Monday, April 16, 2007

False expectations

I've complained about it before, but it's one of the never-ending irritations. False expectations. And I had a couple of them today. Someone came down an hour after we had taken away the breakfast and wanted to get - just a little something for the road - breakfast. Then another person came down about 4:00 pm asking if I could have housekeeping clean their room - but they should have called us even with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door to let us know they were leaving - and couldn't understand why I let the housekeepers go when they had finished all their work around 11:00 am.

I don't have a housekeeper on all the time and I do post our breakfast hours by the front desk, over the breakfast counter, in the room and other places.

We are not the least expensive places as I provide a good breakfast - deluxe continental is what it's known in the trade - and offer a number of other amenities. But we're not the most expensive, so we don't keep breakfast on for all hours and we don't keep a housekeeper available all day and night.

We're not the most expensive of places so I look for people who are friendly rather than snooty as staff. We're not the most expensive of places so I look to have someone pick up guest laundry and clean it rather than do it on the premises. We're not the most of expensive of places so I have someone on duty at all times, but usually only one person so they just can't do all the little extras that some people expect.

Oh well, that's my job and most days I like it. But there are the days when the guest expectations are just a little unreasonable and then I complain.

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