Sure, I've caught better Groudon over the years, but Groupon here was the only shiny and one of the last legendary Pokémon I caught from a research breakthrough back before Niantic nurffed them in 2019.
I just took a phone call that went like this:
> Me: Shmampton Inn, Me speaking. > > Phone guy: Is this 330 Road Street? > > Me: No, this is 300 Road Street. > > Phone guy: Oh, sorry. Wrong address.
What? Last I checked, phone numbers are not assigned by address.
Last week:
> Me: Shmampton Inn, Me speaking.
>
> Phone guy: Hi, does your hotel have housekeeping and a front desk?
>
> Me: ...um...yeah? (while thinking to myself "What hotel doesn't have Housekeeping or a front desk?")
>
> Phone guy: Alright. Thanks. click
What are these people on?
Logged into my shift and checked the Rooking extranet to see what fun was in store for tonight and I see a Guest Q&A.
"How much is parking?"
Really? You're wasting my time for this?
First, it's listed TOP AND CENTER under: Amenities of (our hotel).
> Parking > Public parking is available on site (reservation is not needed) and costs CAD 45 per day.
Then, further down under "Travelers are asking" the first question asked and answered is:
>"Can I park there?"
Click on that and you get a pop-up that answers this question and the multitude of other similar questions. In fact, of the 51 questions answered to date, 29 of them are the THE. EXACT. SAME. QUESTION.
"How much is parking?"
> Can I park there? > Public parking is available on site (reservation is not needed) and costs CAD 45 per day.
Similar questions Asked by other travelers
> Is there Parking? if Yes how much? > hello, parking is $45 plus taxes per night, thank you
Next
> Price for parking? > Hello, parking is $45 plus taxes per night, thank you
Next
> Tiene parking gratis > No, no tenemos estacionamiento gratuito. El estacionamiento cuesta $45 + impuestos por día.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOOK FOR YOUSELF ON THE WEBSITE YOU ARE LITERALLY ALREADY LOOKING AT RIGHT NOW! GAH.
Had a guest come to the front desk.
> "I forgot my keycard in the room."
No problem, happens all the time. I verified their ID and issued a new card.
> "Can I have one of the little envelopes? It keeps it from getting demagnetized."
Umm...what? Instantly my brain goes "One, we don't issue magnetic keys, they're all RFID coded now. Two, it's literally a folded piece of card stock which I regularly code the keys through on a regular basis, it provides ZERO protection." But you know what? Starting down that road isn't worth the effort.
Sure! Here's a new envelope for you sir.
I used to be "that guy." One of those people who loved to over explain everything for literally no one other than their own satisfaction but over time I realized that most people are just too...self-engrossed that they just don't care. So, instead I just play along. Ignorance is bliss and, as a hospitality employee, I am here to provide said bliss so your day is stress free.
The number of people who come up to me during breakfast hours and say "I'd like to settle up and check out." then get mad when housekeeping interrupts them in the shower 2 hours later is mind boggling.
Like, dude, you CHECKED OUT meaning you are OUT of the hotel. What's confusing about this? Why would we check you out if you're going to hang around in the room for another few hours? How would we know when you actually leave? Or if you left on time?
This is not a hard concept to grasp people. Come on.
Literally 5 minutes ago (9am). A couple come to the front desk, hand me their key and say, "We're checking out today." so I process their check out and wish them well and he just stares at me and says, "But we need the key to get into the room, we're not leaving until Noon".
THEN WHY MAKE ME CHECK YOU OUT?!? GAH!
Booking from a 3rd party came in, let's call them "AGoober". I am going to use the actual name on the reservation because it is so generic that there's noting to bother protecting:
Customer name: LEGAL LAW FIRM ETC
The address is that of Agoober as is the phone number and email address.
I wrote Agoober hotel support:
>Please contact the guest and update this reservation with a correct "legal" name or we will cancel it...with prejudice.
Their response:
> Kindly be informed that according to GDPR policies and in order to protect the personal information of our customers, we’re not at liberty to disclose any customer’s personal information without their permission.
Ok. Great. The reservation is cancelled now. Thanks for the support.
EDIT:
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. A major privacy law from the European Union (EU) that came into effect on May 25, 2018. Its purpose is to protect people’s personal data and give them more control over how that data is collected and used. The GDPR does NOT prohibit sharing guest names with a hotel when it's required to fulfill a booking.
What the template response tells me is they don't actually know who is staying but can't tell us that, so they're falling back on the "Sorry, privacy, blah blah blah" excuse.