When you are told to "bend the truth...."
Something I was thinking about after our ethics discussion was an awful situation I was placed in while working in the hospitality industry.
Hotels often purposely oversell their rooms in hopes of no-shows and last minute cancellations "flowing through" to a perfect sell. In other words, a hotel may have 241 rooms and make 251 reservations. Well, believe me when I say this - there were many, many times that EVERYONE showed up. Being the Assistant Manager of the Front Desk put me working mostly evenings. This is where the fun came in - and I am being extremely sarcastic! Around 10:30pm or so, after we had checked in our last room, we would then have to apologize to any guests whose reservations remained and tell them the hotel had an "unexpected group stayover" and we could not provide the guest with a hotel room after all. We would, however, send them to the comparable hotel down the street and be responsible for the cost of the room and tax. So, the guest got a free room - what's the big deal? Not all guests care about money, their company may already be paying and this was a huge inconvenience to them. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "If I wanted to stay down the street, I would have booked my room there." All in all, it was a horrible experience that challenged my ethics and values. Here I was just trying to pay my bills and now I'm being told to lie! It may seem silly, but it really bothered me deep down inside. Why couldn't I just tell the guest that the hotel was oversold purposely? Well, the company did not want the guests to think it was at the fault of the hotel. This may push the guest over to the competitor permanently. So, I had to continue this charade throughout my employment at this property. It may surprise you to know that this is not something that is seldom done in the hotel industry. It happens all the time. So if you ever arrive with a reservation and are told that the hotel had an "unexpected group stay over," you might think twice about if this is an honest statement.
What would you have done if you had been asked to do this?
Comments
Posted by: Daniel Tikk
Posted on: November 6, 2005 05:49 PM
I actually worked at the front desk of a hotel for a summer, and our hotel did the exact same thing. Whenever I was working the evening shift of a busy day, I would dread the time when we were overbooked and would have to turn away the latest arriving guests. Luckily, it only happened a few times since I live in a fairly small town, but it still happened a few times. I felt extremely guilty for "bending the truth," because I could relate to how they feel. Also, I do not really see this as a good business decision, because if I were in those guests positions who were turned away late at night with a reservation, I would certainly tell my friends about what bad service I received (as the adage goes, each dissatisfied customer tells 20 friends, while the satisfied customer only tells 5). I hated the position my employer put me in by having to lie to these customers, but since it was a job I had for only a few months, I did not feel that I could say anything against the practice. I understand your predicament and agree that it is an awful position to be put in.
Posted by: Raffi Pounardjian
Posted on: December 8, 2005 10:12 PM
To be quite honest with you Jen, I probably would have done the exact same thing you did. If you do the right thing and tell the customers the truth, you will probably end up losing your job. This might be worth it if the company actually ended up changing its policy, but that simply would not happen. However, this probably would make an interesting news story on CNN or 20/20 and an employee might be able to make a difference in the hotel industry in general. Sadly, I do not think that I or anyone else would have the motivation to go through all that and risk getting sued by the hotel.