I’ve been a long-time reader of e-hell but this is my first submission. My husband and teenage daughter and I do quite a bit of weekend traveling due to her competitive sports schedule, so hotel stays are a normal part of our lives. I do understand and accept a normal amount of noise associated with hotels, such as traffic, large groups of people, etc, but what we experienced last weekend took me aback and I may not have responded well.
First of all, this particular Saturday was a very long day. We had to leave our home at 4 am to drive the few hours to our destination city. My daughter’s sports activity was several hours long out in the cold and by the time we headed to our hotel to check in, I already had a splitting headache and was longing for a short nap before heading out for dinner with the team. After waiting 30 minutes in a line to check in,(a busy weekend in the city!) we finally get to our room and lay down. Immediately we started hearing very loud noise directly outside our room. It was doors banging and heavy objects being dragged about and even machines being turned on and off. My first thought was that housekeeping was finishing up with a few rooms in our hallway, and they would be done soon. After about 20-30 minutes of this, I opened my door to see a maintenance man dragging furniture from the room directly next door to the one across the hall. I said,”Excuse me, is there construction going on?” and he said, ”Construction? Yeah, there is construction going on.” (in a rather annoyed tone). He said he would be finishing up in an hour or so. I didn’t blow up or anything, but I did state that it was a bit unfair to pay $$$ for a hotel room that you couldn’t get a little rest in. (I know it wasn’t his fault, but who really assigns guests in a construction zone?) I probably should have called the front desk to complain, but as I knew the hotel was very packed, a different room assignment was probably not going to happen.
So I go back in my room, where my daughter tells me to relax, that they don’t expect guests to be sleeping at 4 in the afternoon. Point taken, I’m feeling a little bad at this moment, but we did pay for the room for the whole day, not just the night, and I think it’s reasonable to expect some level of quiet.
A few minutes later, the same maintenance man knocks at the door and curtly says that he is finished because “Guests need to be happy”. I thanked him and got a few moment’s rest before dinner.
Ironically, at 5 am our room gets a “Wake-up call” from the front desk (which WE did not order, as we had set our phones for a 7 am alarm). An innocent mistake? Or did this employee set us up for a bit of revenge? I had to laugh a bit as I left a note under the construction room door as we checked out saying “Nice job with the wake-up call – good one!” with a smiley face. 0828-17
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There is a lot assuming and not a lot of communicating going on in this submission. I certainly would hope that the employee would not set up a guest with that type of revenge, nor do I think there is any evidence to that in the story. I think it is very petty to assume that the hotel employee had set up the wake-up call – he did stop the noise of moving furniture around when the OP had asked him to stop (although she could have been nicer. He was just doing his job). He was also not making noise at an odd time of day – as OP’s daughter had correctly pointed out, 4 pm is not an unreasonable time to be doing some repairs. Also, OP chose not to call the front desk and move rooms (no matter how busy the hotel might have been, they may have been able to accommodate the OP). It strikes me, given the grueling travel schedule for travel sports that the OP described, that it might be wise for OP to pack ear plugs and an eye mask for her travels.
I’ve worked in hotels, and the reality is that they are workplaces during the day. Lots of stuff going on, and if that furniture had to be moved then when is a good time? There are always going to be guests, even Christmas Day there are people around. And from my experience, there is just no way that maintenance staff would be able to set up or change a wake up call. That’s the Front Desk’s job, and they don’t overlap (except maybe in small b&b or family run place, it by the length of time it took to check in I’m guessing it wasn’t that kind of place). Sounds like an innocent error to me, and there’s a chance OP left a confusing note for a new guest to find, not the maintenance man.
