I love seeing bad press about the worst hotel ever. And it’s good news (as far as I’m concerned) in this Beloit Daily News Stateline Area News in Brief from the 21st:

Police respond to large fight
At least three people were injured at a Stateline Area hotel early Sunday after a large fight, South Beloit police said.

An officer arrived at the Cattails Lounge of the Ramada Inn, 200 Dearborn Ave., about 1:10 a.m. and requested help from two other officers and units from Rockton, Roscoe, Winnebago County and Beloit, according to police reports.

The officer reported seeing blood stains on the wall, broken bottles on the floor and a broken table. The parties involved already had left or were fleeing by car.

Police did not know how many people were involved but said the lounge was over capacity.

A person received treatment at Beloit Memorial Hospital for blunt force trauma to the head, and two people received care for cuts at Rockford Memorial Hospital.

Sgt. Brad McCaslin said this was the third fight in three weeks. Police warned the Ramada Inn future incidents may affect its liquor license and ability to do business in South Beloit.

On the 22nd the Daily News posted this article about sewer plans. The good bit there is this:

In other business, the council noted there will be a liquor commission meeting Monday when the commission is expected to have a hearing concerning recent problems at Cattails, the bar inside the Ramada Inn. Police Chief Tom Fearn noted there have been two incidents since June 29 where the police have been called to the bar. In an incident Sunday, at least three people were injured in a large fight at the business.

Having that shitty bar Cattails closed down would be one step closer to the worst hotel ever dying for good.

Well about one year and one month after my first raise with this new hotel I get this in my email from my boss:

To: Turk
Date: Jul 2, 2008 3:15 PM
Subject: FYI:

A late welcome back from your week away. I wanted to let you know, there is a change in your pay rate, your new rate of pay increase is $0.35.

This will show on your check that will be here on Thursday.

Talk to you soon.

This is the first time for two things. First he welcomed me back from vacation. Next I got another raise. At the worst hotel ever things were so different. The post marks the last time I got a raise at the shithole. And the way I was greeted from the end of vacation was getting fired.

I did not even ask for a raise. I did not hint about the idea of getting a raise even. The place continues to surprise me in a good way.

So the two ladies come down to the desk. They both have key problems. The one lady gives the correct room number for her keys. The second lady gets some numbers mixed up and tells me the wrong number. This is an important part of this story.

So two ladies come down because their keys are not working in their room doors. I ask them if when the key were used if the lock flashed a green light or a red light. Red they say. I reply that this is a good thing. They ask why this is a good thing. I tell them that it is good because it means that neither the lock is broken or they (the guests) did it wrong.

That is when the lady who tells me the wrong room number for her keys corrects me that the guest is always right. The old lady scolded me like I was some kid who told a lie. The customers are generally speaking always wrong. I will not spit out this manager bullshit speak about the customers always being right. It is a gigantic load of shit.

So I go about my business making the right keys for the lady who did not put her foot in her mouth. For my costumer who says she is always right I make the keys for the room number she gave me. This was the wrong room. The keys will work, but it is not the room this know it all is in.

The bit with me giving her the keys to the wrong room was chance. I did not check to see if it was wrong or right. Fate stepped in and provided all with proof that the customer is not always right. The even better part was when they came for the correct keys the always right customer did not come down to get them. I made it a point to ask if the keys were for the lady who said customers were always right. The lady who came for the keys said yes. I smiled and gave her the keys for the old lady who thinks customers are always right. Vacation starts tomorrow. Nine glorious days off.

I was checking some links that lead to me and found Wikipedia’s entry Night Auditor. Wikipedia has a textbook description of what a Night Auditor is and what they do. Here is the first paragraph:

A night auditor is a hotel employee who typically handles both the duties of the front desk agent and some of the duties of the accounting department. This is necessitated by the fact that most fiscal days close at or around midnight, and the normal workday of the employees in the accounting department does not extend to cover this time of day.

Very textbook. It lacks the real world flavor that this Everything2.com entry has:

“Night Auditor” is the glorified term for a hotel front desk clerk that works the graveyard shift (typically 11 P.M. to 7 A.M). This is a nice job if you don’t like dealing with people, but those few that you do have to deal with tend to be mentally ill and/or intoxicated. An upside to this job is that you’re likely to be hired or keep this job despite your incompetence or criminal record, as no one else is willing to work this shift. The usual tasks involved in this job include checking guests in and out of the hotel, running end-of-day reports for the management, making coffee for the early birds, and playing lots and lots of solitaire. Common symptoms of being a night auditor include the inability to see in the sunlight and considering more than one car sharing the road with you to be “traffic.”

This was funny enough for me to write about. I also feel it is a dead on description on what night audit is really like today. The Wikipedia entry may have been more accurate ten years ago or perhaps in a big hotel. I know my job is more like Everything2.com description. Back in the day I did some accounting type duties, but not anymore. Which I think is one of the side effects of some of the software that hotels use. It’s easier for the computer to do the accounting end than it is for the dumb human that is hired to do the night audit.

Hah.

I work for the owners of your old job and I have a couple of questions for you, any chance you can hit me up on aim?
They own the executive inn in Evansville, IN.. I’m just curious about your experience and maybe a little insight to why they’re running my workplace into the ground

See there was a reason I wrote about that hotel in Indiana:

If you read between the lines you will see that they ruin everything they touch:

In an interview, Vezzoso said the management style of the inn’s new owner, Noor Tejany, and his management style were somewhat different.

Here is my chat with the Hotel Insider. We cover a few topics of interest regarding the worst hotel ever. What happened when the cops came to talk to me. What the hotel is like now. The newb auditor turned into a front desk supervisor. And a shared dislike for the biggest douche bag in the universe.

[3:31] Turk: you work at the desk?
[3:32] Hotel Insider: no
[3:32] Hotel Insider: I did do night audit before though at another hotel
[3:32] Turk: how did you find out about my site?
[3:32] Hotel Insider: back when you were fired and they were all investigating you etc
[3:32] Hotel Insider: actually when I seen your site
[3:32] Hotel Insider: I was like.. “man wish I could of met that guy he sounds pretty cool”
[3:33] Turk: wow did they make a big deal out of it?
[3:33] Hotel Insider: cause of the the idiots who stole crap from regal beloit
[3:33] Turk: oh
[3:33] Turk: right that shit
[3:33] Turk: heh
[3:33] Hotel Insider: well, we had just got regal beloit again for banquets
[3:33] Hotel Insider: and they were doing like meetings for this new program they paid a mil for or something for managers
[3:34] Hotel Insider: well these 3 people that use to work there I’m pretty sure stole this like big chest that they would keep there laptops in for the trainees
[3:34] Turk: yeah
[3:34] Hotel Insider: and they were watching you and seeing what you were posting etc seeing if maybe you were the one who did it

(more…)

In response to the post Hotel Watch Day 7 I was able to get someone from inside the worst hotel ever to comment on just what happened.

The flooding took out the water boilers in the basement. the executive wing is open because it has a separate boiler. And yes the paper does not say all the problems, you know how the owners are at this place…

I know the owners believe me. I asked a few questions. So what is morale like in the hotel for the regular employees? What is the situation with the latest gm leaving? This is the answer I got back:

I would say 70% of the employees quit. thats managers too. theres no GM, no F&B, no director of operations, and of course no one knows anything thats happening for the future or has a specific time when they will get the hotel working again. but I’m sure they will find someway to try and get around not having to do things properly to get the hotel going.

This of course paints a very grim picture of what things are like inside the worst hotel ever. Which is great news. If possible I will try to get more info from this Hotel Insider.