You just can’t buy this kind of bad press:

Police seek two in armed robbery
South Beloit police are looking for two men who robbed the Shithole Hotel early Sunday morning. According to police reports, the desk clerk said a black man carrying a long-barreled shotgun approached the desk from the north hallway at 1:02 a.m., pointed the gun in her face and demanded money. She gave him money and noticed a second black man standing around the corner, who then also approached the desk.

All of this I personally find very funny. When I got robbed back in the day we had cops doing security. Which makes this post even more of a “I Told You So” than before.

One thing worth mentioning (for comedy value alone) is that after I was held up the hotel management at the time decided to install four cameras. Two of these cameras look at the front desk area, One looks in back at the drop box, and one looks at the first floor pop machines. The idea was that the cameras would stop anyone from robbing the hotel. Which up until now it did I suppose.

Being as old as this camera system is the recording device is just a vcr. Now this thing will record about 24 hours a tape I believe. When you watch it time is played back at faster pace so it all looks like some bad black and white keystone cop movie. But on the night of robbery there was no tape in the vcr. Which one has to wonder just how incompetent is the hotel management that they can’t put a blank tape in the vcr?

Lets go back to the Security topic again. Now the two guys had a shotgun. What would the hotel engineer (yes it’s still the hotel engineer doing security) do if he happened to come up while the place was getting robbed? At the most the guy has his tool belt and maybe pepper spray. The guy also is one of those guys that wants to be a cop. So the guy would have most likely got himself and possibly the desk clerk hurt.

Is the money the hotel is saving by not having cops security worth risking it’s hotel employees? Because that’s the way I see it. These cheap fucks are even too stupid to figure out that all the cops wanted was a raise or two now and then to make them happy. A month later and a fucking engineer is still doing security on the weekends? According to the gm engineering was a “temporary solution”. Does it take a month or more to get rentacops? I’m starting to think that this is just how it is now. Which really is sad.

Was going to “blog” about this but decided it was another time to post a Gawain chat log:

[01:33] Gawain: what up?
[01:33] *** Auto-response sent to Gawain: Yeah I’m playing Dark Age of Camelot at work! You think those assholes pay me enough to do work?
[01:34] Turk: hey
[01:34] Turk: I had a drunk I called the cops on
[01:35] Turk: guy just looked fucking odd
[01:35] Turk: set off my spidey sense
[01:35] Gawain: lol
[01:35] Turk: turns out the guy was like drunk I’m going to die drunk
[01:35] Gawain: nightauditey sense?
[01:35] Turk: yeah
[01:35] Turk: so I may have saved the guys life
[01:35] Turk: plus the dumb fuck had a warrant
[01:36] Turk: so the moral of this story is don’t call the night auditor 5-10 times in a 2 minute time period

Honestly folks if you have a warrant out on yourself try not to annoy the disgruntled night audit guy. Because when you call down six times and the first time you worry about being a pain in the ass and the audit guy say no of course your not a pain in the ass. Well guess what? You are a pain in the ass.

This entry is a log as it happens of my night of “work”:

