It's not real money if you use Apple Pay.
Apple Pay is for it.
If it's less than $5, it doesn't count, right?
Also if my Apple like card thing in the app is preloaded, that's free.
This is GirlMath.
This is GirlMoneyMath right here.
It's free.
It's not real money.
Okay.
And on that note, welcome back to Tales from the Service Industry.
I'm your host, I'm Bill.
I'm here tonight with our favorite Resident Deviant, Liz.
Hi, team.
and Ms. B.
What up, guys?
So, guys, we don't have a human special guest tonight, but we have kind of a fourth thing
in the room that is a camera.
Yeah.
So, if you're listening to us on YouTube, hopefully this next episode is a little different.
Oh, yeah.
You can see our shenanigans with drinking wine and cheers.
So unfortunately, you can't see our faces, but you can kind of see our wine, our hands
coming in the frame, and you can see the wonderful treats that I brought my fabulous
co-host this evening.
Thanks, mom.
And before you wonder why that is, again, it comes back to the fact that we are working
professionals and while we like to share stories and give people a little insight into our world.
You see how hard they work to chet.
As they be super gently sets the glass down.
Yeah.
Because I knew her.
Anyway, since we are still working in the industry, we do try to keep a little bit of a lower profile.
So welcome to the Tales from the Service Industries Studio.
I missed you guys.
Oh, I missed you too.
I know we've been releasing episodes as regular and as scheduled, but we have not recorded
in quite a minute just with the three of us.
OG3.
We are back and we are ready and we are feeling spicy tonight.
Well, the other thing is that we've recorded and we've banked episodes.
So we got to take a little bit of a break behind the scenes.
Because we all have lives as do you as listeners and sometimes what you don't have lives.
We work in the service industry.
That is my life.
I mean, very true.
But we have other obligations sometimes and it's nice that we can stack episodes and
still give our listeners their episodes as scheduled.
So if you hear a little bit of clanking on coasters as glasses get set down or munching,
we are enjoying some of the most amazing snickerdoodles brought to you by yours truly.
Liz's mom.
Thanks Liz mom.
Well, no, I made them.
Oh, really?
Yeah, I made them.
I think you said your mother made them and you freeze them.
It's her recipe.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, okay, okay.
Well, that's just as exciting.
Yeah.
No, they are.
They were Liz's mom.
They are delicious and anyone listening from my hometown that probably played sports
with me.
Yeah, you know these snickerdoodle bars.
So bomb.
My mom makes them better.
Anyway, enough of her.
I do have kind of a time sensitive topic.
Oh, let's hear it.
Yeah, bring it on.
So I want to congratulate all of us for surviving Hurricane Hillary 2023.
Yeah, we did it.
It was so hard.
All this hype.
It was insane.
I mean, they told us to prepare for the worst and nothing happened.
I bought a battery operated radio.
Yeah, Bill, you got to listen to this and have us be truly prepared for the apocalypse.
I bought a couple cases of water bottles.
I got toilet paper.
I got paper towels.
I got first aid kit, like the legit one.
I got a battery operated radio because they said we needed that for like emergency radio
messages and stuff.
I got battery packs for my phone.
So I never have to go without a charge.
Flashlights.
Uh, tea lights.
Okay.
They were out of flashlights.
You were too late.
What else could you have?
Did you get gallons of water?
Um, oh, you got water bottles.
We got water bottles.
So yeah, I was like, they were saying like get pictures like from your tap to use as
like dishwashing and for hand washing.
I missed that.
And then they told you to buy gallon water jugs from the store for drinking water.
Okay.
Truly the pocket.
Like they told us to prepare for power outages, major, major flooding.
My big question for you guys is, but thank you for Miss B for sharing how you prepared
so well home nothing.
How did we prepare our workplaces for this disastrous storm?
We took down the flags and removed the cushions out of the pool.
Is that your standard rain prep?
Did you do anything extra?
Absolutely.
No.
Okay.
Bill.
Of course.
Really?
Yeah.
So for us, we ensured that the roof was clear of anything lightweight because unfortunately
a lot of hotels for whatever reason stuff ends up on the roof.
Anything that was lightweight so all of our pool furniture got stacked and cabled or it
was yeah, or it was put into a like an interior room.
We had planned on closing the pool because you know, they were saying that there's a
chance for thunder and lightning.
And the last thing you want to do is have people in a big body of water when there's
lightning going on.
We had advised everybody that we were going to be closing the pool, yet people didn't
care.
So we ended up having to cable lock the pool gates down.
So that's so funny.
Was this the day prior to the storm or day of?
No, it was the evening prior to.
So it was about seven o'clock.
People were still swimming.
It was like, Hey, look, you guys got to get out.
Come on.
I mean, look at that point.
Go back in your room.
Go to dinner.
I know.
And I know we were joking about the fact that we prepared and it came out to be a whole
bunch of nothing.
But at the same time, there are reasons why they asked you to do certain things like setting
aside water and bottled water and all that because should the water system lose pressure
and you have a backflow situation because we have to have backflow testing done every
year at our hotels to ensure that tainted water doesn't go back in the system.
But if the municipal system lost pressure and had something get into it, then that contaminates
the water supply.
So that's why they said, Hey, they have gallons of water on the side for drinking and whatever
comes out of your tap you can, you know, use for flushing toilets and things like that.
But they can't guarantee that what is in the municipal water system would be safe to drink
at that point.
I thought this is just because faucets wouldn't work.
No, there is a reason.
It's because the municipal water system is pressurized everywhere that they have water
go out of the system into a business, a building, a factory, whatever.
There are backflow valves so water can only go one direction.
So if the pressure within that building was to increase higher than the pressure in the
municipal water system, then that water is ejected out the backflow valve.
I literally just thought like the sink wouldn't work.
And so we were getting water bottles for that.
Wow.
Okay, cool.
I mean, I'm not trying to downplay the storm because there were areas that were severely
affected and there were areas that had to be evacuated.
I'm just talking about like our personal experience.
Like 90% of California, Southern California, because there's pretty much just like deserts
and high ground and areas.
