birdwatcher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,085
- Reaction score
- 0
I hope that what I say below is confidential and this is a place where we can all come and unload and get advise or just plainly vent.
The owner is due to come to the Inn on thursday, this will be the first time we are meeting in person. Since we've been at this position only for a month and since this is our first position as Innkeepers working for someone else its been a learning experience. The problem is that we are human and we will make mistakes - the owner however has had "words" to say when it was not really necessary such as a problem with a business guest that did not show up and being a professional I took it upon myself to take care of the problem. Since this reservation was paid in advance I of course e-mailed the company that made the reservation and asked what the problem was and did what was appropriate. Since we had another guest arriving from the same agency throughout June and maybe into July I thought that because they will be spending a considerable amount of $$ we should just charge them for the two days that he did not stay and advance the rest of the payment throughout the next reservations. I then e-mailed the owner and told her what happened and went into great detail of what I did to resolve the problem. I thought that is what the normal procedure should be and that is what I would have done if I where to own the business and I did e-mail the owner what I did so that she knew what was going on and what I did in the reservation system. She literaly called me SCREAMING that "AS OWNER!!!" she needed to know what i was doing and that "I HAD NO AUTHORITY, to do what I did and DID I CALL THE CLIENT?!"
I had to take a deep breath ok? I was half asleep since we had a really early morning breakfast and was trying to catch some ZZZ's before check in...She was more worried about me calling or e-mailing the client, of course I told her that is the first thing I did...contact the client, I didn't think that was important to tell her in my e-mail, I would think that was the normal procedure for any business professional?!
This is just one of the things that has happened so far. I know that things need to go through her and I respect that and that is why we e-mail her about situations and how we handled them. Its just that this person does not seem to have respect for the people that work for her, the thing that irritates me is that we are constantly reminded "I as Owner...", yes, we know she is the owner,I don't think we need to be reminded of it every time she needs something done.
We went to the post office the other day to get a PO Box (don't want our personal mail coming to the Inn) and the post office person that was waiting on us knew exactly where we were and who we where: "Oh you don't want one for one year?" we said not right now. She started laughing and said that no one stays there very long cause she's hard to deal with. This isn't the first time, the gardner calls her "the wicked witch of the west" and then the business guest that I mentioned above told us this morning that the people at the hospital (she's a doctor) told her she's just hard to deal with too.
This scares me, we've done everything that we could possibly do to make guests feel wonderful while they are here. But to hear this from people around town and not just these people, but others as well makes me feel that this is a BIG RED FLAG. We like the B&B and the job other than that.
Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to stay sane through this week? Oh and another thing, she has more respect for men's opinions than any woman's and treats men differently than a woman employee--and would actually DO IT if a man where to tell her that is what needs to be done. So I told hubbie that he can deal with her when we need something done or changed. weird huh?
Should we start looking for other positions? (Ive already started) We will honestly give it till December. I just don't get it I guess.
Scary it is.....
The owner is due to come to the Inn on thursday, this will be the first time we are meeting in person. Since we've been at this position only for a month and since this is our first position as Innkeepers working for someone else its been a learning experience. The problem is that we are human and we will make mistakes - the owner however has had "words" to say when it was not really necessary such as a problem with a business guest that did not show up and being a professional I took it upon myself to take care of the problem. Since this reservation was paid in advance I of course e-mailed the company that made the reservation and asked what the problem was and did what was appropriate. Since we had another guest arriving from the same agency throughout June and maybe into July I thought that because they will be spending a considerable amount of $$ we should just charge them for the two days that he did not stay and advance the rest of the payment throughout the next reservations. I then e-mailed the owner and told her what happened and went into great detail of what I did to resolve the problem. I thought that is what the normal procedure should be and that is what I would have done if I where to own the business and I did e-mail the owner what I did so that she knew what was going on and what I did in the reservation system. She literaly called me SCREAMING that "AS OWNER!!!" she needed to know what i was doing and that "I HAD NO AUTHORITY, to do what I did and DID I CALL THE CLIENT?!"
I had to take a deep breath ok? I was half asleep since we had a really early morning breakfast and was trying to catch some ZZZ's before check in...She was more worried about me calling or e-mailing the client, of course I told her that is the first thing I did...contact the client, I didn't think that was important to tell her in my e-mail, I would think that was the normal procedure for any business professional?!
This is just one of the things that has happened so far. I know that things need to go through her and I respect that and that is why we e-mail her about situations and how we handled them. Its just that this person does not seem to have respect for the people that work for her, the thing that irritates me is that we are constantly reminded "I as Owner...", yes, we know she is the owner,I don't think we need to be reminded of it every time she needs something done.
We went to the post office the other day to get a PO Box (don't want our personal mail coming to the Inn) and the post office person that was waiting on us knew exactly where we were and who we where: "Oh you don't want one for one year?" we said not right now. She started laughing and said that no one stays there very long cause she's hard to deal with. This isn't the first time, the gardner calls her "the wicked witch of the west" and then the business guest that I mentioned above told us this morning that the people at the hospital (she's a doctor) told her she's just hard to deal with too.
This scares me, we've done everything that we could possibly do to make guests feel wonderful while they are here. But to hear this from people around town and not just these people, but others as well makes me feel that this is a BIG RED FLAG. We like the B&B and the job other than that.
Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to stay sane through this week? Oh and another thing, she has more respect for men's opinions than any woman's and treats men differently than a woman employee--and would actually DO IT if a man where to tell her that is what needs to be done. So I told hubbie that he can deal with her when we need something done or changed. weird huh?
Should we start looking for other positions? (Ive already started) We will honestly give it till December. I just don't get it I guess.
Scary it is.....