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That Jerk Steve posted:I'm wondering if there is enough interest to get an Ask me about working in a Hotel thread going? Seems we have several Hotel industry folks here to answer questions and tell stories. I would read a thread like this and would ask questions there if I thought any up.
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Mar 16, 2015 17:28
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The only time I can remember really being pissed off at a hotel was when I was paying a few hundred a night, and they completely forgot to clean my room. Like, what the gently caress? I hadn't been in the room all day, didn't have Do Not Disturb on the door... there was no excuse. Out of all the hotels I've stayed in, that's the only time I've ever seen them completely forget to service a room.
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Mar 16, 2015 17:42
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Nothing particularly horrible, the worst I could say is the surprise I got when I got to my EUR90 room and that was it: Like, all of it. I'm standing with my back against a small shelf and there's a tiny bathroom to the left. It was nice and clean but still like a third of the rooms I stayed in previously in the area.
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Mar 16, 2015 21:06
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mobby_6kl posted:Nothing particularly horrible, the worst I could say is the surprise I got when I got to my EUR90 room and that was it: Where was that? The two rooms I had in Amsterdam were like loving closets too (and a good deal over EUR90; gently caress Amsterdam), but the rest of Europe that I've travelled in was much better.
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Mar 16, 2015 21:15
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I was at a hotel on the third floor and had to evacuate the floor because someone blew up their evening meth lab down the hall. I just milled around the lobby for a few hours and then I was allowed back up to my room.
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Mar 16, 2015 22:59
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mobby_6kl posted:Nothing particularly horrible, the worst I could say is the surprise I got when I got to my EUR90 room and that was it: I had a couple rooms like that in Italy once. One made up for it by having the swankiest chandelier I've ever seen in a hotel room. The other was literally a converted supply closet, it didn't even have a proper number on the door-- just a piece of printer paper with the room number printed on it taped to the door.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:51
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That Jerk Steve posted:I'm wondering if there is enough interest to get an Ask me about working in a Hotel thread going? Seems we have several Hotel industry folks here to answer questions and tell stories. Well, with somewhere around 52,000 hotel/motel/nightly room rental properties in the united states there has to be at least a few more goons that are gonna be working or already are working these jobs. I would be interested in an ASK thread.
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Mar 17, 2015 01:09
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PT6A posted:Where was that? The two rooms I had in Amsterdam were like loving closets too (and a good deal over EUR90; gently caress Amsterdam), but the rest of Europe that I've travelled in was much better. Walldorf, a town in the middle of nowhere of BW, Germany. Of course there's a good reason it was expensive, but as mentioned, I've had much nicer/bigger rooms in the area before.
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Mar 17, 2015 01:18
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TunaSpleen posted:
I have never worked with an anime con or a comic con group but meme screaming is becoming far more common by everybody due to Facebook apps taking over the cellphones. The worst of the meme regurgitation comes from the beer festival attendees though. Constant drunk women and men ranging in ages from 21 to 55 will come up to the desk drunk off of their asses and demand to see a manager because it's important and grumpy cat is the only way to describe their experience. GorillaMan! fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 01:22
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I would read all of these. Also, now I'm curious as to what hotel employees think of convention attendees--not for mundane poo poo like dentistry or ornithology, but comic and anime cons where costumed teenagers are shouting memes in the hallways.
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When I was a kid my parents used to manage pubs in Queensland (Australia). Our next assignment was to manage a pub in the middle of nowhere, and we would live in a built in apartment. We arrived after many hours travelling on the road, tired out of our minds, so the people handing over let us stay in the guestrooms. The Pub was an old Queenslander in the shape of a horseshoe, and on one wing were a series of victorian era guest rooms that people could stay in if they passed through and needed someone to stay. It didn't happen very often. So, while the previous tenants moved out, we stayed in those rooms. The beds were uncomfortable and smelt weird. After the tenants moved out, staff later told us that they (the previous managers who lived in the pub) had a child who was incontinent. Rather than let him mess his bed every night in the unit, they would exile him to the guest rooms. If he wet the bed they would then tell him to move to the next room, and sleep in that bed, and so on, until the rotation bought him around to the first room, which would probably be dry by then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_pub
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Mar 17, 2015 01:40
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Shooting Blanks posted:Found a used crack pipe in a hotel room once, in some shithole off Times Square in NYC. I was 14. Never found crackpipes at our facility, but our housekeepers have found a few spoons, a bong, and an eighth crammed in a bible once. We've had guests find a joint under a bed before and once, a dimebag in the TV remote - where the batteries would be. The remote one happened on my shift. Guy was older and took it all in good humor. Said he was testing to see if the batteries were there because it wasn't working. He said if it was a smoking room he might have said screw it and just had a few tokes instead. But since it wasn't he'd give it to us to dispose of. He said "dispose" with a wink before he left. Some guests are pretty cool. Fun Fact! Our Hotel also has a budget Motel nearby that we operate from the Hotel lobby, and a boarding house in the same vicinity. The Hotel has never had a drug bust, but the Motel has had three since I've been here. Want to know where the most common hiding place is for large quantities of drugs? Behind the lights on the vanity mirror. Every time the police found most of the stash when they raided a room it was hidden behind the lights on the mirror. Our mirrors are set up on a different switch from the bathroom light in the motel, so when the bathroom light is switched on the mirror isn't. It's actually rare for the mirror light to ever be turned on, but when it was during the raids they saw a huge amount of black spots around the lights - all baggies. TunaSpleen