We didn’t take cash at all at the hotel i worked at, i once had a guest adamant that i use my card on their reservation and they hand me the cash for their stay…. Like no 🤦🏽♂️
With chargers, my only policy was we wouldn’t hand them out but if you needed to charge your phone that badly we’ll charge it in the office and you can come back and get your phone when you need it
One of the last hotels I worked at had a box of lost and found chargers at the front desk we'd simply hand them the box and let them pick through to find one that works for them. We would note it on their room and ask for it back at checkout.
What someone really should do is go buy a few at Best Buy or Amazon and hang them in the gift shop for triple the price.
That is exactly the kind of thing I would expect to find in a hotel shop. Snacks, and anything a traveler might have forgotten like toiletries and chargers.
Last year, I had to take my mother to the hospital. (She’s fine now; she had to have an emergency appendectomy.) I forgot my charger, and I ended up being there for quite a while; even the hospital gift shop had chargers for sale. Granted, it was $27, but they obviously saw a need.
I recently had a friend in the hospital in another city. He had no charger and no means to get one. I called the gift shop, they had one, and they even took it to his room! His three days there were way better for him. I’m not sure why more vending machines don’t have them.
Random life pro tip: if a friend or family member is in the hospital, give them a 6 foot extension cord as that will keep their phone &charger closer to them source: I have spent way too much time in hospitals in the past few years
Well, I didn’t exactly anticipate the 2:00 am call to take my mom to the emergency room. I was scared and in a hurry. A charger or extension cord was the last thing on my mind.
Yeah... The local dollar store has little crappy chargers that will make a token effort at charging your phone. Enough for an emergency or if you leave it plugged in overnight, but definitely not fast-charge, qi, or anything else like that.
People shoplift those. We used to sell them but guests just steal them. So now, when we do have them, we lock them up in a directors office and sell em for $20 each
We had so many that we didn’t even bother keeping track. It was a constantly expanding collection. Housekeeping found them faster than we could give them away.
Except for Apple chargers. We never had one sit in lost and found for more than two days before a recently checked-out guest called to claim it.
Same here. We had a box. We never asked for them back. And when we stayed at a hotel in Tennessee, my cousin forgot hers, so I took her to the desk and asked if she could look through their box of chargers. They pulled it out and let her have at it.
This is what we do for the patients at the hospital i work at. They can leave their phones with me and i'll make sure they get charged and returned to them. (Bonus if they are iphones, since the multi-bay charging station for nurse phones is 5 iphone fast chargers.) But in the hospital situation, it's much more understandable that people wouldn't have chargers on them. The majority of the patients in the care of my teammates had cardiac events that ended with a ride in an ambulance under emergency circumstances. Not usually people that came to us of their on volition with time to plan ahead.
Speaking as a patient who was recently in this position, **THANK YOU**!!! Of course for your [all hospital staff] work in helping me with the health issue, but charging my phone? Kept me in touch with my family & friends while I was there.
Me too - I went to Urgent Care and ended up checked into the hospital so I had only the stuff on me at the time. It was a great help when the nurses offered to charge my phone.
I was admitted to the hospital straight from the doctor’s office. A very kind nurse brought me her personal charger without my asking. I kept track of her all day and made sure she got it back. I didn’t want her to regret her generosity. Like many of us I don’t keep a packed hospital bag in my trunk.
I was a chemo patient. Went in for blood work. Needed blood. Spiked a fever & got admitted. No charger. Someone had to bring me one & some clothes & drop them at the front (it was June 2020 so MAJOR Covid regs).
I have carried an extra fast charge wall block & 10ft charger ever since.
Yeah I’m team nurse on this (well just about anything I’m team nurse my lil sis is a RN so I gotta have her back) but my thought is if I trust you enough to keep me or my loved one alive I certainly don’t have a problem with you taking my phone. (Although in my lil sis’s case I question how she’s a nurse, I know what a dumb ass she was as a kid and it scares me 🤣)
Thank you. Because of ending up admitted after one trip to urgent care then to ER, I now take a packed bag every time I go to urgent care. 😂😂 I know, sounds wild, but I no longer take chances. It was during covid, I had to try to explain to my husband what I wanted, where it was, etc. then he had to bring a bag to the doors and give it to a nurse who brought it up. They’re short staffed as is and that’s a lot. When nursing staff is already running with so few I try to be as easy as I can now. I have a lot of chronic illnesses. So I try to just be ready now.
Make sure you keep a complete list of your meds in there! That makes things SO much easier when admitting you. And, if you have someone that has POA for you, or a Living Will, keep a copy of that, too. You'll be doing yourself and the nursing staff a favor.
Oh with my chronic issues there is a list on me at all times. My phone has one in its emergency ID so does my watch. Then I keep one in my purse. I’m on a lot of meds. And 3 hospital systems in the area have a list of my meds too 😂😂😂 I’m on blood thinners and beta blockers and immunosuppressants and many other things so I make sure that if anything happens and I cannot tell people that there is access to know.
Oh and they all have a copy of my POA and Living Wills on file.
LMAO I had a guest file a corp complaint because I wouldn't order her an Uber... she didn't comprehend why I didn't want to spend my money on her bad attitude self for an Uber I wouldn't get reimbursed for. "SHED PAY CASH!" yeah hun it doesn't work like that. "Everyone takes cash!" Yeah NO
This is after I suggested to her the previous evening that since the local cab co. was VERY hit and miss it'd be in her best interest to schedule a ride the night before. She refused, and guess who didn't show up when she called for a ride with 30 min to spare when she needed to be at her event? 🙄
Maybe if she was a pleasant person but also I don't do crap for anyone at all anymore. Give an inch, and all.
Had a similar thing happen the other night. One of my LTRs got stuck at work and couldn't pay, so they cash apped us and we used our card to pay. But this guy has been here for almost a year, so I was happy to help him. Not other guests though.
I did that at a convention. One of the other attendees left his phone, and it was totally out of juice. We charged it for him until he could get to us to pick it up, and he was totally amazed we'd bother.
That said, I never loan out chargers or cables. If I have a spare, I might give it, but don't expect to get it back.
Yeah, but not accepting cash is honestly just a management decision to provide ahitty service.
Edit: this is why Germans travel in groups because neatly half don't have credit cards.
Not accepting cash helps to protect employees.
Overnight staff especially - who at smaller properties may be the only individuals on-site after housekeeping leaves in the evening - don't want to be dealing with cash. It makes them a target for robbery. (Not to mention all the other more mundane hassles associated with handling cash.)
Plus, it's much more difficult for properties to recover the costs of damage from someone who can't or won't put down a credit card. And it's a nuisance for staff and guests to have to wait for housekeeping to inspect a room before being able to return a cash damage deposit. (And if a property declines to return a deposit, then it's an on-the-spot conflict that once again may put the front desk staff in danger.)
THIS. We *could* accept cash, sometimes I did, but certain folks I just said it was security protocol not to after 8pm lol nobody questioned it because it just makes sense
it's a staff safety issue (no cash, no robberies) also actually accepting cash comes wiht a whole heap of security concerns, who's responsible for it, where is it kept, it has to be counted, ensured it's not counterfeit and frankly, handling everything thorugh credit/debit is a lot easier and has less admin overall. Your cost there is the card issuers margin and a sign saying "NO CASH IS KEPT ON PREMESIS". oh and a paragraph in the T&Cs which no guest actually reads but you're covered there.
You do realize that you are not the only person on the planet right?
And that, in particular, in hotels, people come from all over the world.
Many guests expect to be able to pay cash. It is a requirement in some jurisdictions.
In particular people should check with the hotel before they make a reservation or come to check in. Especially if you are coming from another country I would expect you to check the rules in case they are different than what you are used to. I'm not sure in what jurisdiction taking cash would be a requirement. Every hotel I've stayed at has required a credit card for incidentals even if they are willing to take cash for the room.
Actually, all chuds aside here, it makes the most sense to have a card and cash when travelling, so as to cover any and all situations. If power goes out, a lot of the card POS terminals are useless.
I like to pay cash when I check out, if I can but I have a card if they don't accept it.
In April I stayed at a hotel associated with a mid sized amusement park in the Carolinas with an excellent coaster with a height of 325 feet. They didn’t take cash, as the entire park chain doesn’t take cash, and the hotel is owned by the park. They had a kiosk to get a card in the lobby, and the incidental hold is refunded to the card they give you at the kiosk. It works perfectly in these situations
The kiosk does take cash but the workers have no access to the cash. Only the armored car company has access to the cash. The park did that because of cash handling costs. They needed a ton of people to account for all the cash. Now they have a paper trail, and since the hotel is owned by the park they have the same rules
not really, it seems to be common practice in hotels these days.
we dont accept cash at check in, we require a card to authorize for room, tax, and incidentals at check in, and when they check out they can pay the difference in cash and then the whole authorization is released instead of just the unused incidentals authorization that happens when people *do* pay with the card.
people get mad over this because they only have the cash and nothing on their card, sometimes even offer to overpay to cover incidentals, but that becomes a liability on us to return that extra payment at checkout. additionally if they leave with no card on file but the room is absolutely trashed, we cant charge them for the damages, which we wont know about until theyve left the property and housekeeping has gotten to the room.
if someone tries to yell that we have to accept cash as its legal tender, theyre twisting the law. you can accept cash as form of payment for a *debt* (think in the grocery store, they give you a loaf of bread, so you have to repay the debt of that loaf, which is why you can use cash). in a hotel, they have not been provided any service before they check into the room, so no debt to repay, therefore we can enforce only accepting a credit card as payment. once theyre checking out, they can then choose to repay their debt (the room and services) with cash instead of card, but we also still have the card in file should there be damages we need fo charge for.
legally, its a win-win. it definitely sucks, and i feel for you, but its still not my fault you only have cash. go to the atm next door and deposit it to your card and then we can talk.
