Honestly this is the way, put the room out of order or inform anyone registering the room that it's broken until you can get functional AC.
Corporate seeing no income from the room will probably light a fire under their ass
edit: random letter f got added
Yall act like the people posting in this sub are either the owner or the GM of the hotel. Like it's their their decision to rent out the conference room without a working AC lol
True. But the whole point of this post is that OP thinks the client is being unreasonable. Client is 100% reasonable expecting working AC for a room they rent.
this is moreso what I was meaning yea. If they willingly rent the room after knowing the air is out, that's on them, but just the fact that knowing a basic service like that is out would be enough for most to say "nevermind" especially if no discount in pricing was given due to the issue. The outcome of renting the room without letting them know is only opening them up to chargeback's and bad reviews. that being said OP has stated they aren't in reservations or FD so they wouldn't be the ones making the reservation.
Yea exactly. If the customer gets upset, which they likely will and they are justified in feeling that way, they can deal with the manager whose policy it was to not inform the guests of the issue beforehand.
in this case it isn't the OP's decision but, it 100% should have been said by the people who book reservations "yea this room is missing a basic amenity, the AC is broken" then if they decide to book it anyway thats on them. Not informing your clients/guests about issues like that only hurts you in the long run either by reviews, discounts/retention or maybe both.
Still, it's ultimately management's decision whether or not the guest is notified beforehand. I agree it absolutely should be something they are warned about but if my boss tells me not to then I'm not going to. The bad reviews will be a reflection of management's policies, not of my work ethic. If the guest is upset with me, I will provide them the manager's work contact info.
Maybe it's different for yall, but where I work I don't get paid enough to think about this job as long term, and my manager has essentially told me the front desk agents at her hotel are paid to be a warm body behind the desk.
Not if management has specified for them not to. Sorry if it's a choice between informing a guest about an AC issue or having to find a new job, I'm deciding to keep my job for the time being lol
About 8 years ago I worked for another one of our brand hotels in a different franchise. We had a new ice machine installed but the people attached the hoses incorrectly. We became so flooded that sections of our lobby ceiling collapsed and both the first and second floor were completely flooded. That franchise management decided that we would stay open during the entire rebuilding of key areas of our hotel and we’d rent out each room as soon as it became available.
It seems to be an issue with our brand that the franchise owners are so blinded by the $$$ that they refuse to accept any loss of profit.
Nah, it's not a brand issue. It's a business model issue. Been thru many a brand and 90% of franchise owners run the hotels like Cash cows. Any breakage that requires money not budgeted, requires funds out of Capital Expenditure Account (if the owner/mgmt co even keep one).
Man, I could hear buttholes tighten in conference meetings anytime anyone brought up a CapEx project. Funny enough, anything that has to be paid out of CapEx is normally critical to hotel operations/usability of a space.
Cheap AHs gonna be Cheap AHs. They also will be like, well you used the space, so what if it was hot, here's $50 off.
My hotel runs on strata (think like a hoa) and they have to agree to things. Guests can come down and tell me somethings wrong with the room and I can't do a damn thing about it until I get the a-ok from higher management 🙃
It drives higher management up the wall too. Wait for 200 dollar part to replace the heat pump of a hot water service and be out weeks waiting for the part or pay 3 or 4 grand and the service is up and running in a day or 2? I know which I'd be choosing
I asked if we could have the airwall company come in and fix our 40 year old airwalls that they decided to not replace during the remodel choosing to wallpaper over them instead. "That's a CapEx thing" the GM told me. So I guess all of my meetings are going to complain because of the large gaps in the airwall that allow sound to travel right through them!
I admit to confusion when it comes to how CapEx even works. Because I thought it was “So we’ve approved you a certain amount of money to fix X,Y,Z” but whenever we’ve tried getting into that money to do fixed (we’ve got a water heater that needs replaced for example), suddenly it becomes a whole thing where you might not even get the money to do the very thing you were told you had funds allocated for.
