Hotel Front Desk
Los Angeles, CA
Male, 27
For the past two years I've worked the front desk at a boutique luxury beachfront hotel in Southern California. My job can range from simply checking guests in & out to many other duties, including: pretending I work in different departments so that behind-the-scenes chaos is never seen by a guest, shielding guests from stalkers that come looking for them, and picking up used drug paraphernalia from a trashed room. Ask me anything.
Of course! You can definitely ask for a specific location, but due to the nature of the hotel business, and by law, if a guest continues to pay the asking rate on a room, they can extend indefinitely. This law may vary from state to state and country to country, but in California, if you booked a specific suite, but the person staying there before you decides to extend, unfortunately the hotel will have to give you another room or suite that is comparable or greater, IF available. If no other rooms are available at all? We have to "walk" or relocate you at our expense to another comparable hotel, at least until we can provide you nights at our hotel that you have booked. (A side note: if you are walked to a NICER hotel, we are not legally obligated to keep paying for your nights there if your original, comparable, or better room opens back up at our hotel). Sold out weekend, and the person who is supposed to leave is trying to extend in the room that YOU booked? We will make it as difficult as possible for them to stay, as in, the rate will be at a premium and we certainly will explain to them that there's a guest or guests booked for arrival into their room, but believe me, some people just don't care, and that's the risk we run when operating at full capacity. As regards the ability to place you out of reach of noise or any other sometimes natural occurence at a hotel, we will try our best, but it's almost like your asking if you can stay only on days when the sun will be shining. It's very hard to predict occupancy (what block of the hotel will be empty) or to predict whether there will be an all-night party that unexpectedly pops up in the room next to you. The best rule for a quiet stay? Bring earplugs or ask for them from the front desk, so you can control the noise yourself, do your research so that you know if the hotel is a known party or nightlife spot, and ask if you can be located away from pools, bars, elevators, ice machines, street-facing location, or other typically louder areas of the hotel. With any of these special requests, at least at our property, they are always requests, never guaranteed.
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That sounds like a sold out night which is great! Just inform everyone that calls or tries to book online that you are sold out, and make sure that whomever keeps track of your online booking engines shuts off any access to rooms, so you don't get overbooked. If for some reason someone shows with an accidental overbooked reservation, you'll have wanted to have already called all your neighboring hotels to find out if they have any rooms available in case you have to "walk" or relocate a guest to a neighboring and comparable hotel for the night until you have a room available for them again.
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All you would be entitled to if the hotel's opening is delayed, is that they refund you anything you may have prepaid. The fact is, opening or re-opening a hotel is a complicated, frustrating process that has many moving parts, and more often than not, the projected opening date will be pushed back. Often it's due to securing permits, weather, construction delays or loss of funding, most of which are unexpected and if the hotel could do anything about it, they would. But unfortunately, you're not going to receive some type of monetary compensation beyond what you may have paid in advance.
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Printer/fax machine, phones, computers/monitors/keyboards/mouse, two-way radios & charges, possibly blank room keys and key reader/coding device. You will probably also see all of the things that guests ask for on a routine basis, such as basic toiletries, wine/bottle openers, playing cars, etc. Lastly, depending on how the hotel is set up, you may have a safe, files of registration cards, and a small bank of cash for making change, especially if there is a restaurant, bar, and valet parking operation on site.
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Call Center Employee (Retail)
I've heard that a lot of startups are hiring really well-educated college grads and paying them a lot, reasoning that customer service is often a client's most lasting impression of a brand. What do you think, and is it something you see spreading?
Printer/fax machine, phones, computers/monitors/keyboards/mouse, two-way radios & charges, possibly blank room keys and key reader/coding device. You will probably also see all of the things that guests ask for on a routine basis, such as basic toiletries, wine/bottle openers, playing cars, etc. Lastly, depending on how the hotel is set up, you may have a safe, files of registration cards, and a small bank of cash for making change, especially if there is a restaurant, bar, and valet parking operation on site.
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I woulid read your employee handbook very carefully to see if there's a rule against this. If there isn't, then you're fine, if there is, then do that second job at your own risk.
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Hotels can certainly tell you that no more rooms are available, but depending on the state, most hotels are going to have to let you stay IF you can pay the asking rate for that day or days following. That might mean you were paying $100 per night for your first month, but due to demand, the next month is going to be $1,000 per night. So long as you are willing to pay that, you can stay, and the hotel is going to have that difficult conversation with the incoming guest(s) about why the room(s) they booked aren't available.
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