Journals of a Hotel Manager

The grind of the festive begins by being yelled at on Christmas Eve.  What a surprise!  Guests can be most unforgiving at this time of the year.

With a full house, the home owner of a nearby luxury mansion has decided to start construction of his pool and patio recently.  The noise annoyed Dr. S, a guest from NYC, who had specifically requested room 408 with ocean-view windows that caught a hint of the construction sounds.

Of course, this is entirely my fault.  As a hotel manager, I must be devil reincarnate to some of the guests.  If the sun does not shine on a tropical island, it is my fault.  If the water is murky on a dive trip due to rain, it is my fault.  If the fishing excursion resulted in no fish being caught, again it is my fault.

As the minions tried in vain to find an alternative for Dr. S in a fully occupied hotel, who had refused any room in the hotel other than 408, which is quite impossible since there is only one such room, I listened attentively to his observation about my carelessness and incompetence to permit this catastrophe.  An arrangement of upgrade to an ocean front suite, a free spa treatment and a complimentary dinner at our fine dining room later, Dr. S was calm enough to send an email to his contact at our sister hotel in another country to vent off his remaining anger.  He graciously copied the email to me.  I will make sure to seek him out and wish him happy holidays at tonight’s Christmas buffet.

One of my mentors had said to me when I was almost in tears when a guest blamed me for something I did not do, still a young apprentice of 18 at my first hotel, “A good hotel manager needs skin of a crocodile.”  I remembered it ever since.

Talking about animals, rat complaints have dropped to just one last night, only a day after the rat god ceremony.  And the cobra was not sighted anymore.  I wonder if the divinity has a thick skin.  Surely they cannot grant every wish.

I wish I could turn the sun on and the rain off when my guests demand it; ask the elusive sea turtles to appear on cue when my diving guests descend; and above all, to make our neighbor home owner, a free citizen with his own rights, stop construction during the festive when my guests are most sensitive.

This may, after all, be too much to ask.  I think I will just grow another layer of crocodile skin.

© 2008 Global Hotel Nomad (SH)