Having basically grown up in the hospitality industry,
I’ve seen a lot of interesting things. Although I can’t say strange requests surprise me anymore, I certainly have a few that stand out from the crowd. The following stories certainly stick out in my memory as some of the most bizarre requests received at the front desk here at Treetops.
I was called to the front desk one day as there was a guest who was upset about the bed in her room. She had just checked in and discovered the bed in her room did not meet her expectations. Although some rooms did have different mattresses, they were all in good condition. So I took a quick look at our inventory and noticed that there was another room available, directly across the hall and of the same room type. I told her we could move her to the new room, but wanted to let her see the bed to ensure that it met her expectations. We walked down to the room and I let her in to see the new bed. She laid on it and let me know that this bed was much better. I told her that I would move her reservation in our system to this room and get her new keys. But instead, she wanted me to switch the mattresses of the rooms. I understood as her other room had a slightly better view, and so had no problem accommodating that request. She was going out for the day and expected the beds to be switched upon her return. I gathered another individual to help me with the switch while she was out. While switching the mattresses, it occurred to me that the mattresses were exactly the same. I was worried that upon her return, she would be angry to see that her mattresses had not been switched because they were exactly the same. We finished the switch and remade the beds. The next morning, I followed up with the guest to see how her night’s sleep was. She replied that it had probably been one of the best night’s sleep she had ever had.
I was working the front desk one morning
when a young woman came up and asked if she would be able to purchase a hair dryer. She had stayed with us the night before and really enjoyed the hair dryer. This didn’t come as a complete surprise to me as we often had guests ask to purchase items they may have used in their rooms. I asked her for her patience while I rounded up a new one in the box. She had just returned from a room tour with one of our sales managers and had seen other rooms. So she told me that the hair dryers in most other rooms did not match the hair dryer that was in her room and the hair dryer in her room had given her the best hair dry (for the size) that she had ever had. So I went down to the room she had checked out of and retrieved the hair dryer. I returned to the desk, we agreed upon a price, and she walked away as the new happy owner of the hair dryer.
I would count myself lucky
I would count myself lucky here as I’ve certainly heard of some bizarre requests that out-do the above. But the important thing to keep in mind is that as a guest, there aren’t many requests that are going to be bizarre enough that the staff won’t at least make an attempt to accommodate. In fact, your request may even be bizarre enough to make it into a blog someday.
Safe Travels!
Jake Himmelspach, Treetops Hotel Manager
