I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that some people will do just about anything for a deal. Some clip coupons. Some scour websites looking for discounts. Some sign up for cashback programs.
Others take things a bit further.
1. The Deal Stalker
Every hotel has them. They arrive looking like ordinary guests. They smile. They check in. They ask where the pool is and what time breakfast starts.
Then the hunt begins.
It isn’t a hunt for local attractions or restaurants.
They are hunting deals.
One such example that springs to mind is a guest who spoke to my front desk person and said they shouldn’t have to pay the full price of the room since they arrived late at night and since they were too tired to use the pool or any other facilities it wasn’t right to charge them for them. Apparently, 10 PM was their idea of being late. My front desk person was a bit surprised by this but used the age-old excuse, “I’m not allowed to do that,” and stated that a manager would be in the next day.
When I arrived at work, I found a note on my desk from my employee explaining the situation. I remember being overly excited because the note was typed, and the employee put her name on it. If you are saying to yourself, “Why was he excited?” you obviously have not had a team working for you that scribbles on sticky notes with no dates, no names, and occasionally no resemblance to the English language. But I digress.
I called the guest and despite it being late morning, I had clearly woken her up with my call. I let her stumble through why she felt she deserved a partial refund.
She again stated she did not arrive until 10 PM and they left around 8 AM so they were not able to use much of the facilities and she felt that essential workers were entitled to more of a discount. She had booked her room online as the price was lower than even our essential worker discount and apparently 10 hours in the room were not considered by her to be a full stay. I tried to explain to her that it was simply not something we were prepared to do as she was already getting a much better rate than she would normally.
She responded by calling me rude and hanging up.
As Deal Stalkers go, she was fairly harmless. She didn’t threaten lawsuits. She didn’t demand corporate’s phone number. She simply wanted a better bargain than the one she had already received.
In hospitality, you meet a lot of people looking for something for nothing. Most eventually move on when the answer is no. Others become stories.
2. The Complaint Farmer… Or Should I Say the Complant Farmer?
An irate guest came to the front desk demanding a refund for her stay. She insisted there were ants in her room.
A valid complaint? Absolutely.
Like most hotels, we used pest control companies to spray both in and out of the rooms and building to keep the bugs out. I might have even had more sympathy for her if prior to her coming to the desk my boss and I, who had been outside moments before, hadn’t witnessed the guest scooping up, well, I’ll let you take a guess.
A. Diamonds
B. Local Flowers
C. Ants
D. Loose Change
If you guessed ants, you are absolutely correct.
It didn’t make much sense when we were outside why this woman was going all around the edges of the parking lot picking up ants. We watched her walk back into the side door where she went to her room.
A few minutes later she was standing at the front desk demanding a refund because there were ants in her room.
I stepped off to the side and let my manager patiently explain that there would be no refund and why. To this day I don’t know how he kept a straight face as I was cracking up.
Her face, on the other hand, changed colors a few times before storming out of the building.
Ants help farmers aerate soil. Apparently, they also help Complant Farmers cultivate grievances.
3. The Corporate Loophole Hunter
Some of the biggest brands out there don’t own any of the stores and hotels bearing their name. Those are franchises. The brand constantly worries about its image and what the franchises are doing to that image.
Some guests use that.
I had a manager call me because she had two complaints the hotel had been charged for due to complaints called into the corporate headquarters.
She remembered both rooms and couldn’t understand why they complained when she had had multiple contacts with them and they never once mentioned any issues.
I looked at the two complaints and they were pretty much carbon copies of each other. The only significant difference was the names and room numbers involved. They also had the similarity of having both been free night stays using points from the brand loyalty program.
Because they had complained, the brand gave them a bunch more points and charged our hotel for it.
Both rooms had stayed the same dates and both were from the same city.
I’m not saying they were absolutely trying to play the system. It just seems convenient. Two different guests from the same place, staying the same dates, both with free rooms on points. It could be perfectly innocent and purely coincidence. Call me jaded, but I don’t believe in coincidence.
Draw your own conclusion.
We have seen it before with free night stays. Some people will play the system to keep getting free stays or even other benefits.
We have had other guests demand a full refund, and they got it.
Then they called corporate and got another one.
99% of guests are fantastic. They just want a great stay at a reasonable price so they can enjoy themselves.
It is just the 1% which make people like me write things like this.
There is one thing I always try to keep in mind.
Never run your business for the 1%. Just be ready for them.
If you build policies around your worst guests, you’ll inevitably make things worse for your best ones.
Fortunately, the best ones outnumber the worst ones by a wide margin.
It’s just that the worst ones tend to be more memorable.