A Different Kind of “A” List
I've traveled a fair amount in my life, and for most of those years have also lived and worked in parts of the country where the tourism/hospitality industry has been the primary driver of the local economy. Living in Myrtle Beach has certainly been no exception to my experience. So I was more than a bit curious to read a recent USA Today article that broached the subject of unruly hotel guests, and whether hotels should have a "blacklist" of such people as one means of dealing with the issue.
It presents some intriguing arguments on both sides of the issue. Having worked many years in a retail or customer service-driven environment, I know how hard it can be sometimes to do your job or keep a sunny disposition when the person across the counter is being verbally abusive. A "blacklist" (or, as this article characterizes it, a "reference database") would give hoteliers a tool to deal with abusive guests, particularly in situations where it's obvious that the irate customer is simply following the "squeakiest wheel gets the oil" theory that if they yell and scream loud enough and long enough, they'll get what they're looking for - even if they're not entitled to it. Hotels would be alerted to difficult guests and decide whether or not to deal with them, and the list would presumably protect the hotels, its employees and guests from "scammers, screamers, abusers, mean drunks and the like."
But think of the field day the lawyers would have if something like this amounted to a "do not rent" list shared among hotel chains. Also, from the consumer's perspective, what if you're truly justified in your anger when something goes terribly wrong, and the hotel clerk is either indifferent or insolent in refusing to resolve the situation? You flip your lid, and wind up being placed on the blacklist. As one traveler in this article points out, "being a bellicose jerk is not illegal."
I'd prefer to think that simply "playing nice" would yield far better results on either side of the equation. But we're all human, and I'm not so naïve as to think that emotions don't get the better of us from time to time, especially here when you consider the numbers - 14 million visitors to the Grand Strand every year, and thousands of employees in the hospitality industry working to serve them.
What's been your experience here? Does the idea of a "blacklist" have merit, or is there a better option?
I’d think that the only hotels that would support a blacklist would be those that have irate guests on a regular basis. If that’s the case, then the hotel might be better served by improving its customer service.