posted:Also, now I'm curious as to what hotel employees think of convention attendees--not for mundane poo poo like dentistry or ornithology, but comic and anime cons where costumed teenagers are shouting memes in the hallways. Our Banquet/Meeting space is only legal for up to about 300 people, so we never have anything on a massive scale like an anime convention. It's also pretty rare for there to be issues with the attendees in general, it's normally problems with the people we are renting the space to. One exception was when we had an event with male strippers a few New Year's Eves ago. When the event ended, the dancers (still in speedos) went to the bar to entertain in there for a bit. The janitor assumed the event was done and locked up, then left - taking his keys with him. An hour later, they wanted to get back in the banquet room to change their clothes and get their stuff ready to leave...but no one available had keys to it. All their clothes and most of their belongings were in the room, and the only other person with keys (the banquet manager) left awhile ago. The female attendees were incredibly drunk by that time and were on the verge of dry humping these half naked dudes who were wandering around the hotel. We had to eventually call and wake up a manager to come in and open it up for them. In the meantime I had a group of about 30 drunk cougars pawing over these 6 guys in thongs that were sitting in my lobby. Pretty uncomfortable experience all around. Especially when a 60 year old woman tried giving one a drunken lap dance. All that Glitters The year I started working in the hotel was a bit after the start of the American recession (early 2009). Our facility is actually in a pretty small town (which is surprising when you consider how popular our hotel is and our ranking) and the age of the normal citizen is probably considerably higher than the norm. So naturally our area was hit pretty heavy. We started getting several meetings set up from an out-of-state Gold Buyer. They would set up a weekend in one of our meeting rooms, and put a small ad in the local newspaper. It was always the same group that came in, and I wouldn't call the operation overly large - maybe 5-6 people tops. This went on every 3 months or so, and they were seriously making bank. It was only a matter of time then I suppose until the competition showed up. We would normally get calls during the event inquiring about the buyer's hours of operation and basic info - but we also started getting more detailed requests. How many people are there? What is the name of their company? How long have they been doing this? What sort of traffic have they been seeing? What is their busiest day? The desk tried to answer as best it could, without really realizing what was going on. Sure enough, three months rolled around and we noticed two ads in the local paper for Gold Buyers - both were claiming to have their event held at the same time in our hotel on the same days. The second group was a much larger outfit - 10+ guys, all lugging in computers and a bunch of other equipment. They demanded to have the meeting room right next to the first group of gold buyers we had. We found out from the director of sales they originally intended to just buy out all of the meeting space in advance so the small company we had been dealing with had to go elsewhere - but the hotel refused to do that to them. Still this was a shitstorm waiting to happen. The originally group we dealt with, the smaller outfit, already expressed their anger over the issue. They felt they were loyal customers of our services and that we should have denied their competition. We told them we could not do that - but one of the front desk staff did let it slip that we refused the competition's offer to buy out our banquet space for the weekend. This lit the fuse on the inevitable bomb and increased tensions to an uncontrollable level. It took less than an hour for our first problem. It was an attendee that told us what was going down. An older guy had sold some of his ex wife's old jewelry to the new Gold Buyers. He was pretty happy and was bragging to us about how he was "shopping" for the best price. He would go to one of the groups, get their offer, and then go to the other. He then told the second group about the first group's offer - and so the second group would raise a bit more. He then went to the original buyers and say "Hey, your competition next door is offering me a bit more - can you do better?" There is a problem here. The second group (the larger outfit) were representing a company that owned their own refinery. The first group made all their money through selling to refineries, they did not own one themselves. So the second, larger group could afford to buy for considerably higher than the first group. Apparently, the head guy and owner (A huge black fella that looked like he could have been a retired boxer) of the first small group stormed over to the larger group and started arguing with them after a few hours of this back and forth price matching. The employees wouldn't speak with him so their boss came out to handle things. The boss of the larger group was some weedy looking white guy with glasses that always seemed to have his nose in the air when we dealt with him. We aren't sure what exactly was said, and by the end of it all, our General Manager didn't care. The big guy said he was provoked. The little guy said he was just explaining their policies. The attendees said both were getting pretty loud and heated. We did get a good description of the act, though. Apparently the little guy says something in the end along the lines of: "We aren't going anywhere and you can expect to see us more in the future if you want this market." Mike friggin' Tyson turned to walk away. He then spun back around and clocked the twiggy dude with a haymaker that sent him on his rear end. All hell pretty much broke loose. Most of the larger group went to the boss to help him up. One of the bigger guys allegedly got up and tried to swing at the owner of the smaller group - which ended up in a shoving match. Some of the people from the small group came over at this time to help their boss out. By the time the manager came up, the wispy guy was still a bit dazed sitting on the floor and Muhammed Ali was being pushed back out of the room by his employees while the other group were yelling frantically. The attendees (mostly older folks) thought the whole thing was pretty entertaining. Both groups were banned from our facilities and were told then and there to pack up and leave. The small group didn't complain, but the big refinery-backed team tried disputing this. We just gave them a refund and said we didn't want the business. For the smaller group we didn't offer a refund and they didn't ask for it. At the end of it all when they were told to leave their owner just told our manager "It was worth it." PT6A posted:The only time I can remember really being pissed off at a hotel was when I was paying a few hundred a night, and they completely forgot to clean my room. Like, what the gently caress? I hadn't been in the room all day, didn't have Do Not Disturb on the door... there was no excuse. Out of all the hotels I've stayed in, that's the only time I've ever seen them completely forget to service a room. That's really lovely. That Do Not Disturb sign is like a drat force field to housekeepers. Even if it's after checkout time if you have that sign up in our property, housekeeping would call the desk to check on the room instead of going in