Hotel Employee Is Celebrated For Her Patience After Video Of Her Dealing With A Manipulative Dad Goes Viral

You should never, ever bully or try to force the staff anywhere into doing what you want. It sounds like common sense, right? Well, some customers, clients, and guests are running dangerously low on that most precious resource. Instead, they resort to threats and aggression when things don’t go their way. Colloquially, they’re known as Karens and Kyles.

While many of you Pandas have probably run into some challenges and mixups when it comes to booking a hotel room (especially when using third-party sites), odds are that you didn’t take out your frustrations on the hotel staff. Now, let’s see how a professional handles someone who does.

TikToker @localtumbleweed, a Hotel Inn employee, literally got tens of millions of views from all around the globe after sharing a powerful video of how cool, calm, and collected she was while dealing with an incredibly rude guest. The angry dad tried to intimidate the worker into giving him someone else’s room because he was unhappy with what he’d booked for his family. Scroll down to see the video in full, as well as how the internet reacted.

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The hotel employee shared what happened in her viral video, as well as a couple of follow-up TikToks. She explained the context behind the entire incident. In short, the dad—aka a stereotypical Kyle if ever we’ve heard one—had initially made a reservation for a room with two queen-sized beds. However, finding that it was too expensive, he then canceled the booking.

He then booked a room with a king-sized bed, as well as a pull-out couch. Now, having arrived at the hotel with his partner and two kids, he decided that what he ordered wasn’t good enough. No, no! He had to have something better. That’s when he started demanding a better room from @localtumbleweed. Something that was impossible because everything was booked. However, that didn’t stop the dad, who wanted to get someone else’s room. The employee couldn’t do anything because the booking was made through a third party, not via the hotel itself. Her hands were tied.

The interaction escalated with the dad getting progressively ruder and more aggressive. He even started spitting on the floor. Seriously, it’s 2022, who does that in this day and age? However, the hotel employee behaved extremely professionally throughout the entire encounter, doing her best to help the guest in whatever way she could, all the while without compromising her own dignity.

The video had over 32.6 million views at the time of writing. What @localtumbleweed went through is something that plenty of hospitality and service industry workers have experienced while on the job. While the vast majority of guests will be absolutely fine, there will, at one point or another, come a time when you have to deal with someone extremely toxic. If anything, the TikToker showed everyone how to deal with difficult situations without giving in to intimidation and without taking things personally.

Not taking things personally is exactly what Alexander Kjerulf, from Positive Sharing, told Bored Panda previously, during a chat about dealing with rude customers at work.

“Keep your cool and remember that whatever abuse they’re giving you is no reflection on you as a person. That customer doesn’t even know you, so there’s no way it could be. But on the other hand, don’t be subservient. Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself and tell customers that abuse is not tolerated. And if it persists, hand them over to a manager as soon as you can and let them deal with it,” he shared how workers ought to deal with troublesome clients, and that managers ought to step in to protect their subordinates from abuse.

“You have to remember that in many cases a customer who behaves badly is not necessarily a bad person—it can be a good person having a bad day and that’s why they’re acting out. But the sad truth is that some customers act this way because they’ve learned that it works and will get them discounts or preferential treatment,” he mentioned to us that not all rude customers are awful people. Though some use various underhanded means to get what they want. It falls to employees to distinguish between the two.

Meanwhile, during another interview, Dr. Gabor Forgacs, from Ryerson University, shared his thoughts about maintaining high-quality, prosperous hotels with Bored Panda. He noted that guests become returning customers because of the good memories they had staying at the hotel, “not necessarily a gold plated doorknob or the extra skirt hangers in the closet.”

These memories are created by interacting with the people working at the hotel. If the service exceeds expectations, the guests will remember that.

“Languishing hotels need to take an honest look at themselves to understand the reasons why they can't create special memories,” he said.

“Following up is a secret weapon. Comping, offering a discount, or an upgrade for a mishap is what a typical hotel would do. The better ones will always follow up with the guest and on top of a remedy, tell their plan how the mistake will be prevented from happening again.”