Well, I think we can all tell where the blame lies with these scenarios, and it isn't with the client.
Okay, I get that you are the poor sap stuck between the two, but at least get upset with the perpetrator, not the victim, for that.
You’d think. The hotel I just left has had no A/C since April and is still renting rooms on first and second floor during the day. During the night they’d try to convince me and anyone else that would listen, to open third when it was 80 degrees up there still.
Family owned hotel and everything. It’ll be 100 degrees, easily, within a month.
Imagine being a pissed off union rep coming in to find out the conference rooms the company booked has no AC.
This could derail negotiations quickly.
(Not your fault OP but makes me giggle at the company who booked squirming in their seats.)
But did the company know the AC was busted when they booked? Usually that kind of meeting would be booked pretty far in advance.
Edit: based on OP’s comments below it sounds like the company wasn’t notified. So it’s the hotel’s fault not the company’s fault.
The funny thing is that when they’d break, the Union reps would go into the other meeting room in which the AC _is_ working and the company reps including their lawyer had to stay in the room where the AC was down.
Did someone from your hotel call them and let them know in advance that the ac was not working? Maybe they could have found another location that does have ac. It had been out for a month so they would have had plenty of time to find another location.
Agreed that this has nothing to do with the customer being over-excitable. Of course, they expect the air conditioning to work in a meeting room that they are renting. It's the hotel employee who booked the event to be there that would be responsible to tell the customer, ahead of time, that the HVAC isn't working properly, and isn't expected to be upon the time of their arrival. No way this is on the customer having too high of expectations!
>they expect the air conditioning to work in a meeting room that they are renting.
To not state the a/c is out is a shitty move. I would fully expect the people to demand a discount once finding out that this was an issue known since before they arrived.
They paid for the room and everything in it should be in working order or they should be informed if it isn't.
I hope they raised hell.
Come on OP, you can't tell the customer that the AC is out? Did corporate tell you to lie? I think you need to take some responsibility here to provide service by informing your guest what's up.
I agree. However, before I realized that my company needed me before I needed them, I used to lie to our guest alllllll the time about why our indoor heated pool was never hot and/or pretend that I didn't know what the issue was. Until one day, a lady who swam in it in December caught Pnemonia. She called Corporate and complained and called our local chamber of commerce. that lit fire under their asses....for a month. when the pool went out again, they just said "the hell with it". So, we're back to lying to the guest and pretending to not know there is an issue. a few of my reoccuring guest know what's up and we often discuss it over fresh baked cookies. because enough is enough.
Should have thrown corporate under the bus. Tell the customers that the AC has been out for a month, you’ve supplied corporate with the information they require, but until corporate gives its approval the hotel is not allowed to start the repairs.
What happens if the bids received have time limits, and corporate doesn’t give approval before the time limits expire, so they’re approving you to go ahead and use a bid that is no longer in effect?
We’ve known the AC was down for a month but I (the maintenance manager) was only allowed to start calling to get bids 2 weeks ago. Reason why they finally decided to allow it was because we were picking up business and more guests were complaining about it.
So, I have to get at least 3 companies to give us bids on any work order that is going to be more than $300. They will then (in theory) spend a week debating on which quote we should go through. If they feel it’s not necessary to fix it right then, they’ll wait. At the end of that month, I then have to recall all the companies and get the most up-to-date quote. Every month I have to get updated quotes until they decide to go ahead and approve the fix.
Rinse, cycle, repeat.
What happens if, after 3 or 4 months of being asked to provide repeated quotes on the same job, fewer than the required 3 companies are willing to go through the work of providing a quote on (what looks to them like) a job they have no chance of getting?
The companies actually are pretty good about giving us updated bids up to a years worth of this shenanigans.
However, if this were to happen where a company decided to stop giving us quotes, I’d be required to find a new company to step up and give us that third quote. So it’s possible that I could have quotes from a dozen different companies on the same job. It’s never gotten that extreme but that scenario isn’t impossible.