themselves. They won't touch that poo poo at all. Problem is when guests leave that sign on in the morning, and then take it off around 12-1PM. By that time our housekeepers are normally gone, so they will complain they weren't serviced. Granted our Housekeepers leave notes under the door saying what times they attempted to visit while the sign was up, but the guests will complain anyways. If you didn't have the sign up at all though I would have made a bit of a fuss about that at check-out, especially if you are paying that much. GorillaMan! posted:Constant drunk women and men ranging in ages from 21 to 55 will come up to the desk drunk off of their asses and demand to see a manager because it's important and grumpy cat is the only way to describe their experience. Don't get me started on drunks. I've had to have 3 people arrested in my hotel over the years, and every drat one of them was drunk. xutech posted:After the tenants moved out, staff later told us that they (the previous managers who lived in the pub) had a child who was incontinent. Rather than let him mess his bed every night in the unit, they would exile him to the guest rooms. If he wet the bed they would then tell him to move to the next room, and sleep in that bed, and so on, until the rotation bought him around to the first room, which would probably be dry by then. That's beyond hosed up. That said, when money is involved, sometimes you are willing to let a lot of stuff go. It kinda has to do with the Dirtbag Dan story, but we had a room that was somewhat like that. This old dude ended up living with us for a few months. He was a local and had recently come into a lot of money (we ended up finding out it was about 150,000 dollars). He was a raging alcoholic despite being incredibly aged - he was in his late 70's I think. The thing is, he would go to the bar, drink all day and then go to bed - inevitably making GBS threads and pissing himself once he got up there. For a week straight we had no idea what was happening (that Do Not Disturb forcefield is powerful), however after awhile we started getting complaints about the smell and so the manager went in one day when there was no response to knocking at his door It was mostly piss. On the bed at least. The guy (Let's call him Robert) had a special corner he would puke in and it looked as if he had put it to use multiple times over the past few days. His garbage was full of old clothes that we found out were shat in, and he had repeatedly pissed the bed. The smell was allegedly hellish, but mostly favoring on poo poo in the trinity of poo poo, Puke, and Piss. The bathroom was spotlessly clean. The manager naturally went nuts. We had recently renovated the rooms on that floor and he had already pretty much ruined it. The GM went to the bar and pulled the guy out and talked to him about the damages to the room - that's when Robert let out how much money he has, and how he just wants a place to go to waste his life for a few months as a vacation. Seriously, 75+ years old and Robert's vacation is making GBS threads, pissing, and puking himself to death in a hotel in the same town he lives in. He told the manager he would write a check for the current damages and he just wanted to be left alone in the room for awhile. He didn't need anything, housekeeping or the sort and he was paying full BAR price for the room. Greed is a powerful vice. He stayed for a little over two months. Rob still comes in on occasion to drink, but we don't rent to him anymore unless it is an "Extended Stay". All the linen in his room was trashed and they pitched the mattress as well - we had to keep the room on maintenance for a week and a half just to get it livable again. Even now, we spray it a bit more than the usual rooms when it gets rented because there is the faintest smell of piss when the heater is kicked on. Yeah, don't be a dick at check in or the Front Desk Clerk will put you in "Rob's Vacation Suite". We have a few rooms like that with pretty sordid backstories. I'll toss up another story (Probably the Room on the Roof since it's shorter) sometime tomorrow and possibly work on an OP if interest keeps up. GorillaMan, do you have any more stories? We should keep this going. That Jerk Steve fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 07:57
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mobby_6kl posted:Walldorf, a town in the middle of nowhere of BW, Germany. Of course there's a good reason it was expensive, but as mentioned, I've had much nicer/bigger rooms in the area before. Did you order the salad?
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Mar 17, 2015 08:01
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That Jerk Steve posted:I'll toss up another story (Probably the Room on the Roof since it's shorter) sometime tomorrow and possibly work on an OP if interest keeps up. GorillaMan, do you have any more stories? We should keep this going. Considering that working in the hotel industry will introduce you to all the types of people there is to offer- Yes, I have stories all day long! I do have to say that my bad experience stories make me sound like I hate my job though which is not the case. I love it! Getting to meet people from around the world and taking on challenges to create the best experience for these people is an amazing opportunity! It's not all bad but a lot of it can be. Some of the worst people for a guest service position think they're the best for the job. Like these ones.. One night my bartender announces last call at 9pm and states that she has a party to attend therefore can't waste her valuable time serving these rear end in a top hat drunks. I had no idea this happened until a group of people that have stayed at our property once a year for 14 years hit up the front desk about her. These people rent 6 rooms for 10 days every summer, they eat in the restaurant and drink in the bar. Not only friendly people but they love to spend their dollars (about $12,000 in room nights, meals, drinks and tips). Extremely pissed about the experience she gave them my first reaction is to re-open the bar and continue to serve their drinks. My next rule of action is finding out what route they would like to take in order to fix the problem with the poo poo-mouthed bartender. They say to fire the bartender because if she's doing drinks next year than they will find a new place to stay. Done. Keeping someone around whose job is to specifically serve drinks until 12am (we close early because of the rooms above) that then leaves early after calling the patrons a bunch of assholes is not good for business. A person that drives away one guest will eventually drive away more. I had a server get in an argument with a man in the restaurant once over a 10% tip saying it was poo poo. To which the man replied "well, your service was poo poo!" The argument got more and more vile from the side of the server that the man tried to leave the restaurant with his wife but the (male) server would not let them. He then rips off his shirt and starts screaming at the middle aged couple telling them that he is gonna kick his "cheap loving rear end" until he paid him what he supposedly deserved. After multiple astonished guests in the dining room started making calls to the police the server decided to run. He got caught by a cop who was nearby when the incident was first starting and was pulled from his car and given a breathalyzer. It turned out that he had been spending the last two hours drinking every alcoholic beverage that any guest had not finished before taking it to the dishwasher. One of our housekeepers got caught selling her rear end to guests during work hours. It turned out that she was making over $1000.00 every 8 hour shift just from getting used as a dumpster and was also getting the $13.00/hour from us. Other than it being totally illegal she was caught by a mans wife and kids who were coming back from a shopping trip which is even more of a reason to fire someone. After she got out of jail she tried to come back to work and convince me that she had left on good terms and I was mixing her up with another employee. STUPID! GorillaMan! fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 08:54
