Thank You for Not Smoking.

Nicotine Addict Gone Bad:
The hotel has been quite busy all week due to a coal mining convention/competition that's taking place in the area and when the hotel gets busy, all the crazies come out. Yesterday, I was called out of a meeting by a housekeeper and my front desk clerk. I knew it had to be important because they know better than to ever interrupt a meeting. I left the general manager and the other hotel representatives to go handle the situation, but little did I know what was about to happen. The housekeeper began by telling me there was a family staying in one of her rooms and she was pretty sure they were smoking. My desk clerk then jumps in and tells me that several of the guests staying in rooms surrounding his have been complaining of cigarette smoke and two young boys saw a man smoking the hallway. This isn't that uncommon so I went upstairs prepared to let them know we were a no smoking facility and if there was any evidence of smoking in the guest room at the end of their stay, there would be a $200 cleaning fee added to their bill. I knocked on the door and a very large, shirtless man with a bandanna wrapped around his head answered. I could tell he was intoxicated but I didn't think telling him that we were a no smoking hotel was going to set him off the way it did. He FLIPPED out. I mean, legit went CRAZY!! Before I could even finish my little nonsmoking spiel, he started shouting "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN'T DO?" I quickly replied with my name and that I was the AGM of the property. That did not help AT ALL. He repeatedly told me that he wasn't going to take orders from some "19 year old bitch!" and that I needed to go get my manager. He also told me that if I didn't tell him who complained about the smoke, he was going to start knocking on doors until he found out. I simply said "Sir, I can't let you start knocking on room doors, or I'll have the police escort you off of the property and you won't be welcome back." Apparently his mother was in the room and she came out in an effort to calm him down, but to no avail. He just kept yelling at me that he was a "34 year old grown man who didn't have to listen to some fucking 19 year old bitch that thinks she's a manager." 34, eh? Why the fuck are you sleeping on a pull out sofa in your mama and daddy's hotel room? Also, grown man? Why are you posted up in your PARENT'S room drunk off your ass at 1 in the afternoon in the middle of the week? This guy was completely laughable... UNTIL.. he started getting very close to me and screaming even louder. Somewhere in his rant, he told me that "AMERICA OWNS THIS FUCKING HOTEL, NOT YOU!!" Our maintenance guy and a housekeeper started coming down the hall because I guess things were starting to get very, very loud. I realized that he was a crazy person (or crazier than I had previously thought) and started to get a little scared. He had me backed up against the elevator door by the time the maintenance guy got there and was just screaming about how he didn't give a "fuck" who I was and then RIPPED MY NAME TAG OFF!! I thought he was going to hit me so I put my hands up, but thankfully that wasn't his choice of action. Nonetheless, the police were called. He was handcuffed and escorted off the property  and the officer was explaining to him how I had every right to press charges because he had physically accosted me. WOW. Maybe my scariest incident to date. Anyway, his parents were apologetic and his father told me that he didn't raise his son to act that way. It was all over.... or so I thought!!

Today, I was sitting at my desk thinking everything was going well when I see the father pull up in front of the hotel. I knew something was wrong because he was walking pretty fast and seemed angry. I got to the front and he starts demanding that I take the smoking fee off of their room bill because the company paying for the room was planning on taking it out of his paycheck. I told him that there was nothing I could do for him and that he signed the no smoking agreement on his registration card when he checked in. He FLIPS out. The apple doesn't fall from the tree, does it? He starts screaming at me just like his son did, only his son was drunk and slurring his words. Believe me, I understood the dad every single time he called me a "cunt" and a "bitch." I had to call the police again and they escorted the dad off the property and told him if he called or came back by, he would be arrested for harassment. 

REALLY? ALL OF THIS BECAUSE OF SOME CIGARETTES?! HOW HARD IS IT TO WALK OUTSIDE BEFORE YOU LIGHT UP?! 

I don't know if I'll ever stand between a drunk 6'5 man and his cigarette ever again.