• 10:53 pm-Typing this as I get dressed for work. Running late as usual. Must leave by 10:55pm or I will be late.
• 10:56 pm-Leaving for work. Going to be late again. Of course if I hadn’t typed this I would have been on time.
• 10:58 pm-Actually pull out of drive way.
• 11:05 pm-Punch in at work.
• 11:14 pm-Publish this entry
• 11:22 pm-Gather the folders of the desk clerks who worked today. Tossed aside until I pull their paper work later on.
• 11:24 pm-Printed House Count Report, Cancellation/Denials Report, Credit Limit Exception Report, Daily Activity Report, and the No Show Report. All of these reports go to the Sheriff.
• 11:26 pm-Turned first only walk in away. They didn’t like the rate of 79.00 plus tax. It’s a shame I don’t haggle with these assholes.
• 11:30 pm-Started to count my cash drawer.
• 11:37 pm-Finished counting the cash drawer, one phone call interrupted me.
• 11:43 pm-Call from above some sort of crazy stalker bitch. Guest requested she be told they are taking no more calls. Usual kind of thing for the clientele of this hotel.
• 11:47 pm-Took paper work out of folders so I can start to balance the credit cards.
• 11:51 pm-Took reports printed earlier and use them to balance credit cards now that the paper work is all sorted.
• 11:53 pm-Credit cards balanced. I take all the paper work and folders and chuck them aside till later.
• 11:57 pm-Time to disconnect the shitty cendant provided isp so I can hook up the good charter provided wireless isp.
• 12:02 am-The wireless bridge finally resolves the ip address and I’m on the good net!
• 12:03 am-Boot up Trillian.
• 12:13 am-Preparing for actual audit done by computer. I print a Guest Name List and the Clean and Vacant Room List.
• 12:16 am-Room and Tax posted by the computer.
• 12:18 am-Cashier Closeout completed.
• 12:19 am-Began Close Day.
• 12:21 am-Fired up Dark Age of Camelot. Playing a Bonedancer on Midgard/Lancelot.
• 12:27 am-Gawain finally logs on to aim.
• 12:31 am-Corrected my retarded typo. It’s a Bonedancer not a Bonelord.
• 12:36 am-Close Day is complete.
• 1:27 am-Asshole Redneck Guest doesn’t understand english. Wanted his clothes which were dry cleaned. The phrase “I do not have your clothes here, please check your room” is to much for his redneck mind to handle.
• 1:42 am-Logged out of Dark Age of Camelot, for now.
• 2:05 am-Gawain logged off. No one to entertain me now.
• 4:05 am-Printed miscellaneous reports.
• 5:26 am-Transmitted the credit card batch
• 5:45 am-Took all of the reports and paperwork and tossed it in back on one of the desks like I always do.
• 5:55 am-Logged out of Trillian.
• 6:00 am-One long god damn hour to go.
• 6:11 am-Why isn’t it 7:00 am yet? This thought goes through my head until I leave the hotel.
• 6:25 am-Time to unhook the good internet and plug back in that shitty cendant provided isp.
• 6:50 am-Ten minutes to go. Here ten minutes equals an eternity
• 6:55 am-Five minutes to go. A pattern emerges?
• 6:56 am-Four minutes to go.
• 6:57 am-Three minutes to go.
• 6:58 am-Two.
• 6:59 am-One. Hurray first shift is here!
• 7:00 am-Take me home Jesus!
• 7:12 am-Home and I wonder did I punch out? Don’t really care. I’m home.

And that is my usual night.

I can’t believe the fucking bus is still an issue. Check this out:

June 1, 2006

All Front Desk Agents

For the time being, we will be providing shuttle service to and from the BP/McDonald’s area where the Van Galder is now running. I don’t expect you to do it, but please notify engineering, management, or the MOD and they can help the guest. I will need to get an answer on what do if someone needs transportation early in the morning when no one is available.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

The Sheriff
Director of Operations
Ramada Inn-South Beloit

Let me get this right. The bus no longer stops here and we are going to waste time and money to ferry these assholes to and from the new bus stop? Did I read that right? Let me read it again. Well fuck me I did read it right. The hotel I think is officially the poster child for throwing money down the toilet.

Let’s clarify for a second. The memo mentions helping “the guest” in the second sentence. What is a guest is the issue then for me. Answers.com says a guest is:

One who pays for meals or accommodations at a restaurant, hotel, or other establishment; a patron.

Until these assholes step foot on hotel property and spend money they are not guests. Why provide a shuttle for these few (very few) that may take the bus that will stay at this hotel. It’s like admitting that the hotel fucked it all up by losing the bus. At this point it’s not really wise to make yourselves look any stupider than you already are by doing this. Save some face blame it on the bus.

Now I don’t want to appear to be totally negative to the needs of these assholes on the bus. I have an answer for this:

I will need to get an answer on what do if someone needs transportation early in the morning when no one is available.

It’s so simple really that you may laugh. I see two options here.

1. They can walk
2. They can call a taxi

When I work those are the options. End of story. I don’t care how many goddamn memos come out telling me different. I frankly don’t even acknowledge the buses existence any longer. Not that I get that many inquiries on the bus. But the lucky few that do call or come in asking gets no help from me other than the bus no longer stops here. It’s so satisfying.