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econo lodge. It's now a name I avoid like pest. Back in 2001, going south from Canada to Disney World (by car, roadtrip). We stopped at an econo lodge. Oh my... They were in some kind of renovations; we had a half-assed room, so dirty we didn't even wanted to use the bathroom. We prefered to sleep ON the beds rather than in it. We tried to have our money back but it was getting late and the crazy lady at the counter was the archetype of crazy dumbfuck who made us wait past our few minutes to change idea and get reimbursed for the room. Since then, no econo lodge (they don't even deserve the capital letters) for me, I'd rather sleep in my car.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:58
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I just remembered this! I was once at a Holiday Inn with my parents when I was 14. As far as Holiday Inns go, it was probably nicer than you might imagine because it had a real lobby, a restaurant, full bar, fitness center, rec room, etc. We were staying there for a five day span that included New Years Eve. My parents went out and I watched some movies in my room; we had adjoining rooms. They got back at 1am-ish, checked on me, and we all went to sleep. Or tried to. Every time I was about to fall asleep there would be some drunken idiot yelling or being really loud in the hallway. I didn't fall asleep until the sun was starting to come up. I ended up getting a few hours of sleep and waking up when it was almost noon. I knocked on my parents' door and my mother answered. She was just waking up too for the same reason. My dad sleeps like the dead so he slept through the NYE shenanigans. I showered and got dressed. The hallway smelled like puke. When I summoned the elevator and it opened at our floor, there was a gigantic pool of vomit in it.  I feel really bad for anyone staffing the front desk on NYE or St. Patrick's Day or any other major drinking holiday.
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Mar 18, 2015 16:29
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So what are some good ways to avoid these terrible hotels? Or, what are some red flags to look out for?
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Mar 30, 2015 04:42
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Ask the host if they have stairs in their house.
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Mar 30, 2015 06:05
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HisMajestyBOB posted:So what are some good ways to avoid these terrible hotels? Or, what are some red flags to look out for? Not much to it. Just read Tripadvisor and maybe a couple other lesser review sites (hotels.com etc) before you make a reservation. Skim over a bunch of the most recent reviews. Also, don't be afraid to pay a little more for a place that you know will be nice. It's worth paying more to ensure you won't be miserable, instead of taking a chance on a cheap place and hoping it won't suck. Finally, if you're really paranoid, I guess you could use Google street view and make sure the hotel and surrounding areas don't look like a piece of poo poo. That's really all you can do before actually going to the place.
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Mar 31, 2015 03:24
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geforce posted:econo lodge. An ex boyfriend of mine was in town ages ago, and we got rooms at an Econo Lodge. The first room? Only a bedspread on the bed, no sheets. It had a fridge and microwave, but we couldn't get wifi. Granted, we were there to gently caress for the weekend (and 2 gay guys checking into a cheap hotel room with a single queen bed just screams "we're here to gently caress"), but working wifi was a must for downtime. Went down to the front desk, mentioned the wifi. The clerk rolled his eyes and said "yeah, I'm sure you guys really need wifi" and moved us to another room closer to the single wireless access point in the building. Next room had working wifi, but still no sheets on the bed, and no fridge. I was more irritated that I'd left my dinner in the first room, but the lack of sheets was a genuine  for both of us. The Motel 6 Suites down the road has rooms that are twice the size with a kitchenette for $3/night less (that's the rack rate, I'd booked the Econo Lodge 2 weeks prior).  Wasn't horrible beyond that, but no pillows, no sheets, and a single towel, in a hotel that looked like it was actually really nice at one time. Had to request pillows. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 06:20
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I checked into a motel that a dude at the bar recommended to me - this was in a small city in Costa Rica, a place I probably shouldn't've been. The barfly and the guy who gave me the key said, "Don't lock the top one!" as I secured the deadbolt after leaving my bag inside before going out to dinner, and I pretended not to understand. I guess they were planning on robbing me, but were really terrible at it, since it seemed like they had just one key to their own hotel room. I had dinner and walked back to my motel after dark. I passed by a room where there was a dude inside barking to himself. I steeled my resolve to spend the night there but get out at first light. I went inside and immediately barricaded the door with the only chair in the room, which was conveniently the exact height to fit under the door handle. I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and my journal from my backpack, took a swig, sat down, and wrote a bit. Somebody tried the door - just twisting the handle - but, of course, couldn't get in. I slept a few hours and got the gently caress out of Dodge. It really wasn't a scary place in the daylight.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:51
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some texas redneck posted:
Well... You have to have something to bite on. Am I right?
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Apr 1, 2015 09:59
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I can second the avoidance of EconoLodge. I had to stay in one for a 10 day work trip in Santa Cruz and it was pretty gross. If you walked around barefoot at all your feet would be pitch black within minutes. That and the couch/seats that looked like they found on the side of the road, the stains on the wall that looked like blood, and the remnants of a smashed roach on the painting in the room made me want to stay in the room as little as possible. And that was still around 100 a night. After that and another similar stay in an America's Best Value Inn, I've resolved to never book a room in a motel again unless I am forced to. At least with a Holiday Inn or similar chain, for only the extra 20-50 a night you know you'll get a room that is at least clean, even if it's nothing special.
