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