Hampton Inn, Lima, Ohio; Bite My Ass

The BBQ Pit
1

Grrrrrr! Let the rant begin. Last week, my partner and I travelled to Lima, Ohio for the funeral of a good friend’s brother. We checked into the Hampton Inn along with my friend, her partner, her parents, and other family and friends.
Now, I’ve always been fond of the Hampton Inn and never had a gripe regarding cleanliness or service. Until now.

My friends parents checked in on a Saturday night with the plan to stay until Tuesday, then return home after the funeral. On Monday, the day my partner and I arrived, they decided to stay one extra night. My friend’s father went to the desk to request an extra night for the two rooms they had been staying in. The desk clerk said that it was no problem and they could keep the rooms.

So, on Tuesday we head out to the funeral. A very bad day, indeed. As we all returned teary-eyed to the hotel we realized that their key card would not work on the side door to get in. Hmmmmm… maybe they had to reset something for the extra days. No worries.

So my friend’s emotionally devastated mother walks to the front and goes to the desk to inquire as to why the keys aren’t working. The desk clerk tells her that checkout was at 11 and they have to hurry up and clean out their rooms because they’re holding the maids up. "No, no, no: says mom, “we have one more night.”
“No, no, no” says clerk, “it’s not in the system.”

Mom gets upset and pleads with the clerk, explaining that the previous day’s clerk had ok’d their reservation for another night. The clerk starts muttering under her breath about how it’s not in the system so they can’t have the room. Mom asks for another room then. Clerk says they are booked up, no can do. Clerk is getting pissy, (completely uncalled for).

Mom begins to get teary-eyed. As if she isn’t having the worst day of her life already, this cunty hotel clerk wears her crown of shit with pride. My friends steps in, my mild-mannered sweetheart of a friend and goes the fuck off on the clerk, explaining that they just buried her brother and now the hotel has kicked them out of their room and and this asshat is muttering under her breath.

At this time about 25 minutes have passed going round and round with the shitstick clerk. Finally!, a manager is called. The manager proceeds to defend the clerk!!! WTF??? But at least she did offer to refund all of their money and put them up at the Holiday Inn next door (which was much nicer, btw)

Now the question I have is WHY didn’t they just do that in the first place??? Why argue with the grieving family for 25 fucking minutes? What the fuck happened to customer service? I understand that mistakes happen, people fuck up. That can be forgiven if the situation is dealt with and remedied some how. But no, mother had to be reduced to a sobbing mess in the parking lot before the Shampton Inn offered a solution to the problem. So, Hampton Inn in Lima, Ohio, and the shitstain desk clerk and the assipe manager can go fuck themselves with razorwire. Goddammit I’m so pissed.

2

ooh-I’ve been in that same Hampton Inn!
<apologize for expressing astonishment at strange coincidence>

They should never had said OK the first time.

I work in the service industry and it never fails to amaze me just how poorly people are treated.

3

Did they pay for the extra night? Did they have a receipt?

4

[QUOTE=eleanorigby]
ooh-I’ve been in that same Hampton Inn!QUOTE]

We may have shared a bed!
Um…but not at the same time. :wink:

[QUOTE=ivylass]
Did they pay for the extra night? Did they have a receipt?QUOTE]

No, they had made reservations originally by phone, securing it with a credit card. When you check out, the hotel runs your card. So when he asked for an extra day it would’ve been added to the total at checkout. And no, they did not give him a confirmation number Monday morning that proved the res had gone through for the extra night. I could hardly fault the man for forgetting to get one from the clerk considering the hell he was going through with losing his son and all.

5

They wouldn’t have had to if the reservation was secured with a credit card. The clerk wouldn’t have even asked for any money. If the clerk had been doing her job properly, she would have printed a new registration card or altered the existing one, at which time the person to whom the rooms had been rented would have had to sign authorizing the changes to his or her reservation.

I’ve been a hotel clerk (loved it; you meet a lot of people), and I was always amazed at how exasperated my coworkers would get with some of the guests. If you can help them, you do (and you really do, you don’t just tell them you’re going to); if you can’t, you don’t and you apologize for the inconvenience. If you mess up and you can’t fix it yourself right then, you get a manager immediately. It’s really not very difficult. So a :rolleyes: to this chick.