Look at what we saw come out of the deserts.
They got a ton of rain and that's in an area that just doesn't normally get rain.
I mean, I saw rivers that, well, river beds that looked like they hadn't seen water in
decades flowing six feet deep.
And that's the thing that was concerning about for me is that you've got all this prep
that's going on.
You know, where we live, there's what, 4 million people in the area in this county,
give or take.
So for 4 million people that prepared, they had a whole bunch of nothing.
And then you have the adjacent county that had all the water in the desert that saw a
whole bunch of inundation, a much smaller percentage in population of people.
And they had a very different experience.
They have a very different take on this.
And what is going to suck is the next time this happens, whether it's in 90 years or
it's nine years.
It's that wolf thing where I remember with the last one they burned.
Do you remember in 2023?
Exactly.
And that's when people are going to get hurt or burned or whatever the case may be.
People like me that have anxiety.
Regardless, I had probably like 60% of the anxiety you did.
Like I was prepped.
Yeah.
Not to that extent.
You mean like our friend who was just out drinking in LA being like, hurricane?
What?
I was ridiculous.
That was ridiculous.
And yeah, I almost told that friend like, you need to go home.
I know for a fact you have stuff on the patio, you need to take that in girl.
But yeah, to your point, Bill.
Yeah.
I mean, I hope something like this doesn't happen again, but I mean, it will.
Eventually.
We prepped so much.
I was, it was crazy.
I made a list.
I made a checklist for the team to do.
Okay, but your situation is a little bit different.
We don't have a freaking marina, but we have a lot of outdoor stuff to take care of.
You have a lot.
Yeah.
I mean, I had to secure the boats, those poor boats.
I was texting her worried.
I was like, how do you protect the boats?
And she's like, you don't pray.
I'm just kidding.
You secure anything this lightweight.
You make sure that they're tied in well.
I plug them.
That was an extra precaution in case water got in the boat.
I secured all of the chargers to just ensure they didn't get water damaged because those
are like $300 a pop.
I didn't want to be, yeah, I didn't want to be spending like two grand just on chargers.
They can go unplugged for a day.
It's fine.
Did anything get damaged?
No, that's amazing.
No, we had one buoy.
Okay.
No, no, no, I didn't say that right.
So we have like a, I call them string of pearls.
They're big orbs like connected to each other that separates like open water and a swim
area.
Yeah.
Those got disconnected from a dock.
You just had to re hook it in.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
That's some tragic damage.
But we, I thought I had a pretty like good list going.
And then the next day our director of security like calls me and he's like, I need to meet
with you today.
We need to prep.
And I'm like, dude, like my staff has already prepped.
They have a list.
And he's like, okay, okay, sounds good.
Like, thank you.
Yeah.
He added like 10 things to my list.
So I originally just pulled the pool cushions off of the chase lounges.
He wanted the chase lounges and umbrellas and umbrellas bases cleared from the pool
deck.
Yeah.
We didn't do that.
So we just stacked furniture because we had nowhere else to put them.
Another restaurant was using the only meeting space available.
So I was like, well, the chase lounges can get wet.
Like we never put them away for any rain.
They can get wet.
At the end of the day, it all comes back to they were expecting wind that didn't show
up.
Yeah.
I waited all day for wind.
I never saw any of it.
Right.
But you know, those lounge chairs, how much do they weigh?
They can't be more than 10 pounds.
Yeah.
They're not very heavy.
10 pounds at most.
They're not very heavy.
You put a 50 mile an hour wind under it.
It's going to fly away.
Like a tooth pick.
Yeah.
The idea of prepping is not bad.
The problem with it is, is that everybody did a lot of prep and it didn't come to fruition.
And now people are going to be like, oh, well, next time I'm not going to do such and such.
You know, I mean, I grew up in a place where we would get tropical storms and they were
no joke.
So my experience seeing that this was coming and hearing what the statistics were, it's
like, OK, well, let's be smart about it.
Yeah.
Why didn't the storm materialize?
If any of you know, like, I think it like split and moved and it did a lot of weird things.
It did.
So I stayed up waiting because I was excited for this freaking storm to use my radio to
let my candles.
Did you turn on the radio?
Of course.
I'll test it and I put it preloaded on a news channel.
Oh, OK.
Were they talking about it?
All they did was talk for days about this and then the storm comes like, oh, thank God,
we prepared the moved on on the radio.
Yeah.
You don't listen to the radio news.
I do not.
I don't watch the news.
I don't listen to the radio.
I have my podcast that I listen to that don't talk about the news.
Except for this one where we are talking about.
Right now.
Exactly that.
Right now.
I do.
And that's probably why I have anxiety.
Yeah, you should stop.
I can't.
You need like a meditation something or other.
Oh, I got those two.
Oh, my God.
But now it's by the call map.
Oh, OK.
We are not sponsored.
No, I am.
But calm if you hear this.
You're free to shoot us a DM.
Well, OK.
So other than hurricanes, how's everybody was work week?
Work week sucked.
Here.
Sorry.
Pardon the snooker doodle.
Your kids are really not getting any of those.
No, they're going to be gone in the next 10 minutes.
OK.
I'm sorry.
I didn't bring more.
I'm sorry.
You didn't bring more either.
I saved some for myself.
Well, smart move because we could have eaten them.
I'll bake more.
All right.
Yes, you will give me a request list.
What do we like?
Any kind of cookie?
No nuts.
No peanut butter please.
Oh, I struck.
You agree with her?
I yeah.
No peanut butter.
I don't have a problem with peanut butter.
It's just not my flavor in a cookie.
Yeah.
Y'all are fired.
No, you are fired.
No, but like I like peanut butter with things, but in a cook.
It just it doesn't belong in a cookie.
I'm sorry.
You're telling me a peanut butter fluffer nutter cookie does not sound good.
No, thanks.
Peanut butter and marshmallow, melted ooey goodness.
Peanut butter.
It just I don't want it.
It's a very overpowering flavor when it comes to desserts, I will say, but I love that.
Any hoosie.
Oh yeah.
Back to work.
