People are people

One of the things I like least about this job is confronting people who have been less than honest about the composition of their group. For example, we have a family staying here this weekend that booked two rooms for a total of four people. (A woman and her daughter in one room, her elderly parents in another.) Lo and behold, five people showed up for breakfast this morning. (The fifth seems to be an aide for the elderly parents.) Because of other people in the breakfast room, and because I was handling breakfast by myself this morning while Michael is on a one-night trip to Boston, I haven't had a chance to explain that there is an additional $15 charge per night for having a third person in the room. I am not looking forward to that. People usually get a bit snitty over it.

I also had a walk-in last night who, when asked how many people would be in the room, answered, "Just one. Just me." Then, when it looked like I might give him a room with one bed, said, "Well, I do have my daughter with me." I never saw the daughter, so I'm not sure how old she is.

The situations that really frustrate me are the ones where I'm almost positive the parents are lying about the age of the children--but of course I can't be sure, so I can't say anything. We don't charge for kids six and under, and I've seen some awfully large six-year-old kids. A lot of times, people hedge on the ages of the kids, so I've learned to get an exact age before I quote them a price. The "tiny" or "very young" children mentioned when they make the reservation frequently turn out to have hit puberty by the time the family shows up to stay.

Then there are the parents who are worried that we don't take young children (some places up here don't) and are trying to make their kids old enough for us to let them stay and young enough not to be charged. It's always tough trying to decide which lie to tell . . .