Why Are You Surprised?

I work nights at a hotel. My shift starts at 11PM and ends at 7AM the next morning. I work what most people call the "Graveyard Shift". People will come into my hotel, or call down from their rooms in the middle of the night, and ask for stuff. No problem, that's part of the reason I'm here (the other part is a bunch of paperwork, as I have to close the business day, start the new one, and balance accounts). However, if you call me at 3AM don't be surprised if I am unable to fill your request. It's the middle of the night. I don't know of a single business that has a full range of services throughout the night. So why are you surprised when you can't get something done in the middle of the night?

I have a friend that works the audit (that's what they call the night shift at a hotel) in Louisiana. He and I chat on the phone at night. I recall one night a guest came down looking for towels. Hotels generally keep enough towels to stock every room in the hotel twice. Some carry more (like resorts), some carry less (like "Roach Motels"). Now, my friend had been handing out towels all night. People get extremely wasteful in hotels. A guest came down at 6:30 AM looking for a full new set of towels. My friend told him there were no more clean towels, they had all been handed out, and that he could get some sent to his room as soon as housekeeping showed up and got some cleaned. This angered the guest who stated he couldn't believe the hotel could possibly run out of towels. Now, the hotel was full at this point (and before you say there's no way he could know, full hotels are pretty obvious, if from the lack of free parking spaces alone). Even with my friend explaining he was the only person there at night, the guest still couldn't believe he wouldn't have cleaned more towels when he ran out. However, and I can confirm this one from first-hand experience, had my friend left the desk to clean towels and a guest needed something, all hell would have broken loose. To top all that up, my friend would get written up (if not fired) for having left the desk unattended.

I've had guests call me at 3AM with a TV that won't work. I've gone to the room, and done what I could, then told the guest I would get the TV taken care of as soon as maintenance got in the next morning (between 7AM and 8AM). I've had guests get extremely pissed about this. Why isn't maintenance here now, they'll ask. Because it's the middle of the night, I'll answer. It's never enough. How hard is it to understand that hotels are here to make money? To have maintenance (or housekeeping as in the previous example) there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to fix problems (or clean towels) that only pop up once a month at most is extremely wasteful of capital.

If you go into Wal-Mart in the middle of the night, do you expect their customer service desk to be open? I hope not. I've only ever seen 2 Wal-Marts with CS desks open in the middle of the night, and that was right after Christmas.

So, why are you surprised? It's the middle of the freaking night! Just be glad the company is open to give you any service, and go on your merry way. Stop acting like such a spoiled brat, America.

-Chris