grrrr

[staxxy]

came in this morning to a message from my boss saying that he didn't have a hotel because I "didn't guarantee a late check in for him".

But I *did*. And I reserved the room with his credit card. Like I *always* do.

so now he is mad at *me* for a screw up the hotel made.

and I am livid with the hotel. So now I have to wait until 8:30am to talk to a manager at the hotel about it.

any suggestions on how I should talk to my boss about it? Currently he probably thinks I am incompitent. :(

color me distressed

Comments

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

Tell the hotel manager that you demand a full apology, not only to yourself, but to your boss, telling him it was their cock up and not yours.

Re: I just got off the phone

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

still so mad I am shaking.

the end result of the conversation is less than thrilling. SHe apologized a lot, and she said that should would discuss the front desk training methods since there was some sort of training issue here. She also gave me her name so that I can make the arrangements for stays thru her in the future to be certain that the rooms will always be guaranteed.

grrrrrrrr

Re: I just got off the phone

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

There should be some sort of room discount voucher forthcoming too, I would suspect, since this was a business trip and reflected badly on you in the eyes of your boss.

Re: I just got off the phone

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get her to offer me shit. :(

Re: I just got off the phone

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

Offer? Screw that. Demand. THEY fucked up. THEY should make amends.

I don't get this new trend in customer service. "Well, we screw up so often we'd go broke if we made it up to everyone. Just get used to it."

I'd find a new hotel, and tell her that. Send a letter thanking her for the offer of making reservations through her, but that will not be necessary as you've found a hotel that won't fuck up.

Re: I just got off the phone

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

unfortunatly I *can't*. this is the only hotel anywhere near where my boss has to be when he goes down there. :(

[ogremarco.livejournal.com]

In the future, count on anyone at a hotel to be a complete fucking muppet. Call at least once to confirm everything about the reservation. Tell your boss that from now on out you expect them to be said muppets, and that you'll double check to make sure he gets his check in.
Bosses are like yours are like officers. You feed and water them, but the needs some talking up a little too.

Re: :) thanks.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

this is a fantastic suggestion.

I will do this.

Thought I'd left work (travel agent here) but...

[aaminahlefae.livejournal.com]

Technically; giving a credit card is guaranteeing for late arrival,
BUT if a traveler is getting in late, it's always a good idea to ask
that they note his approximate arrival time. If it's really late and
they have only one room not checked into, they might have to make a
judgement call -but if that note is in there, they don't have to guess
whether he's just not going to show.

I don't neccessarily assume the reservation agents are complete 'muppets' but I certainly cover my ass by making sure I recap all the information, get a confirmation number and the person and time I spoke with. Keep that info for a while. I like making my reservations right through the airline/hotel/car system (called Apollo in my case) because I will have specific documentation right in front of me and confirmed showing every detail I requested -including something like this! Travel agents are a good thing to have, but we cost money now since none of the vendors pay us anymore.

Re: Thought I'd left work (travel agent here) but...

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

eep.

yeah. the funny thing was that I told them he might be very late. I had no idea when he would be there, and they actually put a note in their computer (for no reason I know of) that he would be there before 6.

I dunno.

But I will be making all future arrangements through the manager in the future.

Eek! You poor thing!

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

I had a similar situation when I hadn't been working for my executive very long. Short story is that something happened to his corporate calendaring account and he missed some meetings because we never received the notifications. Like your boss, he assumed that I had done something wrong. The way I talked to him about it was that I completely understood his frustration and embarrassment about missing meetings, especially scheduled by his boss. I said at first I was horrified that I might have made a careless mistake and felt awful. But then I explained what had happened, what steps I had taken to fix it, and how I tested the steps.

Remember that your boss is angry and frustrated and possibly embarrassed because he had to go through this hassle at the hotel. Business travel sucks at the best of times. I think it's important to let him vent, to be empathetic. When he winds down, if you feel comfortable enough in your new relationship with him, let him know how you felt. How scared you were that you had made a mistake, how relieved you were to find out that you did the proper thing (positive reinforcement of this fact can't hurt). How you spoke with the manager and will absolutely pester them to death to confirm future reservations. I think you will both put this behind you and your working relationship will end up a little better because you've gone through this together.

Hang in there and let us know how it all works out.

::hugs::

Re: Eek! You poor thing!

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

thanks!!