It really should be required for a hotel to warn guests about planned construction, even during the day. I had booked a week-long prepaid hotel room. I checked in without issues. My second day, I came back to my room after spending the day running errands and the entire hallway carpet was gone from the hotel hallway on my floor. The entire hallway floor was just bare plywood with nails sticking out. You couldn’t see down the entire length of the hallway because the air was so thick with dust and debris. I am a severe asthmatic. I would literally die within an hour or two if I tried to stay in that room. I ran down to the front desk in tears because my lungs were already seizing up from just trying to walk to my room and I was in a ‘non-refundable’ prepaid room for the entire week. Even a normal person would not have been able to sleep in that much dust without issues. I had to spend about an hour on the phone with the booking company to get my refund for the room, and then I was stuck scrambling to find new lodgings for the week because they couldn’t have a room away from the construction. All the hotels in the area were about twice the cost of what I had initially paid for my reservation so that was a huge financial difference. I think the hotel SHOULD have been forced to pay my stay at another location since their actions caused the situation but they didn’t feel it was their problem.
Sadly, many hotels do write that there may be construction into their reservation confirmations but in the tiniest of fine print at the bottom with all the other legal jargon regarding local taxes etc that many people don’t think to read. It’s probab why your reservation was so much cheaper than other hotels in the area for the same time period. I saved a group of coworkers from this once when booking a block of rooms for a conference. Our staff assistant sent out a list of preferred rooms for this conference (preferred because they were the cheapest). When I went to book my room I was surprised to find a 4 star hotel on the list at such a discounted rate, so I was suspicious. I did a bit of research and found out the hotel was so discounted because none of the amenities would be available during our stay due to construction. No pool, no gym, no inroom dining, no business center, the restaurant was relocated to a tent in the parking lot, and no elevators to floors below 6. I alerted my team to this, luckily we always book refundable rooms because schedules often change, so everyone was able to back out of their reservation and find other accommodations. Lesson learned, always read the fine print and always book refundable!
No, the rate was the usual rate for the hotels for that time. I’d stayed there before. They are just less expensive which is why I had booked with them in the first place.
On my honeymoon, my husband and I were put in a hotel wing still under construction– there was no one else on that floor but us and the builders, and the hallway floor was still bare concrete, with sections of the hall blocked off because they were working. We moved to another hotel after that first day. Yes, newlyweds like privacy, but not construction sites.
I think OP should have contacted the management, rather than complain to the worker. If a better room wasn’t available, at least perhaps the management could have asked the construction guys to lay off for a bit, as a guest was very much in need of some rest, thus avoiding OP’s direct interaction with the construction crew. I don’t think I would have thought of the wake up call as revenge. That just would have never occurred to me.
This story reminded me of my own honeymoon night; the hotel was doing construction, and I think I did know that beforehand, but we were only staying for the night because our actual vacation honeymoon was a week later, and we wouldn’t be getting there until early evening, so I wasn’t worried about it. Well, they had actually closed down the hotel, and didn’t bother to call me to let me know, so we had no place to stay! We tried to find another hotel, it was winter and we were at the beach so I thought we may have some luck, but apparently in the south, beach hotels are popular all year long 🙂 Fortunately we were in our home town so we were able to go back home, but it was a little disappointing, not to mention annoying to run all over the place right after our wedding to try to find a hotel (this was before smartphones, so we couldn’t just look it up easily).
I agree that OP probably should have said something to the front desk, who may actually have the authority to do something about the construction, and I also don’t think the construction crew had anything to do with the wake up call, that was a stretch to even think, much less leave a note over!
I love how the OP answers her own question in the submission: “who really assigns guests in a construction zone?) …, but as I knew the hotel was very packed, a different room assignment was probably not going to happen.”
A packed hotel is who assigns a room in a construction area. Would the OP have preferred to have been sent back out on the street due to no rooms?
I think OP was wrong to leave the note. I’ve seen too many mistakes on the part of businesses to assume that this was a deliberate set-up. I once received a wake up call that I didn’t ask for on a cruise ship. Also, this guy doesn’t get to decide what time of day to work. It’s not his fault that he was told to work on that floor at that time. If OP wanted to complain, she should have called the front desk. It’s unfortunate that OP wasn’t feeling well, but in my experience, most hotel rooms aren’t particularly quiet in the afternoon.
That was my first thought as well, hotels mess up wake up calls all the time, I’d never rely on one if I really had to get up for something!