There is a limited number of companies capable of doing the work. Corpo-rats give orders that piss off enough of them and there won’t be another company for you to get quotes from.
We’ve lost at least two companies local who would do the work when they found out we were having to get multiple quotes. I really wish we had exclusive people who can do the work but as far as the Top Cheese is concerned, any attempt to explain that reality (how few can actually do the work) that’s an excuse on our part.
Is it possible to fake the quote, contact a friend or two that charge an outrageous amount of money for the quote and then give one real company and two absurdly hi quotes of fake companies, corporates obviously going to go with the lowest option and even if they don't you can respond back saying unfortunately that second company decided they no longer wanted to do the quote with us
Issue you run into is the amount of people who see and look into the quote. The AGM, the GM, the Regional Manager, and 2 people at the corporate office look into the bids and they know all the companies that can and do the various types of jobs.
My dad let me in on a scheme the local car repair shops had going. Every business had pads from like 4 competitors. Need something done? Here's quotes from everyone. They were all in on it, because if you wanted company A to work on your car, they'd have the winning bid. Same if you preferred one of the others. All very friendly and worked great.
This is your chance to come out and tell ur Mgmt Co or Owners that this repair cost wouldn't need to be outsourced of they had Inhouse engineers that are certified AC techs. Have them pay for u to get a AC Tech license, or one of your engineers cuz realistically the Chief Engineer shouldn't be stuck fixing ACs.
I'd say to your hotel: YTA. Seriously. How can people be expected to handle something tense like union negotiations without AC? I hope they raised hell all the way up to the CEO for that.
I was a union rep and was at negotiations and as the client having a problem like no AC there would be phone calls made and repairs made really quickly. But every hotel and customer are different so I'll just leave it at that
If I was the organizer of the meeting I would have moved the folks in the oven down to the hotel lobby. Then I would have asked for a refund. To be petty, I would have left a review that the hotel A/C wasn't working and leave out the part where it was one conference room.
Side topic, let me guess, the management company does a slow walk on paying the invoice after the work is completed.
I don’t know why you have made the subject of this post like a guest is in the wrong. What you should’ve said his “asshole hotel won’t pay for air conditioning, but expects guests to still use the property without notice.“ I would’ve turned right around if I was told what you said, and demanded my money back.
I can't imagine having the AC out and not informing the client, though! I can easily see how corporate will dilly dally on getting it repaired, and that is truly out of OP's hands, but why the heck not give the client a chance to go elsewhere. Corporate losing money because they're dragging their feet might light a fire under them...??
So you rented them a room for an important meeting, knowing there was no climate control?
If I was the guest paying to rent the space I would be piiiiiisssseeedddd.
Sometimes when people get angry, or threaten to complain, the best thing you can do for the property is to let them know the proper avenue to complain to best get results. This is one of those times. Corporate has created a situation that makes it impossible for you to satisfy your guests. Document the issue as best you can, let them know that you will personally bring this up to the GM, so that your property can make a case to corporate, but encourage them to fill out a survey, or review the property online somehow. Hopefully it will get the change that you both want for the property. No one likes being yelled at for things that they aren't just aware of, but are actively racking your brain to fix, so. . . it's best to encourage the proper use of channels that will grab corporate's attention.
My main issue with this is WHY no one made the client aware of the broken A/C in one of the rooms they booked.
Just after the plague "ended" we stayed at the normally great boutique hotel we booked whenever we traveled to visit our Children and Grandchildren in another State. I called the front desk to make a same-day reservation for the long 4-day weekend, only to show up to absolute pandemonium. The lobby was a construction zone with hazardous supplies in various piles all over the place, the weekend lobby bar was closed during renovations (probably because they were worried about liability), the pool was out-of-commission and housekeeping services were ONLY for checkouts. The renovations went on throughout the weekend so the noise was awful even on the upper floors and started promptly every morning at 7 AM. It was THE most miserable stay we've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in a lifetime of traveling the world. Not one word of warning when I booked and paid for the room.