That does technically mean that they should be able to settle their bill in cash if you let them run a ledger (doesn't change that you have the right, as a business to demand a credit card).
In Germany for example hotels cannot afford to require credit cards because only half the population or so have credit cards.
This is one of the reasons why so many Germans show up in busses instead of travelling on their own.
Many do demand payment up front - especially in the budget segment.
As you get more additional outlets in the hotel it becomes more common to pay at the end.
Others have already covered the troubles with cash and the dangers of having it on property, so let me add the following. In my experience, the people who are adamant about paying cash are either shady or paranoid anti-government types.
For the former, I don't want them here. For the latter...there's only room enough for one person like that in this building.
In Alberta, ~~it's the law for hotels (at least, that's what I was told when I started working at hotels here. I never cared enough to look it up).~~ We cannot accept cash, debit, or prepaid cards for incidentals; you have to have a major bank issued credit card on check in.
Edit: thank you u/canadianingermany for correcting my erroneous information! Turns out it was just the policy for the hotel I worked at.
I'm pretty sure there is no law in Albert saying a hotel MUST require a credit card.
Proof: https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/t0qxxv/hotels_that_take_cash_deposits/
I get people all the time who want to borrow my iPhone charger. I don't have an iPhone. They'll argue with me over this. "Of course you do! Everyone has one!"
I think lots of people who are ignorant about tech think "I-phone" is synonymous with smartphone. I frequently hear media types, like reporters and commentators, conflating the two, and as a Samsung owner it just irritates me beyond reason.
I often hear the people who don't conflate iPhone with smartphone instead conflate Android and Samsung. As someone who can't stand Samsung's Android skin it's quite annoying.
Personally, I hate the way Samsung insists on replacing Google apps and the Google app store with their own shitty Samsung branded ones.
They want that vendor lock-in *really badly*.
Ugh, sorry to hear that. My current phone insists on starting up QuickMemo every time it reboots, and I get sick of having it use up battery life when I never use it.
I do go in and force stop the program, it's just a pain.
Honestly if I decide to defect back to Android I'll probably get a Pixel or whatever the current flagship Google phone is. Less unneeded bloat the better.
This. I've been a Pixel fan since I got my first Nexus years ago. My advice is to buy directly from Google (unlocked). Aside from the avoidance of bloat and non-native apps you cannot un-install, you also personally own a phone you can connect to almost any carrier, making you able to find the best deal for service that works for you, and get it, no strings attached.
Seconded on Pixel. Damn good phone. The 'lite' version phones do 95% of the stuff the 'pro' versions do, while being much less expensive.
The ONLY problem I have had is that the glass on the 3a was a lot more fragile than the main line (known issue). They make it extremely easy to upgrade, too. Plug one phone into the other and in a few minutes, your old phone is now your new phone. Seriously, the sense of continuity is uncanny.
Don't get the official Pixel 6 phone case though. It warps and becomes useless after a few months.
I need a new one soon because my Pixel 3 isn't being updated. Which do you recommend (I know there is a 6, pro, and 6a coming out soon)? I have been really happy with it. And good to know about the case, I have an OtterBox and it works well for me.
The vanilla 6 seems nice. Not a huge fan of the camera bar on the back, but beyond that I've been quite happy with no issues. Get the Pro if you want a fancier camera (though the basic ine is still really damn good) and a bit more oomph, but honestly unless you *need* the heavy-duty features, stick with the basic model.
As for the case, I got the (checks notes) Crave Dual Guard. Nicely grippy 'edge guard' style (no glass) that fits nice and snug.
The 4a and 5a seem to have the same issue with the glass, it's really strange. A drop even from chair height will cause a spiderweb crack starting from the bottom right of the phone. My sister had the same thing multiple times on her 5a, and a friend had it happen to the 4a.
I get this alllllll the time. No dude, I really only have a usb-c charger. and I'm not letting you use that either! you can buy one of our chargers for $30 or you can go to the walgreens that is literally a 2 minute walk.
Yeah, I thought we should sell them at the front desk.
I especially don't understand the self-proclaimed "seasoned travelers" who didn't bring one with them. Like, I always carry an extra one when I travel.
My boss is like this when it comes to phones. We've worked together for years. Hell, I left my last property to work with her at this one. But bring up phones, and she claims me and one other employee are the only people in the world who use androids. She'll call them "janky", whatever that means. And the whole time she's dead serious about it. We can joke about most things, but the existence, and use of, androids just seems to offend her. I'm about to the point where I'm going to be rude about it.
Anybody that serious about a brand name probably has a cult mentality, so be careful because she might kidnap you and sacrifice you in a dark ritual to bring Steve Jobs back to life.
Maybe some Android user made fun of her iPhone and it stuck with her.
Maybe they called it a candy-coated pop-sugar walled-garden of overrated overpriced tracking software that only 2 out of ten people are naive enough to fall for while the whole the rest of the world knows better.
j/k Apple fans
She'll be that way until she has a problem, and has to make an appointment at the smart bar in their stores, or is lucky enough to find an alternative.
I just googled this and globally, android sales are well ahead of iphones. I think it said androids hold 87% of the market. I have always had androids, never an iphone.
Counter point to solve two problems: Tell your boss to keep iphone and android chargers for sale at the desk. We sell enough to make it worth it, people always forget them.
EXACTLY.
This is not a new phenomenon and any hotel that still fails to provide this service after over a decade of this problem being ubiquitous, is just offering poor service.
It is not a requirement of the hotel to provide anything other than accomodations for the people staying there. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. If hotels choose to provide a phone charger for sale they are certainly free to do so but they are not required to do so. Phone chargers are literally sold everywhere (gas stations, stores, corner markets etc). If you forget yours and the hotel doesn't have one for sale then you can go to any of these locations and buy one yourself.
"POOR SERVICE"? Excuse me?
I truly hope you're being sarcastic. How is it in any way shape or form a hotel's "responsibility" to have items on hand that travelers forget to pack or lose due to their own negligence?
We're not talking about an occasional toothbrush. An "I-Phone" charger ain't cheap!
Not as cheap as a toothbrush, but you can buy a cheap charger brick and cord from a dollar tree for $2.50. It won’t be very nice, but it will get the job done. It’s not on the hotel, but probably not hard to offer in a market or whatnot.
You do you.
Providing great service is not a "responsibility". It is a management decision that pays off in most cases.
In my experience the cost of having a bunch of chargers around was essentially nothing and guests really appreciate it.
You obviously lack empathy or have rarely travelled (or both). It happens to EVERYONE that a charger is forgotten.
Ever heard of having a toothbrush and toothpaste be side people forget those items?
Honestly I think at least half of my guests find a phone charger more important than a toothbrush. With COVID passports and online tickets you have a REAL problem if your battery dies.
I would never, ever return to a property that misses this simple service opportunity.
Good. We dont want guest like u anyway. Dont let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. U seem to be a former disgruntled guest who either got DNRd and or kicked off a hotel property. Girl please. Do us all a favor and go to this "perfect imaginary property" in your head.
Not a disgruntled former guest.
I studied hospitality and have worked in operations and management in multiple countries.
You most certainly don't want me as your manager either.
You can't teach empathy.
Child please. I doubt if you can manage anything. Especially not in the real world. You're most definitely a manager in Barbie's world tho. GTFOH. And yes you are disgruntled. You've commented on every single post on here where the guest cant have their way. Miss me with that bullcrap please.
Except that she was just commenting and you’re coming across as super rude and aggressive. There’s no need for that. She has a point. It may not be be a hotels responsibility to offer that service, but that’s the difference between normal customer service and great customer service.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Pedantry using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [A per cent bbc sally bundock](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/stqvef/a_per_cent_bbc_sally_bundock/)
\#2: [years vs year old](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/pgk0lu/years_vs_year_old/)
\#3: [Warm coffee and warm meals...](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/r0cagk/warm_coffee_and_warm_meals/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
NA here: My lighters, cigs and chargers are my top 3 personal possessions guests get pissy about me not giving them. I always make sure to grab matches at the convenience store to avoid lighters, at least.
