Frankenstein Rooms

When Mary Shelley first wrote Frankenstein, I doubt she realized the magnitude of her work and the affect it would have for so many people. Now, whenever we piece something together haphazardly, we call it a Frankenstein(ed) whatever. I am no different in calling my thrown together object that.

I know that along the way through life, we have all called to make a request for something (hotel rooms, dinner reservations, specific seat numbers on flights) and been told that no it is not available at all or sold out. We always ask, "Are you sure? Not just one?" As if we ask one more time the person can magically make something appear. Hotel rooms are one of those things where when we say Sold Out, everyone always asks, "are you sure? you don't have one hidden somewhere?" All my friends, and anyone who worked in a hotel setting, knows that we can't just build a room on the side of the building simply because you asked me to. I would love to. I would also charge $300 for that room because let's face it, building permits are hard to acquire at 11pm on a Saturday night for same-day construction.

This past weekend we were sold out! Great for us, bad for us when you have a group show up on a bus are you are one room short. We have contracts, signed contracts, for a reason. But, she had the documented emails saying she was adding a room, and that the Sales person said no problem. What do we do in a situation like this? We Frankenstein a room!! That's just what I did.

We had a room not sellable because it was being painted. So check the paint to see if it's dry. Check. Get housekeeping (after bribing with the promise of cake) to clean that room. Check. Locate desk chair, lamp, phone from 3 other rooms that don't need it. Check. Room complete. In terms of the hotel industry, I just performed a miracle! Well, me and the housekeeper and the maintenance guy performed a miracle! The easiest part was getting the lamp, chair and phone. Hardest part was convincing the Housekeeper to clean the room. She wanted to go home.

People always expect that they can get whatever they want, mostly because we are accustomed to getting things when we ask for them. Even more so if we are polite about it. Sometimes it's hard to realize that we can't get everything because it is just beyond our control. When the hotel is busy, we make sure that we get EVERY possible room ready to sell. We Frankenstein them. You always need those few rooms in your back pocket because when the bus shows up, you need that last 2 beds non-smoking room with the fantastic (yeah right) view on the same floor as the rest of the people even though it's technically not possible. And at 2am when the bars let out, those rooms are perfect for people who can't drive home.