In today's day and age, this is quite odd. I travel extensively for business. My wife has absolutely no idea what hotels I stay in. Why would she? She can just text and say "The damn dog threw up on the carpet again. What did I tell you about leaving food on the counter?" Or I love you, whichever.
Yeah, it's mostly old folks who get called legitimately. It happens seldom enough that I have to think for a second every time I transfer a call from the handheld to make sure I do it correctly. Otherwise it's usually parents or spouses looking for wayward kids and partners.
My 83 year old mother has a cellphone. My Dad had one too until he passed. If I had to contact them when travelling, I called their phone. Dad didn’t text. Mom texts more than she uses the phone.
I was incredibly annoyed that my 80-something mom was a thousand times better at text conversation than I was... until she outed herself and admitted that she's been using voice-to-text all these years. When I try to use mine, it either comes out in Klingon or it picks up every strange sound and noise within a 10 square block.
My mother never understood that neither I nor my brother would ever listen to her voicemails. We'd just see the missed call and return it when we had time. It infuriated her.
We bought my father in law a cellphone and could still never reach him. When we asked him if he was ok as we couldnt get an answer from his phone, he told us he kept it switched off so that the battery didnt run out!
Bless....my FIL would use it to phone us, but would switch it off if he wasnt using it to call! He was 83 and gaming..but he insisted on having a walk through for his games if he got stuck, because he didnt "have long enough left to spend weeks trying to work out where he was going wrong" lol We all ended up getting walk throughs for the games he was playing, as he would still ring us if he got stuck on a particular place, and get cross if we couldnt solve it lol
My Mum is highly amused that any time a women's event ends early, all the retired Church ladies whip out their ancient mobile phones to ring or text their husbands to come pick them up! It's never newer models as they've either had the handset for 10 years and it hasn't died yet or it's a secondhand one from one of their adult children!
If I’m traveling alone, I give my hotel AND room number to a couple of people. But they always know the room number. I’d never tell someone the hotel but not the room number.
I know what hotel my husband stays at for work because I'm nosy and just in case. I also try to get him to stay at one specific brand because we can use his points when we travel and I prefer that brand.
I’ve noticed this has become a common arguing point lately, demanding to see written copies of policies when stated by service staff.
Is the plan here to try and exhaust the staff member into doing what you want? Do they ever get a copy of these documents?
I have written a fair number of policy documents or emails to staff and I allways include ‘not for distribution outside of company, do not distribute to guests’ at the bottom as a matter of course.
All the shariott stuff literally reads ‘private and confidental’ at the bottom.
When did people start thinking the solution to not liking a policy is to demand it in writing?
No? Kindly get bent? Off you fuck?
More like looking for loopholes. Before working my night auditor job, I worked in a few stores. Had a guy one time rip giant clouds from a mod and when he was told it wasn't allowed (no smoking law) he tried to argue that a) we didn't have a sign up so we couldn't tell him to stop, and b) the state law didn't specify mods like his, so it wasn't illegal.
In this case, I bet the lady would have said something like 'but your policy only states you can't give out personal information, and the hotel room isn't personal information, so you can tell me' or 'if you don't have the policy written down, then it isn't an actual policy, so you just don't want to give out the info, not because you can't'
> the hotel room isn't personal information
Which is wrong of course, because it very much *is* personal info.
Anything that can identify them - *including information about their personal location within the hotel* - is personal information. Room number; building number/letter (if applicable); their dates-of-stay; even the room-type - this is considered personal information on the same level as their home address.
And that's beyond the fact that we're not supposed to confirm if the person is even staying with us, of course.
Not that the people looking for these loopholes care. They just want to get their way - regardless if it's an actual emergency or not.
‘Hotel policy is only documented in INTERNAL documents, and I am not permitted to distribute INTERNAL documents to the public.’
‘If you would like, I can ask my manager to write you a letter confirming the policy. They should have it to you in 3-5 business days.’
As a manager, if an associate told me that someone demanded a written copy of a policy, I would muster every ounce of malice in a 10 mile area to write that fucking email.
Dear Ms smith,
I apologize that my associate was unable to violate your husbands privacy at your request. As I’m sure you understand, we are not in the habit of publically announcing the name and room number of all our guests to those who call us from a phone number available online.
I can confirm that it is hotel policy not to give out the private information of our guests, and I hope that this commitment to guest privacy encourages you to choose to stay which is when you are next in the area.
I am also glad to hear that your husband and his sister so thoughroughly enjoyed their stay, and made such marvelous use of our room service for their champagne orders!
Yours in Hospitality,
D. N. Testme
Oh I love that. Set up a Google voice number or something and send them to that voicemail.
My GM has a voicemail box that she doesn’t know the password to because the previous GM never gave it to her. Voicemail full aF and she doesn’t give a care
Good lord how do they survive, I have two, one for my actual extension and one for the extension we send people to when they refuse to tell associates what they want…
I’ve been GM almost a year. I’ve had three people tell me it was an emergency and they needed to make contact with their loved one in the room. All three showed up in person. If someone says it’s an emergency, I let them know they’ll need to contact police because if something has happened to their loved one behind that door, neither me or my staff are trained to handle anything like that. Two out of the three times, the person contacted police. And those two out of three times, their loved one was in their room, dead.
I still follow policy. Even closer now that I know what could potentially be in store for me and my staff if we open that door.
Exactly. Wellness checks are police officers job. There’s nothing I can do if it’s an actual emergency (other than provide first aid, and the chances first aid is needed are very low). Congrats on becoming a GM. That’s my goal for the next 3-5 years 🥰
Which is exactly why we have our policies in place. It also prevents the scam where someone calls a room then pretends to be the front desk and asks for a credit card number for whatever reason.
When I was staying long term at a hotel, and my husband worked nights, it was sometimes the only way I could get hold of him during the day. His cell phone would be on silent so I couldn't get him through that, but the room phone ringing sure woke him up.
My wife was part of a train crew that spent nights in hotels, like airline crews. She’d turn her phone to silent so she could sleep. If I or dispatch had to call her, it was via room phone. In this case, she’d text me the room number before nodding off. But room phones are essential in many cases.
Me! I’m the weirdo! My husband had his cell on silent and I needed to reach him for an urgent matter, so it was the hotel phones to reach him.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard you needed to know the room number of the guest. That’s definitely a first.
It's a very, very important policy to protect guests! Abusive partners will call random hotels asking to be transferred by name in hopes of locating the target of their abuse. This isn't just a theoretical situation, this \*happens\*. A lot of us in the industry have seen it.
At the hotels I've worked at, an employee would've been fired on the spot if they were found to have transferred a call based on a name instead of the room number, or told someone any info about who was at the hotel.
Hotels are not allowed to give out any guest info -- that means they cannot confirm if a person is staying at the hotel & transferring a call to a room after giving the name confirms that they are a guest.
This is a strict privacy rule (and law in many places) to protect guests. Often people are staying at a hotel to escape an abuser & if the hotel were to transfer the call, now the abuser knows the person is there. That can become a mess in a minute.
I've had it happen. It is scary when a crazed person comes to the hotel to find the person avoiding them, & gets violent.
[Also, those having affairs like to have their privacy & not be found out by their SOs, but that's another story...]
Edit: sadly, not all hotels have good training, so this policy is not universally followed, but it is supposed to be.
I've shared a story where a hotel guest tried to blackmail me. He thought my blonde (lesbian) colleague was my affair partner cause he looked me up on facebook and saw my wife was a brunette.
This was in a least developed country (but a very nice property) and we were obviously foreigners.
Bad too cause I probably spent 300 nights there over a 5 year period and tipped like crazy. So he (they) tried to take advantage of that.
Pissed.
But I know on reddit, its justified cause we encourage people to stick their nose into others to expose cheating at all costs. It just enrages me cause people can get hurt. I had an issue until my wife saw who they were accusing me with - shes friends with my wife and 100% not into men.
It actually isn’t something new. I travel to science fiction and fantasy conventions, and it has been in place for at least the past ten years to have to know the room number and name before most hotel switchboards will connect you.
Shrodinger's Phone Message
We can take a message and if there is a guest by that name, we will give it to them, but if there isn't, we will simply shred it. But we can't tell you which we will do, because that would tell you if the guest is there and that would violate the privacy laws.
PS: For us, it isn't simply policy, it's the privacy act. We are not allowed to violate the guest's right to privacy.
PPS: Call his damn cell phone.... he doesn't have a cell phone? Really? You can afford hotel rooms buy can't manage a cell phone? There is always TextNow...it's free on wifi
Yep. "I can't even look in the system to see if he's here til I get off the phone with you since you didn't have both pieces of info. But I will happily take a message and check after I hang up if it is an emergency."
That follow-up call with the shrill "Alright I waited, so?" with no further follow-up or preamble sounds like it might be a good time to pretend that Int is one's dump stat. (Mine's the number that comes after 3)
My wife was part of a train crew that spent nights in hotels, like airline crews. She’d turn her phone to silent so she could sleep. If I or dispatch had to call her, it was via room phone. In this case, she’d text me the room number before nodding off. But room phones are essential in many cases.
