't see the debit text on it. Only issue is that sometimes if the hotel does not explicitly release the hold it takes your money from your account for up to 28 days.
I am regularly using such a card as it has 0% exchange fees, while my credit cards charge 2.25% abroad.
The only problems I had in the last years was with a car rental (they insisted on a credit card, even though according to their terms they accept debit if shown a return flight ticket to the location from abroad), and once the hotel payment system was down and they wanted to authorize by phone (which did not work).
The issue is its still linked to your bank account the hotels need a credit card
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: "Help! I just realized I booked a hotel but I'm not old enough to check in! What do I do?"
A: Call the hotel.
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A: Call the hotel.
Feel free to submit questions you think get asked too often that don't have variable answers, these were the first that came to mind for me.
Thanks, it's been awhile since I refreshed things here and there were some things stewing in my head that I thought might improve the space.
Love it!
If you ever need any additional mods I would be happy to help!
I'll take you up on that! The sub is only growing and some help would be welcome.
Hiya! Me again! With a question I hope doesn't come across as suspicious!
I'm a night auditor at a relatively large hotel (348 rooms), and I'm being asked to crack down on theft in all the ways I can imagine it could happen.
One way I imagine someone could steal a lot of money at once would be to find a reservation with a VC, charge the customer directly and use a personal terminal to charge the VC. Or, alternatively, take a small amount out of other reservations to cover one VC and charge it, now that the original reservation has technically been covered. In order to combat this, I've been checking all VC movements nightly to make sure the last four digits match the ones on the receipt.
I'm wondering if I'm being paranoid. When you set up an account with an OTA, does it also determine which terminals/ accounts are authorized to receive the payment, or can the charge be made from any old terminal to any account?
Also, I would love to make a thread just with my paranoid ramblings, and how they've paid off at some point in the future, if it helps anyone. Any advice is welcome! :D
and I'm being asked to crack down on theft in all the ways I can imagine it could happen.
What? How do you "crack down on theft" based off of your imagination?
Either theft is happening or it's not.
It's good to keep your eye out but it's not productive to imagine/come up with random and not at all likely scenarios.
Also theft prevention and "cracking down on theft" is a managers duty, not a NA. Sure you can be diligent but it's really above your pay grade to be worrying about that. Do your audits and keep the riffraff out.
Honestly, that's solid advice. I don't know how, but I ended up with two managers-- one in accounting and one for the front desk-- and the accounting one is the one pushing for more vigilance because of some shady stuff they saw happening in the front desk. It's a huge headache, honestly, and I'm not sure where my responsibilities end, and neither of them have really told me!
It's my first time as a night auditor, as you can probably tell, and the scope sometimes escapes me. I've already helped accounting fix their systems of keeping track of cash movements, helped mediate between reservations and accounting to see which no shows would be charged, helped HR and security with safety protocols, and just a bunch of other stuff that I'm 90% sure they're just using my good will for 😅
Also, again, you'd be shocked how many of those paranoid thoughts have had results. I started reporting suspicious early check ins and late check outs, and we caught some people pocketing the money. I started really looking into the posting history in virtual rooms, and we found some managers moving money around to cover for their friends. I'm not very well liked, to be honest, outside of accounting.
They asked me to come up with different scenarios where theft could occur to keep an eye out and male plans for them, but I'm not entirely sure how much of it is appropriate for, as you said, my paygrade. Again, all advice is welcome. 😞
If a reservation is paid with an OTA virtual card (VCC), that typically indicates it’s a prepaid OTA booking. In such cases, you won’t have access to the guest’s personal credit card to charge directly, as you mentioned. Additionally, OTA VCCs are only activated on the day of arrival, so how can that card could be used to cover other reservations?
not even the guest's personal CC for incidentals?
This would be possible, and may even not be noticed for a while.
But you would eventually get caught
Would the OTA itself eventually report it to reservations, or is it simply a numbers thing where it's simply bound to end poorly because of sheer amount of money lost?
Do OTAs all provide invoices during fiscal quarters to the hotel to keep track of which VCs were charged by the hotel? Maybe this is something I should discuss directly with the reservations department, actually 😂
As a former night auditor I can't think of a way you could consistently so this without it getting noticed.
All you need is a tiny suspicioun that something feels weird and upon deeper Investigation the pepper trail will get you.
Also "charge the customer directly" when they have already paid is going to be hard.
We're not a super high end hotel, but trust me some of these people practically throw their money away, without a second thought.
A few weeks ago, we had this problem with Booking where even if the reservation had a VC, the comments would say it was a direct payment, and you'd be shocked the amount of people that just accepted it without a second thought. I had to do a lot of refunds (well, cancellations, but anywho). It's how I got the idea in the first place, actually. :/
I don't think someone would have to even steal that many VCs! With the salaries we make and our hotel's rates, you can probably make a whole fortnight of work with two, maybe three of them, which is why I also take a lot of care when checking them.
you'd be shocked the amount of people that just accepted it without a second thought.
I know. People are not always super alert when they travel.
But it is quite likely that some of them will notice after the fact.
Once investigated, it would be clear that the CCC was charged intentionally with a different terminal an there iis super easy to trace that money back to you.
Unless of course oh Also are able to convince a fall guy to capture the money and send it to you.
The paper trail will get you.
The VCs can ONLY be charged for the amount of the stay, and ONLY on the day of arrival.
Sure, you could steal money that way, but it would be really stupid and you'd get caught pretty quickly.
My last property had corporate (the management company) add a fee for CC but not debit and we had to make changes to our processes for mainly to avoid trying to charge the that fee to VCCs where it would be rejected.
Here's my experience with the OTA dashboard. As a security measure, anyone with OTA account access must not reveal VC without additional personal identity verification, currently linked to 2FA. This ensures they always know who accessed VC information. To prevent theft by front desk employees, the PMS has permission level restrictions. Admin, GM, or owner should be aware of who has full or limited access to the hotel PMS.
Never heard of anyone trying to steal from VC, because the amounts wouldn't match. And why are they being done manually? And then why aren't you just looking at the CC processor's list of CC transactions and simply matching them to the reservation software's list of transactions? This would show immediately, as the amounts need to match, exactly.
No, it doesn't limit what terminals. But if a single night's charges don't match, even a single amount doesn't match, you would know immediately.
Our property is shifting to PEP soon and I've heard there is a possibility to remotely access that as well
what would be the cost if i have my corporate have me create a remote user
I've heard it requires some VPN connection or something, not sure how it'll work
You would have to pay for Vantage from Hilton. Not sure how it works exactly, I just know thats the name of the service.
Forgive me it’s been a year and a half since I’ve used vantage I may not remember entirely correctly, but essentially it’s a service you log into that remotely taps you into the Hilton network, if I remember correctly it opens essentially a second computer emulated into the computer you’re working on and then you can access programs that require a Hilton network, I used it for things like adjusting room blocks in R&I but I did NOT test PEP. That being said I can access all three properties I oversee on one PEP login at any of the three hotels unlike OnQ where I had to be at the property to use the property management system so it should work!
I knew it was something like this, but I wasn't sure if it still tapped into a Hilton workstation or just became an authorized Hilton workstation.
Vantage is used for remote access to applications like PEP. It's ~$30 per user, per month.
On the Lobby select "Resources" from the menu and then "My Team Sites". Click on "Vantage Support" listed under Frequent sites.
I'll also DM you the direct link.
Last weekend I stayed one day at a hotel as I was passing through a town. I tapped my card, it beeped, I even got an emailed receipt saying I was charged and my balace at checkout was $0.00, but nothing was charged to my account.
I called and was blown off, so okay?
Its been a week since i stayed there, and nothing. Ive never stayed at a Best Western before, is this normal?
At my hotel, credit cards for departing guests are charged the night after they depart (during the night audit). If I had to guess, it sounds like the hotel messed up somehow and they probably aren't going to charge you. If they don't contact you about it, you're in the clear. Enjoy your free stay!
Seconded. Make sure your account has enough funds in it for a while, just in case they find the mistake and fix it.
They won't charge me at a month end audit instead? I just want to make sure im accounting for all spend, it drives me crazy when things take a long time to go through.
Doubtful. Charges are usually processed during the night audit of the day you check out.
You should assume that the bill catches up with you at some point so you will have already accounted for it in your budget. This is very similar to how you used to have to track outstanding handwritten checks that people didn't cash right away. That's why you needed a checkbook register and why you needed to keep a running balance in the register.
It took me two weeks once to get charged. I got a hold at check in. The hold refunded and then after two weeks they charged it. I think they’ll definitely charge you just not sure why they did it that way
I do all my budgeting online, I dont even have a checkbook lol. It's not my primary account so my worry is just making sure to keep an eye on it so my husband doesn't accidentally spend money from the account.
Yeah its odd. No hold though
Do what I do and pay the credit card in advance so it goes out of the account.