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Apr 1, 2015 10:20
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A Motel 6 that was being remodeled/renovated. They did the work at night. Why would you do construction on a hotel at night.
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Apr 1, 2015 15:47
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Why would you stay at a motel 6?
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Apr 1, 2015 16:23
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HisMajestyBOB posted:So what are some good ways to avoid these terrible hotels? Or, what are some red flags to look out for? The name: watch for things like econo, budget, value, etc. Those are bad. Also motel is the worst, hotel slightly better, suites is usually the best. Sometimes they will trick you though. Watch out for inns, sometimes they can be little nice b and Bs and other times they are a motel with a tricky name. Also watch anything that says extended stay. Building height: taller is better Room doors inside better than room doors outside. Lobby with front desk better than office in a converted room. Room keycards better than room keys Price advertised on a large sign out front is bad. Also free hbo advertisement usually bad. If you can see the pool from the parking lot that's usually not great either.
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Apr 1, 2015 17:30
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I work in the oilfields and sometimes for our 21 day hitches we stay in hotels all the time. Usually it's pretty good, I mean nothing fancy but free breakfast and clean rooms. Except one time. The way the rooms are split up is 2 guys per room, one on nightshift one on dayshift, so you never see each other. My roommate for the hitch started off okay but was messy as HELL. Now, I'm not the cleanest person either but I stuff my dirty clothes into a bag or something. The messy thing didn't bother me at first until there was a moat made out dirty socks/whatever all around his bed, and it started to smell. Everyone has foot odor, which is why people usually put their poo poo in a hamper or something. This kid's odor was....just unholy. Like he dipped his socks in Satan's rear end in a top hat and then threw them wherever there was room. Later I heard his feet smelled so loving bad that they had to make him sit outside our trailer during lunch. When I saw him at work for 5 minutes during our shift change I'd tell him to straighten up his poo poo and he was actually decent about it. Didn't really clean jack poo poo but at least moved his festering garments and crusty old devil socks into a corner. That lasted for about 2 days and he started throwing everything all over the place again. Including my bed. One day I come back to the hotel after work and our room wasn't cleaned, beds weren't made. No big deal, it happens. Then the same thing happened again the next day. And the day after that. I go down to the front desk and tell them to get in there. The manager was confused and apologetic and said yeah we'll do it. I had to start opening the window in my room for 40 minutes before I went to bed because it smelled so loving bad. I kept telling my buddy to clean up but it never went beyond "shuffle my heap of dirty poo poo around." I come to my room and see the toilet's clogged, and had been for at least 12 hours. And our room still hadn't been cleaned. So I go down to the front desk and bitch about the room and ask for a plunger. The manager personally called one of the maids to my room. She was apologetic too but told me they weren't cleaning our room because of the loving smell. It smelled so bad they didn't want to come in there. I apologized for my dick head roommate and promised it would get better, so they cleaned it that night real quick. Next morning I bitched out my buddy there and told him if he didn't loving shower once every two days and at least stuffed his socks into a drawer or something he could get sent home. Sadly that was actually true, after I told my supervisor he said this wasn't the first time the kid had gotten warnings about personal hygiene. After that his mound of clothes became smaller, I think he just stuffed as much poo poo as he could into his duffel bag. But, I started noticing MY socks were disappearing. Before the job I had bought a couple of large packs of socks from Walmart. He was starting to steal my fresh socks. And once when I came back to my room after work my laptop would be open with all sorts of tabs open that were not me. Yeah I realize I'm an idiot for not password protecting it, I sure as hell did after that. So he's stealing my socks and doing god knows what on my computer. I complained to the supervisor one last time and they sent him home. Turns out he stole a pair of my coveralls too. That night the hotel staff didn't clean our room (turns out it was actually a mistake this time). As I'm sitting down on my bed I see he's got hairs like all over his bed. Like wtf, what hairs? Too short to come off his head, were they god drat pubic hairs? Was he violently jacking off every night? I told the hotel staff to change the sheets for his replacement, and maybe burn them after hiring an exorcist. I realize that was more "terrible roommate" story but yeah, that was my most uncomfortable experience in a hotel.
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Apr 1, 2015 21:23
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I was reading these horror stories and couldn't recall ever having a bad hotel experience... and then I remembered The Pines. (If you lived on Long Island during the 90's, you remember the ads: a breathy female voice whispering "The Pines", some cheesy music, while a Vaseline-greased lens captured a ragged cougar dancing with some dude half her age. The ad basically screamed: yes we have an hourly rate, come bring your prostitute here.) My boyfriend at the time and I were college students; he still lived at home with his parents, and I had an rear end in a top hat roommate. If we wanted some romantic, special occasion evening alone, such as our anniversary, my roommate would happily agree to walk up to the bar on the corner. This typically resulted in him getting plowed, stumbling home earlier than expected, and then not giving us any privacy to carry out said sexy time. (Once he burst through my room wielding a "no parking" sign ripped from the ground while we were loving, but that's a story for another thread...) So for my birthday, we sprung for a room at The Pines. We knew it was a cheap motel, but $40 for some privacy sounded sweet. Plus waterbeds! Mirror-ceilings! a Jacuzzi! We'd scored some ecstasy and prepared for an all-night sexfest in LI's "finest" gently caress hotel. Never having been on a waterbed, the combo of motion + drugs made me queasy and I puked a bit as the mdma hit (that was all my fault, not the motel). After recovering, we got down and dirty. But as the night went on, we got colder and colder, despite it being springtime and bundling ourselves in blankets. The E wasn't letting us sleep, and the cold was making us shiver terribly, so we finally dragged ourselves out around dawn with knots in muscles we didn't know we even had. Turns out waterbeds are supposed to be heated. 
