How to stay polite while arguing with an annoying guest

In the first week of our Hotel’s opening, we had a guest that entered through the main entrance and the first sentences she said were, “Where the hell am I—this environment sucks—I am not used to such places.” Well, I told her that we just opened and that we were eager to make her stay as pleasant as possible. I asked her who had made the reservation for her and surprisingly she said she’d done by herself. I still do not understand why somebody has to be so critical about a Hotel that he’d chosen by himself. If somebody does not want to stay in a specific Hotel, he should not book it.

She grimaced a lot at the reception. While I brought her to her room, I said politely that it would be no problem for the staff at the hotel if she wanted to change the hotel.

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I made her an offer that she could use our Hotel room to get ready for her meeting at 5pm, free of charge, before returning to the hotel and leaving when she felt ready. At the beginning, she did not want to accept my offer, but when she came back she took her clothes and left our hotel.

I believe it was better for us that she left the hotel due to the fact that she would likely have rated our hotel on the booking portal—1 point for all categories.

Secondly, I did not want to be strained the next day because of her demeanor. Having such a guest in the very first week is not really what I was hoping for. However, I managed to stay polite and make my point of view clear. I had not been rude, but just said what I had observed and gave her my personal opinion. If two parties do not have any benefit of doing business together, why even bother? Well, as a guest, she had a lot of power in regards to rating the hotel. The first ratings of a new hotel are very important. They can boost your visibility enormously. Every single day but especially in the first opening days of the hotel I have been eager to receive only positive? ratings.

Another annoying and unfriendly guest stayed in our hotel for two days. At the check-in, a young lady who was maybe 26-29 years old said that she was upset because she hadn’t received any confirmation email from us prior to her booking. Well, we couldn’t have sent her a confirmation email because she’d called us on the phone and not given us her email address. We realized that she was unhappy and so we gave her a suite for the same price as the single room she had booked with us. At 11:50pm she called me when I had been sleeping. She complained about a noise that was coming from the bathroom. She immediately wanted to have another room. Luckily, I called one of my staff that was in the hotel and I sent him upstairs to check what was going on. While he was upstairs in the room, he asked her where the noise was coming from. She told him but there was absolutely nothing. There was no noise at all. It was silent.

When he told her that another room would be available for her, she just asked him if she really had to move. At the beginning, she had said that she wanted to move and after a few minutes she wanted to stay. That was hilarious. Nevertheless, we moved her.

The next day she told our staff at the reception that because there had been a noise she couldn’t sleep all night. When the staff wanted to answer, she just shouted, “Do not argue with me, you only have to accept it. ”

Suddenly she was friendly and wishing us a beautiful day.

Even though she’d been unpleasant and annoying, we never lost our temper towards her. Of course, there will always be frustrating times for the hotel manager / hotel staff, but it is right to stay calm and respond to difficult people with respect at all times. Stay polite and use your temper to get through these situations.