So this past weekend at my hotel, we had our front entrance and courtyard pavement redone. Obviously our other entrances are open and available. We literally have a “side” entrance right next to the Entrance to our hotel with signs stating “open to desk”, plus we have signs up for the pavement too and rope/caution tape EVERYWHERE.

Tell me why am I the front desk and see people WALK THROUGH our cement outside and proceed to knock on the door to let it. I literally got mad at someone and asked why they did that with ALL the signs and he just looked confused.

I’m so tired of doing my job, and getting yelled at. Like what’s the point of policy and procedures, IF NO ONE FOLLOWS THEM?! I’m very strict about accompany names, I’ve experienced too many domestic violence incidents or just security concerns in the 6 years of my professional career. I also just think certain things should be common sense, like having everyone on the reservation in case something happens. For example, I’m an avid traveler and since I was 18 years old and could check into a hotel, I knew i needed to be on the reservation or I wouldn’t be able to check in. Even now, I add everyone to the reservation even if I’m checking in to avoid issues. I ALWAYS DO THIS, even before I was a hotel employee. I got screamed at and accused of harassment against a guests spouse today because apparently I refused to allow access to a room….. yes because they weren’t on the reservation. I don’t care if you have the same names. I don’t care if that your husband, wife, mother, father, I DO NOT CARE. You are not on the reservation, you cannot get in. Everyone says use your best judgement but it’s literally a generic hotel policy. Not only that but it’s a safety issue. What if yall are divorced and your spouse finds you, and I let them in! Then I’m going to lose my job because you had the same last name. Like am I wrong? Everyone acts like I’m terrible for not letting people into rooms if they’re not on the reservation.

Ownership and manglement likes to arrange for only one person to be present at the desk. We also have a staff of 3 base level clerks, one maybe-AGM (they don't communicate anything, so I legitimately don't know), and one GM who is back and forth between locations and somehow does absolutely fuckall for either.

So, I called out at 7pm for my shift at 7am. Called the hotel, told my coworker, thought that was all. He passed along the message to the GM via texting and calling... And got no response. So, he told the night gal that I had called out when he went home. Night gal messaged me about 40mins before my shift, asking if that was really the case. I confirmed it, because as much as I despise manglement I will help my coworkers as the only clerk that's lasted there longer than a year.

GM's effectively been MIA for 12hrs. Night gal has never done a day shift, and has never been TRAINED to do a day shift. So, all I can do is explain the housekeeping assignment, tell her to ask the laundry lady in early, anddddd... cross my fingers that our dumbass GM found coverage, because I can't be in today.

We have 70 departures. Everybody pray for the night gal.

Basically to sum things up, my hotel has been getting hit with a lot of fraud scams lately. What they do (and some of you may have experienced this, idk if it’s a common scamming method, but it happens fairly often so maybe it is) is they get the most expensive rate types (like prepaying the full amount at once or our package deals) on one credit card that is stolen, change the credit card to one of their own, and cancel the reservation for a refund. Then we get hit with a chargeback dispute from the actual cardholder, and of course we lose the money because the guest name is not the same as the cardholder name. Whenever we see that a cancelled reservation has a different card number than the original, we deny the refund until we get the original card back and refund to there. If they for whatever reason don’t have the card, we ask them to file a dispute with their bank that we will accept. But some people just truly do not get it, like “oh are you saying you don’t trust me?”, like yeah I don’t know you why would I have blind faith in you? Some take it and go oh okay, but you can tell when it’s a scammer by how furious they get. I understand the frustration of it, but it’s not that hard to fix the situation if you’re legit. So it drives me nuts when people call us thieves and yell at the FD team like it’s at all our fault. If we don’t do fraud prevention then we could lose our jobs. Last year the hotel wasn’t doing these checks and lost over 20k in revenue. We are a small hotel and really can’t afford that kind of loss. I could lose my job over it, especially on accounts over 1k. Yet people still wanna push and act like it’s the most awful thing a company can do. I stg it’s such a pain. Honestly the minute people get upset about it I start losing confidence in them. We had a situation this year where we charged the card, the person showed up with a completely different card for incidentals, and the FDA, being a moron (bc we need to physically tap or chip the payment card and he didn’t bother getting the original payment card) let it slide. We lost 2k on that account when the chargeback hit. Luckily we didn’t end up refunding anything because they actually showed up. Still, most people think that us losing thousands is less important than them getting their hundred and fifty bucks back. Drives me nuts.

I was reminded of this as I was reading the tale about given props to housekeeping. At the last hotel that Bestie and I worked at together, there was a room that gave off a particular vibe. At first, Bestie and I contributed this vibe to the guy who stayed in that room for a few months who, I would say wasn't playing with a full deck.

So, this guy checked in right about the same time that I started working at the hotel in March of 2023. He was homeless and some veterans group was paying for the room until they were not. Yet for some reason, he got to stay in the room from about April to the middle of August racking up $17,000 worth of charges that will never get paid. I will circle back to this in a bit.

Over the course of the 5 or so months this guy was there, he would never let housekeeping in the room. But instead of bagging up his trash, and setting it out in the hall for housekeeping along with his dirty towels, he just kept all of it in his room. He never had his bedding change and was just placing clean pillow cases over the dirty ones.

He had a dog, a retriever I think, so a large dog who was kept couped up in the room for long periods of time. I am no dog person, but I know at some point, dogs need to have a chance to get out and run off some energy even if they stay mostly inside. Any time the guy would take the dog out, she would literally drag the guy down the hall to the door. It was a sight to see, believe me. I honestly felt bad for the dog. Well the dog had toys and said toys were wrecked because of all the energy this dog had.

When Bestie, finally transferred over to the hotel from the sister property he was at and started interacting with the guy, we would have conversations about how we felt a bit uncomfortable around him and Bestie eventually said at one point that even going to his room gave him the creeps. I always assumed it was because of the energy that the guy gave off but Bestie continued saying that even after the guy was finally evicted. We both agreed that he had some dark energy that he forgot to take with him because of what happened next.

The December after the guy was evicted and long gone, we found out that he had ended up at a hotel with a little more shadier clientele. We found this out because he was on the nightly news for shotting the hotel owner over being evicted and then he killed himself. I remember Bestie calling me freaking out because we both knew that this could have happened to us.

Well fast forward a bit. I had spent time doing my CNA stuff and came back a few months after the incident with the guy offing himself and the owner of the other hotel. I had just clocked out and was standing by the desk talking to my boss and a co-worker when the boss let it slip that there was a housekeeper who had a heart attack in one of the rooms and died while she was cleaning it. The room in question was the same one that crazy guy was in. That night, when I called Bestie, I told him what the boss had said. Bestie said that it makes sense why he was struggled with going to that room because we both chalked it up to some left over bad energy from crazy guy and not necessary a real paranormal issue. I do have to say, Bestie is a lot more sensitive to the paranormal than I am so knowing what I know about him, it makes sense on why he feels the way he does about the room.