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Apr 1, 2015 22:00
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Franchised places can be a nightmare, you have to look at the surrounding hotel/motel prices because quite often the franchise will require competitive pricing with single owner hotels or other franchises. Like motel 6 for example promises the lowest prices in the area meaning that if there is a $30.00/night economy extended stay place down the street that should have been leveled in the early 80's than the motel 6 you're looking at has to run lower than that. Which boils down to the motel owners having to cut costs on maintenance, then housekeeping and after that you have an overworked front desk staff trying to keep the rooms clean. It takes awhile for the quality of life to go down on the building itself but the housekeeping is what we all notice and that shows immediately.
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Apr 3, 2015 00:34
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This is one of those places where you talk to the motel employee through glass and they slide a key (attached to a plastic don't-steal-me the size of a loving phone book) to you. He was a tiny Indian man with an air of suspicion. It's 1:00 AM. Me: I need a room for the night. Him: Are you armed? Wait, what the gently caress? They don't ask you that at Holiday Inn. Turns out, though, that I was. Me: In fact, I am. Him: Good. Keep it close. This place is dangerous. Welp. Rock me to loving sleep, I guess.
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Apr 5, 2015 04:53
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I worked as a bellman and driver for a hotel for three years. Towards the end of my time there the hotel made a deal with the local V.A. hospital to allow vets to stay cheaply or on the V.A.s dime. One day I pick up a vet after his chemo treatment and he starts telling me about how he has prostate cancer and he's losing his dick. He then pulls out his phone and shows me a photo of his dick. I put in my two weeks the same day.
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Apr 5, 2015 16:56
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Was traveling with a co-worker some years ago, going from small town to small town in the midwest - didn't know at what speed we'd be going so we weren't booking rooms in advance, just getting to a town and finding something. Pull into this town at 8pm and a big "Vacancy" sign on the mom-and-pop hotel. Sign outside the hotel says something to the effect of Room $50 Extra people $10/ea Indian guy running the desk inside. I order two single rooms. He only has one single room, but has plenty of double rooms. I tell him we'll take one single and one double. He asks how many people will be staying in each. I tell him one. He asks why I want a double if there's only one person staying there. I tell him because he only has one single and we need two rooms. He doesn't believe me and starts telling me I have to pay $10 for each additional person, and how many are staying in the double. We are two people, standing there, having parked directly in front of check-in, with a now empty vehicle. We go back and forth. He won't relent. Eventually I give in. "Okay, I'll take two single rooms", I say. He says "I only have one single room. How about a double?". Ok. I swear to God.
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Apr 5, 2015 18:26
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photomikey posted:Was traveling with a co-worker some years ago, going from small town to small town in the midwest - didn't know at what speed we'd be going so we weren't booking rooms in advance, just getting to a town and finding something. Thats really odd policy. I think I only had one issue where they tried to cram a ton of people in a room (gypsies, for real actual gypsies). I used to get lied to a lot about the number of people staying though because people assumed we charged more for more than one person, but usually when you tell them its just in case the place burns down we can tell the fire department if theres still people inside to rescue theyll let you know.
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Apr 6, 2015 02:24
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I stayed at a hotel in downtown Cincinnati last year, and although it is nowhere near as bad as some of these stories, it was still my worst experience in a hotel. (Room was $150 FWIW) -1st room had shoe prints on both of the beds like the maids were jumping on it or something. The faucet in the bathroom was also broken. We requested a new room since the faucet was broken. -2nd room had old food in the mini fridge from the previous guest. At this point, me and my two buddies decided that we were going to complain again. The staff moved us into another room. -3rd room seemed fine and we had a dinner reservation to get to so we just threw our luggage in the room and left. When we came back for the night, we noticed that there was a big white "fluid" stain on the leather seat in the room. We complained again and moved to a different room and received 50% off of the room -At this point we decided it would be best not to look around in the room too much.
