Thursday, August 30, 2018

Sometimes I Can't Get It Right


I plan a national conference as part of my work.  This is my 5th year.  Sometimes, no matter what I do, I can't get everything right.  

 Three years ago, I had a speaker with limited mobility show up, I had never met her before, and she was in the only room (of five) that had a raised stage, and NO RAMP!  She tore my head off for not knowing.  

 Last year I had an attendee who uses a wheelchair, who made reservations for an accessible room.  When she arrived at the hotel the hotel didn't have an accessible room.  They put her in a room she couldn't get into the bathroom in and told her she could go down to the public toilets on the ballroom level.  I was screamed at, I screamed at the hotel, they moved her to an accessible room, and refunded her money. 

 This year I was working on reservations for some VIPs, one of whom is hearing impaired.  On my email to the hotel, with a copy to the guest, I mentioned that she was hearing impaired.  I got back an email saying "NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" and going on that the person should self advocate and that this usually results in her getting the worst room in the hotel.  

 I tried to be proactive and ended up getting screamed at again.  

 What do I do, keep trying to make the hotel accessible to everyone.  
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5 comments:

  1. Moving with Mitchell8/30/2018

    You never should have been screamed at or had your head torn off in those first two situations. In the most recent, excuse you for being proactive. I suppose you could have asked her in advance if she had any special needs... and then you could have received a reprimand for the insult. Sometimes you just can’t win. But you clearly have a lot more successes than failures.

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  2. Deedles8/30/2018

    You keep trying to be helpful, Sunshine. The screamers may just be frustrated by how they're treated on a day to day basis. You're just in the way of all of that emotional venting. Still, rude is rude. I'm sending you some hugs, okay? I've got plenty :)

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  3. WARPed8/30/2018

    Do you remember the opening credits of, "The Odd Couple," where Felix is trying to help an old lady across the street, and she is hitting him with her umbrella?

    Same principle applies here.

    :-)

    -Andy

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  4. anne marie in philly8/30/2018

    I second deedles. some people don't know how to be gracious!

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  5. WickedHamster8/30/2018

    People are idiots. That's one reason why I generally loathe them.

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