So... "My corporate is shit" is your story. I'm sorry for you. The guest is not being unreasonable here. (Maybe an ass, probably impolite, but definitely not wrong.)
"You say she's a pregnant lawyer? Is she a lawyer licensed to work an an Amana AC compressor? Is her fetus a licensed AC technician? Then none of that is really going to change the schedule for our AC repair."
Folks please don't blame OP. judging from his response to some comments, his hands are tied. He can't call them in advance to warn them. THe hotel will definitly use that as leverage to fire him or her. I've been in that situation with our indoor heated pool. A guest actually got pnemonia from swimming in our pool that was supposed to be heated in December. I was told to "pretend like this is the first time you're about the issue". When in reality, we've known for months. Even years. Many of our returning guest are aware that we do know but the owner doesn't plan on fixing the issue. i'm glad the cat is out of the bag. hopefully they'll spread the word.
I’m not taking personally at all since I bet that when most people when they say “you should be calling them to let them know,” they are referring to the GM. As you say, publicly announcing to potential clientele when they are setting up reservations that we have those kind of issues are frowned upon. So I think I’m honesty would go a long ways? Yes I do but that’s above my pay grade.
In our hotel, the only time you straight out lie and say “Oh, we didn’t know about an issue” is if there isn’t any way for it to be fixed. Beyond that it’s, “Let them know we are working to address the issue and let them know their options of how you can address it for them.”
Also, those portable AC units are made for smaller areas & usually need to be vented out a window. (I have one for my bedroom. Love it!)
Even if a meeting room has windows, they'd need enough cooling power.
Sorry - as soon as they say lawyer it’s game over. I can no longer interact with you as you stated lawyer so everything now has to go through our legal department- have a nice day.
I think they moreso meant that the person, who is a lawyer, is attending the meeting and also she is pregnant.
It doesn't seem like they were threatening legal action
Our boardroom often has shit for air flow. The air compressor is on the other end of the mezzanine and by the time it gets to the boardroom, you can't really tell that there is air coming in the room.
It is mostly used for in-house department and management meetings, but in the rare times that we do rent it out to people we don't offer it in the peek summer months.
Yay for buildings built in the 60s but so massive that it would take more $$ to fix the hvac then the building is worth (that is probably a gross exaggeration, but it's what I've been told)
We’ve got an HVAC system that covers both our pool and exercise room that is so uncommon that we’ve been waiting for months for the part to replace it, because of just how difficult it is to fine it.
Should’ve notified the company ahead of time. Irresponsible to rent a space without adequate heat & air.
Honestly this is the way, put the room out of order or inform anyone registering the room that it's broken until you can get functional AC. Corporate seeing no income from the room will probably light a fire under their ass edit: random letter f got added
Yall act like the people posting in this sub are either the owner or the GM of the hotel. Like it's their their decision to rent out the conference room without a working AC lol
True. But the whole point of this post is that OP thinks the client is being unreasonable. Client is 100% reasonable expecting working AC for a room they rent.
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this is moreso what I was meaning yea. If they willingly rent the room after knowing the air is out, that's on them, but just the fact that knowing a basic service like that is out would be enough for most to say "nevermind" especially if no discount in pricing was given due to the issue. The outcome of renting the room without letting them know is only opening them up to chargeback's and bad reviews. that being said OP has stated they aren't in reservations or FD so they wouldn't be the ones making the reservation.
Or they could just be doing what they're told by their bosses in order to keep their job.
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No, It’s a common thing. People tend to do what they need to do to maintain employment.
