October 4, 2024 • 52 mins
In Smooth Jazz Gwynn and Ms. B were unable to join us. So Liz and I changed the tempo and sat down with Jazz and slowed the beat. Join us for some fun stories, some behind the scenes and, of course, our A-Holes of the week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Tales from the Service Industry. I'm your host, I'm Bill. Tonight we've got
(00:19):
a little modified team. So we've got Liz with us. Hi team. And joining us for the first
time is Jazz. Hi. Appreciate you being here. As is a tradition, if you can give us a little
bit of a backstory on kind of your time in the industry, how you got to be where you're
at. Don't have to go into deep details, but sure. So since 2018, I've been AGM. Prior
to that, I started at typical front desk, front desk supervisor, front office manager,
(00:44):
and then now AGM. So the typical pattern that you expect. That's been my role. I've had
a little creative roles here and there. They called me a social media manager at one point,
which was nothing like social media was today. And literally all I did was respond to Trip
Advisor reviews. Oh, that is not social media at all. Not at all. But back then, I mean,
Instagram wasn't even created yet. So that's a social media as it was. Yeah. So if I could
(01:08):
put on my resume, I'll take it. Hell yeah. Sure. I think at my property, it's the marketing
team that responds to those. And if they're super duper bad, it'll go up to the AGM or
AGM that's responding to bad reviews. So we actually have a company, social media manager.
I know does not match, but we hired a third party company to respond to all of our all
(01:30):
of them. Social media review. Well, not really social media, but yeah, all of the Yelp, the
Google reviews, the external review sites. Yes. What's the abbreviation? OTA. OTA. Yes.
Well no. OTA is online travel agent. Yes. So the external sites, right. But Trip Advisor
is not really an OTA. It's the reviews. It's one of the review sites. Got it. Trip Advisor
(01:51):
or Google. Yes. Trip Advisor. Yelp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where anybody could just go on and write.
Exactly. And a lot of times they weren't even writing about the right hotel. Yeah. Nothing
is verified. Correct. Whereas an internal survey. Right. So with an internal survey,
you legitimately have to have stayed at the hotel. You get a link to your email that you
(02:13):
click on and therefore it'll take you to the site. So they verified you stayed there and
now you're eligible to review. And it's the internal surveys that you guys respond to
in-house. Yes. Yeah. And that's the only revenue we have to respond on. The most now is an
approval. They send us an email. This is our response. Do you approve? Yes. Not always.
Oh, you say no sometimes. Oh yeah. There's a lot of times where I'll get survey responses
(02:36):
and I'm like, no, we're not responding to this guest like this. Oh. I'll go in and I'll
just modify it. Well, I'm glad you do that because I would literally just approve them
all. Which is fine. Who was originally writing the response that you denied? The third party.
The third party. Got it. Yeah. That's funny. There are some times where the review is just
(02:57):
very canned. Like you can tell it's a copy and paste and it just doesn't quite fit the
response that it should be. Or it's just not the right vibe. Right. So in that instance,
do you just pull from chat GBT? No, I just, I pull from experience of having to answer
reviews for years. Yeah. Well, sometimes I'm so petty. I just want them to know it's a
(03:19):
generic response. I want you to know that we did not put time or thought into this response.
That's how we feel about your review. Yeah. For your six out of 10, you can have a generic
response. Exactly. But for your nines and tens, it can be absolutely genuine. Yes. Please
come again. Yes. If you ever read my responses, a lot of them are generic. I've got a formula
where I'll take kind of the template that they give. I know what to rip out and then
(03:42):
I just drop in a few lines and send. I could. You put a lot more effort than I would. Well,
you know how I write emails. A lot of times it's like me crafting a very nice way of saying,
I'm going to leave you in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Drive home. Some of them are hilarious.
A nice crafty way of saying, no, you're dumb. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. He's really good.
(04:03):
We get the boss. You're allowed to do that. Well, yeah, but it's not the right thing to
do. Well, half the times they don't have a clap back. So no, no. And I make sure that
they don't have a clap. Are they intelligent enough to like read between the lines and
understand what you're really saying? Some maybe. Yeah. I mean, we deal with some interesting
folks. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the problems that we've been having lately have been fraud
(04:27):
related. You know, like we were talking a little bit before this about people using,
you know, fraudulent employee forms. Right. Like we had one that had a bunch of problems
with the room. We shared this in an earlier episode where he'd stayed, I think it was
eight nights or no, uh, eight nights and 14 days, something like that. Um, one of the
nights happened to be on a certificate, which got him a review link. Yes. So he flamed us
(04:53):
in the review link. So like that guy, yeah, I wrote, you can F off. Oh, I wrote him a
fairly professional, but yet blunt email inviting him to enjoy future stays at a hotel
other than ours. Stay with our brand. Just not here. Yeah. The template will say at the
bottom and we hope you, you know, return to the set hotel, but I'll just change it. We
(05:16):
hope you have to stay at the brand. I don't care if you say at this hotel, you could,
as long as you have the brand not here. But on the timing of us recording this episode,
we are post Memorial day weekend. Yes. By a few days. Yeah. How did your hotel do? Um,
okay. Really well considering, you know, the challenge with my property at the moment is
(05:41):
that we have a bunch of rooms out of order because of projects that are going on. Right.
So our occupancy was not full, but that didn't prevent us from having jokers. We had problems
over the weekend and the last week, a few that we'll get to share tonight. Yeah. I'm
glad the weekend passed with no big problems, but for us, you know, kind of that spring
break and then you've got Memorial day weekend. That's the last kind of practice period before
(06:06):
summer starts. It's your warmup. Yeah. And like all of our projects are due to be over
in a week, week and a half at the most father's day. Yes, absolutely. Like the first couple
days of June projects will be done. So all the rooms are back in inventory. Everything
is ramped up, ready to go. And because the area had a really bad spring break and now
(06:30):
we had a Memorial day weekend that was kind of a misfire because of the projects, right?
Our team hasn't really practiced. So I'm a little concerned. Like practice a fully sold
out holiday weekend. The high rates, the high expectations, the high occupancy, everything
at the max. The team's been kind of coasting for the last eight weeks. So I'm worried about
(06:53):
the beginning of summer because it's going to be kind of a rude shock. Right. There's
been no warmup. Yeah. I mean, in my department, you know, people say, Oh, are you ready for
summer? I'm like, yes, I have been literally prepping for this the last five months and
I call it my three super bowls of the year. If you're an FNB, you know, your Easter, your
(07:13):
Mother's Day, your Thanksgiving, your Christmas. Those are like your big days in FNB for rec
for me specifically. Yeah, you have your Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, but those
aren't just one days. Those are entire weekends. And Fourth of July this year is on a Thursday.
So it will be probably Wednesday will be busy. Thursday will be slammed. And then Friday,
(07:37):
Saturday, Sunday. Oh, man. So essentially a full work week just at 100%. Are they doing
fireworks by you? No. So my property is a little bit different. When sunset goes down,
everyone leaves because we are very family oriented. So when the kids need to go to bed
or plenty of people live literally on the beach where they can better see fireworks
(07:59):
from nearby peers, they go home. So it's like, thank God seven o'clock go the F home. But
I got to say, I talk about my staff a lot on this podcast and I've been hiring seasonals
the last few months. Seasonal being the summer season? Just employees. Right. Seasonal employees.
So from the time of hire through to mid August, a lot of college students, if they're in a
(08:24):
quarter system, they won't go back until mid September. So I know I have them for Labor
Day. So I hire a little strategically. Where are you going to school? Oh, you're going
to the UC? That's great. Yeah. Okay. They'll be here through mid September. But the thing
the staff did phenomenal, like little to no hiccups with the staff. Normally I have to
(08:47):
like be on their butts about everything the first holiday of the year. They did great.
And you guys were sold out. So Saturday, you know, we're in an area with a Marine layer.
We're a waterfront property. Normally the Marine layer, you know, May Gray burns off
11, 12, sometimes one. Oh no, Saturday is Memorial Day weekend. 852. I go on the pool deck and
(09:10):
the sun's out. I was like, Oh, here we go. Thinking like I have an hour, hour and a half
to like really finish getting the pool deck set. Oh no, people started coming in. Not
without weather. Not a seat in the house at 945. Wow. Yeah. So from 845 to 945 200 people
showed up. Do you guys do DJs at the pool area? Saturday we had, I don't even. Okay.
(09:33):
So I know his name. His nickname is coconut Frank. Steel drum. That's what it is. Oh,
fun. Steel drum. And then we hire like an ice cream truck to give away free ice cream
to people who are at the pool. A lot of kids. Yeah. So the team did great, but I did have
one a hole of the weekend. Yeah. So again, I'm saying family oriented. We have a lot
(09:54):
of repeat customers, right? I know this guy, he's in the fitness center most days and he
is that jerk in the fitness center. That's always on a cell phone taking really loud
calls. He'll have his AirPods in, but he is just talking so loudly that I have had to
go up to him a couple of times and be like, Hey, can you take that outside? Like you're
disrupting other people. I've gotten complaints. So he's that kind of guy. And be like, Oh,
(10:15):
oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Liz. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, okay, dude, this is like the sixth
day in the row. I've told you this, get the clue. No one under the age of 14 is allowed
in the hot tub. Big part of my staff's job and the lifeguard's job is literally emptying
the hot tub of the children. Because when the families come on property, the parents
could give two quips. They're at the bar, getting a drink. They're sitting on a chase
(10:36):
lounge talking to their girlfriends, talking about, Oh my God, where are you? Oh, you're
going to Ibiza for this summer. They're talking about all their grando vacations and their
kids are just running rampant. I had numerous times over the weekend, this exact person
refused to get his children out of the hot tub. No matter how many times the lifeguard
asks, no matter how many times my staff asked, it was only when I went onto the pool deck,
(11:00):
he would be like, Oh kids, Liz is on the pool deck. Now we really got to get out. Yeah.
How old are the kids? Um, like four and six. He's okay with this four year old. Oh yeah.
These people do not care at all. They don't care until they care. Yeah. They don't care
until I don't know. Somebody gets hurt. They're threatened to get kicked out. Yeah. Like,
(11:20):
so routinely over the weekend, I'm hearing this phrase a lot. Oh, now Liz is here. Now
we really have to get out. So I go to all my staff and I'm like, is he refusing to get
his kids out of the hot tub to you? What, what, what about for you? And my staff is
like, no, he literally refuses. Like we're having such a hard time. So finally the last
time he's like, Oh, Liz is here. You got to get out. I go, Mr. Smith, I want to let you
(11:42):
know this is a property rule. This is not just my rule. So when my staff or the lifeguard
asks for your kids to get out of the hot tub, yet they mean it. It's not just me creating
that rule. Please respect my staff and please respect our policies. Ooh, how'd that go over?
Oh, he was like, Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well we always listen. And I'm like, uh-huh. Yeah.
(12:05):
Thank you. Have a great day. Let us know if you need anything else. So he is my a-hole
of the week because it's not my rule. Why, why is it only me coming on the pool deck
that you're like, Ooh, now I have to follow the rules. Like respect my team and the job
they are doing. But also your staff just lets him ignore them. They're so intimidating.