I stayed at a Hampton in Denver once (Arapahoe?). Ugh.

6

Unless the clerk made an entirely seperate reservation, the confirmation number would have been the same as the one he already had from his initial phone call, but that’s not how it’s done anyway. If someone requests an additional night, you just go into their file and change the departure date. Then you either print a new reg card, in which case they have to fill in their information all over again (signature, license plate number, etc.), or you change the date on the existing reg card and ask them to verify and initial.

At least, that’s how it should be done according to my own desk clerk experience, as well as the experiences I’ve had in hotels where I have stayed. Chances are she promised you the additional night and either forgot to change the date in the computer or, when she tried to, they were already booked. If your family knows her name, or even a decent description of her along with the date and time, I’d suggest someone write a letter to the manager. The real manager of the hotel, not the shift supervisor they already met.

7

<snip>

The pens are already blazing.

8

Have them keep an eye on their credit card too, to make sure they weren’t charged for that extra night.

9

[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu]

THAT was you?
Who would have guessed?

And thank you very much, BTW… :wink:

10

When writing your letters, send one to the corporate offices too. Best if you got names of the rude clerk and manager. hang 'em out to dry.

11

Chao, you and your friend have my condolences.

I spent a lifetime one summer in Lima, Ohio. All of the people I worked with and met there were very nice and out-of-the-way friendly, but it was a dreary place to go on continuous business trips. Back then there was only a Holiday Inn and Super 8 (or Motel 6?) so it wasn’t as if there were a lot of choices. Of course it never really booked up during the week with the rare exception. And one time I checked in, went and keyed in the door, only to find a largish, mostly naked middle aged man sprawled on the bed. Of course I didn’t want to be charge extra for that so I went back downstairs and got a new room.

12

Hey there are worse things then Lima. When I was growing up, Lima was the Big City when we did something Special, especially on a Saturday night.

13

I wouldn’t defend someone who in twenty minutes didn’t try to fix it rather than just saying “No,” but it might help to explain his initial reaction to remember that lots of people make things like that up in the expectation that the clerk will believe them.

14

That’s just so sad that mere words cannot express.

15

My FIL is from Beaver Dam.

I can take Lima or leave it (his brother lives there) but on second thought–I’d rather leave it…
:slight_smile:

Love the story about the naked guy–he would have been an additional room charge.
In 1988, we once got a free suite at the Mayflower in dowtown Washington DC because they gave us a room that was occupied. The clothes in the closet I could handle–the lacey black MEN’S underwear found between the sheets, I couldn’t.
We were upgraded to a suite and it was comped. Fine by us, since hubby’s company was paying for it anyway! His boss, upon hearing the story, recommended to us that we bring nasty undies with us to every hotel and strategically place them… :smiley:

16

[QUOTE=eleanorigby]

No, thank you!

But, you still owe me half of the bill for the broken bed. :smiley:
The only thing I’m going to say about Lima (I promise I won’t mention that on several occassions I referred to it as the “armpit of Northwest Ohio”) is that apparently their civil engineers are anencephalic. Worst city planning I’ve seen since Washington D.C.

17

There’s a Lenny Bruce routine called “Lima, Ohio” about his bad experiences doing a week-long gig at a nightclub in Lima. And, yes, I too grew up about 25 miles from Lima. Maybe we can start a club here - the SDMB “Lima was the big city for me as a kid” club.

18

In Sacramento I once got a room with a woman in the shower. Went to use the passkey, and found the door wouldn’t open all the way. Turned out the woman had thoughtfully (darn it ;)) put the latch on before she showered. A bit disappointing for me, but probably a VERY GOOD THING. Since I never saw what she actually looked like I can only imagine that she must have looked a lot like Jessica Alba or Cindy Crawford or even Halle Barry.

19

Hey, you grow up in a village with a population of 70, just the county seat is a big deal. And Lima is even bigger than that, it even had malls! :stuck_out_tongue: And there were worse places to grow up.

Wendell, which direction? I was (and am, although north a ways now) west of Lima.

Lok

20

I grew up on a farm outside of Mt. Cory. It’s in Hancock County, closer to Findlay than to Lima. Technically speaking, I was born in Bluffton in the sense that that’s where the hospital is that I was born in. My father worked most of his career at the Ford plant in Lima.