Labor Day Weekend

For anyone who's forgotten, this weekend is Labor Day weekend. I'm not anticipating a good few days. First, we're sold out tonight and tomorrow, and second, pretty much every reservation this weekend is Expedia.

For those of you just joining me, you may not be aware of my feelings regarding Expedia reservations. I don't like them. I wrote about this previously. These guests pay an extremely low rate, yet are the biggest pain in the ass of anyone in the hotel. Extra towels, extra blankets, extra pillows, milk (to be brought up to their room), booking the wrong room type and expecting us to fix it, asking for free upgrades, etc. And if anyone reading this books through Expedia...well, just know that hotel clerks don't think very highly of you. And most hotels will happily match an discounted online rate. But I digress...

So this weekend, pretty much everyone staying has booked through Expedia. I'm not sure why. What I am sure of is that these guests are going to be problematic. It's already started.

One guy came in. He booked a room with one double bed, and requested a king. I go to check him in and he says to me, "That's a king bed, right?"
"No, sir, it's a double bed."
He stares blankly at me, and I tell him, "You booked a double bed, sir."
"But I requested a king."
"All requests are subject to availability, and there are no kings available."

Now, I can see this guy had three reservations that he cancelled with Expedia. One was for a king bed, but I guess he decided it was too much money and he'd rather harass the people at the hotel into giving him one. Unfortunately for him, there are none to give.

He tells his wife we have no kings, and she jumps in. "Then where am I supposed to sleep?"

Come on people. Americans haven't gotten so fat that you can't share a double bed for three nights. If you wanted a king, you should have booked a king. Eventually, my manager tells him he can move to a king Sunday, when we have some available. He settles for that and tells us if anyone cancels for tomorrow, he wants to move then. Get in line, buddy - we have a regular guest who wants to extend his stay to Sunday. He'll be first if any kings open up - after all, he tips me $5 every time he's here.

At the same time this guest was checking in, so was a friend of his - another Mensa member. He has three people, but only booked a room with one double bed. He pulls up the email on his phone to show me - "see, I booked a double!". That's right, you did - a room with ONE double bed. I don't know why this is so confusing. Or why Expedia guests are the only ones that do this. I think they just see the lowest rate and jump at it without reading the bed description RIGHT BELOW. My manager thinks they do it deliberately to make us fix it and keep the same price. But PLENTY of people manage to book the correct room type - so why can't these people do the same?

This guy goes online and sees he booked one double bed. My manager, to get rid of him, gives him a room with two beds for two nights. For the third night, we're sold out, and he tells him we'll place a rollaway in their new room. He doesn't understand why we can't keep him in the same room and bump someone else for the third night. My manager tells him we won't do that.

So that's two people who've booked incorrectly so far, in this lovely Expedia weekend. Between today and tomorrow, I'm sure there will be at least 3 more. I guess we'll see...