The Mysteries of the Missing Dates: Adventures from the Hotel Front Desk
Ah, the holidays. A time for joy, family, and—if you work in hospitality—fielding some of the most baffling phone calls known to mankind. This is the tale of a hotel front desk agent, a man whose favorite flavor is apparently blue crayon, and what happens when a reservation request goes completely off the rails.
It’s Christmas Eve, and while most folks are sipping hot cocoa and dodging awkward family conversations, our hero is manning the hotel front desk. Spirits are already a bit salty (who wants to work on Christmas, anyway?), but nothing could have prepared them for the call that would test both patience and the very limits of human logic.
Picture this: The phone rings. On the other end, a gentleman declares—in what the OP (u/CheckYoSelf8224) generously describes as “the dumbest accent I’ve ever heard”—that he needs to make a reservation “for the x-y family reunion.” Simple enough, right? But as anyone who’s worked the front desk knows, the devil is in the details.
“Great!” the clerk replies, eager to help. “When will you be staying with us?”
Crickets. Or rather, a long pause as, in the original poster’s words, “this absolute titan of intellect revs the machine at full bore.” Then comes the exact same statement, only slower and louder: “I. need. to. make. a. reservation. for. the. x-y family reunion.”
If you’ve ever worked customer service, you know this moment. It’s the conversational equivalent of watching someone try to push a pull door for five minutes straight.
Our intrepid clerk, now realizing subtlety is lost, tries again: “Okay sir, I want to make that reservation for you, but we have a great many events that happen at this hotel. I need to know what date you will be checking in and what date you will be checking out.”
But logic is no match for our caller’s determination. “Why can’t I just make a reservation for the x-y family reunion?” he retorts, as if hotel computers are magical portals that know every family gathering by heart.
At this point, the OP admits defeat and switches tactics—if the carrot doesn’t work, maybe the group discount will: “Sir, I can’t give you the group discount unless I get the dates you’re staying.” Suddenly, after 30 seconds of frantic shuffling, the dates are produced and the reservation is finally under way.
If you think this is a rare occurrence, think again. The Reddit community at r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk had a field day with this story, offering laughs, insights, and a surprising amount of empathy for both sides.
u/loopsbruder captured the silver lining: “That's at least better than just assuming the event organizer booked everyone's rooms.” Because, really, the only thing worse than booking with no dates is not booking at all and showing up with your luggage and a prayer.
But why do guests get so befuddled by the simple question of “when”? u/Various_Jelly20, another hospitality worker, chimed in: “It’s so funny to me that people can’t comprehend that I need the dates to even be able to think about making a reservation in a block. We have anywhere from 3-10 events on any given day.” The point is clear: telling the front desk “the Smith-Johnson wedding” means nothing if there are five Smiths and three Johnsons tying the knot that month.
Yet, not everyone sees the guest as a lost cause. u/basilfawltywasright offered a more charitable take. Maybe the family invitation said, “Call the Hotel California and ask for the Dimwit Family Reunion,” so the caller assumed the desk clerk would magically do the rest. “That does not rule out idiocy as a contributing factor,” they added, keeping it real.
Some even questioned the hotel’s booking systems. u/AppropriateSwimmer admitted, “Wait—you can’t search for a room block by name? Only by date? I have to tell you that’s not obvious to people who don’t work in your industry.” Others, like u/snowlock27, pointed out that even if you can search by name, you’d still need the dates, since group blocks often span multiple days and guests may arrive on different ones.
But the consensus was clear: the real issue wasn’t the caller’s ignorance of hotel software, but his refusal to engage with the reality presented. As OP clarified, “The reason I thought he was dumb is because he wouldn’t interact with my questions, and continued to make the same demand several times despite being given further information. His ignorance of the system had literally nothing to do with it.”
And then there’s the humor. “Favorite flavor is blue crayon,” laughed u/delulu4drama, a phrase that’s now immortalized as the perfect way to describe someone missing the point by a mile. Others imagined even wilder scenarios: maybe the caller was a cousin on the outs, trying to crash the reunion without an invite (thanks, u/SeaToe9004). Or maybe he wanted to attend all five Dimwit reunions that month and just couldn’t pick one, as u/SarcasticServal joked.
Through it all, the camaraderie among front desk workers shines. Tales of guests asking if the hotel would be open on Christmas Day (spoiler: yes, it’s a hotel), and the shared misery of working holidays, brought a sense of solidarity. As OP noted, “On Christmas I had quite a few guests saying how unfair it was that I had to work Christmas. I didn’t want to be snarky to well-meaning bystanders, but I was thinking ‘you’re the reason I’m here.’”
So, next time you call a hotel to book in for your family reunion, wedding, or secret cousin’s spy mission—do your friendly front desk agent a favor: bring the dates, the name, and maybe a little patience. And if you’re ever unsure what they need, just ask. After all, they’re not mind readers—they just play one on the phone.
Have you ever worked in hospitality or had a similar “customer logic” moment? Drop your wildest stories or questions in the comments below—and let’s all raise a glass to the unsung heroes of the front desk, especially those working through the holidays!
Original Reddit Post: I just spoke with one of the dumbest