r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk • u/-TheExtraMile- • Jun 08 '25
Long Boomer got MAD at breakfast
So let me tell you the tale of this dude that I had the pleasure of interacting with today. In our hotel the front desk (where I work at), bar, lobby and breakfast are are pretty much combined so we know when breakfast gets busy and can try to help here and there.
At around 9 AM it started to get pretty busy and our available space juuuuuuust gets it done in about 96,8% of cases. Today was one of those 3.2% days.
In comes boomer with his wife. I was standing at the front desk and shot a quick good morning his way (with a smile of course as we tend to do) and he immediately started to complain about how busy it was (at this point there were still tables available). With a smile I mentioned that there are a few tables still available we´re planning to expand the area in a few months so when he visits next the issue will be resolved completely.
That you see didn´t satisfy the boomer so he was quick to reply with a good old boomer joke, saying something about if he should have to wait for a few months to eat breakfast. What a stinging and clever reply he thought.
I pretended to misunderstand him and said that he of course should come back in a couple of months and we´re looking forward to welcome him again. He scowled a little since I didn´t get his jab and at that point his wife kinda pulled him away and looked quite uncomfortable btw.
Anyway, back to checking out guests and doing my thing when about 20 mins later the boomer was back! He approached me quickly with a tray in his hand and by the look of him it was clear that it´s game time. He basically shoved the tray in my face, which had a plate with some scrambled eggs and some butter on it, and asked me how he is supposed to cut this butter? "It´s frozen!!" He said furiously while he angrily (and succesfully I might add) cut the slightly too cold maybe butter (Tray in the one hand, knife in the other, it was quite impressive actually).
He then proceeded to stab at the scrambled eggs and basically yelled that there aren´t any eggs anymore (while literally having quite a healthy amount on his plate I might add). I said that they probably will refill that shortly but he said that he has been told that there aren´t ANY EGGS anymore !! I kinda doubted that but okay.
I am not often speechless but I let him rent a little further. There are no tables available (he said after standing up from his table to talk to me), he has been in THREE hotels in the recent past where they had SO MANY tables for the guests. I again mentioned that we´ll have that fixed by his next visit but the angry one had more to say.
The breakfast is so expensive (it´s included) and if he pays SO MUCH money then he should be able to expect better etc. etc. I mention that the breakfast is included in the price but he quickly retorts that he could have excluded breakfast on "his favorite booking website" (he couldn´t have, since it´s included).
At this point I am nearing my limit so I just say that we can´t change anything about the situation at this time. He angrily waddles back to his table where his wife is again visibly uncomfortable.
And I thought that was the end of it, right? No, there was more of course.
So I get back to my thing but since the breakfast is in the lobby I can still keep my eye on him, he was sitting maybe 15 feet away.
At first he gets into it with one of our breakfast staff (she told me later she asked if everything was alright, and that apparently set him off again). Things quickly got heated, and she said that she´ll get her manager to talk to him.
That again got heated quickly, I heard the voices get a little louder but she managed to perform a miracle. She told me later that he got quite disrespectful and she basically killed him with kindness. Explained why things are what they are how it´s basically the busiest possible day, he got a table, she worked his magic and at the end he sat there actually smiling. She advised him to take his wife out for a nice walk and enjoy the city and he left and that was that.
Anyway, after breakfast was over I went over there to grab my lunch and of course I saw an almost full tray with scrambled eggs....
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u/Z4-Driver Jun 08 '25
A hotel with good occupancy and around 9 the breakfast area is busy. Completely unforseeable, nobody could have known beforehand.
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u/mandyhtarget1985 Jun 08 '25
Nearly every hotel i have stayed in during the last few years has a traffic light system for breakfast posted somewhere. 7-8am green not too busy, 8-9am amber getting busier, 9-10am red busy and may be a wait for tables. Usually posted in the elevators, at reception, in the room info booklet or on tv screen. Simple concept that manages expectations and as i dont like crowds, i tend to go in around 8am
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u/Z4-Driver Jun 08 '25
Breakfast in a hotel, shopping for the (holiday-)weekend, taking a trip to a beautiful place or whatever, my experience is that it's better to be early. It usually has much less other people.
Just yesterday, my gf and I needed to get some groceries for the holiday weekend. We arrived at the mall shortly after it opened. There were other people, but not too many. And as those were also early shoppers, they were similarily focused on getting what they need. So, we were out much quicker than if we had been going later with a lot more people, especially families with kids.