Oh my god, Bill your work sucks work sucks because of summer or no, it's because of dumb
Diddy dumdums.
Employees are guests.
No, actually, as much as we've shared stories about employees doing dumb Diddy dumdums.
Yeah, the less than brilliant things.
Choosing option B on an intelligence level.
It has honest to God been nothing, but guest issues the last two weeks.
I bet you jinx yourself because you keep saying how like works on event fallen like,
I don't have I don't have much.
That was like a month ago.
Yeah.
That was the last time we recorded.
Jinx saved up.
Oh yeah, that's right.
Exploded.
That was then this is now.
So yes, unfortunately, I broke the cardinal rule and said everything was cool and nothing
really was going on.
And then all of a sudden everything is going on.
Are you blessing us with a bill rant?
You know what?
Yeah, I probably will.
But I am trying to calm down a little bit about it because some of the things that have
been a little high, no, you seem a little hyped.
I am a little hyped.
You should have seen me last week.
I was furious.
We recorded a little bit of an episode that will never make the air.
Uh huh.
Sorry.
It sounded like a good idea to record last week and it just devolved into like I kind
of felt like I was one of her favorite comedians.
I know.
My favorite angry comics.
That's my cup of tea.
Angry and cursing and bitter at the world.
That was D, all the above right here on this night.
What are we a tall glass of that?
What even for our listeners like pre-recording tonight, you were heated.
I'm sorry.
I'm tired of people being stupid and like trying to take advantage, being advantageous
and then being indignant about it.
Okay.
Give us an example.
I'm dying.
All right.
Perfect example is this.
Okay.
When you make a reservation, you can make the reservation using a myriad of different
codes.
Right.
Okay.
You can be a AAA.
You can book it on as a senior rate.
You can book it as a military.
You can book it as a preferred corporate, but you need to understand that when you get
to that front desk, they're going to ask you to qualify for that rate.
So if you book a AAA rate and you're checking in, your questions are going to be what?
Can I see your AAA card, please?
Along with your ID and your credit card.
Boom.
Right?
No big deal.
And it says right there in the confirmation that you have to write a valid photo ID to
be eligible for this rate.
Well, yeah.
And you have to have your AAA card.
So all this last week, we had people checking in on government rates, like government travel
business rates.
Cause they're just clicking every button and they're like, wow, this one goes really low
when I click this button.
Yes.
And the people checking in are not on government business.
I love that.
And three out of, sorry, two out of the three that I had to deal with personally, we're
not even from the state of California.
They booked a California state government rate.
That's amazing.
One was from Arizona.
One was from Kentucky.
So how did they like justify having booked that rate?
They didn't justify.
Well, I was able to book it.
Are you serious?
That was the explainer reason as to why they should qualify for the rate.
Oh my God.
I would have been like, okay, can I see your confirmation email?
Oh, I did ask one person for it.
And they were like, oh no, I never got a confirmation.
Oh, Bull Shark.
Yeah.
So you put in your email address because I see that's on the reservation.
You booked the reservation and you didn't get a confirmation.
Come on.
Exactly.
Come on.
We literally get emails for fricking everything these days.
This happened to me actually recently and a gentleman booked the federal government
rate and I asked for his federal government ID and he didn't provide me one.
He said, I'm a veteran.
And I said, oh, thank you so much.
I thank you for your service.
But to be eligible for the federal government rate, you have to be an active federal government
employee.
And he's like, well, I didn't know that.
And I was like, oh, it is on the website.
When you click the rate, it says that.
I didn't see that.
And I said, okay, let's do it together.
The little asterisks underneath it.
But we literally, we did it together and I pretended like I was going to book.
I showed him.
I click it and then I'm like, you see all that writing right there?
Oh, I didn't read that.
And I'm like, okay.
And then you get a confirmation email.
It says the same thing.
Like you have to be eligible for that rate in order to book it.
You are not an active federal government employee.
So you're not.
You can't get the rate.
Okay.
Are you the A-hole of the week?
I probably am.
So my guy, my guy today did the exact same thing.
So I compromised with him and I gave him a triple A rate, which is the exact same that
we would give for military discount.
But the guy that checked in and trying to do this today was on a California state government
rate.
He had an Arizona ID.
Like, what are you thinking, dude?
Yeah, it clearly says California government rate.
And then I hate when they get surprised you ask them for it.
But this happens all the time.
They look at me like, I don't have that.
But you booked it.
You know what?
No, no, no.
That leads into the whole thing about people that are like, well, I travel all the time
and I've never, ever been asked for an incidental hold on my credit card.
Oh, I had a flat that did that this week.
Oh, God.
Literally, one of our highest tiers, we put an incidental hold on their account.
They're like, why am I seeing this hold for this much?
And I'm like, that's the incidental hold.
Like, I am at, you know, whatever level.
I travel X-mounted days.
I'm like, oh, then you're well aware that every single hotel does.
This has never happened.
I said, I have worked for my particular brand for 10 years, X-brand for this many years.
And said in the States, there is not a hotel that does not do it.
Oh, I just never know this.
Is this just people that have never looked, never seen it?
Or they're just trying to pull a fast one.
Keeping in mind that some of these people are at a tier level where they have to travel
like 75 plus nights a year.
You're telling me that you have never experienced this in the 75 nights that you've traveled
this year alone.
Do you know what I want to do next time?
Ask this same person.
I said, okay, do me a favor.
I want you to pick up your phone.
I want you to call any hotel in the continental United States, any hotel.
Do it.
I'll give you 100 bucks out of my pocket if they don't do an incidental hold.
I'll give you 5000 points.
That's not enough.
I'll give you 50,000 points.
There it is.
To find me a hotel.
Oh, in this, since you're a insert tier here, high level, I want you to pick one in our
brand.
Yeah.
Pick one.
Anyone.
Call them.
Put it on speaker.
Let's see how this goes.
Okay, but an incidental hold.
Is that just like the extra 100 or so bucks?
Yes, ma'am.
Per se or per night?
Per night.
Like I always say, yeah, yeah, whatever.
I've never noticed it.
Most people, because you bring a credit card and it's just.
