Friday, October 05, 2007
Cops and Robbers, Police and Thief...
5 months into my new role as a hotel duty manager....challenging? Hell yeah....It's tough when you are dealing with very demanding guests, and it's worst when at times we do not meet their expactations, and the recovery process gets more complicated....But Alhamdulillah, so far, though it has not been that smooth, I have managed the sitations well, thanks to the support from my fellow colleagues and my superiors...It's a very learning experience...it builds you to handle really delicate situations and forces you to make really good and called for decisions at that very moment....
What have I encountered so far? Let me see...we just had the Middle Eastern Season for about three months where the hotel was running full almost every single day. Due to this, there were some days where we had to 'relocate' guests to other hotels due to overbooking...try telling a traveller after traveling 13 hours that there is no room for him, and he'll have to be 'relocated', though on the hotel's bill, to another hotel! Guess what 'nice' words he'll as his reply!
There was also the case where one of the rooms got badly flooded due to a burst pipe in the kitchenette's sink....It was like a 5-star paddy field!
Then I had this other case when a guest claimed to have lost money in his locked in-room safe...He was so upset that he wanted to go and yell in the lobby saying that there's a thef in the hotel so al the other guests will check out and not stay with us!
But I think nothing will beat the incident that happened just 2 days ago...it was REALLY an experiece to cherish! What happened was, a day earlier, the hotel, or rather one of the outlets was struck by a fraud credit card syndicate. Two gentlemen calmly walked into the outlet and bought bottles of wine at RM2200 each. The card swipe went smoothly and they walked out, cool as a cucumber (just like in Ocean's Eleven or Twelve, or Thirteen...). Two hours later, the bank called and alerted us that the card used was a fake. Everyone went berserk! But guess what? The next day, the two culprits turned up again (!) and went back to get some more wine. Of course, by now the staff had been briefed and some of them even recognised them from the day before. So, the outlet manager alerted me, and soon, it was like CSI-Las Vegas-SWAT in the hotel!!! After monitoring them from afar while they were being stalled by the Sommelier, their Spidey-senses suddenly tingled and they began to slowly make an escape. One of them coolly walked out (passing by me!) of the hotel. I quickly ordered the security guy beside me to run after him, but he was faster and got away. The other who tried to act cool, was apprehended by the other security personnel and was brought up to one of our function rooms for questioning. The police was called and soon, we all saw him being walked away with his hands cuffed into the patrol car...what a day! If only I had the authority to jump on the other guy before he ran away, then we would have got both of the dumb-dumbs...Later we found some credit cards and a passport that was previously flushed down the toilet in one of the men's room by the apprehended suspect. V for VICTORY!
What have I encountered so far? Let me see...we just had the Middle Eastern Season for about three months where the hotel was running full almost every single day. Due to this, there were some days where we had to 'relocate' guests to other hotels due to overbooking...try telling a traveller after traveling 13 hours that there is no room for him, and he'll have to be 'relocated', though on the hotel's bill, to another hotel! Guess what 'nice' words he'll as his reply!
There was also the case where one of the rooms got badly flooded due to a burst pipe in the kitchenette's sink....It was like a 5-star paddy field!
Then I had this other case when a guest claimed to have lost money in his locked in-room safe...He was so upset that he wanted to go and yell in the lobby saying that there's a thef in the hotel so al the other guests will check out and not stay with us!
But I think nothing will beat the incident that happened just 2 days ago...it was REALLY an experiece to cherish! What happened was, a day earlier, the hotel, or rather one of the outlets was struck by a fraud credit card syndicate. Two gentlemen calmly walked into the outlet and bought bottles of wine at RM2200 each. The card swipe went smoothly and they walked out, cool as a cucumber (just like in Ocean's Eleven or Twelve, or Thirteen...). Two hours later, the bank called and alerted us that the card used was a fake. Everyone went berserk! But guess what? The next day, the two culprits turned up again (!) and went back to get some more wine. Of course, by now the staff had been briefed and some of them even recognised them from the day before. So, the outlet manager alerted me, and soon, it was like CSI-Las Vegas-SWAT in the hotel!!! After monitoring them from afar while they were being stalled by the Sommelier, their Spidey-senses suddenly tingled and they began to slowly make an escape. One of them coolly walked out (passing by me!) of the hotel. I quickly ordered the security guy beside me to run after him, but he was faster and got away. The other who tried to act cool, was apprehended by the other security personnel and was brought up to one of our function rooms for questioning. The police was called and soon, we all saw him being walked away with his hands cuffed into the patrol car...what a day! If only I had the authority to jump on the other guy before he ran away, then we would have got both of the dumb-dumbs...Later we found some credit cards and a passport that was previously flushed down the toilet in one of the men's room by the apprehended suspect. V for VICTORY!