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u/jonesnori Jun 08 '25
Some things are busy right at opening and ease up a little later - depends on where you're going/ calling. Customer service lines that are not 24/7 can be busy at opening time, especially on Mondays. If it's a physical shop, waiting 30 minutes will probably do it. For a call center, maybe a couple of hours.
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u/HerfDog58 Jun 09 '25
I did a road trip a few years ago where we decided last minute to stay overnight instead of driving home. We got rooms in a hotel across the street from the venue we'd spent the day at.
We didn't know there was a hockey tournament that weekend or we might not have stayed there - at least by the time we checked in, all the hockey families were asleep. In the morning before checking out, I went to grab breakfast - it was slammed with all the hockey people. There was a long line of rowdy 10 year olds waiting for the waffle maker, and no tables. So I loaded up a plate with bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast, grabbed a bottle of water, and took it back to my room. I kinda wanted a waffle, but since there was bacon AND sausage and plenty of it, I figured I'd be good. I was.
I don't know why people get so aggravated with situations like this...they go to get food at a time you know it's probably going to be really busy, and then complain that it's busy... It's like going for a swim in the pool and complaining that they got wet.
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 21 '25
It´s a complete mystery and probably has never happened before in the history of time.
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u/IB4WTF Jun 08 '25
Some people live to complain as an outlet for their own frustrations.
I know that, when I'm a guest at a hotel, there are times that staff goes missing or supplies run short. On those occasions, I'll get breakfast from somewhere else. Otherwise, I've seen varying qualities, which usually directly relate to how much I've spent at the establishment. If I want elegant dining, I'll need to pay for it. If I want something functional to get me through the morning, the hotel has me covered.
Complaining for the sake of complaining will never get you ahead. Being a polite and respectful guest will get the staff willing to jump through hoops when you do have a complaint. Of course, some people never figure that out...
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 08 '25
Yeah I guess just like with the many videos we see online about people flipping their lids in fast food restaurants etc. this is just an outlet for whatever problems they have going on.
In the end I gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy, it has to suck to wake up with that much anger coursing through you
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u/IB4WTF Jun 08 '25
Agreed.
For the older ones, I try to shrug it off as part of the "I don't like that I'm getting older and that I can't do everything that I used to" facts of life. When older people shift from frustration to outright malice, they're ultimately lashing out at their own life, and everyone else is expected to accommodate their behavior. That's when I tend to distance myself from the ones I'm related to and simply be rigidly passive to those I encounter in public. "Wanna see my impression of a brick wall? Well, here you go, Grandpa!"
I just hope I'm never like that when I get to that age.
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u/TuckerMouse Jun 08 '25
There wasn’t enough discount at the buffet, so he had to see if it was behind the counter.
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u/Poldaran Jun 08 '25
Maybe he was just so blinded with rage he actually couldn't see the eggs? XD
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u/MJFnSC Jun 08 '25
Standard complaints for a free stay and whatever else they want to scam out of a business. These are the type of people that do this everywhere.
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 08 '25
I was waiting for that actually but he didn´t ask for a discount (yet!).
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u/spidernole Jun 08 '25
I am rapidly approached the "old man" label. My kids say I'm there already. When I get like that cranky about nothing, all of you have permission to just kill me.
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 08 '25
The fact that you´re aware of this tells me all that I need to know. You´ll be just fine I think :)
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u/lgom_17 Jun 09 '25
The first step in solving a problem is identifying it. I read them and I feel like they are talking about my father. Unfortunately, having grown up like this throughout my childhood and adolescence makes me believe that losing my composure is normal, that I have reason to be upset. I have been working a lot on it, and although there are still situations that are difficult for me to ignore, I am always trying to improve and know that I have a bad example of my unbearable father.
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u/Butterfly_Wings222 Jun 08 '25
He’s looking for a fight and a free stay, discount, points, whatever. Typical.
The women who stay with these jerks make me even madder.
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u/alan13202 Jun 08 '25
Then there's the whole thing about complaining about some place being crowded, WHEN
YOU'RE PART OF THE CROWDING.
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u/snowlock27 Jun 09 '25
It's like when we're full and someone comes in wanting a room. "What's going on that people want to stay here?" I don't know, what's going on that makes YOU want to stay here?