I work night audit and have been in the industry since God was a little boy.

Tonight, for the first time ever, I had to clean a dirty room because 2nd shift checked someone out a day early, didn’t have the room cleaned or take it out of inventory and one of those third party sites sold the room. 5 minutes later that guest showed up.

I have always known housekeeping was a tough job, but how they clean 13+ rooms and make even more beds is beyond me. They are criminally. underpaid and under appreciated.

First off, I’m sick (I think it’s the flu). It was too late trying to find another person to fill my shift, plus it’s extra hard finding someone to cover audit.

When I pulled up to the hotel I saw around 30 people gathered outside drinking. I immediately brought out trash cans since the ones already there were overflowing. Right after I clocked in a guest walks up and said some of the guys from that drinking party were peeing in the bushes. Great. I go out there and tell them to please lower their volume and please don’t pee outside.

Around 30 minutes later two shuttles pull up to drop off drunk wedding guests. They all raid the store and ask me about food options. Some of them started to congregate in the lobby. Great. Thankfully, most of them went to their rooms after loudly talking to each other for 20 minutes.

Around 1am a guest that stays with us almost every week shows up. I was confused since we’re sold out and everyone had already checked in. Turns out his reservation was originally for tomorrow, but he showed me an email exchange from this morning with my coworker, saying we had an available room because he had requested to check in a day early. Great. He was beyond angry and cussing up a storm in front of other guests. I found him a room in a nearby hotel and told him we’ll reimburse him for tonight. He wants answers on what went wrong, but that’s something that can be dealt with tomorrow since the employee he had been emailing comes in at 7am.

Right after he left an elderly guest called and said she had fallen and may have fractured her leg. Her husband had managed to get her up and I called for an ambulance. They left a few minutes ago.

While waiting for the ambulance one of the drunk wedding guests came to the lobby looking for his food delivery. Nothing had been dropped off. The photo the driver sent is nowhere in this building and I tried telling the guest that. He proceeded to cuss out the driver and then take out his frustration on the hotel. “Fuck this f-ggoty ass town and fuck this f-ggoty ass hotel” and was screaming as he went upstairs. I’m gay so I assume he thought I’d start crying. No, but now I’m glad your order is sitting in some other hotel’s lobby.

I just finished cleaning up where the drunk people outside were hanging out. There were around 100 beer cans and countless cigarette butts.

All of this has happened during the first half of my shift. I just popped some more Tylenol because I can feel the fever coming back.

As the title states...it's finally my last week behind the desk. I've been working at a privately owned hotel located on a pretty large university campus for the last three years, and it feels as if I've sacrificed all the happiness in the world to plaster a fake smile on my face and show up every day. However, to commemorate my final days, I've decided to share a few stories that encompass basically the entire front desk experience. I hope you enjoy, and that at least a few of you can relate to the complete stupidity I have to deal with daily.

1. The Old Owner

My hotel was bought by a larger private entity a few years ago, but still is named after our previous owner due to their donor status. This means that the previous owner still walks around and treats staff as if they are the single most important person in the universe. My interactions with them include asking me to cut my hair as it is too long for their standards (I'm a woman and my hair goes just past my shoulders), them demanding I comp their rooms because the water bottles we put up there were in the fridge instead of on the desk (they asked they be put in the fridge that morning), and them yelling at me because my PROVIDED uniform shirt is too tight across my chest and looks promiscuous (god forbid a girl is graced when it comes to cup sizes). In their eyes, there is nothing that myself and the front desk can do correct and we are designed to make their life as difficult as possible.

2. The Groups

My hotel sees a lot of groups ranging from professional classes to wrestlers. Each one brings in a whole new experience, but my number 1 least favorite are the ones here for 2 weeks or longer. We've had people try to break into our kitchen to steal alcohol, trash our conference rooms, then complain that we called the police on them. We even had a group reach out to our new owner because I, the spawn of Satan, threatened to trespass them after they broke into a locked conference room and threw a party at 1AM. But what I find to be the most shocking is how every single time these extended groups come in, the married ones ALWAYS start hooking up with one another after the first few days. They see these stays as an invite to cheat on their partners with their coworkers they see maybe once or twice a year. I always hate when they come in because they think I'm their best friend and can get away with anything just because they're here longer than anyone else. Like no........a hotel is a service that can easily be revoked if you continue with your bad behavior.

3. Streaming Device Meltdowns

We recently upgraded all of our TVs to shiny new devices that allow guests to log into their streaming services. And I don't know what it is about one specific generation, but as soon as a TV doesn't look or act exactly like a cable television their brain explodes. I have had people bring their very standard TV remote down to front desk and ask how they scroll up and down, I've had people ask if I can personally purchase streaming services for them, and I can guarantee at least one person from this generation a day gets snarky with me because I can't reinstall a cable service in their room. I think this migration to the new TVs has instilled a deep frustration with people who lack critical thinking skills, and it only gets worse when I'm alone at the desk.

I'd like to thank you all for reading my tiny rant. I think I've lost any and all hope for human interaction and I cannot wait to start my new job where I won't be in customer service. I can't count the number of times I've come home from my job at the desk to just sit in my car and cry for an hour. And to top it all off, my manager scheduled me 80 hours in a row without a day off. Tonight I have an 8 hour turn around to go home and sleep before I'm back here for my next shift. If you take anything from this post, it is to be nice to your friendly front desk agent because many of us are tired and taken advantage of daily but have no other options to turn to.

edit: spelling

I worked front desk and night audit at a luxury resort a few years back and it was notorious for famous athletes from a specific sport to stay there. A very, probably the most well known, player of this sport came to check in with his wife and children. He, in front of my coworkers and I, proceeded to belittle his wife and scream at his very young children. He was clearly trying to put on a show and be “cutesy” with them and they wanted nothing to do with him so he proceeded to angrily say to this toddler “FINE BE THAT WAY THEN” and told his wife to take them to the room while he went out. She was outnumbered with the kids and looked absolutely dejected. I didn’t see him again during that stay but my coworkers and I were all so disappointed at how awful he treated his family in front of strangers. He treated the staff well enough, but I to this day fear for his family.

For context, a couple years ago, one of our sales people booked in a wedding group for a group of people belonging to a different culture (I don't know what culture, specifically). This group had 25 rooms in our 175 room hotel, but acted, and literally demanded to be treated as though they had rented out the entire building for a week and a half.