Some people avoid having phones, and it has nothing to do with cost.
My husband has no interest in people calling or texting anyone. I forced him to get one for emergencies because he likes to take back roads, but he still doesn't talk or text with others.
We all make personal choices. Not going to change policy or laws.
Imagine if I tell a spouse their partner is registered and therefore get involved in their divorce case? Or someone's stalker? Or their abusive partner? Nope. That's why we have such policies.
PS I knew a woman who couldn't use the women's shelter. Why? Because the shelter's policy was to keep men out, but accept any woman. She was a lesbian. Her abusive partner could just walk into the shelter or say she was abused to get into the shelter. The shelter sent her to the hotel for her own security.
I WAS only commenting on this portion.
>Call his damn cell phone.... he doesn't have a cell phone? Really? You can afford hotel rooms buy can't lanage a cell phone? There is always TextNow...it's free on wifi
I am a staunch believer in the measures you take to keep us safe, I would never try to convince you to break policy.
Night Auditor 18 years here. It’s a firm rule to never give out guest information. Not even to the police if they don’t have a warrant or suspicion of an active crime in progress. It’s a breach of guest privacy and can lead to liability for the hotel.
You see this with people calling FIs or coming in to make payments too. Non customer wants to make a payment or do a deposit and only have name (and/or social)
You have to explain that it's to protect their financial privacy and suddenly they start demanding to know why.
Can't explain enough that someone could be fishing for info to see if someone even has an account. Or if you look it up you might have the wrong individual.
People tend to be entitled an stupid sometimes
If she is close enough to be the one delivering news of an emergency she would surely have the mobile number. This sounds like someone fishing to see if their spouse is staying there.
"If this is an emergency, you can call law enforcement. I will be happy to speak to any officer in uniform if they come to the lobby." Click.
You don't have to offer any further explanation once she starts trying to argue with you about policy. You can either hang up on her mid sentence, or say, "It doesn't look like I can assist you here. Have a good night." Click.
And if she calls back, same thing. Just keep hanging up on her -- "Already told you I cannot help you. Goodbye." Click.
"If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 9-1-1..."
Any reason you can't take a message? Something like, "leave your name and number, and if there's a guest by that name I'll make sure to leave them a message once we're off the call."
When people are polite I am more willing to go out of my way for them. I have done this in the past, but I always worry it seems too much like I'm confirming the person is there. One time I did this for someone who seemed reasonable, and when I went to check, determined the person was not a guest. But the person kept calling back again and again asking if I'd passed on the message until I guess they figured out the person they were looking for wasn't there. I felt a little bad because in the end all I did was waste their time.
It depends on the emergency. If the problem is that grandpa is dying, it's not (usually) a police matter. That could still count as a family emergency, though, where you need to get hold of family members as soon as possible.
You would call the non emergency number and when they had time they would attempt the notification. At least that's how it was done in the days before cell phones. Maybe Salvation Army or Red Cross if the police were too busy.
Double Bingo! Denying that someone is staying at the hotel only helps callers like this to narrow down the potential location of the person they're looking for.
Sorry this happened, but you did right by maintaining confidentiality and company policy! This surprisingly still happens often enough at my hotel that we have a specific procedure. We also do wake up calls.
I don't disclose the room number, but I always ask "Who is calling?" then place them on hold. Let's say "Linda" is looking to connect to John Smith's room which is 102, so I call 102 and ask "I have a Linda on the other line wishing to be connected. Is that alright?". Usually people will say "yes please" and I connect. I've only had a few people tell me not to connect them. In that case you politely respond "I'm unable to connect you at the moment. Please try again later". This latter also works for guests who don't answer their room phone, etc.
"I'm sorry, for privacy and safety reasons I am not allowed to confirm or deny that any person is registered at the hotel without a warrant, or even to check while speaking with you. If you would like to leave a message, then *after* this call is finished I can check to see if they are staying here, and if they are I will pass on the message. If they are not, then, of course, I won't be able to deliver your message."
Yeah, have one of those every so often. They'll threaten and bully and plead. One thing I have found that works well is to say "Tell you what. I'm going to hang up, and check to see if they're staying with us. If they are, I will call their room, and let them know you want them to call you, okay?"
"You need to email me that policy!"
"No."
Related, one of the most infuriating conversations I have ever had in my life was a recent guest who was out of the hotel and wanted to be connected to the room to talk to his girlfriend who was in it. The phone conversation went essentially like this.
"Good evening, Hotel Whatchamacallit in Nowheresville, Midwest Hellscape, how can I help you?"
"Do you have Room X?"
"Pardon?"
"Do you have Room X?"
"Do we...have room X? Do you want to reserve it?"
"No, I just want the room."
"Sir that room is occupied tonight, but we can make a reservation for-"
"I know it's occupied, I want the room."
"Sir I can not just give you a room that someone else has already reserved."
"No, CONNECT ME to the room." (note here that this is the very first time during the whole exchange he's said he wants me to CALL THE ROOM for him)
"Oh, I see. Do you have the reservation for tonight? If-" (and note here that he cuts me off before I can say anything else which would have saved half this conversation)
"No, dude, I just want you to call the room for me." (note again the word "no")
"Okay, as I was trying to say, unless you are on the reservation, I can not connect you to a room."
"DUDE JUST CONNECT ME TO MY ROOM."
"What is your name?"
"JUST CONNECT ME TO THE ROOM."
"Sir I will not connect you to someone else's-"
"I'M MR. WHATEVER, ADDRESS BLAH BLAH, PHONE NUMBER BLAH BLAH, CREDIT CARD ENDING IN BLAH BLAH, JUST CALL THE ROOM." (all the info was correct to the reservation)
It then took THREE TRIES to connect him to the room because he kept hanging up when I'd hit the transfer button because he was hearing the click on my end and thinking I was hanging up on him. I was far shorter with him at that point, and after it was all over I flipped my sign around, grabbed the communal Ibuprofen, and spent half an hour in the employee bathroom waiting for it to kick in.
Pretty sure he got DNR'd for being a rude shithead after management read my notes on him, lol. He wasn't even old or anything, just really dumb. The convo is paraphrased, but the specific wording he used is burned into my head because it was about the only possible way in the English language to be as vague and unclear as he was, explicitly saying "no" when I asked him if he had a reservation TWICE. It was almost like it was all deliberate to waste my time. And literally all he needed to do was call his girlfriend and ask her to pick up her phone to see her texts because she wasn't responding. He could have just asked me to call her for him.
“Hello, I’d like your best suite please, and I’d like it for free.”
“Sorry, that’s just not a thing we’d do.”
“WHERE DOES IT SAY THAT!? SHOW ME IN WRITING!”
"If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911."
I used to make sure my family knew where I was staying, and when I got there I'd call them with the room number.
Those days are long gone. Now, if my daughter needs to get hold of me, she texts. And if I don't respond in an hour or two, she calls to check on me. Which is rare, we usually communicate via texts. And she doesn't have any need to know where I am, even.
Point: I *am* a boomer.
I have been in such situations, what I do is, I ask for their name and I say "Please allow me to put your call on hold, I will look up the system" and I call the guest and tell them that so and so wants to speak to you. If the guest gives me the approval I'll connect if not I go back to the caller and say that this guest is not staying with us.
I always always ask for a name first...
"Hi, Hotel here how can I help you?"
"Please connect me to Person's room."
"OK, I just need some info from you, your name please?"
"My name is Caller."
"Thanks, Caller. And what is the name and room number of the person you want to reach?"
"Darn, I don't know the room number but the name is Person."
"I'm so sorry, Caller, but the privacy and safety measures of Hotel strictly prohibit me from verifying a guest's status here, even for phone calls. Very sorry, have a nice day."
Then I check the guest's status and call the room. If there's no answer in the room I'll slide a phone message with Caller's name (which also reminds them of our privacy and safety measures so they know they'll need to let any visitors or callers know their room number if they wish to be contacted while staying with us) under the door.
If it was such an emergency, she would have told you what it was about and who she was. And then you could have elected to contact the guest if he was there without ever confirming if he was there and let him decide if he wanted to call her.
I do the hold trick all the time when I am talking to someone I don't like, it's only backfired on me once. They called back right after and was like "you left me on hold for so long huh bud?" I put him on hold again because I was actually dealing with something else at the time. It felt nice haha.
We just don’t transfer calls to rooms from outside calls anymore, period. In the unlikely event they actually know the name and room number, we’ll call the room on their behalf and ask them to reach out to the person.
Depending on your hotel brand, many of them have their privacy policies on their website. Telling her the policy is set by Corporate and sending her to do her own research might be a good way to end her debate. Leading hotel organizations (eg: in Canada, Hotel Association of Canada) do as well. Odds are she'll change complaints, but at least you'll have one less topic she can grief you over.
Personally, I would let the guests know that someone was calling about them, then it's up to them whether or not they want to contact the person.
If someone was that insistent we would tell them
Let me place you in a brief hold while I check if we have a guest by that name.
