Normal days here at the front desk of the hotel I work at are pretty busy especially considering we are located by the airport, needless to say the business here is steady and on the weekends its worse, we deal with long term stays here and most guests understand that and with the long term stays it happens that some of them have kids, that's not the issue.
The issue that I have been tending to have is that some adults that stay here do not supervise their kids whatsoever, I have a pretty sweet gig where I stay, I get a room because I have to be on call at night and that's a huge deal for me because I love where I work.
Recently had a returning long term guest check in a few months back at this point and every single day without fail their kids get them and their friends to stay in my lobby for upwards of an hour to an hour and a half straight being nosy, asking people if they can use their card on a vending machine and give them cash in return as our machines only take card, mind you these kids are not asking people they know just random people in general, on top of it all the kids have figured out the room I'm staying in and constantly knock on my door during business hours while someone is actively at the front desk, I have spoken to their mom about the issue and they don't do it anymore but the issue I'm seeming to have is that they think the lobby is a daycare, so finally today I snapped after they wanted to go back and forth with me about them staying in the lobby, telling me I'm not their mom, I cant tell them what to do etc. Well finally I snapped and told them they either need to go outside or go back to their room my lobby is not a daycare and if they want to keep acting up ill call both their mom and their grandmother.
not only does the things they do annoy me, it drives away business and I have brought it up to managements attention, so I guess while I'm here has anyone else encountered this issue in their place of business? how did you handle it? Am I an asshole for snapping at the kids? any and all tips on this would also be appreciated.
EDIT 1: After reading everybodies replies im pretty confident in my next steps and will do so accordingly, next time this happens im having a one on one with the parent in question, if it proceeds to further be an issue I will consult management and give them one more time to correct the issue before we resort to the last resort option and call non emergency if need be, thank you all valiant brave front deskers for the advice, as I have almost a decade of experience in front desk this has never been an issue, now I do see how common it is. to the brave night auditers god speed!