Who Brought the Tractor Trailer in the Building and Didn't Tell Me?

My night is going smooth for about the first hour when I get a phone call. It's now about 12:30 in the morning.

Me: Front Desk, may I help you?
Room: Hi.
Me: Hi.
Room: I'm having trouble sleeping.
Me: I'm sorry, is there a problem with noise?
Room: Yes, there is.
Me: Which direction is it coming from and I'll call that room and ask them to quiet down.
Room: Actually, see, the bed in our room is against the wall to where the ice-maker is. It sounds like a tractor-trailer is in our bedroom.
Me: I'm sorry ma'am. We've never had that complaint before.

Yes, that's right. Three rooms that abut this room with the ice-maker on three different floors. And not one of them has ever complained about the noise from the ice-maker.

Room: Would it be possible to be moved? We'd like the kind of room we already have (a suite).
Me: I'm sorry m'am, we're sold out tonight. I can put in a request to move you in the morning.

So that's the way it goes for about a half-hour when she calls again.

Me: Front desk, may I help you?
Room: Sorry to bother you again, but I really can't sleep.
Me: Well, I had the houseman go check the ice-maker. It's working fine. You shouldn't be hearing it continuously, especially by now when everyone has stopped getting ice.
Room: Well, I can't sleep.

I know what's coming next.

Me: Well, ma'am I'll take $100 off your room rate for tonight and we'll move you down the hall for your stay tomorrow night.
Room: That would be fine, I guess.

So I do that. I decrease her rate. The bosses like that better than when we invoke the guarantee. The problem is, there's no tracking that goes on when people scam a lower rate as opposed to people invoking the room guarantee.

How do I know she is scamming? Two reasons. One is that I have slept in the same room she is in. I am the world's lightest sleeper. If the ice-maker was that bad, I would have been one of the first people telling my GM about it.

Second, I put all the notes in for her to be moved. I went home and came in the next night for my shift. She hadn't moved!

Now, I only lowered her rate for the one night, not for her whole stay.

So the next morning she calls down at 6 AM. I slid her bill under the door earlier.

Room: I talked with someone the other night about a problem with my room and was told I would get $100 off of my room rate.
Me: Ye, ma'am that was me.
Room: Oh.
Me: If you look at your bill, ma'am, I lowered the rate for the night you complained. You were supposed to move yesterday.
Room: I decided it would be too much trouble.
Me: Well, ma'am the rate was only lowered for one night. You chose to stay in the room where you said you couldn't sleep an additional night. If we rented it to anyone else they would have paid the full rate for it.
Room: Well...

Yeah, she dropped it when it was put to her that way. I have a feeling, though, we'll be seeing a refund processed through corporate.