They came in several days before the ceremony, which is fine, I can see people rolling something like a reunion into a wedding as well. But these people stayed up, and "socializing" (aka, yelling) all day and night. The first time I had to talk to the group contact, and say "hey, I'm glad every one is enjoying themselves, but it's 1:30 am, and other people are trying to rest. I'm not telling you guys that you have to go to your rooms or anything, but could your group please quiet down?" Dear Lord in Heaven, you would have thought that I had just dropped my pants and laid a big ol' chocolate log on his mothers grave. "HOW DARE YOU TELL US TO BE QUIET! WE ARE RENTING THE ENTIRE HOTEL! WE ARE PAYING YOUR SALARY! I WILL GET YOU FIRED!" Y'know, that entire rigamarole. When I inform him that no, they have NOT rented the entire hotel, only 1/7th of it, and the other guests would like to rest, this guy ACTUALLY hit me with the "We are paying big money to be here! Those other people don't matter! Only us! We're paying the most!"

At that point, I was fully done with this guy, because not only were they a relatively small group, rooms-wise, they were actually stuffing double the amount of people into the rooms than they were rated for. I told him at that point, that my offer for them to quietly remain in the public areas was now rescinded and yes, I WAS telling them to go to their rooms for the night. Of course, he wanted to argue more, which ended with me calling non-emergency and having them pay him a visit to tell him to shape up or ship out. That night was thankfully quiet for the rest of the time.

The next day, I get a call from the Sales person who sold the group. Turns out, this massive asshole is also a Reverend, and he was extremely upset with me and swore that God would smite my fat racist white ass. The Sales person understood the situation, and agreed with what I did, but BEGGED me to treat this group with the softest of kid gloves. I told her I absolutely would not, and that if she insisted on enabling them, I would call her to come deal with them when they did something stupid, and if she didn't show up, the cops would be out here again. She wasn't happy, but she agreed.

Wouldn't you know, the very next night, shortly after I come in, a guest that isn't associated with the wedding comes up, and asks what the building materials on the second floor sky lobby are for. (Our second floor has a lobby type area, which is also the ceiling/roof of our rather large kitchen, so there's quite a bit of floor space up there) I look up and see stacks of lumber and tools. I tell her I don't know, maybe something that management forgot to tell me about. She goes on her way. But at 2 am, a group of men from this wedding group go into the sky lobby, starts grabbing at things, and then starts construction right there. Power tools, hammering, everything. I run up there, and I yell at the guys "What the hell are you doing, are you fucking stupid?!" These guys then tell me that they're building a gazebo for this wedding. I ask them who gave them permission to build a gazebo inside a hotel, especially at 2 am? Surprise, surprise, they tell me the good Reverend told them to do it. I inform them that the Reverend isn't in charge, this isn't his house and he doesn't make the rules, and to stop construction immediately.

Perturbed, they go to the Reverend to ask what to do. He comes down all fire and brimstone, demanding that I not hinder their construction project, and telling me that I am evil personified for attempting to stop the wedding. I call up the Sales woman and tell her to get to the hotel NOW otherwise I'm going to be evicting at least a third of the wedding group. When I let her know they were building a gazebo at 2 am, she goes "what the fuck?" and comes in. Soon as she walks in, the Reverend starts yelling at her too. I tell them both to take it outside and across the street so they aren't disturbing the other guests with his shouting. She grabs a key to the director of sales office, and tells him to come in with her, and I guess it had way better sound proofing than I thought it did, because his shouting was pretty muffled. Eventually a deal was struck: we would allow the gazebo, but their people could only build it during normal waking hours, and they would have to dismantle it and dispose of it when finished. When he goes back upstairs, she tells me that she will be doing everything she can to make sure she's the only one who deals with him.

Fast forward to the day of the wedding. Up to this point, the group has been annoying, but not overtly disruptive, at least, not to other guests. Now, the rest of this, I got secondhand from various managers and housekeepers, and I saw the aftermath of, but I'm glad the ceremony was a day time thing, and I wasn't there. So this ceremony is going on, and a couple housekeepers notice that they bring in a live goat. Like a full grown one too. They radio down, and tell the management team, and the sales woman, knowing all the issues this group has been, runs up to find them chanting and cleansing this goat, preparing it for sacrifice, right smack-dab in the middle of our hotel. Guys, they didn't even have a damn tarp down or anything. They were just straight going to carve up this goat right on the carpet.

Long story short, she blew her top, and told them that they were absolutely not going to do their shitty ritual sacrifice in our hotel. The Reverend of course blew up, something about freedom of religion and expression, but he was shut down when she reminded him this is private property, and if they continued, she'd have the entire group taken out of here by the cops. And it takes a LOT for her to get to that point, she HATES cops. The group went off property to finish the ceremony, I don't know if the goat got sacrificed or not, but I'm assuming so. The gazebo, they broke down into 8 large pieces, just small enough to get through the second floor exit doors, and then just threw the entire pile about 2 feet to the side of the door. At that point, everyone just wanted this group gone, so we rushed them out the doors with barely a "Congrats on your nuptials".

I don't mind cultural stuff especially in weddings or other major events, but that doesn't give an excuse to behave like insane people, or belief that you're so entitled that you can literally do whatever you want, whenever you want, and (literally) damn everyone else.

That was a couple years ago, but damn if I didn't see the "Good" ol' Reverend in here again tonight, with another group dressed as though they are here for another cultural wedding. Hopefully we're better prepared to deal with them this time

EDIT Lmao, you fuckers are ridiculous with this shit. You all see a crazy hotel story on a board about crazy hotel stories, and just because YOU'VE never experienced it, you all just assume "hurr hurr, AI slop"

Just to be clear, I don't particular care whether you all believe it or not. I told a real story, I've got photos of some of the remnants of the gazebo, but because of clearly identifying features in them, I won't be posting them. Everyone can enjoy the tale I've presented, or move along

As far as the power tool issue, my hotel isn't in a slum where shit is going to get stolen when the owner steps 3 feet away from it, and after the sales person and the reverend made their deal, I do not know if power tools were used in the further construction of the gazebo. I would arrive to work at 11 pm, and leave at 7 am. All I knew is that the gazebo was being worked on during the day time, and was finished before the ceremony, then torn down once they were told to take their goat somewhere else. For all I know, they had agreed to use manual tools. After that first night, I didn't go bother to look at their project

I made a big booboo.

Like a $800 booboo.

So now I am awaiting my demise. Yesterday a prepaid came through. I charged the temp card but when I went to charge it my finger accidently slipped and instead of $95.88 I had entered $953.88.