Yeah.
It's the broke ass mofos that use their debit card that get all bent out of shape about
it because you're not holding.
You're holding cash.
Yeah.
You're not holding mythical money.
You're holding hard cash.
It holds for a long time.
It holds for like six to 10 business days.
But the credit card, I mean, next time I pay my bill, I don't, it's never been an issue.
Yeah.
Because it's, it's not for normal people.
It's one out of a hundred.
Thank you so much for calling me normal.
Let's not go overboard.
Don't let it go to your head.
Those.
Yeah.
So it's just been a lot of that.
And then I had, oh my God, I think I ran to it about this.
The guest that called that wanted to check in early.
Did I share that story with you?
Keep going and I'll tell you.
Or was that, or did this happen after?
You know what?
This might have happened after we got together last week.
ringing a bell.
Do you know what day it is?
No, I don't.
That's part of the, it's a side effect of the industry we work in.
Okay.
So I am running around the property.
I get a phone call.
Hey, I've got a guest that wants to check in early.
I'm like, okay, do we have an available?
Oh my God.
Yes.
Okay.
Like why do you need my help with this?
And he's like, well, I don't have any rooms that are ready and they want a very specific
room.
They needed a specific bedding type and they wanted it to be on the first floor.
And I had a total of one of those that was going to be available for them for them.
And the room had just vacated.
At the time of check-in.
Yeah.
And this is about 11, 45, 12, 12, 30 somewhere in there.
Early.
And then like 45 minute window, right?
So guest is gone.
And I'm like, okay, well, just let him know that we'll advise housekeeping and we'll have
the room ready as soon as possible.
He says, well, he wants it well before three o'clock.
Bastard.
Okay.
Well, it's like noon now.
Just contact housekeeping so on and so forth.
And he's like, no, this guy wants to talk to you.
And he said, if he doesn't talk to you, he's going to call back every five minutes until
he does talk to you.
Now, and at this point, I'm thinking to myself, no, it's not a threat to me.
It's just, it says to me, low level harassment.
This is the, no, it just says that this is the kind of guy that I'm going to be dealing
with.
Yeah.
So I'm like, okay, I will be right there.
So I stopped what I'm doing.
And at the time I was painting.
So it's not like, yeah, I know, I know.
Bill does everything.
There's a lot of things that we need to get done at this hotel.
So anyway, so I'm painting.
So I put everything away.
I go to the front desk.
I get on the phone with the guy.
And the guy is telling me how he's got this reservation for today and he wants to check
in early.
And I said, okay, the room has already departed.
We will advise housekeeping.
We will get the room ready for you.
And he goes, you're going to get the room ready for me because I'm a platinum, right?
And I said, no, sir.
I said, I'm going to get the room ready for you because you are incoming guests and we
do everything we can to ensure that our incoming guests are taken care of.
And he goes, because I'm platinum, right?
Oh my God.
And I said, no, not because you're platinum, because you're our guest.
I'm going to make sure that this room is ready in advance for you because you are our guest.
But you're doing it because I'm a platinum, right?
So we go through this dog and pony show like four or five times and he keeps looping back
to the status level.
Did you know his status level at the time you picked up the phone and called him?
I did.
Well, he was on hold.
So I didn't have to call him back.
But yeah, I knew what he was the moment I picked up the phone.
I had already reviewed his reservation.
I don't care what his level is.
What I care about is the fact that he's coming to stay with us and I'm going to do everything
I can to make his stay as good as possible.
So I emphasized once again, no, sir, I'm not doing this because of your level.
I'm doing this because you are our guest.
I do this for all of our guests.
I go the distance.
I make things happen for shit reviews.
He wants to say what his level is and I refuse to do it because I've already already addressed
with him the fact that I appreciate that he was a platinum guest when I first got on
the phone with him.
But now we're not talking about anything that is tier related.
Yeah.
So I'm absolutely at this point simply about service.
You're asking for early checking.
You're not asking for an upgrade because of status.
And who doesn't ask for that?
Right.
So I don't know.
Two hours passed by.
I'm back doing my thing.
You're painting.
Oh no, at this point I was doing some other things.
I was in the office.
Welling.
No, I would love to learn how to weld.
I don't know how to weld.
I thought you literally did it all.
I am shocked.
No, I don't.
So anyway, I'm back in the office.
My phone rings.
I answered the phone and front desk says, hey, the guest that you talked to earlier.
The besties here.
No, his wife is here.
Oh, geez.
His wife wants to talk to you.
And I looked at the clock and it was like a quarter to three.
And I'm like, please tell me that their room is ready.
And he says, oh yeah, no, they checked in about 20 minutes ago.
Oh, perfect.
He better be thanking you.
We've got their room ready ahead of the three o'clock check-in.
So I'm like, okay.
So I head downstairs.
She wants to talk to me away from the front desk.
Great.
So I walk out into the lobby.
I stand in the corner with her and she goes, you know, I just need to clarify a few things.
And I said, sure, how can I help you?
She says, you know, when my husband was talking to you, he kept saying that he was a platinum
and you just kept saying that you were doing this because it's about a matter of service.
And I said, yes.
And she goes, well, I don't think that's right.
And I said, I'm sorry.
Why is that?
She goes, well, what is the point of having a tier that we are at if we don't get things
like early arrivals?
So I'm trying to explain to her that there is a difference between a benefit and service
between a perk and what we do for all the guests.
And I was explaining to her that your tier gets you things like redemption points earned
at a higher rate.
You know, it gets you a guaranteed late checkout.
It gives you dedicated reservation lines.
It gives you X, Y and Z. And I listed a ton of things that it gives her.
I said, all of those are perks that are tied to your tier, your benefits.
You're always entitled to good service.
Exactly.
Regardless of your status.
And I said to her, I said, I don't care if you're paying premium dollar or coming in
on a deep discount.
I will treat every one of our guests the exact same way because to me, it's about your experience
and it's about service.
And she says, oh, that's about you, not your company.
And I said, ma'am, I'm sorry.
I don't understand what is going on.