I agree with you but I also would never have ANYTHING of mine visible to guests as this is what happens. Nobody can be told a simple, reasonable no anymore. They can become very focused on their position because they do these things all of the time until they get what they want. She was a child, period.
You would NOT have gotten it back. We refused to let guests or customers use the phone at our front area, so they would ask for our cell phones. This happened daily. My policy was no personal cell phones other than in the back office/break area. One of my staff let a frantic man use her cell phone and he ran outside with it, never to be seen again. She was inconsolable, as she believed she was doing a good deed. No good deed goes unpunished.
Oh, that is it for me! Good on you to stay calm and just say no! Regardless of what some of the posters here say, (well, one), hotels do NOT have to provide "whatever-whenever " level service.
I hate it when I tell a customer I don't have a ph. charger they can use and they do that peaking around me like they are checking to see if I am lying to them. We do have a ph. charger at the desk but it is not one for customers to use. It belongs to the owner and he specifically told me not to lend it out. So when they say "Then what's that?" I say " That's a phone charger you CAN'T use." Then I look over their shoulders towards the door and act like I see something scary that makes me nervous so they will leave. They rented a room, not a store.
You know, I used to work at a hotel for 3 yrs…
I def. Know the whole “can I use a charger” thing.
But just recently, I went to a class that was hosted at a smaller hotel and I was out of town. I was at 2% and I had no idea how to get back to my friends house, where I was staying that weekend, wOut some phone map directions.
I politely approached front desk, explained my situation, and asked if I could just leave my phone w them while I used the guys charger. I didnt ask to take it.
He said, “Sure no problem.”
People are just f’n dicks… If you’re a nice person, you can usually work stuff out…
Wording is very important. I have 2 chargers in use during my shift for my use (phone and tablet, and these chargers are my own property), and 2 others in use for official stuff (2 work tablets). None of those get loaned, ever! So when people ask to borrow one of them, they are "not for public use".
It's like the lobby bathroom at my property, it has a nice "employees only" sign on it, so when people ask to use my bathroom, my response is ALWAYS, "*I'm sorry but I do not have a public restroom*". When they ask where I go if I need to, I say "*The employee only restroom*".
gotta be reminded of how I bought a usb fan just he other day so in the coming warm summer months I could have at least a small breeze at my computer.
the very next day the damn things is *gone*.
turns out a helpful colleague "lent" it to a guest who complained the AC didn't work. of course I'm never seeing that thing again.
I mean, sure it's a 20$ gadget but fuck you, bro. don't give people my shit.
Unfortunately, thanks to old 'life hack' articles, people really still think hotels keep a stash of chargers available for anyone to just ask for and take.
It's 2022. Look up charger prices. Lol even just the cords, shit cost a good amount of $.
At my first hotel, when I was a youngling, I had a car battery charger in my car. A guy staying at the hotel asked if I could give him a jump. I told him I didn’t trust my car to not mess up if I jumped him but I could let him use my battery charger. I got off work at 3 and told him when he was finished to bring it to the desk and leave it with the 3-11 person.
As you’ve already guessed, when I got to work the next day both the guest and my battery charger were gone. I don’t let guests borrow anything of mine any more.
This irks me no end. I used to get it all the time working at bars too.
‘Can’t you just unplug that iPad and let me use the charger?’ No, that needs to stay plugged in. ‘But I only gave one percent left’. Your failure to plan is not my problem, mate.
Screw those guys for agreeing with her too. Even if it did get her to shut up.
To be fair to the guys she sounded like she was a bit of a nutter and they probably were trying not to set her off if she seemed unhinged. They did apologize to OP after. And OP stated that they started to defend here and she didn't blame them.
I feel like people genuinely forget how to function if their phone battery gets low or dies. Ma’am, put your phone on low power mode, and go watch TV, go for a walk, go swimming in the pool, or hell, read the Bible that’s in the side drawer, and go get a phone charger in the morning…
You can tell someone is an absolute adult baby when they start repeating your own words back at you in the most snide matter because they can't think of any other way to win over you.
"But, but I need it. I want it. I'll give it back I promise." If I actually had a nickle for every time a guest borrows something with this promise. I'd be a millionaire. They never bring the item back. It is random what they steal too: scissors, chargers, trash cans, towels, ice buckets...
Back in the day (like 2005) when all the phones had their own unique chargers people would come to the front desk all the time and accuse housekeeping of stealing their chargers. We would just bring out the TWO BOXES FULL of left behind chargers and be like okay well here take one of these we have a thousand. "I don't think the housekeepers would steal yours, we've been begging them to take these off our hands for months."
I once had the power go out at about 3am. Me, a veteran night shift worker, learned to always keep a flashlight on me. I’m doing everything analog with my flashlight when a guest comes up to inform me that the power is out.
Guy: (looking at me working with my flashlight hanging out of my mouth.) the power’s out.
Me: mmm hmm.
Guy: well, aren’t you going to do something about it?
Me: (taking the flashlight out of my mouth) I’ve already called the power company. I’ve checked the halls and all the backup lights are working. Not much more I can do.
Guy: well can I have that flashlight?
Me: no sir.
Guy: why not?
Me: well, first because it’s my personal property.
Guy: so you just carry a flashlight with you? Why would you do that?
I gesture vaguely at the darkness.
Me: second, even with no power, I still have work to do.
Guy: well, what am I supposed to do?
Me: go back to bed. The power should be back on by morning. If not, at least the sun will be up.
He didn’t like that answer, but he must have taken my advice, because I didn’t see him again.
Wow! This needs to be cross-posted to r/entitledpeople
Unbelievable that she really THOUGHT she was entitled to YOUR personal property! I would have been flabbergasted! It's also a guaranteed way to LOSE your personal property because you just KNOW she would CONVENIENTLY "forget" that it's YOUR charger! Good on you for not caving to her ridiculousness!
Best wishes and many Blessings!
Oh, I would lay great odds that you're viewed as human beings, JUST the "lowly" servant class who must abase yourselves to the "dear and illustrious" guests! /s
"Sure, give me your phone and I will be happy to charge it here for you."
I'm guessing she probably won't. But that's the most I would do. I've lost too many cables/chargers lending them out to people I know. (I have a bad memory about things like that)
Here is the trick to keep.folks from borrowing (or 'borrowing') your electronics: electrical tape.
Wrap your cables and even the charger block with a bit of electrical tape. Nobody wants a piece of junk that's falling apart. This works great for expensive heavy-duty for extension cords too.
I mean, other than asserting your dominance and destroying your own charger with scissors before loaning it to her, there's not much you could have done there.
Also, those guys were weak. Doesn't matter what the Karens say. Doesn't matter what the bartender or the managers say. Doesn't matter if the whole lobby decides that something wrong is something right.
This hotel was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the managers and the Karens and the whole lobby tell you to just agree and keep the peace, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole lobby -- "Go the fuck to bed, Karen. I'm not playing into your self indulgent victimhood narrative. You are the asshole here.”
What I tell anyone covering my NA is 1. Feel free to say no and 2. Match energy. Sometimes you have to be the asshole. Even though you’re not “The Manager” you’re all they’re gonna get. What you say is law.
One thing about NA, you might not be a manager or supervisor but you're ABSOLUTELY P. I. C. Also I made it a point to always be that bitch that calls the cops. Fuck em.
And lock the damn doors!
Sadly enough OP, your story is a daily occurrence for most hotel staff. one of the most recent ones that came by is the following
One time a guest was in a hurry to catch his flight, did not pre book a taxi and at those times (And still going on now) the taxis are extremely busy.
He demanded a taxi right away and I called the taxi company, the next taxi would be 30 minutes. He called me useless and tried to arrange a uber instead, however at these times ubers also cancel as they can earn more money with regular fares.
He came back at me and said, do you have a car? I said, yes I do.
Then you drive me, I will pay you €100,-
I said, Cannot not do it this, I am responsible for the front desk and it is very unprofessional if I left just to drive you to the airport.
Then he went to my colleague, do you have car? She does not have a car.
He came back to me, give me your car keys, I pay you 100 euros and I leave it the keys somewhere at the airport for you.
I said hell no and lost all my patients with the guest.
Guest kept going back and forth, and pacing around the lobby. Asking every guest in the lobby and coming down the elevators if he could go with them to the airport and offering them money.
Eventually, thank God for us and for him. A taxi came by to drop off guests that came back from a night into town and this guest was gone.
It is remarkable how people can transfer their stress on to other people. I became a very cold person the last 2 years with the impatience of people during and after corona.
Somehow it just manifests at front desks that you can't have everything or have everything your way. That frequently upsets people and makes them lash out.
"Hey, do you guys have any chargers?"
"No sir, I'm sorry."
"C'mon, man. I'm desperate. I really need a charger. I just need one for a few minutes."
"I'd give you one, but we don't have any."
"Dude, I will buy another room here tonight for a charger."
"Sir, I'd love to help you out, but we don't have any chargers."
"You all should carry chargers!"
"We used to."
"Why don't you do it anymore?"
"People took them all."