I’m not entirely sure that what the OP’s daughter said was accurate, because a lot of people people arrive at hotels after long journeys; sometimes involving air travel and time changes, and they might very well sleep at odd hours, because 4 p.m. in Destination City may be midnight in Home City. Also, a lot of people travel with small children, who might still take afternoon naps. She may have been correct in thinking that the people running the hotel didn’t expect people to be sleeping at 4 p.m., but it probably happens a lot more than they expect.
This was my thought too. Flying across the country on business has had me leaving waking up at 3AM EST in the past and I wouldn’t think it unreasonable to be tired at 7PM EST (even if the local time was 4PM PST) and I think hotels – given their nature – would try to respect that if it were explained. I think the mistake was to not call to front desk. It seems to me even if the hotel was too packed to do a room change, they would at least have the authority to ask the construction crew to pause work.
Not to be snarky, but if a [busy/crowded] hotel is doing construction/renovation work, and they have to accommodate every guest’s sleep cycles, then *when * are they supposed to do the work?
Seriously, it’s up to the traveler to adjust to the local time ASAP.
I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Hospitality is unique in that behind the scenes (kitchen, construction, cleaning, general facilities) is not supposed to significantly impact guests. Halls can be closed for a quick turnaround if carpets/ fixtures/ furnishings are being changed. Or the hotel can advise guests of the nuisance when accepting reservations, do their best to offset noise and disturbance and offer deep discounts. I think either one is fine. But expecting paying customers to overlook noise and limited access to normal amenities isn’t realistic, in my view. It’s taking undue advantage.
Way back in the mists of time, I worked a graveyard stint & learned very quickly that the waking world isn’t made for those who need quiet to sleep. It can’t be. Unless you’re paying for a posh hotel with sound-proof rooms, pack your ear-plugs or put a white noise app on your phone to use with headphones if hubbub during daylight hours is going to potentially be a problem, cos you can’t expect silence anywhere at 4pm, no matter what time your internal clock says it is. It’s your responsibility as an adult to be prepared for your own needs and the needs of your children when you travel. (Maybe the OP’s hubby or daughter should have run to the drugstore to get ear-plugs & aspirin for her & it’s really them she should be upset with. 😉 )
So…
The OP didn’t bother to call the front desk because she just assumed the place was booked full. Maybe that was true but at 4pm it’s possible that not all the guests had arrived yet. They probably could have moved them to another room and given theirs to someone who arrived late, after the worker was done. At the very least she probably could have gotten them to refund some money or something.
Sounds like the worker was rude but I’m pretty dubious that he set up at 5am call as revenge, especially since he and the OP didn’t really argue, he was apparently just short with her.
This is yet another story that I’ve seen on her that probably could have been remedied with a simple, polite phone call. More than anything else this site has taught me the importance of communication!
I agree. This sounds like an Assertiveness Heck story. The OP suffered in silence, because there was a chance that speaking up wouldn’t solve the problem, but forgot that NOT speaking up DEFINITELY wouldn’t solve the problem.
Sounds like the OP could have handled this situation much better. The maintenance man was there to do a job that he likely had no control over. And he gave you a timeframe for when it would be complete. Your best option would have been to call the front desk, and either ask if they can halt the construction or move you to another room. If it was too packed to move you, they may have offered some other compensation: discount, free meal, free in room movie, or maybe just a sincere apology for the brief inconvenience. I think the real telling piece is that you immediately assigned blame to this person for the erroneous wake up call. If you really didn’t raise your voice or act rudely to this person, you believe a stranger would be so vindictive to pull a prank on you the next day. What a cynical thing to believe, or is it a reflection of what you would do if the roles were reversed?
To add on to my previous comment- by the tone of the maintenance worker, for some reason it rings “trashed room” alarm bells for me. Sometimes things need to get done right now without any previous planning.
OP could have called the front desk anyway, you never know what they might be able to do for you. Sometimes guests request a late check-in, so they could have moved OP’s family and still had a room available for the guest arriving later on. But, it might not have made a huge difference since 4pm is a normal check in time, so the hallways get loud with hoards of people arriving and suitcases bumping around. Or, they might have offered to bring up earplugs, given a discount, breakfast on the house… most hotels really do want to keep their guests happy.