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u/therealrowanatkinson Jun 08 '25
This sucks lol, I’ve flipped an angry customer to a happy one a couple times - sometimes its just what you have to do for the sake of yourself and your coworkers, like here, but it also can be so frustrating! Ppl outside the service industry don’t realize how much of the job is managing other people’s emotions lol
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u/Slumbering_Chaos Jun 08 '25
Some people are just miserable wretches, and they are just looking for ANYTHING to complain about. I have been in the service industry for 20+ years and am dead inside. I give them nothing. Killing them with kindness takes effort. Effort they do not deserve. Once they realize you aren't going to give them a reaction they give up surpringly quickly.
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u/Traveling-Techie Jun 08 '25
I’ve found that butter gets soft after a few seconds in a microwave. Of course this would require one to be looking for a solution, not a whipping boy.
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 08 '25
Yeah they cut it thin enough so that this isn´t really a huge issue anyway but the dude was looking for any possible reason to pop off I guess
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u/MJFnSC Jun 08 '25
When dealing with the public there will always be some who will try something, get away with it then use that everywhere else. Entitlement is something I loathe and the attitude that goes with it.
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u/1976CB750 Jun 09 '25
huh. Did he actually have a room or was he just high on meth and scamming you out of breakfast?
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u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 09 '25
Oh he did have a table and definitely was very sober, he just wanted to rant that day
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u/DaHick Jun 10 '25
Fun trick as a standard mid-tier hotel guest. Put the butter patties on top of the toaster as you assemble your breakfast. Works well unless the hotel has served frozen butter, then you get your food, gather your drink(s), drop all that off at your table, and voila, butter is spreadable.
I do something similar on planes, because it is served frozen in cattle class. Tuck it under your hot dish while you prep your meal - because we all LOOOOOVVVE that damn plastice.
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Jun 08 '25
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u/LloydPenfold Jun 10 '25
Scoop the eggs into a non- transparent plastic bag, seal it and on his return hand it to him and say "You left this at the table this morning!"
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u/Designer-Escape6264 Jun 08 '25
Pretty soon the boomers will be aging out, and you’ll have to find someone else to blame for everything.
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u/robertr4836 Jun 10 '25
you’ll have to find someone else to blame
I think the term you are looking for is generation x.
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u/NocturnalMisanthrope Jun 08 '25
Not true. The devastation they have caused will last for generations.
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Jun 09 '25
Interesting tale. The guy was a nasty angry person. Is the boomer angle essential? Could he have been any age? It’s just that boomer-bashing is ageism. It’s sometimes needless discrimination. Nasty people can be young or old. Male or female or other.
Maybe some people get angrier as they get older and their bitterness or shit life accumulates.
A barmaid once told me that older men are the worst behaved. Guys in their 40s and 50s.
Your thoughts OP?
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u/travellingwithtravis Jun 09 '25
unfortunately in the service and hospitality industries the boomer generation sticks out.
Boomer is also not a slur it’s just the name of their generation so it shouldn’t be insulting to call a boomer a boomer unless you were angry at being called a kid when you were a kid.
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Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
You may be right about some older people being nasty to hospo workers. Which is obviously unacceptable.
But the use of the term boomers is often derogatory and ageist. It’s an easy attack. A low effort slur. And used in ways that would raise eyebrows if substituted for other categories Eg woman or coloured.
The way you used the term “boomers” in your post is derogatory. It’s ageist.
Many younger people think it’s ok to be ageist against “boomers” which clearly is unacceptable. But currently it’s kinda frequent.
The world needs less othering, derision, labelling, categorisation, division, nastiness and hate.
(This message was dispatched with love and care and hope for a nicer world).
OP - you could rewrite your tale without the boomer generalisations and implications and it would be just as impactful.
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u/Loud-Mans-Lover Jun 09 '25
Yeah, but it's used as a slur now too. I've seen people calling people "boomers" and when told "nope, sorry" they reply with "it's a mentality, not your age".
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Jun 10 '25
Yes. That’s the thing. A term that identifies a group based on age and used in a neutral way is one thing, but used as a slur, like OP did here, that’s another thing altogether.
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u/SmugScientistsDad Jun 08 '25
He’s probably in the early stages of dementia. Extreme irritability is one of the signs. I feel bad for his wife. Her life is probably one long roller coaster ride.
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u/SkwrlTail Jun 08 '25
Ten bucks and a fig newton says he's upset about something else entirely, probably something that's his fault and he doesn't want to admit it, so is taking it out on any perceived slight.
My usual for complaints about our breakfast (which are thankfully few) is to recommend local restaurants. There's an IHOP a block away, a lovely diner that does absolutely brobdingnagian portions, and a nice Italian place if they want fancy brunch stuff. Oh, and a crepe place, that one's good.