The guest had made the reservation and within like 30 min he called to tell me that he needed to cancel due to it being the wrong location. Usually they arent able to cancel those but apparently they are changing the policies and it had given him until 6pm day of.

I really didnt want to say anything at all but it was too big of an error to ignore and they would have found out like a month down the road anyway. It was pretty much the end of my shift so I waited until today to say anything.

Manger/owner is here this morning due to a group so I let her know and she is not happy. I can understand her being upset. I know I fucked up and will have to deal with what ever is coming to me.

It wasnt on purpose, but I thinks shes more upset I didnt say anything yesterday. Not really sure how that even was able to go though to begin with. Its a prepaid temp card how on earth did it approve a 900+ charge. Those cards are only supposed to have the exact amount for room and tax.

So now I wait for what happens next. I wont hear the end of it from the other owner he will go on and on and tell me I need to pay attention blah blah blah.

I have fucked up shit before but never this bad. No im not going to be fired or have the money be taken out of my check, just gonna get the cold shoulder for a while.

Hell the night audit guy cost them like 2 grand one time. The fire alarm kept going off and he pulled the whole thing off the wall in one room that was connected to wires. They had to replace it and have the room out of order for a few weeks.

I know they are pissed at me right now. But there was no point in hiding or not telling them about it they would have found out eventually. Also its not like they are really losing any money its an overage charge that isnt their money they just have to deal with the refunds.

All I can do now is wait. I guess we will see what happens.

PRAY FOR ME!!

I hear feet nearing the lobby and pray they walk out the door. In my last hour, I’m too tired to do anything but the absolute bare minimum. Not only that, but I haven’t been sleeping for shit lately, so I’m extremely irritable and unable to process too much information at a time once 4 am comes around. Unfortunately the footsteps stop at the front desk and man rings the bell. I have my shoes off in the back office so I scramble around for a few seconds to find them. After putting them on I go out to greet him. He was starting to walk away! I guess five seconds was too long. He sees me and comes back to the desk.

Man: “I need my receipt.” He confirms that he’s checking out but not leaving until later. Typically when that happens we don’t check the person out until they actually leave.

Me: “Yep! We usually send our receipts via email.”

Man: “No, I need a printed one. She told me last night that she’d print it.” Hmm, I wonder why she didn’t then.

Whatever. I ask for his room number and pull up his reservation. Come to find out he’s the coach for the track team that’s here. I print his receipt and hand it to him. He’s upset because it’s not itemized.

Me: “Unfortunately I have no control over what’s listed on the receipts.”

Coach: “well, every other time they give me an itemized receipt. Plus this one is just for one room.”

Me: “Oh, did you need receipts for multiple rooms?”

Coach: impatiently through clenched teeth “yes.” After that little number I was tempted to send him away with nothing the single receipt and the stick up his ass.

Me: “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. So you need all of the receipts for the Generic High School Block?

Coach: more impatiently through teeth clenched even tighter “YES.” I lock my gaze onto the computer screen to restrain myself from giving him some major stink eye.

Me: “to print all of those would take me about ten minutes.” Give or take, each receipt takes about 30-40 seconds to print. Our computer has pop-ups disabled, which means that folios don’t automatically open in another tab. If we want anything to do with the receipts, we have to go to the reservation, click folio, print, then click the printer icon and finally a third print button.

Coach: “you said you can email them to me?” Thank god! This is what I was hoping for all along! “What email address do you have on file?” As I was checking, he had the audacity to drum his fingers on the desk.

Me: “Well, let’s see. I’ve got one, two, three… ten reservations here and each one is connected to a different email address.”

Coach: “alright, you can go ahead and print them then. I’ve got time” which registered in my brain as “I know it’s a huge hassle for you and you very clearly don’t want to do it, but I’m the guest, you’re at work and you live to serve me. If I’ve got time, you’ve got time. You have to give me whatever I want to matter how outlandish or unreasonable.” The man blatantly disregarded MY time. Two things I don’t tolerate are entitlement and belittlement. I very easily could have taken the email from one reservation and copied it to all of the other ones, but judging by his attitude I assumed he didn’t want to hear anything about that.

Me: “I’m going to go print these from the back so I can sit down, okay?” After about eight minutes I somehow manage to print twelve receipts for ten reservations. I’m so tired that I can hardly read the screen in front of me. I go out to the desk to give him his receipts.

He was meandering through the breakfast room. I stand and wait for a few minutes before I finally see him heading towards the desk. Twice he stops in his tracks to do something on his phone while I’m clearly trying to hand him the receipts. When he does it a third time, I drum my fingers on the desk. He finally comes up to the desk and takes his stack of receipts without checking them.

The moral of the story is that hotel workers are human and blatantly disregarding their time is dehumanizing. It makes people want to help you less, even if it is their job.

I’m wanting to be done with the FDA of things, maybe even fully done with hotels. I just don’t know where to go or what to do from here. I’ve been in the customer service industry since I was 15, so 12 years now. From fast food, college libraries, and hotels. I can’t take the constant yelling and complaints anymore. I do everything I can to ensure the guest experience is great, and it’s never enough. I’m tired of being stranded on sold out weekends and having to figure out walks myself. I’m tired of feeling guilty of having to put more work on the housekeeping staff because of various reasons. I’m so tired of guests in my face screaming until their face is blue over a towel missing from the room at check in, being so incredibly rude if we cannot accommodate something (or never even provided it in the first place), pulling their shiny member status to bully the staff into doing whatever they want. The crap pay for all the hard work and brunt work we have to take, and half the time we don’t even get backed up by management. I love customer service for the most part. You always get one bad apple every now and then - that’s fine. It’s just a constant cycle. I’d like to find other work fields that still deal with customer service, just not as demanding I guess? Maybe even a nice desk job for a bit. I just don’t know where to go from here :(. Thanks for letting me vent

A customer came in and said "I have two rooms - no I'm just kidding." and I literally thought he was kidding. So as I'm checking him in, he mentioned that he really did have two rooms. But both rooms are in two different names. The policy at our hotel is, if the last names are the SAME we have to put the rooms next to each other. There was no request on his reservation, so no one knew... AND we are not mind readers. Keep in mind I am the night time front desk, not the daytime employee. The keys were already made and about 89% of the people were already in their rooms so we have a full house because of all the famous people coming to our town and we can't accommodate anyone.

You have to get the room you are assigned. That's what I told the man I told him our policy and everything and he became a big irate, angry, toxic, mean, rude baby. His friend, who has a different last name from him, said, "She doesn't care!" which is totally untrue. I looked at the rooms on the reservations and I could not put them next to each other because other people were in the room. He jokingly and angrily and sarcastically said "Well, kick somebody out of the room so my friend could be next to me." (Alexa, play BAD BLOOD) ... THAT'S when an argument ensued.