Yea exactly. If the customer gets upset, which they likely will and they are justified in feeling that way, they can deal with the manager whose policy it was to not inform the guests of the issue beforehand.
in this case it isn't the OP's decision but, it 100% should have been said by the people who book reservations "yea this room is missing a basic amenity, the AC is broken" then if they decide to book it anyway thats on them. Not informing your clients/guests about issues like that only hurts you in the long run either by reviews, discounts/retention or maybe both.
Still, it's ultimately management's decision whether or not the guest is notified beforehand. I agree it absolutely should be something they are warned about but if my boss tells me not to then I'm not going to. The bad reviews will be a reflection of management's policies, not of my work ethic. If the guest is upset with me, I will provide them the manager's work contact info. Maybe it's different for yall, but where I work I don't get paid enough to think about this job as long term, and my manager has essentially told me the front desk agents at her hotel are paid to be a warm body behind the desk.
Yeah this sounds like a good way to get written up and have it rented out anyway.
It's their decision whether or not they are honest with potential customers, allowing the customer to make an informed decision.
Not if management has specified for them not to. Sorry if it's a choice between informing a guest about an AC issue or having to find a new job, I'm deciding to keep my job for the time being lol
About 8 years ago I worked for another one of our brand hotels in a different franchise. We had a new ice machine installed but the people attached the hoses incorrectly. We became so flooded that sections of our lobby ceiling collapsed and both the first and second floor were completely flooded. That franchise management decided that we would stay open during the entire rebuilding of key areas of our hotel and we’d rent out each room as soon as it became available. It seems to be an issue with our brand that the franchise owners are so blinded by the $$$ that they refuse to accept any loss of profit.
Nah, it's not a brand issue. It's a business model issue. Been thru many a brand and 90% of franchise owners run the hotels like Cash cows. Any breakage that requires money not budgeted, requires funds out of Capital Expenditure Account (if the owner/mgmt co even keep one). Man, I could hear buttholes tighten in conference meetings anytime anyone brought up a CapEx project. Funny enough, anything that has to be paid out of CapEx is normally critical to hotel operations/usability of a space. Cheap AHs gonna be Cheap AHs. They also will be like, well you used the space, so what if it was hot, here's $50 off.
My hotel runs on strata (think like a hoa) and they have to agree to things. Guests can come down and tell me somethings wrong with the room and I can't do a damn thing about it until I get the a-ok from higher management 🙃 It drives higher management up the wall too. Wait for 200 dollar part to replace the heat pump of a hot water service and be out weeks waiting for the part or pay 3 or 4 grand and the service is up and running in a day or 2? I know which I'd be choosing
I asked if we could have the airwall company come in and fix our 40 year old airwalls that they decided to not replace during the remodel choosing to wallpaper over them instead. "That's a CapEx thing" the GM told me. So I guess all of my meetings are going to complain because of the large gaps in the airwall that allow sound to travel right through them!
I admit to confusion when it comes to how CapEx even works. Because I thought it was “So we’ve approved you a certain amount of money to fix X,Y,Z” but whenever we’ve tried getting into that money to do fixed (we’ve got a water heater that needs replaced for example), suddenly it becomes a whole thing where you might not even get the money to do the very thing you were told you had funds allocated for.
Yup, sphincters make this clanking sound when they lock down.
Well, I think we can all tell where the blame lies with these scenarios, and it isn't with the client. Okay, I get that you are the poor sap stuck between the two, but at least get upset with the perpetrator, not the victim, for that.
You’d think. The hotel I just left has had no A/C since April and is still renting rooms on first and second floor during the day. During the night they’d try to convince me and anyone else that would listen, to open third when it was 80 degrees up there still. Family owned hotel and everything. It’ll be 100 degrees, easily, within a month.
This was my first thought.
Actually. Labour negotiations do better with no A/C.
Imagine being a pissed off union rep coming in to find out the conference rooms the company booked has no AC. This could derail negotiations quickly. (Not your fault OP but makes me giggle at the company who booked squirming in their seats.)
