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Hotel Check-Out: When The Guest Request Is Completely Ignored...

The Storyteller

On their last evening at the Thai resort, the couple guest asked the Guest Service employee, who was driving them on the buggy back to the room, to have their latest bill sent to the room that very night.  As they knew the bill was a little complicated – what with the food discount and resort credit, they just wanted to have the time to go through it without rushing through during the morning check-out.

 

“If you or your colleague need more time to prepare the bill, you can slide it under our room door if it is late, say after 10pm.” the female guest said.

 

“Certainly,” the employee assured her.

 

The guests did not receive the requested document before they went to bed but felt confident that they would find the envelope under her door the next morning.

 

When the guest woke up, he went straight to the door and even opened it to look outside. However, the promised envelope was not there.

 

After breakfast, the guest went to the reception to settle the check-out and remarked that the invoice was not sent to their room as requested the previous evening. The receptionist apologized for it but did not seem aware of the situation.

 

Perhaps the person who was meant to prepare the bill was not able to complete the task and had to wait till the morning to cross-check with other colleagues/departments. Or maybe the bill was ready but no one followed-up to send it to the room. It could even have been that the initial Guest Service employee did not understand the request (unlikely) or did not even pass on the message as an oversight.

 

Regardless, the guests’ specific request was completely ignored and there also seemed to be a lack of seamless communication internally.

 

Service Bank: Minus 5

 

 

Reflective thoughts: When was the last time a guest request was “dropped”? Given the above possible reasons as to why the bill was not sent to the room, discuss – for each scenario – how it could have been better handled or avoided.

 

 

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