Emily Duprie
Front desk hotel worker @localtumbleweed recently went viral on TIkTok after a Karen in the form of a dad refused to adhere to her company policy. The man had booked through a third-party website and along the way his reservation had been misconstrued. When he arrived at the hotel, he was upset to find out that him and his wife would have to stay in a 1 king bed, 1 pull-out couch room with his two kids, as opposed to two king beds. Viewers commended the worker for standing her ground in the face of adversity and borderline rudeness.
Anyone with common sense that has ever stayed in a hotel with their family is probably familiar with the 1 bed/1 pull-out situation. Growing up, my family of 5 almost always stayed in a room just like this, with my youngest sibling sleeping with my parents in the bed or on a pallet on the floor, and myself and other sibling sharing the pull-out. Now if we were staying in a room for multiple nights, we’d usually have a better situation, but for a one-night stay, nobody ever complained. This TikTok baffled many because the solution to Dad-Karen’s problem was within his booking, but for whatever reason he refused to accept it.
The video started with him saying, “We have two kids, two adults, and the reservation on our phone is clear what we reserved,” he says in a video of the intense captured encounter. “What do you expect us to do?”
The OP (original poster) replies, “Well, with that one we could get you checked in as a king suite reservation, so it has a bed and a sofa pull out cou-“
Relentlessly, the customer cuts the employee off. “I understand, but what do you expect us to do? We have two kids and us, we can’t all sleep on a king bed that’s ridiculous.” Conveniently ignoring the fact that there is also a pull-out sofa.
She agrees with the man that the situation is less than ideal and attempts to explain that the reservation, which was booked through a third-party site, specifically indicated a king suite room, and she is unable to provide him with other accommodations.
Below is the original video:
The argument continued:
“Yeah, yeah I understand it’s just the way that Booking.com sends us the reservation, so all we have is that, and we’re sold out for tonight.” Daren (Dad-Karen) continues, “OK, I get that… so what do you expect us to do? That’s my question.”
“Well, that’s what I’m saying, we could either check you into the room or we could cancel the reservation. That’s the only two options,” she replies calmly.
“And then sleep in our car?” the man asks. Come on now.
“No I’m not-” she started, but he cut her off again.
“I mean where else are we gonna go? Are there any other Holiday Inn Express hotels that you can check us into?” She responds,
“I don’t have the power to do that, but there are Holiday Inn Expresses in Bloomington.” This answer didn’t satisfy him.
“So you’re not even gonna help us, you’re gonna say take the room as it is or you’re on your own?” he assumed.
“What I can do to help you guys is get you guys checked into the room that has the king bed and sofa pull-out couch, but apart from that we don’t have any other rooms to check you guys into.” she says.
She continued professionally, “If it’s regarding what you guys reserved, you would have to call Booking.com so that they could assist you with something that happened on their end. But this is just the information that we’ve received from Booking.com.”
At this point in the conversation a text overlay reads that the man was giving her an intimidating stare and OP began to regret her career choice. Can’t really blame her, who would want to deal with people like this for minimum wage?
“Who hasn’t checked in and what is available with two beds?” He asked again. She repeats to the man again that they don’t have any more rooms available and are completely sold out. For some reason, that statement was impossible for the man to get through his head.
He pressed harder on her nerves and asked “Who hasn’t checked in yet?”
She tells him that all their rooms are reserved and that she cannot “take them from somebody who’s already reserved a room.” Duh? However, the man insists, based on the assumption, that the hotel gave another customer his room, so he can’t understand why she couldn’t do that to another customer and give him the room he wanted.
“No cuz we held the room that we had the information for, which is the king suite. That’s what Booking.com sent over to us. So we kept that room for you guys,” she calmly explains. Daren pauses before continuing the argument,
“How did you think that four people would fit in that room?” At this point the only word that comes to my mind is: ‘Seriously?’
“I mean, when you see that come in, don’t you think that hmm, this doesn’t make sense?” he asked about the reservation he made. Obviously it’s not OP’s job to analyze every booking to see if it makes sense.
“No cuz Booking.com sends us the information so that’s the reservation and we hold it as it is.” Daren is silent momentarily, but it’s clear that he’s not letting up with the employee,
“So you think four of us can sleep in that room? That’s your suggestion?” She takes a deep breath and does her best to maintain her composure.
“I’m not too sure how you guys were going to…do the set-up in there-” At this point she was probably dying to suggest putting the two kids on the pull-out and the parents in the bed, but wisely knew that this would just escalate the situation, “-we just have the reservation as it was sent to us.”
“And you have no other alternative to solve it?” the man asks.
She repeats, “We’re completely sold out for tonight.” In the background, someone can be heard clearing their throat, and they interject into the conversation, “I’m just stepping in, like, you have a king bed and a pull-out, right? You have two beds and four [people.]” Which was his mistake, and didn’t help his case of coming in strong to help, but we’re thankful for this bystander anyway.
The Daren responds, “Two kids and us. It’s none of your business, either. What are you doing jumping into this?” he snaps, finding someone else to project his frustration towards. The hotel worker tries to ease the situation but the two men begin arguing, with the Dad Karen repeating that the other customer should just mind his own business.
The bystander suggested, “I’m just saying there’s two beds.” and Daren rudely replied, “Yeah shut it or I’m gonna-“
The hotel worker then cut in and said the offender wasn’t being “respectful” and that she was going to “go ahead and cancel [his] reservation.” She’s better than me, because after the first repeat of his persistent question, “What are we supposed to do?” I would have either summoned the manager, or told him to leave.
“Then what are we gonna do?” Daren asks. How about you just go away?
The video ended with OP finally beginning to show irritation.
“You know what, I’m not too sure but there are a lot of hotels in the area,” she tells the man.
“Why don’t you just sit tight for a second,” the man demands, trying to gain back his control. She passively tells him she’ll be there until 11, you know, because it’s her job.
A follow-up TikTok explained what happened afterwards.
She revealed that the customer initially had a reservation for a room with two queen beds and pull out couch, but he canceled it because it was “too expensive,” then booked a king suite through Booking.com for a cheaper price. He then tried to manipulate his way into getting the room he originally reserved, even though he knew good and well that he hadn’t paid for it.
The clerk posted a second part of the video where the customer comes back and asks to cancel the room as long as there’s “no penalty,” which she graciously helped him with.
He then did something that crossed the line entirely, he began to spit on the floor.
He asks again if there’s no penalty, and she assures him there isn’t, but he should contact Booking.com to let them know of the situation as she’s going to cancel it on her end. He then spits on the floor and tells the employee he doesn’t believe her.
“OK, call Booking.com,” she says as he continues to spit on the floor as if warding off the evil of Holiday Inn Express. He reiterated, “I’m not paying for two rooms, so hold it until we call Booking.com and cancel it.” She repeats that she will and the man “thanks” her and finally walks away.
TikTokers applauded the TikToker’s composure in the situation. A lot of the commenters shared stories of the difficult customers they’ve worked with in the guest services industry. Some people just do not get paid enough! May this story be a reminder to treat everyone with the same respect you would want. Have you ever had to deal with a similar situation? Let us know!
