No Late Checkout for You!

Treating service staff with kindness instead of rudeness can pay dividends.

A few years ago, I went to visit my sister and her family in Australia. I was excited about the prospect of the adventure ahead; however, this excitement was quickly extinguished by the weather conditions, which caused a flight delay from Calgary to San Francisco, and a domino effect on the rest of my connecting flights to Perth.

Upon realizing my journey would take longer than planned, I decided to take the experience in stride by making the most of the time at hand, and I began to read the books I had packed for the trip. By the time we arrived in San Francisco, there were hundreds of unhappy passengers who had missed their connecting flights as well. The idea of waiting a few more hours for the next flights, or spending a night in a hotel was not appealing to any of us. The airline staff worked tirelessly, rescheduling flights and handing out hotel vouchers for the night.

After receiving my hotel voucher, I got into a shuttle bus with my fellow travellers who were going to the same hotel. The drive to our hotel seemed to take longer than I had anticipated; I wondered if this was because it was rainy, cold and way past my bedtime.

As we got to the hotel, there were varying moods from the now to be hotel guests. While some of us were quietly discontent, others were openly frustrated with the whole situation.  This was compounded by the long line-ups that greeted us as we stepped into the lobby. It had been a long tiring day, and both guests and hotel staff clearly just wanted the day to end. Members of the hotel staff who likely had been working double-time with all the delays were visibly exasperated as they saw one shuttle bus after another pulling up.

The combination of fatigue, extra work, and confusion, which tends to accompany these kinds of travel interruptions, was quickly reaching the breaking point for some. Having previously worked in hotels, I was fully aware of the challenges night staff had in checking in guests, especially when the check-ins were not particularly straightforward because their primary role is to complete their night audit. I resolved not to add to their challenge, though the same could not be said of some guests.

There was one guest in particular who would not stop arguing with the hotel staff. In all fairness, I don’t think he meant to be difficult, he was tired like the rest of us and most likely did not have an understanding of the hotel procedures. This guest adamantly refused to have his credit card on file for incidental expenses no matter how much it was explained to him that the vouchers from the airline would only cover our room charges and breakfast and that we were responsible for any telephone charges we might incur during our stay.

Once he realized that he had no other choice but to give them his credit card to spend the night at the hotel, he complied.  The night staff finally gave the gentleman a key to his hotel room with the basic instructions for his one night stay. I noticed, however, that the rest of us were offered a late check out option since our flights were scheduled for later the next day. This was most likely because we did not pose an extra challenge for the staff.

What a wonderful feeling it was, once I was settled in a warm room with a comfortable bed, to know that I didn’t have to rush out early the next morning!  When I finally left my room after a restful night, it was interesting to see how many other guests had taken advantage of the late check out option offered. It was not by chance that those who cooperated with the night staff the previous night were treated kindly, while those who made a stressful situation worse were not. Being a victim of circumstance can earn the support and favour of others, especially if we prevent the domino effect that comes when we infect others with our bad behaviour and/or disgruntled demeanour.