Aibu to turn this customer away?

[QuandryQueen]

I've name changed as I'm a regular and this is a work related question and I don't want it linked to my usual account.

I work at a Hotel and what with the Christmas break was the most senior person there yesterday and will be this afternoon and evening. I don't know what decision to make!

A customer reserved a room to arrive today and I noticed yesterday they have put a comment on the booking to say they are bringing their dog. We don't accept dogs except service pets. They booked through a travel agent/Web site rather than direct. I have been off prior to yesterday so not sure if others have seen the note or not. There's nothing in the booking to show that anyone has tried to get in touch with the guest.

I messaged them through the site they booked (a from hotel message not a personal one!), and highlighted where it says on their confirmation that pets are not allowed.

I have no other way of communicating with them. As of yet we have had no response.

What do I do?

1. message again, not knowing if they will see it?
2. if they turn up with the dog turn them away?
3. if they turn up with the dog let them just keep the dog in their room?

They've pre paid and booked a month ago so it's pretty crap that none of us have seen the note before now, but it is well hidden in amongst all the other data on their booking.

What do I do??

But they would have received the booking confirmation that states no dogs allowed after they made the booking with the note that they were bringing a dog. In which case, it HAS been communicated to them, since booking, that Fido isn't welcome.

Another vote for not allowing the dog. If it's your hotel policy, then you must implement it. It is not up to the personal initiative / decision at the time of checking in. No dog policy means no dog.
Besides, when people want to bring their dogs, apart from making sure the hotel confirms that they allow dogs, the hotels also inform the extra costs involved as well. I have not heard any hotel allowing dogs at no additional cost. For that reason, people who want to bring dogs must be aware of the additions charge along with the confirmation that states the dates, length of time, room type etc. They can't expect just to bring a dog and not pay extra.
Like other posters, can you try to contact the travel company they booked with? Depending on how big the company is, there might be some out of hours customer service employee, who can take the message and pass it onto the pax. In the meantime you could ring around and try to find another hotel who allows dogs and if passengers turn up with the dog, they can be sent to the alternative hotel without hopefully too much hassle.

No dogs means no dogs unfortunately. Owners will have to take it up with the travel agent really who can place them elsewhere although if they booked online and didn't read the confirmation I doubt the agent will take pity

I don't envy you when the guest turns up OP!
I don't think you can let the dog stay as it's against the hotel policy. What you do about it though, I have no idea!
If I wanted to take my dog to a hotel then I know for sure that I'd be double and triple checking that it was ok.
Good luck!

Don't compromise your job for entitled cheeky people

This with bells on

I hadn't read the whole thread, but I saw just above, another poster pointed out, if the hotel has no dogs policy, and if you allow the dog, you'll be in trouble with the management. I also totally agree with that point. You must be firm and implement the policy. Nothing else. There is no need to use personal initiative there. Rule us there black and white.

DeathStare - the point is we don't know if it is a pet or a service dog yet. Secondly - it is the passive aggressive "tell it the ambulance driver" type of comment I was referring to.

If you really would have to leave that is truly terrible and must make life pretty much impossible for you as all public places have to allow guide dogs. Busses and trains allow dogs, many shops, even some offices - so although you are right, (along with the majority of the thread), to say that an exception should not be made for a pet - we do not know yet and in the end it makes no difference why the dog is there as long as it is. You will have a reaction either way.

No offence was meant although I could probably have worded it better - I just thought it was not very helpful to the OP.

Hotel manager has emailed back and said if they turn up with the dog we are to just accept it. Agrees with me the website is crap and that will be amended.

Hopefully when the guests got the confirmation and if they read my message sent yesterday they will have realised and made alternative arrangements in the meantime.

I hate situations like this.

OP You do realise that the Curse Of MN will fall on you bigtime if you don't let us know how this pans out, don't you?

Good luck!

As a dog owner I would be scrutinising the small print to see if pets are allowed. If the website/hotel did not explicitly state that pets were permissible, then I'd be calling the hotel to check. No way would I pop a quick 'BTW my dogs are coming as well' on the additional info box!

If the emailed T&C clearly state 'no pets' then it's a complete no-no. It's simply not fair on people who may have allergies, phobias or just simply dislike dogs.

However it would be good service to ring round and try and source somewhere else that will take pets and has a vacancy. Likewise a goodwill gesture would be to refund the money the customer has paid (even if it is supposed to be non-refundable) so that they can go to the other hotel and not be massively out of pocket. But that is the absolute limit I would offer.

Hehe I'll keep you updated. Doggy owner is one of very very few arrivals this evening and I'm all alone so MN will be my company anyways once the paperwork is done.

woowoowoo My better nature agrees with you, but it would be a bit of a let-down

Monkey, the OP first said at 10:03 that the third party site didn't say no pets. You posted at 11am.

OP, don't just email your manager and hope he sees it. Pick up the phone and ring him. If you can't get hold of him try your head office or ops manager (if you have them). But frankly just firing off an email and hoping for the best and asking a forum full of people who have no investment in the situation and in the main aren't reading the whole thread and have their own various axes to grind is not good enough in this instance.