I want to talk about communication tonight. I’ll start with the definition of the word since I know that hotel managers don’t have a clue what it means.

com·mu·ni·ca·tion (k?-myu-‘ni(-ka-‘sh?n)
n.

1. The act of communicating; transmission.
2. 1. The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior.
   2. Interpersonal rapport.

Pretty simple I think.

Two quotes follow. The first quote is from the local paper published May 13th:

…free calls to both the 815 and 608 area codes appeals to those visiting town to visit different attractions…

And then in the staff notes from April 27th (bolded and underlined to stress it’s importance?):

Phone Calls for guests: all 815 & 608 #’s $.50 for guests, free for frequent stayer Members!!!!

Now I guess my question is at what point do we the employees get to be told officially about this? Or has the hotel fallen so far into chaos that we now have to get our information about hotel policy changes from the local newspaper? I think at the core this is one of the biggest problems at the hotel. The lack of communication. Even worse is either the incompetence of the managers or them just not caring (whats worse?) that prevents this info getting out to the front desk employees.

Because this is a big change. The all calls 50 cents to a lesser degree can be handled by changing info in the computer I would assume. The same can be said for the free calls. I’ve checked in the computer and these people are getting free local calls. The problem is when these people come in or call in and ask if they get free calls I tell them no. And people want this kind of thing. It’s a feature people won’t stay at your hotel if you don’t have it. And the management here can’t even afford the time to type up one simple memo that informs the front desk about this change.

Until I see such memo or one of these “managers” chooses to inform me about this change I’m going to continue to not acknowledge this change. If they don’t care I don’t care. The way the hotel is run I swear that our company mission statement is made up entirely with the goal of fucking over the guest the best they can.

This people is the beginning of the end:

Effective Tuesday, May 16, 2006, Van Galder Bus/Coach USA will stop serving the Ramada Inn at South Beloit. Our new loading/unloading are will be at the McDonalds/BP Travel Plaza, which is located at IL-75&I-90. All scheduled departure times will remain the same.

What is the most likely? Guests who use the bus have to find a ride to a shitty hotel or they can take a ride to a decent hotel that isn’t managed by fools?

Let’s talk about hotel security. When you stay at a hotel do you even think about security? Do you automatically assume there is security? If you assume/know there is security at a hotel do you know if they are cops or rentacops? Or sometimes it could something worse than a rentacop.

If you come to my hotel and check in after 11pm don’t ask me about security. You may or may not like the answer you will get. Because call me odd but when a guest asks me a question I answer as honestly as I can. There is no security sunday through thursday. None. If I have problems I call the cops at the first sign of something is going wrong. I don’t go and investigate. I call the cops and let them deal with it. I’m payed my 8.75 an hour to be an auditor, nothing more nothing less.

Security on the weekends up until very recently had been cops. Police Officers who do the security gig as a part time job. It’s nice having cops as security for a number of reasons. First off you feel safer. Knowing that the security guard is packing heat and knows how to use it is always refreshing. It’s not so inspiring when it’s the fatting lazy rentacop and his can of mace and long flash light. Rentacops are making shit for wages. Like they give a shit about their job anymore than I do mine?

I mentioned it gets worse? What happens when the management pisses off the cops and the cops quit? What can be worse than a rentacop? What happens is the management of the hotel has one of the engineers do security on the weekend. Now the guys nice enough. But he has no defense from anything that can harm him. If some drunk rowdy guys give him shit he can toss his tool belt at them?

Plus it’s the obvious fact the guy is a hotel engineer. If some guy in wearing a tool belt and a hotel uniform comes up to my room to tell me to be quiet I’m just not going to take him seriously. The cops wear suit and ties. They have a little plastic badge that identifies them as hotel security. Big difference there.

And here is some advice from me to management. Get the cops back. I don’t give a fuck what the story is. Get them back. We have had the rentacops before. Your going to find out the hard way about them. Suck it up get the police back. And you need to have your head examined for letting the engineer do security. That one has done it before and caused nothing but problems. The hotel is supposed to be getting better. I only see it getting worse.