It was a debit card, but it's my second account. I use it for vacations mostly or travel. I'll dump more money in it, just in case, though.
Interesting. It's been my experience that hotels and car rental companies require a credit card and will not take a debit card.
I have no idea. I used the debit card, I've never stayed at a Best Western before. I typically stay at Marriots because I have so many points from work travel.
The town was in the middle of nowhere and the BW was the only hotel around that wasn't a "motel".
how did you book? direct or third party like expedia, agoda, priceline? depending on if you pre paid or not is if the hotel has to collect or if that was just the incidental hold
Direct, I dont like using third parties, they tend to mess up bookings.
There was no hold on my card, no charges at all. I stayed one night, left at 8 am the next day after checking out. Have a receipt that says total, that a MC was charged XX amount and guest balance is zero. It's weird as hell.
The front desk could have swiped the card in the wrong window in your reservation and the balance is sitting in a window with charges and the credit card is sitting in a window without charges.
The front desk could have swiped another guest card over yours, which means they charged another guest’s card.
These scenarios happen and have happened many times in my 20 years in hospitality.
You need to send an email to the GM or AGM or if you call some hotels have a person, usually an income auditor or accounting manager that deal with these issues specifically that you can talk to. They will investigate the issue.
Okay, thank you. I emailed customer service, but I guess these hotels are like franchises, and when I talked to the one I stayed at, they just assured me the balance shows 0 and no action can be taken. I'll just wait it out, I guess?
Just when you think you are free and clear they send ninjas!
I mean they emailed me a receipt so who knows!
Also I would like to add that we had a glitch at our hotel once where some accounts were not charged to the bank properly. We turned in a list of credit card authorization codes to the bank so we could get payed almost a month later and got a few angry phone calls from folks that thought they got a free stay and they spent the money leaving their Accounts overdrawn
Good to know. I'll just keep money in the account
The day after (during the night audit) is usually when bills are balanced against occupancy records and charged. They missed your room and are unlikely to charge it now; it’s not like there’s an expendable inventory to count and notice the discrepancy now. Calling to verify was the right thing to do, but if they blew you off then it’s not your obligation to pursue it. Similar to returning overcounted change, if I got a 20 instead of a five and tried to tell the cashier, only to get rudely brushed off, well I’m not gonna bother anymore.
Was it a credit card or debit card? Debit cards will hold an authorization for a set amount of time and then charge it. It sometimes looks like the charge hasn’t gone through because the hold falls off and the money is still there but then it goes through.
It was a debit card, but there was no hold or charge at all.
Debit cards are weird with authorizations. I think it’s caught in processing somehow with your bank which is why the hotel doesn’t know what you’re talking about. Their system is a zero balance.
I’d leave the money in the account for the charge for a week or two… but maybe you’ll get lucky- flukes happen. Good luck!
Hi, I am interested in finding out which hotels typically have availability for employees looking to travel to Taipei for 1-2 weeks. Where do you recommend staying and still get to utilize the employee rate? Thanks in advance.
Yes, literally tried every excuse to get me to come into the room. Until I finally loudly said, “I am not coming into your room. Please stop asking.” But this section of hotel is an atrium and it echoed everywhere. But it worked, they stoped asking.
Try..... Yes.
Lonely women away from home do crazy things .
Been grabbed by the backside by one, another tried to kiss me.
From time to time they try to invite you to their room
Never taken up offer
Had someone offer me a blowjob for a room. Told them I don't butter my bread on that side.
And did they offer you analingus after that?
Yes once.
She was a bridesmaid at a wedding we were hosting. It wasn’t like she was throwing herself at me in a really crass way or anything like that. She just hung by out at the desk and talked to me for a while. Very natural and conversational and just a little flirty. It totally would have worked too but when she worked up the courage to touch my hand and it was totally clear what her intentions were I had to be honest and tell her I was in a relationship.
She looked pretty bummed out but understood. I felt kinda bad for her
Not just night audit but yes. I would say about a handful that legitimately tried while many others made a very casual joke.
One guest specifically was DNRed. The others took the hint after the first no.
Once a drunk woman once groped me and tried to kiss me, we kicked her out there and then and my manager made a report to the police but nothing came of it.
Yes! I, at the time 22M, had a guest. Really nice guy. Tipped like crazy. Always gave $20 to the valet both in and out. Comes up to me at the desk and asks when my shift ends. I am young and naive and tell him I am off at 7am. Guest slides his card across the desk and tells me to come up. I'm always pegged as gay even though I am not. I politely refuse. He's totally fine with it. On a future stay, he asked for some wine glasses. The two young men he had with him answered the door FULLY NAKED. He comes down embarrassed and gives me $40. Easiest $40 I ever made.
One tried and succeeded twenty two years ago. But it wasn't just a "Hey, you wanna hook up?" kinda thing.
She became friends with my gay(only mentioned because I don't want to be accused of snatching her from him or something) roommate - he used to come hang out while I was working - and would come over and hang out with him. She was a long term guest and they hung out regularly for several weeks before she made a move.
Yeah, stuff happened at the hotel after that. Hilariously, she's not the only one who got some action in that office with me, as after she left, I ended up getting together with my relief auditor. She and I were still together when she died a couple years back.
She had a lot of health issues.
Mainly just flirting. The only one that tried to get me up to his room was this one drunk guy who couldn't stop talking about my hands after introducing himself with a handshake. He wouldn't take no as an answer then eventually said he'd leave after I shook hands with him again while his buddy lamely apologized from across the lobby. I just walked away, and then he later called down to say how big his dick is.
Yes. I had a woman come in with her boyfriend. About 45 minutes later, she called the front desk. She was like, would you come up here and fuck me. My boyfriend cant seem to fuck me but fucks everyone else.
I politely turned her down
Yes. And I had one guy who tried to exchange sex for a room, as he had no money.
I declined.
"Sir, we are not allowed to fraternize in any way with the customers or ex customers."
"Solicitation is not allowed in this hotel. If you continue to ask I will have security remove you without a refund."
Unfortunately I worked audit at an extended stay property, so once one of the pipeline guys or construction guys got it into their head that they wanted to hook up with me it would be months of them trying. Some of those guys were there for 6-8 months at a time. I genuinely went into it laughing at the warnings. I’m fat and have permanent RBF. I 100% thought I would be immune to being hit on. I was so wrong 🤦🏻♀️
Not night audit, but yes. Multiple times. The ones who tried have always ended up going out, getting blackout drunk, and coming back to the hotel with someone though. So hey, good for them, I guess? 😂
Oh my God. So. Many. Times.
Prostitute tried to get me to go to her room once. I politely declined and continued my shift. What got her blacklisted was leaving weed and a pipe in her room that HK found and took to the GM.
yes. she wouldn't leave the desk until i gave her my number, then she went to her room and texted me nudes. she after she came to the breakfast room and grabbed me.
I had a cute girl invite me in when I brought her up a corkscrew. I regretfully declined, but was absolutely kicking myself when I didn’t see or hear from another person for the next two hours.
Yeah had one really creepy dude continuously try and get me in his room. He called and visited the front desk multiple times asking if I wanted to come into his room.
Yes, from both sexes.
I declined every time.
literally at least twice a week every week
My first month ever working l, had to friends in there 30s try to get me up to there room. I had just turned 18 so… im 22 now and soccer moms love me…
Man mine is far too innocent compared to the others here. The best I got was a hug from one. Which, to be fair, I kinda needed at the time.
Then again considering our usual residents, it may be a good thing none of them try to hookup. I like my place but "Glamorous" isn't a word I'd use to describe us, let me put it that way.
Yes, mainly because they wanted a free room or a discount on the room. My wedding ring doesn't seem to phase some of them. That's when I tell them that management would fire me (not telling them I'm management), and they aren't worth the loss of my paycheck.
Had a male guest (he was an anesthesiologist staying at the hotel for a conference) drunkenly ask me (straight female) and my coworker (flamboyantly gay male) if we wanted a threesome - which was already weird enough.
But it got worse when his girlfriend came from around the corner and clocked his ass. He did not know she was eavesdropping around the corner and could hear him pitifully hit on me and my Coworker , who were also like half his age BTW.
Yes, many failed, mainly intoxicated older women that had been in a fight with their s/o and were at the hotel due to that reason.
One succeeded when I was 24, a group of 3 women rented a room to use our pool and have a girls night, one was a friend of mine from high school’s little sister (they were 21 I’m not a creep) after I left my shift at 11 she reached out on Facebook and said her friend thought I was attractive, after finding out which one I promptly returned to the hotel, the sister and the other friend left the room, and yeah.
I was the AGM at the time, working for an atrocious GM and had my notice in at the time to go become a GM myself.
Yes. Once a man, once a woman - different times. I am female.
The woman was far more aggressive and luckily for me security passed by the desk, saw my body language, stopped and basically strong armed the woman back to her room.
