You booked a 4-night stay, checking out on New Years Day.
You’re a school teacher, and you came to stay with your pregnant daughter and her husband to bee. We were excited to host you; you came to explore our town, we were keen to point out our local delights. We never thought you’d be a Rogue Guest
But then it started, with rubbish being dumped in our stairwells. We found the rubbish, disposed of it, and thought maybe some kids had left it there! You know, kids being kids, will look for the short cuts maybe when their parents had told them to take the rubbish out? We didn’t suspect you for a moment, you presented too well, you were a respectable school teacher, treating your daughter and your future Son In Law (SIL) to a few days away, before the baby came. What a great Mum we thought you were!
It happened again, we just picked it up and disposed of appropriately. We discovered the truth though, didn’t we? When, while waiting for a taxi out the front of our venue, you decided you couldn’t bear the effort of placing rubbish in the bins, so you just dumped it right in front of our letterboxes! Laughed and jumped in the taxi with your pregnant daughter and SIL to be. When you came back, we stopped you all and told you we witnessed the dump and run. You denied it, but when we offered to show you the security video footage, you fessed up and said it was because you were in a hurry. We asked you then about the rubbish in the stairwells, you said it was because the communal bins were too far away. What? It’s in our carpark basement, a mere elevator ride, and a 20 metre walk away!
The rubbish dumping stopped, but your Daughter, SIL to be and your attitude towards our staff deteriorated, to straight out rudeness. We stayed professional, it’s what we do in hospitality, we wanted to turn the situation around so that you could enjoy your stay and we could enjoy hosting you. But no, that wasn’t to be. On checking out, your SIL to be, became abusive and even threatened violence against the Manager. The SIL to be in his drunken state at 10 am on New Years’ morning, swigging on champagne from the bottle, telling us he was a blackbelt in Te Kwon Do, claimed that we had disrupted his pregnant fiancee’s New Years Eve night. He had rung us after midnight, we returned the call straight after missing the call thinking there was some emergency. A circuit had tripped, we talked him through the reset of the circuit switch. This was his rationale for the abuse and threat of violence in the morning at check out. We may have even taken him seriously had it not been for the slurred words, swaying stance, and a near-empty bottle of Champagne!
We told you there and then, that none of you three would ever be welcome to stay at our venue again. We gladly farewelled you and thought that’d be it. However, the worst was yet to come … when we opened the door to the apartment you had occupied. We were not prepared, we did not suspect, and we were shocked!
Chewing gum walked into the carpet, not in just in one spot, but few. Rubbish was strewn throughout, dirty, dirty dishes with burnt-on food, with no attempt to clean. The stink of seafood a few days old, as prawn and crab carcasses, lay in the sink and on the bench. The toilets with number twos and vomit splattered around, inside and out of the toilet. Vomit on the balcony. Luggage marks over our clean walls. The smell of stale cigarette smoke wafting through the apartment, overflowing ashtray on the bedside table. (We are non-smoking apartments unless on the balcony with doors closed). There were broken and missing glasses and crockery, you made no attempt to replace.
The clean up took hours, the stench stayed for days. We couldn’t resell the apartment, we had to get chewing gum out of the carpet, wash the curtains, get the carpets steam cleaned, and air out the stench. We had that apartment off-line for 2 days, in high season!!! We claimed the $200 security bond, but it didn’t cover the cleanup, replacement costs, or lost revenue. We took photographic evidence of everything – you didn’t dispute it, surely you must have been ashamed, but yet showed no indication of shame or embarrassment
We had no formal way of blacklisting you back then! You probably went on and caused disruption and damage to other Accommodation facilities. We had no way of alerting other providers of your name, your associates, and you could freely book elsewhere. But now we do! We have Accomms Least Wanted (ALW). Future guests like you can be banned, blacklisted, vetoed from us, and any other Providers who are Members. We’ll alert other providers in our area, and your name can be searched for any future bookings – we wish you adieu, and good luck in getting Accommodation bookings in the future.
Categories listed in #ALW that we could have ticked off for you include:
- Wilful Damage of Property
- Theft (missing inventory)
- Excessive Mess
- Threatening Violence
Accommodation providers of all types, love guests to relax, we never expect accommodations to be as you found them, you’re on holiday, or are here for work, so relax, but don’t be grots. We just want you to show some respect for the property, staff, and other guests while having a breakaway or when working away from home. We love hospitality, we want to ensure guests have a happy, relaxing, and safe place to stay.
Being a member of ALW ensures better stays for better guests. Look for ALW Membership for your next stay away – you know then, that the few guests that do ruin for everyone else are being blocked.