And she again says, you know, oh, well, I just don't understand what the point of my
tier level is that.
You do not listen to what I just said.
All right.
And I said once again, I said, you're conflating service with benefits.
And she goes, yes, but my husband said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I said, I understand that.
I said, I don't even understand why we're having this conversation because you're not
even the member.
Oh, and she says, and again, she goes back to the whole tier level thing.
And I'm like, I don't know what to tell you.
You are confusing.
What are you fishing for?
Yeah, you are confusing service with benefits.
And she goes, well, you know what?
I think we just need to agree to disagree.
Great, have a great day.
No, you're right.
I agree you're stupid.
No, I wouldn't let it go because it's done.
I'm done.
Just had a week.
Okay.
Yeah, I was done with this woman because she did not want to understand.
She just wanted an ego stroke and I wasn't going to give it to her.
And I just I refused to give in that she was wanting me to stroke the fact that she, well,
no, that her husband is a platinum guest.
Right.
We go through this thing a couple more times.
She says again, agree to disagree.
I said fine.
And then she brings it up again.
Oh, no.
I just, okay.
I just envision like Bill saying the same thing and getting the same response 10 times
from the husband and then the wife.
I don't know how you get the patience.
The husband never showed up.
It was just the wife.
No, on the phone, the first interaction.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So we start into the third cycle.
And you just keep getting more and more irritated and more and more like stern in your point,
which is the same words.
What was Chris Tucker's line?
Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?
She did not.
So we get into the third cycle of all of this after she has already said to me twice, we
have to agree to disagree and then loops back into it.
And then it was my turn.
I'd had enough with this woman.
I looked her square in the eye and I said, you know what, a few moments ago, you said
we should just agree to disagree.
I think that's what we're going to do.
I'm going to agree to disagree.
And I turned and I just walked.
Good.
I had to go to the last word forever.
Just left her stand in there.
You had the last word.
Well, yeah, but I didn't realize that there was going to be an opportunity to have an
even last word.
And that was that the guest had booked four separate one night reservations.
Wait, what?
Wait, wait, wait, wait for it.
The first one was pay direct regular rate on their platinum benefits.
The next three employee rate.
What?
No.
Yeah.
So, huh?
How?
I know somebody friends and family rate.
Wait, are they on friends and family or associate?
No, they were on friends and family.
Now here's where I felt like this is kind of ironic is that with that benefit, you can't
combine the two.
So you can have your tier or you can have your deep discount.
Right.
Yeah.
The conversation the next day would have been so lovely.
They chickened out.
They didn't come to the front desk.
I was waiting for them because I wanted to talk to her.
Shadowbox in the corner.
No, no, no.
I was going to simply look her square on the eye.
Bill's ready.
No, no.
I was going to simply look at her square on the eye and ask her, how do you want me
to treat you today?
Because she was booked on a very deep discount.
She couldn't have her platinum benefits.
I love it.
So do you want me to treat you like a platinum yesterday or do you want me to treat you like
any of our guests at any level at any rate today?
Because you ain't a platinum today.
That's right.
You're not a platinum today.
Mic drop.
I'm so disappointed they didn't come.
I am too.
I was waiting all day.
How did they check out for that reservation and checked into the new reservation?
Yeah, they did it.
They did it super early in the morning.
On purpose.
Of course.
No, I'm not going to say it was on purpose.
I'm just going to say I was disappointed that I didn't get to have a conversation with
them.
Oh my God.
I would have gone to their room and knocked, hand delivered those keys.
And these have removed lounge access.
Well, yeah, we don't have that.
Don't you wish you did for that conversation?
Just for that specific conversation?
Yeah, because I can guarantee you if they stayed at your hotel, they would have demanded
to be on the club level and then remain on the club level because they had three additional
one night stays.
Absolutely.
Three additional one night stays.
That just seems like a pain in the butt to book.
It's because the rate wasn't available for the full length of stay.
So they kept having to book separate nights individually because they're cheap.
But you have to check out and check in every single day.
Every single reservation is its own.
And effectively every single reservation becomes its own legal entity.
Oh, yeah.
You potentially have to change rooms every single day.
There's a potential for that.
Yeah.
And then like, okay, so on that note, I've had guests pull shenanigans like this.
They want, let's say, a king bedded room their whole stay.
They will book a king bedded room for as long as they can and then a couple of queen bedded
rooms after that and then just say, I don't want to move.
Yeah.
I'm already staying here, so you can't make me move.
And then they don't come back to the hotel.
Even though you've told them no, said you have to move, then they leave and they don't
move their stuff.
And so you said, we had this conversation before.
Oh, well, I'm not going to be back till five or six.
That's okay.
We'll move your stuff for you.
Yeah.
I don't want you touching my stuff.
I said, well, then you probably should have packed up for you left because we had this
conversation and they got pissed.
And it was like, we had this conversation.
If you're going to be gone for the whole day, bring your crap down to the front desk.
They, we wouldn't move them.
Yeah.
It's not, it's not accidental.
It's all a power flex.
Yeah.
So the thing to do in that situation would just be pack your shite, bring it down to
the front desk, have them hold it, have someone bring it up to your new room.
And the, is that the right thing to do?
Most hotels will be nice enough and just say, Hey, just have it packed by the door as soon
as your room's ready.
We'll move it to your new room for you.
We do that.
Great.
But they, I'm personally saving you a trip.
Yeah.
But they don't care.
They just don't want to move.
So they leave everything everywhere so that way you can't move them.
And it's like, I'm an ideal guest.
I'll move your stuff myself.
Can I share a really, really good story of a hotel experience?
Yes.
I would love it.
So I recently traveled and yes, I did travel on a discount and, but I knew that going in
and like, okay, I'm going to be a sweet little angel.
Oh, yay.
I'm going to have all my paperwork ready.
We love that.
So get this.
I'm checking in.
I'm flying in.
So I'm like, I get there like three and a half hours before check in, but I know this.
I'm like, all right, let me just go to the hotel.
Let me make nice.
Let me present all of my things and let me just see what they can do.
Do I really give a crap what room type I have?
No.
Give me a double.
