When the Pool’s Closed: The Infamous Canadian Meltdown at the Front Desk
When you picture “crazy hotel guests,” your mind might go to wild bachelor parties or spring breakers gone rogue. But nothing could have prepared one New England night auditor for a March weekend that would become legendary on Reddit’s r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk—a saga featuring two Canadian ladies, a closed pool, and a meltdown so epic it left staff (and the internet) shaking their heads.
It started, innocuously enough, with a simple maintenance sign: “Pool Closed.” But what happened next is a cautionary tale in both customer service and the hazards of third-party booking sites. Let’s dive in (pun intended).
Pool Closed for Maintenance: The Spark That Lit the Maple Leaf
Every hotelier dreads the moment a guest discovers that a beloved amenity is out of order. In this case, a moldy, about-to-collapse ceiling tile forced the hotel to shutter their pool for two weeks. While most guests grumbled and moved on, two ladies visiting from Canada decided this was grounds for DEFCON 1.
As the original poster (u/JennFoogle) recounts, the women booked through a third-party site, spotted the “Pool Closed” sign upon arrival, and immediately lost their cool—so much so that staff feared for their safety. “They looked like they were about to jump over the counter and attack my coworker,” Jenn recalls. The shuttle driver, who witnessed the scene, texted a warning: watch out for these two.
Redditors were quick to point out that, at this point, the guests should have been shown the door. “They should have been kicked out in the first ten seconds,” notes u/RoyallyOakie, echoing the frustration of many industry vets. But, as OP explained, “one of the things that’s a big issue is staff knowing that a guest needs to be kicked out and don’t.” Instead, in a bid to calm the storm, staff offered refunds and help booking other hotels. The guests were uninterested. They wanted to yell.
When Entitlement Goes International
For the rest of the night, the hotel braced for more drama. And it came—this time with a side of “I’m a lawyer!” and a crash course in international law. The next morning, one of the Canadian sisters offered a meandering apology, blaming her meltdown on her sister’s divorce. But the angrier sibling was still on a warpath, rejecting a breakfast voucher (“I PAID FOR BREAKFAST! I paid!”) and threatening legal action, claiming it was “illegal” not to notify third-party sites of the pool closure.
Reddit’s legal-minded users were quick to debunk this. “She’s full of crap,” wrote u/Poldaran, noting that anyone who loudly claims to be a lawyer in a hotel lobby is probably not one. Several Canadians in the comments (and even a Canadian lawyer, u/Haggis_with_Ketchup) confirmed that no law was broken here—“If the hotel advertised a pool, but there wasn’t one on the property, that might be a problem, but that isn’t what happened here.”
Others speculated that the meltdown wasn’t really about the pool at all. “She wasn’t upset about the pool. She was upset about the divorce, and misplaced her feelings about that onto the pool,” observed u/Double-Resolution179, reminding us all that sometimes a screaming guest is just a person on the edge.
Do Not Rent: The DNR Solution
A running joke in the comments was the use of “DNR”—not “Do Not Resuscitate,” but “Do Not Rent.” As u/VermilionKoala quipped, “OP, you need to ensure that. Using DNR.” Many agreed that letting guests like this stay—especially after harassing staff and other guests—sets a dangerous precedent. “Their behaviour ruins the atmosphere for everyone around them, including other guests,” added u/RoyallyOakie.
The consensus? Sometimes the best customer service is a firm “no”—and a call to the authorities if things get out of hand. Several commenters were shocked that police weren’t called, especially when staff felt threatened. “Do police not exist in New England?” asked u/teatimecookie. OP admitted this was a recurring issue: “This would’ve been a situation where the police should’ve been called but this happened before my shift and this is a problem at my hotel where there will be a situation where the police should’ve been called and no one does.”
Sorry, Not Sorry: The Canadian Angle
Of course, the fact that the guests were Canadian was not lost on the Reddit crowd, who alternated between apologizing for their compatriots (“On behalf of Canada, I'm sorry,” wrote u/Jaydamic) and poking fun at stereotypes. “We try not to let them out but like cats, they sometimes rush the door when you’re distracted,” joked u/Elderberries4u2. Others speculated on their province of origin: “Ten bucks says these two women were from Quebec,” offered u/FrostyPolicy9998, to much agreement.
Ultimately, the episode became a hilarious study in misplaced anger, the pitfalls of third-party booking, and the limits of hospitality. As one commenter put it, “Canada does not claim these horrid women, but we apologize for their rude & disgusting actions.”
The Takeaway: Pools, People, and Professional Boundaries
If there’s a moral to this story, it’s that hotel staff are not therapists, website managers, or international law experts—they’re just people trying to do their jobs. And sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself and your guests is enforce boundaries, even if it means saying goodbye to a couple of very unhappy Canadians.
Have you ever witnessed (or survived) a customer service meltdown? Share your thoughts or stories in the comments below. And remember: check if the pool’s open before you book!
Original Reddit Post: Two crazy ladies from Canada.