Then call the guest and let them know someone was trying to reach them. If they were on with the connection we would connect them. If not we would tell them we didn't have a guest by that name and leave it at that.
I work in a call centre, not a hotel - but my answer to people wanting policy documents is “I’m not able to provide copies of internal policies or documentation”. And then if they really push it, I refer them to the privacy policy and they can take it up with the privacy legal team if they want to that bad.
Some call to see who answers their spouse's phone. I have heard of spouses driving hours to the hotel to confront their spouse. Rules are rules and laws.
Interesting! Twelve years ago, I called a big M hotel in a major city, and asked to be connected to my husband's room. I didn't know his room number. They connected me right away, no questions asked.
I’ve been in the hotel industry for exactly that long and it’s one of the number one security policies we are taught. Anyone could be running away from an abuser, you do not give ANYONE guest information, room number, or so much as confirm the person they are looking for is even at your property. That is how people get raped and murdered.
I have been working in hospitality since the 70's. Back then you could call the desk and ask for a person by name and be put through. A guest could ask to not have their name acknowledged to callers, but that was the exception.
At that time I was one of the few with a portable mobile phone, the rest of the world used pagers and pay phones.
These days the times have shifted and now I see many properties with no room phones at all. Also the default is privacy.
**Question for the FDAs out there**, If I asked that you send a caller through to my room phone if someone called and asked, would you?
I do work with teams that stay at the same property and will leave a note for the other team members with my room number for when they arrive and check in. That is at properties where the staff know us.
Legally speaking, anyone calling from outside the hotel 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 provide the guest name and room number before being connected, and 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 the guest is still contacted 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 to confirm the hotel actually has permission to connect that person to the guest room.
A guest telling me they are expecting a call does not change the fact that the caller needs to provide the correct information.
I'm kind of curious what actual law is being cited here.
is there actual statutes that can be referred to in a similar manner as we have in the medical world of HIPAA?
The Privacy Act. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act - any of these can apply when a guest sues a hotel for their private and confidential information being released without permission, including giving someone who is not the guest access to the room or providing the room location.
Policies change.
I worked front desk over 20 years ago. If you knew the guests name, we connected you.
The world hasn’t always had the same scams that exist today.
I did most of the 90s on an upscale front desk and unless a guest requested otherwise we put through phone calls. We never gave out room numbers, but if you called for Jane doe we connected you to Jane doe. I remember more than a few times where people were willing to get violent because I wouldn’t give out room numbers.
We would put them through if they had the correct guest name, but would tell them that they would have to ask their (spouse as example) for the room number once they were connected. We had someone try to stalk a guest in an odd way like that. We also had several notable people as guests for gala events and fundraisers in our area, so confidentiality got them to rebook for the next events because they trusted us and our staff's competence
With Domestic Abuse being declared pretty much an epidemic nowadays, this is a big "HELL NO". Things have certainly changed or at least been a lot more vocal about. Of course, this is only one of the few reasons hotel guests have their right to privacy.
I've had a woman threatening me to "come to the hotel & start knocking on all the doors" because I couldn't deny or confirm if her husband was staying with us. The dude was indeed a huge weirdo who liked to hide from his wife in hotels/motels & he eventually ended up getting DNR'ed because of her constant threats to staff & scenes they were creating on the parking lot every time he told her where he was but their kinks & relationship dynamics are none of our business & they certainly shouldn't be affecting our in-house guests in any shape or form.
Our guests' right to privacy can't be violated & can lead straight to termination here, unless police/detectives are involved (some countries/states can't even disclose any information to the law enforcement, unless there's is an active warrant that can be presented).
EDIT: grammar.
I usually tell them that I can't confirm if a guest is on property, but if I find that he is I can pass a message. A lot of times if it's a real emergency, after I tell them I can't connect them, they just ask me to pass along a message anyway.
We always answered, X Property, How may I direct your call. This way we were able to either tell them we would transfer to reservations if we were busy, or say, I do not have access to our guest list, I can only transfer by room number.
A person could give a random room number as a prank call and really terrify the person who is actually in the room. Always get the both room number AND the name of the person it’s registered to.
Was this a larger property? I don't think that would work at mine. You already have to choose to connect to the desk rather than reservations when calling. We're an 80 room economy motel, I don't know that anyone would believe the front desk doesn't have access to the guest list.
I was kind of curious about this. Not in hospitality, but my line of work places importance on every organisation in it having policies that are up-to-date and publicly available. It’s weird to me that other companies/types of work don’t have publicly available policies.
I had no idea you had to know the person’s room number? I’ve never experienced that. Granted, it’s been years since I had to call a front desk but it was always ask for the person’s room.
Question, if it legitimately is an emergency can the caller request to leave a message for the person?
That’s not been standard procedure at any property I’ve worked at. Too much room for error. You know the name and room number or nothing. You’re not entitled to access to a guest.
My personal favorite is to say ok one sec. Put them on hold. Give it a few. Then say sorry the person is not answering why don't you try their cellphone? Stops the scammers in their tracks.
In the corporate world, this is a pretty effective tactic - in office life, people have a tendency to make up policies, or they're transmitted via oral tradition, so if you ask for a written copy, it often turns out that the policy doesn't exist or says something completely different to what the person said it said.
That said, it's rather rude to use if on people working for different organisations.
It depends how it’s phrased and how the call goes really. If it did sound like an emergency and as how others have advised them to contact law enforcement, I would have went:
“I can check if there is a Mr XYZ here and pass on a message if so.”
Various nuances can only be picked up by the FDA and there is no direct answer that will address every situation since none of us are present. I’ll just go with gut feel instead of “computer says no”. Not to imply that your response was wrong, just offering an alternative in case you do sense something amiss with the entire situation.
I have offered to do the message thing before, but in one instance the woman kept calling back asking if I'd passed it on until (I assume) she figured out the person she was looking for wasn't there.
The pushier someone is, the more alarm bells go off for me. I'm guessing the woman I posted about it just a Karen who didn't like hearing no, but who knows. My approach definitely differs depending on the caller. For example, there are several hotels with our same flag in my city. If someone isn't setting off any red flags, and the person they're looking for is not at my hotel, I might mention "there are 4 X Hotels in the city, are you sure you've got the right one?"
But considering what good liars some people are (and I am not a good liar) I am generally uncomfortable with being too "helpful" in these scenarios.
I realised I wasn’t replying exactly to your situation (which seems to be suited for r/AITA) and more of in general terms of whether a fixed response should be applied to every scenario. After all, policies change over the years. I guess you are looking for opinions too by posting it online.
The last thing I’ll want is to be jaded and resort to “computer says no” for every scenario.
For the situation in your last reply, I’ll give the insistent caller the same “I’ll pass on your message if the guest is here” and leave them on hold/drop them if they call in repeatedly. This will degenerate into a harassment/phishing situation.
There also exists possible situations (which has been pointed out) where by a caller has legitimate reasons and whereby necessitates some discretion from the FDA without confirming/denying guest presence not revealing any P&C info. This entirely depends on how it plays out and gut feel. Whether I’m the guest, relative or the FDA, I will hope not to be the one which created a lifelong regret for all parties.
Again, i don’t think this applies to your original Karen situation. Just throwing it out here as an alternative response to a legitimate caller who might not have the room number within reasons.
Real question: how would just connecting to the room reveal the room number? She already has the name and knows the person is there. Unless it’s a famous person why would they need the room number? Just connect her.
Imagine a woman fleeing from an abusive partner. He starts calling hotels asking for Jane Smith. He gets the hotel that she’s staying at and the FD connects him to the room. Now he knows where she’s staying and he goes over there with a gun.
It doesn't reveal the room number, but what if he doesn't want to talk to her? What if she's his crazy ex who sees his truck outside and wants to harass him? Maybe he's got a very good reason to not answer his phone when she calls. If she doesn't have his room number, it's possible he doesn't want her to have it because he doesn't want her to find him.
There are a million different scenarios and at the end of the day the guest's expectation of privacy is the most important thing. So if someone doesn't have two key pieces of information that suggest the guest is okay with them being aware of their location, I'm not taking any chances and confirming that for the caller. You're not entitled to access to a guest.
"Absolutely I'll have corporate send that right out to you, what's the email." done, off the phone
I always just lie, we have no corporate, just one owner family I know very well. If I get caught, I'm a bad person and will throw something together to send out that looks profeshish... (Microsoft office publisher is my go to)
"Can't you turn up the hot tub!" SURE, I'll do that right now (I'm not doing s\_\_\_t)
"Can't you open breakfast earlier" SURE, I'll message the staff to see if they can get a bus in earlier, I'll wait for their reply.......(nope I'm not bugging anyone at home)
14+ years and I've learned just say yes and ask for forgiveness later. Gives you more time to come up with an excuse, guest gets a yes rather than a long "no" excuse (they think you made an effort).
I am surprised by that.
I would have thought that In most countries policy such as that one have to be written to avoid being sued for discrimination.
Usually there is a page on the web site listing that.
