My Complaint

Again, sorry about the lack of posts. The hotel is still ridiculously understaffed and we seem to be losing people on a daily basis. This means that I am working on average, 14 hours a day, and 6 days a week.

Anyway, I thought I'd give some guidelines on how to complain, so as to get the most out of the hotel, in terms of complimentary gifts.


1) DO NOT complain about petty things - It just makes you seem petty and the hotel will gently try to appease you, but not go out of its way. Additionally, they will take serious complaints less seriously if you complain about everything

2) AVOID getting angry - There is a time and a place for you to raise your voice, and that is when you have complained and nothing has been done. If you get angry straight away, it may mean your problem is resolved more quickly, but the staff will dislike you and will try to avoid you

3) DO NOT try to be clever, patronising, or demeaning - This one really needs an example, but I'll leave that to the end.

4) BE polite - There is no need to be rude or swear whilst making a complaint. Entertainingly, I watched someone make a complaint to a manager, only to be told that if he swore again whilst they were talking in a public area, the manager wouldn't care about the complaint and would just throw him out.

5) BE good humoured - There is a limit to this I admit, especially if the establishment is making really big, stupid, mistakes. However, if you joke with the staff member who you are lodging the complaint with they'll tend to work much harder for you, not just in the short term whilst dealing with the complaint, but also throughout the rest of the evening


I mentioned that I would include an example. This was a complaint I received recently, where the guest did none of the above.


The guest called me over by snapping his fingers at me. Having arrived at his table, he presented me with the bar menu and told me to read out loud the description for the 'Chicken Caesar Salad', which he was eating.

I read it out and it finishes with '....topped with hot chicken'. He then basically yelled at me, that his chicken was not hot and clearly had not been hot for a long time (this was due to a new chef who did not realise the chicken should be hot). He went on to reel off a list of complaints, including a running joke within his company about how long it takes to check into the hotel when they stay, and the tone of my voice when I said 'no' answering an earlier question!

I apologised profusely, refunded the meal, and offered him anything off the menu complimentary.

However, this guest had in my eyes shown me absolutely no respect and treated me like a child. He would have received much better service from me throughout the rest of the evening if he had actually been polite, good-humoured, and calm. Additionally, he wouldn't have had the rest of the staff deliberately avoiding him.


Oh, additionally, never snap your fingers at a waiter. It's demeaning and I tend to deliberately ignore people who do it at me unless I'm looking right at them when they do it.