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.
You would think that would automatically annoy a staff member, right? But when it boils down to it, you pulling the toilet paper or whichever supply off the cart yourself, and not calling the front desk or housekeeping asking them to pull someone away from their other duties to bring up just 1 item, is actually HELPING the hotel run faster and more efficiently. I say if you're a guest, and you actually NEED the item, not just taking it as a souvenir for the hell of it, go for it! If you're NOT a guest, and just passing through, then that's not a very nice thing to do, since ultimately lost items mean the paying guests will have to pay... Read More +
This is the cheap internet searchable answer: "They are placed there by a group called a non-profit Christian organization called the Gideons. The Gideons are not preachers, but businessmen who feel called to help with this ministry. They raise money from churches and individuals and use this money to print and distribute Bibles to many places--wherever they are allowed to put them--such as hospitals, prisons, and motel rooms. Through feedback and letters they receive, they have learned of many people who picked up one of their Bibles in a desperate moment and found the faith to turn their lives around. All Marriott hotels have Book of... Read More +
It's so hard to point out one specific incident, but I would say the phone call from someone that makes me jump through dozens of hoops to get them a specific type of reservation (for some callers, this process takes weeks of back and forth), who then cancels for no apparent reason. I mean this is someone who's had me also book them a car service, massages, dinner reservations, made me go to my Director of Sales to see if I can get them a rock-bottom rate, and I work so hard for so long out of the goodness of my heart, and then...sorry! Cancelled. Second place to that would be guests of guests being the hardest ones to deal with, asking... Read More +
Probably gunshot wound to the foot of a John in the lobby being attended to by his hooker at midnight. Kind of tops it all, I think.
Football Official
Air Traffic Controller
Starbucks Barista
I wish i could have answered your question earlier Jerilyn, because it sounds like you may have needed the answer in the moment, but in any event, you should be fine to visit a hotel room and knock on the door if ever you feel there is a legitimate reason. Even with a Do Not Disturb Sign on the door, you still have the right to ask a question of a guest if you feel that his or her safety, or the safety of others, is in jeopardy. It's often a good idea to bring another staff member with you so that if the situation into which you're entering is sensitive, you have a witness that can later prove that you did the right thing, if it comes to... Read More +
Hotel laundry services are mroe expensive because of how many levels of service they encompass. Compare, say, taking your own laundry to the dry cleaners and picking it up. You're on the time schedule, say 2-3 days on average, of the cleaner, you're doing the leg work of taking it there and picking it up, etc. With a hotel you literally do nothing except drop the laundry in a bag and in many instances never even have to take it out of your room, so the extra costs are associated with the door-to-door services and all the steps in between that cost the cleaners, and in turn, the hotel extra money. Most of the guests... Read More +
As with any internet network to which you do not completely own the access and privileges, use a hotel's wifi and plug-in ethernet at your own risk. Sure, a hotel could look at different URLs visited by guests, but that would involve combing through thousands of logs not to mention would not be warranted unless a criminal investigatoin were underway. Let's just say most hotels would not want to waste their time doing so. However, with the prevalence of iPads provided by hotels in-room these days, especially with custom-built apps for each brand and property (that cost quite a lot of time and money to develop), there's a... Read More +
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