And they did by like people of any sort of influence. Yes. And my staff is young. They
(12:31):
range from 16 to 20. Oh, okay. So it's like a lot of their first job. And if some big
strong dude is like, no, I'm not getting my kid out of the hot tub. They're like, Oh,
sorry. And they run away. They don't run to you though. I just, I don't know. I can't
fathom just allowing someone to walk all over me. I can't either. But I mean, this bill
(12:54):
can attest to this area. The hotel is in the rules apply to everybody but me. That's, that's
her area. Oh gosh. I don't think I could work there. Imagine 200 blueberry elites on the
pool deck. Yeah. At one time, none of which believe that the rules apply to them, but
the rules definitively apply to that person. Right. Oh, there's strawberry. Go talk to
(13:15):
them about the rules. Don't talk to me. So no, I kind of put him in his place and now
hopefully he listens. We'll see. I doubt it. I highly doubt it. He, he just, he's just
a jerk. I mean, he's rented boats before and there have been times I'm like, Oh my God,
why is that boat still here? Like they checked in 25 minutes ago. They should be out in the
(13:36):
water enjoying their boat rental and come to find out my staff is running all over the
place with all of his ridiculous requests. They go down to the dock, right? Oh, we need
a wine opener. They run up, get a wine opener, come back. Oh, do you have any blankets? They
run up, go get blankets, run down. And like the blankets are in storage in the building
on the second floor. Like it's a distance. It's a distance. It's disrespectful. Oh, can
(14:00):
you go to the bar and like order us another round of drinks before we leave? And I'm like,
bro, this kid is 17. Like, why are you going and telling him to go order you drinks at
the bar? So he's that kind of person. It's also like what servers hate when they say,
Oh, can I have ranch? And they come with your ranch. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I get extra napkins
or whatever? It's like, tell me everything you need now. And the servers might like,
can I get you anything else? And you say no. Okay, whatever. Yeah. So he's just that kind
(14:26):
of person. Well, the rental ends at the end of the rental time anyway, right? Hell yeah,
it does. Or does he pitch that fit that we, yeah, we rented it at two, but we didn't leave
the dock until 245. I don't give him any favors. No, I don't. There are certain people I will
if we have room for it right on the calendar. And maybe, I don't know, they give my staff
(14:47):
a good handshake and compensate them. I'm willing to bend the rules before a jerk like
that. And I know he doesn't tip. Are your boats trackable? So like if somebody doesn't
come back on time, can you find it? This is like a current topic because we got new electric
bikes. And love those things. And the boss's boss's boss was like, Oh, maybe we get air
(15:07):
tags or tiles for the electric bikes. And I was like, well, kind of the electric bike,
what about a $50,000 boat? Maybe screw the $2,000 electric bike. But my whole thing is
like with air tags specifically, you have to have an Apple ID. Who is going to own that?
Because I'm not at work 24 seven. I don't want that login. Yeah, just create one. So
(15:30):
create a shared one or just buy an iPad for the property. Yeah. So I think that's a security
problem. Pass this on to me. That's where the responsibility of tracking them would
lie because that's loss prevention. Right? Yeah. So it's literally in their wheelhouse.
Yeah. So it's in discussion right now. But if you're tracking people, you have to let
(15:53):
them know, right? Well, you're not tracking them. You're tracking your property. I mean,
do you still have to let them know? I don't know. I think I would just put it in the rental
contract. Yeah. Fine print that they don't read. Yeah. But okay, it's in there just as
one of the addendums. Item number 22. Do you make it visible on the vessel? I probably
wouldn't know because then if somebody is intending to steal it or not bring it back
(16:14):
on time, then they can off board. Yeah, they can get rid of it. Because then there was
discussion of like attaching it to the key. That's not a bad idea. So they know they're
getting tracked when they get into the boat, but you could easily take off a tile or an
air tag and throw it in the water. So I was talking to my IT guy because he asked, why
is security asking you about air tags? And he was like, do you lose the keys often? I
(16:39):
was like, no, what are you talking about? They break. And he was like, security wants
to attach a tracker to the keys. I was like, oh no, no, no, no, bro. We don't care about
the keys. We care about the boat. Yeah. And he had a good point. So if there are no other,
let's say for air tags and there are no other Apple products, like pinging cell phone towers,
(17:00):
you won't know its exact location. So you're saying that if people have iPhones on the
boat, it feeds off of other devices. So it's not just the air tag pinging into space, pinging
to the location, like on your iPad that shows you the location. It relies on other people's
devices to pass through another device to the tower, to your iPad. For the triangulation,
(17:25):
I'm assuming. Yeah. So it won't work if every single person on the boat has an Android.
Correct. Or like a tile, right? If there's, I don't really know how tiles work, but I'm
assuming it's the same. If no one around has the tile app, then does it? Well, the tile
is a distance thing. I have no idea. I had to get my dad one for his wallet. He's always
losing his wallet. But yeah, so you have to be in the vicinity of the wallet in order
(17:50):
to activate. Okay. So a tile wouldn't work if you're like a mile away from it. But for
air tags, if there's not better technology these days, who knows? I don't know. But the
air tags, if you're not around another product, say everyone on the boat has iPhones, but
they turn off their location services. Like, can you pass through it? You know what? This
gives me flashbacks to our man that had the earbuds that were stolen from his room. Oh
(18:14):
my gosh. Screw that guy. And he's running all over the hotel saying, you know, Oh look,
now it's, you know, 450 feet away. Now it's five feet away. Now it's a hundred feet away.
Does that kind of make sense though? Cause it's gonna pass through another device. Well,
in that time where it was originally 450 feet away, there was the guy that was his cell
phone was the closest. Right. So you might've needed another to bounce off of. And then
(18:39):
when I was standing right next to him, that's when he said, Oh, now it says it's five feet
away. I was standing next to him with my Apple product, his Apple product. I think you were
at the front desk at that point. It's like, we were all kind of close to this. So now,
yeah, all of our, now it was exact and pinpointed. And that's why it was only five feet away.
But earlier when there was nobody else around him, it was 450 feet away. Cause it hadn't
(19:01):
went, his vehicle was right outside. So I'm like, is, are you sure it's not in your car?
Yeah, no, they were in his pocket. Yeah, they were on his body closer. It's like, how loose
are your pants for you to not know you have earbuds in them? Was he a blueberry? Yeah,
I want to say he was, but he was also traveling on an associate rate. I was going to say,
I know it was associate, but I don't know about status. I'll have to do some research
(19:24):
because now you can get status staying with a form. It's fairly new, right? Within the
last year. No last few years. It's been a while now, but there was time where, no, if
you were an associate, you got no perks, no Benny's nothing. You've got a room. Your benefit
is the rate. Yeah. Cheap rate. Fair. This way it should have been. Well, nowadays the brand's
(19:45):
discounts aren't the same. So I guess it is nice that at least, I mean, yes, you have
to pay a lot more than we used to, but at least I'm getting points in status out of
it. I have a total of 28,000 points. What does that give me? Our hotel, a couple of
nights, almost two nights without a form, no less. Okay. That changes things. Now, honestly,
(20:08):
I would save those points though. I got a car payment now. I'm not traveling. Save them
up and use them at a really nice spot. Yeah. They're valid until summer of 2025. So you
got a little time. You got a few more thousand points you can rack up. Yeah. I'll have a
few one or two nights days somewhere. Got to get a form. Better behave. You know what?
(20:29):
Actually we've got a form story to share. Oh, okay. Let's get into it. Three nights ago
we had a guy check in. Guy had a reservation for an associate rate, but didn't have a very
good form. And the form that he had, he claimed his name was misspelled, which I could kind
of overlook. Maybe. But he also didn't have his ID. So how are you going to check into
a hotel without your ID and a credit card? Right? I have the form. Yeah, but you still
(20:52):
need an ID. This is kind of his argument though. I have the form and I have my credit card.
What else do you need? What's the problem? So when challenged on where his ID was, you'll
love this one. You fly, right? Yeah. So when you go to the airport and you check in, you
check in your bags, right? And then when your bags are checked, you go to security, right?
Yeah. And that's security. You have to present your ID and your boarding pass. Okay. So here's
(21:16):
the problem with this guy's story. Both to the person taking your bags and TSA. Because
you got to check in with it for them to take your luggage, right? Correct. So this guy
claims that he doesn't have his ID because. It was in his bag. It was in his checked luggage
and the airline lost his bags. No, literally not. You can't get on a plane without an ID.
Yeah. So the night that he was checking in, we denied him on the associate rate. He was
(21:41):
given a rack rate. Okay. He comes down the next day and he wants to extend his reservation.
He wants the associate rate, but still can't provide an ID. Well, and just so people don't
think that we just gave him the regular rate without an ID, he put it in his wife's name
who did have her ID and credit card. Right. So we didn't just share that detail. It's
funny because earlier you're like, must be leaves. Oh, I know. That's exactly why I'm
(22:05):
giggling. His wife did not have the form with her name on it. So she got the regular. Exactly.
Correct. Okay. So valid stay technically. Correct. Right. So under her name is now about
the stay, but he wants to put his rewards number on the account. No, but again, he doesn't
have his reward accounts. Correct. And we won't switch it for him because number one,
(22:27):
he doesn't have his ID and number two, to your point, it's not a shared account. So
we're not just going to add it to the folio. So he doesn't like that. He was trying to
bargain with us yesterday saying, you know, like, oh, well, if I can go get an ID, can
you adjust the rate down? No, my guy, I'm sorry. It's like, you need to have all of
these ducks in a row. Once that rate runs, it runs. I'm not adjusting it. Right. That
(22:49):
didn't go over well. But question, could he have gone to DMV? So he asked me that. I
was the one that dealt with him yesterday. Gotten a like temporary printed ID. If it
has this photo on it, it's gotta be a photo ID. Oh yeah. Do they put your photo on it?
Last time I got one, there was no photo on it. So what I told him was there's no DMV
(23:09):
nearby, but there's a AAA office that does offer DMV services. Mind you, it's almost
five o'clock and they're probably going to close soon. I said, do you have AAA? He's
like, no, but I'll buy AAA so I can get them. I'm like, well, you know, they're going to
give you a temporary paper ID without your photo on it. So you might not even want to
waste your time because you need a photo because we won't accept that. So I kind of am the
(23:32):
reason why he decided not to go that route. No, that's totally fine. And at this point,
I had already talked to Bill about what we should do and he actually encouraged me to
ask him to leave instead. Yeah. Or your wife's name can be on the reservation and you can
stay at the regular rate. And that's what he did. What? Bar? Yes. Which was actually
(23:54):
kind of high. Oh, and I was so glad too. It was a little pricier rate. Yeah. Why is that?
For Tuesday, what was yesterday? Wednesday? For a Wednesday, it was like, whoa. Anyway.
So this guy comes down today, still complaining about his rates, still complaining about the
entire experience. And he's talking to the front office supervisor and he's just kind
(24:15):
of being a punk. He changed his tone today because the last two nights when he needed
us. Oh yeah. Super complimentary, super nice. Oh, I'm so sorry. Like I know this isn't normal,
but can you please help me out here type of attitude today? Totally different. Yeah, totally
different guy comes down and he's a punk right off the bat. Talk about how he's going to
(24:36):
open a case. He's going to complain to corporate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So then I'm,
I'm in the back office kind of eavesdropping for a little bit. I want to hear what this
guy is going to say, how he's going to kind of lay out the vibe. And then he just started
being a punk. I'm like, I'm going to go up there. So I walked up and I introduced myself
and I explained to him, no, you can contact corporate, but I need you to understand before
(24:56):
you do so we keep receipts. So you checked in with a bogus form that was illegible. You
checked in with no ID. You gave us a hard time about it. It's like, what are you going
to complain to corporate about? Please tell me. He had no answer. He goes, well, I mean,
I don't want to. Oh, please do me a favor. And I would have welcomed him to call corporate.
Easy fight. Very easy fight. Especially since last night, I didn't like how any of this
(25:20):
was vibing whatsoever. So I contacted the hotel that the form was issued from and I did not
think the GM was going to be there. Cause when it got to this point for us, it's three
15, three 30 in the afternoon hotels on the Eastern time zone. So I didn't think that
the GM was going to be there at all. Call. He's there. Wow. Had a short conversation
with him. I think it was maybe two minutes kind of laid out what was going on and the
(25:44):
vibe that I got from the guy. He goes, oh, well, woman that issued the form, Sally is
working. I'm like, oh, oh, good. Okay. Well, can you please ask Sally if this form that
she gave to her friend, Bob is valid. He says, yeah, hang on. Hang on. Let me get her. Like
a few seconds later. He's like, yeah, I talked to her. He's like, deny the form. The form
is technically valid in the system. He's like, I don't care if it's valid or not. Just deny
(26:07):
the form. We've got problems with the guy. Like, okay. So this employee, how is the employee
connected to your guests? So that's the thing that's kind of interesting. Yeah. Okay. So
when I was listed as a son of son of the associate. Yes. Okay. When it's listed as child of associate
and it's spelled wrong, you really think your mama don't know how to spell your name. Oh,
(26:33):
yeah. And this is where it got interesting because he's claiming that his name on the
folio is spelled wrong. And I said, okay, well, you know, let me ask you a question.