The man was in town to visit someone in rehab, tried to pick me up because he was lonely and tried to impress me with his SAG card. I looked him up on imdb. His roles were all the "loud shouting man on the sidewalk/nameless reporter asking questions" kind.
A third man sort of kind of was working up the courage but skulked away in shame when I stared at him stone faced.
And I am a fat middle aged blob.
Lol yep. So my manager got me pepper spray just in case
Guy came in with a pretty known scammer and when I gave him a replacement key (he’d lost his on bourbon) he was like “yk I’ve got room for one more in that big room you gave me” nah buddy I don’t want the trouble you’re ab to get into
I had an employee about 10 years ago... I'll call her Mary. She was the type of person that seemed very trustworthy and wholesome. Literally a 30-something married woman with three kids whose hobbies included knitting, raising farm animals, and was really into essential oils.
Mary worked the 3-11 shift full time, and we had no reason to believe what she did. A contractor guy that stayed with us, weekly, started showing her attention while she was at the front desk. We pulled the video from the cameras after the incident. He would reach across the counter and rub her arm (and she let him). Mary was in no way resisting his advances.
She ended up putting the "be right back" sign on the front counter, and he left the FD. A minute later she went into the fitness center to meet him, in what I can only assume was either a quicky or a BJ. After less than ten minutes, he left the room, then Mary came out a minute later.
This all came to light within just a couple days when something else happened and somebody from his company contacted us. After pulling the video footage, it completely destroyed the potential for me to fully trust any employees.
yes multiple times, and sexually harassed multiple times. ain't no one gonna be paying me high 6 figures it would take for me to say yes and loosing my job
Uh, that's literally what this post is for?
Any housekeeper doing the job long enough has been invited into a room. Pre-pais credit cards are the weapon of choice.
Hello! So me and husband recently stayed at a hotel last weekend in Minnesota and we are use to checking out by going to froth desk . Well at this hotel the lady look at us funny when we ask if we need to check out here . So is not common to just leave hotel without checking out ?
It’s very common but I definitely prefer when guests check out with me so we know the room is vacant. Her reaction is weird
I get too paranoid that I’ll be charged if I don’t check out at front desk
You shouldn't. Housekeeping is going to knock shortly after checkout time and see you are gone.
When i was at the desk it depended on my mood lol. Basically any day other than Sunday, I didn't care but on Sundays in my head I was thinking you already got a receipt slid under he door or emailed stop wasting my time. Now that I'm in housekeeping I beg people to checkout on Sundays so the team has something to do and dont care the rest.
Or it was the other way around. You asked whether you need to check out there and you get a funny look by how obvious it is that that is exactly where you need to check out.
Just adding possible context, not necessarily truth.
Well that what I thought at first too but then I just saw people leaving the hotel as we were checking out and getting in their cars with their suitcases
Those people could already have checked out earlier.
Either way I wouldn't put too much thought into it.
Checking out properly is the nice thing to do so housekeeping can know the room is empty and ready for cleaning. There's no reason to not do this unless specifically told by the front desk upon arrival.
This seems to have become very common, but it is always best to drop off your keys and officially checkout.
It is common but personally, I prefer for guests to check out in person if they are not checking out digitally. This way we can let our housekeepers know that the room is vacant and ready for cleaning and not have to wait at check out time.
I try to hand the front desk my key when leaving, but wont wait in line to do so.
If you travel often, please do let the front desk know so hskp can get a head start! Of course, not obligated nor necessary but appreciated!!
I think the only time I get “irritated” when people check out at front desk is if they ring the bell to call me from breakfast to pass me their keys (there’s a key card drop box on the counter and ring bell for additional service notice by it) and DONT need a folio or any additional service they just wanted to personally hand me the keys and say bye. 😂 it’s both nice and frustrating.
Always get a printed bill or you are just opening yourself up for problems later. I’ve had several bar charges on my bill that I did not consume over the years.
In the new digital age people tend to check out online and just leave the property altogether, maybe it's more common at that hotel than not.
20 year old male from UK that has been working as a crew member in McDonald’s for just over a year and previous experience as customer assistant in Marks and Spencer. Looking to work abroad at the start of next year for a few months to see if I enjoy it - thinking of hospitality sector (bar staff / hotel staff / receptionist). Just looking for advice on what thoughts on my next step should be, currently trying to get myself a job in one of these areas to build experience. Any alternative ideas or countries would be appreciated.
Hey I'm looking to go to gran canaria in November I've never been before and would like some hotel recommendations please :) we are a young couple weeks like good food, cocktails (bar), and we would like to be near maspalomas/playa de ingles in that area would be good, and any restaurant/bar reccomendations also! We like to go out on the night :) thank you!
hey yall i have a trip at the holiday inn in canada and my parents told me to use their card to book it (i haven’t booked it yet) but now im finding out the name on the card used has to match your reservation name. will i have any trouble checking in if i use my moms card and she’s not with me? please help
Yup. Credit card and ID must match upon check-in. Call the hotel to see if they will set up a third-party credit card authorization for you.
i was hoping to like book it on an app like Expedia so would i like have to book through their booking or can i still do that even if i call them
Generally, at least in the US, even if you prepay through a third party, you will need to provide a matching cc at check-in for incidentals or fees that weren’t included (like parking or maybe breakfast). You may be able to ask the hotel to work with you, but yes you would need to speak to the property either way.
okk makes sense, thank you so much!!
Quite possible you have no intentions of credit card fraud. Crossing an international border, using a credit card that doesn't belong to you, staying in hotels, it's suspicious
You’ll need to get her to sign a cc authorization form. They can contact the hotel and they will most likely email them the forms needed. When I used to process these we just required scans of both the ID and the credit card matching the name on the ID along with a signature that matches the card. Most hotels wouldn’t give you trouble but if they do maybe book using a third party like hotels.com and just use your own card for incidentals.
atp might be easier to just use my own card haha thank you so much for the detailed help tho!!
Yeah I would always advise people to just have them Venmo/zelle you for the cost of the stay just because all of the paperwork in a pain. Have a fun trip!
yupp that’s what i think i’ll do. and thank you :)
Have them buy you a room using Expedia or another 3rd party under your name. It’s not hard, guests at your hotel do it all the time.
Yes Id and CC must match, we will change the reservation name but id and cc must match. No Exceptions.
Unfortunately, too many people use cards that aren't theirs for nefarious purposes, so hotels are a bit inflexible on the matter.
I have my booking.com set up under my “nom de plume”. I don’t know why I did that.
I’ve had no trouble checking in, so long as I can quote that name. (Australia).
If you’re worried - just reach out to them ahead of time
Hey everyone, I wanted to open up a little discussion about hotel stays recently. I’ve noticed a few ongoing issues that seem to be happening more often, and I’m curious if others are seeing the same things.
- Cleanliness standards slipping (dirty bathrooms, stained sheets, weird smells)
- Staffing shortages sometimes it feels like there’s just one person running everything
- Prices going way up but service/quality going down
- Weird policies no daily housekeeping, late check-in times, early check-outs, etc.
This has happened in both budget and mid-range hotels for me lately, even in areas that used to be super reliable. Is this the post-COVID reality, or are some places just cutting corners?
Would love to hear your recent hotel stories the good, the bad, or the straight-up “you won’t believe this” kind. And if anyone works in the industry, feel free to drop your take too I know guests aren’t always innocent either.
I've worked in hospitality for over a decade and in multiple places and this is what I can tell you.
Shortages in labor are present at all levels of hotels and inns, but personally I think that's because hospitality doesn't pay well at all and the industry wants to push its employees, particularly housekeeping and laundry, to do back breaking work for very little pay particularly post COVID
Things like no daily housekeeping, no early check in, no late check out, etc are a result of the staffing shortages. No staff means no one to make up for the time needed to do things like stay over service or rushing to complete rooms that checked out late or want to check in early. We just do not have the people, and despite actively trying to hire for five years, people are not applying (and again I'll point to the low pay, but I have no control over that personally even though I've mentioned it to my boss).
Higher prices have come largely from market competition and higher utilities. Just in the past couple years, our electric company has raised our prices THREE times, by HUGE percentages (20%, 30% and just recently a whopping 40% all without any change or improvement in service!) and it's been a nightmare at home and at work. I can't speak for every hotel nationwide, but I've heard similar things from other places.
As for lower cleanliness, I can't really relate, as we haven't lowered our standards in the slightest and the place I work is in the top five in the country for our brand 🤷
I know the place I used to work, outsourced housekeeping. So you no longer have staff that look after the floor for their week of work. Just random staff each day.
How does market competition result in higher prices?
That's crazy! That makes no sense whatsoever
If demand is outpacing supply....prices will rise.
If everyone else's prices go up, our prices go up. Pretty simple. But the prices honestly have more to do with the rising costs in utilities and food.
No shit, but the comment said market competition... Which means competing businesses lower prices
Market competition means businesses are competing for customers... which lowers prices. Of course there other factors that lead to price increases, but more competition isn't one of them
Been in the industry for 8 years. A lot has changed since covid.
