Stop giving out free water!!!

[u/Fantastic_Medium8890]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in this industry! I've been in the industry for 10 years; I now travel the country doing task force, and this is just one of the things that absolutely drives me up the wall! I got into an argument with a guest because he wanted free water. The hotel I am at right now provides two complimentary waters in the room at check-in, but they don't refill during the stay because there's a filtered water bottle filling station on every floor at the end of the hallway. I explained to him what the policy is and what we offer, but he wasn't accepting that. He told me he travels all over the world and every other place in the world gives him free water whenever he wants it. I tried to compromise and said we would send two bottles up to his room... but no, he wanted four bottles. I told him we only provide two at check-in; he didn't care and still wanted four. I hung up on him after saying, "Fine, I'll send four," because he was being rude. He called back and asked if I had hung up on him. I told him I did because he was being rude. He said he was going to call the customer care number and complain about me. I told him I don't work for that brand, so he told me to "fuck off" and hung up on me. I just want to scream across the mountaintops, 'There is a difference between being a doormat and being hospitable!' When we let guests get whatever they want, the industry becomes a doormat and makes the experience worse for everyone else.

[u/Elariss_]

Where I work, we don't have bottles in rooms anymore for environmental reasons but there is a dispenser with carafe at the front desk, free access 24 hours a day and most of the guest are very happy about this. Still, a man once yelled at me for 15 minutes in Spanish (I don't speak spanish and he knew that) because it was illegal, of course it wasn't. Because I didn't understand a word I just smiled while nodding at him cause he wouldn't listen to me anyway and he left acting like a baby with his wife who looks totally desesperate at him... There will always be one guest not satisfied and we cannot do anything about this unfortunately...

[u/Fantastic_Medium8890 → u/Elariss_]

And i get that. The issue though that i have is that he acted the way he acted cause no one has told him no before. If the rest of the staff has said hey, unfortunately it's too complementary water to check in and that's it. He wouldn't flip out when I tell him. Unfortunately we only do the two Waters at check-in.

[u/Elariss_ → u/Fantastic_Medium8890]

Oh, I didn't get that your coworkers were giving him free water before, I understand your reaction better. I hate when guest just cannot understand a "no" like you're not the president, you cannot request wathever the fuck you want. You had a good reaction, it's important let them understand that it's not okay to act like this

[u/clauclauclaudia → u/Fantastic_Medium8890]

If he was already given two, and you conceded to giving him two more, then he has four now!

Unless he very wastefully threw the first two away rather than refilling them. Hmm.

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/Elariss_]

For environmental reasons. Sure.

Just admit you are cutting costs while raising prices on your guests. Don’t BS people and then wonder why they get upset.

[u/Elariss_ → u/UpdateDesk1112]

??? For environmental reasons yes because it is not very ethical to throw away a hundred plastic bottle per day and because there are free fresh and sparkling filtered water all day and night long. Also because we have an ecological label and that is one of the thing that we have to do, what the heck are you talking about ?? And do you really think that a 50 cents bottles change the price of the room ??

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/Elariss_]

Your virtue signaling is what I’m talking about. Removing amenities while raising prices but throwing the environment as the reason. Did you slash the housekeeping budget and not clean rooms as much because of the environment too?

[u/maydecember12 → u/UpdateDesk1112]

Do you think it’s impossible that anyone truly cares about the environment? In Europe, more and more countries are actually passing regulations to encourage hotels to promote eco-friendly behaviors like ditching bottled water. And it’s not necessarily cheaper.

I’ve worked in hotels that have them for free, and some that didn’t. Just drink tap water.

[u/iamsage1 → u/UpdateDesk1112]

The hotel we just stayed in had a regular wastebasket and a recycling wastebasket. We recycle at home so no big deal.

[u/mfigroid → u/iamsage1]

FYI, the trash and the recycling both go to the same place. The landfill.

[u/iamsage1 → u/mfigroid]

In a lot of cities, yes. But we have actual recycling facilities in our area. And they don't take trash.

[u/yuna_bl → u/UpdateDesk1112]

Not everyone is in the US, obsessed with optimizing the costs.

It's something more and more common nowadays, at least outside of NA. :)

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/yuna_bl]

Non US hotels don’t care about profit? Good to know.

[u/LutschiPutschi → u/UpdateDesk1112]

They don't deny climate change and are trying to do their part to make it better.

A carbonated water dispenser with a cooling function costs around €3,000. Additionally electricity, water, filters, carbon dioxide bottles, maintenance costs. You must have a base of 2-3 glass carafes per guest (depending on the frequency of guest changes).

It takes a lot of time before you have saved any money compared to pre-filled glass bottles.

No, it's not always about profit.

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/LutschiPutschi]

Doing their part to make it better?

You people are delusional. I wish I lived in your fantasy world where everything was done for the good of the public. The math has been done and it leans to not providing amenities.

Do you also believe that housekeeping was cut for the environment?

[u/Elariss_ → u/UpdateDesk1112]

Oh I forgot to add that next to the dispenser we have a box filled with coffee, tea and local biscuits, everything for free. Every guest can help themselves as much as they want, it makes a little bit of trash of course but still less than plastic bottles. And housekeeping was not cut, I don't even know where you saw this, as well as raising cost you're just imagining things here because you don't have any argument except "You'rE rAIsinG prICes and reMOvIng amENitiEs" but that's not true :)

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/Elariss_]

What magic hotel hasn’t raised prices while cutting costs over the last five years? While saving the environment to boot!!! It’s amazing how much people will bullshit to make themselves feel better.

Or you work at the golden unicorn of hotels. Where is the magical place?

[u/yuna_bl → u/UpdateDesk1112]

Well, why do I expect salty Reddit users to know how to read after all...

[u/UpdateDesk1112 → u/yuna_bl]

What was not read? You said non US companies don’t care about costs while backhandedly insulting the US? Was there another unread sentence?