Who's the person that issued the form to you? He says, oh, well, Sally, give it like who
is Sally. Okay, great. What is the relationship of that person to you? What do you mean? Like,
(26:56):
well, on the form, how is it listed? Because, you know, I'm looking at it here and there's
an X there. There's an X. Yeah, it says Sally is your mother. And he kind of looked at me
and I'm like, what is Sally's last name? Well, I don't know what her last name is. She just
got married. Your mama just got married. No, but he claimed sister. So then he adjusts
it and he says, well, it's my sister-in-law. And I'm like, okay, so you don't know your
(27:17):
sister-in-law is last name? Oh, well, no, no. She, I mean, she just got married. Your
sister-in-law would be married to your brother. Right. Well, so then I tried to, yeah, then
I tried to throw him a bone and I was like, well, wait a minute. Is she your sister-in-law
through your brother or is she your sister-in-law through your wife's side? Oh, okay. Good point.
I'm trying to throw him a bone. Yeah. Oh no, no. It's my brother's wife. Oh, you stupid.
(27:42):
Didn't take the bone. You're stupid. You're just stupid. And then I said, I don't understand
how to understand how you would have different last names. Yeah. Well, you know, she's been
giving me the forms for about a year and a half. I just, I don't know what the last name
is. Okay. Well, tell me where does Sally work? Oh, like what hotel is she at? He goes, well,
I think it's in Oklahoma or, or maybe it's Tennessee. I know she just moved to Alabama.
(28:07):
Literally listed half the states. Wouldn't you be like, oh, she works at insert brand
name here. She works at a beep normally. I would go vague like that first. Right. Which
that's gotta be a hell of a commute because the three states that he listed are like four
states over from the one that she lives in. Yeah. Definitely not the person. So I had
talked to the GM last night. I decided I'm going to shoot the GM an email. Yeah. So I
(28:30):
type up a nice little email, some bullet points on how big of a fool this guy is being. And
I send it with the form that was attached. Maybe 20 minutes goes by. Wow. Responsive
GM. No, not from the GM. From Sally? From Sally. Cause he probably just forwarded it
to her. No, it's not, it's not a forward. It's not a reply. Independent email. Yeah.
Sally sent you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, your last bullet point is probably what scared
(28:55):
her. I flat out noted that, you know, this is the kind of stuff that you get fired for.
You lose benefits for. Well, you know, you said it's possible. Oh, the fraud is selling
the form. You might want to talk to her about that. Yeah. That might've lit a fire. Yeah.
Maybe I forgot about that part. So what did Sally say? Oh, Sally was very apologetic.
I'm so sorry. I didn't know that he was doing this. He shouldn't have had a form. I've already
(29:19):
deleted it from the system, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, we'll see if it actually
got deleted or not. Well, yeah, because we checked it again today and it's still active.
But you said the form didn't look good. No, it's multi-generational. Like again, I had
a hard time reading the GM's email. Well, and the forms expire every so often. So if
he's saying that she's been sending the form for a year and a half, no, this is recently
(29:43):
sent. Yeah, but they're valid 60 days. That form is valid through July 28th. Recently
sent that was sent two days ago. And how is it multi-generated? It was a JPEG. It literally
said dot JPEG at the top. Not PDF. No. So it was a screenshot of a PDF file. So I just
(30:04):
thought it was kind of fun. I love going back to the GM's on that stuff. Well, yesterday
when he had to have his wife come down to extend the reservation, I'm thinking, okay,
well they're both down here. Let me just lock them out real quick. And I go up to the room
just as I suspected. Didn't need a key to open the door. Is there more than two sips
(30:24):
in that? I swear to freaking God. No, that was about one sip. That was about one sip.
I'm your A-hole of the week. You're my A-hole of the week. It might be me because I have
the one that had two full glasses. You know, Bill should have saved me some. I should have.
Whatever. I'm sorry. We got other bottles. Yay. Might be a two bottle night. Okay. It's
also early. It can be a two bottle night. Oh, totally. I have two bottles alone. I'm glad
(30:48):
you guys are on the same page. The other night I had a full bottle. Nice. Well, okay. I had
two full bottles that I shared. Just so. Yeah. That was a hangover for sure. Not enough water.
No, not enough water. Too much wine. One of the bottles was Rose. Like who am I? I'm not
a fan of Rose. I know. I didn't buy it. I didn't choose it. Vanderpump Rose. I do love
(31:11):
Vanderpump. Do you really? I do. I'm like borderline obsessed. Oh my God. Did you watch the finale?
Yes. Did you watch the part three? Finale, finale? Girl. Yes. And I'm the type who, yes,
I watched the finale. Do you listen to podcasts about it? And then I go and listen to podcasts
about reactions. Like their opinions. Oh, okay. So, well, I don't remember the names
(31:32):
because they're new to me. I just started listening to the. Okay. You need to listen
to Nick Viles. Oh, I listen to Nick Viles. Okay. Thank you. I've listened to every Nick
Viles episode where he has them as guests. Katie is my favorite guest. Yes. She has her
own podcast now. Yes. With Dana. And Ariana was recently on it. Okay. I haven't listened
in a few weeks. I haven't heard the one where Ariana was on it because I think it just came
(31:52):
out. But I got a road trip on Sunday and I'm going to binge. Yes. Binge their podcast.
Yes. So Nick Viles. Do you like Dana? Do you like Katie? I love Katie. Do you like Ariana?
Lala. I'm kind of iffy on everyone but Katie. Yeah. Okay. Just because it's so up and down.
I respect Lala. I do. Can't stand her. I think she's very opinionated. Opinions are wrong.
(32:17):
I'm glad she voices her opinions other than Sheena and just cries in the corner. True.
True. True. Ariana. I think she needs severe therapy. She does. So does Sandoval. But so
does everybody. Everybody. Everybody. It's weird that like Schwartz is like one of my
faves even though I think he's a ding dong. He's 12. Yeah. He's a child. Yes. His new
(32:38):
girlfriend is also a anyway. Sorry, Bill. Tangent. I could go on a f***ing tangent. I hadn't
noticed. I got my mom listening to Nick Viles reality recap. Yeah. Because it's so good.
Yeah. Did you see the episode with Schwartz when they were in Coachella? His bare feet.
I couldn't stand it. With his girlfriend on a podcast. What are you thinking? It was so
(32:59):
bold. Yeah. So bold. Well, and then I'm sorry. Part of the reunion when they had Joe out.
No. And then Andy asks about the new girlfriend right in front of her. Not a Joe fan, but
that was pretty bad. I mean, that was cold, but Joe is an idiot. Can't stand her. She
just want to be on the show. Totally. That is also a really good podcast to take podcast
(33:20):
notes. Nick Vial and Jared Freed's J-Train podcast. J-Train does a really good job of
just podcasting. I've never heard of him. All right. He's a comedian based out of New
York. He has a Netflix special, 37 and single. It's great. Oh, yeah. Got to look into it.
Jared Freed. But back to the guy. He had- But back to the fraud story. He had, all I
(33:44):
had to do was push open the door. As you're walking by, if you're just a regular person
walking by, you would never know that the door is open. So I just pushed open the door.
A key falls out. He was holding the door open with a key so that in the event that we didn't
allow him to extend, he can still get into the room. Not just one. Just like block the
strike. Duh. Two. Because after that key fell, I picked it up, tried to close the door and
(34:06):
it wouldn't close again. There's another one. Open it, another key falls out. He tried to
do double damage control. Didn't work. I mean, good try. I was telling the front desk agent,
I'm like, I would love to see his reaction when he goes back up to his room. Because
he- And he's locked out. Well, he's not. He actually eventually had the funds to stay
under the regular rate with the incidentals. So he was given a legitimate new key, but
(34:29):
he thinks he doesn't need the key. So I'm like, I wonder how his reaction is. That he
had to use this key. Right, right. But he is still at the hotel as of now? No. He's
gone. He's checked out. Good riddance. Peace out, my brother. He was just so confident
when he was telling you how to get through TSA without an ID. I thought that was the
most hilarious thing. I've heard like minor stories of people getting through TSA without
(34:53):
an ID, but they have other forms of things with their names on them. Like most recently,
my employee, she is from this area, goes to school in another state. So she just flies
to visit her family. And she of course lost her wallet, lost her ID. I talked her through
that. Okay. Let's be smart, girly. Let's keep it on a person. Maybe not have a purse and
(35:17):
a wallet. Let's just keep it like on our body anyway. But she was freaking out, crying her
eyes out at TSA. And she had a prescription for her birth control and said, here's my
prescription. Here's like a debit card. Here's a credit card. Here's like my, my student
ID, my school ID. And they let her through. Really? Yes. So there are school. She has
(35:41):
a photo school ID. And if she has enough that all matches the same name, I think the TSA
agent was like, you're showing me like a prescription, a debit card, a credit card, a school ID
and a boarding pass. Well, to be honest, I've actually accepted a Costco photo credit card
before as well. So a Costco card or credit card. It was a Costco card with their photo
(36:02):
on it. And then they had plenty of other cards that had their name on it. So I'm like, well,
okay, I guess good to know. I mean, but that was when I was nice. I got a Costco card.
That was when she was still new. That was when I was new. Yeah. Well then like, do you
look up their rewards number and be like, all right, you really have no red flags on
your account? Well, we don't know if they had red flags. We don't have that. Oh, it's
(36:26):
just based on your hotel. What we can see is very limited. That's not juicy at all.
Yeah. Lame. Nevermind. I don't want to work front desk. You don't want to work front desk.
No, I really don't. I really don't. Cause I would have to start at the bottom of the
barrel and like work, I don't know, overnight, PM. I don't want that. Not necessarily. No.
I can request a day shift. No experience. You can just say your availability is this.
(36:51):
If you lay that out at the beginning and they accept you, then it is what it is. Let me
apply for some front office manager jobs. Well, that'd be fun to talk about. Would you
go through with the interview? Maybe once, depending on the salary. That's hilarious.
I mean, you can still deny. Right. Right. Right. I think you should do it. You should.
And then when you deny and then they offer you even more money. Oh, okay. Deny again.
(37:15):
And then offer me more money. Right. I mean, cause it's not like you want it. I also don't
know like the going rate for a farm. So it'll depend on location. Yeah. Type of hotel. Yeah.
You could just kind of treat it like the bumble of job interviews. I'm, I'm good at that.
I'm experienced at that. Okay. Just cause you swipe right. Doesn't mean you actually
have to like go on a date. Yeah. Or marry the guy. Yeah. Have you seen there's a creator
(37:38):
on Tik TOK who would go through interview, like phone interviews and he would record
it and just be completely idiotic and record the reaction. I couldn't, I couldn't be idiotic.
I would have to be like somewhat genuine. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, obviously he's trying
to get views. Yeah. The purpose of what he's doing is different. Right. Well, I have to
(37:59):
have an a hole of the week. Oh, mind you, I don't deal with guests that much. So we'll
change that. Well, and the reason for that is the front desk will tell me, Oh, this person
wants to speak to a manager. I say, send it to bill. And someone ratted me. I don't know
who told you because I've never said it in front of you. No, there's going to be other
(38:22):
managers. No, it's just the choice is me or bill. So like the farm is saying they want
to speak to someone higher than me. Well, we have a front office supervisor. Oh, I think
you've talked about this. Yeah, there. It's me. Right, right, right. So it's a bill call
bill. Yeah, I'm busy. Well, honestly, it's I take some of them. Let's be real. Some where
(38:44):
I'm just like, okay, literally in the middle of the site centers. And he could very well
be in the middle of something. But I'm like, he's not going to the phone. No, and more
often than not, I do answer the phone. You do. You're good. I try not to play the game
of pass in the book as far as like, I know that number. Just Yeah, do it. Get it out
of the way. Be done. Yeah, there are a few numbers that I do know that I will let go
(39:06):
to voicemail like all the time. Yeah, I do that all the time. If it's someone I don't
really want to talk to in the moment, they can send me an email. Well, no, like I'll
get people calling asking if we're taking bids for security service. No. And so that's
what I was gonna say. I said this is gonna be my second a hole of the week is a security
service who called and I took the call. He asked if we were looking for security services.