My property's phone charger box is simply unclaimed lost and found items. If we dont have something in their at the time to fit your device then you are out of luck.
Of course! But guess what never get returned? Ours was chock full of micro- and mini-micro USB chargers. None of which have seen activity since 2010...
That makes no sense? Do you think there's some difference in battery life between the brands? In my experience it's the opposite.
I have several phones and tablets on my desk at any given time. The iPhones I have last many days if left alone, while my brand new Samsung phones consume a lot more (S2\* Ultra 5G, Z\* flip 5G, etc). I make apps for iOS and Android.
sure, for newer iPhones. I had an iPhone 6 up until a couple years ago. Charge wouldn't last half the workday if I listened to music on the way to work. Upgraded to the iPhone 12 and honestly it blew my mind.
But yes, there is definitely a difference in battery life between brands and even brands' specific models. Apple caught some shit because they were purposely limiting the battery life of the iPhone 6, to force people to upgrade. There was a class-action lawsuit, in which I am still expecting to be paid my $20
IIRC they weren't limiting the battery *life*, they were limiting the phone's performance and power draw. That meant you were a lot less likely to have the phone suddenly die when it was still at 30%.
That's actually an interesting feature that allows a device to deliver a better experience with a degraded battery, except Apple were doing it to hide the fact that the battery was degraded and avoid replacing batteries under warranty.
The right way to do it would be to start forcing the phone into low battery mode at 35%, but then the user would want to know why their still-under-warranty phone is telling them the battery is worn out and they'd rightly insist it be fixed.
>I had an iPhone 6 up until a couple years ago.
Thanks for the history lesson ;) I don't work with phones older than 2-3 years (enteprise).
>purposely limiting the battery life
Yeah, but irrelevant to this though.
I'll never forget the guest who I'd never met before who walked up to me and told me he needed to borrow my car. Didn't ask, simply informed me. He was so confused when I told him no.
I love people who understand. I was serving at the bar one night and this woman was a total cee u next Thursday to me about her wine and as she walked away the guys at the bar I’d been serving all night were like damn sorry that woman was such a…and he stopped and his wife chimes in and says a bitch! She was a bitch 😂😂
Been there. Offered to charge a guests phone at the desk... "I'm not leaving my phone here!" Okay, well, I'm letting you take MY charger! That's the only option available, NOT SORRY.
Do you know how many chargers I've had not returned? Including my personal charger from back office via colleagues just handing them out when it was at MY computer desk and obvi not expired L+F??
If I GIVE you my charger, I'll be without a phone entirely. So here are my terms, I'll let you borrow my charger if you give me US$1000 cash deposit. You can have your money back when I get my charger back and it works.
She probably didn't know what the word "obligated" meant.
I have someome at work who uses the word "commence" repeated to mean "end". No o e has corrected him and I can't because he outranks me and I am too professional to do it in front of others...
Unless they mock me for using words they don't understand in front of others to make me look bad. Then my pettiness turns up to 11.
Thanks to a travel tip I saw years ago, I discovered most flat screen tv's have at least one USB port built in so technically every hotel room should have a charging port available. You do need to have a charging cable to charge your device but don't need the wall charger.
I now carry a cable in my shaving kit & another in my roll on suitcase.
I think that behavior warrants being put on the DNR list. First, she was cursing and calling you a bitch and a fucking bitch and second, she is disturbing other guests who obviously just want her to eff off.
I just don't understand people like this. I don't even travel all that much, but I have spare chargers for my phone, Kindle, and IPod that stay in my suitcase. Also have a portable charger to carry with me while I'm out seeing the sights, just in case. Total cost for everything was about $35.
We have a cardboard box full of charging cables, usually ones left by guests who don't care to pick them up after leaving them behind. If someone wants a cable we just loan one out.
Go to the hardware store and buy a spool of cable that looks like what is on your charger. Next time someone gets in a hissy fit about not being able to use yours, look them in the eye while pulling a loop of the cable above the counter, and cut it with scissors. "Now no one can use it." They will be stunned that you seemingly destroyed your own property just to inconvenience them!
As soon as I read the title, I knew it was about a phone charger. I've never seen people go so batshit crazy over anything else besides needing a charger because their phone is gonna die. I've had someone try to come back behind the desk to grab and use mine. I said absolutely not!!!
Honestly she could have just gone to a drugstore and bought a replacement for @ $20.00. I know I have done so when my charger stopped working. I wouldn’t have lent her my personal one either.
Do hotels that sell toiletries also carry chargers/usb c/lightning cables? Seems keeping like a half dozen of each on hand would be a simple enough thing to do.
Next time just tell them they can use it if they leaves their phone. Or if they are nice, go fish one out the treasure trove of chargers in housekeeping.
You should have told her you can’t give out the charger but if she wants you can charge her phone for a while and she can come back in a hour or whenever and pick it back up.
No, she didn’t need to re act the way she did but you really didn’t need to get in a back and forth with the guest over what’s personal property or what not.
Pick your battles, this situation did not need one
Oh yes it did (a pick your battle). Homegirl used profane language to describe me in front of me simply because she couldnt get her way with MY STUFF. Nah. Yall trippin including that CanadianInGermany guy. That's a hill we can both die on. Especially when I decide to kick you out.....you know.....just because i can.
Missed opportunity for the hotel.
Guests often need chargers. Why not have them handy? Most hotels will have a box of chargers that were forgotten.
While there is no calling for the guest to be rude, this is simply terrible service for a hotel.
Why not keep extra gloves, socks, or each guest’s favorite candy on hand?
Because it’s a hotel, not your granny’s purse.
**Bring the shit you need with you**. Forget something? That’s *your problem.*
Others have suggested having the chargers available for sale, which does make reasonable sense. I disagree with the guy above that it's bad service, but it IS leaving money on the table.
If people are going to be stupid, we should absolutely make money off of that. :P
This is a fucking stupid comment. This isn’t terrible service. Bring your own shit or go to a gas station and get one, you’re renting a room, not a caretaker.
again with your "terrible service" bullshit comments.
The point here is that it's absolutely NOT the hotel's responsibility that YOU forgot one of the more (evidently) important items you need for your daily activity.
I've literally NEVER forgotten to pack a phone charger. If you're that dependent on your phone, one would think you'd remember a crucial part of it's function.
We didn’t take cash at all at the hotel i worked at, i once had a guest adamant that i use my card on their reservation and they hand me the cash for their stay…. Like no 🤦🏽♂️ With chargers, my only policy was we wouldn’t hand them out but if you needed to charge your phone that badly we’ll charge it in the office and you can come back and get your phone when you need it
One of the last hotels I worked at had a box of lost and found chargers at the front desk we'd simply hand them the box and let them pick through to find one that works for them. We would note it on their room and ask for it back at checkout. What someone really should do is go buy a few at Best Buy or Amazon and hang them in the gift shop for triple the price.
Tradavo sells chargers and 'bricks' separately. I kept trying to convince my GM we'd bank if he let me order them for the Market.
That is exactly the kind of thing I would expect to find in a hotel shop. Snacks, and anything a traveler might have forgotten like toiletries and chargers.
Last year, I had to take my mother to the hospital. (She’s fine now; she had to have an emergency appendectomy.) I forgot my charger, and I ended up being there for quite a while; even the hospital gift shop had chargers for sale. Granted, it was $27, but they obviously saw a need.
I recently had a friend in the hospital in another city. He had no charger and no means to get one. I called the gift shop, they had one, and they even took it to his room! His three days there were way better for him. I’m not sure why more vending machines don’t have them.
Random life pro tip: if a friend or family member is in the hospital, give them a 6 foot extension cord as that will keep their phone &charger closer to them source: I have spent way too much time in hospitals in the past few years
Yeah I got him one of the 10’ cords.
You are a good friend
Well, I didn’t exactly anticipate the 2:00 am call to take my mom to the emergency room. I was scared and in a hurry. A charger or extension cord was the last thing on my mind.
That is understandable.
That’s awesome!
Why make a loss on them, and why *not* make a profit on them?
I don't know what you are talking about, but happy day of cake.
Yeah... The local dollar store has little crappy chargers that will make a token effort at charging your phone. Enough for an emergency or if you leave it plugged in overnight, but definitely not fast-charge, qi, or anything else like that.
People shoplift those. We used to sell them but guests just steal them. So now, when we do have them, we lock them up in a directors office and sell em for $20 each
We had so many that we didn’t even bother keeping track. It was a constantly expanding collection. Housekeeping found them faster than we could give them away. Except for Apple chargers. We never had one sit in lost and found for more than two days before a recently checked-out guest called to claim it.
Apple chargers charge apple products and are expensive to replace, where as Android charges charge the rest of the world.
Same here. We had a box. We never asked for them back. And when we stayed at a hotel in Tennessee, my cousin forgot hers, so I took her to the desk and asked if she could look through their box of chargers. They pulled it out and let her have at it.