Give me a king.
Like I don't care.
Courtyard, street view.
I don't care.
Give me a roll in shower next to the dumpsters.
It's fine.
I just not want somebody to smoke in, please.
Ideally, that's my line.
A bed is fine.
Like that's, that's really bare minimum.
So I go and mind you, traveling all night, didn't sleep.
I don't know noon this time.
So I go up to the front desk and this very, very sweet woman has no voice and she's trying
her best.
She's doing great.
Hi, how are you?
I'm not even going to try and imitate.
I said, Hey, I know I am hours early for check in.
I just want to see if you have anything available because I need to sleep.
I said, if you need me to change rooms tomorrow, I absolutely will.
Like I understand you have like other reservations and I literally just want to like lay down
on check and that, but this point.
Yeah.
I was like, well, okay, let me look.
And I don't even know what I originally booked and she was like, it's two doubles fine.
I'm like, yeah, I don't care.
She goes, is first floor okay?
That's really all we have available right now.
I said, sure.
And I said, well, I have to change rooms.
And she was, no, you will, you will stay in that room for the entirety of your stay.
And she goes, credit card 90.
And I said, do you need my form, my special discount form?
And she was like, Oh my gosh, yes, please.
Thank you so much.
And at the very end, I'm, because I purposely asked because I want to know her name for
a survey.
Can I get your name?
And I introduced myself.
Hi, my name is Liz.
And I said, can I ask you to lose your voice?
She goes, Oh my God, I'm sorry.
Like yeah, I lost my voice.
I said, do you want some tea?
Like can I get you anything?
Oh my God, you're so sweet.
Stop.
I would have eaten you up and given you half your stuff for free.
I felt so bad.
Well, I mean, I was staying in a discount.
I don't think I could get anything better, but she was just so pleasant and look like
she felt like shit.
And I told her, I was like, can you get out of here early today?
Like you need to go home and rest your voice.
Like all this stuff.
So every time I saw her the whole trip, I was like, Hi Debbie, how are you?
How's your voice?
Oh my God, you're so sweet.
Shout out to Debbie.
I love that.
You would think people staying on the associate rate, which I guess a lot of the times it's
not the associate.
They can be some of my worst guests and be the rudest and most entitled.
And when I get someone on an associate rate or even friends and family, that's just pleasant
and kind and just like a human.
I get so excited.
Like I was checking in this one lady and she had, she booked an associate rate and I was
like, Oh, okay.
Do you mind if I get your form?
She said, yes.
She pulls it and she just gives it right to me.
I was like, thank you for having it ready.
She's like, I know.
She's like, I work at a hotel and I just think it's so annoying when I have to like, you
know, they have to email it to me and I have to go and I have to print it.
She's like, so whenever I travel, I try to have it ready.
And I'm like, you know what?
I love you.
I'm like, I'm free parking.
I have mine in a like file folder.
Yeah.
Well, on that form, what is item number one print and bring original form?
I don't know.
I didn't read it.
Just printed it.
Nobody ever does so ever.
You must present an original printed form at the time of a check-in.
And we tell people that the person I got the discount from clearly told me that.
So, right.
Like I was, I was prepped and ready and I also didn't want to be a nuisance.
Like I know it's a big deal to get these discounts and like I want to be the ideal
guest.
I'm not going to make a freaking peep.
I'm so proud.
Yeah.
Man.
They grow up so quick.
I know.
Thank you for being a good human.
Everybody out there, take some notes.
Yeah.
People who get my form and this is like a whole nother subject.
That list is so limb.
Like I don't even trust in my own family with my form.
I'm not kidding.
I have siblings.
I do not trust with the form because it's tied to my job.
How people behave.
I can lose my job over.
Direct reflection on you.
And I can't tell you how many people I've seen lose their job because either they did
something stupid or someone whom they're related to that use their form for something stupid.
And so I have to trust you literally with my job.
So I can count on one hand how many people I trust to give that form to.
So.
Oh my gosh.
What's a big deal?
Cause what does the form even say?
I should, I should read.
What I'm presenting.
Yeah.
I mean, it literally says all of that, that your behavior traveling on that rate on that
form is a direct reflection of the employee and can impact the employee's employment.
And I will say this.
I have a really good friend who's asked me like multiple times for the form and I always
make up an excuse.
I like to have a few drinks and maybe sometimes a few too many.
We are right now.
Not a few too many.
And maybe once or twice I've had to be chased and corralled to go back home.
Like, you know, maybe that was like the weapon.
But I don't go stay at my brand on my form and do dumb stuff like that.
I know to do that in the safety of my own home or with my friend.
Like I just, I know like, okay, nothing to do with work.
No, I don't like mix work and like fun.
But so I have some friends who maybe like to go have some fun who I know would have fun
on my form.
And I'm like, the website doesn't work, which conveniently it does that a lot.
But I'm like, Oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm maxed out on people I can add.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
It doesn't work.
And I come up with excuses.
I'm like, Nope, girl, I don't trust you with my job.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Or you could just say like, Oh, I'm looking at rates like not available for.
No, because some of these people know how to book it.
And they like know the codes to use.
And I just have to be like, Oh, sorry, websites down.
Oh, sorry.
I've added the max number of people.
I worked there and they don't know.
No, hard pass on that same note though.
And then again, people who are associates will totally understand this who else hates
and you all can hit the like button wherever you're at and whatever post you're looking
at right now.
When somebody asks you for your discount, like messages you out of nowhere.
What?
Yeah.
Not even like a text.
Okay.
Cause you haven't talked in so long on social.
Yeah.
Like messages you out of nowhere on a social, they're sliding in your DMs.
Hey, how are you doing?
And I'm like, um, hi Becky that I haven't talked to since junior year of high school.
Do you work for X brand?
Well, they know cause they see it and they go, Oh my God, I just happened to be traveling
to X state.
Is there any way?
And I'm like, go fork yourself.
But like literally that's happened so many times.
And so I actually recently stopped putting where I work or even what brand I work at
cause I'm so sick of people hitting me up for forms.
Oh wow.
It's ridiculous.