(39:28):
I said, No, we're not looking. But you know what, if you want to just send me your information,
I'll go ahead and accept it. Send it to my email. He sends it to my email. Cool. I think
I made it very clear. We're not looking. He said, Are you looking? I said, No. So I looked
at the bid. It looks good. I even told Bill my hey, this is actually like, let's keep
it in our back pocket. It's competitive until the next day. Another call calls the front
(39:52):
desk four times in a span of an hour. No, I recognize the phone number and I'm not answering
the phone. He then proceeds to send an email where he asks me if I received his bid. I
said, Yes, I did. Thank you. That is all I need. Yes. Next day, he calls the front desk
four more times. Finally, I answer the phone and I say, Hey, Zeus, buddy, I can't talk
(40:19):
to you right now. You've got to stop calling my front desk. He's like, Oh, I just wanted
to see if I have guests that need to get through the phone line. I told him, I think I made
it clear in the beginning that we weren't looking. I did respond to you and told you
that I got your bid. I'll let you know if we need anything else. He's like, Oh, he just
(40:39):
got so sheepish and like embarrassed. But get the head. I sent you a voicemail eight
times already. Yeah, leave a voicemail the first time and then okay, for a couple days,
you can call once a day. Yeah, not even that. I think three days is already get the point.
Get the point. Not even that. Like when when I get these calls asking if we're taking bids,
I'll just tell them no, we're not. But if you'd like to send me information, here's
(41:01):
my email address. And then they give you this stupid story to try and lock in a time where
they meet with you face to face where they're like, Oh, well, our area manager, our area
manager will be in your area tomorrow at 10am. Would you be able to meet for just 15 minutes?
No, no. Worse is when they just show up. That one always drives me nuts. Especially vendors.
(41:25):
You know, if we've got an established relationship with our vendors, why are you just stopping
it? Yeah, you know who I am. You've got my email address. You have my phone number. If
I've worked with you long enough, you even have my cell phone number, right? Don't just
drop in. Well, recently I had emailed a vendor for quotes. The next day they stopped by.
I actually know the day I'm on a regular off day for me. They just so happened to stop
(41:49):
by and they're asking for me. Whatever. I wasn't there the next day they come and I'm
there. I'm like, they didn't even respond to my email. They just going to show up and
expect me to be free. Yes. Apparently. Yes. I mean, I was. So I went out and entertained
it. But that's kind of disrespectful. I feel like you set up an appointment. Yeah. No,
for me, pool towels. Cause we go through so many. I got a great company. I don't even
(42:11):
know where their office is, but great company, competitive pricing, responsive on email,
gets me a quote, gets me my order, gets me the invoice and doesn't stop by. But I do
have to like entertain him on the phone occasionally. He's a really sweet like Indian guy. And I
think it's him and his brother that own the business on the phone and on email. He always
(42:32):
says, hello, my friend. How are you? I literally go Khalid, my friend. This is me in my office
like on speaker, just yelling at this guy and all of his emails are like, thank you
so much boss. Like have a blessed day. So in my emails, I'm always like my boss Khalid,
(42:52):
hope you are well, hope your family is blessed. Can I get 300 towels, my friend? And he loves
it. And the one time he personally delivered a towel order, I was off and my staff knows
about this guy. Cause I always, I like, I mean you have them on speaker. Yeah. So they
overhear it and they go, Liz Khalid was here and he wanted to meet you. And it's like the
(43:15):
one vendor I would actually entertain. Yeah. But there are other towel vendors. I'm like,
yeah, I don't need towels. I got Khalid. I got my man. I'm not going to cheat on him.
So after stories about vendors and fraud, fraud and hot tubs and whatnot, we have another
entry in guess that survey. Guess that survey. So as always, the way the game plays is I'm
(43:41):
going to read you a survey. I want you to tell me on a scale of one to 10, what you
think this score is. Cause this is all about how people just do not know how to fill out
a survey. They really don't. They should probably learn. They should listen to this podcast.
Share with your friends. Yes. So this survey comes in from a guest that stayed with us
for two nights. His comments were very positive. Says I was greeted with a very warm welcome.
(44:06):
The room was clean. I needed extra towels and hospitality brought them right away. The
hotel is in a great location with lots of restaurant choices. Breakfast was served every
morning. I enjoyed my two nights day. Guess that rating. I mean, okay. Literally there
was nothing even mediocre about that survey. All of it was glowing. So on a 10 scale where
(44:27):
a nine and a 10 is passing and anything less is a fail. What do you think all of those
positive comments earned us? Okay. Is there an overall rating and then individual like
F and B housekeeping? Yes. Okay. But we're guessing the overalls that the guest inputs
and is not a composite. Correct. It is a standalone question, standalone rating. Logically, you
(44:50):
would think nine or 10 or 10. I mean, logically, you would think with something tells me that
it's not there. No, all of our surveys just don't make sense. None of them do. Okay, so
I'm going to go with a six. All right, jazz. I'll go five. Six out of 10. Yeah. Yes. That's
a one for Liz. So what did the guest give the individual categories? Anything a nine
(45:14):
or a 10? Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh, wow. Notes how the room was clean, but gave clean
ness is seven. Oh, noted how they needed additional towels and they were brought right away and
how their greeting was a warm welcome. Okay. Staff service a six. Well, that makes no sense.
Location of the hotel, which they mentioned in a great area, lots of restaurants. Six.
(45:38):
But maybe they thought six was a 10. Did you have to like scroll over? Right. Mobile device.
Right. Oh, that's the highest one I could see. Okay. No, I don't know. I mean, Breck
breakfast, they gave a five. Five out of 10. Did you respond to the guest? Of course I
did. I have to. I would have said like, thank you so much for your stay. Your answers are
(46:01):
inconsistent based on your verbiage. I'm a little confused as to why we were a six out
of 10 when nothing was wrong. How could we be better? I want to say that I did ask something
to that effect. Seeing that your comments about your stay were so overall positive,
how could we do better based on the score that you? Right. Nice way to put that. Never
heard anything back. Of course not. When was this recently? Uh, two days ago. So it's just
(46:26):
not consistent. No, it's not. And your scores for the brand have nothing to do with the
verbiage. It's all to do with the numbers through 10 that they give, which is kind of
even more frustrating because we've had such a good month that something like this, which
is positive in the verbatim brings us down still. Yeah. We had such a great month. Your
(46:48):
scores are good as of now. Well, they're good now. Better, but they were great. Improving.
Slipping. Well, slipping from what it was at the beginning of the month. Well, because
you've talked about, you know, the last couple of months, you've really rebuilt the staff
because you had a bunch of newbies, right? We kind of had to rebuild the staff twice
in the last year and a half. But also with the work that's being done at the hotel and
(47:13):
us taking that notice off, now they legitimately complain about not having warning. And maybe
that has something to do with why they gave us what they gave us without them saying it.
So wait, Bill, how long have you been at this hotel? A year and a half. Because you were
task force and then transferred. Yeah. And then decided I liked it and stayed. And then
Jazz, how long have you been with property? January of 2018. So, oh, yeah. Too long. Too
(47:38):
long. Don't don't tell your boss that right now. I know her boss tells her all the time
that he wants to get her into a bigger, better position. Well, it's just so far from where
I live that the commute is. I mean, I'm by LAX. That's crazy. Yeah. But you know what?
You make it so flexible that it actually makes me not want to go anywhere or grow in my career.
(48:02):
It would have to be like an amazing fit and like an amazing opportunity to like want to
leave. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we'll start working on attendance. You mean punctuality.
Sorry. Yeah. That would be him like pushing you into something like good for you, not
wanting for you to leave. At the end of the day, I don't want any of our team to leave.
(48:25):
Right. But I want every one of our team members to succeed. Yes. I mean, that's I tell my
staff all the time. Again, very impressionable young adults. I briefly spoke about on one
of our last recordings, one of my like longest tenured employees of three years, like put
in her notice and she is now gone. I'm really sad. She actually stopped by today to like
(48:49):
turn in all of her stuff. But it was a really good closing of chapter. So my thing to employees
is always you come in, you learn a ton. Could be your first job. You learn about the industry.
You know, maybe you don't work a restaurant job, but you can be a rec attendant. It's
kind of same, same, but different. Right. So you learn a lot. You have fun. You have
(49:11):
fun with what you're doing and you leave on a positive note. You leave saying, oh, working
for Liz in that rec department. That was a good time. I learned a lot and I had a great
time. And if that is accomplished and they go on to do bigger or better things or go
off to school or go back to school to college, I think that's success. Well, I, my personality
(49:31):
type, I'm very loyal. And when it comes to maybe to a fault, exactly. No, a hundred percent.
And I like to mentor people as well. And with the amount of turnover at this hotel, it's
like, OK, you mentor one person and then they leave and then you mentor another person.
And I feel like I don't want to leave this person hanging. Yeah. Connect. Yeah. I feel
like we're getting somewhere. You just got a new baby chick. You got to grow them up.
(49:56):
So you get it. It's like, I don't want to leave you hanging. I know. Yeah. So I'm tired.
And then you move on. Yeah. And then I help the next person and then you move on. Yeah.
But it's amazing seeing you because now I'm seeing employees that work for me three summers
ago. One of my seasonals actually has come back after not being here for two years. And
(50:17):
last year he wanted a job. He had so many demands. I only want to open. I don't want
to close and I want to make a million dollars. And you still hired? No. Last summer I was
like, nah, bro. No, sorry. So this year he groveled and he was like, look, Liz, I think
I want to come back. I'll work whatever you need me to. And I kind of sat him down. I
(50:39):
was like, look, would love to have you. You have two years under your belt in this department,
but I need you to step up. You are the one with the most experience. People might have
been here for a couple months, but you have two years. So I sat him down. I was like,
you need to be fully available. You need to not go on any vacations this summer and you
need to be a leader. And he has stepped the F up. Nice. Sometimes that's what they need.
(51:02):
Yes. And I'm telling you, he's going to be one of my rock stars this summer. He's been
there a week and a half and he's already like a solid rock for the department. I even let
him leave early today to go to a baseball game. So on that note, do you guys want to
wrap up here? I think it's a good point. Do you want me to take us out on some of it?
I love it when you take us out. Okay. To our phenomenal listeners that we love so much,
(51:25):
make sure to follow us on any socials, Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is moving
along quite nicely. How many followers are we at? 3k. Oh my gosh. Okay. What was it the
last time you heard? 2k. Oh wow. So that has been a great deal of movement in like a month.
Yeah. Pick up about a thousand in a month. So make sure to give us a follow on LinkedIn.
(51:49):
Anywhere you can find us to listen to your podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, we stream our episodes
on YouTube. You can find us anywhere. Just use that search bar for Tales from the Service
Industry or TFTSI. And then if you want to drop us a little line, that's what my HR manager
says all the time. Just drop me a line. Drop me a line if you need anything. Well, drop
(52:11):
us a line. If you have a story or want to be on the podcast, you can email us at og3.
The number three. Oh, that's the second time around. Sorry. Damn it. og3 at tftsi.com.
That is og. The number three. At tftsi.com. And thank you guys so much for listening.
