Await guests in the early hours
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-03-12 01:57:22 - Graham EllisYou may wonder what I am doing sitting at my keyboard at 1 in the morning!
We have a rule - "we don't take reservations for tonight after 10 p.m." We made the rule as we're really not well suited to provide accommodation to people who have spent the evening in the local pub and are then looking for somewhere to stay because they can't drive home and they hadn't really thought about planning ahead. Bitter experience has shown us that such people will drag us out of bed, tell us they want a room and that they don't care about the price - but then tell us that our price is far too high for them and say they've only got twenty five pounds and can we do it for that. And by the way they need a room with three single beds (which we don't have for that. The customer is always right and in these cases especially - our prices and facilities are not what they are looking for, and I just wish they had looked at the illuminated sign that makes the prices very clear before they rung the bell that dials us at home.
It was about 20 past eleven - that's about 2 hours ago - that the phone rang last night. "Here we go". And, yes, an enquiry for rooms "tonight". "Sorry - we don't take bookings for tonight ...." but there was something different, and it turns out that the search is on for rooms for four people who have been working on the railroad about 8 miles from here since 7 this morning - a job that's long overrun and they need somewhere to lay their heads when the job is done. And so I wait; I feel I've made the right decision to bend the rule, but really I can't yet be sure. All I can say is that I made what I feel was the right judgment at the time, and whatever the outcome there's always the need to consider the individual and not tar everyone with the same brush.