Leaving a passive-aggressive note did nothing but give OP some petty satisfaction, allowing them to feel vindicated against someone who quite likely had nothing to do with the wake-up call. OO should’ve contacted management with any concerns and complaints. Not a very mature or productive response.
I was okay with everything…until I got to the part about the note. The OP had no evidence that the wake-up call had anything to do with the construction person. It was most likely a mix-up or error. To assume that it was the construction personnel is very rude.
The maintenance man was a bit snarky in his interaction with the OP, but I think it’s quite the stretch to imagine he instigated a phony wakeup call as retaliation. The note likely made no sense to whoever found it, but it was pretty harmless.
OP here. Yes, from reading the responses, I admit I didn’t handle this in the best way. A call to the front desk probably would have sufficed.(or just accepting it – but migraines really do bring out a little crab in me sometimes) I really am a nice person, and totally understand that work needs to be done. (This was however VERY loud work, and maybe a hallway undergoing noisy restoration should be mentioned to the guests upon checking in?)
I took the “wake-up” call as perhaps a joke and responded in kind (smiley face included). It totally could have been inadvertent, but in our years of frequent hotel stays, never has happened, so I took it as a funny bit of revenge for being a bit short with worker. Or maybe just Karma. My bad.
I think that “reasonable use” of a hotel room covers a reasonable level of quiet. It doesn’t have to be as quiet as it would be in a library, but no reasonable vendor would expect guests to be happy with noise, construction, missing carpets or restricted amenities. It’s like an airplane that takes off absent a working bathroom or without a meal that was planned for service. You can do without it, in all likelihood- but it makes a journey unpleasant and if the annoyance could have been anticipated and prevented, it’s a poor reflection on the business. However, a customer who doesn’t take the trouble to notify the front desk that there is a problem can hardly expect to have her needs addressed. And the maintenance man who was dragging furniture needed to have moved it with a partner or a dolly, both to prevent noise and to prevent damage to the furnishings, flooring, walls and the worker(s). I’ve worked for many years in service in homes and institutions, including moving a few households/ offices/ dorm rooms and there’s no need to bang things around when moving them. That would cause me to question what might be going on if I were helping or supervising. It’s indicative of stress or even pique on the part of the employee.
But like you stated, Stacey, that’s something you take up with the front desk. You’re also dead right that if you don’t complain through the normal channels, your needs won’t be met.
Commenting in general, I’m sure the maintenance man would’ve very much preferred to have help moving the furniture but if the hotel didn’t supply him with a partner or a dolly or a hand-truck, what’s he gonna do? Turn into The Hulk & lift the furniture over his head by himself? Refuse to do as he was told? Depending on where this happened, the hotel might have broken labor laws by making him do this alone but people need money to live & jobs don’t drop from the sky so, unfortunately, shoddy businesses take advantage & get away with putting unreasonable demands on their employees. Then they get cranky guests taking it out on them when they’re just doing their job. That sucks!
From everything in this story (the 30 min check-in time, MM moving stuff by himself, the wake-up call going to the wrong room), I’d bet a million Internet bucks that this hotel was under-staffed & over-booked, which is a management problem, not a maintenance one. If the OP called the hotel & spoke to a manager about her disappointing stay, she’d be 100% in the right (cos this place sounds like it’s run by Basil Fawlty & Co) but she blithely admits she chose the passive-aggressive martyr approach instead; she didn’t alert the front desk, blamed an employee who has zero say in the organization of the hotel, assumed (with no proof) that he took some weird ‘revenge’ on her by setting up an early wake-up call even though he accommodated her once she informed him that the noise was a problem & left this man a smug little note (whether he got it or not isn’t the point). Her cred is shot to pieces. The only thing that she’s even slightly correct about is saying she ‘may’ not have responded well. (Nope, you didn’t!)