Make sure to rate and leave a comment on this episode. Sounds like they're easy. Sounds
(52:35):
like fun. And a share. A share on the Instagram story is so, so powerful. You guys, you have
a great day. We'll see you in two weeks. We're out. Bye.
Welcome back to Tales from the Service Industry. I'm your host, I'm Bill. Tonight we've got
(00:19):
a little modified team. So we've got Liz with us. Hi team. And joining us for the first
time is Jazz. Hi. Appreciate you being here. As is a tradition, if you can give us a little
bit of a backstory on kind of your time in the industry, how you got to be where you're
at. Don't have to go into deep details, but sure. So since 2018, I've been AGM. Prior
to that, I started at typical front desk, front desk supervisor, front office manager,
(00:44):
and then now AGM. So the typical pattern that you expect. That's been my role. I've had
a little creative roles here and there. They called me a social media manager at one point,
which was nothing like social media was today. And literally all I did was respond to Trip
Advisor reviews. Oh, that is not social media at all. Not at all. But back then, I mean,
Instagram wasn't even created yet. So that's a social media as it was. Yeah. So if I could
(01:08):
put on my resume, I'll take it. Hell yeah. Sure. I think at my property, it's the marketing
team that responds to those. And if they're super duper bad, it'll go up to the AGM or
AGM that's responding to bad reviews. So we actually have a company, social media manager.
I know does not match, but we hired a third party company to respond to all of our all
(01:30):
of them. Social media review. Well, not really social media, but yeah, all of the Yelp, the
Google reviews, the external review sites. Yes. What's the abbreviation? OTA. OTA. Yes.
Well no. OTA is online travel agent. Yes. So the external sites, right. But Trip Advisor
is not really an OTA. It's the reviews. It's one of the review sites. Got it. Trip Advisor
(01:51):
or Google. Yes. Trip Advisor. Yelp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where anybody could just go on and write.
Exactly. And a lot of times they weren't even writing about the right hotel. Yeah. Nothing
is verified. Correct. Whereas an internal survey. Right. So with an internal survey,
you legitimately have to have stayed at the hotel. You get a link to your email that you
(02:13):
click on and therefore it'll take you to the site. So they verified you stayed there and
now you're eligible to review. And it's the internal surveys that you guys respond to
in-house. Yes. Yeah. And that's the only revenue we have to respond on. The most now is an
approval. They send us an email. This is our response. Do you approve? Yes. Not always.
Oh, you say no sometimes. Oh yeah. There's a lot of times where I'll get survey responses
(02:36):
and I'm like, no, we're not responding to this guest like this. Oh. I'll go in and I'll
just modify it. Well, I'm glad you do that because I would literally just approve them
all. Which is fine. Who was originally writing the response that you denied? The third party.
The third party. Got it. Yeah. That's funny. There are some times where the review is just
(02:57):
very canned. Like you can tell it's a copy and paste and it just doesn't quite fit the
response that it should be. Or it's just not the right vibe. Right. So in that instance,
do you just pull from chat GBT? No, I just, I pull from experience of having to answer
reviews for years. Yeah. Well, sometimes I'm so petty. I just want them to know it's a
(03:19):
generic response. I want you to know that we did not put time or thought into this response.
That's how we feel about your review. Yeah. For your six out of 10, you can have a generic
response. Exactly. But for your nines and tens, it can be absolutely genuine. Yes. Please
come again. Yes. If you ever read my responses, a lot of them are generic. I've got a formula
where I'll take kind of the template that they give. I know what to rip out and then
(03:42):
I just drop in a few lines and send. I could. You put a lot more effort than I would. Well,
you know how I write emails. A lot of times it's like me crafting a very nice way of saying,
I'm going to leave you in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Drive home. Some of them are hilarious.
A nice crafty way of saying, no, you're dumb. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. He's really good.
(04:03):
We get the boss. You're allowed to do that. Well, yeah, but it's not the right thing to
do. Well, half the times they don't have a clap back. So no, no. And I make sure that
they don't have a clap. Are they intelligent enough to like read between the lines and
understand what you're really saying? Some maybe. Yeah. I mean, we deal with some interesting
folks. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the problems that we've been having lately have been fraud
(04:27):
related. You know, like we were talking a little bit before this about people using,
you know, fraudulent employee forms. Right. Like we had one that had a bunch of problems
with the room. We shared this in an earlier episode where he'd stayed, I think it was
eight nights or no, uh, eight nights and 14 days, something like that. Um, one of the
nights happened to be on a certificate, which got him a review link. Yes. So he flamed us
(04:53):
in the review link. So like that guy, yeah, I wrote, you can F off. Oh, I wrote him a
fairly professional, but yet blunt email inviting him to enjoy future stays at a hotel
other than ours. Stay with our brand. Just not here. Yeah. The template will say at the
bottom and we hope you, you know, return to the set hotel, but I'll just change it. We
(05:16):
hope you have to stay at the brand. I don't care if you say at this hotel, you could,
as long as you have the brand not here. But on the timing of us recording this episode,
we are post Memorial day weekend. Yes. By a few days. Yeah. How did your hotel do? Um,
okay. Really well considering, you know, the challenge with my property at the moment is
(05:41):
that we have a bunch of rooms out of order because of projects that are going on. Right.
So our occupancy was not full, but that didn't prevent us from having jokers. We had problems
over the weekend and the last week, a few that we'll get to share tonight. Yeah. I'm
glad the weekend passed with no big problems, but for us, you know, kind of that spring
break and then you've got Memorial day weekend. That's the last kind of practice period before
(06:06):
summer starts. It's your warmup. Yeah. And like all of our projects are due to be over
in a week, week and a half at the most father's day. Yes, absolutely. Like the first couple
days of June projects will be done. So all the rooms are back in inventory. Everything
is ramped up, ready to go. And because the area had a really bad spring break and now
(06:30):
we had a Memorial day weekend that was kind of a misfire because of the projects, right?
Our team hasn't really practiced. So I'm a little concerned. Like practice a fully sold
out holiday weekend. The high rates, the high expectations, the high occupancy, everything
at the max. The team's been kind of coasting for the last eight weeks. So I'm worried about
(06:53):
the beginning of summer because it's going to be kind of a rude shock. Right. There's
been no warmup. Yeah. I mean, in my department, you know, people say, Oh, are you ready for
summer? I'm like, yes, I have been literally prepping for this the last five months and
I call it my three super bowls of the year. If you're an FNB, you know, your Easter, your
(07:13):
Mother's Day, your Thanksgiving, your Christmas. Those are like your big days in FNB for rec
for me specifically. Yeah, you have your Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, but those
aren't just one days. Those are entire weekends. And Fourth of July this year is on a Thursday.
So it will be probably Wednesday will be busy. Thursday will be slammed. And then Friday,
(07:37):
Saturday, Sunday. Oh, man. So essentially a full work week just at 100%. Are they doing
fireworks by you? No. So my property is a little bit different. When sunset goes down,
everyone leaves because we are very family oriented. So when the kids need to go to bed
or plenty of people live literally on the beach where they can better see fireworks
(07:59):
from nearby peers, they go home. So it's like, thank God seven o'clock go the F home. But
I got to say, I talk about my staff a lot on this podcast and I've been hiring seasonals
the last few months. Seasonal being the summer season? Just employees. Right. Seasonal employees.
So from the time of hire through to mid August, a lot of college students, if they're in a
(08:24):
quarter system, they won't go back until mid September. So I know I have them for Labor
Day. So I hire a little strategically. Where are you going to school? Oh, you're going
to the UC? That's great. Yeah. Okay. They'll be here through mid September. But the thing
the staff did phenomenal, like little to no hiccups with the staff. Normally I have to
(08:47):
like be on their butts about everything the first holiday of the year. They did great.
And you guys were sold out. So Saturday, you know, we're in an area with a Marine layer.
We're a waterfront property. Normally the Marine layer, you know, May Gray burns off
11, 12, sometimes one. Oh no, Saturday is Memorial Day weekend. 852. I go on the pool deck and
(09:10):
the sun's out. I was like, Oh, here we go. Thinking like I have an hour, hour and a half
to like really finish getting the pool deck set. Oh no, people started coming in. Not
without weather. Not a seat in the house at 945. Wow. Yeah. So from 845 to 945 200 people
showed up. Do you guys do DJs at the pool area? Saturday we had, I don't even. Okay.
(09:33):
So I know his name. His nickname is coconut Frank. Steel drum. That's what it is. Oh,
fun. Steel drum. And then we hire like an ice cream truck to give away free ice cream
to people who are at the pool. A lot of kids. Yeah. So the team did great, but I did have
one a hole of the weekend. Yeah. So again, I'm saying family oriented. We have a lot
(09:54):
of repeat customers, right? I know this guy, he's in the fitness center most days and he
is that jerk in the fitness center. That's always on a cell phone taking really loud
calls. He'll have his AirPods in, but he is just talking so loudly that I have had to
go up to him a couple of times and be like, Hey, can you take that outside? Like you're
disrupting other people. I've gotten complaints. So he's that kind of guy. And be like, Oh,
(10:15):
oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Liz. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, okay, dude, this is like the sixth
day in the row. I've told you this, get the clue. No one under the age of 14 is allowed
in the hot tub. Big part of my staff's job and the lifeguard's job is literally emptying
the hot tub of the children. Because when the families come on property, the parents
could give two quips. They're at the bar, getting a drink. They're sitting on a chase
(10:36):
lounge talking to their girlfriends, talking about, Oh my God, where are you? Oh, you're
going to Ibiza for this summer. They're talking about all their grando vacations and their
kids are just running rampant. I had numerous times over the weekend, this exact person
refused to get his children out of the hot tub. No matter how many times the lifeguard
asks, no matter how many times my staff asked, it was only when I went onto the pool deck,
(11:00):
he would be like, Oh kids, Liz is on the pool deck. Now we really got to get out. Yeah.
How old are the kids? Um, like four and six. He's okay with this four year old. Oh yeah.
These people do not care at all. They don't care until they care. Yeah. They don't care
until I don't know. Somebody gets hurt. They're threatened to get kicked out. Yeah. Like,
(11:20):
so routinely over the weekend, I'm hearing this phrase a lot. Oh, now Liz is here. Now
we really have to get out. So I go to all my staff and I'm like, is he refusing to get
his kids out of the hot tub to you? What, what, what about for you? And my staff is
like, no, he literally refuses. Like we're having such a hard time. So finally the last
time he's like, Oh, Liz is here. You got to get out. I go, Mr. Smith, I want to let you
(11:42):
know this is a property rule. This is not just my rule. So when my staff or the lifeguard
asks for your kids to get out of the hot tub, yet they mean it. It's not just me creating
that rule. Please respect my staff and please respect our policies. Ooh, how'd that go over?
Oh, he was like, Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well we always listen. And I'm like, uh-huh. Yeah.
(12:05):
Thank you. Have a great day. Let us know if you need anything else. So he is my a-hole
of the week because it's not my rule. Why, why is it only me coming on the pool deck
that you're like, Ooh, now I have to follow the rules. Like respect my team and the job
they are doing. But also your staff just lets him ignore them. They're so intimidating.