During covid, cleaning was reduced to limit exposure for both staff and guests. Hotels realized this was a HUGE money saver. Also, i personally think daily HSK is a waste, but totally respect if thats what you like. You are paying for a nice stay! But daily housekeeping is still available in most places, you just need to ask.
Everyone is struggling to get and keep employees. Working at a hotel is quite demanding and the pay isnt great, especially if youre new in the industry. I try to tell the bosses that they will not get or keep people when not paying well. One of our current managers is also a complete asshole and refuses to see he is a big problem.
Customers are so insanely aggressive after covid happened. It went from the occasional “karen” to upwards of 1-2 situations per day. The crap we have to endure sometimes makes us hate life. We are treated like shit by both managers and guests. What motivation is there to be better?
My hotel still offers early check-ins and late check-outs. Buuuut, we do charge for them now. People started abusing it. It was an occasional early check in like by an hour or two. But now people are expecting/demanding to check in 3, 5, 7 hours early. We cannot accommodate them all, so we started charging so that we can prioritize staff to get them done early.
People see no problem with asking to check in at 10 am or earlier, multiple people every single day.
Truly, the level of aggression the general public instantly became comfortable with showing towards service employees during and after COVID needs to be studied. People were never nice to us, but like you said, it's just beyond the pale now.
Yeah, its wild to me. Like you know that booking a hotel has specific times you can be here. Thats the part of the “contract” you sign when booking. Also, the people the night before havent even all checked out yet. Its like they are dumbfounded by that. How dare us not be ready 5 hours early for you, ma’am.
I had one last weekend that had a full out melt down because she couldn’t check in at 730am!!!!!!!
Post Covid reality and so many of the employees that are not management are burnt the fuck out. Either because management isn’t helping or enforcing changes. When one department begins to get up to par another department starts to slip ( maintenance, housekeeping). Upper upper management are too scared to fire current employees that aren’t working well because they will have to spend more on training or other reasons.
It’s only going to get worse — in much of the country, housekeeping and maintenance workers are largely immigrants. Going to work in such a high-profile location is scaring many of them away. As long as our racist government targets brown people the hospitality (and restaurant) industries are going to get desperate.
I partly clean my room myself. Plus, I clean up after myself daily.
I think most people do, but when you're in a hotel, it tends to be because you have demands on your time and energy that you wouldn't at home, whether for business, pleasure, or personal obligations like a wedding or funeral. You also don't have immediate access to much in the way of cleaning equipment or supplies, and there are things set up in a way that is not as convenient for maintaining whatever standard of cleanliness you may keep at home, such as very tiny wastebaskets without extra trash bags. Daily housekeeping used to make even a well-run budget hotel feel luxurious. Now, you can be at a mid-price hotel for three nights and never have the room cleaned, sometimes even if requested.
Yes, I get it. However, I am aware of the current state of affairs, and I am not blind to the fact that the current administration has driven away essential workers who would allow us to think we can relax and let someone else clean up after us, even though we pay a lot for them to do so. It would be nice to return to normal, but we are still several years away from achieving that reality.
American citizens are being kidnapped off the streets on their way to living their everyday lives, legal immigrants are being kidnapped at work and from their homes, and undocumented immigrants who are following the few paths to citizenship we have given them are being arrested at the court houses because they committed the crime of being born with either brown or black skin according to the Nazis working in Trump's cabinet writing racist policies into law. Know your monsters and do the hotel owners a favor by cleaning up after yourself until they can hire workers who feel safe enough to return to work again.
Yes, definitely tougher times for those who used to do the work than for those of us who are facing lowered service standards.
Counterpoint here..... I don't mind cleaning up after myself and the stuff that the current Administration is doing is just awful, but let's be honest here......
People start cleaning up after themselves corporations are not going to see this as a reason to hire people. If anything it will be just the opposite; a savings passed along to shareholders.
True! I get that point too! Hitting the hotel owners does not hurt the corporations. It hurts the little people, and it will not change the minds of the corporations in the slightest. Hitting corporations, such as boycotting Target for 6 months or a year, hurts the corporations.
That is why I also support changing the tax code to include not only taxing less of earned income taxes or at least proportionally as it was in the 1950s, but also increasing the wealth tax (not just when it is transferred) to be fair to those of us who bear the burden of taxes now. The millionaires and billionaires started changing the tax code post-World War II to favor themselves, which has created a wealth gap that hurts the 99% of us, and we pay more proportionally in taxes compared to them!
In other words, there are no tax loopholes. Some laws state that we not only work for the 1% corporate owners and buy goods from them, but we also pay the 1% corporate owners, much like peasants of 13th-century England, living in a fiefdom. On the other hand, unlike those peasants, the implementation of Project 2025 makes it clear that we do not have protection from this authoritarian administration unless we continue to fight back as a collective against the 1% and their support of the wannabe King.
Staffing is the main reason.
Low pay.
Abuse by guests .
Like retail and nursing etc there is alot of abuse towards workers.
Thus why people are not wanting for low pay to be constantly abused in service, retail and caring industries
Some of the ugliest, meanest people show themselves as a customer in hospitality. Before you expect perfection, look at yourself.
I don’t want daily housekeeping…and honestly if I find problems I mention it to front desk and it’s always been fixed.
I never expect early check in, on the rare occasion I want it, I call a week ahead and speak directly to them.
This. Not having someone wake me up at 9am every day on a week long stay is excellent. If I need towels or a roll of TP, the desk is usually glad to handle that.
All of 2020 numerous service industry employers just flat threw out applications and pretended no body wanted to work. This is the fall out of thst stupid stunt
For me, it is the inconsiderate guests. Door slamming and stomping around keeping me up is more concerning.
- I’ve not noticed and I travel to 3+ destinations every year.
- Shortages can happen for numerous reasons. Costs are impacting across the board and hotels are already working on small margins in some locations. But also is it off season, is there something going on that’s affecting staffing levels in particular, etc.
- Electricity costs are up globally, imported goods are still affected by supply chain shortages, other operational costs, this all affects the price you pay - including demand and surrounding properties and what rates they are offering.
- Check out/in times I’ve not seen change in a very long time between 1400-1600 as check in and between 1000-1200 for check out. Daily housekeeping at a lot of hotels is brand dependent. Likes of Hilton, Hyatt, and other big brands have a ‘green’ drive to reduce energy consumption and offer options of no daily housekeeping. Other lower brands in their portfolio operate differently.
If you’re staying somewhere like an apartment they don’t have your classic hotel style offerings and can make their own rules.
Everything has gotten worse, everywhere. Anyone was able to get a better paying job somewhere else, so everyone moved up market.
I just checked out of a doubletree and the room was clean. We mostly had the leave us alone card on the door because on day two they didn’t clean our room at all (despite saying there was daily cleaning), so I just started swiping supplies from maids cart (mostly toilet paper) and left the sign up.
Eh. I stay in hotels weekly. 80% of the time it’s a Marriott brand…otherwise Hilton family.
Once you figure out which ones are good, which ones are okay, and which ones you’ll never stay at…it’s pretty simple.
For example: The Fairfield Inn in Tupelo, MS…never again. First generation Fairfield and it smells weird.
The Fairfield Inn in Overland Park, KS…always. Great staff. Well maintained property.
Read reviews from multiple sites. Do your due diligence. That’ll help weed out the duds.
I used to think Holiday Inn was fancy. Now I wouldn’t go lower than a Hilton.
When I was a child I remember them being a step above a motel 6 or whatever. Now I would much prefer a well managed motel 6 or whatever to a holiday inn
It's a nightmare trying to find a decent hotel these days. You are looking at upwards of $200 a night. No wonder people are using airbnbs.
$600 - $700 a night in summer time. Portland Maine and Santa Monica California.
Choosing to pay $200 a night is a you problem, unless you're including the sometimes refundable deposit that everyone charges now. They weren't doing that during covid lol
Those are extremely expensive locations. Of course it’s going to be expensive.
Every decent hotel has a deposit/incidental policy. Even before covid.
Even if you pay that much, there's no guarantee it will be decent.
All of the above.
Until 2020 or so I’d tell my friends and relations outside the US that the American hospitality industry did mid-range hotels really well — better than Europe in fact: predictable, clean, well-provisioned experiences at reasonable rates. Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, HI Express … all solid.
I no longer make this claim because it’s no longer defensible. In the past five years a lot of these places have fallen apart.
Maintenance / facility issues from broken elevators to wheezing HVAC to dead chargepoints to — just last week in a Springhill Suites in California — no running water in the bathroom sink. Minimal housekeeping. Untrained, surly staff working double shifts. Amenities stripped out of the value proposition (like the HGI we stayed at that advertised an evening bar service, but never opened it) or doled out with hilarious stinginess (two paper cups meant to last us a week). Bold defiance of corporate-mandated brand standards, with HQ reduced to feeble pro forma apologies.