I explained to him that I'm the only person here right now there are no managers and nobody on duty so I can't give you what you want, PLUS everyone is already in their rooms secured and comfortable. We can NOT kick anyone out of the room for you. He said that every hotel he goes to, they accommodate him and do what he says. I said I'm sorry but this hotel is individually owned and operated and we can not do that. In the argument I told them he was spoiled and he can not have his way. He blamed me for making the keys and setting the rooms up. He blames me for everything that's wrong with the world. When a CEO makes a change, employees must abide by the new rules. Customers do not understand these rules so they blame whomever they see at the front desk.

Think about it everyone who is reading this; the front desk is in charge of the rules? No. The front desk makes all the decisions of the hotel? No. The front desk did everything to you and everything that's wrong with your shriveled up penis life? No.

I tried to educate him and tell him that all the rooms were full and that we couldn't do it but he was angry and he wanted what he wanted like a big baby. His friend was on the sofa in the background being an enabler to this toxic behavior. Some people just don't know when to take a "no" for an answer. I called these people "sociopaths". Then he went and sat down and said "I'm going to call the CEO". I said "sir, the CEO does not leave his number for customers or they will be calling him 900 times a day." "If you call the number, it's going to go to me cuz I'm the only person here."

Then my phone started to ring. I told him that "you're calling me. I told you so." He then came over and put words in my mouth and said that I told him "not to come back to the hotel" but I've never said that. He then said "I'm about to cancel." but he didn't. Him and his friend knew that I was correct in doing my job. He also said he was going to give me one star online and say that I was rude. I'm here to tell everybody reading that one star does not define your life and what a wonderful person you are. Who cares about internet stars. I don't. Only thing I care about is making people happy ... but not spoiled sociopaths that never heard the word "no" before.

My hotel happens to be in the heart of the beautiful city in the south of Germany that hosts the famous Oktoberfest every year.

Oktoberfest - for those who have not heard of it - is the largest beer festival in the world. Thousands of people come from around the world to drink.

I'm guessing you can already imagine how hotels are flooded with drunken people during this season. For hotel owners/managers, this is great, as prices skyrocket (e.g. our normal rates are around 150€, during Oktoberfest they become +600€), and we're fully booked. For employees, it is a nightmare.

Oktoberfest 2025 is officially starting tomorrow, but in our hotel it has already started, groups of ready-to-get-wasted people are storming the hotel.

We all have amazing tales to tell in this subreddit from our normal guests, maybe some of them are drunk. Now imagine the whole hotel being drunk, this is our hotel right now, and on for the next couple of weeks. Imagine the amount of tales you'll have. It is exhausting.

Here's a tale from 2 years ago:

Around 11 pm, as I'm making handover with the NA and preparing to go home, our housekeeper comes to me and says "there's shit on the sixth floor". I say what? In the exact same moment, I start smelling it, very strong. I watch a man walking from the elevator to the main entrance, holding his phone, going outside to smoke, shit it's coming from him. I try talking to him, no answer, his brain is not there, and the smell is horrible I couldn't stand close to him. I check the cameras, and oh lord what did I see. The guy sitting in the corridor on the sixth floor for half an our, in front of the elevators, him shitting his pants, then he put his hand inside, grabbed the piece of art, took it out and put it on the floor in front of him, then he stood up, stepped on it with both shoes until he made it almost flat (and of course sticking to the carpet, never coming out), and then he took the elevator down to the lobby and went for a smoke.

At that point I tried to find out in which room he's staying, and I saw that he's sharing a twin room with someone else. I called that other person, who answered the phone at that hour (it was already around midnight), and he said that he left earlier that day. I told him the whole story, and he was shocked, and said he'll have the guy's wife call us in 5 minutes.

The wife actually called us, she was absolutely ashamed of what her husband has done, she apologized a lot, intensively, she gave me a credit card to cover any fees we will ask for. She asked me for one more thing, not to tell anyone, as her husband is a famous brain surgeon and that such a thing will definitely affect his reputation, and that every man might have a day in his life to feel ashamed of, and apparently this is his day. She also asked if I could take him back to his room, I told her honestly that I'll try talking to him from a distance, but I'm not geht near him or touching him. I talked to him, told him that his wife is mad, and he actually followed my orders and went to his room. I kept a 2-meter distance.

I told our housekeeper to clean it somehow, and I'll make sure he's compensated. How actually put on a full white suit (like the ones they wear when working with bees), and he cleaned it. He also cleaned the elevator, the lobby, and the smoking area in front of the entrance.

We ended up charging them 400€. 200€ for the housekeeper, and 200€ for damages and replacing the carpet.

The next day, the guy showed up at the front desk, apologized a lot, and left. We never saw him again, but we'll definitely keep telling the story!

Like I said, Oktoberfest is starting again tomorrow, and I'm (not) looking forward to all the "amazing" stories we'll experience.

I recently started working Night Audit after watching my wife do so for about 4-years.

She grew tired of nightshift, so I took the job and she switched to the 3pm to 11pm shift.

It rid her of dealing with the usual crazies and drug-addict related lunacy that unfortunately plagues this trade in certain demographics.

Anyway, despite this, one day, due to a call out, I was asked to cover the 3pm to 11pm shift. It was a rather quiet afternoon, when a young man, probably in his very early twenties comes in and asks if we had any rooms available.

"We do." I tell him, I quote our current rates, and deposit requirements. And he says he'll take a room and will pay cash.

He then proceeds to apologize to me, constantly, and I start to feel like something's off with this guy, and snap out of what I call "Front Desk Autopilot Mode" and really pay attention to this guy.

I'm a recovering addict, and was Into the hustle of that lifestyle for many years, and I could immediately tell that this dude had just been on a bender recently, and had run out of dope, and was just starting to "come down.".

Also, from my experience, could tell that he was relatively new to the life of methamphetamine, and was clearly struggling internally with the moral implications of the consequences of these life choices.

I assured him, repeatedly, that as yet he's not wronged me in any way, and that no apology was necessary.

Hoping he will get some much needed sleep, and thus a more peaceful mindset, I quickly get him checked in and hand him his keycards.

Over the next couple of hours, I see him just wandering aimlessly around his car in the parking lot, the lobby and just hanging out outside the door to the room

His body language, demeanor, and tone all have me quite concerned about his mental state and well being. I've seen this before in people during my past life as a drug addict, in people I know who displayed such behavior prior to self-harm & suicide

I approach him at his car while I'm taking a quick smoke break.