And they did by like people of any sort of influence. Yes. And my staff is young. They
(12:31):
range from 16 to 20. Oh, okay. So it's like a lot of their first job. And if some big
strong dude is like, no, I'm not getting my kid out of the hot tub. They're like, Oh,
sorry. And they run away. They don't run to you though. I just, I don't know. I can't
fathom just allowing someone to walk all over me. I can't either. But I mean, this bill
(12:54):
can attest to this area. The hotel is in the rules apply to everybody but me. That's, that's
her area. Oh gosh. I don't think I could work there. Imagine 200 blueberry elites on the
pool deck. Yeah. At one time, none of which believe that the rules apply to them, but
the rules definitively apply to that person. Right. Oh, there's strawberry. Go talk to
(13:15):
them about the rules. Don't talk to me. So no, I kind of put him in his place and now
hopefully he listens. We'll see. I doubt it. I highly doubt it. He, he just, he's just
a jerk. I mean, he's rented boats before and there have been times I'm like, Oh my God,
why is that boat still here? Like they checked in 25 minutes ago. They should be out in the
(13:36):
water enjoying their boat rental and come to find out my staff is running all over the
place with all of his ridiculous requests. They go down to the dock, right? Oh, we need
a wine opener. They run up, get a wine opener, come back. Oh, do you have any blankets? They
run up, go get blankets, run down. And like the blankets are in storage in the building
on the second floor. Like it's a distance. It's a distance. It's disrespectful. Oh, can
(14:00):
you go to the bar and like order us another round of drinks before we leave? And I'm like,
bro, this kid is 17. Like, why are you going and telling him to go order you drinks at
the bar? So he's that kind of person. It's also like what servers hate when they say,
Oh, can I have ranch? And they come with your ranch. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I get extra napkins
or whatever? It's like, tell me everything you need now. And the servers might like,
can I get you anything else? And you say no. Okay, whatever. Yeah. So he's just that kind
(14:26):
of person. Well, the rental ends at the end of the rental time anyway, right? Hell yeah,
it does. Or does he pitch that fit that we, yeah, we rented it at two, but we didn't leave
the dock until 245. I don't give him any favors. No, I don't. There are certain people I will
if we have room for it right on the calendar. And maybe, I don't know, they give my staff
(14:47):
a good handshake and compensate them. I'm willing to bend the rules before a jerk like
that. And I know he doesn't tip. Are your boats trackable? So like if somebody doesn't
come back on time, can you find it? This is like a current topic because we got new electric
bikes. And love those things. And the boss's boss's boss was like, Oh, maybe we get air
(15:07):
tags or tiles for the electric bikes. And I was like, well, kind of the electric bike,
what about a $50,000 boat? Maybe screw the $2,000 electric bike. But my whole thing is
like with air tags specifically, you have to have an Apple ID. Who is going to own that?
Because I'm not at work 24 seven. I don't want that login. Yeah, just create one. So
(15:30):
create a shared one or just buy an iPad for the property. Yeah. So I think that's a security
problem. Pass this on to me. That's where the responsibility of tracking them would
lie because that's loss prevention. Right? Yeah. So it's literally in their wheelhouse.
Yeah. So it's in discussion right now. But if you're tracking people, you have to let
(15:53):
them know, right? Well, you're not tracking them. You're tracking your property. I mean,
do you still have to let them know? I don't know. I think I would just put it in the rental
contract. Yeah. Fine print that they don't read. Yeah. But okay, it's in there just as
one of the addendums. Item number 22. Do you make it visible on the vessel? I probably
wouldn't know because then if somebody is intending to steal it or not bring it back
(16:14):
on time, then they can off board. Yeah, they can get rid of it. Because then there was
discussion of like attaching it to the key. That's not a bad idea. So they know they're
getting tracked when they get into the boat, but you could easily take off a tile or an
air tag and throw it in the water. So I was talking to my IT guy because he asked, why
is security asking you about air tags? And he was like, do you lose the keys often? I
(16:39):
was like, no, what are you talking about? They break. And he was like, security wants
to attach a tracker to the keys. I was like, oh no, no, no, no, bro. We don't care about
the keys. We care about the boat. Yeah. And he had a good point. So if there are no other,
let's say for air tags and there are no other Apple products, like pinging cell phone towers,
(17:00):
you won't know its exact location. So you're saying that if people have iPhones on the
boat, it feeds off of other devices. So it's not just the air tag pinging into space, pinging
to the location, like on your iPad that shows you the location. It relies on other people's
devices to pass through another device to the tower, to your iPad. For the triangulation,
(17:25):
I'm assuming. Yeah. So it won't work if every single person on the boat has an Android.
Correct. Or like a tile, right? If there's, I don't really know how tiles work, but I'm
assuming it's the same. If no one around has the tile app, then does it? Well, the tile
is a distance thing. I have no idea. I had to get my dad one for his wallet. He's always
losing his wallet. But yeah, so you have to be in the vicinity of the wallet in order
(17:50):
to activate. Okay. So a tile wouldn't work if you're like a mile away from it. But for
air tags, if there's not better technology these days, who knows? I don't know. But the
air tags, if you're not around another product, say everyone on the boat has iPhones, but
they turn off their location services. Like, can you pass through it? You know what? This
gives me flashbacks to our man that had the earbuds that were stolen from his room. Oh
(18:14):
my gosh. Screw that guy. And he's running all over the hotel saying, you know, Oh look,
now it's, you know, 450 feet away. Now it's five feet away. Now it's a hundred feet away.
Does that kind of make sense though? Cause it's gonna pass through another device. Well,
in that time where it was originally 450 feet away, there was the guy that was his cell
phone was the closest. Right. So you might've needed another to bounce off of. And then
(18:39):
when I was standing right next to him, that's when he said, Oh, now it says it's five feet
away. I was standing next to him with my Apple product, his Apple product. I think you were
at the front desk at that point. It's like, we were all kind of close to this. So now,
yeah, all of our, now it was exact and pinpointed. And that's why it was only five feet away.
But earlier when there was nobody else around him, it was 450 feet away. Cause it hadn't
(19:01):
went, his vehicle was right outside. So I'm like, is, are you sure it's not in your car?
Yeah, no, they were in his pocket. Yeah, they were on his body closer. It's like, how loose
are your pants for you to not know you have earbuds in them? Was he a blueberry? Yeah,
I want to say he was, but he was also traveling on an associate rate. I was going to say,
I know it was associate, but I don't know about status. I'll have to do some research
(19:24):
because now you can get status staying with a form. It's fairly new, right? Within the
last year. No last few years. It's been a while now, but there was time where, no, if
you were an associate, you got no perks, no Benny's nothing. You've got a room. Your benefit
is the rate. Yeah. Cheap rate. Fair. This way it should have been. Well, nowadays the brand's
(19:45):
discounts aren't the same. So I guess it is nice that at least, I mean, yes, you have
to pay a lot more than we used to, but at least I'm getting points in status out of
it. I have a total of 28,000 points. What does that give me? Our hotel, a couple of
nights, almost two nights without a form, no less. Okay. That changes things. Now, honestly,
(20:08):
I would save those points though. I got a car payment now. I'm not traveling. Save them
up and use them at a really nice spot. Yeah. They're valid until summer of 2025. So you
got a little time. You got a few more thousand points you can rack up. Yeah. I'll have a
few one or two nights days somewhere. Got to get a form. Better behave. You know what?
(20:29):
Actually we've got a form story to share. Oh, okay. Let's get into it. Three nights ago
we had a guy check in. Guy had a reservation for an associate rate, but didn't have a very
good form. And the form that he had, he claimed his name was misspelled, which I could kind
of overlook. Maybe. But he also didn't have his ID. So how are you going to check into
a hotel without your ID and a credit card? Right? I have the form. Yeah, but you still
(20:52):
need an ID. This is kind of his argument though. I have the form and I have my credit card.
What else do you need? What's the problem? So when challenged on where his ID was, you'll
love this one. You fly, right? Yeah. So when you go to the airport and you check in, you
check in your bags, right? And then when your bags are checked, you go to security, right?
Yeah. And that's security. You have to present your ID and your boarding pass. Okay. So here's
(21:16):
the problem with this guy's story. Both to the person taking your bags and TSA. Because
you got to check in with it for them to take your luggage, right? Correct. So this guy
claims that he doesn't have his ID because. It was in his bag. It was in his checked luggage
and the airline lost his bags. No, literally not. You can't get on a plane without an ID.
Yeah. So the night that he was checking in, we denied him on the associate rate. He was
(21:41):
given a rack rate. Okay. He comes down the next day and he wants to extend his reservation.
He wants the associate rate, but still can't provide an ID. Well, and just so people don't
think that we just gave him the regular rate without an ID, he put it in his wife's name
who did have her ID and credit card. Right. So we didn't just share that detail. It's
funny because earlier you're like, must be leaves. Oh, I know. That's exactly why I'm
(22:05):
giggling. His wife did not have the form with her name on it. So she got the regular. Exactly.
Correct. Okay. So valid stay technically. Correct. Right. So under her name is now about
the stay, but he wants to put his rewards number on the account. No, but again, he doesn't
have his reward accounts. Correct. And we won't switch it for him because number one,
(22:27):
he doesn't have his ID and number two, to your point, it's not a shared account. So
we're not just going to add it to the folio. So he doesn't like that. He was trying to
bargain with us yesterday saying, you know, like, oh, well, if I can go get an ID, can
you adjust the rate down? No, my guy, I'm sorry. It's like, you need to have all of
these ducks in a row. Once that rate runs, it runs. I'm not adjusting it. Right. That
(22:49):
didn't go over well. But question, could he have gone to DMV? So he asked me that. I
was the one that dealt with him yesterday. Gotten a like temporary printed ID. If it
has this photo on it, it's gotta be a photo ID. Oh yeah. Do they put your photo on it?
Last time I got one, there was no photo on it. So what I told him was there's no DMV
(23:09):
nearby, but there's a AAA office that does offer DMV services. Mind you, it's almost
five o'clock and they're probably going to close soon. I said, do you have AAA? He's
like, no, but I'll buy AAA so I can get them. I'm like, well, you know, they're going to
give you a temporary paper ID without your photo on it. So you might not even want to
waste your time because you need a photo because we won't accept that. So I kind of am the
(23:32):
reason why he decided not to go that route. No, that's totally fine. And at this point,
I had already talked to Bill about what we should do and he actually encouraged me to
ask him to leave instead. Yeah. Or your wife's name can be on the reservation and you can
stay at the regular rate. And that's what he did. What? Bar? Yes. Which was actually
(23:54):
kind of high. Oh, and I was so glad too. It was a little pricier rate. Yeah. Why is that?
For Tuesday, what was yesterday? Wednesday? For a Wednesday, it was like, whoa. Anyway.
So this guy comes down today, still complaining about his rates, still complaining about the
entire experience. And he's talking to the front office supervisor and he's just kind
(24:15):
of being a punk. He changed his tone today because the last two nights when he needed
us. Oh yeah. Super complimentary, super nice. Oh, I'm so sorry. Like I know this isn't normal,
but can you please help me out here type of attitude today? Totally different. Yeah, totally
different guy comes down and he's a punk right off the bat. Talk about how he's going to
(24:36):
open a case. He's going to complain to corporate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So then I'm,
I'm in the back office kind of eavesdropping for a little bit. I want to hear what this
guy is going to say, how he's going to kind of lay out the vibe. And then he just started
being a punk. I'm like, I'm going to go up there. So I walked up and I introduced myself
and I explained to him, no, you can contact corporate, but I need you to understand before
(24:56):
you do so we keep receipts. So you checked in with a bogus form that was illegible. You
checked in with no ID. You gave us a hard time about it. It's like, what are you going
to complain to corporate about? Please tell me. He had no answer. He goes, well, I mean,
I don't want to. Oh, please do me a favor. And I would have welcomed him to call corporate.
Easy fight. Very easy fight. Especially since last night, I didn't like how any of this
(25:20):
was vibing whatsoever. So I contacted the hotel that the form was issued from and I did not
think the GM was going to be there. Cause when it got to this point for us, it's three
15, three 30 in the afternoon hotels on the Eastern time zone. So I didn't think that
the GM was going to be there at all. Call. He's there. Wow. Had a short conversation
with him. I think it was maybe two minutes kind of laid out what was going on and the
(25:44):
vibe that I got from the guy. He goes, oh, well, woman that issued the form, Sally is
working. I'm like, oh, oh, good. Okay. Well, can you please ask Sally if this form that
she gave to her friend, Bob is valid. He says, yeah, hang on. Hang on. Let me get her. Like
a few seconds later. He's like, yeah, I talked to her. He's like, deny the form. The form
is technically valid in the system. He's like, I don't care if it's valid or not. Just deny
(26:07):
the form. We've got problems with the guy. Like, okay. So this employee, how is the employee
connected to your guests? So that's the thing that's kind of interesting. Yeah. Okay. So
when I was listed as a son of son of the associate. Yes. Okay. When it's listed as child of associate
and it's spelled wrong, you really think your mama don't know how to spell your name. Oh,
(26:33):
yeah. And this is where it got interesting because he's claiming that his name on the
folio is spelled wrong. And I said, okay, well, you know, let me ask you a question.