You need to actually get advice from someone who gives a shit about your business. The hotel has had this booking for a month without reviewing it. Even if the customer was chancing it a bit the hotel has really fucked up by not picking up on this and advising accordingly in good time. A good hotel would have thoroughly reviewed the booking the day it was made and picked up on it then. Not panicked on the day of arrival!

That is the hotels fault. And yes the hotel really should be helping the guest either find alternatives for them both or a dog sitter/kennels.

In the (extremely likely given today's date) event that neither is available if you refuse to take the dog you will most likely be giving the owner a choice between abandoning the dog or sleeping rough with it. Because of the hotel's fuck up. I think in those circumstances you will have to suck it up, book them in to a disabled room and pay for a thorough deep clean. They are your priority not some hypothetical customer with potentially fatal allergies who as far as we are aware isn't booked into your hotel and would have to suck it up if it was a service dog anyway.

TBH, from what I'm reading on this thread, ignoring bookings for a month, not reviewing bookings properly, asking for business advice on Mumsnet and emailing your manager rather than picking up the phone, it all sounds rather Fawlty Towersesque and I feel increasingly sorry for the customer.

Am sure the dog owner will,put up with people's screaming infants so others can put up with a lovely doggles!

I am not a dog fan. What makes me even less of a dog fan is the unhinged owners who refer to their animals as "doggles" and seem to think they equate to a child. Total madness.

OP, some owners don't care. I volunteer in a charity shop and we have a clear "no dogs except guide dogs" and "no food and drink" sign on the door. People routinely ignore the signs as they are obviously special cases. One woman who came in with some massive hairy thing which wasn't even on a lead got quite arsey when I told her she had to take it back out.

Thank goodness he was picking up emails! At least this is now not your call and you won't end up carrying the can. And it sounds like he has more sense than the posters on this thread.

My money's on them being from a country where dogs staying in hotels is fairly normal, and thus didn't see the need to check carefully in the way that dog owners living in this country would do.

That said, they might just be cheeky and trying their luck! I'm glad your management have got back to you though so the decision is sorted for you.

What if ddog is a st. Bernard or a great dane?

BadKnee - at no point did I say "tell it to the ambulance driver". My comment wasn't passive aggressive- someone up thread said they would give a lecture to anyone complaining about allergies. I just pointed out that when someone has a severe allergic reaction you don't have time to give them a lecture unless you do it either while waiting for medical treatment to arrive or while medical treatment is happening.

Actually having a severe dog allergy isn't that limiting. I drive and generally don't use public transport. There are no dogs where I work. In my home town I know which bars/cafes allow (regular) dogs and I avoid them. If I go away I check with the hotel/apartment that they don't allow (regular) dogs and inform them I have a severe allergy. If I go to a restaurant I've never been to, I check in advance.

Everywhere has to allow service dogs and I accept that and if one comes in (or is there when I arrive) I have to leave - or go to a different part of the venue if it's big enough. BUT service dogs are incredibly rare so the chances of this happening are incredibly low.

No, we don't yet know whether this is a service dog or not (though I bet it isn't!) But yes it makes a difference. I go to those lengths I describe above to make sure the only chance I have of coming into contact with a dog is the slight chance of coming into contact with a service dog. I accept that in this unlikely event I would have to forfeit my stay.

However given that I go to these lengths I would be extremely pissed off to have to forfeit my stay because the hotel had decided to fudge its policy to keep another guest happy, meaning that the hotel had in effect lied to me.

At least the manager hasn't put you in a difficult position 🐶

We don't ignore bookings. We are a global company who gas bookings come in from all different means and different websites. We check through all reservations at a week out, 3 days out, 2 days out and 1 day out. We also thoroughly check them day of arrival too.

The note attached is almost complete gibberish and the note well hidden in it about the dog. I noticed it yesterday. I've been off a week so personally had not looked through the reservations for today until I went in yest3rday and I noticed the remark.

I've asked on MN because I've generally found it a place where I can get support or clarity when I'm in a situation unknown to me.

I haven't rung the manager because he is on a day off so I don't want to disturb his day. He does have an apple watch with his emails on so an email notification would have been seen by him in minutes and he can then choose whether to take time out of his day off to respond. Which he has, and which I pointed out to you all at 12.33 up thread. 10 mins later you've commented admonishing others for not reading the thread not reading yourself that the manager has already replied.

My note was to BillSykes

BillSykesDog

😂 at your apt NN🐶

OP. I don't know if you said whether you could call the customer or not but you could always speak to them to let them know that you are going to make an exemption and let the dog stay but pre-warn them that you would be grateful if they could be as disceet as possible. You could also double check the type of dog - what if a ginormous slobbery noisy dog turns up......

(Sorry if this has been said before)

Ps is anyone impressed that I have used the correct 'discreet' at least I hope I have