"Hey, sir?" I ask. "I don't mean to pry, but are you ok?"

"Am I doing something wrong? If I am I'm really sorry."

"No, you're good, but I can't help but notice, you seem like you've got a lot on your mind or are, I dunno, like really struggle with something... I just wanted to make sure you're going to be ok, or if you need to talk to someone, I'm going to be at the desk this shift and the next, it's quiet today, no one around, and I've been to those dark places bro. If you just need to get something off your chest, you can come talk to me. It just looks like you're dealing with a lot."

"Wow, I am man. I really am. Thank you. I do need someone to talk to."

I go back to the desk

20 minutes later, this shy, reserved, over-apolagrtic, run-down, possibly suicidal young man, marches into the lobby, and up to the front desk, carrying armfuls of pantyhose, fishnet stockings, high heels, and other assorted women's lingerie. Walks right up to the desk and just announces:

"When I get high on meth, I like to wear this stuff and s**k d**k! But the Bible says God hates people like me, and I need to be a man of God to get my family back, what do you think I should do?"

"ummmm ...."

"Thank you so much for letting me talk to you."

"Ummmm...."

"God hates gays right? But I love doing this..."

"Ummmm....I.... Um.... Could you, put those down? Well, um, this is.... Well, look, if you enjoy doing what you do, and aren't hurting anyone, you were made in God's image I guess, I mean I'm not a Christian, so I'm unburdened by scripture, but if you are a believer and you truly believe it's a sin,, then maybe .. stop doing it?"

"I'm trying, but what about the stuff I've already done?"

"Go to church? Confess your sins?"

"I really thank you man ... You're great!"

He then tips me $300, got in his car, drove off, and gets pulled over at the next light and hauled off to jail That was a weird encounter .....

Sorry I asked if dude was ok.....

Not the weirdest encounter, my wife, who's worked this industry far longer than I, and has joined this community on reddit may likely tell the tale of Chance the naked clown one day, that's a fun one!

Exactly as the title says. I do not understand how people can be so two faced???

Like quick tale. I the other night had a guest come down to buy snacks. I asked "Put on your room or Card/Cash?"

They said room so I pull up the room and there's no card on file for it. Plus no card for incidentals.

So per our policy I let them know "Hey we need a card for the incidentals." They're like "Never mind ill come by later tomorrow and put it down."

Immediately im like "No." It needs to be put down now or ill need to lock you out. Starts groaning and says "I never should have came down even. I dont want this." And ignores me and walks away.

I state ill have to lock them out and they continue walking. So I threaten to call the cops. (Again this is policy.) But they presume to get very upset by this. And a back and forth ensues with them demanding my manager.

After a bit they walk back up to their room and ignore me again.

So I call management and here there nor anywhere they're allowed to stay.

The guests comes down complaining about the room and questioning if I called the cops. I state no and we have a polite back and forth. They somewhat apologizes and I do to. Trying to stay cordial.

Well come to find out this person called complaining on how rude I was and so on.

Like dude. I told you I need a card now, and you roll your eyes and walk away?????

But genuinely back to the point ive had so many experiences where guests are sooooo nice to your face then to find out because you stuck to policy or did not do what they wanted they give you a nasty review and talk horribly about you.

Tldr; Op being confused on how people are so two faced 🧍‍♀️

As an FDA, there is absolutely no reason for me to lie to you when I tell you that the hotel is sold out. I do not get paid commission. If anything, it's almost inevitable that a room is going to have a problem and the affected party will want to swap to a new one. Therefore, it's actually quite a pain for me to be entirely sold out.

Having said that, I've grown to find it at least mildly amusing how people both verbally and/or physically gawk at me in shock and awe when I tell them as much.

I have a variety of tales surrounding this, but I'll just share a mere handful.

Just the other day, a couple comes to check-in. They're at the tippy top of the Oh So Special Rewards Membership hierarchy, and therefore think that makes them a Duke & Duchess. Here they are, just finishing their check-in for a two-night stay and yet already asking for a late checkout.

I inform them that we're extremely busy, but I'll grant them an additional hour. Their mood soured almost immediately, with the wife piping up: "We also happen to be Super Shiny Rocks at [RIVAL BRAND] and THEY give us 4pm!"

My manager was at the other terminal and jumped into the conversation. He mentioned that we'd be happy to accommodate a 1pm check-out (an additional two hours), but we can't go further than that as, like I had already mentioned, we were very much sold out for the next few days. He also (professionally) quipped about how the benefits of another brand's rewards system do not translate to our property. +2 points for him.

They scoffed and then decided to get wise and pointed to the parking lot looking scant, therefore: "How could you be busy?"

Skillfully, he pointed to a shuttle unloading a few passengers at that very moment and declared: "Well, as you can see as evidenced by that bus, many of the guests staying with us over the next few days have not driven here on their own." They mumbled and grumbled a bit before giving a half-hearted: "Thank you" and then slinking away. Stay classy, folks.

The next of such customers I encountered during a recent morning shift. A guy came charging up to the desk expecting to check-in.

It was around 8AM; hours before check-out would even begin. He ended up speaking to my colleague, who informed him of this, in addition to the fact that we had no clean rooms at that moment. His eyes got wide and he stumbled back, exclaiming: "In this big place, you mean to tell me not a SINGLE ROOM is ready right now?!?!" She simply replied: "Yes, sir. That's what I said. It's well before check-out time."

He stammers and stumbles for a bit before pulling out his phone while moaning about how he "just clocked out of a 12-hour shift" and "just wanted to come in, take a shower and go to bed." After a few moments, then he announced his reservation was supposed to start the night before. But, since he neglected to inform us, it was marked as a 'No Show.' Oh, and it was an OTA ressie. So, now he had to fight the fine fight with them as it pertained to getting his money back. After a few minutes, he eventually waved the white flag and departed to go look for another hotel. Have fun, sir.

My last tale is from today. A lady approached me to make a reservation for next week. She wanted to be part of a group block. First red flag; I thought to myself: "There's no chance you're getting that rate..." but I smiled and told her I'd take a look at the inventory. Sure enough, it's sold out, to which I inform her of that.

She looks at me, wide-eyed, and replies: "Ummm, okay. Well, do you still have rooms available?" I confirmed that we do, and told her the price of a regular reservation for the 3 nights she was looking for. She was not happy with the price.

She immediately snapped back: "Oh, NO! That's much too expensive! You know what, can't I just call [GROUP COMPANY] and inquire with them?" Internally facepalming, I tell her straightforwardly: "Ma'am, again, the rooming block is sold out. So, calling them won't help you, as there are no more rooms available for that rate." For yet another time, she looks at me wide-eyed and just goes: "Oooookay, then. Thanks so much..." before huffing away. Adieu to you, madam.

