Customer demanded 4th-floor room at a 3-floor hotel so the receptionist took him to the terrace

It's definitely difficult to work in customer service, particularly when you have to deal with clients who are impossible to please. That's exactly what happened to a receptionist who shared her story (now-deleted) on Reddit. Well, a customer claimed that she had booked a room on the fourth floor of the hotel. But in reality, the hotel only had three floors.

It was a private hotel, and the only way to book a reservation was through the front desk, the receptionist explained. But on a packed weekend, a woman walked in and claimed that she had already booked a room there. "She plops a piece of paper in front of me and then goes and gets lots of luggage. The paper shows her with a reservation at 'Days Inn' (the hotel had been 'Days Inn' 5 years prior) at this address for tonight for a tenth of the price we were selling before being fully booked. She comes back to the desk, likely thinking that I have been checking her in all this time," they recalled. The receptionist informed her that they were fully booked for the night and that they don't accept third-party reservations. The woman responded excitedly, "I have a reservation! It's right there! I paid good money for it!". The receptionist explained to the woman that, unfortunately, she had been scammed by a third party, but she was just too stubborn to face the truth. 

"You are just trying to steal my money! I have a confirmation number right there! I handed it to you," the customer said, accusing the hotel. The receptionist also told the customer that their hotel didn't even have a fourth floor, but nothing could convince her. "I stayed at this DAYS INN last year on the fourth floor," the woman argued. When the front desk agent realized that the customer was being unreasonable for no reason, they decided to drop the woman and her luggage on the rooftop. "I open the floor door to the tarred roof and walk outside. 'And here is the fourth floor; I hope it is as nice as the last time you stayed here.' I dropped her luggage and go down the stairs back to the front desk," the receptionist wrote. Moreover, they said they would have helped the customer secure a reservation elsewhere had she not been this rude. In fact, just like the receptionist, an investigation by Ringover in 2023 found that 89.7% of workers said they've experienced an increase in abuse and hostility when talking to customers in the past 12 months. More often than not, abuse severely affects their mental health, and 84.5% are looking for a new customer service job because of this. 

Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit Post, u/gromain commented, "Well done on the malicious compliance. I would have saved myself the trouble and called the cops as soon as she started yelling at me, though. I'm so fed up with those kinds of entitled m*****s with no brains."

Similarly, u/eboom011 wrote, "This is the exact reason I don’t book on 3rd party websites. I may use their site to see what options are in the area and filter by different amenities, but once I’ve made my choice, I will ALWAYS go to that hotel’s website or call directly to book. This was shitty for all involved." u/forge__thought wrote, "Superb work. I don't think anything other than showing her would have shut her down. I am sorry she got scammed, but you gave her what she asked for and, presumably, lied about. I wish more people would just trust and listen to the person they are working with. I know it can be hard, but it's worth it to collaborate."

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