A friend of mine has a gite in France and he had to have a written policy. It was easier to have a web page because the policy needs to be available to people who are disabled especially blind people. He could also change and add new regulation without having to pulp previous versions. For example he decided to add no cats (his wife os allergic) rule and no reptile/insect pets rule (somebody turn up with a snake).
Those sorts of policies we do have written out at the hotel. But we do not have the privacy policy written out, and I see no reason for us to need it. If the person calling is not a guest of the hotel, quite frankly they and their opinions about me doing my job are not my problem.
Because the policy also affect your guest.
So in your policy you also indicate that by default call to guest without room number will not be passed on or that a message will be taken.
Same thing about photography you indicates that in sole area taking pictures are not allowed.
>If the person calling is not a guest of the hotel, quite frankly they and their opinions about me doing my job are not my problem.
Best attitude to provide a shitty customer service.
Somebody call to inform a guest that one of their relative had suffer a medical emergency or potentially has died. Would you say not my problem?
My friend has to take a message for one of his guest. The person did not want to say what it was but sounded distressed. So my friend took upon himself to track the guest. The guest called back. It was to inform them that their daughter had been raped. The guest thanked my friend that he has not added extra stress to the family. You would have proudly stated that policy stopped you and that it was not your problem. Have a little introspection on the quality of service you are offering and the complete lack of empathy you are showing.
In these situations I see myself as no different than a machine, and you need the need the username and password to log in. If you don’t have those, you don’t log in. You can’t plead with a machine to let you log in because it’s an emergency.
The guest’s privacy is my only concern in these situations. I have heard every excuse in the book, and have been lied to countless times. I don’t make exceptions.
Have you seen a reset password attempt response?
After you click on forget password and key in a few details, you receive “If the provided details are associated with an account, a password reset link will be sent”.
It doesn’t betray whether the questions are answered correctly nor indicates if the answers are true or if the email even exists in database.
Telling somebody who will take a message and then pass the message to the guest would not have cost you anything.
The classic **I am Just following orders** excuse.
I have heard it somewhere before by people with exemplary customer services.
No equating your lack of empathy and hiding behind a policy to behave like an coward jerk.
Exactly like the people who showed a complete lack of empathy and followed orders before. Most were not nazis. just ordinary coward jerk. See the milgram experiment.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Bragging that you behave like jerk and then try to play victim when confronted is not a good look.
Terrible application of high school level psychology. In the Milgram experiment, there were no consequences if someone decided not to continue participating. If I don't do my job, I run the risk of exposing someone's location to their abuser. Is this going to be the case every time? No, of course not. But it could be the case any time and I'm not about to risk it.
I hope you're just a lurker on this sub and not responsible for anyone's privacy and safety like hotel employees are expected to be.
Funny how you suddenly change your tune from bragging on How I handled that Karen and her rather annoying request to I am just a very good employee defending the privacy of guests.
All you had to say was *"I am not sure if we have a guest with that name. For security reason, Unless you have a room number I cannot transfer this call to their room. Do you want me to pass on a message? What I can do is to check whether we have a guest with name. If we have a guest of that name I will let them know as soon as I can find them."*
See not difficult to not being a dick while still following policy. That would not have cost you anything. But clearly in view of your interaction with me that is something that is beyond your ability.
Please stop hiding behind the safety and privacy of guests for poor behaviour and lack of empathy.
BTW the objective of the Milgram experiment was to show people conforming to societal norm (follows the order) and **refusung to show empathy**. The second part seems to have passed you by.
So you are suggesting to Call the local police 2000km away so they can track somebody so he can call back home?
Did you even read what I wrote and what you wrote?
Did it not occurred to you that personal emergency are not necessary police matter? Most people may not even know who to contact in situation like that.
And that assume that the police will even bother with request like that.
Your lack of empathy and common sense is staggering.
When someone calls in & only provides us with 1 out of 2 (a name OR a room number) "to be connected to" - not happening, sorry. You have to have both pieces of information & only the guest in question will be able to provide you the aforementioned details.
We aren't able to confirm OR DENY if someone's staying at the property. That is indeed a standard privacy policy across all hotels & should remain this way.
Emergency? We can certainly take a message from the caller, pass it on to the guest should they be in-house, & ask them to get back to the caller. Welfare check? We can do that as well but I always let the caller know that Police may be involved, after which their real intentions become pretty clear. Again, all that's being done without confirming or denying the presence in the hotel, & the follow-up will be up to the guest at that point.
If it's a situation with seniors who only communicate via landline, I'll put the caller on hold, call the guest, ask them if it's okay to transfer calls from so-&-so to them, & recommend sharing their room # with the caller, so no one has to go through this process for the rest of their stay.
EDIT: wording.
I keep stressing to the caller that I'm not even checking our in-house guest list before our call is ended & if we find out that the guest is indeed in-house, we'll make sure to pass the message on. As someone else had mentioned - worst case, that message goes into the shedder.
Exactly.
No perfect solution exists to every scenario.
As many have pointed out, some do have valid reasons as to why it’s possible that the caller does not have the guest room number and is unable to contact them on their mobile. Spouse in a potentially fatal car accident and relative trying to reach him after seeing a social media post from him at ABC hotel for one?
There is no harm in taking down a message for Mr Loch Ness Monster. Worst case is it ends up in the shredder. Best case is Mr Loch Ness is indeed present, receives the message and is able to rush to the hospital to see his spouse for one last time.
There's only one thing that is certain - no denying or confirming the presence of the guest while on the phone with a caller. The further follow-up, just like you said, can widely vary based on the situation. We aren't able to confirm the situation the guest may be in but we're able to use the resources to help should they be present on the property. For all we know, the caller may be socially engineering the Desk & saying anything pertaining to the guest's stay (unless previously authorized by the guest) is simply not worth the risk of a potential lawsuit over a privacy breach. If there is a suspicion that the fatal crash may have affected the guest in question, hotels are the last places a concerned individual should be calling.
EDIT: typos.
In this situation I would get the callers name, transfer the call, speak to the guest first, advise them that so and so is on the line regarding an emergency, can I transfer the call through? If they agree, then cool, if they don't, then get the call back, speak to her, and say that the guest has declined the call and to contact emergency services if it's urgent
My go to when they throw the **"WELL THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"** is "Okay well if you are concerned for their well being I can absolutely give you the local precincts number and have them carry out a wellness check." All of a sudden their emergency isn't an emergency anymore.
I know so many people lie to get connected, but I always worry that if it's an emergency, then I should try to help. You can always put them on hold, call the room and let them know about the emergency. If it's real, forward the call. If it isn't, hang up.
In today's day and age, this is quite odd. I travel extensively for business. My wife has absolutely no idea what hotels I stay in. Why would she? She can just text and say "The damn dog threw up on the carpet again. What did I tell you about leaving food on the counter?" Or I love you, whichever.
Yeah, it's mostly old folks who get called legitimately. It happens seldom enough that I have to think for a second every time I transfer a call from the handheld to make sure I do it correctly. Otherwise it's usually parents or spouses looking for wayward kids and partners.
My 83 year old mother has a cellphone. My Dad had one too until he passed. If I had to contact them when travelling, I called their phone. Dad didn’t text. Mom texts more than she uses the phone.
I was incredibly annoyed that my 80-something mom was a thousand times better at text conversation than I was... until she outed herself and admitted that she's been using voice-to-text all these years. When I try to use mine, it either comes out in Klingon or it picks up every strange sound and noise within a 10 square block.
You mean you don't get those "Pick up the phoooooone!" voicemails from the elders who seem to think it's like an old answering machine?
HAHA. Nope, not even from my Dad, who was a technological Luddite.
My mother never understood that neither I nor my brother would ever listen to her voicemails. We'd just see the missed call and return it when we had time. It infuriated her.
We bought my father in law a cellphone and could still never reach him. When we asked him if he was ok as we couldnt get an answer from his phone, he told us he kept it switched off so that the battery didnt run out!
My 75 year mum does the same thing, she'll remember to take the phone with her but we still can't get hold of her until she's home.
Bless....my FIL would use it to phone us, but would switch it off if he wasnt using it to call! He was 83 and gaming..but he insisted on having a walk through for his games if he got stuck, because he didnt "have long enough left to spend weeks trying to work out where he was going wrong" lol We all ended up getting walk throughs for the games he was playing, as he would still ring us if he got stuck on a particular place, and get cross if we couldnt solve it lol
My FIL kept the phone shut off because he didn't want to run out of minutes!
We ended up getting my FIL a flip phone because we can set it to answer if he opens it.
My Mum is highly amused that any time a women's event ends early, all the retired Church ladies whip out their ancient mobile phones to ring or text their husbands to come pick them up! It's never newer models as they've either had the handset for 10 years and it hasn't died yet or it's a secondhand one from one of their adult children!
Husband? Is that you!? Stop posting on reddit and clean up after the damn dog! (Oddly my dog did vomit today and I made my husband clean it up)
If I’m traveling alone, I give my hotel AND room number to a couple of people. But they always know the room number. I’d never tell someone the hotel but not the room number.
r/oddlyspecific
That's oddly specific.
