Hotel Front Desk
Los Angeles, CA
Male, 27
For the past two years I've worked the front desk at a boutique luxury beachfront hotel in Southern California. My job can range from simply checking guests in & out to many other duties, including: pretending I work in different departments so that behind-the-scenes chaos is never seen by a guest, shielding guests from stalkers that come looking for them, and picking up used drug paraphernalia from a trashed room. Ask me anything.
I have definitely held my ground, never lost my cool though. Thank goodness, because I would have hurt someone if I did! I find that how I look and deliver my words will severely impact how far someone thinks they can take something. One New Year's Eve when we had an all-night party I had to work until 2 am and I happened to have the opportunity to grow a full beard while on vacation beforehand. I kept it for that night and made sure to keep my security-style earpiece in and also shaved my head. That night I was more cop than front desk. Telling people "no," which almost never happens, was okay on that night because it prevented, rather than caused chaos. I do recall one guest saying to me "Are you crazy?!" before storming out of the lobby when I told him he couldn't extend his stay because we were MORE than sold out, but I have to think, what good would it have done myself or the hotel if I had told him otherwise? There was nothing I could do for him so I had to be brutally honest. If I see that guy on the street ever I might have to kick his ass though.
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At my property thankfully we have duvets that are completely washable and that means we DO wash them. That being said, at cheaper hotels and especially motels, ownership or management are going to cut corners, including not washing the duvet covers. In most cases, it's in the best interest of a hotel-owner to do so but one place that gets almost ZERO attention are the couches and chairs! Those in most cases don't need cleaning unless something is visibly wrong, so you can imagine how much unseen filth is on those! Not a place to do anything naked...
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The simple answer is, most of those who succeed in hospitality careers do fit your description, and naturally gravitate to these jobs. If the hiring manager at the hotel wants to keep up at all with the increasingly competitive market, the demand for the best service, and wants to differentiate their brand and property from another, then I would give the credit first to the person who is actually as you described above, because it can take a lot of resolve, cunning, and resourcefulness to remain that way given what a front of house job requires daily. Second, I would give credit to the brand itself (Hyatt comes to mind, as does some other brands which take a lot of time ensuring their employees are properly selected, outfitted, trained, and managed), and lastly I would credit the hiring manager who made the ultimate decision to bring those qualified and moldable candidates aboard.
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According to the site: "Hotel Managers have given no official answer to this question. They have provided front desk clerks the ability to upgrade rooms at their discretion and as long as that continues the Twenty Dollar Trick will continue to work. We have heard that the Flamingo has forced banned all the front desk clerks from upgrading patrons to the Go room." -http://thetwentydollartrick.com/ Where I work, management would frown on this, and all upgrades fall into the same process as to how to give them to a guest. Like most perks, the closer to sold out the hotel is, the harder it is to offer anything extra to a guest that hasn't arranged it in advance. When a hotel has many rooms to sell, often it's easier to sell the lower-priced rooms, so placing the person who has a special occasion, OR, who happened to have slipped you a $20 ostensibly to be nice, in an upgraded room, benefits you the guest, but also leaves the hotel with lower-priced rooms open which sell faster and help fill up the hotel.
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People definitely do carry an air of entitlement with them if they have accomplished a certain feat in life. But I have seen both extremes, and one fact holds true: the people who have REALLY made something of themselves, and are actually worthy of praise and great treatment, KNOW it, and don't have to speak it out loud. The guests who are barely there and are desperate, or worse, might have once been to a certain level and are now a has-been, are the worst people to deal with because they are bickering over every little detail, yet have very little to offer to their professional peers, much less society. These are the hardest guests to deal with, but after about 6 months on the job they can be spotted a mile away and my emotional and mental guard are already up before they hit the desk. Real accomplishment, ethics, and honor are worn on someone's shoulder, and don't need to be mentioned out loud. I have had firefighters, cops, soldiers, working class and other honest people stay with us and I have gone over and above to help them with anything they need, because they almost always NEVER ask for anything out of line. It doesn't bother me, however, if I do get one of the people who is obnoxious and entitled, because I have always felt that if I let it get to me, I wouldn't be any better than that person.
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Using a vacant room for anything other than prepping it for the next guest could land someone in a lot of trouble, however if it is a slow time of year and there is a bank of rooms that haven't been occupied in a while, then some hotel managers are okay with their employees eating their lunch in such a room. That policy would vary and likely would not fly at a larger, more corporate and branded hotel. As far as using a vacant room for napping, drug use, or other unprofessional activity, it's just a path to trouble for anyone doing it. You will see some hotels have live-in managers, or a rotating shift of managers that stay the night, especially on weekends, so that there is someone close by for emergencies, but all of that is pre-determined and sanctioned by upper management. I personally don't want to stay in the hotel any longer than I'm paid to, so I would prefer NOT to spend the night there, that's my personal feeling on it.
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Hotels are usually populated by very social employees, because one has to be social to be good at interacting with guests, but don't feel bad if you like to leave when your shift is over and go back to your home life once your work day is done. There are some employees for whom the hotel is their life, and that's fine, but don't worry if you are not always going out with co-workers after work or very involved in their personal chatter during down time. Just make it clear to co-workers that you are very into your home life and they'll probably understand why you may not be as into what's happening in social circles within the employee ranks.
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