Advice from the Front Desk: How to Have the Best Hotel Stay

I have been working almost a year now at the front desk of a hotel in a resort town. Here are some observations I have made during that time along with advice to help travelers have a great hotel stay:

DO make a reservation! I know a lot of people think they will get a better rate if they show up that night and try to negotiate for a vacant room. That might work during the slow season, but during high season, forget it. There were many nights this past summer when I was handing lists of hotels in the area to people walking through the door. There were also nights where there wasn't a room to be had for more than a hundred miles. Those people had to do an awful lot of driving, sometimes very late at night.

DO ask questions before you book your room. If you are a light sleeper, ask if the heat shuts on and off a lot or if it's noisy. Some people don't want to stay in rooms with hot air blowing due to the noise.

DO listen to what the person making your reservation tells you. It's not just "a spiel". We are telling you policy information as well as reading back dates and rates to you.

DO ask the person making your reservation to put in comments as to your needs. If you want a quiet room, put it in there. If you want the top floor, a view, to be near the pool - anything can be requested.

DON'T get upset if a request isn't met. It's just that - a request. We don't guarantee much of anything and people don't understand that. If you absolutely need an extra bed in a room, we don't guarantee rollaways. Your best bet would be to bring an air mattress with you as insurance.

But we get complaints all the time on this. There's a huge difference between "request" and "guarantee". Sometimes people hear what they want to when they are on the other end of that phone as well.

DO call the hotel with requests - don't rely on it to come through if you make a reservation on the corporate 800 line or through a website. I recommend booking directly with the hotel if at all possible.

In this vein, I caution against using many third-party websites to book hotels. Yes, I have done it when I was in the traveling public. The problem is that many of those sites use different codes than we do or force-sell inventory we don't have to get the commission, and people wind up in rooms with one king bed when they thought they were getting two queens.

DON'T ask to speak with the GM or Sales Director for the hotel if you don't like the rate being quoted. I don't care what some stupid travel writer said, this will ultimately backfire. Front desk and reservations agents are there because the GM is not about to be making reservations. The Sales department is generally for groups and very lengthy stays. Plus, I think my GM would fire anyone who actually transferred a call like that back to him.

DO pay attention when you are checking in to what you are signing. We ask you to initial the rate. You would be surprised just how many people do this, then go to check out and say they have the wrong rate. Pay attention to any waivers or agreements you sign for the pool policy, pet policy, etc.

DON'T wait until midnight to complain that your heat isn't working or that you need extra blankets, unless that's when you checked in. Chances are at that hour there's one person on the desk and he/she risks a lot if they come into your room to adjust the heat for you. How many men would walk into a room with a woman alone in her nightgown? It's just asking for trouble.

I had someone call down at midnight to tell me the blower unit on the heater was going off and on and even if they put it on the OFF position it was still doing it. I tried to explain that it could take 15 minutes to a half hour for it to cycle through and shut down and they insisted it was off for a half hour. I knew it wasn't but I can't argue with them and we were full. I wasn't going up into their room to look at it for them.

DON'T chew someone out for something they can't do. I had a caller chew me out once because I couldn't email her a copy of a cancellation. Our computers aren't set up for that, only emails of confirmation of your stay. Want to complain to my manager about that? Go right ahead and he'll laugh at you. We do remember names, by the way.

DO fill out comment cards, especially noting anything that affected your stay, good or bad. I say this because we can't change if we don't know about it. Also, sometimes the staff already knows that someone is a problem but management doesn't always listen to us. Comments from customers helps in that regard!

If you really want to go the extra mile for someone, write a letter. If the hotel is a chain, go to the top and send it through there as well. We put the letters and comments like this up for everyone to see and I can tell you, it is a nice thing.

DO call the desk when there's a problem. We can't hear throughout the hotel, and if there's a group making noise, unless someone calls about it we won't know until you come down to the desk bleary-eyed the next morning. I had one person call and start off with "Well you've probably had other calls about the noise up here..." No, I hadn't. Hers was the first. Usually one phone call or visit to a room is enough to get someone to quiet down.

