Working with the public

First of all , working in a hotel for me was an amazing experience, spending 8 hours a day with the same kids for 2 weeks was an incredible experience, I still keep in touch with so many clients I met over the years .

I have to admit I feel old when the kids I used to look after are now having kids of their own , but I guess that’s life...

After having my son , my amazing boss moved me from entertainment to reception, which was a whole other world , gone were the days of playing games and in came the days of complaints , really really insane complaints.

How can you apologize for the fact that the hotel is 200m away from the sea and not a single room has a sea view ?

“ how can our room not be ready for when we arrived “

I’m sorry lady , but check-out is at 12.00 , check in is at 2 , it’s 9.00am , there is still a family in your room having breakfast

“There are too many children around”

I’m sorry Derek , but you came to a family hotel , well known for it’s kids club and family entertainment

The worst situation has to be the sun-bed reserving , why would you go on holiday to wake up at 06.00am to reserve a bed by the pool ? Can anyone actually explain this ? My morning job was literally removing towels from beds until 9.00am , I couldn’t remove towels if people were sat on them so people would literally sit on them from 06.00am , it was CRAZY behavior

Another thing I always found amusing about working in a hotel was how people always had to have the same room , guests would come year after year and we had to work so hard for them to have “ their room “ , it’s so hard in high season as people don’t check in and out at the same time and the place is fully booked !

Working with the public is hard, you can do everything you can to try and help Someone but some people just don’t want to be helped , no matter what you do , how hard you try , they just want to complain, if you accept this , life is much easier

After working with the public my whole life , I really try my best to always be polite and kind to people , I always remember that the person on the desk in front of me is just doing their job , I have been called all sorts of names over the years , I’ve learnt to let it go over my head.

I was very lucky that 99% of the people who came to the hotel were lovely and just wanted to have a good time.

So there is a little bit of my experience working with the public over the years , if you are reading this , try and remember to be kind , you don’t know what the person serving you is going through , your one rude comment could be the one that pushes them over the edge.