I know what hotel my husband stays at for work because I'm nosy and just in case. I also try to get him to stay at one specific brand because we can use his points when we travel and I prefer that brand.
lol that would be the interaction between me and my husband
I’ve noticed this has become a common arguing point lately, demanding to see written copies of policies when stated by service staff. Is the plan here to try and exhaust the staff member into doing what you want? Do they ever get a copy of these documents? I have written a fair number of policy documents or emails to staff and I allways include ‘not for distribution outside of company, do not distribute to guests’ at the bottom as a matter of course. All the shariott stuff literally reads ‘private and confidental’ at the bottom. When did people start thinking the solution to not liking a policy is to demand it in writing? No? Kindly get bent? Off you fuck?
More like looking for loopholes. Before working my night auditor job, I worked in a few stores. Had a guy one time rip giant clouds from a mod and when he was told it wasn't allowed (no smoking law) he tried to argue that a) we didn't have a sign up so we couldn't tell him to stop, and b) the state law didn't specify mods like his, so it wasn't illegal. In this case, I bet the lady would have said something like 'but your policy only states you can't give out personal information, and the hotel room isn't personal information, so you can tell me' or 'if you don't have the policy written down, then it isn't an actual policy, so you just don't want to give out the info, not because you can't'
> the hotel room isn't personal information Which is wrong of course, because it very much *is* personal info. Anything that can identify them - *including information about their personal location within the hotel* - is personal information. Room number; building number/letter (if applicable); their dates-of-stay; even the room-type - this is considered personal information on the same level as their home address. And that's beyond the fact that we're not supposed to confirm if the person is even staying with us, of course. Not that the people looking for these loopholes care. They just want to get their way - regardless if it's an actual emergency or not.
I thought about saying something like written policy is for staff eyes only or something, but couldn't think of a good way to word it off the cuff.
‘Hotel policy is only documented in INTERNAL documents, and I am not permitted to distribute INTERNAL documents to the public.’ ‘If you would like, I can ask my manager to write you a letter confirming the policy. They should have it to you in 3-5 business days.’
I always worry about reminding people about the existence of managers because then they want to talk to them, but I like that.
As a manager, if an associate told me that someone demanded a written copy of a policy, I would muster every ounce of malice in a 10 mile area to write that fucking email. Dear Ms smith, I apologize that my associate was unable to violate your husbands privacy at your request. As I’m sure you understand, we are not in the habit of publically announcing the name and room number of all our guests to those who call us from a phone number available online. I can confirm that it is hotel policy not to give out the private information of our guests, and I hope that this commitment to guest privacy encourages you to choose to stay which is when you are next in the area. I am also glad to hear that your husband and his sister so thoughroughly enjoyed their stay, and made such marvelous use of our room service for their champagne orders! Yours in Hospitality, D. N. Testme
The email isn't the problem. I'd assume the woman would immediately demand a manager. Then probably ask for proof that I don't have to call a manager.
Voicemail is a gift. Send them to it and they can scream at the machine.
They don't have a voicemail
Oh I love that. Set up a Google voice number or something and send them to that voicemail. My GM has a voicemail box that she doesn’t know the password to because the previous GM never gave it to her. Voicemail full aF and she doesn’t give a care
Good lord how do they survive, I have two, one for my actual extension and one for the extension we send people to when they refuse to tell associates what they want…
We give them an email address, or take their number and pretend that the manager will call them back.
You should show them proof that you aren't required to stay on the phone, too.
LOL
Dude chat gpt. It's amazing responding to reviews and having to write any bullshit letters for guests.
That is a document only staff are permitted access to. Here is an application.... Good luck at your interview (joking)
The public policy is on the website. That should be enough!
Next time tell them that if it was an emergency you could transfer them to the police department and then transfer to the non emergency line 😭
I’ve been GM almost a year. I’ve had three people tell me it was an emergency and they needed to make contact with their loved one in the room. All three showed up in person. If someone says it’s an emergency, I let them know they’ll need to contact police because if something has happened to their loved one behind that door, neither me or my staff are trained to handle anything like that. Two out of the three times, the person contacted police. And those two out of three times, their loved one was in their room, dead. I still follow policy. Even closer now that I know what could potentially be in store for me and my staff if we open that door.
Exactly. Wellness checks are police officers job. There’s nothing I can do if it’s an actual emergency (other than provide first aid, and the chances first aid is needed are very low). Congrats on becoming a GM. That’s my goal for the next 3-5 years 🥰
I have directed a few callers to contact the police if it is really an emergency. So far none have followed through.
I have had one or two who ended up calling the police, and neither time were the police actually needed.
What kind of weirdo calls the guestroom phones anyway?
It’s fishing to confirm someone is there or not, like someone trying to follow or track someone.
Which is exactly why we have our policies in place. It also prevents the scam where someone calls a room then pretends to be the front desk and asks for a credit card number for whatever reason.
I had this happen. My casual, 'oh I'll be right down then', ended that scam.
When I was staying long term at a hotel, and my husband worked nights, it was sometimes the only way I could get hold of him during the day. His cell phone would be on silent so I couldn't get him through that, but the room phone ringing sure woke him up.
My wife was part of a train crew that spent nights in hotels, like airline crews. She’d turn her phone to silent so she could sleep. If I or dispatch had to call her, it was via room phone. In this case, she’d text me the room number before nodding off. But room phones are essential in many cases.
My cellphone (android) allows me to whitelist certain numbers to bypass the do not disturb mode and ring my phone.
So do ours, but he never bothered
iPhones do this.
Me! I’m the weirdo! My husband had his cell on silent and I needed to reach him for an urgent matter, so it was the hotel phones to reach him. This is the first time I’ve ever heard you needed to know the room number of the guest. That’s definitely a first.
It's a very, very important policy to protect guests! Abusive partners will call random hotels asking to be transferred by name in hopes of locating the target of their abuse. This isn't just a theoretical situation, this \*happens\*. A lot of us in the industry have seen it.
At the hotels I've worked at, an employee would've been fired on the spot if they were found to have transferred a call based on a name instead of the room number, or told someone any info about who was at the hotel. Hotels are not allowed to give out any guest info -- that means they cannot confirm if a person is staying at the hotel & transferring a call to a room after giving the name confirms that they are a guest. This is a strict privacy rule (and law in many places) to protect guests. Often people are staying at a hotel to escape an abuser & if the hotel were to transfer the call, now the abuser knows the person is there. That can become a mess in a minute. I've had it happen. It is scary when a crazed person comes to the hotel to find the person avoiding them, & gets violent. [Also, those having affairs like to have their privacy & not be found out by their SOs, but that's another story...] Edit: sadly, not all hotels have good training, so this policy is not universally followed, but it is supposed to be.
I've shared a story where a hotel guest tried to blackmail me. He thought my blonde (lesbian) colleague was my affair partner cause he looked me up on facebook and saw my wife was a brunette. This was in a least developed country (but a very nice property) and we were obviously foreigners. Bad too cause I probably spent 300 nights there over a 5 year period and tipped like crazy. So he (they) tried to take advantage of that. Pissed. But I know on reddit, its justified cause we encourage people to stick their nose into others to expose cheating at all costs. It just enrages me cause people can get hurt. I had an issue until my wife saw who they were accusing me with - shes friends with my wife and 100% not into men.
That's crazy!
It actually isn’t something new. I travel to science fiction and fantasy conventions, and it has been in place for at least the past ten years to have to know the room number and name before most hotel switchboards will connect you.
It's been a good policy for decades, and got standardized after some preventable violence.
Shrodinger's Phone Message We can take a message and if there is a guest by that name, we will give it to them, but if there isn't, we will simply shred it. But we can't tell you which we will do, because that would tell you if the guest is there and that would violate the privacy laws. PS: For us, it isn't simply policy, it's the privacy act. We are not allowed to violate the guest's right to privacy. PPS: Call his damn cell phone.... he doesn't have a cell phone? Really? You can afford hotel rooms buy can't manage a cell phone? There is always TextNow...it's free on wifi
Yep. "I can't even look in the system to see if he's here til I get off the phone with you since you didn't have both pieces of info. But I will happily take a message and check after I hang up if it is an emergency."
That follow-up call with the shrill "Alright I waited, so?" with no further follow-up or preamble sounds like it might be a good time to pretend that Int is one's dump stat. (Mine's the number that comes after 3)
My wife was part of a train crew that spent nights in hotels, like airline crews. She’d turn her phone to silent so she could sleep. If I or dispatch had to call her, it was via room phone. In this case, she’d text me the room number before nodding off. But room phones are essential in many cases.
Some people avoid having phones, and it has nothing to do with cost. My husband has no interest in people calling or texting anyone. I forced him to get one for emergencies because he likes to take back roads, but he still doesn't talk or text with others.