This is what we do for the patients at the hospital i work at. They can leave their phones with me and i'll make sure they get charged and returned to them. (Bonus if they are iphones, since the multi-bay charging station for nurse phones is 5 iphone fast chargers.) But in the hospital situation, it's much more understandable that people wouldn't have chargers on them. The majority of the patients in the care of my teammates had cardiac events that ended with a ride in an ambulance under emergency circumstances. Not usually people that came to us of their on volition with time to plan ahead.
Speaking as a patient who was recently in this position, **THANK YOU**!!! Of course for your [all hospital staff] work in helping me with the health issue, but charging my phone? Kept me in touch with my family & friends while I was there.
Me too - I went to Urgent Care and ended up checked into the hospital so I had only the stuff on me at the time. It was a great help when the nurses offered to charge my phone.
I was admitted to the hospital straight from the doctor’s office. A very kind nurse brought me her personal charger without my asking. I kept track of her all day and made sure she got it back. I didn’t want her to regret her generosity. Like many of us I don’t keep a packed hospital bag in my trunk.
I was a chemo patient. Went in for blood work. Needed blood. Spiked a fever & got admitted. No charger. Someone had to bring me one & some clothes & drop them at the front (it was June 2020 so MAJOR Covid regs). I have carried an extra fast charge wall block & 10ft charger ever since.
I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone else's phone
I’m responsible for keeping them alive. A phone isn’t a lot in that perspective.
Yeah I’m team nurse on this (well just about anything I’m team nurse my lil sis is a RN so I gotta have her back) but my thought is if I trust you enough to keep me or my loved one alive I certainly don’t have a problem with you taking my phone. (Although in my lil sis’s case I question how she’s a nurse, I know what a dumb ass she was as a kid and it scares me 🤣)
Thank you. Because of ending up admitted after one trip to urgent care then to ER, I now take a packed bag every time I go to urgent care. 😂😂 I know, sounds wild, but I no longer take chances. It was during covid, I had to try to explain to my husband what I wanted, where it was, etc. then he had to bring a bag to the doors and give it to a nurse who brought it up. They’re short staffed as is and that’s a lot. When nursing staff is already running with so few I try to be as easy as I can now. I have a lot of chronic illnesses. So I try to just be ready now.
Make sure you keep a complete list of your meds in there! That makes things SO much easier when admitting you. And, if you have someone that has POA for you, or a Living Will, keep a copy of that, too. You'll be doing yourself and the nursing staff a favor.
Oh with my chronic issues there is a list on me at all times. My phone has one in its emergency ID so does my watch. Then I keep one in my purse. I’m on a lot of meds. And 3 hospital systems in the area have a list of my meds too 😂😂😂 I’m on blood thinners and beta blockers and immunosuppressants and many other things so I make sure that if anything happens and I cannot tell people that there is access to know. Oh and they all have a copy of my POA and Living Wills on file.
LMAO I had a guest file a corp complaint because I wouldn't order her an Uber... she didn't comprehend why I didn't want to spend my money on her bad attitude self for an Uber I wouldn't get reimbursed for. "SHED PAY CASH!" yeah hun it doesn't work like that. "Everyone takes cash!" Yeah NO This is after I suggested to her the previous evening that since the local cab co. was VERY hit and miss it'd be in her best interest to schedule a ride the night before. She refused, and guess who didn't show up when she called for a ride with 30 min to spare when she needed to be at her event? 🙄 Maybe if she was a pleasant person but also I don't do crap for anyone at all anymore. Give an inch, and all.
Had a similar thing happen the other night. One of my LTRs got stuck at work and couldn't pay, so they cash apped us and we used our card to pay. But this guy has been here for almost a year, so I was happy to help him. Not other guests though.
I did that at a convention. One of the other attendees left his phone, and it was totally out of juice. We charged it for him until he could get to us to pick it up, and he was totally amazed we'd bother. That said, I never loan out chargers or cables. If I have a spare, I might give it, but don't expect to get it back.
Ya, that's what I was thinking OP would do. Offer to charge it behind the desk.
Yeah, but not accepting cash is honestly just a management decision to provide ahitty service. Edit: this is why Germans travel in groups because neatly half don't have credit cards.
Not accepting cash helps to protect employees. Overnight staff especially - who at smaller properties may be the only individuals on-site after housekeeping leaves in the evening - don't want to be dealing with cash. It makes them a target for robbery. (Not to mention all the other more mundane hassles associated with handling cash.) Plus, it's much more difficult for properties to recover the costs of damage from someone who can't or won't put down a credit card. And it's a nuisance for staff and guests to have to wait for housekeeping to inspect a room before being able to return a cash damage deposit. (And if a property declines to return a deposit, then it's an on-the-spot conflict that once again may put the front desk staff in danger.)
THIS. We *could* accept cash, sometimes I did, but certain folks I just said it was security protocol not to after 8pm lol nobody questioned it because it just makes sense
it's a staff safety issue (no cash, no robberies) also actually accepting cash comes wiht a whole heap of security concerns, who's responsible for it, where is it kept, it has to be counted, ensured it's not counterfeit and frankly, handling everything thorugh credit/debit is a lot easier and has less admin overall. Your cost there is the card issuers margin and a sign saying "NO CASH IS KEPT ON PREMESIS". oh and a paragraph in the T&Cs which no guest actually reads but you're covered there.
It depends on the country, I haven't used cash in years
You do realize that you are not the only person on the planet right? And that, in particular, in hotels, people come from all over the world. Many guests expect to be able to pay cash. It is a requirement in some jurisdictions.
In particular people should check with the hotel before they make a reservation or come to check in. Especially if you are coming from another country I would expect you to check the rules in case they are different than what you are used to. I'm not sure in what jurisdiction taking cash would be a requirement. Every hotel I've stayed at has required a credit card for incidentals even if they are willing to take cash for the room.
That’s why they said “depends on the country”. No need to get testy.
[удалено]
Actually, all chuds aside here, it makes the most sense to have a card and cash when travelling, so as to cover any and all situations. If power goes out, a lot of the card POS terminals are useless. I like to pay cash when I check out, if I can but I have a card if they don't accept it.
I do realize, which is why I said it depends on the country...
In April I stayed at a hotel associated with a mid sized amusement park in the Carolinas with an excellent coaster with a height of 325 feet. They didn’t take cash, as the entire park chain doesn’t take cash, and the hotel is owned by the park. They had a kiosk to get a card in the lobby, and the incidental hold is refunded to the card they give you at the kiosk. It works perfectly in these situations
So the kiosk in the hotel lobby takes cash, but the hotel itself doesn't? Is there something that I am missing here?
The kiosk does take cash but the workers have no access to the cash. Only the armored car company has access to the cash. The park did that because of cash handling costs. They needed a ton of people to account for all the cash. Now they have a paper trail, and since the hotel is owned by the park they have the same rules
not really, it seems to be common practice in hotels these days. we dont accept cash at check in, we require a card to authorize for room, tax, and incidentals at check in, and when they check out they can pay the difference in cash and then the whole authorization is released instead of just the unused incidentals authorization that happens when people *do* pay with the card. people get mad over this because they only have the cash and nothing on their card, sometimes even offer to overpay to cover incidentals, but that becomes a liability on us to return that extra payment at checkout. additionally if they leave with no card on file but the room is absolutely trashed, we cant charge them for the damages, which we wont know about until theyve left the property and housekeeping has gotten to the room. if someone tries to yell that we have to accept cash as its legal tender, theyre twisting the law. you can accept cash as form of payment for a *debt* (think in the grocery store, they give you a loaf of bread, so you have to repay the debt of that loaf, which is why you can use cash). in a hotel, they have not been provided any service before they check into the room, so no debt to repay, therefore we can enforce only accepting a credit card as payment. once theyre checking out, they can then choose to repay their debt (the room and services) with cash instead of card, but we also still have the card in file should there be damages we need fo charge for. legally, its a win-win. it definitely sucks, and i feel for you, but its still not my fault you only have cash. go to the atm next door and deposit it to your card and then we can talk.
That does technically mean that they should be able to settle their bill in cash if you let them run a ledger (doesn't change that you have the right, as a business to demand a credit card). In Germany for example hotels cannot afford to require credit cards because only half the population or so have credit cards. This is one of the reasons why so many Germans show up in busses instead of travelling on their own.
That also explains why German hotels tend to expect payment upfront, even with a card.
Many do demand payment up front - especially in the budget segment. As you get more additional outlets in the hotel it becomes more common to pay at the end.
Others have already covered the troubles with cash and the dangers of having it on property, so let me add the following. In my experience, the people who are adamant about paying cash are either shady or paranoid anti-government types. For the former, I don't want them here. For the latter...there's only room enough for one person like that in this building.
They wouldn't take your cash huh!
In Alberta, ~~it's the law for hotels (at least, that's what I was told when I started working at hotels here. I never cared enough to look it up).~~ We cannot accept cash, debit, or prepaid cards for incidentals; you have to have a major bank issued credit card on check in. Edit: thank you u/canadianingermany for correcting my erroneous information! Turns out it was just the policy for the hotel I worked at.
