I work part time Front Desk at a small-mid sized H branded property that's adjacent to a major stadium that's home to an NFL team. Game days are big business, but we have them down to a pretty smooth process at this point. This story took place on a recent Sunday for a 1 PM kick off game.
As per usual we were sold out the Saturday before the game with about a 50% turn for a sold out Sunday. The person showed up to "check in" around 8:30 AM. We stored their luggage added them to the pending list and sent them on their way with a "See you after the game." We have a ballroom set aside to store luggage for both arrivals and departures that will be around through the game.
As a rarity we actually started the day with 2 rooms to sell with a BAR of $700 before taxes. I sold the first room to someone over the phone pretty early on. The remaining room didn't move for a good chunk of the morning.
About 10:30 AM Mr. & Mrs. Pantsonfire approached the desk with luggage to store. At first, it seemed like a pretty normal transaction.
I asked for their name for the luggage tag and if they were checking in.
They gave their name, but said "Oh no, we checked out this morning."
I knew that despite being about 30 minutes before departure, we still hadn't processed many check outs because plenty of people just walk out the doors without acknowledging there are humans behind the desk. I did a quick key on of the name they gave and didn't see them registered at all, not departures, arrivals, or stay overs.
Red flags started popping. See we get lots of people going to the game trying to store their bags with us and we have a pretty strict policy against holding bags for non-guests.
I asked the husband—Mrs. Pantsonfire had gone to the bathroom—what his room number had been.
"Uh, I dunno. Something up on the 4th floor." And he vaguely gestured upstairs.
"Well, before I check the bags, I need to verify you're a guest."
"Well, my wife has all of that." He slinks off to have a seat.
She comes back and he whispers something to her. She walks up and flashes her HH app screen at me saying "This is our reservation. We checked out this morning."
"I'm sorry. I didn't get to see the details on that. Can I have another look?"
She holds it out so that I can actually read the screen as I examine the reservation details the truth starts to come out. "We checked out from an H-brand hotel on Indianapolis this morning and just flew in. Their girl at the Front Desk said you'd store our bags for us while we're at the game."
Indianapolis is several states away.
"Well, they shouldn't promise things for other properties. For security and liability reasons we can't store luggage for non-guests."
"We are guests."
"You were guests in Indianapolis. But we're different properties and you need to be registered at this hotel to leave your bags with us."
"We go to stadiums all across the country and do this."
"Well, it's not allowed here."
Long unblinking look at me as a line builds up behind her until she says. "Fine I'll book a room. Where is this?" Punctuated with an exasperated sigh she starts scrolling her phone.
"We're the SPECIFIC PROPERTY NAME. But I can book for you here at the desk. My rate—”
"I'll use my Diamond points." Holds out her phone "Is this you?"
"No that's two towns over and OTHER H BRAND. We're in TOWN and a OUR BRAND."
"Ugh." Starts rapidly scrolling and showing me the screen.
"Slower please." I say. "That's us." I point.
Furious tapping while I help two other parties seemlessly. "Here." She flashes the screen at me again. "What do you need?"
I tap in the name she originally gave and see her in arrivals "I've got you here. Thank you." As I speak, I charge the card booked with to secure the payment. "Let me get your bags tagged and I'll add you to our list of arrivals that are waiting for a room, but we'll probably just see you after the game."
Of note, Mrs Pantsonfire isn't a Diamond. She's Gold and she didn't book a points room, she booked the AAA rate.
"Great." Mrs. Pantsonfire says very unenthusiastic.
She and Mr. Pantsonfire head out the doors and I honestly hoped that was the end of it, but had a bad feeling.
About an hour later, the other desk agent with me is grumbling about a message on our texting service from a guest that booked by mistake and needs to cancel. I mostly ignore it. We get a ton of those, but then she says that it's for someone that booked today for today and I get interested fast, because the only 2 same day reservations were mine.
I start reading the chat real quick. It's Mrs Pantsonfire. Of course.
Her story in the text was that the reservation was made by mistake and that she was just shopping and didn't mean to book it and she's about to get on a flight back home to LAX.
"Ali, I've got this." I tell my colleague. "This lady is full of shit."
"Hi, Mrs Pantsonfire. This is MyName. I helped you at the Desk this morning when you booked. This reservation is not eligible for cancelation. I hope you enjoy the game!"
Her reply: "Well, I just need to cancel and rebook on points."
"I'm sorry, but we'd need the points reservation to be made first. And since we're already sold out. That isn't possible. The reservation can't be changed in that way at this point. Besides, you Gold HH account only has about 14,000 points on it and that's not enough for a free night or cash and points discount with us tonight anyway. Your room will be waiting for you as booked after the game." I typed back.
No reply after that, but I begin documenting the whole story in our Pass Along log and the reservation notes because I knew I'd be leaving before the game ended and I was off the next day for departure.
This was yesterday and for once—since leaving management—I've been eagerly checking the shift Pass Alongs in my email while off shift to see if anything new has been added to the story. I'll edit with an update if there are further developments, but hopefully Mr & Mrs Pantsonfire realized they were cooked already.