These places suck. In fact the entire 3* tier in the States is in danger of sucking thanks to disinvestment and carelessness by rogue operators.
If you consistently read the hotel's reviews ahead of time (especially the more recent ones), you can generally avoid a bad experience.
If you see the same things mentioned repeatedly in many different reviews, the chances are good that it's true.
Just keep in mind that: 1) no business will be able to please EVERY person, and 2) there are folks out there who have no problem lying, if they believe it will help them pay less $.
I travel weekly around the west coast. Budget hotels outside of metro areas have gotten much much worse since COVID.
Higher end/luxury hotels seem to have gotten better.
The people who clean the rooms are being deported.
It’s as if hotels think they can compete with the likes of AirBnB by offering less amenities and services while charging more. They’re so desperate they’ve resorted to lobbying for laws to protect them from competition. This is what Kmart and grocery stores did before succumbing to Walmart.
In the United States it’s become franchisers gaming franchisees who, in turn, are gaming customers.
The only decent places left in the US are chains that don’t franchise, like Omni and Drury.
We just traveled through the Adirondacks for 10 days. I was stunned at 4 pm (or later!) check ins and 10 am (or earlier!!) check outs. These were at all of the places we checked, too, so it wasn't a one or two thing. We also noted a LOT of places have no one there at all! You are texted codes or given info. We ended up moving around more, but I hope that isn't going to be the norm. It feels like they want you there for the least possible amount of time, with minimum effort on their part. AND, it is not any less expensive, smh.
Don't get me wrong- we ended up at good places, but it was a LOT more work than ever before.
I just got back from a trip and the hotel was a mess.
I had booked a special ADA room in October and they decided to change my room without notification and I only found out when I looked at an email and noticed my confirmation number and room type had changed the day before I was leaving.
The room I did get was full of mold and made me sick every single day. I was vomiting every morning and having asthma attacks and haven’t had any for 10 months as my allergies are well controlled when I’m not exposed to mold and irritants.
The hotel had flooded in April and they thought they had dealt with the mold, but the hotel reeked of it in many areas. You could even see the mold on the ceiling in some areas. One of my friends came over wearing a mask and could still smell the mold in my room.
When I asked if they had an air cleaner they could put in the room because they didn’t have any other rooms (and most of the others probably had mold too,), they told me I could walk to CVS three blocks away and buy one.
I got the number for the general manager and he focused on trying to CYA and say that the hotel had passed all inspections.
He also lied to me. An employee had told me that they couldn’t even work in the basement anymore because it had flooded so badly. He told me that no one worked down there and was affected by the issue.
When someone tells me one lie, I have a hard time believing the other things they tell me.
They did go to CVS and get me an air cleaner.
Housekeeping did a horrible job and most of the staff could not communicate with the guests.
My toilet had a ring in it and they didn’t even clean the sink. When some food crumbs spilled on the floor, they didn’t bother to vacuum and just picked up the big pieces.
They definitely were not changing the sheets and I was there eight nights. They also wanted to save water by having you reuse your towels and would take wet, used towels, and put them on the rack.
They then overcharged me for my room and for the private event I hosted which I’m still trying to get that fixed.
My most recent stay (one night at an extended stay property in my town) was very good, in most ways, but I will say that prices had climbed and food at breakfast and socials had slipped a bit. It was the service that made the stay good. The desk person remembered me from a prolonged stay there eight years ago and gave me a room upgrade without me even asking. Housekeeping had made that suite spotless. Everyone I encountered was friendly.
Staff really make or break the experience.
You need to travel outside of the country. Whenever I go to Thailand, I stay at Marriott or IHG hotels and I never have any issues. They don't have limited housekeeping problems. Hotels seem fully staffed.
Stayed at Harrah's in NOLA post-COVID. 1 desk agent at check-in. Gossiping and having a field day with certain guests in line. Get to desk, read a line of all the things they "WON'T" do. Stayed 5 days and never once saw a housekeeper in the halls.
Half the elevators didn't work. I just thought it would be cool to stay in a Casino. Just got back from The Luxor (not my choice) and was amazed how great their staffing was. I was just looking for things to go wrong and found nothing.
I think most people are staying in limited service hotels expecting 5 star hotel service
Ice is locking everyone up! Soon we won’t have shit anymore.
It’s never recovered since covid.
There was a spider when I opened the curtain and I called the front desk to have them come take care of it and they never came.
Costs are rising, wages are stagnating and the push for profit is harder than ever. Too many franchisees with limited oversight are getting away with loopholes as long as they are paying their fees. Too many owners over leveraging themselves with huge ROI obligations to their investors which result in significant cost cutting that makes everyone's life more difficult.
The root of the problem is ownership mindset. I've seen too many real estate developers build/acquire hotels as a means to cashflow and flip in a few years with very little regard to the guest experience. Adding insult to injury, those same developers haven't raised enough capital, let alone deployed that capital in a meaningful manner, to set up a proper service infrastructure from the get go. I.e. the lobby has the nicest marble floor....but too cheap to buy enough vacuums for the housekeeping team.
I would argue that the workforce is out there.....they are just tired of working for shitty owners who simply don't care.
We were recently in Atlanta and stayed at a chain hotel because it was close to the airport & family. It was so hot & humid we were showering several times a day. Only one hook on the bathroom door….ok, for two adults, two teens and a small child. Made several requests for extra towels since we really couldn’t hang them up to dry & even with the air on, the towels got musty quickly. Called the front desk to request extra towels and told to go to the front desk & pick them up! WTH ever happened to a common & simple request being handled by a hotel employee?!
I don’t understand this attitude. There’s often one person at the front desk doing everything and it’s easier for you by far to drop by the front desk for towels than for them to run all over the hotel. Sometimes sure it’s not convenient for you to leave your room, and that’s ok but don’t act like it’s weird that the one person on duty might not have time to bring them to you that very minute.
Likely a result of poor staffing with often later on and at night only one staff member there.
They are told they are not allowed to leave the desk (and not sit for 8 hrs too)
I never said I expected them to drop everything and run towels to our room. We travel for business also, and have never, ever been told to go to the front desk for towels. I wouldn’t expect towels to be available at the front desk of any hotel, they are normally kept by the laundry in a secure closet away from guest rooms.
Sometimes the front desk person is the only employee in the building. To bring you more towels, they’d have to lock the front door for 5-7 minutes and let the phone ring unanswered.
And that's the problem. A lower budget for staff will at some point be felt by at least some guests when there simply isn't someone to provide a requested service that used to be no problem.
One thing I’d like to add to the conversation is yes the pay could/should be higher and maybe that’s keeping some potential applicants/employees away, but when we do get new staff the younger employees don’t want to work. It’s like they expect to just show up and get paid for being there. When they have to do something they either don’t or do a very bad job at it usually with an attitude. Some of them are good but a vast majority of the new hires I’ve seen in the last 5 or so years are horrible workers.
Yes, the customer service decline with young workers is acute and obvious across all service industries. Getting treated like a Karen for smiling snd asking a polite question feels like the norm now.
They tend not to put up with entitlement which is a good thing.
That for sure. But just being pleasant and the picture of perfect customer should not beget hostility, which seems to happen at times.
I strongly believe this is partly due to legacy tech that they use to manage their facilities and services. That is why I urge all hoteliers to check out Sphynx (https://get-sphynx.com)
We're rehauling the dated property management system to make things easier and clearer to hotel owners and staff and to offload time consuming tasks to AI so that staff can concentrate on what matters. https://calendly.com/get-sphynx-sales/30min if you think that sounds good for your hotel
I have been reading all the advice given and I understand the perspective of encouraging people to book directly. I do that for my airline travel.
I have been using TPW 99% of the time for hotels and I've never had a problem to date with how I book. I don't have loyalty to any hotel and often book based on location/price/rating of hotel and what makes sense.
I have had only 1 issue so far which was booking on priceline which has always been prepaid and showing up to hotel and them telling me it was booked through booking.com and I needed to pay them. That was a weird Priceline/Booking confusion.
My question, I have many times considered booking directly but everytime I have looked into it, it has always been more expensive. Every single time. I see that people here say that they can match it. I've asked a few times over the phone and they didnt want to match. What is going on and what am I missing? Are there certain hotels this works better with?
Never been able to match a TPW or get the price online to be same. I'm missing something
Understand that the advice to book directly is the "safe" advice for people who are new to travel and booking hotels. Booking directly can be more expensive, but there are fewer things that can go wrong, and with no middleman to deal with, any problems are far easier to resolve. For someone unfamiliar with the risks of OTAs (and not willing to do the research), it's far better to book directly.
The last hotel I booked (last week, for a stay this week) started out as being the same price as OTA prices, but they had a 20% off sale that made direct booking cheaper. This brought the hotel within my budget. It doesn't always work out like that, but it does happen sometimes. You just need to always compare prices.