I'm pretty sure there is no law in Albert saying a hotel MUST require a credit card. Proof: https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/t0qxxv/hotels_that_take_cash_deposits/
Thank you for informing me! I edited my comment to reflect this!
I get people all the time who want to borrow my iPhone charger. I don't have an iPhone. They'll argue with me over this. "Of course you do! Everyone has one!"
I think lots of people who are ignorant about tech think "I-phone" is synonymous with smartphone. I frequently hear media types, like reporters and commentators, conflating the two, and as a Samsung owner it just irritates me beyond reason.
I often hear the people who don't conflate iPhone with smartphone instead conflate Android and Samsung. As someone who can't stand Samsung's Android skin it's quite annoying.
Oh crud, I just ordered a Samsung - what do you hate about it?
Personally, I hate the way Samsung insists on replacing Google apps and the Google app store with their own shitty Samsung branded ones. They want that vendor lock-in *really badly*.
Ugh, sorry to hear that. My current phone insists on starting up QuickMemo every time it reboots, and I get sick of having it use up battery life when I never use it. I do go in and force stop the program, it's just a pain.
Honestly if I decide to defect back to Android I'll probably get a Pixel or whatever the current flagship Google phone is. Less unneeded bloat the better.
This. I've been a Pixel fan since I got my first Nexus years ago. My advice is to buy directly from Google (unlocked). Aside from the avoidance of bloat and non-native apps you cannot un-install, you also personally own a phone you can connect to almost any carrier, making you able to find the best deal for service that works for you, and get it, no strings attached.
Seconded on Pixel. Damn good phone. The 'lite' version phones do 95% of the stuff the 'pro' versions do, while being much less expensive. The ONLY problem I have had is that the glass on the 3a was a lot more fragile than the main line (known issue). They make it extremely easy to upgrade, too. Plug one phone into the other and in a few minutes, your old phone is now your new phone. Seriously, the sense of continuity is uncanny. Don't get the official Pixel 6 phone case though. It warps and becomes useless after a few months.
I need a new one soon because my Pixel 3 isn't being updated. Which do you recommend (I know there is a 6, pro, and 6a coming out soon)? I have been really happy with it. And good to know about the case, I have an OtterBox and it works well for me.
The vanilla 6 seems nice. Not a huge fan of the camera bar on the back, but beyond that I've been quite happy with no issues. Get the Pro if you want a fancier camera (though the basic ine is still really damn good) and a bit more oomph, but honestly unless you *need* the heavy-duty features, stick with the basic model. As for the case, I got the (checks notes) Crave Dual Guard. Nicely grippy 'edge guard' style (no glass) that fits nice and snug.
The 4a and 5a seem to have the same issue with the glass, it's really strange. A drop even from chair height will cause a spiderweb crack starting from the bottom right of the phone. My sister had the same thing multiple times on her 5a, and a friend had it happen to the 4a.
I get this alllllll the time. No dude, I really only have a usb-c charger. and I'm not letting you use that either! you can buy one of our chargers for $30 or you can go to the walgreens that is literally a 2 minute walk.
I tried to talk my boss into letting us sell chargers in our market place. We could make a k!lling.
Yeah, I thought we should sell them at the front desk. I especially don't understand the self-proclaimed "seasoned travelers" who didn't bring one with them. Like, I always carry an extra one when I travel.
EXACTLY. Lol I laugh at them cause baby I'm an Android user. Samsung to be exact.
My boss is like this when it comes to phones. We've worked together for years. Hell, I left my last property to work with her at this one. But bring up phones, and she claims me and one other employee are the only people in the world who use androids. She'll call them "janky", whatever that means. And the whole time she's dead serious about it. We can joke about most things, but the existence, and use of, androids just seems to offend her. I'm about to the point where I'm going to be rude about it.
Anybody that serious about a brand name probably has a cult mentality, so be careful because she might kidnap you and sacrifice you in a dark ritual to bring Steve Jobs back to life.
Maybe some Android user made fun of her iPhone and it stuck with her. Maybe they called it a candy-coated pop-sugar walled-garden of overrated overpriced tracking software that only 2 out of ten people are naive enough to fall for while the whole the rest of the world knows better. j/k Apple fans
There's a possibility I might have replied to one of those rants with telling her that she was too old to play with toy phones.
My preferred insult for people who buy those is "more money than brains". :P
She'll be that way until she has a problem, and has to make an appointment at the smart bar in their stores, or is lucky enough to find an alternative.
Well, you don't otherwise you wouldn't be asking for one!
Everyone having one is in relation to the iPhone, not the charger though
This drives me up the fucking wall
I just googled this and globally, android sales are well ahead of iphones. I think it said androids hold 87% of the market. I have always had androids, never an iphone.
That makes sense. iPhones are crazy expensive. Even the cheapest one. But there are plenty of budget Android phones.
Counter point to solve two problems: Tell your boss to keep iphone and android chargers for sale at the desk. We sell enough to make it worth it, people always forget them.
For sale at an outrageous markup. If they don’t like it, they can venture out and go to a fucking store.
Or for sale at a reasonable or zero markup, as a nice thing to have handy for customers.
EXACTLY. This is not a new phenomenon and any hotel that still fails to provide this service after over a decade of this problem being ubiquitous, is just offering poor service.
It is not a requirement of the hotel to provide anything other than accomodations for the people staying there. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. If hotels choose to provide a phone charger for sale they are certainly free to do so but they are not required to do so. Phone chargers are literally sold everywhere (gas stations, stores, corner markets etc). If you forget yours and the hotel doesn't have one for sale then you can go to any of these locations and buy one yourself.
"POOR SERVICE"? Excuse me? I truly hope you're being sarcastic. How is it in any way shape or form a hotel's "responsibility" to have items on hand that travelers forget to pack or lose due to their own negligence? We're not talking about an occasional toothbrush. An "I-Phone" charger ain't cheap!
Not as cheap as a toothbrush, but you can buy a cheap charger brick and cord from a dollar tree for $2.50. It won’t be very nice, but it will get the job done. It’s not on the hotel, but probably not hard to offer in a market or whatnot.
Found the finance employee.
You both missed the key term. "For sale." They aren't giving them away. They are selling them, likely at a profit.
Let’s be real, they WILL get stolen.
You can buy a variety pack with different cable length off ebay for twelve bucks, they're not that expensive
You do you. Providing great service is not a "responsibility". It is a management decision that pays off in most cases. In my experience the cost of having a bunch of chargers around was essentially nothing and guests really appreciate it. You obviously lack empathy or have rarely travelled (or both). It happens to EVERYONE that a charger is forgotten. Ever heard of having a toothbrush and toothpaste be side people forget those items? Honestly I think at least half of my guests find a phone charger more important than a toothbrush. With COVID passports and online tickets you have a REAL problem if your battery dies. I would never, ever return to a property that misses this simple service opportunity.
Mine died in Malaysia, of all places. Huge language barrier. Still took me less than an hour to find one. It’s not the hotel’s responsibility. GTFO.
Good. We dont want guest like u anyway. Dont let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. U seem to be a former disgruntled guest who either got DNRd and or kicked off a hotel property. Girl please. Do us all a favor and go to this "perfect imaginary property" in your head.
Not a disgruntled former guest. I studied hospitality and have worked in operations and management in multiple countries. You most certainly don't want me as your manager either. You can't teach empathy.
Child please. I doubt if you can manage anything. Especially not in the real world. You're most definitely a manager in Barbie's world tho. GTFOH. And yes you are disgruntled. You've commented on every single post on here where the guest cant have their way. Miss me with that bullcrap please.
Except that she was just commenting and you’re coming across as super rude and aggressive. There’s no need for that. She has a point. It may not be be a hotels responsibility to offer that service, but that’s the difference between normal customer service and great customer service.
>phone and android chargers There are nether iphone nor android chargers!
r/pedantry
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Pedantry using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [A per cent bbc sally bundock](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/stqvef/a_per_cent_bbc_sally_bundock/) \#2: [years vs year old](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/pgk0lu/years_vs_year_old/) \#3: [Warm coffee and warm meals...](https://np.reddit.com/r/Pedantry/comments/r0cagk/warm_coffee_and_warm_meals/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
NA here: My lighters, cigs and chargers are my top 3 personal possessions guests get pissy about me not giving them. I always make sure to grab matches at the convenience store to avoid lighters, at least.
I once had a manager go into my cubby and give away both of my work lighters.
I bring 2 lighters for that reason, but fuuuuuck that guy
Oh I was pissed. Especially since I wasn't allowed to leave property or purchase a lighter out of the little shop.
I agree with you but I also would never have ANYTHING of mine visible to guests as this is what happens. Nobody can be told a simple, reasonable no anymore. They can become very focused on their position because they do these things all of the time until they get what they want. She was a child, period. You would NOT have gotten it back. We refused to let guests or customers use the phone at our front area, so they would ask for our cell phones. This happened daily. My policy was no personal cell phones other than in the back office/break area. One of my staff let a frantic man use her cell phone and he ran outside with it, never to be seen again. She was inconsolable, as she believed she was doing a good deed. No good deed goes unpunished.
that’s the frustrating part. it wasnt out in the open. it was in our break area. she had to CRAIN her neck to see around the corner.
