Late Check-Outs

Anyone sensing a theme with my blog posts lately? I am. I suppose it's because I usually work mornings and therefore don't really deal much with guests when they're having problems with the internet, AC, internet, door locks, internet, number of towels in the room, and internet. Oh, and did I mention the internet?

But, anyway, late check-outs. These have been occurring more and more frequently lately as people try to stay later to spend more time at the pool. My hotel already has a pretty generous check-out time of 12 PM, so this can be somewhat irritating, especially to the housekeeping staff. Especially when several rooms are in the same area. This means the housekeeper doing that section has to wait for all those people to leave.

When people ask for late check-out, I ask them how late they'd like to stay. The response I am not looking for? "Well, what's the latest we can check out?" We can give till 2, but I usually say 1:30. By the time people actually leave, it's 2 anyway.

I encountered a lovely woman a few weeks ago. Just charming, really. She called down to ask for a late check-out, and I asked her what time she wanted until.

"Oh, 2 or 3."

"2's the latest I can do, ma'am."

She heaves a sigh but agrees to 2. At 2:30 I'm checking on those last few check-outs with the head housekeeper, and she tells me the woman is not gone.

"What do you mean she's not gone? She's still in the room?" It's confirmed for me that she is nowhere to be found, but all her stuff is still in there.

At 2:45, the woman comes wandering into the lobby, dressed in a pool cover-up, telling me her keys aren't working. I ask for her name and pull her up on the computer. The keys wouldn't be working either way, since they expire just after check-out time, but she doesn't know that.

"Yes, Ms. ----, let me get you new keys. I see we had you checking out at 2?"

"Well, I'm a (insert level here) rewards member. I get late check-out."

Deep breath. "Yes ma'am, you do get late check-out. Up to what the hotel can accomodate. Housekeeping has to clean the room."

"Well, there are lots of people who still have stuff in their rooms!"

Completely untrue, irrelevant, and also - a bad argument. If she had told me everyone else checked out, so clean their rooms first, that might make more sense. But telling me everyone else is doing it too? First, I've checked everyone else out, so I know that's not true. Second - are we in kindergarten now? Aren't you too old to compare your obnoxious behavior to other people's?

She goes to leave. I still haven't said anything in response to her latest claim, and have no plans to. But she just has to throw out one more remark before she goes.

"And we'll leave when we want to!"