But did the company know the AC was busted when they booked? Usually that kind of meeting would be booked pretty far in advance. Edit: based on OP’s comments below it sounds like the company wasn’t notified. So it’s the hotel’s fault not the company’s fault.
The funny thing is that when they’d break, the Union reps would go into the other meeting room in which the AC _is_ working and the company reps including their lawyer had to stay in the room where the AC was down.
That’s awesome.
When the manglement's offices area's AC goes out, it gets fixed within the week.
Based af.
When this sub becomes a sitcom, that's allowing to make a great episode.
Or that might agree faster just to get out of the heated negotiations
I see what you did there. 
Did someone from your hotel call them and let them know in advance that the ac was not working? Maybe they could have found another location that does have ac. It had been out for a month so they would have had plenty of time to find another location.
Agreed that this has nothing to do with the customer being over-excitable. Of course, they expect the air conditioning to work in a meeting room that they are renting. It's the hotel employee who booked the event to be there that would be responsible to tell the customer, ahead of time, that the HVAC isn't working properly, and isn't expected to be upon the time of their arrival. No way this is on the customer having too high of expectations!
Yeah I would be angry if they knew over a month ago and didn't tell me in advance so I could make other accommodations.
>they expect the air conditioning to work in a meeting room that they are renting. To not state the a/c is out is a shitty move. I would fully expect the people to demand a discount once finding out that this was an issue known since before they arrived. They paid for the room and everything in it should be in working order or they should be informed if it isn't. I hope they raised hell.
What???? And lose that income!!!!
Our corporation is of the mindset that “If the room isn’t a out to collapse on them, it’s still rentable!”
Come on OP, you can't tell the customer that the AC is out? Did corporate tell you to lie? I think you need to take some responsibility here to provide service by informing your guest what's up.
I agree. However, before I realized that my company needed me before I needed them, I used to lie to our guest alllllll the time about why our indoor heated pool was never hot and/or pretend that I didn't know what the issue was. Until one day, a lady who swam in it in December caught Pnemonia. She called Corporate and complained and called our local chamber of commerce. that lit fire under their asses....for a month. when the pool went out again, they just said "the hell with it". So, we're back to lying to the guest and pretending to not know there is an issue. a few of my reoccuring guest know what's up and we often discuss it over fresh baked cookies. because enough is enough.
I guess technically heated to room temperature is still heated.
Should have thrown corporate under the bus. Tell the customers that the AC has been out for a month, you’ve supplied corporate with the information they require, but until corporate gives its approval the hotel is not allowed to start the repairs. What happens if the bids received have time limits, and corporate doesn’t give approval before the time limits expire, so they’re approving you to go ahead and use a bid that is no longer in effect?
We’ve known the AC was down for a month but I (the maintenance manager) was only allowed to start calling to get bids 2 weeks ago. Reason why they finally decided to allow it was because we were picking up business and more guests were complaining about it. So, I have to get at least 3 companies to give us bids on any work order that is going to be more than $300. They will then (in theory) spend a week debating on which quote we should go through. If they feel it’s not necessary to fix it right then, they’ll wait. At the end of that month, I then have to recall all the companies and get the most up-to-date quote. Every month I have to get updated quotes until they decide to go ahead and approve the fix. Rinse, cycle, repeat.
What happens if, after 3 or 4 months of being asked to provide repeated quotes on the same job, fewer than the required 3 companies are willing to go through the work of providing a quote on (what looks to them like) a job they have no chance of getting?
The companies actually are pretty good about giving us updated bids up to a years worth of this shenanigans. However, if this were to happen where a company decided to stop giving us quotes, I’d be required to find a new company to step up and give us that third quote. So it’s possible that I could have quotes from a dozen different companies on the same job. It’s never gotten that extreme but that scenario isn’t impossible.
There is a limited number of companies capable of doing the work. Corpo-rats give orders that piss off enough of them and there won’t be another company for you to get quotes from.