DON'T expect everyone else to conform to your schedule. Hotels usually have a quiet time and that's something else you should ask about. However, just because you want to go to sleep at 7PM to make that hike at dawn, doesn't mean that the people next to you with over-excited toddlers will get them to be quiet. I have no problem asking people to quiet down after 10PM.

I had to stay at my property due to snowstorms ands sleep in the afternoon. I was awakened by banging doors and the like and had to deal with it. My sleep time is most people's awake time. If you have an odd schedule like this, I'd recommend looking for someplace that has cottages or ask about the occupancy when making the reservation. If it's low occupancy, we might be able to put you off in a corner by yourself.

DON'T start yelling because housekeeping didn't make up your room when you left a DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging off the handle all day. We're not psychic. We don't know if you are in there sick and don't want to be disturbed or if you left it there by mistake. If it's early enough, your room can probably be given the once-over and desk staff has access to towels if you need them.

DON'T be afraid to invoke a room guarantee if you have a legitimate complaint. That's what these guarantees are put in place for. At the same time, understand that corporate tracks guarantees. If they see people going into hotel after hotel and invoking the guarantee, eventually you will get a letter in the mail inviting you not to stay at a property licensed by that corporation again. Ever.

I was here one night in my street clothes and I had a lady come up and flat out tell me she was looking for something to complain about to get her room free. She's stayed here twice and two guarantees. Yes, we know her name and we're watching her. I also caught someone recently who had twenty invokes this year and forty for the year before. She's had her rewards account canceled and lost a ton of points besides getting the letter.

DO use your cell phone for phone calls whenever possible. Hotels might offer free "local" calls, but regional calls in the same area code will cost you and most people are shocked how much. DON'T be afraid to ask the front desk at check-in to restrict your phone to the free local calls and write this on your registration card you sign. That will protect you if the clerk doesn't do it.

DON'T smoke in a non-smoking room. We have started charging a fee to people who do this, and we do have a few smoking rooms for people. If it's that important then you need to book in advance at a hotel you know will have rooms set aside for this. It's a problem for the next guest who wants a smoke-free room when you do this. Most hotels have no problem with guests standing outside smoking and usually have ashtrays outside for this purpose. If it's that important that you smoke in the room and you can't get a room at one hotel, then please go to another. I would rather lose room revenue than have to deal with this issue.

DON'T play fast and loose with the rules. The staff doesn't make them and usually management disappears and leaves us to enforce them. If there's no beer drinking in the common area, don't bring in cases and cases and expect the staff will just let you do it cause you smile nice. I actually have threatened to call police on people.

DON'T sneak a pet into a hotel that doesn't allow them. And DON'T lie about having a pet in your room just to avoid the cleaning fees most hotels that do allow them charge. We keep pets on certain floors so that when people come who have allergies, we know it's safe to put them on other floors. People who just lie about the situation make it bad for everyone and that's one reason there are less and less hotels which will accept pets.

DO ask questions of the staff about local attractions. Sometimes there are discounts available or hints and tips. Also they can usually help steer you in the right direction for restaurants in the area. But DON'T be upset if they can't help you. Most desk staff - and staff at hotels in general - are paid below $10 an hour. It's pretty hard to be able to tell you about which of the snowmobile places you should use when they can't afford to try them all out for you ahead of time. I'm fortunate in that I was a tourist in this area for many years, and many of the staff people tell people to talk to me.

I actually did have a lady give me an attitude because I couldn't tell her what snowmobile place she should go to for rentals. I could tell her where they were, but I couldn't tell her about them or the trails. At the same time, the staff was directing people who had questions about local ski areas to talk to me because I knew the most about them and current conditions.

DO remember that the staff is human too. We make mistakes and usually do want to correct the situation to make guests happy, even when it's not our fault. Sometimes we just can't for whatever reason. A smile and being polite makes for a positive experience for everyone.