Do not hit up miss beef.
If we don't talk on a reg and I don't like trust you again with my job, don't hit me
up.
Do you have people hit you up?
Oh yeah.
I have a couple of family members that I will give the form to and that's it.
Yeah.
And I've got a bunch of siblings.
Right.
I know how to, I know how to book with the code though.
Yeah, but you don't have the paper.
No, no, no, but it's helpful even when you're inquiring about booking a vacation or a trip.
It's helpful.
Oh no, totally.
Totally.
It's the same code.
It's been the same code for how many years a million.
Really?
So lots of people who don't work for the brand know how to book or have told their friends
like it's out there how to book.
Okay.
So let's piggyback on that and loop back to my first rant about people booking like
on the government rate.
Okay.
You can go online.
You can find blank forms online, but there's numbers in those forms that allow us to
check the validity of that form.
Yup.
It'll kick back to me exactly where that form came from and whether it's valid or not.
Are you doing that at the time of checking?
Oh yeah.
At the time they're presenting their form?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Cause like as you're, you know, checking in, I have no idea what you're doing back there
typing.
No.
And that's the way it should be.
You're just typing away.
I'm just waiting there with my ID and credit card ready to tell me when to insert my chip.
Right.
So we will check the validity of the form.
And if it's not a good form, I will call you out right there on the spot.
So that has been happening a lot this summer for us.
And I'm not kidding.
Like in the past few weeks, multiple times, my assistant manager is long at catching these
forms bomb.
Like you're supposed to be typing in the numbers every single check in, but sometimes, you
know, the desk agents will get a little behind.
They're brushing through a check in.
Like, so they, they make a little stuff and they go and check them later.
And my assistant manager could spot one from a mile away.
And so the guest was checking in and they set the form down on the desk and my assistant
manager kind of just glanced, walked over, looked at the form and she's like, this isn't
a valid form.
They're like, what?
She was like, I mean, we can plug it in right now, but do you want me to plug in the numbers
to see if it's a valid form?
Uh, uh, yeah, it is.
My son gave it to us and she's like, okay.
She plugged it in.
She's like, invalid form.
She thinks, so right now you're in possession of a fraudulent form so I could cancel your
reservation right now.
Uh, no, no, no, uh, we didn't know our son gave it to us.
We didn't know.
And she's like, okay, well then I'm going to change your rate to a regular rate, but
be aware that, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but so people keep trying to use
them.
Do you add notes like into that person's like profile?
Yeah, but if they have one, yeah, cause the problem is a lot of these don't, they don't
have memberships.
They're just booking without a membership.
So it doesn't follow them to hotel hotel.
So we've been catching those fraudulent forms and a lot of the times there's like imperfections
and things that like I look at it a quick glance.
I don't notice it.
She noticed it.
She's like, oh yeah.
And she explained it to me like what caught her eye immediately.
She saw the line on the side.
She's like, it wasn't completely straight.
It kind of jagged out and then you could see they used white out and then tried to repent
the line in to make it straight again.
I was like, how did you see that?
There are things like a half tone that doesn't photocopy well.
The font that's used is a proprietary font.
Of the brand.
So you can't reproduce it.
So you can find stuff out there that's marginally close, but the kerning between the letters
is wrong.
I'm going to look this up real quick.
For the fact that they tried to like, you know, run it through a printer.
So like the font is printed not quite in the right place or it's had a little bit of an
angle or there's just little quirky things that'll stand out.
But I do love the look on people's faces when you catch that form.
In the act is amazing.
Number one says original must be presented.
And one of the bogus forms that I've seen doesn't have that as the number one.
It's got something totally different.
Like number eight.
No, it's not even on there about having a printed original form.
It's like somebody has modified it to not require the printed form.
Yeah, there's all these.
I could go on for like a whole episode about all the different things I've seen with fraudulent
forms and all the ways you can do it.
Oh yeah, we got a, we got a form number here.
I'm brilliant.
I'll just stop it here by saying, guys, don't book rates that you're not eligible for and
don't make fraudulent forms.
Cause that's where we started on this.
Cause you're going to miss fees.
I'm going to check you in.
Miss fees going to take you out back and we're going to have a talking.
I mean, for me, I just prefer to cancel it.
I know.
I, you don't want the revenue?
No.
Of a regular rate?
No.
Okay.
Well, I just think if they're untrustworthy enough to even do a form, do you want them
in your hotel?
Yeah.
You're, you know, you're going to get a charge back on that payment.
It's just, it's a mess.
Oh my God.
Charge backs is another thing that's been out of control lately.
It's insane.
We had, we had one guy that was like $791 or something like that, total charge for his
room and tax that he disputed with his credit card company claiming not as shown.
What does that mean?
I don't even know.
You checked in, you stayed for six nights or no, I'm sorry.
I think it was five nights.
Stop.
You're going to dispute the whole stay for what reason?
Oh my God.
We won the charge back challenge.
I mean, we just, we sent a copy of the folio, a copy of his reservation screenshot, et
cetera, et cetera.
It's like, you stayed, you were here.
Sorry, Charlie.
So I actually had one recently too.
This last week, Mr. Smith reached out to me and said that he stayed, but he only had one
room, but he got receipts for two rooms.
And I'm like, oh, that's really weird.
And I was like, and you, you didn't check into both?
He's like, no, I only checked into one room.
I was like, wow, they're so odd.
We'll go ahead and investigate.
And you know, depending on our findings, I never promise anything because I know how
this game works.
I was like, depending on our findings, we'll return this funds to you if, you know, everything
checks out, okay, and he kept bugging me every single day.
Like, have you found out yet?
I'm like, no, we're still investigating.
I will reach out to you.
And so finally I get all the findings and I get the housekeeping boards and the housekeeping
boards reported both rooms as having been vacant dirty, which means they were slept
in.
I'm like, okay, but I don't just go off that evidence.
I then asked for a lock interrogation to see if like, you know, the locks were, and the
locks were accessed by physical keys, but then my brain's like, well, how did this guy get
two reservations in his name?
Like, what if he was telling the truth, you know?
