Hotel Management

This is the first in a series of posts I had originally posted on my MySpace page.

Since MySpace is soooooo 2009, I am closing that page and moving my more favorite blogs here.

Enjoy a bit more of the ramblings from My Life :-)

Originally posted on MySpace February 29, 2009

Running a hotel will give you all sorts of problems. I remember 2 years ago, when I first started a the Front Office Manager at a hotel in a fairly decent sized town. I was introduced to the world of hotels during hockey weekend. Aka "hell weekend". I thought "what have I gotten myself into?" Coming off of 5 years of restaurant service, I thought I had seen and heard it all. I was dead wrong. Yesterday told me just how "weathered" I have become after spending time managing a hotel.

The prelude to yesterday is:

Hockey Weekend(s) 2008 - Kids switched numbers on the doors, stuffed a towel down the pool filter which resulted in a burned up motor, played a fantastic game of Game 7 for the Stanley Cup in the hallway of the 2nd floor and proceeded to rip wall vinyl off the walls.

CMU footballl (2007/2008) - various drunken shenanigans including but not limited to almost getting run over (more then once), being called everything but a white girl (more then once), driving a shuttle full of drunk people, and interaction with police, fire officals, paramedics and rent a cops from CMU for various reason (please refer to drunken shenanigans).

Power Outages and broken pipes (2008) - You would think that people who are having their rooms PAID for by me for their inconveniences would be a little more polite. I do understand their frusterations, however, I CANT HELP MOTHER NATURE AND HER NEED TO SEND LIGHTENING DIRECTLY TO MY TRANSFORMER. I probably could have helped the broken pipe, but really, plumbing is not my specialty.

Smoking fines (daily) - If you smoke in my non-smoking hotel, you will get a $250 fine. End O' Story. I am not going to randomly charge you because I have nothing better to do. For the record, if your mother is stuck at a train station in Chicago, if your brother gets into a car accident, if it wasnt your credit card to use, if you ran out of money and cant put gas in your car, if your debit is over-drawn and you cant put gas in your car to get to your mother to drive her to your brother in the hospital, it isnt my problem. If you cant handle the fine, THEN GO OUTSIDE!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, if you leave the beer bottle or coffee cup full of ashes in your room when you leave, I will take pictures it of and email them to your credit card company with your signature on the "no smoking policy" and you will not get your money back. If your going to break the rules, dont be stupid about it.

Yesterday, I came across something I had not encountered before.....a guest looking at gay porn on my lobby computer. Just as I was going to approach him to politely let him know that was a public computer and I couldnt let him continue looking at that material (aka you sick freak, get a lap top and go back to your room!!) I got a phone call from a guest whose husband was stuck in the whirlpool in their room and she wanted me to call the police to get some help getting him out. Apparently not the first time (probably not the last) so I did as I was asked and when the police, 2 fire marshalls, 1 full fire rig and 1 ambulance all rolled into my parking lot, the gay porn guy disappeared (quickly) so I didnt get the chance to have that conversation (darn).

Really....I have seen it all, heard it all, witnessed half of it and I have only been in the hotels for 2 years. Jessica, Lyndsay, Katie, Sarah.....we are in this together my friends. We should write a book!! Then when we are rich, we can buy a hotel and let some other poor fool run the damn thing while we sit back with a margarita and watch.