I think we’re in agreement about the “need to call the desk if there’s an issue” part. But moving furniture, even by yourself, is possible without banging. It’s preferred. Dressers and bedsteads can be walked bit by bit on 2 corners, slid on tarps, or wiggled. It’s kind of a pain in the patooty, but it saves your back and the furniture. Some care is required to make sure you don’t catch hands or get caught under a corner. But “bangity bangity, draggity, SLAM, clankity, SMACK, SHOVE” isn’t good, in my view, for either the maintenance man or the stuff he’s moving. In the case of dragging, dropping or shoving, he’s risking having something fall on him or misjudging the distance a little bit and having a sudden stop hurt a knee, leg or elbow. I guess the key, in my view, is controlled movement, especially when dealing with large, heavy or awkward objects. Now this opinion is based on my own limited experience coping with outsized tasks and limited bodies/ resources. Others’ mileage may vary.
While I can understand OP’s frustration, hotels can’t always control what happens when.
I live near a large resort town. There’s one hotel I like to play Pokemon Go in and it takes me the entire length of the hotel. I see all kinds of stuff. People are constantly fixing things at all hours of the day because they have to take advantage of any slow moment they might have. There was one day I was there that unfortunately they were booked solid and someone got in a fight in one of the rooms and ripped the bathroom door off the hinges. Guess when that got fixed? 4:30pm.
The note is sort of petty. You don’t know who did that. Something similar happened to me once, computer glitch caused the previous guest’s wakeup call to stay attached to that room number.
I have to agree with the others in that OP should have called the front desk to see if anything could be done. Even if they couldn’t be moved to a different room the hotel might have been able to offer something else to make up for the inconvenience. And I also agree that the 5AM wake up call was likely just a mistake/mix up on the front desk part. I doubt the construction worker had anything to do with it and OP just left a confusing note.
It amazed me during my college-waitressing days & it amazes me now; people will so often whine & moan & BLAME the employee on the lowest rung of the ladder who can do absolutely nothing, while refusing to take their complaint to a higher-up who could easily help them. With a clack of computer keys & their personal code, a manager could’ve solved this issue. As another poster wrote: if a new room wasn’t available, something else would have been offered as compensation. But NO – It’s more fun to have the discussion about how unfair it is to pay for a room during the hotel’s construction work with the MAINTENANCE MAN (because maybe you think part of his job is to maintain customer complaints? I don’t get the OPs logic here, tbh) who has no authority to move guests & on top of that, convince yourself that he was the ‘mastermind’ behind the vengeful wake-up call. Really??!? That’s unbelievably paranoid… Where did ya come up with THAT? Would a 5am wake-up call be your payback of choice, if the roles were reversed? Is that what made you think he did it?
I dunno if the man was short with you or if he’s not good with people – maintenance positions generally don’t require excellent people skills – but from his actions, it seemed like he took your complaint more seriously than you did. He got the furniture moving/construction halted. For YOU. I’d actually view that as him going above & beyond. If he wanted to grind your gears, he wouldn’t have had to sign you up for a 5am call, all he would’ve had to do was continue his work. It’s way off-base to make nasty assumptions about a man who was doing his job & who then tried to assist you to the best of his ability. The note was poor form & most likely directed towards the wrong person.
I worked with a guy who was always suspicious of people who worked in CS – convinced waiters spat in his food or cashiers were trying to rip him off, etc, etc. The reason he thought like that is cos he was an elitist brat with a superiority complex who treated people in those jobs like total TRASH. If you honestly believe that employees are out to get you with because of how you handle yourself, you might wanna re-think your behavior. You booked a room in a hotel, you weren’t crowned Queen of the Universe. Sheesh.
OP here, again. Well after reading all of these responses through tears, yes I have learned a lesson about submitting a story about my own etiquette breach. I should have called the desk and left this worker out of the equation. I honestly wasn’t mean or aggressive towards him. And yes, I did actually appreciate his stopping the work and letting us know. The part about the wake-up call and note I believe are being taken WAY out of context (but re-reading it, I can see how it was taken).