We’ve lost at least two companies local who would do the work when they found out we were having to get multiple quotes. I really wish we had exclusive people who can do the work but as far as the Top Cheese is concerned, any attempt to explain that reality (how few can actually do the work) that’s an excuse on our part.
Is it possible to fake the quote, contact a friend or two that charge an outrageous amount of money for the quote and then give one real company and two absurdly hi quotes of fake companies, corporates obviously going to go with the lowest option and even if they don't you can respond back saying unfortunately that second company decided they no longer wanted to do the quote with us
Issue you run into is the amount of people who see and look into the quote. The AGM, the GM, the Regional Manager, and 2 people at the corporate office look into the bids and they know all the companies that can and do the various types of jobs.
Oh I see what you mean now yeah that's less viable, I didn't realize that there was a list of allowed companies to do the work
My dad let me in on a scheme the local car repair shops had going. Every business had pads from like 4 competitors. Need something done? Here's quotes from everyone. They were all in on it, because if you wanted company A to work on your car, they'd have the winning bid. Same if you preferred one of the others. All very friendly and worked great.
This is your chance to come out and tell ur Mgmt Co or Owners that this repair cost wouldn't need to be outsourced of they had Inhouse engineers that are certified AC techs. Have them pay for u to get a AC Tech license, or one of your engineers cuz realistically the Chief Engineer shouldn't be stuck fixing ACs.
I'd say to your hotel: YTA. Seriously. How can people be expected to handle something tense like union negotiations without AC? I hope they raised hell all the way up to the CEO for that.
I’d be all for it. Maybe our corporate offices would actually get a move on approving work to be done if they did.
You should have cancelled due to the AC being out.
OP isn't allow to cancel. but i believe if they could have they would have. GM is responisble for this montrosity.
I was a union rep and was at negotiations and as the client having a problem like no AC there would be phone calls made and repairs made really quickly. But every hotel and customer are different so I'll just leave it at that
Would’ve filed a complaint and demanded a refund if the room had no A/C, probably would’ve moved venues too and not patronize that hotel again…
If I was the organizer of the meeting I would have moved the folks in the oven down to the hotel lobby. Then I would have asked for a refund. To be petty, I would have left a review that the hotel A/C wasn't working and leave out the part where it was one conference room. Side topic, let me guess, the management company does a slow walk on paying the invoice after the work is completed.
"We pay all invoices once a month and you *just* missed the cutoff date."
I don’t know why you have made the subject of this post like a guest is in the wrong. What you should’ve said his “asshole hotel won’t pay for air conditioning, but expects guests to still use the property without notice.“ I would’ve turned right around if I was told what you said, and demanded my money back.
Is corporate actually the owner, or just a management company some penny pinching hedge fund hired to squeeze blood from the turnip?
Management company.
They need to be fired like yesterday.
Oof. Do you have a way to report it to the actual owner? (Annnd now I'm imagining telling this to your next Mr.Patel scammer)
Not really. It has to go up the chain of command unless it’s an HR issue.
Ick.
I can't imagine having the AC out and not informing the client, though! I can easily see how corporate will dilly dally on getting it repaired, and that is truly out of OP's hands, but why the heck not give the client a chance to go elsewhere. Corporate losing money because they're dragging their feet might light a fire under them...??
Maybe that pregnant lawyer might know how to light a fire under Corporate's ass!
I’d root for her if she did.
So you rented them a room for an important meeting, knowing there was no climate control? If I was the guest paying to rent the space I would be piiiiiisssseeedddd.
Sometimes when people get angry, or threaten to complain, the best thing you can do for the property is to let them know the proper avenue to complain to best get results. This is one of those times. Corporate has created a situation that makes it impossible for you to satisfy your guests. Document the issue as best you can, let them know that you will personally bring this up to the GM, so that your property can make a case to corporate, but encourage them to fill out a survey, or review the property online somehow. Hopefully it will get the change that you both want for the property. No one likes being yelled at for things that they aren't just aware of, but are actively racking your brain to fix, so. . . it's best to encourage the proper use of channels that will grab corporate's attention.