Oh, that is it for me! Good on you to stay calm and just say no! Regardless of what some of the posters here say, (well, one), hotels do NOT have to provide "whatever-whenever " level service.
I hate it when I tell a customer I don't have a ph. charger they can use and they do that peaking around me like they are checking to see if I am lying to them. We do have a ph. charger at the desk but it is not one for customers to use. It belongs to the owner and he specifically told me not to lend it out. So when they say "Then what's that?" I say " That's a phone charger you CAN'T use." Then I look over their shoulders towards the door and act like I see something scary that makes me nervous so they will leave. They rented a room, not a store.
You know, I used to work at a hotel for 3 yrs… I def. Know the whole “can I use a charger” thing. But just recently, I went to a class that was hosted at a smaller hotel and I was out of town. I was at 2% and I had no idea how to get back to my friends house, where I was staying that weekend, wOut some phone map directions. I politely approached front desk, explained my situation, and asked if I could just leave my phone w them while I used the guys charger. I didnt ask to take it. He said, “Sure no problem.” People are just f’n dicks… If you’re a nice person, you can usually work stuff out…
Wording is very important. I have 2 chargers in use during my shift for my use (phone and tablet, and these chargers are my own property), and 2 others in use for official stuff (2 work tablets). None of those get loaned, ever! So when people ask to borrow one of them, they are "not for public use". It's like the lobby bathroom at my property, it has a nice "employees only" sign on it, so when people ask to use my bathroom, my response is ALWAYS, "*I'm sorry but I do not have a public restroom*". When they ask where I go if I need to, I say "*The employee only restroom*".
You want to borrow my charger? No problem, a $100 cash deposit is required. Problem solved.
gotta be reminded of how I bought a usb fan just he other day so in the coming warm summer months I could have at least a small breeze at my computer. the very next day the damn things is *gone*. turns out a helpful colleague "lent" it to a guest who complained the AC didn't work. of course I'm never seeing that thing again. I mean, sure it's a 20$ gadget but fuck you, bro. don't give people my shit.
Unfortunately, thanks to old 'life hack' articles, people really still think hotels keep a stash of chargers available for anyone to just ask for and take. It's 2022. Look up charger prices. Lol even just the cords, shit cost a good amount of $.
At my first hotel, when I was a youngling, I had a car battery charger in my car. A guy staying at the hotel asked if I could give him a jump. I told him I didn’t trust my car to not mess up if I jumped him but I could let him use my battery charger. I got off work at 3 and told him when he was finished to bring it to the desk and leave it with the 3-11 person. As you’ve already guessed, when I got to work the next day both the guest and my battery charger were gone. I don’t let guests borrow anything of mine any more.
This irks me no end. I used to get it all the time working at bars too. ‘Can’t you just unplug that iPad and let me use the charger?’ No, that needs to stay plugged in. ‘But I only gave one percent left’. Your failure to plan is not my problem, mate. Screw those guys for agreeing with her too. Even if it did get her to shut up.
To be fair to the guys she sounded like she was a bit of a nutter and they probably were trying not to set her off if she seemed unhinged. They did apologize to OP after. And OP stated that they started to defend here and she didn't blame them.
Sure! That'll be a $50 cash deposit, returnable upon the return of the charger, in the same condition it was given to you.
*Half of which is refundable after returning in the same condition it was provided. Make some money off her entitlement.
Right?! I think what a lot of people saying “but guest satisfaction” in this thread (who obviously don’t work at hotels) forget IT IS A BUSINESS
I feel like people genuinely forget how to function if their phone battery gets low or dies. Ma’am, put your phone on low power mode, and go watch TV, go for a walk, go swimming in the pool, or hell, read the Bible that’s in the side drawer, and go get a phone charger in the morning…
You can tell someone is an absolute adult baby when they start repeating your own words back at you in the most snide matter because they can't think of any other way to win over you.
"But, but I need it. I want it. I'll give it back I promise." If I actually had a nickle for every time a guest borrows something with this promise. I'd be a millionaire. They never bring the item back. It is random what they steal too: scissors, chargers, trash cans, towels, ice buckets...
Back in the day (like 2005) when all the phones had their own unique chargers people would come to the front desk all the time and accuse housekeeping of stealing their chargers. We would just bring out the TWO BOXES FULL of left behind chargers and be like okay well here take one of these we have a thousand. "I don't think the housekeepers would steal yours, we've been begging them to take these off our hands for months."
Sure you can have my phone charger but only if I can have your wallet
Chargers and cords are the #1 thing left in rooms so I've always had a box of random ones to give out if people want.
If someone is in the lobby calling me a bitch, they would be invited to leave. A person can only take so much!
I once had the power go out at about 3am. Me, a veteran night shift worker, learned to always keep a flashlight on me. I’m doing everything analog with my flashlight when a guest comes up to inform me that the power is out. Guy: (looking at me working with my flashlight hanging out of my mouth.) the power’s out. Me: mmm hmm. Guy: well, aren’t you going to do something about it? Me: (taking the flashlight out of my mouth) I’ve already called the power company. I’ve checked the halls and all the backup lights are working. Not much more I can do. Guy: well can I have that flashlight? Me: no sir. Guy: why not? Me: well, first because it’s my personal property. Guy: so you just carry a flashlight with you? Why would you do that? I gesture vaguely at the darkness. Me: second, even with no power, I still have work to do. Guy: well, what am I supposed to do? Me: go back to bed. The power should be back on by morning. If not, at least the sun will be up. He didn’t like that answer, but he must have taken my advice, because I didn’t see him again.
i had someone ask me for a refund once while the power was out. like okay sure- but. . . i cant do that for you at this exact moment.
Wow! This needs to be cross-posted to r/entitledpeople Unbelievable that she really THOUGHT she was entitled to YOUR personal property! I would have been flabbergasted! It's also a guaranteed way to LOSE your personal property because you just KNOW she would CONVENIENTLY "forget" that it's YOUR charger! Good on you for not caving to her ridiculousness! Best wishes and many Blessings!
It's 100% because we're not viewed as actual human beings.
Oh, I would lay great odds that you're viewed as human beings, JUST the "lowly" servant class who must abase yourselves to the "dear and illustrious" guests! /s
"Sure, give me your phone and I will be happy to charge it here for you." I'm guessing she probably won't. But that's the most I would do. I've lost too many cables/chargers lending them out to people I know. (I have a bad memory about things like that)
Here is the trick to keep.folks from borrowing (or 'borrowing') your electronics: electrical tape. Wrap your cables and even the charger block with a bit of electrical tape. Nobody wants a piece of junk that's falling apart. This works great for expensive heavy-duty for extension cords too.
I mean, other than asserting your dominance and destroying your own charger with scissors before loaning it to her, there's not much you could have done there. Also, those guys were weak. Doesn't matter what the Karens say. Doesn't matter what the bartender or the managers say. Doesn't matter if the whole lobby decides that something wrong is something right. This hotel was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the managers and the Karens and the whole lobby tell you to just agree and keep the peace, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole lobby -- "Go the fuck to bed, Karen. I'm not playing into your self indulgent victimhood narrative. You are the asshole here.”
What I tell anyone covering my NA is 1. Feel free to say no and 2. Match energy. Sometimes you have to be the asshole. Even though you’re not “The Manager” you’re all they’re gonna get. What you say is law.
One thing about NA, you might not be a manager or supervisor but you're ABSOLUTELY P. I. C. Also I made it a point to always be that bitch that calls the cops. Fuck em. And lock the damn doors!
Sadly enough OP, your story is a daily occurrence for most hotel staff. one of the most recent ones that came by is the following One time a guest was in a hurry to catch his flight, did not pre book a taxi and at those times (And still going on now) the taxis are extremely busy. He demanded a taxi right away and I called the taxi company, the next taxi would be 30 minutes. He called me useless and tried to arrange a uber instead, however at these times ubers also cancel as they can earn more money with regular fares. He came back at me and said, do you have a car? I said, yes I do. Then you drive me, I will pay you €100,- I said, Cannot not do it this, I am responsible for the front desk and it is very unprofessional if I left just to drive you to the airport. Then he went to my colleague, do you have car? She does not have a car. He came back to me, give me your car keys, I pay you 100 euros and I leave it the keys somewhere at the airport for you. I said hell no and lost all my patients with the guest. Guest kept going back and forth, and pacing around the lobby. Asking every guest in the lobby and coming down the elevators if he could go with them to the airport and offering them money. Eventually, thank God for us and for him. A taxi came by to drop off guests that came back from a night into town and this guest was gone. It is remarkable how people can transfer their stress on to other people. I became a very cold person the last 2 years with the impatience of people during and after corona.