So I go into the mobile system.
I run activity reports on that day.
I see that he mobile checked into both rooms.
He did it at different times.
So because he said, I was like, well, did you do mobile check in?
And he's like, I did.
I don't really remember doing it.
I mean, maybe I don't remember checking the two rooms.
I know I didn't check into two rooms.
And he's like, I mean, maybe it did like glitch at one point, but I don't know if that would
have done it.
So I go and I checked the reports.
He checked a one room at like nine in the morning.
And then the other one at like four in the afternoon.
And then he would receive mobile keys for both.
So it would show to reservations on there.
And then the final nail in the coffin for me, I looked at the folios and I looked at
the room tax.
He logged into Wi-Fi on both rooms to log into the Wi-Fi and to have a charge to room,
you have to type in your room number and your last name.
So he typed in his last name in room number into both rooms.
They were not on the same floor.
Like he had to actively go and sign into both.
Why would you have two separate rooms?
He was trying to scam.
But literally did all of this.
I tried to call him.
Didn't even have voicemail set up.
So I sent him an email.
I was like, I tried to reach out to you.
This is our findings.
You know, asking reports of this room locks at this.
And I, you know, with being brief, not giving away too many details.
I'm like housekeeping said you were in there.
Locks were used.
And you also checked into both reservations at different times.
You logged onto the Wi-Fi and I said all that, like, due to all of this, you will be charged
for this two rooms.
And I said, if you'd like to dispute this further, you're more than happy to talk with
your financial institution.
But on our end, the charge stays literally later that day, I get a call from American
Express and they're like, Oh, this guy's just saying, you know, our customer saying
XYZ, I told her everything.
I sent her all the receipts and things.
And she's like, wow.
She's like, this guy's really trying to pull one over.
And the amix that he was shocked.
And she's like, that's insane.
He's like, he seems so genuine.
I was like, I know I talked to him too, but all of this adds up.
Not all of these things would happen if this was real.
I just want to know why you had two rooms.
Probably for friends or who knows?
I don't, I don't try to understand people nowadays.
I just know how to catch them for the most part.
Not a state form apparently.
Dummy.
But yeah, so I totally feel you, Bill.
I'm very sick of people and people can be awful.
And they're getting worse.
That's the problem.
Yeah, they are worse.
I'm struggling right now with like budgeting for the fitness center project.
So I tried to order FF&E for the fitness center and my accounting director said, no, that's
not a capital expenditure that goes into your operating.
I'm like, but it's part of the project.
Like I want new stuff for a new facility.
I want a new trash can.
Can I buy a new trash can in the capital budget?
No.
Operating something else.
Yeah.
So how you name it?
Well, it's more than that though.
Like with CapEx, you typically have to be above a certain threshold and price, but you
also need to have-
But it's the entire project, not each individual freaking invoice.
Typically, yeah.
Yeah, it's so big.
Oh, the project is well over.
Let me tell you.
That's funny.
That's probably why they're pushing it back to operating.
Our owners gave us a wide budget of eh, in between $500,000 and $2 million.
I think I'll hit under $2 million.
It's fine.
I can't buy $300 of trash cans.
Come on.
I'm just picking up things.
You're buying and trying to explain the counting one while you need it.
One of my sales managers, you guys remember when I had that convention and she thought
it would be funny to buy me a pink megaphone?
Wait, the glitter one or the other one?
No, I think it was just a bright pink, almost like Barbie looking megaphone.
No, the cons.
So the nerd convention, because I was security, she bought me and she thought it'd be hilarious
to buy me a pink megaphone and I love it.
When they were putting that in the financials, you know, you have to list everything out
and put names.
They knew ownership would lose that if they saw pink megaphone.
So they named it something like security application device.
Should we play an excerpt from the megaphone of me testing it at work?
Yeah.
You got to test it out.
Hold on.
We need to pause for the research department.
This one.
I'm going to pick it up everyone.
It's time to go home.
Happy Friday.
Let's go.
So that is a miss B in the back offices playing security and telling everyone to go home.
Yeah.
With my security application device, definitely wasn't pink.
Is there any glitter on it?
No, there wasn't.
Not yet.
That'll be the next expense report.
Let's do it.
How do you think you're going to name like, I don't know, glitter decal?
Dude, I don't know, but they were literally trying to figure out how to name it.
Stickers needed for front desk.
Well, Bill, thank you so much tonight for your rant, but I think we all need to wrap
it up and save some for next time.
I agree.
Plus, I'm not going to lie.
I've had a little too much wine and way too many snickerdoodles.
The snickerdoodles.
I only had one.
You ate the rest.
I had three.
But who's counting?
We're not counting calories here.
We're using.
Thank you guys for listening to yet another episode of Tales from the Service Industry.
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at talesfromtheserviceindustry.gmail.com.
And I have been teasing the fact that not only does that email address kind of suck
in that it was going to change, but that I've been working on a website or having a guy
work on a website and that's almost done.
So I am hoping that by the time this episode is released into the wild that the website
will be finished.
So keep an eye on our socials for the link to that new website and our new email address
to follow.
We'll leave that as a surprise for now.
It will be a surprise, but I can tell you it's going to be a whole lot easier than Tales
from the Service Industry at gmail.com.
But hey, mouthful.
Hey, Ann, another promise.
Why don't we put it in the description as well if we have a new email address?
We will.
Once that is finalized, it'll all be put into the description.
So look at our description.
Honestly, our descriptions are pretty funny and dope to read.
So if you're not reading our descriptions, I would honestly go back and read a couple
episodes.
Like your favorite episode, I would go and read that description.
And if you're not reading it, it hurts my feelings because I work hard on those things.
Do you have any cheese because I still have wine?
Oh, that was good.
But anyways, Miss B, thank you for being here.
Oh, it was a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Bill, thank you for being a fabulous host for us.
Liz, thank you for being a fabulous deviant.
Of course, anytime.
And we will see you guys in two weeks.
Bye guys.
After hardcoreTV, please share your views on my podcast that you tried at your home,
I made my first ever podcast on YouTube.
These were only about two months ago.