I mostly stay in branded hotels and have not had much success in getting price matches approved. I know that booking via an OTA means I (usually) pay in advance and rates are often nonrefundable. I won't earn loyalty points or receive upgrades or other loyalty benefits. I can't cancel or change if I find a better deal elsewhere. If anything goes wrong, I'm prepared to call the OTA from the hotel lobby to fix things. I know what I'm giving up, so I rarely book hotels via an OTA unless I'm saving 30% or more.
But it sounds like you know what you are doing, so if you're happy booking via OTA, there is no reason to change.
Hi!
When you worked at the hotel, what did you expect from guests? Like, reasonable breakfast portions?
(Continental Breakfasts are usually coffee, donuts, apples, yogurt, bananas, coffee...)
Did you expect everyone to grab one item and a coffee? A couple of items and a coffee?
... How did you feel about people who took ALL the cheese danishes?
What is too much for one guest?
How much more do you have in the back?
Did you guys ever run out of food?
Any thoughts/suggestions you'd like to share with future guests?
How to be polite? Cleaner? What is one thing you wish guests would stop doing?
(I'm asking these questions because I noticed...a few things yesterday morning.
I'm curious and I want to get some opinions now lol)
Always extra in back. Guest take what they want. I would not focus on them
When my then 14 year old and I spent a month at a hotel she would not only make herself enough food to last through the day, the attendant and day manager would help her load up on food to take back to the room lol I think part of it was that she was rail thin at the time and people were always tickled by how much food she could put away. But they also knew I was at work all day. Plus, on weekends I’d see the constant replenishing of food, so I figured that also factored into it.
That's rather tacky. Glad they were okay with it, but it is greedy and I would be embarrassed if my kids did that. And yes, I have spent long periods of time with my kids in hotels when moving around the country.
It’s not tacky!! Hotels are making a fortune off rooms. It’s the least they can do.
Take whatever you're going eat there. If you eat a lot, go for it, but don't be one of the people that loads up their backpack with 2 days worth of food.
What about somebody that doesn’t eat there but grabs just a granola bar or some fruit for breakfast on the road?
That's normally fine.
It's also normally fine to make a plate and take it back to your room to eat. Just be reasonable about it.
i don't think anyone has a problem with that. It's people that are clearly abusing the system that are annoying.
They'll be banned from the property.
Don’t stick the hard boiled eggs in your mouth and then put them back on the hard boiled egg tray.
(No seriously, saw a kid do this, grabbed all the hard boiled eggs and took it to the front desk and reported what had happened….the kid was an employees kid)
WHAT!!!! What did the employee do??? I hope they talked to their kid! That's gross! 😬🤣🤣🤣
I hope no one accidentally ate one of those....
I went back to the breakfast bar after reporting and was getting sealed items only (banana, yogurt etc) because I was wary of what else he put in his mouth, when an employee came rushing in she greeted him by name and he called her mom, she asked him if he put the eggs in his mouth and put them back, he said yes, and she grabbed the collar of his shirt and led him to the back office (his hands were full of breakfast)
I hope no one accidentally ate one of those....
Me too! That’s why I grabbed the tray! I was afraid someone would eat them while I was gone!
You are very kind to let someone know what happened. :)
Thank you for sharing that story. I laughed and cringed. Kids can be crazy sometimes 🤣🤣🤣
It's supposed to be your breakfast, that's it. What is too much? When you take enough for your mid-morning snack later on and your lunch and your afternoon snack.
It's breakfast, not your supplies for the day. Take an extra banana for later, nobody cares. Stuff your pockets and purse and then come back later for more? You're a thief.
Take what you want but dont take more than you can eat. Its really annoying watching people take the last 6 cheese danish just to throw 4 away and go back up for 6 muffins. Usually there is more in the back but sometimes we do tun out.
Please dont leave 4 of those muffins crumbled up on the table and floor.
Thank you! That makes sense...I saw something similar to that yesterday. I was really shocked; it's like people thought it was a neverending buffet. So much food WASTED. I felt really bad for the janitor...
:0
Thank you for the advice. :)
Take what ever you’d like. There is more in the back. If ya want a ton to go after you’ve filled up, come back around closing time and I’d literally give you anything you want. Every employee is different but their only job is to keep the buffet filled and guests happy.
Ohhhhh! That makes sense! Thank you! 👍
I wish I knew this a few years ago lol
Sometimes there is not more in the back. We get deliveries weekly and sometimes we run out of one flavor of muffin or bagel or something. Also if fruit is looking imperfect we are not allowed to put it out. So fruit can run out quickly. We dont want to throw it out so we dont get too much but we do have to get enough. We have a spreadsheet to help estimate but if we dont know why people are there, it is hard to tell. Sports tournaments mean bottomless pits for breakfast, for example. But if the reservations dont come from Event connect we cannot always tell..
Thats awful! So guests just pay full price at the end of the week when the staff can almost guarantee there won’t be much left? Id utilize a freezer for extras. The food and beverage director or gm have to come up with a better way.
Housekeeper here. A few things that I find frustrating.
1. Don't throw your dirty wet towel into the hallway. Please call the Front desk and ask for them to be picked up. The same goes for your trash and dishes. Some of those dishes get washed in your room.
Please hang the DND sign on the door until you are ready for housekeeping. If you don't want housekeeping that day please call the front desk and let them know so they can tell us. We check DND rooms every hour until the end of our shift.
If you ask us to come back to clean at a set time please be ready for us to clean. Don't ask us to come back repeatedly at different times. Also if you change your mind let us know. I don't want to wait 30 minutes after my shift ends so I can clean your room and then you tell me not today.
Tips. I know it's a sore subject. However if you plan to tip please tip daily. Don't wait till you check out and leave the tip. You might have a different housekeeper everyday. The housekeeper you had your whole stay might not be the one who cleans when you leave. Don't tip for multiple rooms in one room. I had guests that I had cleaned their 6 rooms for 4 days. The day they left they let me know they left a very generous tip in one of their rooms for me but because I didn't have that departure clean that day I didn't receive the tip. Before anyone gets upset about the tip subject. Please think of it like this. You tip your server and bartender. Housekeepers clean your room, make your beds, remove your trash, and replace the towels you wash your butts with. It sucks when you see a guest tip the bartender $10 for 3 glasses of wine and you just changed their sheets because they shit the bed, full bathroom cleaning because they didn't make it on the toilet before the next explosion, and just threw away the towels because they would never be the same again. (. Yes a true story. The wedding guest got food poisoning or something because there were 8 different rooms with fecal matter everywhere.)
Please check out at the front desk or call to let them know you have departed. Frustrating when you wait till check out time to knock on doors to find guests gone and a paper saying their flight was at 7 am. I could have cleaned that room while I waited for others to check out.
Also if you plan to check out late please let the front desk know. So we can plan accordingly when assigning rooms to the cleaner.
Sorry for the rant.
Thank you so much for your rant! It gave me a lot to think about! :)
-I'll keep the tipping in mind. I never thought about it, but that totally makes sense.
-Thank you for teaching me about the DND :D
(I only used it whenever I slept. Whoops)
-Ok. I'll do better with the last one. I was definitely one of those people who left without saying anything about departing. I left left my key and left. I will do better for now on.
I really do thank you.
And you're doing a great job! Very respectable and very appreciated. It always feels nice to leave and come back to a bed that is made and the towels changed. Clean shower. You guys are the best!!!! :D
Personally I would not expect to tip in a full service hotel. The price includes service.
Tips are not expected but appreciate when we get them. It's not often that we do. I appreciate your comment and I do understand. Here is what I noticed in my hotel. Breakfast staff get tips. They are paid starting at $15 an hour breakfast is included with the stay. Housekeepers clean up the lobby/food seating during and after breakfast. Tips are not shared with the housekeeper. Restaurant staff get tips also. Once again paid starting at $15. It is an open restaurant and bar where it's open to the public and you pay for what you order. They do have people who clean tables at night but also a housekeeper that helps. There is table seating and a very large lobby with lots of seating where people enjoy their meals. Housekeepers don't get a share of the tips. Housekeepers do more behind the closed doors than most people know. So like I said tips are not expected but are appreciated when we get them
They don’t mind it but hates the hoarders who has disregard for everyone else.
Yep. The disregard...😬
I saw that last week; I wanted to grab a yogurt and one woman stuffed her purse full of ALL of the yogurts from the mini fridge. There was like ten? Eleven? I was hoping she would leave one for me. :/
Thank you for your input. :)
👍
What gets me are the tour buses that wipe out everything to bring on the bus.
Tour buses??? I haven't seen that yet!
Please tell us more! :D
We only run out of food if breakfast attendants don’t ask management to order the right amount or doesn’t check everything on their list. Don’t take bags and bags of food and keep coming back.
You're right...bags and bags and coming back. I thought that was a bit greedy.