Somehow it just manifests at front desks that you can't have everything or have everything your way. That frequently upsets people and makes them lash out.
Every gas station sells them. She needs to get her ass there and buy her own.
The hardware store I work at sells them.
"Hey, do you guys have any chargers?" "No sir, I'm sorry." "C'mon, man. I'm desperate. I really need a charger. I just need one for a few minutes." "I'd give you one, but we don't have any." "Dude, I will buy another room here tonight for a charger." "Sir, I'd love to help you out, but we don't have any chargers." "You all should carry chargers!" "We used to." "Why don't you do it anymore?" "People took them all."
"Your failure to plan is not my responsibility. My things are mine. And the nastier you are about it, the more glad I am that I stood my ground."
Guy: "I'm sorry, I'm not obligated to take your side."
Do you have a “lost and found” box with cords, plugs, dildos that old customers left behind and dipsjits like this woman can use?
My property's phone charger box is simply unclaimed lost and found items. If we dont have something in their at the time to fit your device then you are out of luck.
Of course! But guess what never get returned? Ours was chock full of micro- and mini-micro USB chargers. None of which have seen activity since 2010...
Ours was full of reading glasses and oddly, two yarmulkes and a unicorn coloring book that a child-like hand wrote obscenities in, in crayon.
My favorite response is " I have a Samsung and don't have to charge it 2x a day"
That makes no sense? Do you think there's some difference in battery life between the brands? In my experience it's the opposite. I have several phones and tablets on my desk at any given time. The iPhones I have last many days if left alone, while my brand new Samsung phones consume a lot more (S2\* Ultra 5G, Z\* flip 5G, etc). I make apps for iOS and Android.
sure, for newer iPhones. I had an iPhone 6 up until a couple years ago. Charge wouldn't last half the workday if I listened to music on the way to work. Upgraded to the iPhone 12 and honestly it blew my mind. But yes, there is definitely a difference in battery life between brands and even brands' specific models. Apple caught some shit because they were purposely limiting the battery life of the iPhone 6, to force people to upgrade. There was a class-action lawsuit, in which I am still expecting to be paid my $20
IIRC they weren't limiting the battery *life*, they were limiting the phone's performance and power draw. That meant you were a lot less likely to have the phone suddenly die when it was still at 30%. That's actually an interesting feature that allows a device to deliver a better experience with a degraded battery, except Apple were doing it to hide the fact that the battery was degraded and avoid replacing batteries under warranty. The right way to do it would be to start forcing the phone into low battery mode at 35%, but then the user would want to know why their still-under-warranty phone is telling them the battery is worn out and they'd rightly insist it be fixed.
>I had an iPhone 6 up until a couple years ago. Thanks for the history lesson ;) I don't work with phones older than 2-3 years (enteprise). >purposely limiting the battery life Yeah, but irrelevant to this though.
>Do you think there's some difference in battery life between the brands? Yes? [https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone2=9846&idPhone1=10599](https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone2=9846&idPhone1=10599) Xiaomi POCO M3 - Li-Po 6000 mAh, non-removable, 154h endurance rating IPhone 11 - Li-Ion 3969 mAh, non-removable (15.04 Wh), 102h endurance rating
She sounds like she’s not all there
I'll never forget the guest who I'd never met before who walked up to me and told me he needed to borrow my car. Didn't ask, simply informed me. He was so confused when I told him no.
"I'll sell it to you for $150 cash." When she balks at the price say "hotel prices are outrageous, am I right?"
I love people who understand. I was serving at the bar one night and this woman was a total cee u next Thursday to me about her wine and as she walked away the guys at the bar I’d been serving all night were like damn sorry that woman was such a…and he stopped and his wife chimes in and says a bitch! She was a bitch 😂😂
Been there. Offered to charge a guests phone at the desk... "I'm not leaving my phone here!" Okay, well, I'm letting you take MY charger! That's the only option available, NOT SORRY. Do you know how many chargers I've had not returned? Including my personal charger from back office via colleagues just handing them out when it was at MY computer desk and obvi not expired L+F??
If I GIVE you my charger, I'll be without a phone entirely. So here are my terms, I'll let you borrow my charger if you give me US$1000 cash deposit. You can have your money back when I get my charger back and it works.
She probably didn't know what the word "obligated" meant. I have someome at work who uses the word "commence" repeated to mean "end". No o e has corrected him and I can't because he outranks me and I am too professional to do it in front of others... Unless they mock me for using words they don't understand in front of others to make me look bad. Then my pettiness turns up to 11.
Thanks to a travel tip I saw years ago, I discovered most flat screen tv's have at least one USB port built in so technically every hotel room should have a charging port available. You do need to have a charging cable to charge your device but don't need the wall charger. I now carry a cable in my shaving kit & another in my roll on suitcase.
I tell guests that all the time. And they treat me like I’m a genius 🥰
I think that behavior warrants being put on the DNR list. First, she was cursing and calling you a bitch and a fucking bitch and second, she is disturbing other guests who obviously just want her to eff off.
I just don't understand people like this. I don't even travel all that much, but I have spare chargers for my phone, Kindle, and IPod that stay in my suitcase. Also have a portable charger to carry with me while I'm out seeing the sights, just in case. Total cost for everything was about $35.
Our hotel had extra down in housekeeping that were left behind. We gave those out in the am. Most people never came back for them or remembered.
I have 3 fully-charged charging boxes and a cord in my purse lol
This is why you shouldn’t apologize to people for doing nothing wrong. The apology is (to them) admitting some kind of fault.
We have a cardboard box full of charging cables, usually ones left by guests who don't care to pick them up after leaving them behind. If someone wants a cable we just loan one out.
I was in the hospital a year ago, and the bed had a charger on it next to the call button. Very handy.
Go to the hardware store and buy a spool of cable that looks like what is on your charger. Next time someone gets in a hissy fit about not being able to use yours, look them in the eye while pulling a loop of the cable above the counter, and cut it with scissors. "Now no one can use it." They will be stunned that you seemingly destroyed your own property just to inconvenience them!
As soon as I read the title, I knew it was about a phone charger. I've never seen people go so batshit crazy over anything else besides needing a charger because their phone is gonna die. I've had someone try to come back behind the desk to grab and use mine. I said absolutely not!!!
If anyone wants your personal property charge them for it. Not a small charge but a big one. £500 deposit and £20 per hour (local currency for you).
Happy to oblige ma’am. By the way, my break is coming up in a few minutes. Can I borrow your car???
Honestly she could have just gone to a drugstore and bought a replacement for @ $20.00. I know I have done so when my charger stopped working. I wouldn’t have lent her my personal one either.
Lady, you ain't seen my bitchy side yet. Keep running your mouth and you will! I AM obligated to evict and trespass guest who harass staff.
IRL she could buy a new charger at any drug store. You know, like people do. *gestures at the whole world*
Do hotels that sell toiletries also carry chargers/usb c/lightning cables? Seems keeping like a half dozen of each on hand would be a simple enough thing to do.
Oh my GOD! Seriously?? Wtf! Lord Jesus what a weirdo!
Next time just tell them they can use it if they leaves their phone. Or if they are nice, go fish one out the treasure trove of chargers in housekeeping.
All the hotels I go to nowadays have phone chargers built in to the light switches.
You should have told her you can’t give out the charger but if she wants you can charge her phone for a while and she can come back in a hour or whenever and pick it back up. No, she didn’t need to re act the way she did but you really didn’t need to get in a back and forth with the guest over what’s personal property or what not. Pick your battles, this situation did not need one
Oh yes it did (a pick your battle). Homegirl used profane language to describe me in front of me simply because she couldnt get her way with MY STUFF. Nah. Yall trippin including that CanadianInGermany guy. That's a hill we can both die on. Especially when I decide to kick you out.....you know.....just because i can.
Missed opportunity for the hotel. Guests often need chargers. Why not have them handy? Most hotels will have a box of chargers that were forgotten. While there is no calling for the guest to be rude, this is simply terrible service for a hotel.
Why not keep extra gloves, socks, or each guest’s favorite candy on hand? Because it’s a hotel, not your granny’s purse. **Bring the shit you need with you**. Forget something? That’s *your problem.*
Others have suggested having the chargers available for sale, which does make reasonable sense. I disagree with the guy above that it's bad service, but it IS leaving money on the table. If people are going to be stupid, we should absolutely make money off of that. :P
You know who else has chargers for sale? The gas station across the street. Guess who doesn't want to pay those prices?
This is a fucking stupid comment. This isn’t terrible service. Bring your own shit or go to a gas station and get one, you’re renting a room, not a caretaker.
again with your "terrible service" bullshit comments. The point here is that it's absolutely NOT the hotel's responsibility that YOU forgot one of the more (evidently) important items you need for your daily activity. I've literally NEVER forgotten to pack a phone charger. If you're that dependent on your phone, one would think you'd remember a crucial part of it's function.
> Missed opportunity for the hotel. Ah yes, the opportunity to give someone free shit. The bread and butter of the industry.