Receptionist takes a customer to roof after she demanded 4th-floor room at 3-floor hotel

Editor's note: This article was originally published on December 1, 2022. It has since been updated.

Hotel receptionists often encounter challenging clients, and a key part of their job is diffusing situations and solving problems. However, some clients are impossible to please, no matter how hard you try. One receptionist shared a story on Reddit about a particularly insistent client who claimed to have a reservation for a room on the nonexistent fourth floor of their hotel. Despite explaining multiple times that the hotel only had three floors, the woman demanded to be taken to the fourth floor. In the end, the receptionist, in a moment of frustration, took the woman and her luggage to the roof. The post was shared on Reddit. 

The receptionist said the hotel was privately owned, and the only way to book a reservation was by talking to the front desk. There were no online or third-party reservations, so it was weird when a woman walked in claiming to have a reservation. "One holiday weekend we are booked full. In walks a woman I don't recognize from check-in. 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 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 wrote, before informing her that there were no rooms.

"I regret to inform you that we do not accept third-party reservations; we are unfortunately are already booked for the night," they said but the woman insisted she had a reservation. "I have a reservation! It's right there! I paid good money for it!" she replied. "Ma'am, I believe you," they responded. "Unfortunately you are not in our system because we don't take third-party reservations. They sold it to you fraudulently."

She was adamant that she had a reservation. "You are just trying to steal my money! I have a confirmation number right there! I handed it you," she said and they responded, "Yes ma'am you handed me a reservation to a Days Inn. We are [hotel name], gesturing to a sign." All of the signage inside and outside the building is correct. They then point out, "Also, this is for a fourth-floor room, we only have three floors." She wasn't ready to give in. "I stayed at this DAYS INN last year on the fourth floor!" Despite staying cool and trying to convince her that a fourth floor doesn't exist, she continued angrily. "Eventually, she screams at me that I am going to take her to her room on the fourth floor, that she paid for, right now! I don't respond, just stare at her with a blank face until she slaps the desk and screams "Now!" again. They decided to comply and take her there as she demanded.

"I grab my huge key ring and we both load ourselves up with her excessive luggage and climb the stairs. Once we get to the third floor, I gesture to the third-floor sign and tell her it is the third floor. I then use my maintenance key to unlock the door to the maintenance stairs which are not lit and she trudges up behind me not saying anything. 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," they dramatically announce. "I drop her luggage and go down the stairs back to the front desk," they wrote. The receptionist added that they would have helped her secure a reservation elsewhere had she not been this rude or even tried to get a refund from the third party who sold her the ticket.

Reddit users sided with the receptionist and said the client had no reason to be this rude. "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 entitled morons," wrote one user. Most poked fun at her. One person joked, "Legend says she's still wandering around on the roof, looking for her room."