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Apr 6, 2015 03:00
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Glad to see the thread is picking up again. Wanted to touch on a few of the things brought up the past few days.HisMajestyBOB posted:So what are some good ways to avoid these terrible hotels? Or, what are some red flags to look out for? Don't stay at an Economy/Value/Budget tier hotel or motel. You are getting what you pay for with those rooms. A lot of people think "I just need a bed and shower so I want the cheapest possible" but those rooms are all universally dirty. Reason being - with their bottom line so low they rarely have sufficient housekeepers. Most of these terrible stories you hear are in regards to cleanliness and it's almost always these cheap motels. Tripadvisor is your best friend. There is a magical effect on review sites where people will type up a long wall of text describing their experience if a hotel is EXCEPTIONAL or REALLY BAD. Guests will not hesitate to do a scathing tirade if they are mistreated. Just look at the lowest ranked hotel in the area on Tripadvisor and look at the Terrible reviews. Here's an example: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g52410-d616479-Reviews-Hotel_Conneaut_at_Conneaut_Lake_Park-Conneaut_Lake_Pennsylvania.html#REVIEWS That said, it's not hard to get a decent Hotel. Avoid Motels - like it's already been mentioned in the thread. Go for franchised places (Not Super 8, Motel 6, or America's Best Value Inn) for a better chance of a smooth night. Some of the corporate offices for the higher-quality brands are VERY pro-consumer. IHG Hotels (of Holiday Inn) will automatically charge a hotel $500 dollars if a guest calls the corporate office in complaint, even if it's a bogus complaint. That is not including that they expect the offending hotel to rectify the guest's issues, often by paying for their next stay at any other Holiday Inn. Naturally Holiday Inns are VERY quick to take care of any issues and maintain pretty high standards. It's normally a bit more expensive - but you are paying for that added assurance that the Hotel will make it up to you 100% in the case of a gently caress up. Outside of that though, ask to see a room. You are paying upwards of $100 a night, why jump into that blind? It's surprising to me how rare it is that a guest will ask to check out the room, even if they're on the fence about it. If any hotel clerk refuses to let a potential sell even look at the room then you need to run, not walk, to the car. There's likely a reason they don't want you to see it and it's rarely worth saving an extra $20 bucks to sleep in Mystery Fluid #4 when you bunk down. Lastly if you check in after 11, pay close attention to the Night Auditor. The Night Auditor is the least regulated out of all front desk clerks. If they are busy watching TV, goofing around on a Laptop or playing on their phone when you come in, leave. If they seem bothered or annoyed by you coming in, leave. If it is an [REDACTED] man, leave. That sounds terrible, but it is mostly [REDACTED] families that own smaller to mid-tier hotels and motels. And if you see an [REDACTED] at the desk during this time, it means that to save on payroll, they just have a family member handle that shift. This means they are CHEAP. The breakfast person will likely be [REDACTED], as well as the one or two housekeepers they have. It's all to save on payroll. You do not want to stay in a cheap person's hotel. The rooms will likely not be well maintained and the housekeeping lackadaisical at best. e: some of those Tripadvisor stories are gold. "Well by morning there was a rather yucky fungus garden growing out of the carpet underneath the a/c unit"..."After politely complaining, they simply used a sweeper to mow down the mushroom garden." some texas redneck posted:Why Econo Lodge sucks Funny story. Early in my Hotel career (while still a morning desk clerk) I had two guys want to check in that booked a room through Expedia. Now Expedia is the devil and naturally had the room booked as a single. I apologized and said that we do have doubles available but it would be $10 dollars more than Expedia quoted. They just sorted looked at each other and then one said: "Nah, I think we'll survive with a single." I shrugged it off to cheapness and told them if they needed extra blankets or pillows or anything to let me know. They said "I'm sure it'll be fine" while trying to stifle a chuckle. I gave them their keys and they walked off. I would like to say in my defense that it dawned on me right before they started holding each other's hands as they walked away. I think they did that for my sake though. They were chill guys, I was just really drat dense at the time. Also, don't use the term RACK rate. It will make the hotel clerk  RACK rate is an old industry term for the standard, non-discounted rate. Problem is, hotels would get guys walk in that either knew the industry or were told by disgruntled hotel employees and they would say things like "give me the best available discount on the RACK rate." or they'd ask the price and then say "don't give me the RACK rate." It automatically put the clerks in a harder bargaining position. 4-5 years ago it started changing. Now the industry is trying to push the term BAR (Best Available Rate) down everyone's throats. This way when people ask for a discount we say "Well Sir, that is the Best Available Rate". Some people still use the term RACK, but it's being phased out. The irony is when you pull the "Best Available Rate" line, and the guest brings up their AARP card. They normally aren't too happy when you reveal the Best Available Rate really wasn't the best. Mortley posted:The barfly and the guy who gave me the key said, "Don't lock the top one!" Some hotels still use a type of latch in addition to a deadbolt for a lock. Thing is, although most keys or electronic lock systems can override the deadbolt - the latch can't be dealt with outside of using a goofy tool. We've had people try to hole up in the rooms before and refuse to come out, and that drat latch is always the most frustrating thing to deal with. That said, im 90% sure they were actually gonna rob you. Murphy Brownback posted:If you walked around barefoot at all your feet would be pitch black within minutes. I can never understand this. It baffles me to this day why people would want to walk around a hotel barefoot. Yes, that floor is mopped twice a day, but it still gets puked on, has dirt and snow tracked on it and has had god knows how many people walking on it all day. Even though it might look clean, it really isn't. And yet people still insist on roaming around without even socks on. I get some people just REALLY like being barefoot, but doing that in a hotel is just a bad idea. I normally tell them they cannot do it due to liability reasons. But honestly, no one wants to see your gross feet in the breakfast room. FuturePastNow posted:A Motel 6 that was being remodeled/renovated. They did the work at night. Why would you do construction on a hotel at night. The owners themselves were doing the work to save on hiring a construction crew. It's cheap people being cheap, I'd expect no less from a Motel 6. No crew would work during the night. The owners likely do it because they are busy at certain points during the day so they work when the schedule permits. That said, it's dumb for them to do. GorillaMan! posted:Franchised places can be a nightmare, you have to look at the surrounding hotel/motel prices because quite often the franchise will require competitive pricing with single owner hotels or other franchises. I would argue that this is true for the cheap brands, not all franchises. I know most medium brands (like most of the Choice Hotels) do not do that. Zombie Boat posted:I worked as a bellman and driver for a hotel for three years. Towards the end of my time there the hotel made a deal with the local V.A. hospital to allow vets to stay cheaply or on the V.A.s dime. One day I pick up a vet after his chemo treatment and he starts telling me about how he has prostate cancer and he's losing his dick. He then pulls out his phone and shows me a photo of his dick. I put in my two weeks the same day. Man, some of the stories you get in this industry are bonkers. I had an old lady I was babysitting about 4 years ago, she was probably in her late 60s. I was working the Audit and the bar had just closed up. She had a little bit to drink, and was in town for her sister's funeral. She was pretty depressed and a bit tipsy so instead of going to bed she wanted to tell me her life story. This is Normal with some of the older drinkers I get, so I didn't think much of it. Until she got to the part about the secret abortion she got in the 70s. She told no one else in her family what happened and covered it all up by saying she fell down some stairs. She said the baby's ghost still haunts her dreams. Then she went right into another story about her sister falling out of a tree during a hurricane and breaking her arm and how Eileen was always adventurous like that, haha! Like she totally didn't just tell me a dark 40 year old secret. Man, this job is hosed up sometimes. Blackchamber posted:Thats really odd policy. I think I only had one issue where they tried to cram a ton of people in a room (gypsies, for real actual gypsies). I used to get lied to a lot about the number of people staying though because people assumed we charged more for more than one person, but usually when you tell them its just in case the place burns down we can tell the fire department if theres still people inside to rescue theyll let you know. It's not that strange. We charge for more than 2 adults (children stay free) in a room. It's not a problem that often, but we do occasionally get tourists from Canada and it seems like they always have Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt [INSERT NON-ETHNIC NAME], Cousin [INSERT NON-ETHNIC NAME], and the two little ones all in one van. Of course they want one room with two cots and extras of everything. Then they tell me it's just two adults and two kids  But seriously, our rooms are only zoned for up to 5 people period. That's a drat fire hazard and I don't care if you want to shove your clown car family in one tiny space, I just don't want the Hotel to get screwed over if something happens. e: edited for casual racism, apologies if I triggered anyone. That Jerk Steve fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Apr 6, 2015 |
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Apr 6, 2015 08:15
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That Jerk Steve posted:
Nice casual racism bro.
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Apr 6, 2015 12:12
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reformed bad troll posted:Nice casual racism bro. My GM and the family that owns my hotel are Sikh. He will be the first to tell you that it is primarily Indian families or old, white men at Franchisee conferences. He will then rant for an hour why you only see the name "Singh" and "Patel" out of those Indian families. I'm sorry that Indians have a tendency to often run hotels and motels but instead of getting prickly over it, you should feel proud - regardless of how well they run them they achieved something admirable. Bro. That said, my GM is a loving incredible man and I have a huge amount of respect for him. I wouldn't have stuck around for as long otherwise. Edited my previous post to not Trigger any sensitive souls lurking ITT That Jerk Steve fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Apr 6, 2015 |
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Apr 6, 2015 12:44
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That Jerk Steve posted:Edited my previous post to not Trigger any sensitive souls lurking ITT Racist and an rear end in a top hat, cool.
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Apr 6, 2015 14:36
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Holiday Inns are not nice, holiday inns are the devil. Something about IHG brand standards, I dunno, the Holiday Inns are all over the place in terms of quality. I mean, nothing like the stories here but I've had pretty poo poo experiences at Holiday Inns almost universally. I was so happy when my company mostly dumped them, although I did a points stay in a Candlewood Suites 2 weeks ago that was pretty weird but nothing on the Holiday Inn with the bucket to collect the leaky water... in the lobby. Holiday Inn Express's are surprisingly usually nice, cause they are new, although their breakfast is pretty disgusting. If a place offers a free breakfast, it's probably pretty disgusting. The best in terms of consistency chain-wise seems to be Hilton/Hyatt, and I'm sure Starwood rules with an iron fist as well but I don't tend to stay there too often, they have a weird mix of hotels. Marriott is pretty decent also. The nicest rooms tend to be at the newest chains ie Hilton Garden Inns, Hamptons, they're pretty religious about renovating every 10 years and tend to be kept up imo. Source: ~200 days a year in hotels.
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Apr 6, 2015 15:32
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That Jerk Steve posted:I can never understand this. It baffles me to this day why people would want to walk around a hotel barefoot. Yes, that floor is mopped twice a day, but it still gets puked on, has dirt and snow tracked on it and has had god knows how many people walking on it all day. Even though it might look clean, it really isn't. And yet people still insist on roaming around without even socks on. I get some people just REALLY like being barefoot, but doing that in a hotel is just a bad idea. I normally tell them they cannot do it due to liability reasons. He means around his room. Your room should be clean enough to walk around barefoot.
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Apr 6, 2015 15:43
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The Slaughter posted:Holiday Inns are not nice, holiday inns are the devil. Something about IHG brand standards, I dunno, the Holiday Inns are all over the place in terms of quality. I mean, nothing like the stories here but I've had pretty poo poo experiences at Holiday Inns almost universally. I was so happy when my company mostly dumped them, although I did a points stay in a Candlewood Suites 2 weeks ago that was pretty weird but nothing on the Holiday Inn with the bucket to collect the leaky water... in the lobby. Holiday Inn Express's are surprisingly usually nice, cause they are new, although their breakfast is pretty disgusting. If a place offers a free breakfast, it's probably pretty disgusting. The best in terms of consistency chain-wise seems to be Hilton/Hyatt, and I'm sure Starwood rules with an iron fist as well but I don't tend to stay there too often, they have a weird mix of hotels. Marriott is pretty decent also. The nicest rooms tend to be at the newest chains ie Hilton Garden Inns, Hamptons, they're pretty religious about renovating every 10 years and tend to be kept up imo. Source: ~200 days a year in hotels. I've also got to say good things about Melia based on my experiences, mind you they aren't really a thing in North America yet. Good prices, reasonable service, no complaints to speak of.
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Apr 6, 2015 15:55
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