Friday night at the reception part deux

At midnight, right after the start of the shift, these two youngish norwegians come into the reception area, and ask for a room. They are employed with Scandinavian Airlines System, meaning they get a pretty decent rebate on rooms. They get a twin room, and are very talkative during the check in process. Apparently in town for the weekend, they need the room for two nights. Actually, friday night is closed for stay for that particular price range, but it's late, and we usually sell it anyway at night, because we have plenty of rooms, and it's money for the hotel. Also, they seem cool enough, and friendly, so I don't mind doing a little extra.

I advise them about bars and whatnot, and don't give them a second thought for a long time. At 4am, a young guy and a mulato girl walks in and asks for a room. They aren't drunk, and very polite, so I don't mind renting a room to them (you know, I usually go by the policy: you're a smartass and/or drunk, you probably mean more trouble than you're worth, ie. you don't get a room at this hotel). They pay and go to their room. 15 minutes later one of the norwegian dudes comes back to the hotel. He's literally staggering, barely able to walk. I don't think much of it at the time, seing as people enter the hotel like that almost every night. 5 minutes later, the young bloke from before comes down the stairs, barefoot, and asks me if there's a way to turn up the heat in the room. I tell him about the temperature control unit on the wall by the bathroom.

He doesn'ẗ have a card with him, so I let him into an elevator. Guess who's still in the elevator. Yeah, you got it. Drunk pilot dude from Norway. He's holding his key card, seemingly unable to comprehend how the key allows him access to the floors. The young bloke tells me he doesn't mind riding with the fellow, so I just let them go up together. Cut to about 07:30 am.

A guest calls down from the 15th floor and says there's a guy sleeping on the floor right outside his room. Since I'm still at the hotel, and I'm the manager on duty, I go up with the head concierge. When we exit the lift, and look down the hallway, we see a guy sprawled out on the floor, socks and shoes removed, belt unbuckled, pants halfway opened, and his tie hanging out to one side. Also, a few businesscards of various nature is flung left and right. We walk up to him, and I speak to him. He's passed out. After a little rough speak, and some poking, he slowly comes to. Totally and utterly baffled, I managed to get his name after several tries. He seems genuinely confused.

So he came home, and couldn't find his room, which happens. But because he was so insanely drunk, instead of going down to learn his room number, he just gave up on a random floor, and passed out. Not only did he fall asleep in the hallway, though. We also noticed a pretty largish wet spot next to him. Yeah, if you're thinking that he pissed on the floor, you'd be right. Hence the open belt buckle. We got him on his feet, and I think he sort of recalls the events of just a few hours earlier. He's embarrassed, and apologizes for the trouble. Turns out his lives one floor above. The concierge guides him, while I go down and talk to housekeeping about getting the carpets cleaned. My morning shift finally makes it to the hotel, and I tell him the whole story. He has a good mind to throw the two guys out of the hotel. I can't say I blame him. They stay with us on the goodwill of the hotel. They get cheaper rooms than even employes at the hotel themselves get, and this is how we get repayed. I leave to go home and let him sort it out.

When I return, I learn that they are still at the hotel. The concierge guy, who's a good guy... too good sometimes, in my opinion, talked my colleague into letting them stay. Oh well, thinks I. I don't care much, but that they aren't even charging him extra for cleaning the rug is beyond me. Not my business though.

At 5am, the same guy comes staggering in again. And when I said he was staggering before, barely able to walk, it didn't hold a candle to his style the second time around. He was literally halfway crouched over with every step. He was standing at the concierge desk, when I noticed him. He had a cigarette in his one hand, that appeared to have had been lit once already. He was asking for a light. I gave him matches, and watched him, in amazement I might add, negotiate his way across 15 yards of mable floor in no less than 45 seconds, one hand on the floor at one point. Also, to my amusement, he put the cigarette in his mouth, with the filter pointing outwards, and the ashy end in his mouth. Didn't seem to notice before he actually managed to get it lit, 5 minutes later. He dropped the cigarette once first, and took 3 full fledged minutes to pick it up. I considered going into the back, and extract the security video of the whole seance, in order to put on here, but... I doubt the hotel would be happpy about it. Sheer awesomeness. And to top it all off, he then went in with a girl that he had either arranged to arrive at this time, or who just happened to pass by. You know the kind of girl that leaves 45mins after. Before they went up with the lift, I heard him say the right room number though, so I figured they'd be ok.

Norwegians, eh? Weird people. Nice enough, but when they leave Norway, and enter countries where the booze laws are more lax, and the prices are well below their own, things just go completely apeshit. This has been the case at every single hotel in this town, I've ever worked at. And it doesn't matter from layer of society these folks are. Businessmen, white collar, blue collar. Whatever. Not all, but a lot end up drunk to the point of passing out, or at LEAST not remembering your own damn name. I could never get that drunk. But for them, it's all in a days work.

As an amusing but unrelated sidenote, my colleague tonight (Sunday), slipped on the wet floor. Nothing happened to him, so you people who think me evil for enjoying other people's accidents can calm the hell down. It looks amazing, when he swooped across the floor. The cleaning dude was actively washing it, though. And had two 'Wet Floor' signs up as well as fucking police tape all around the area. So how the guy managed to slip on it anyway, is beyond me. But it did look golden. Another case of me seriously considering lifting some security cam footage.