Rude Hotel Guest Won't Pay Hotel's Facility Fee, Worker's Reaction Sparks Debate

There are so many facets of TikTok that we love, but one of our greatest bits of voyeurism is peering into the woes of customer service. When TikToker @chikiscarrer aka Neftali shared a snapshot of her day as a hotel receptionist, people were rightfully outraged at the audacity of the hotel’s clientele.

Neftali shared a video of her conversation with a hotel guest who refused to pay the facility fee, but his refusal quickly turned into rudeness. Once he started to get angry and try to escalate the situation, Neftali tried to remain calm while the guest spewed profanity at her. Naturally, people in the comments had some mixed reactions.

There’s honestly never a reason to act rudely towards staff or customer service, especially because the complaint is usually out of their control. In Neftali’s video, the hotel guest insists that he shouldn’t have to pay the resort facility fee when he looks at his receipt. Neftali explains that the resort added the fee on even when the guest tries to make it personal.

The guest adds that he’s a member and that he shouldn’t have to pay the fee because he has never paid a facility fee in his life. He sounds like someone who basically complains their way into not paying fees that everyone typically has to pay. It gets worse, however, when Neftali tells him that there’s nothing she can do about it and he decides to patronize her.

“Oh, come on,” he says to her as if she’s a child playing a trick on him. He starts talking down to Neftali as if he knows better than her about what he should pay when she literally deals with hotel guests and their receipts every day. I think she knows what she’s talking about. Regardless, once he says, “This is b-------,” she firmly stands her ground and asks him to not cuss at her.

While some might argue that the customer's venting isn’t directed at her, it’s still an inappropriate way to speak to someone who’s trying to help you. He’s clearly entitled, so it isn't shocking that he acts this way. While most of the commenters laud Neftali for how she handled the situation, others say they would have acted differently.

Neftali stood her ground when interacting with the rude hotel guest, but that wasn't the only way she could have handled the situation. In my customer service experience, talking to a manager is often helpful in these sorts of situations. While a manager likely can’t do anything either to take off the man’s fees, some people trust a voice of authority more than someone working a front desk, even if the front desk person is knowledgeable and good at their job.

This is just an unfortunate societal development in which people don’t trust the first line of customer service. The rude customer is basically a Karen, and he needs to talk to the manager. Another option would be to have some specific responses ready for when customers complain about fees, which several commenters suggested.

While Neftali stood her ground, she tried to give the man a reason as to why he was charged, which actually made the situation worse. Instead, it’s better to just say something along the lines of, “It’s hotel policy, sir. Unfortunately, I don’t control the policy here, I just follow it. Feel free to call corporate if you have further questions.”

If Neftali said something like that, the situation may have de-escalated before the customer got even more frustrated (and therefore patronizing). Regardless, it’s never OK to be rude to customer service staff — instead, do something to cheer them up, and who knows how they could make your experience even better.