𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐥 𝐣𝐚𝐢𝐥?

Earlier this summer I traveled to attend a conference in the UK held at a four-star business hotel.

I was assured that the conference venue was a nice property so I flew in a day or two before the conference, and for convenience, booked four nights there.

I arrived just after 10 p.m.

Because of my late arrival, I was assigned to what I call “Hotel Jail”.

Let’s just say, the room was awful and for lots of reasons, which I detailed weeks later in a Trip Advisor review.

I was very tired, but unhappy enough, that, after my shower (with the water up to my knees in the very slippery bathtub with plumbing issues), I got dressed and went down to the front desk.

Turns out I wasn’t the only customer unhappy with their room.

There was a line, and I watched as each guest chose and exercised their communication strategies and skills to solve their respective problems.

In one case, there was an irate customer, who opted for the hostile, dramatic, full-volume approach that the entire lobby could hear.

He listed his demands and issued a threat if they weren’t honored by the next morning. He then stormed away.

The hotel clerk looked at the man with a blank stare and didn’t take any notes. She simply waited for him to finish his tirade. I’m not sure how his story ended, but from the look on the clerk’s face, it wasn’t looking good.

I waited my turn in another line and by some stroke of luck addressed the night manager, aka a decision maker.

He asked, “How may I help you?”

I looked him directly in his eyes, leaned in, and said, “I want to say this as quietly and as nicely as possible.”

He leaned in to listen.

Then I mouthed, in barely a whisper, “I HATE my room.”

He quietly inquired, “Why do you hate your room?”

Again, in almost a whisper and some understated but clear body language, I listed the many reasons.

To his great credit, the night manager was a gentleman and a professional.

He told me that I’d have to stay in my assigned room that night because they were fully booked but he would take care of me for the rest of my stay.

He was a man of his word.

When I returned to the hotel after another long day and very late the next evening, an executive room was waiting for me. No extra charge.

Was it posh? No. But it was clean, spacious and quiet.

I was so appreciative, I walked straight back to the front desk to thank him and shake his hand.

(We always hear when there’s a problem. We should also hear when something is done right.)

Wherever we go and whatever we do, how we communicate and with whom we communicate makes a difference in our success or failure in solving a problem and achieving a goal….in this case being reassigned from Hotel Jail to a much nicer room.

What communications strategy would you have chosen?