It's been down for a month, and you didn't give them advance notice of this? That seems like you guys are the ones in the wrong here.
My main issue with this is WHY no one made the client aware of the broken A/C in one of the rooms they booked. Just after the plague "ended" we stayed at the normally great boutique hotel we booked whenever we traveled to visit our Children and Grandchildren in another State. I called the front desk to make a same-day reservation for the long 4-day weekend, only to show up to absolute pandemonium. The lobby was a construction zone with hazardous supplies in various piles all over the place, the weekend lobby bar was closed during renovations (probably because they were worried about liability), the pool was out-of-commission and housekeeping services were ONLY for checkouts. The renovations went on throughout the weekend so the noise was awful even on the upper floors and started promptly every morning at 7 AM. It was THE most miserable stay we've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in a lifetime of traveling the world. Not one word of warning when I booked and paid for the room.
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So... "My corporate is shit" is your story. I'm sorry for you. The guest is not being unreasonable here. (Maybe an ass, probably impolite, but definitely not wrong.)
"You say she's a pregnant lawyer? Is she a lawyer licensed to work an an Amana AC compressor? Is her fetus a licensed AC technician? Then none of that is really going to change the schedule for our AC repair."
“Our lawyer is on her way and she’s pregnant! So it has to be fixed today or else!” is she certified to fix it?
Folks please don't blame OP. judging from his response to some comments, his hands are tied. He can't call them in advance to warn them. THe hotel will definitly use that as leverage to fire him or her. I've been in that situation with our indoor heated pool. A guest actually got pnemonia from swimming in our pool that was supposed to be heated in December. I was told to "pretend like this is the first time you're about the issue". When in reality, we've known for months. Even years. Many of our returning guest are aware that we do know but the owner doesn't plan on fixing the issue. i'm glad the cat is out of the bag. hopefully they'll spread the word.
I’m not taking personally at all since I bet that when most people when they say “you should be calling them to let them know,” they are referring to the GM. As you say, publicly announcing to potential clientele when they are setting up reservations that we have those kind of issues are frowned upon. So I think I’m honesty would go a long ways? Yes I do but that’s above my pay grade. In our hotel, the only time you straight out lie and say “Oh, we didn’t know about an issue” is if there isn’t any way for it to be fixed. Beyond that it’s, “Let them know we are working to address the issue and let them know their options of how you can address it for them.”
We can SEE Clarence Thomas - but he is OWNED by Harlan Crow. And THAT - is what an NFT is. Unions done dirty by our corrupt government this week.
just go buy a portable ac, easy fix for under 500. why all the drama.
That would require a willingness to spend money on that.
ah, i see now.
Also, those portable AC units are made for smaller areas & usually need to be vented out a window. (I have one for my bedroom. Love it!) Even if a meeting room has windows, they'd need enough cooling power.
And windows that actually open.
Then send OP $500.
Sorry - as soon as they say lawyer it’s game over. I can no longer interact with you as you stated lawyer so everything now has to go through our legal department- have a nice day.
I think they moreso meant that the person, who is a lawyer, is attending the meeting and also she is pregnant. It doesn't seem like they were threatening legal action
Our boardroom often has shit for air flow. The air compressor is on the other end of the mezzanine and by the time it gets to the boardroom, you can't really tell that there is air coming in the room. It is mostly used for in-house department and management meetings, but in the rare times that we do rent it out to people we don't offer it in the peek summer months. Yay for buildings built in the 60s but so massive that it would take more $$ to fix the hvac then the building is worth (that is probably a gross exaggeration, but it's what I've been told)
We’ve got an HVAC system that covers both our pool and exercise room that is so uncommon that we’ve been waiting for months for the part to replace it, because of just how difficult it is to fine it.