I have a sense of humor, and when we got the inadvertent wake-up call, I laughed, thinking that this “could” be “revenge” (maybe not the best word choice) on his part. Most likely not, but perhaps. So the note was sort of a “check – check mate.” “Ha ha, you got me” sort of thing. No I never have once in my life thought that I should be crowned Queen of the Universe. (ouch)
I have a deep appreciation for people in the service industry, as I know that they deal with all kinds of snotty, elitist people like the c0-worker you described. I see it on a daily basis, and when I observe a cashier or waitress or someone being belittled, I make it a point to thank them for their hard work and tip an extra nice tip. I confess that my raging headache made me less than my best self and that is on me and me alone. I have learned and will be a better person in the future.
There isn’t a person alive who has perfect etiquette. Every single one of us has done something we cringe remembering. The take away is to recognize that something could have been done better and then resolve to do better next time. No big deal. The big deal are the people who never see the error of their ways and therefore never change.
Well, or who get into a bit of a bashing session dealing with the errors of others because of some prior personal context…
As a parent of a child who has migraines, you have my sympathy. Before we found an effective preventative medication my child would get them frequently. They would be so bad that acetaminophen and ibuprofen wouldn’t take the edge off of the pain. I have seen how migraines turn my sweet, happy child into a sobbing, angry monster. The note may not have been etiquette-approved, but it isn’t too serious of a breach and now you know how to better handle it for next time.
OP: For what it’s worth, I give you major points for being brave enough to come back, read the comments & understand why your post hit some sore points (for me, anyway!) Fair play. That’s pretty cool of you. I want to explain why your post got me so hot & bothered, please bear with me…
I guess I get frustrated when the ol’ ‘I was tired/sick/stressed/hungry’ excuse pops up in these circumstances cos the majority of people seem very able to control their tempers or snap-reactions around those they consider peers or authority figures but have so much trouble keeping their civility in check with service workers because, in their minds, treating them poorly poses no social or professional ‘threat’. Most service workers also can’t really defend themselves when a customer unfairly unloads on them, which some people really take advantage of. I don’t know you; maybe if the person making the ruckus WAS an authority figure, you would have been crabby with him & assumed he was behind the wake-up call. If you’re an Equal-Opportunity Crab, then I apologize. Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t work that way because people tend to punch down – When I wrote my comment, I went with the stats. That says more about society than you, frankly. *sad trombone*
I have a sense of humor too. I’ve also had similar situations like the note happen to me back in the day; the problem/complaint was not my fault, I bent over backwards to assist the customer, fixed the issue, did the whole tap-dance to make them happy & STILL got a snide comment, condescending attitude or cranky feedback. All of which is not only deflating & demeaning but can also affect your work hours or get you fired if you have an unreasonable boss who needs a patsy & sadly, a crazy amount of customers think absolutely nothing of playing around with service workers livelihoods for no good reason, except to feel powerful & important. I really felt for that maintenance man & wanted to stick up for him, just like you say you’ve also done when seeing service workers belittled. I wish it were mandatory for everyone to work in CS for even just a brief time. The world would be a more pleasant, understanding place! So I hope you also understand where I was coming from because, while you were trying to be funny, the note initially came off as mean-spirited. But I was mean too – I take back the ‘Queen of the Universe’ barb with my regrets.
Kudos for having the stones to respond & fill in some of the blanks. I wish you all the best.
It just sounds like the maintenance worker doesn’t have awesome conversation skills, this could be snarky, it could be that he was confused or caught off guard by a guest approaching him in the middle of him moving furniture. It just doesn’t make sense, given he did quit early and let you know about it, to then think it was going to be “revenge” to set up a wake up call.
Instead the front desk pressed room 227 instead of 237 or something of that fact. It’s more likely to be a key punch error than a worker who is trying to get revenge on a woman who simply asked a reasonable question about the noise being created.