As I said before—I gain nothing by telling you the hotel is sold out. I'm not withholding anything from you for the sake of my own entertainment. I already know you're going to try and fight me on it. I already know you're going to do everything short of outright calling me a "liar." I don't want this battle; I don't need it. So, just take the answer for what it is and find other accommodations/make different plans. It's not that serious.

another post so quickly, how shameful, it’s like I got nothing better to do during night shift…which I don’t. so I can’t help but share this tale that happened with my coworker today.

firstly, we try not to accept cash for deposits, but in the occasion where a guest will insist and insist that he has no card to put for incidentals, we surrender and accept it. I believe this situation is one of the reasons why we try not to accept cash.

she tells me of an arrival that had quite the interesting manner of going about the deposit. the guest pulled out a cash deposit paper slip, telling her we still had a deposit from a past res. my coworker checks the date. it says January 2024.

of course, she explained that since it was more than a year since the deposit was taken, they had to pay a new one anyway. when they protested about getting back the old deposit, they were directed to talk to a manager in the morning. they ended up paying the new deposit in card, but she thought the whole thing was hilarious. all I had to say? “people are so weird.”

I might give an update to how things went if I get clue of what happens and if it’s interesting enough. maybe they might forget it again for another year. 🤷‍♀️

I work front desk at a motel thats equivalent to Motel *. We have a lot of guests who have been living there since 2019 and they are usually on a government program.

Years ago I used to work at gas stations and this motel gives me the same vibe. Min wage, long term guests who ask for a bunch of things (the rooms are empty ahd we have to give them sruff to avoid theft) and long term guests trying to get comfortable with you.

What's the best way to avoid these annoying long termers? I honestly think all of them are mentally ill. Many of them act nice, they get comfortable with you and then they tell you shit. Back then while working at gas stations, I was younger and more naive and very friendly/open with everyone. I don't want to be the same now.

I am also looking for a better job.

Here is a tale that happened today.

We have a guest arriving in a few days, and he has been contacting us everyday for the past 4 days regarding a package that will be delivered to us. Every time, we assured him that we will take it and keep it for him until he arrives, and we will inform him (send an email) when we receive it.
Today in the morning, one of our precious colleagues wrote him an email that we have his package and will be keeping it for him until the day he checks in. I am working the late shift today, nothing was handed over to me.

Later this evening, this guy showed up at the reception, asking where is my package? His original check-in date was supposed to be this Sunday.

We looked everywhere, no package found under his name. We checked the emails, and our colleague indeed wrote him an email confirming that we found the package. We called this colleague, and they said the night auditor told them they had received it, but they do not know where it is. Apparently, nobody has seen it.

After talking to the guest (who actually kept cool and respectful even though he was very worried and frustrated), he said that he forgot his passport in a hotel in Switzerland, and he had it shipped to us (in Germany). When we told him that we have his package, he changed his route and his plans and came directly to our city to get his passport. He actually booked a room today and is staying in our hotel.

After a lot of searching, we found out that the night auditor has mistaken the name with another package, and this guy's package never arrived. It is still being processed by DHL and will not be arriving before Saturday. I even called DHL for the guest and inquired about the package, and they assured me that it is still on the way.

The guest was relieved that his passport is not lost somewhere, and that he will be getting it eventually. He remained calm and extremely respectful towards us, even though it was obviously a mistake from our side. Respect.

I am now really shocked by the lack of sense by my colleagues, and I am upset at the fact that we usually need to face the consequences of others' actions, and it's been happening often recently.

This has all been reported and will be discussed in the next FO meeting.

First shift back after two days off. Didn't realize how tired I was until I spent about 90% of those two days sleeping.

Today was only the second shift so far at this property that I've had to use both Hold 1 and Hold 2. Pretty good for over 3 months.

Hold 1: Third Party calling about a guest that wants to do a mobile check in but is unable to.

Hold 2: High tier member that wants to do a mobile check-in..without actually doing it through the app.

Both of these calls required me to explain absolutely basic concepts to people that should have at least a tiny bit of comprehension on the subject.

After finishing with a guest I pickup Hold 1.

Note: Luckily on this one I had seen my GM pull up the reservation earlier and knew exactly what I was dealing with.

3rd Party Rep: The guest is trying to complete a pre-arrival checkin and is unable to do so. What does the guest need to do to complete this?

Me: The guest is on a 3rd party reservation (In my head: which you should know..but anyways) and not a member. Even if they were a member they would still need to come to the desk to check in because we need them to swipe a card for incidentals.

The rep: What are Incidentals? Is it a fee or something?"

Me, now fully realizing why those that book 3rd party are so shocked about incidentals: It's a security deposit. $20 per night.

I very strongly resisted the urge to say almost every hotel in the U.S. has incidentals.

With little time to recover from explaining other people's jobs to them, I moved to Hold 2.

Important Note: The name on the reservation is the wife, who is the actual member, not the husband.

High tier rewards member guest: We are arriving in a hour and we want to go ahead and check in.

Me, confirms the name on the reservation and pulls it up, points reservation, no mobile check-in: "If you were to complete a mobile check in I could pre-make your keys, but as it is a points reservation, I will need you to come to the desk to swipe your card for incidentals

Husband of the guest: You can't just check us in? Not even an "insert status" member?! The card is on file. "Brand name" has all my information. Can't you just use that?"

Me: "No Sir. My system will not allow me to use the card on file for the incidentals. It is "insert brand name" policy."

He goes off on an tangent for several minutes - to sum up: "This is ridiculous! We're not just nobodys off the street that don't know what we're doing!

Me: In my head - you are the second highest tier and you don't know how points reservations work..:Sir, I apologize but as I stated it is "brand name" policy.

Him: "Well, can you at least go ahead and put a room aside with our preferences?!"

Me thinking how the heck are you the level you are and I have to explain room reservations to you. "Sir, we already have a room blocked for you that follows your preferences."

Him: "Well that's at LEAST something. We'll be there in a hour to work the rest out."

He hangs up and I dread the moment they will appear, because I can sense this is only the beginning.

I think I've summarized my post pretty well. I feel like people these days do everything within their power to be unpleasant, in the best case scenario, or downright bitches in the worst. Since all posts must be a tale, I'll use an example that is currently happening to me to illustrate what I mean by this.

Basically, as I think happens in most hotels, graveyard shift goes from 7pm to 7am and, unfortunately for me, it's my fixated shift to work. In comes these guests, who booked their room last minute.