Thank you!!! :)
👍
Not a hotel worker, but a guest for that POV. I don’t often take advantage of the breakfast a hotel offers but on the off chance I can, it’s generally way too early for me to be able to eat, so I will go to buffet area, make a plate and take it back to my room. I will usually make a relatively full plate, because I never know what will agree with me by the time I’m ready to eat, and I tend to eat in smaller spurts through the day (so what a normal person eats in a single meal, is generally spread out over hours for me).
Guest opinions count, too. That's a really good idea. (I might try that one day.) Thank you!!! :)
👍
Thank God my hotel doesn't serve breakfast. I would have gone crazy long ago over the waste of food and sense of entitlement.
I don't care how much you take, I don't pay the food bill and have loads. Just don't go past the employees only sign, and into an industrial sized fridge to help yourself to something because you can't immediately see someone who works there. Also put trash in one of the many cans around the area, and respect the posted times. We don't expect much, the bar to be a good guest in a hotel breakfast area is a tripping hazard in hell.
Thank you! 👍
(And I'm surprised to even know someone would even consider going into an Employees Only area to get snacks. Holy moly!!!! That's just rude.
Ok. Trash cans. Gotcha.... And be careful to not trip. Gotcha. I'm learning a lot today!!! Thanks lol)
:)
We’ve seen it all but that’s just how it is. The biggest offenders are those who pile up several plates and take them back to their rooms. Like, how many people you feeding up there?
The weekends are the worst. Weekdays are easy - many of the business travelers will just get coffee and go.
It’s all good. Just want everyone happy.
The extra guests they snuck in with 8 in the room meant for 2
You guys are so patient. Thank you. :)
As another guest, I wish entitled people would kindly stop taking ALL of certain things, at one time. Such as taking all of the bread that is out for everyone and making several sandwiches, wrapping them up in bags they seem to have with them. I have seen this so many times. Greedy people. It is meant for that meal and not to provide ALL of your meals for that day or week.
Thank you for your input...it makes sense... 👍
I don't think I've seen that yet, but I can only imagine how often that happens :(
Take what you want, don’t judge others by how much they eat… sometimes I stay in the room and my boyfriend makes plates for the both of us and bring it back…. You actually never really know what guest has going on. Could be kids in the room. Never know.
Our family has a situation where our son wanted to watch one specific hockey game in Edmonton, but we are unable to accompany him due to schedule issues. Is there a hotel where a 16 year old can check in? And is the area safe?
Best Western Plus City Centre says "no minimum age for check-in" ,.same for Four Points Sheraton Edmonton South and for "Hampton Inn Edmonton St Albert". But you'd want to verify that with the hotel desk ahead of time, and he'd need a credit card in his name to check-in.
Sheraton and Marriott hotels have a form that parents can sign taking responsibility for an underage child who stays at the hotel. I think you can pay in advance and take care of everything ahead of time. Call the hotel and ask for the manager.
……. do you think he’s traveling to watch the game on a hotel television?
Sto cercando un partner finanziatore per , la prima piattaforma di prenotazione alberghiera pensata davvero per clienti e hotel, con una logica completamente inversa rispetto alle attuali OTA.
🎯 Cosa fa ?
Permette ai clienti di proporre il prezzo che sono disposti a pagare per il soggiorno, mentre gli hotel decidono se accettare o meno.
Una piattaforma etica, dinamica e trasparente, che chiede solo il 7% di commissione agli hotel, contro il 15-20% delle OTA tradizionali.
🌍 Abbiamo definito tutte le fasi del software , ora serve iniziare ,è un modello scalabile e due piani di sviluppo: uno diretto con gli hotel e uno con le agenzie di viaggio e associazioni di categoria.
🔍 Cosa cerchiamo
Un investitore (anche di profilo medio) o fondo che creda nell’innovazione digitale, nella giustizia economica, e in un’idea di turismo più sostenibile e collaborativo.
L’investimento richiesto è mirato: comunicazione, team, e spinta commerciale.
📈 I numeri sono promettenti, l’opportunità è reale e scalabile anche a livello internazionale.
Se sei interessato o conosci qualcuno che potrebbe esserlo, scrivimi in privato.
Sono disponibile a presentare business plan, mockup, piano marketing e scenari di exit.
Grazie per la condivisione!
I just returned from a girls trip where we stayed in a Hilton Garden inn, in downtown Cleveland. My friend booked these rooms(2) in March. We arrived to check in the front desk person was rude. Then the price had changed and was higher. We paid the price, carried on with our trip. Everything was good until, we needed housekeeping. Then we were told it we had to request it at the main desk. We went there only to be told. That housekeeping is extra, and not included due to us booking through a third party. We were there three days and only got clean towels, because we complained. My friend, she got clean sheets but she had to put them on herself. We stayed at this same hotel last year, and loved it. The extra cost is fine, if you know about it.
Maximum profit for minimum efforts. Hilton really went below the bar after Covid...
Oof, that one's dumb as fuck. I'm a desk agent and, while it's not an excuse, I bet that desk agent was curt because they're fucking sick of having to tell people that absolute bullshit.
My experience for the last few years has been that hotels do not provide housekeeping at least for stays up to and INCLUDING three nights, and I always book through the hotel website to get reward points. The desk person may have said it was because you booked through a third party, but I'm not convinced they would have provided housekeeping no matter how you booked. Because so far no big chain has decided to compete using the slogan "We clean your room every day!", guests have had no choice but to put up with this shift.
I’m an Employee you are absolutely correct…most properties that I have stayed at & I travel a lot have it posted both at the Frontdesk and in the bathroom on the Mirror that you can request service the night before. Unfortunately people don’t read & for those who don’t travel they just “assume” their room will be cleaned. Now paying for housekeeping is OUTRAGEOUS.
And my experience has been that even if the hotel says housekeeping is available "on request," they may not in fact have enough staff to do it, especially if they are fairly full.
The key is when you ask for it… Request it the day before. Requesting it the day of especially after housekeeping has already been given their room assignments they will usually say nope
I got a "nope" requesting it the day before. People on this very sub said, "Oh, that's the problem. You need to request the morning you want it." Come on, employees, admit it: "Housekeeping available on request" is very spotty. The math of the labor just doesn't work out. You can't save money by slashing the number of housekeeping staff (or the hours for which they are employed) and still be able to accommodate all requests for extra work. It's a broken model that makes the "available on request" statement misleading. And that decision was probably made fairly high up the management ladder.
This comment tells me why you got NOPE lol
What, because people who tell it like it is somehow deserve to be punished by the people they are paying money to?
The entitlement is INSANE.
You know, an upside down idea of what the word "entitled" means has taken hold. If a person is really entitled to something, it means that yes, they are supposed to have it, not that it's ridiculous for them to think they should have it. Yes, when you pay money for a service and that service gets cut back from what used to be standard, but you're told it is still "available on request," but when you request it, it turns out not to really be available, you've been denied something you were "entitled" to, in the true meaning of the word.
That other, upside down meaning, however, applies very well to employees who think a big "Nope" is the right response to requesting what's supposedly available on request.
Hol up a minute. Hiltons don't charge for housekeeping. If they are charging you an additional fee for it, you should absolutely contact corporate. It doesn't matter if you're booking third party. The ONLY reason to incur any sort of cleaning fee at a Hilton Garden Inn is 1) if you smoked in the room and 2) you went beyond filthy in there. Like you let your dog shit on the floor.
You're correct. Hilton Garden Inn is a "focused service" Hilton line and provides housekeeping every other day.
Booking source does not matter, housekeeping is included with the room rate.
For OP: HGI has IG, and I would message them there and let them know this happened at that location.
This guy knows. You can also call their 800 number and ask for guest assistance to file a complaint. It will force the hotel to either resolve your issue or they will offer you a gift certificate or some other form of compensation.
I stayed at a Sonder hotel—wasn’t aware that a) you had to download an app, scan your passport into it, and use a code to let yourself into both the hotel and your room. The codes almost never worked until you’d input them at least half a dozen times.
To top it off you had to pay for housekeeping. Didn’t know that either. I didn’t particularly mind except for having to carry my full trash can along the corridor and down in the elevator to the lobby…then struggle to get back into your room. Will not stay at a Sonder again.
Just stayed at a different hotel in London where you could get housekeeping if you wanted it—or get a bottle of wine. For a 2 night stay in stressful circumstances, that was an easy decision.
I would have just dumped it in the hallway.
WTF, what’s next. Laundering the sheets? It seems they are adopting the worst parts of AirB&B
Thanks for the heads up, I didn’t realize that hotel worked like that. I’ll definitely avoid it now and you’ve saved me a headache. Appreciate it!
Thanks for sharing. It's almost like the "low staffing/diy" model of lodging isn't where it's at.
Someone downvoted you, but I’m with you. I’m not paying for a hotel so I can take out the fucking trash. That’s BASIC BASIC service. Asanine.
Yup. And they’re not cheap hotels, either—I paid about the same as I would for a normal hotel. Will not risk being locked out at night as a solo female traveler again, I can tell you.