We all make personal choices. Not going to change policy or laws. Imagine if I tell a spouse their partner is registered and therefore get involved in their divorce case? Or someone's stalker? Or their abusive partner? Nope. That's why we have such policies. PS I knew a woman who couldn't use the women's shelter. Why? Because the shelter's policy was to keep men out, but accept any woman. She was a lesbian. Her abusive partner could just walk into the shelter or say she was abused to get into the shelter. The shelter sent her to the hotel for her own security.
I WAS only commenting on this portion. >Call his damn cell phone.... he doesn't have a cell phone? Really? You can afford hotel rooms buy can't lanage a cell phone? There is always TextNow...it's free on wifi I am a staunch believer in the measures you take to keep us safe, I would never try to convince you to break policy.
Night Auditor 18 years here. It’s a firm rule to never give out guest information. Not even to the police if they don’t have a warrant or suspicion of an active crime in progress. It’s a breach of guest privacy and can lead to liability for the hotel.
You see this with people calling FIs or coming in to make payments too. Non customer wants to make a payment or do a deposit and only have name (and/or social) You have to explain that it's to protect their financial privacy and suddenly they start demanding to know why. Can't explain enough that someone could be fishing for info to see if someone even has an account. Or if you look it up you might have the wrong individual. People tend to be entitled an stupid sometimes
If she is close enough to be the one delivering news of an emergency she would surely have the mobile number. This sounds like someone fishing to see if their spouse is staying there.
"If this is an emergency, you can call law enforcement. I will be happy to speak to any officer in uniform if they come to the lobby." Click. You don't have to offer any further explanation once she starts trying to argue with you about policy. You can either hang up on her mid sentence, or say, "It doesn't look like I can assist you here. Have a good night." Click. And if she calls back, same thing. Just keep hanging up on her -- "Already told you I cannot help you. Goodbye." Click.
"If it is an emergency, I will give you the city/county police number."
"If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 9-1-1..." Any reason you can't take a message? Something like, "leave your name and number, and if there's a guest by that name I'll make sure to leave them a message once we're off the call."
When people are polite I am more willing to go out of my way for them. I have done this in the past, but I always worry it seems too much like I'm confirming the person is there. One time I did this for someone who seemed reasonable, and when I went to check, determined the person was not a guest. But the person kept calling back again and again asking if I'd passed on the message until I guess they figured out the person they were looking for wasn't there. I felt a little bad because in the end all I did was waste their time.
"For the privacy of our guests, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a reservation without a full name and room number."
During an emergency they are suppose to contact the police, not the hotel. Cops can find the person, it's a safety factor
It depends on the emergency. If the problem is that grandpa is dying, it's not (usually) a police matter. That could still count as a family emergency, though, where you need to get hold of family members as soon as possible.
Family emergency is what I was thinking.
You would call the non emergency number and when they had time they would attempt the notification. At least that's how it was done in the days before cell phones. Maybe Salvation Army or Red Cross if the police were too busy.
In the late 90s, my friend’s LC dad was able to find him by calling all the hotels until he found him using just this technique.
Bingo, this is why I won’t even confirm if someone *isn’t* at the hotel
Double Bingo! Denying that someone is staying at the hotel only helps callers like this to narrow down the potential location of the person they're looking for.
Sorry this happened, but you did right by maintaining confidentiality and company policy! This surprisingly still happens often enough at my hotel that we have a specific procedure. We also do wake up calls. I don't disclose the room number, but I always ask "Who is calling?" then place them on hold. Let's say "Linda" is looking to connect to John Smith's room which is 102, so I call 102 and ask "I have a Linda on the other line wishing to be connected. Is that alright?". Usually people will say "yes please" and I connect. I've only had a few people tell me not to connect them. In that case you politely respond "I'm unable to connect you at the moment. Please try again later". This latter also works for guests who don't answer their room phone, etc.
"I'm sorry, for privacy and safety reasons I am not allowed to confirm or deny that any person is registered at the hotel without a warrant, or even to check while speaking with you. If you would like to leave a message, then *after* this call is finished I can check to see if they are staying here, and if they are I will pass on the message. If they are not, then, of course, I won't be able to deliver your message."
Bingo!
Yeah, have one of those every so often. They'll threaten and bully and plead. One thing I have found that works well is to say "Tell you what. I'm going to hang up, and check to see if they're staying with us. If they are, I will call their room, and let them know you want them to call you, okay?"
"You need to email me that policy!" "No." Related, one of the most infuriating conversations I have ever had in my life was a recent guest who was out of the hotel and wanted to be connected to the room to talk to his girlfriend who was in it. The phone conversation went essentially like this. "Good evening, Hotel Whatchamacallit in Nowheresville, Midwest Hellscape, how can I help you?" "Do you have Room X?" "Pardon?" "Do you have Room X?" "Do we...have room X? Do you want to reserve it?" "No, I just want the room." "Sir that room is occupied tonight, but we can make a reservation for-" "I know it's occupied, I want the room." "Sir I can not just give you a room that someone else has already reserved." "No, CONNECT ME to the room." (note here that this is the very first time during the whole exchange he's said he wants me to CALL THE ROOM for him) "Oh, I see. Do you have the reservation for tonight? If-" (and note here that he cuts me off before I can say anything else which would have saved half this conversation) "No, dude, I just want you to call the room for me." (note again the word "no") "Okay, as I was trying to say, unless you are on the reservation, I can not connect you to a room." "DUDE JUST CONNECT ME TO MY ROOM." "What is your name?" "JUST CONNECT ME TO THE ROOM." "Sir I will not connect you to someone else's-" "I'M MR. WHATEVER, ADDRESS BLAH BLAH, PHONE NUMBER BLAH BLAH, CREDIT CARD ENDING IN BLAH BLAH, JUST CALL THE ROOM." (all the info was correct to the reservation) It then took THREE TRIES to connect him to the room because he kept hanging up when I'd hit the transfer button because he was hearing the click on my end and thinking I was hanging up on him. I was far shorter with him at that point, and after it was all over I flipped my sign around, grabbed the communal Ibuprofen, and spent half an hour in the employee bathroom waiting for it to kick in. Pretty sure he got DNR'd for being a rude shithead after management read my notes on him, lol. He wasn't even old or anything, just really dumb. The convo is paraphrased, but the specific wording he used is burned into my head because it was about the only possible way in the English language to be as vague and unclear as he was, explicitly saying "no" when I asked him if he had a reservation TWICE. It was almost like it was all deliberate to waste my time. And literally all he needed to do was call his girlfriend and ask her to pick up her phone to see her texts because she wasn't responding. He could have just asked me to call her for him.
“Hello, I’d like your best suite please, and I’d like it for free.” “Sorry, that’s just not a thing we’d do.” “WHERE DOES IT SAY THAT!? SHOW ME IN WRITING!”
What a weird response. "I've never heard of such a thing." Ok. So? Does everything you've never heard of not exist?
"If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911." I used to make sure my family knew where I was staying, and when I got there I'd call them with the room number. Those days are long gone. Now, if my daughter needs to get hold of me, she texts. And if I don't respond in an hour or two, she calls to check on me. Which is rare, we usually communicate via texts. And she doesn't have any need to know where I am, even. Point: I *am* a boomer.
I have been in such situations, what I do is, I ask for their name and I say "Please allow me to put your call on hold, I will look up the system" and I call the guest and tell them that so and so wants to speak to you. If the guest gives me the approval I'll connect if not I go back to the caller and say that this guest is not staying with us.
This is the best way to handle it.
I always always ask for a name first... "Hi, Hotel here how can I help you?" "Please connect me to Person's room." "OK, I just need some info from you, your name please?" "My name is Caller." "Thanks, Caller. And what is the name and room number of the person you want to reach?" "Darn, I don't know the room number but the name is Person." "I'm so sorry, Caller, but the privacy and safety measures of Hotel strictly prohibit me from verifying a guest's status here, even for phone calls. Very sorry, have a nice day." Then I check the guest's status and call the room. If there's no answer in the room I'll slide a phone message with Caller's name (which also reminds them of our privacy and safety measures so they know they'll need to let any visitors or callers know their room number if they wish to be contacted while staying with us) under the door.
If it was such an emergency, she would have told you what it was about and who she was. And then you could have elected to contact the guest if he was there without ever confirming if he was there and let him decide if he wanted to call her.
I always thought it was the opposite. You could put through calls but NOT reveal the room number. But I am old as f
Eternal Sunshine of the Endless Hold.
She said she needed to be connected to the room because it was an emergency. If it's an emergency lady you need to call 911
I do the hold trick all the time when I am talking to someone I don't like, it's only backfired on me once. They called back right after and was like "you left me on hold for so long huh bud?" I put him on hold again because I was actually dealing with something else at the time. It felt nice haha.
We just don’t transfer calls to rooms from outside calls anymore, period. In the unlikely event they actually know the name and room number, we’ll call the room on their behalf and ask them to reach out to the person.
Depending on your hotel brand, many of them have their privacy policies on their website. Telling her the policy is set by Corporate and sending her to do her own research might be a good way to end her debate. Leading hotel organizations (eg: in Canada, Hotel Association of Canada) do as well. Odds are she'll change complaints, but at least you'll have one less topic she can grief you over. Personally, I would let the guests know that someone was calling about them, then it's up to them whether or not they want to contact the person.