Who's the person that issued the form to you? He says, oh, well, Sally, give it like who
is Sally. Okay, great. What is the relationship of that person to you? What do you mean? Like,
(26:56):
well, on the form, how is it listed? Because, you know, I'm looking at it here and there's
an X there. There's an X. Yeah, it says Sally is your mother. And he kind of looked at me
and I'm like, what is Sally's last name? Well, I don't know what her last name is. She just
got married. Your mama just got married. No, but he claimed sister. So then he adjusts
it and he says, well, it's my sister-in-law. And I'm like, okay, so you don't know your
(27:17):
sister-in-law is last name? Oh, well, no, no. She, I mean, she just got married. Your
sister-in-law would be married to your brother. Right. Well, so then I tried to, yeah, then
I tried to throw him a bone and I was like, well, wait a minute. Is she your sister-in-law
through your brother or is she your sister-in-law through your wife's side? Oh, okay. Good point.
I'm trying to throw him a bone. Yeah. Oh no, no. It's my brother's wife. Oh, you stupid.
(27:42):
Didn't take the bone. You're stupid. You're just stupid. And then I said, I don't understand
how to understand how you would have different last names. Yeah. Well, you know, she's been
giving me the forms for about a year and a half. I just, I don't know what the last name
is. Okay. Well, tell me where does Sally work? Oh, like what hotel is she at? He goes, well,
I think it's in Oklahoma or, or maybe it's Tennessee. I know she just moved to Alabama.
(28:07):
Literally listed half the states. Wouldn't you be like, oh, she works at insert brand
name here. She works at a beep normally. I would go vague like that first. Right. Which
that's gotta be a hell of a commute because the three states that he listed are like four
states over from the one that she lives in. Yeah. Definitely not the person. So I had
talked to the GM last night. I decided I'm going to shoot the GM an email. Yeah. So I
(28:30):
type up a nice little email, some bullet points on how big of a fool this guy is being. And
I send it with the form that was attached. Maybe 20 minutes goes by. Wow. Responsive
GM. No, not from the GM. From Sally? From Sally. Cause he probably just forwarded it
to her. No, it's not, it's not a forward. It's not a reply. Independent email. Yeah.
Sally sent you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, your last bullet point is probably what scared
(28:55):
her. I flat out noted that, you know, this is the kind of stuff that you get fired for.
You lose benefits for. Well, you know, you said it's possible. Oh, the fraud is selling
the form. You might want to talk to her about that. Yeah. That might've lit a fire. Yeah.
Maybe I forgot about that part. So what did Sally say? Oh, Sally was very apologetic.
I'm so sorry. I didn't know that he was doing this. He shouldn't have had a form. I've already
(29:19):
deleted it from the system, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, we'll see if it actually
got deleted or not. Well, yeah, because we checked it again today and it's still active.
But you said the form didn't look good. No, it's multi-generational. Like again, I had
a hard time reading the GM's email. Well, and the forms expire every so often. So if
he's saying that she's been sending the form for a year and a half, no, this is recently
(29:43):
sent. Yeah, but they're valid 60 days. That form is valid through July 28th. Recently
sent that was sent two days ago. And how is it multi-generated? It was a JPEG. It literally
said dot JPEG at the top. Not PDF. No. So it was a screenshot of a PDF file. So I just
(30:04):
thought it was kind of fun. I love going back to the GM's on that stuff. Well, yesterday
when he had to have his wife come down to extend the reservation, I'm thinking, okay,
well they're both down here. Let me just lock them out real quick. And I go up to the room
just as I suspected. Didn't need a key to open the door. Is there more than two sips
(30:24):
in that? I swear to freaking God. No, that was about one sip. That was about one sip.
I'm your A-hole of the week. You're my A-hole of the week. It might be me because I have
the one that had two full glasses. You know, Bill should have saved me some. I should have.
Whatever. I'm sorry. We got other bottles. Yay. Might be a two bottle night. Okay. It's
also early. It can be a two bottle night. Oh, totally. I have two bottles alone. I'm glad
(30:48):
you guys are on the same page. The other night I had a full bottle. Nice. Well, okay. I had
two full bottles that I shared. Just so. Yeah. That was a hangover for sure. Not enough water.
No, not enough water. Too much wine. One of the bottles was Rose. Like who am I? I'm not
a fan of Rose. I know. I didn't buy it. I didn't choose it. Vanderpump Rose. I do love
(31:11):
Vanderpump. Do you really? I do. I'm like borderline obsessed. Oh my God. Did you watch the finale?
Yes. Did you watch the part three? Finale, finale? Girl. Yes. And I'm the type who, yes,
I watched the finale. Do you listen to podcasts about it? And then I go and listen to podcasts
about reactions. Like their opinions. Oh, okay. So, well, I don't remember the names
(31:32):
because they're new to me. I just started listening to the. Okay. You need to listen
to Nick Viles. Oh, I listen to Nick Viles. Okay. Thank you. I've listened to every Nick
Viles episode where he has them as guests. Katie is my favorite guest. Yes. She has her
own podcast now. Yes. With Dana. And Ariana was recently on it. Okay. I haven't listened
in a few weeks. I haven't heard the one where Ariana was on it because I think it just came
(31:52):
out. But I got a road trip on Sunday and I'm going to binge. Yes. Binge their podcast.
Yes. So Nick Viles. Do you like Dana? Do you like Katie? I love Katie. Do you like Ariana?
Lala. I'm kind of iffy on everyone but Katie. Yeah. Okay. Just because it's so up and down.
I respect Lala. I do. Can't stand her. I think she's very opinionated. Opinions are wrong.
(32:17):
I'm glad she voices her opinions other than Sheena and just cries in the corner. True.
True. True. Ariana. I think she needs severe therapy. She does. So does Sandoval. But so
does everybody. Everybody. Everybody. It's weird that like Schwartz is like one of my
faves even though I think he's a ding dong. He's 12. Yeah. He's a child. Yes. His new
(32:38):
girlfriend is also a anyway. Sorry, Bill. Tangent. I could go on a f***ing tangent. I hadn't
noticed. I got my mom listening to Nick Viles reality recap. Yeah. Because it's so good.
Yeah. Did you see the episode with Schwartz when they were in Coachella? His bare feet.
I couldn't stand it. With his girlfriend on a podcast. What are you thinking? It was so
(32:59):
bold. Yeah. So bold. Well, and then I'm sorry. Part of the reunion when they had Joe out.
No. And then Andy asks about the new girlfriend right in front of her. Not a Joe fan, but
that was pretty bad. I mean, that was cold, but Joe is an idiot. Can't stand her. She
just want to be on the show. Totally. That is also a really good podcast to take podcast
(33:20):
notes. Nick Vial and Jared Freed's J-Train podcast. J-Train does a really good job of
just podcasting. I've never heard of him. All right. He's a comedian based out of New
York. He has a Netflix special, 37 and single. It's great. Oh, yeah. Got to look into it.
Jared Freed. But back to the guy. He had- But back to the fraud story. He had, all I
(33:44):
had to do was push open the door. As you're walking by, if you're just a regular person
walking by, you would never know that the door is open. So I just pushed open the door.
A key falls out. He was holding the door open with a key so that in the event that we didn't
allow him to extend, he can still get into the room. Not just one. Just like block the
strike. Duh. Two. Because after that key fell, I picked it up, tried to close the door and
(34:06):
it wouldn't close again. There's another one. Open it, another key falls out. He tried to
do double damage control. Didn't work. I mean, good try. I was telling the front desk agent,
I'm like, I would love to see his reaction when he goes back up to his room. Because
he- And he's locked out. Well, he's not. He actually eventually had the funds to stay
under the regular rate with the incidentals. So he was given a legitimate new key, but
(34:29):
he thinks he doesn't need the key. So I'm like, I wonder how his reaction is. That he
had to use this key. Right, right. But he is still at the hotel as of now? No. He's
gone. He's checked out. Good riddance. Peace out, my brother. He was just so confident
when he was telling you how to get through TSA without an ID. I thought that was the
most hilarious thing. I've heard like minor stories of people getting through TSA without
(34:53):
an ID, but they have other forms of things with their names on them. Like most recently,
my employee, she is from this area, goes to school in another state. So she just flies
to visit her family. And she of course lost her wallet, lost her ID. I talked her through
that. Okay. Let's be smart, girly. Let's keep it on a person. Maybe not have a purse and
(35:17):
a wallet. Let's just keep it like on our body anyway. But she was freaking out, crying her
eyes out at TSA. And she had a prescription for her birth control and said, here's my
prescription. Here's like a debit card. Here's a credit card. Here's like my, my student
ID, my school ID. And they let her through. Really? Yes. So there are school. She has
(35:41):
a photo school ID. And if she has enough that all matches the same name, I think the TSA
agent was like, you're showing me like a prescription, a debit card, a credit card, a school ID
and a boarding pass. Well, to be honest, I've actually accepted a Costco photo credit card
before as well. So a Costco card or credit card. It was a Costco card with their photo
(36:02):
on it. And then they had plenty of other cards that had their name on it. So I'm like, well,
okay, I guess good to know. I mean, but that was when I was nice. I got a Costco card.
That was when she was still new. That was when I was new. Yeah. Well then like, do you
look up their rewards number and be like, all right, you really have no red flags on
your account? Well, we don't know if they had red flags. We don't have that. Oh, it's
(36:26):
just based on your hotel. What we can see is very limited. That's not juicy at all.
Yeah. Lame. Nevermind. I don't want to work front desk. You don't want to work front desk.
No, I really don't. I really don't. Cause I would have to start at the bottom of the
barrel and like work, I don't know, overnight, PM. I don't want that. Not necessarily. No.
I can request a day shift. No experience. You can just say your availability is this.
(36:51):
If you lay that out at the beginning and they accept you, then it is what it is. Let me
apply for some front office manager jobs. Well, that'd be fun to talk about. Would you
go through with the interview? Maybe once, depending on the salary. That's hilarious.
I mean, you can still deny. Right. Right. Right. I think you should do it. You should.
And then when you deny and then they offer you even more money. Oh, okay. Deny again.
(37:15):
And then offer me more money. Right. I mean, cause it's not like you want it. I also don't
know like the going rate for a farm. So it'll depend on location. Yeah. Type of hotel. Yeah.
You could just kind of treat it like the bumble of job interviews. I'm, I'm good at that.
I'm experienced at that. Okay. Just cause you swipe right. Doesn't mean you actually
have to like go on a date. Yeah. Or marry the guy. Yeah. Have you seen there's a creator
(37:38):
on Tik TOK who would go through interview, like phone interviews and he would record
it and just be completely idiotic and record the reaction. I couldn't, I couldn't be idiotic.
I would have to be like somewhat genuine. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, obviously he's trying
to get views. Yeah. The purpose of what he's doing is different. Right. Well, I have to
(37:59):
have an a hole of the week. Oh, mind you, I don't deal with guests that much. So we'll
change that. Well, and the reason for that is the front desk will tell me, Oh, this person
wants to speak to a manager. I say, send it to bill. And someone ratted me. I don't know
who told you because I've never said it in front of you. No, there's going to be other
(38:22):
managers. No, it's just the choice is me or bill. So like the farm is saying they want
to speak to someone higher than me. Well, we have a front office supervisor. Oh, I think
you've talked about this. Yeah, there. It's me. Right, right, right. So it's a bill call
bill. Yeah, I'm busy. Well, honestly, it's I take some of them. Let's be real. Some where
(38:44):
I'm just like, okay, literally in the middle of the site centers. And he could very well
be in the middle of something. But I'm like, he's not going to the phone. No, and more
often than not, I do answer the phone. You do. You're good. I try not to play the game
of pass in the book as far as like, I know that number. Just Yeah, do it. Get it out
of the way. Be done. Yeah, there are a few numbers that I do know that I will let go
(39:06):
to voicemail like all the time. Yeah, I do that all the time. If it's someone I don't
really want to talk to in the moment, they can send me an email. Well, no, like I'll
get people calling asking if we're taking bids for security service. No. And so that's
what I was gonna say. I said this is gonna be my second a hole of the week is a security
service who called and I took the call. He asked if we were looking for security services.