It maybe where it’s at, but I often travel solo and will never again knowingly subject myself to getting locked out in a dodgy neighborhood. As for housekeeping, most non-super deluxe hotels clean only every 2 or 3 days now, but I’ve never before had a hotel decline to come by and pick up the trash.
And this stuff seems to result in bigger profits, not lower costs.
Wasn’t me that downvoted. I wouldn’t dump my trash in the hall, no, but I’m sick of taking on extra duties everywhere I go.
Sonder was the same price per day regardless of length of stay—so what I’d do another time is book one or two days at a time and check in and out. I don’t even mind emptying the trash at an Airbnb because you have more than a little wastebasket to fill up! A little trash can doesn’t cut it for a 4 day stay.
In my travels after Covid, I’ve found that hotel policies vary a lot, even within a brand. I think one hotel said they offered housekeeping daily, but for most, you have to stay 2 or 3 days to get housekeeping unless you request it. I decided during Covid that I liked not worrying about people coming in my room so I just pull the sheets up myself, put the DND placard on the door and ask for extra towels if we need them. I do try to leave a good tip at the end of a stay because it feels like I’ve left more work for housekeeping when they haven’t done daily tidying up along the way. No one’s mentioned paying extra, I’m sorry that happened to you.
I hate housekeeping every day when I stay 4-5 days. I tell them “please don’t send anyone - we got it” and then just request towels as needed. If something happened and we needed it halfway thru, I would request it. But I never have needed to, and I don’t clean up, just act normal and put things away as I’m done using them.
Nope. Hilton Garden Inn is required to offer housekeeping by request. Also they cannot just change the price after booking. OP is lying or leaving something out
Same here. I put out the do not disturb sign whether I am there or not. I don't dirty things up over a few days, and I like my privacy
Give the Hotel Indigo a try downtown, very nice place.
Why did your friend need the sheets changed if y’all were only there for three days? Accident?
When she turned her bed down, there was a stain on the sheets.
I’ve found Marriott Bonvoy brand hotels still provide your traditional hotel services without needing to ask. Most even offer things like turn down service still. I highly recommend them despite me not looking to even have the room cleaned while staying lol. I’d rather people not be around my things and it’s so easy to pull sheets up. If there is a problem with like drained sheets, full garbage, anything like that they’ve always shown up almost immediately and never complain.
Imagine going to cleveland for 3 days.
Rock and hall of fame
Cleveland guardians game
Cleveland browns game
The house from A Christmas Story
Plenty to do and see
We were there for a few days for a series of appointments at Cleveland Clinic. We had no idea how much there was to do in Cleveland and the restaurants!!! Oh my! We followed the ones Guy Fieri went to on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and it was amazing! Then they gave this Little Italy that was a beautiful gem - like going back in time and the food there was some of the best Italian we’ve had at a restaurant (My Mom’s family is Italian -her grandparents came over through Ellis Island- so finding real Italian that’s really good is no easy feat!) The neighborhoods were really cool to drive through. The downtown area where the main campus where Cleveland Clinic is located is beautiful and walkable. You are really missing out by dissing Cleveland as a vacation spot.
An annual 3 day trip to Cleveland at that
Nice. You should put all that in the 3rd edition of the tourism video.
Don't book through third-party.
Housekeeping as an exclusive for direct bookings is insane and a trash policy. What's next, hot water only for direct bookings?
I've been looking for a hotel in the San Francisco Bay area for late August. A couple of nights ago I found a nice looking Hilton property. For my three nights it was $700 on the Hilton web site and $400 on Expedia. I don't want to hear any garbage about always booking directly with the hotel.
Booking through a third-party is the best way to protect yourself from shady hotel owners/managers.
DON’T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS!
and by the time you pay all the fees that third party doesnt include it will work out about the same
As long as you are receiving stellar service, fine.
That's an interesting perspective. I don't buy it but hey whatever floats your boat.
I'm literally "them" and I'm saying this is fucked edit: the logistical cost for your housekeeping to have a different room status alone wouldn't make it worth it amongst MANY other reasons, lol.
Except sometimes it isn't. Parity issues are a massive concern and it's entirely possible to be undercut by OTAs for a multitude of reasons
Double Tree at Berkeley Marina. I haven't booked anything yet.
my last property and only one I've worked for had fees including a $30 one that didn't get paid in the OTA's fees, it goes on the guest's card in all cases except one OTA. That is not one they can undercut normally. We had a guy come in one night trying to negotiate a rate with the hotel to match the OTA and we gave him that explanation.
You can’t do 2 nights without clean bed sheets??!???!
Story doesn’t add up.
You booked & paid thru a third party, then how did the price change at check in?
Yes, they said the reason for the price change was because , they were sold out. I admit there was a lot going on that weekend. The Guardians were playing, Hamilton was in town, plus there was also a Jazz festival. Once again, if we knew these things upfront, that would have been fine.
That’s actually NOT acceptable. You paid full price in advance. They can’t change the price after booking.
I would contact corporate and give them a bad review wherever you booked the room, i.e., Priceline. I would, also, contact the third party booking site and get them to refund the difference.
None of the details of your story make sense. You are either completely misrepresenting what happened or are incredibly gullible and fell for a front desk agent scamming you in multiple ways.
Something is not adding up with your post. This is not how any of this works so I think you’re just lying.
I work for a Hilton affiliate part time. (Been there just at a year). Housekeeping is every 2nd day, no matter how you booked. I'd wager that FDA just gave you a load of BS. 🤷♀️ I'm sorry that happened to you.
It wasn’t daily for sheets, but towels. We didn’t want the sheets changed daily. If they changed the sheets once, that would have been, enough. I like you have no idea, how often she changes her sheets. She requested new sheets. Because , when she turned her bed down the first night, there was a stain on her sheets. Now, maybe that would have worked for you. It didn’t work for her. You saying that I’m looking for a reason to complain, I work for a living. With that being said. If I have to be professional at my job, I expect the same in return. I also expect to get what, I paid for. If that’s too much for you, then you don’t have to respond. I’m sure you complain about less than that.
Sometimes it's necessary. I arrived in Rome sick and my sheets got very sweaty overnight. I could have done with a change of sheets.
Also, hormones can cause night-sweats.
Then you'd ASK for housekeeping to change the sheets. It's not normally something you change on a stay-over.
I meant to include that part, I got distracted.Sorry!!!
Yeah, but you don't expect to be charged extra for it.
It really depends on the hotel. The cheaper the place, the less service you get!
I have heard of hotels that charge extra if clean sheets are requested before the posted intervals (of when housekeeping normally swaps them out).
From what I've seen, those places usual expect guests to use the same sheets for around 3-7 days (the length depending on if it is a "longterm-stay" place).
Also, I will say that while NONE of the places that I have worked have ever charged extra for a requested set of clean sheets, many of them WOULD just hand the sheets to the guest (if it was requested outside of when the housekeepers were there) and expected you to put them on yourself.
That's bullshit. I'd complain to Hilton and to the actual hotel owner of that location. Part if what you sign on for at a hotel, any hotel, is housekeeping services.
This is why I never book through 3rd party apps.
I guess I've been lucky. The last 2 years every hotel I've stayed at provided daily housekeeping.
My husband booked a cheap hotel in Madison this past April. They provided daily housekeeping, trash removal, toiletries, fresh sheets and towels.
Who needs clean sheets during a 3 day stay, did you piss and shit in the bed?
What happened to the sheets that needed changed after one night? Hotels rarely ever change sheets in the middle of a stay unless the get soiled in some way. Why couldn't you use the same towels for your short stay? Hotels generally do not give out fresh towels every day. Especially, when staying in a cheap hotel.
So how many new towels you need during a short 3 nights stay?
I would understand if you'd be complaining about "not enough toiletries" for the time (likely getting only one set for the stay, not a new set everyday).
But when you get out of the shower, you are clean, so your towel won't get dirty by drying you up. It will still be clean for your next shower.
And why did you book third party?
You should have stayed at the Drury Plaza
I recommend leaving reviews everywhere you can. I always use TripAdvisor.
I don't really travel nowadays but when I did I didn't really care much for housekeeping. I mean I don't trash a hotel room. It is cleaned right before I occupy it. It's not like I clump around the room with dirty boots or pee all over the floor in the bathroom. Not having orgies in these places so sheets are fine until I go. 🤷🏻♂️
Just take what you need off of the maid carts or out of the maid supply room (if possible). Sometimes you have to improvise and be inventive. Oh and leave the room trashed.
Leaving the room trashed will accomplish nothing but giving some poor, underpaid housekeeper a bad day.
Which the lazy owner/manager will have to pay them to do. I'm not talking gross, just messy as hell.
Still no. Room attendants are on a time limit of how long they are expected to clean a room. They can be held to this standard regardless of the state of the room.
Take pictures, call corporate. They have rights. Bet the owners doing things he's not supposed to do and skimming!