As someone that travels frequently for work (writing this from my third hotel this month) I sympathize with the fact that noise or disruption always seems to happen when you least want it. However, I agree with everyone that a friendly call to the front desk even without a room change might’ve been more productive. I once checked in late to a hotel after a delayed flight to find that they’d ignored everything in my member profile and given me a room on the first floor next to the elevator, the ice machine, and the exercise room (I’m not even kidding!). I didn’t really realize this until I was trying to rest that night. When I got a survey form later I filled it out saying that the staff were lovely (they were) but I was terribly unhappy with the inability to book me the room I requested. What was the point of making the profile and getting people as members if you were going to ignore them? Consequently since then that chain has gone out of their way to meet my profile. Is there a note in my file now? I don’t know – but I’m glad I complained to corporate instead of taking it out on the nice folks that were just doing their job.
Not to be snarky, but if a [busy/crowded] hotel is doing construction/renovation work, and they have to accommodate every guest’s sleep cycles, then *when * are they supposed to do the work?
Seriously, it’s up to the traveler to adjust to the local time ASAP.
I’m a person who travels about 25% of my time for work – and most of that travel involves booking group blocks, dinners, flights etc. for a team that includes members of upper management.
This submission reminds me of a time where we travelled to a large city in the US and had a hotel in the downtown area. Our company President arrived very late and was given a room not fitting his profile. While he did call the front desk to arrange for a new room, he also “made a point” by turning on the shower and dumping all the towels into the bath before he vacated the room – not sure whom he was making his point to. I did my best not to look appalled as he relayed this story to me.
Long story short, there are ways to address issues while you travel and that is via the proper channel, politely.
I agree with others who have suggested that the OP should have called the front desk for resolution and I’m unclear why her immediate thought regarding the wake-up call just *had* to be petty revenge.
Wow. Well, that’s one way to wildly over-react & potentially cause serious flood damage…and he actually BRAGGED about it to you. Gross. Your company president is a BRAT. He must be difficult to work for. My sympathies. (Is it wrong that I kinda wished you snitched on him???)
Aside from being environmentally careless & possibly ruining that room, plus the room below, people wasting water like that are part of the reason hotels have to increase their prices so often. What a scumbag.
Now THIS sounds like a candidate for “Queen of Sheba”! (Or King, as the case may be.)
I’m having a hard time understanding what OP thought was the etiquette blunder here. Hotels are open 24/7 and at some point maintinence will have to be completed. The maintinence worker was just doing his job, and while I can certainly see why it would be frustrating to have to endure noise when you’re tired and just want to lie down, taking that frustration out on an employee who has no control over guest satisfaction seems like the actual breech of etiquette to me.
Assuming he set a wake up call as revenge just comes across as paranoid, and the note under the door was simply petty and unnecessary. I once received an accidental wake up call at a hotel too. Mistakes are made and glitches happen, I certainly didn’t assume someone had purposefully done it to be malicious.
Traveling can be stressful and certainly exhausting, but if you are to continue to have to travel a lot for your daughter’s sport I would recommend finding more constructive ways to communicate and deal with issues like these in the future.
Reminds me of the time I checked into a hotel and was told they had to do everything by hand because the computer system was down. Fine, these things happen. Carry on.
At 11 pm, the door to my room suddenly opened. I had the safety latch that you can engage only when inside the room on so the door could not be fully opened. The person outside the door began to try to force his way into the room. Mother told me to be polite to strangers so I asked, “May I help you?” My visitor was shocked beyond all telling. He blurted out, “They gave me a key to this room! I am so sorry!” Knowing the computers were down, I figured it was a mistake, but, on the chance he might be a criminal, I walked to the phone and called the front desk to make sure they had sent him in error . He was already there, having run down three flights of stairs or taken a very fast elevator down. I thought at the time that it was a good thing he had not stopped to call his wife to give her the room number before he came up. He would never have been able to explain my answering the phone and telling her, “Oh, he just went down to the front desk.” Things happen. Call the front desk and check.
Just a reminder that this hullabaloo happened on a SATURDAY. Surely hotels can plan maintenance during weekday work hours when they are likely to have more business travelers who will be, ya know, businessing and not napping. That should greatly reduce the number of aggravated travelers I would think.