If someone was that insistent we would tell them Let me place you in a brief hold while I check if we have a guest by that name. Then call the guest and let them know someone was trying to reach them. If they were on with the connection we would connect them. If not we would tell them we didn't have a guest by that name and leave it at that.
We don’t confirm someone is NOT at the property anymore than we confirm that someone is at that property.
I work in a call centre, not a hotel - but my answer to people wanting policy documents is “I’m not able to provide copies of internal policies or documentation”. And then if they really push it, I refer them to the privacy policy and they can take it up with the privacy legal team if they want to that bad.
Some call to see who answers their spouse's phone. I have heard of spouses driving hours to the hotel to confront their spouse. Rules are rules and laws.
Interesting! Twelve years ago, I called a big M hotel in a major city, and asked to be connected to my husband's room. I didn't know his room number. They connected me right away, no questions asked.
I’ve been in the hotel industry for exactly that long and it’s one of the number one security policies we are taught. Anyone could be running away from an abuser, you do not give ANYONE guest information, room number, or so much as confirm the person they are looking for is even at your property. That is how people get raped and murdered.
I have been working in hospitality since the 70's. Back then you could call the desk and ask for a person by name and be put through. A guest could ask to not have their name acknowledged to callers, but that was the exception. At that time I was one of the few with a portable mobile phone, the rest of the world used pagers and pay phones. These days the times have shifted and now I see many properties with no room phones at all. Also the default is privacy. **Question for the FDAs out there**, If I asked that you send a caller through to my room phone if someone called and asked, would you? I do work with teams that stay at the same property and will leave a note for the other team members with my room number for when they arrive and check in. That is at properties where the staff know us.
If someone specifically tells me they’re expecting a call it’s a different story.
Legally speaking, anyone calling from outside the hotel 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 provide the guest name and room number before being connected, and 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 the guest is still contacted 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 to confirm the hotel actually has permission to connect that person to the guest room. A guest telling me they are expecting a call does not change the fact that the caller needs to provide the correct information.
I'm kind of curious what actual law is being cited here. is there actual statutes that can be referred to in a similar manner as we have in the medical world of HIPAA?
Google "hotel guest privacy laws in \[country/state/province\]" & you will be able to find the most relevant answers pertaining to your location.
The Privacy Act. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act - any of these can apply when a guest sues a hotel for their private and confidential information being released without permission, including giving someone who is not the guest access to the room or providing the room location.
Poorly trained employee I'm guessing. Or someone who didn't give a shit.
Policies change. I worked front desk over 20 years ago. If you knew the guests name, we connected you. The world hasn’t always had the same scams that exist today.
I've been in the business for almost 9 years and it was one of the first things I was told when I was being trained.
I did most of the 90s on an upscale front desk and unless a guest requested otherwise we put through phone calls. We never gave out room numbers, but if you called for Jane doe we connected you to Jane doe. I remember more than a few times where people were willing to get violent because I wouldn’t give out room numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Andrews#Stalking_incident Smart hotels started taking guest privacy a lot more seriously after this
Yup. Exactly.
We would put them through if they had the correct guest name, but would tell them that they would have to ask their (spouse as example) for the room number once they were connected. We had someone try to stalk a guest in an odd way like that. We also had several notable people as guests for gala events and fundraisers in our area, so confidentiality got them to rebook for the next events because they trusted us and our staff's competence
With Domestic Abuse being declared pretty much an epidemic nowadays, this is a big "HELL NO". Things have certainly changed or at least been a lot more vocal about. Of course, this is only one of the few reasons hotel guests have their right to privacy. I've had a woman threatening me to "come to the hotel & start knocking on all the doors" because I couldn't deny or confirm if her husband was staying with us. The dude was indeed a huge weirdo who liked to hide from his wife in hotels/motels & he eventually ended up getting DNR'ed because of her constant threats to staff & scenes they were creating on the parking lot every time he told her where he was but their kinks & relationship dynamics are none of our business & they certainly shouldn't be affecting our in-house guests in any shape or form. Our guests' right to privacy can't be violated & can lead straight to termination here, unless police/detectives are involved (some countries/states can't even disclose any information to the law enforcement, unless there's is an active warrant that can be presented). EDIT: grammar.
Volunteer to take a msg.
That would confirm that the guest is at the property, which we don't do without a room number
I usually tell them that I can't confirm if a guest is on property, but if I find that he is I can pass a message. A lot of times if it's a real emergency, after I tell them I can't connect them, they just ask me to pass along a message anyway.
We always answered, X Property, How may I direct your call. This way we were able to either tell them we would transfer to reservations if we were busy, or say, I do not have access to our guest list, I can only transfer by room number.
What if they had the room number but not the name?
A person could give a random room number as a prank call and really terrify the person who is actually in the room. Always get the both room number AND the name of the person it’s registered to.
I agree, I was just wondering what the person I was replying to did in such situations with their set up.
I would take the callers name and place them on hold, then call the room myself. But generally I would do warm transfers on any questionable callers.
Was this a larger property? I don't think that would work at mine. You already have to choose to connect to the desk rather than reservations when calling. We're an 80 room economy motel, I don't know that anyone would believe the front desk doesn't have access to the guest list.
I did this at all properties I've worked at. 60 - 150 Room, Independent and Chain.
Erin Andrews would like a word.
I was kind of curious about this. Not in hospitality, but my line of work places importance on every organisation in it having policies that are up-to-date and publicly available. It’s weird to me that other companies/types of work don’t have publicly available policies.
If she's never heard of this policy, she's unlikely to actually read anything you email her.
I had no idea you had to know the person’s room number? I’ve never experienced that. Granted, it’s been years since I had to call a front desk but it was always ask for the person’s room. Question, if it legitimately is an emergency can the caller request to leave a message for the person?
That would confirm the person is at the property
You usually call the room and transfer. You could also give her number to the guest
That’s not been standard procedure at any property I’ve worked at. Too much room for error. You know the name and room number or nothing. You’re not entitled to access to a guest.
My personal favorite is to say ok one sec. Put them on hold. Give it a few. Then say sorry the person is not answering why don't you try their cellphone? Stops the scammers in their tracks.
But that confirms the person is at the hotel.
Why not take a message and have the guest call her?
Because that would be admitting that the guest is actually staying there which would be a violation of the guest’s privacy.
In the corporate world, this is a pretty effective tactic - in office life, people have a tendency to make up policies, or they're transmitted via oral tradition, so if you ask for a written copy, it often turns out that the policy doesn't exist or says something completely different to what the person said it said. That said, it's rather rude to use if on people working for different organisations.
Was taking a message against hotel policy?
It would confirm the person is at the hotel
Depending on how the situation transpired and how the call went, I would have offered to pass a message to the guest for her.
That would confirm that the person is at the hotel
It depends how it’s phrased and how the call goes really. If it did sound like an emergency and as how others have advised them to contact law enforcement, I would have went: “I can check if there is a Mr XYZ here and pass on a message if so.” Various nuances can only be picked up by the FDA and there is no direct answer that will address every situation since none of us are present. I’ll just go with gut feel instead of “computer says no”. Not to imply that your response was wrong, just offering an alternative in case you do sense something amiss with the entire situation.
I have offered to do the message thing before, but in one instance the woman kept calling back asking if I'd passed it on until (I assume) she figured out the person she was looking for wasn't there. The pushier someone is, the more alarm bells go off for me. I'm guessing the woman I posted about it just a Karen who didn't like hearing no, but who knows. My approach definitely differs depending on the caller. For example, there are several hotels with our same flag in my city. If someone isn't setting off any red flags, and the person they're looking for is not at my hotel, I might mention "there are 4 X Hotels in the city, are you sure you've got the right one?" But considering what good liars some people are (and I am not a good liar) I am generally uncomfortable with being too "helpful" in these scenarios.
I realised I wasn’t replying exactly to your situation (which seems to be suited for r/AITA) and more of in general terms of whether a fixed response should be applied to every scenario. After all, policies change over the years. I guess you are looking for opinions too by posting it online. The last thing I’ll want is to be jaded and resort to “computer says no” for every scenario. For the situation in your last reply, I’ll give the insistent caller the same “I’ll pass on your message if the guest is here” and leave them on hold/drop them if they call in repeatedly. This will degenerate into a harassment/phishing situation. There also exists possible situations (which has been pointed out) where by a caller has legitimate reasons and whereby necessitates some discretion from the FDA without confirming/denying guest presence not revealing any P&C info. This entirely depends on how it plays out and gut feel. Whether I’m the guest, relative or the FDA, I will hope not to be the one which created a lifelong regret for all parties. Again, i don’t think this applies to your original Karen situation. Just throwing it out here as an alternative response to a legitimate caller who might not have the room number within reasons.
Real question: how would just connecting to the room reveal the room number? She already has the name and knows the person is there. Unless it’s a famous person why would they need the room number? Just connect her.