(39:28):
I said, No, we're not looking. But you know what, if you want to just send me your information,
I'll go ahead and accept it. Send it to my email. He sends it to my email. Cool. I think
I made it very clear. We're not looking. He said, Are you looking? I said, No. So I looked
at the bid. It looks good. I even told Bill my hey, this is actually like, let's keep
it in our back pocket. It's competitive until the next day. Another call calls the front
(39:52):
desk four times in a span of an hour. No, I recognize the phone number and I'm not answering
the phone. He then proceeds to send an email where he asks me if I received his bid. I
said, Yes, I did. Thank you. That is all I need. Yes. Next day, he calls the front desk
four more times. Finally, I answer the phone and I say, Hey, Zeus, buddy, I can't talk
(40:19):
to you right now. You've got to stop calling my front desk. He's like, Oh, I just wanted
to see if I have guests that need to get through the phone line. I told him, I think I made
it clear in the beginning that we weren't looking. I did respond to you and told you
that I got your bid. I'll let you know if we need anything else. He's like, Oh, he just
(40:39):
got so sheepish and like embarrassed. But get the head. I sent you a voicemail eight
times already. Yeah, leave a voicemail the first time and then okay, for a couple days,
you can call once a day. Yeah, not even that. I think three days is already get the point.
Get the point. Not even that. Like when when I get these calls asking if we're taking bids,
I'll just tell them no, we're not. But if you'd like to send me information, here's
(41:01):
my email address. And then they give you this stupid story to try and lock in a time where
they meet with you face to face where they're like, Oh, well, our area manager, our area
manager will be in your area tomorrow at 10am. Would you be able to meet for just 15 minutes?
No, no. Worse is when they just show up. That one always drives me nuts. Especially vendors.
(41:25):
You know, if we've got an established relationship with our vendors, why are you just stopping
it? Yeah, you know who I am. You've got my email address. You have my phone number. If
I've worked with you long enough, you even have my cell phone number, right? Don't just
drop in. Well, recently I had emailed a vendor for quotes. The next day they stopped by.
I actually know the day I'm on a regular off day for me. They just so happened to stop
(41:49):
by and they're asking for me. Whatever. I wasn't there the next day they come and I'm
there. I'm like, they didn't even respond to my email. They just going to show up and
expect me to be free. Yes. Apparently. Yes. I mean, I was. So I went out and entertained
it. But that's kind of disrespectful. I feel like you set up an appointment. Yeah. No,
for me, pool towels. Cause we go through so many. I got a great company. I don't even
(42:11):
know where their office is, but great company, competitive pricing, responsive on email,
gets me a quote, gets me my order, gets me the invoice and doesn't stop by. But I do
have to like entertain him on the phone occasionally. He's a really sweet like Indian guy. And I
think it's him and his brother that own the business on the phone and on email. He always
(42:32):
says, hello, my friend. How are you? I literally go Khalid, my friend. This is me in my office
like on speaker, just yelling at this guy and all of his emails are like, thank you
so much boss. Like have a blessed day. So in my emails, I'm always like my boss Khalid,
(42:52):
hope you are well, hope your family is blessed. Can I get 300 towels, my friend? And he loves
it. And the one time he personally delivered a towel order, I was off and my staff knows
about this guy. Cause I always, I like, I mean you have them on speaker. Yeah. So they
overhear it and they go, Liz Khalid was here and he wanted to meet you. And it's like the
(43:15):
one vendor I would actually entertain. Yeah. But there are other towel vendors. I'm like,
yeah, I don't need towels. I got Khalid. I got my man. I'm not going to cheat on him.
So after stories about vendors and fraud, fraud and hot tubs and whatnot, we have another
entry in guess that survey. Guess that survey. So as always, the way the game plays is I'm
(43:41):
going to read you a survey. I want you to tell me on a scale of one to 10, what you
think this score is. Cause this is all about how people just do not know how to fill out
a survey. They really don't. They should probably learn. They should listen to this podcast.
Share with your friends. Yes. So this survey comes in from a guest that stayed with us
for two nights. His comments were very positive. Says I was greeted with a very warm welcome.
(44:06):
The room was clean. I needed extra towels and hospitality brought them right away. The
hotel is in a great location with lots of restaurant choices. Breakfast was served every
morning. I enjoyed my two nights day. Guess that rating. I mean, okay. Literally there
was nothing even mediocre about that survey. All of it was glowing. So on a 10 scale where
(44:27):
a nine and a 10 is passing and anything less is a fail. What do you think all of those
positive comments earned us? Okay. Is there an overall rating and then individual like
F and B housekeeping? Yes. Okay. But we're guessing the overalls that the guest inputs
and is not a composite. Correct. It is a standalone question, standalone rating. Logically, you
(44:50):
would think nine or 10 or 10. I mean, logically, you would think with something tells me that
it's not there. No, all of our surveys just don't make sense. None of them do. Okay, so
I'm going to go with a six. All right, jazz. I'll go five. Six out of 10. Yeah. Yes. That's
a one for Liz. So what did the guest give the individual categories? Anything a nine
(45:14):
or a 10? Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh, wow. Notes how the room was clean, but gave clean
ness is seven. Oh, noted how they needed additional towels and they were brought right away and
how their greeting was a warm welcome. Okay. Staff service a six. Well, that makes no sense.
Location of the hotel, which they mentioned in a great area, lots of restaurants. Six.
(45:38):
But maybe they thought six was a 10. Did you have to like scroll over? Right. Mobile device.
Right. Oh, that's the highest one I could see. Okay. No, I don't know. I mean, Breck
breakfast, they gave a five. Five out of 10. Did you respond to the guest? Of course I
did. I have to. I would have said like, thank you so much for your stay. Your answers are
(46:01):
inconsistent based on your verbiage. I'm a little confused as to why we were a six out
of 10 when nothing was wrong. How could we be better? I want to say that I did ask something
to that effect. Seeing that your comments about your stay were so overall positive,
how could we do better based on the score that you? Right. Nice way to put that. Never
heard anything back. Of course not. When was this recently? Uh, two days ago. So it's just
(46:26):
not consistent. No, it's not. And your scores for the brand have nothing to do with the
verbiage. It's all to do with the numbers through 10 that they give, which is kind of
even more frustrating because we've had such a good month that something like this, which
is positive in the verbatim brings us down still. Yeah. We had such a great month. Your
(46:48):
scores are good as of now. Well, they're good now. Better, but they were great. Improving.
Slipping. Well, slipping from what it was at the beginning of the month. Well, because
you've talked about, you know, the last couple of months, you've really rebuilt the staff
because you had a bunch of newbies, right? We kind of had to rebuild the staff twice
in the last year and a half. But also with the work that's being done at the hotel and
(47:13):
us taking that notice off, now they legitimately complain about not having warning. And maybe
that has something to do with why they gave us what they gave us without them saying it.
So wait, Bill, how long have you been at this hotel? A year and a half. Because you were
task force and then transferred. Yeah. And then decided I liked it and stayed. And then
Jazz, how long have you been with property? January of 2018. So, oh, yeah. Too long. Too
(47:38):
long. Don't don't tell your boss that right now. I know her boss tells her all the time
that he wants to get her into a bigger, better position. Well, it's just so far from where
I live that the commute is. I mean, I'm by LAX. That's crazy. Yeah. But you know what?
You make it so flexible that it actually makes me not want to go anywhere or grow in my career.
(48:02):
It would have to be like an amazing fit and like an amazing opportunity to like want to
leave. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we'll start working on attendance. You mean punctuality.
Sorry. Yeah. That would be him like pushing you into something like good for you, not
wanting for you to leave. At the end of the day, I don't want any of our team to leave.
(48:25):
Right. But I want every one of our team members to succeed. Yes. I mean, that's I tell my
staff all the time. Again, very impressionable young adults. I briefly spoke about on one
of our last recordings, one of my like longest tenured employees of three years, like put
in her notice and she is now gone. I'm really sad. She actually stopped by today to like
(48:49):
turn in all of her stuff. But it was a really good closing of chapter. So my thing to employees
is always you come in, you learn a ton. Could be your first job. You learn about the industry.
You know, maybe you don't work a restaurant job, but you can be a rec attendant. It's
kind of same, same, but different. Right. So you learn a lot. You have fun. You have
(49:11):
fun with what you're doing and you leave on a positive note. You leave saying, oh, working
for Liz in that rec department. That was a good time. I learned a lot and I had a great
time. And if that is accomplished and they go on to do bigger or better things or go
off to school or go back to school to college, I think that's success. Well, I, my personality
(49:31):
type, I'm very loyal. And when it comes to maybe to a fault, exactly. No, a hundred percent.
And I like to mentor people as well. And with the amount of turnover at this hotel, it's
like, OK, you mentor one person and then they leave and then you mentor another person.
And I feel like I don't want to leave this person hanging. Yeah. Connect. Yeah. I feel
like we're getting somewhere. You just got a new baby chick. You got to grow them up.
(49:56):
So you get it. It's like, I don't want to leave you hanging. I know. Yeah. So I'm tired.
And then you move on. Yeah. And then I help the next person and then you move on. Yeah.
But it's amazing seeing you because now I'm seeing employees that work for me three summers
ago. One of my seasonals actually has come back after not being here for two years. And
(50:17):
last year he wanted a job. He had so many demands. I only want to open. I don't want
to close and I want to make a million dollars. And you still hired? No. Last summer I was
like, nah, bro. No, sorry. So this year he groveled and he was like, look, Liz, I think
I want to come back. I'll work whatever you need me to. And I kind of sat him down. I
(50:39):
was like, look, would love to have you. You have two years under your belt in this department,
but I need you to step up. You are the one with the most experience. People might have
been here for a couple months, but you have two years. So I sat him down. I was like,
you need to be fully available. You need to not go on any vacations this summer and you
need to be a leader. And he has stepped the F up. Nice. Sometimes that's what they need.
(51:02):
Yes. And I'm telling you, he's going to be one of my rock stars this summer. He's been
there a week and a half and he's already like a solid rock for the department. I even let
him leave early today to go to a baseball game. So on that note, do you guys want to
wrap up here? I think it's a good point. Do you want me to take us out on some of it?
I love it when you take us out. Okay. To our phenomenal listeners that we love so much,
(51:25):
make sure to follow us on any socials, Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is moving
along quite nicely. How many followers are we at? 3k. Oh my gosh. Okay. What was it the
last time you heard? 2k. Oh wow. So that has been a great deal of movement in like a month.
Yeah. Pick up about a thousand in a month. So make sure to give us a follow on LinkedIn.
(51:49):
Anywhere you can find us to listen to your podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, we stream our episodes
on YouTube. You can find us anywhere. Just use that search bar for Tales from the Service
Industry or TFTSI. And then if you want to drop us a little line, that's what my HR manager
says all the time. Just drop me a line. Drop me a line if you need anything. Well, drop
(52:11):
us a line. If you have a story or want to be on the podcast, you can email us at og3.
The number three. Oh, that's the second time around. Sorry. Damn it. og3 at tftsi.com.
That is og. The number three. At tftsi.com. And thank you guys so much for listening.
Make sure to rate and leave a comment on this episode. Sounds like they're easy. Sounds
(52:35):
like fun. And a share. A share on the Instagram story is so, so powerful. You guys, you have
a great day. We'll see you in two weeks. We're out. Bye.
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