How a Hotel Scam Artist Got Banned: When 'Going Over Our Heads' Backfired Spectacularly
It’s the early 2000s. The clunk of credit card imprinters still echoes across hotel lobbies. Loyalty programs are on the rise, and front desk staff are the unsung heroes battling chaos, entitled guests, and—occasionally—outright fraud. Enter one particularly brazen guest who thought he could outsmart the system by flashing a fake employee discount. But as this story from Reddit’s r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk shows, sometimes, the house really does win.
What follows is a tale of corporate teamwork, old-school tech, and the sweet, sweet satisfaction of watching a scammer get exactly what he deserves. Buckle up for a trip down hospitality’s memory lane—credit card knuckle-busters and all.
The Scam: Employee Rates and Entitled Tantrums
Our story’s protagonist, u/elRobRex, had climbed the hotel ranks from front desk agent to a special projects role, giving them a bird’s-eye view of loyalty shenanigans across multiple properties. As the OP tells it, one night a guest checked in using an employee rate—nothing unusual, except for one red flag: the team couldn’t verify his employment on the spot.
Standard procedure dictated a note on the reservation: if you can’t prove you work for the company, you pay the walk-in rate at checkout. Simple, right?
Not for this guest.
By morning, the truth was out: he’d been fired over a year ago. Likely armed with a stash of employee discount cards, he’d been hopping from hotel to hotel, milking the system. When confronted, instead of coming clean, he erupted in a dramatic, expletive-laden tantrum—screaming at staff, making a scene, and finally threatening to “go over your heads.”
As one commenter, u/KakaakoKid, gleefully put it, “I love a good story with a happy ending.” And things were about to get even happier—for everyone except our scammer.
Old-School Justice: Ka-Chunk and Documentation
If you worked in hospitality back in the day, you know the “ka-chunk” of the credit card imprinter (or, as u/Basic_Scale_5882 reminisced, “the clunk sound the credit card machine made when you imprinted the cards...sweet memories”). The OP’s team had, smartly, imprinted the guest’s card at check-in, protecting themselves from the inevitable chargeback drama.
Community members dove deep into nostalgia. u/rlz4theenot4me recalled how those machines could “bust your knuckles or rip off a thumbnail if you didn’t have everything lined up just right,” while u/fractal_frog remembered wrangling one “secured with the suction cups at the bottom.” Even OP chimed in: “My knuckles started to hurt just reading this.”
But tech wasn’t the only thing on their side. Documentation was everything. As u/RoyallyOakie sagely advised: “Document document document.” The OP did just that, pulling up the scammer’s loyalty records and spotting a pattern of misbehavior. Not only had this guest been ejected from their property, but another hotel had already suffered his tantrums. The OP proactively called his upcoming hotels, flagged his reservations, and alerted corporate guest relations.
When "Going Over Our Heads" Backfires
Predictably, the guest called corporate, confident that “going over their heads” would turn the tide. But this was the early 2000s, and the OP had already laid the groundwork. When the guest relations agent called the property, they transferred the call to the OP—who had already submitted detailed reports and flagged the account for fraud.
Instead of a tense showdown, there was…sports talk and weather chat. The agent confirmed all the details, thanked the OP, and casually mentioned that the guest’s upcoming reservations were canceled. Pending the fraud investigation, he’d be banned from all properties in the chain—a poetic end for someone who thought he could scam his way across the country.
As u/PunfullyObvious praised: “Pro Level… Nicely played!” And u/Basic_Scale_5882 summed up the community’s feelings: “This is somehow very satisfying to read.”
A Community of Hospitality Veterans (and a Dash of Schadenfreude)
Reddit’s r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk is a haven for hospitality workers past and present, and the comments on this story are a delightful mix of nostalgia, applause, and hard-won wisdom.
Some, like u/NocturnalMisanthrope and u/RedDazzlr, just enjoyed the comeuppance: “Great outcome!” and “I love a good comeuppance story.” Others shared their own war stories about the hazards of credit card imprinters—cards broken, knuckles bruised, and the eternal struggle to keep those machines lined up. And of course, there were reminders of how much the industry has changed: no more raised lettering on cards, no more “ka-chunk,” and now, as u/Qextor pointed out, even the smallest businesses can use their phones to accept payments.
Most importantly, the thread is a testament to the power of teamwork, documentation, and a little bit of old-school grit. As u/Gonpostlscott cheered, “You were sharp enough to post it forward first his actions! GREATNESS!!”
The Last Laugh
In the end, the guest who tried to cheat the system and bully his way to a cheap night’s stay got more than he bargained for. Thanks to a vigilant staff, a paper trail, and a little help from the “ka-chunk” machine, a serial scammer was shut down—reminding us that sometimes, what goes around really does come around.
Have a hospitality story of your own? Love (or hate) the ka-chunk of old credit card machines? Share your memories or thoughts below—because as this tale proves, the best stories are the ones we tell together.
Original Reddit Post: Early 2000s, hotel front desk, and the day 'going over our heads' backfired hard