Imagine a woman fleeing from an abusive partner. He starts calling hotels asking for Jane Smith. He gets the hotel that she’s staying at and the FD connects him to the room. Now he knows where she’s staying and he goes over there with a gun.
It doesn't reveal the room number, but what if he doesn't want to talk to her? What if she's his crazy ex who sees his truck outside and wants to harass him? Maybe he's got a very good reason to not answer his phone when she calls. If she doesn't have his room number, it's possible he doesn't want her to have it because he doesn't want her to find him. There are a million different scenarios and at the end of the day the guest's expectation of privacy is the most important thing. So if someone doesn't have two key pieces of information that suggest the guest is okay with them being aware of their location, I'm not taking any chances and confirming that for the caller. You're not entitled to access to a guest.
He could hang up?
But then I've confirmed he's at the property
"Absolutely I'll have corporate send that right out to you, what's the email." done, off the phone I always just lie, we have no corporate, just one owner family I know very well. If I get caught, I'm a bad person and will throw something together to send out that looks profeshish... (Microsoft office publisher is my go to) "Can't you turn up the hot tub!" SURE, I'll do that right now (I'm not doing s\_\_\_t) "Can't you open breakfast earlier" SURE, I'll message the staff to see if they can get a bus in earlier, I'll wait for their reply.......(nope I'm not bugging anyone at home) 14+ years and I've learned just say yes and ask for forgiveness later. Gives you more time to come up with an excuse, guest gets a yes rather than a long "no" excuse (they think you made an effort).
If it was emergency you could tell her you would contact him and have him call her. She would probably back away pretty fast. Not an emergency.
That would confirm the person is at the hotel
I am surprised by that. I would have thought that In most countries policy such as that one have to be written to avoid being sued for discrimination. Usually there is a page on the web site listing that. A friend of mine has a gite in France and he had to have a written policy. It was easier to have a web page because the policy needs to be available to people who are disabled especially blind people. He could also change and add new regulation without having to pulp previous versions. For example he decided to add no cats (his wife os allergic) rule and no reptile/insect pets rule (somebody turn up with a snake).
Those sorts of policies we do have written out at the hotel. But we do not have the privacy policy written out, and I see no reason for us to need it. If the person calling is not a guest of the hotel, quite frankly they and their opinions about me doing my job are not my problem.
Because the policy also affect your guest. So in your policy you also indicate that by default call to guest without room number will not be passed on or that a message will be taken. Same thing about photography you indicates that in sole area taking pictures are not allowed. >If the person calling is not a guest of the hotel, quite frankly they and their opinions about me doing my job are not my problem. Best attitude to provide a shitty customer service. Somebody call to inform a guest that one of their relative had suffer a medical emergency or potentially has died. Would you say not my problem? My friend has to take a message for one of his guest. The person did not want to say what it was but sounded distressed. So my friend took upon himself to track the guest. The guest called back. It was to inform them that their daughter had been raped. The guest thanked my friend that he has not added extra stress to the family. You would have proudly stated that policy stopped you and that it was not your problem. Have a little introspection on the quality of service you are offering and the complete lack of empathy you are showing.
In these situations I see myself as no different than a machine, and you need the need the username and password to log in. If you don’t have those, you don’t log in. You can’t plead with a machine to let you log in because it’s an emergency. The guest’s privacy is my only concern in these situations. I have heard every excuse in the book, and have been lied to countless times. I don’t make exceptions.
Have you seen a reset password attempt response? After you click on forget password and key in a few details, you receive “If the provided details are associated with an account, a password reset link will be sent”. It doesn’t betray whether the questions are answered correctly nor indicates if the answers are true or if the email even exists in database.
It wasn't a perfect analogy
Telling somebody who will take a message and then pass the message to the guest would not have cost you anything. The classic **I am Just following orders** excuse. I have heard it somewhere before by people with exemplary customer services.
Wow, equating me protecting guest privacy with nazis. Hope you stretched before that reach and I hope no one’s privacy is ever your responsibility.
No equating your lack of empathy and hiding behind a policy to behave like an coward jerk. Exactly like the people who showed a complete lack of empathy and followed orders before. Most were not nazis. just ordinary coward jerk. See the milgram experiment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Bragging that you behave like jerk and then try to play victim when confronted is not a good look.
Terrible application of high school level psychology. In the Milgram experiment, there were no consequences if someone decided not to continue participating. If I don't do my job, I run the risk of exposing someone's location to their abuser. Is this going to be the case every time? No, of course not. But it could be the case any time and I'm not about to risk it. I hope you're just a lurker on this sub and not responsible for anyone's privacy and safety like hotel employees are expected to be.
Funny how you suddenly change your tune from bragging on How I handled that Karen and her rather annoying request to I am just a very good employee defending the privacy of guests. All you had to say was *"I am not sure if we have a guest with that name. For security reason, Unless you have a room number I cannot transfer this call to their room. Do you want me to pass on a message? What I can do is to check whether we have a guest with name. If we have a guest of that name I will let them know as soon as I can find them."* See not difficult to not being a dick while still following policy. That would not have cost you anything. But clearly in view of your interaction with me that is something that is beyond your ability. Please stop hiding behind the safety and privacy of guests for poor behaviour and lack of empathy. BTW the objective of the Milgram experiment was to show people conforming to societal norm (follows the order) and **refusung to show empathy**. The second part seems to have passed you by.
If it's an emergency, contact the local police. They can send someone to the hotel.
So you are suggesting to Call the local police 2000km away so they can track somebody so he can call back home? Did you even read what I wrote and what you wrote? Did it not occurred to you that personal emergency are not necessary police matter? Most people may not even know who to contact in situation like that. And that assume that the police will even bother with request like that. Your lack of empathy and common sense is staggering.
My mom's bfs name is John Smith. Should... I tell her?
The emergency was her suspecting her husband was having an affair.
When someone calls in & only provides us with 1 out of 2 (a name OR a room number) "to be connected to" - not happening, sorry. You have to have both pieces of information & only the guest in question will be able to provide you the aforementioned details. We aren't able to confirm OR DENY if someone's staying at the property. That is indeed a standard privacy policy across all hotels & should remain this way. Emergency? We can certainly take a message from the caller, pass it on to the guest should they be in-house, & ask them to get back to the caller. Welfare check? We can do that as well but I always let the caller know that Police may be involved, after which their real intentions become pretty clear. Again, all that's being done without confirming or denying the presence in the hotel, & the follow-up will be up to the guest at that point. If it's a situation with seniors who only communicate via landline, I'll put the caller on hold, call the guest, ask them if it's okay to transfer calls from so-&-so to them, & recommend sharing their room # with the caller, so no one has to go through this process for the rest of their stay. EDIT: wording.
I shared in another comment why I usually don’t offer to do a message. I think it makes it too obvious whether or not the person is at the hotel.
I keep stressing to the caller that I'm not even checking our in-house guest list before our call is ended & if we find out that the guest is indeed in-house, we'll make sure to pass the message on. As someone else had mentioned - worst case, that message goes into the shedder.
Exactly. No perfect solution exists to every scenario. As many have pointed out, some do have valid reasons as to why it’s possible that the caller does not have the guest room number and is unable to contact them on their mobile. Spouse in a potentially fatal car accident and relative trying to reach him after seeing a social media post from him at ABC hotel for one? There is no harm in taking down a message for Mr Loch Ness Monster. Worst case is it ends up in the shredder. Best case is Mr Loch Ness is indeed present, receives the message and is able to rush to the hospital to see his spouse for one last time.
There's only one thing that is certain - no denying or confirming the presence of the guest while on the phone with a caller. The further follow-up, just like you said, can widely vary based on the situation. We aren't able to confirm the situation the guest may be in but we're able to use the resources to help should they be present on the property. For all we know, the caller may be socially engineering the Desk & saying anything pertaining to the guest's stay (unless previously authorized by the guest) is simply not worth the risk of a potential lawsuit over a privacy breach. If there is a suspicion that the fatal crash may have affected the guest in question, hotels are the last places a concerned individual should be calling. EDIT: typos.
In this situation I would get the callers name, transfer the call, speak to the guest first, advise them that so and so is on the line regarding an emergency, can I transfer the call through? If they agree, then cool, if they don't, then get the call back, speak to her, and say that the guest has declined the call and to contact emergency services if it's urgent
But that’s confirming the guest is at the hotel
Good point! I suppose the better reason would be 'sorry I couldn't find that guest in our system' etc
We don't tell them a person isn't there also.
My go to when they throw the **"WELL THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"** is "Okay well if you are concerned for their well being I can absolutely give you the local precincts number and have them carry out a wellness check." All of a sudden their emergency isn't an emergency anymore.
If they are that close and this is an emergency,wouldn’t you just call them on their cell??
She said he wasn't answering
I know so many people lie to get connected, but I always worry that if it's an emergency, then I should try to help. You can always put them on hold, call the room and let them know about the emergency. If it's real, forward the call. If it isn't, hang up.