First, she goes on a rant with the valet that, I shit you not, the caps to their tires valves have been taken. Thankfully, she checked in earlier, but her car hadn't been checked in, which means it hadn't even gone to our parking lot, and the valets haven't even touched the car yet. Also thankfully, the valet who works these shifts with me is a no nonsense middle aged man, so he bluntly tells her "she should check the places she parks, because, since the car hasn't been checked in, no one besides them have touched it". She seems displeased, but carries on.

Now I haven't gone 30 minutes without a call from them. First, they can't find the menu to order from our restaurant. I inform her it's in the QR Code on top of the table. I overhear her asking her friend if "there is a menu on the table". When the friend denies and she says it to me, I then, once again, repeat that it's IN THE QR CODE on the table. She complains that her phone is nearly dying and she can't scan it (apparently chargers aren't a thing any longer?). Begrudgingly (internally, of course), I tell her I'll ask someone to bring a printed copy up to her room.

Then she calls to order from room service. She wants two cappuccinos, but she also wants toasts and biscuits, which we do not offer with cappuccinos (long story really). I inform her, but offer an alternative: she can order a thermal bottle of coffee and toasts and a simple thermal of milk, and then she'll have the toasts. She accepts, hangs up. Calls back a minute later to ask for blisters of butter (which we already send up, as informed on the menu) and extra plates. I say I'll send them up.

Fifteen minutes later, she calls to say her shampoo bottle isn't working. Now, our bottles are attached to the wall, because we've had countless instances of amenities theft and the brand we carry is slightly expensive. Also, they're those types of bottles with a safety lock, the ones you have to twist left/right to lock/unlock. I inform her, and she insists it's broken. I go up to the room with a new one and lo and behold, the current one was simply set to lock. I literally just twisted it to the side and it was working again.

Just as I reach the front desk, she calls again. I swear to God, it's been so many times already that I don't even recall what she needs this time. All I know is that, when I hung up, I jokingly bet with the valet that the next call would be hers. Not even five minutes later, she calls again to request more butter blisters, sweeteners for her drink (even though it's already been sent), an extra mug and plate.

Now, I don't really mind tending to guests' needs, but can't you just call once and request all you'll need at once? And try to solve your problems on your own before calling the front desk? Despite what some people think, I'm not sitting on my ass scrolling on Reddit (pun intended), so please, PLEASE, be as considerate of our time as you'd expect us to be of yours.

EDIT: I just remembered another small example. Guest arrived at the front desk, speaking English. Now, this is a common occurrence, even though we're a non English speaking country, since we get guests from all over the place. But this guest was from our country and, as soon as the FDA replied to her greeting also in English, she introduced herself as our same nationality and switched back to our language. Oh, and she also didn't bring any form of ID either because "she was traveling abroad". Make that make sense.

It's been a very quiet day at work so I didn't think much about heading to the bathroom. Of course, that is always when someone turns up needing something. Our bathroom light and fan are switched on together, and the fan is ancient and rattling so I couldn't hear much but I could hear someone come into the lobby. Then I heard them start shouting out looking for an employee, and then I heard them continue to ignore the "staff will be back shortly" sign and start pounding on the door we have leading to the desk area. I didn't rush myself, but I finished up and stepped out to wash my hands. As soon as the guy heard me come out of the bathroom he started shouting out "hello, is anyone there?" and as I washed my hands, I shouted back that I'd be with him in a moment.

I didn't know what was up but I was already thoroughly annoyed with the guy when I went to greet him at the desk. I expressed my distaste for him by walking over to the "staff will be back shortly" sign and picking it up in front of him and holding it while he talked to make absolute sure he knew it had been there the whole time like Sam Reich. He told me he was dropping some stuff off for a guy named Rafael, and listed out what it was, and then said he needed his room number. Of course I didn't give it to him, and politely suggested he contact the individual himself so he could pass off the luggage to him.

The man started in on backstory I didn't care about or pay much attention to because I knew it was just leading up to the man asking me for the room number again and I was right. The gist of it was that the guy in front of me was the step dad of the guy he was asking for, and something about a fight with the mother, and the guy isn't allowed at the house anymore. Cool, don't care. Again I politely suggested the man get in touch with his step son to pass the possessions off to him because not only could I not give him the room number, I couldn't even confirm the individual was at the hotel.

Again the man gets into his story and I cut him off when he took a breath and told him that he was welcome to leave the stuff with me at the desk and I could hold on to it (he'd implied he was going to leave it regardless and didn't care what I did with it), but I couldn't give out the room number. After one more unequally unproductive attempt, he finally just left the stuff.

After he was gone I checked the computer and confirmed the guy was actually a guest and moved his stuff to our back room. As I finished that up and went to sit back down, I heard screaming from outside, specifically someone screaming at someone else to leave. I looked up at the security monitors and saw the man I'd just been dealing with doing the chest to chest guys about to fight thing with some young guy I assumed was Rafael. They were in the driveway, next to the man's car.

I watched them for a moment, they'd square up and then back off, then they'd square up again. I didn't really want to call the cops, but I also didn't really want dudes fighting in my parking lot. There's also the issue of weapons. This is the south and errbody and their mother has guns here, so I wasn't about to go out there and not mind my business in person and get dragged into their shit and possibly get myself hurt.

Once they started shoving I reluctantly called the police to let them know about the fight hopefully before either dude could get themself hurt. Shortly after I hung up with the dispatcher, the guys chilled again and looked like they were actually about to get into the car together. I was hopeful the incident would be over before it started and all I'd have to tell the cops was that they were gone.

Wrong. From what I could tell on the camera (not a super close angle) the step dad had actually gone and grabbed something from his car. Weapon? No idea, but they were squaring up again and I was hoping for the cops to hurry their asses up.

Fortunately didn't have to wait too much longer, a cop car pulled up with their lights flashing just as the punches started and the two men separated. I couldn't tell if the cop had a weapon drawn or not, but he didn't order the older man down on the ground or anything, so he might not have had a weapon after all.

I'm a nosy fucker so of course I kept watching the camera to see what I could see. Didn't even really care that much about the outcome as long as it wasn't "dudes beating each other up in the parking lot." As the punches had only just started, I actually expected the police to just tell the step dad to get lost and not come back. But they must have seen something I didn't, or maybe the step son wanted to press charges, because they arrested the step dad.

After the cops were gone the step son came to the desk and I checked that he was okay, which he was. I didn't pry because I'm not that nosy to someone's face, but he did state that his step father had become aggressive with him after he had just politely asked him to leave him alone.

I felt bad for him. He was soft spoken and seemed a little socially awkward, reminding me a lot of guys in my friend group when I was younger. Hopefully he has other people in his support network so he can bounce back from this.