February 5, 2009

• People Can Be So Thoughtless

  I've had this part-time job as a shuttle bus driver for a local hotel for several months now, and one of the things I've observed is that so many people can be completely thoughtless when it comes to the needs of others.  You'd be surprised how many people think they have a God-given, divine right to hold up fellow guests trying to get to the airport just so they can be fashionably late.

  Just this morning, for example, four guest rooms had requested a  7:30 departure from the hotel to make their flights.  Three of those rooms showed up between 5 and 10 minutes prior to departure.  Their luggage was loaded into the baggage compartment, and they were seated and ready to leave by 7:28.  At that point, I advised them that the fourth guest room had not yet arrived and we would wait a couple of minutes in order to give the other guest time to make the scheduled trip, which my passengers had no problem with. 

  When the appointed departure time arrived, the fourth guest room was no where to be found, so I buttoned up the shuttle van and took off for the airport with the seven guests from the three rooms that managed to show up on time.  Five minutes down the road the front desk called me to ask if I could turn around and come back to the hotel for the fourth room, which had just arrived in the lobby.  Well by then it was too late, because I was already on the freeway.  The only possible place for me to make a turn around was now at the airport itself, which I explained to the front desk, and I indicated that I expected to be back at the hotel in 15 to 20 minutes.

  When I got back to the hotel, the guest that was left behind was still very upset and insisted on leaving for the airport immediately, despite the fact that the shuttle wasn't scheduled to leave for another five minutes.  I explained that there was yet another guest room that was expecting to be on the 8 am shuttle and we would have to wait until then before we could go.  Well, I thought the woman was going to explode, or at the very least hemorrhage all over my van.

  "Why do we have to wait.  You didn't wait for me, and I'm already late." 

  Well by this time, I didn't much care for her attitude, so I told her, "On the contrary madam.  I did wait.  I and seven other guests who sat where you are now and listened to me tell them that we would have to wait a couple minutes to give you an opportunity to get to the shuttle on time."   She then insisted that she didn't intend to wait for anyone.  Stalling for time, I assured her that neither I nor anyone else at the hotel would ask her to wait one minute past the scheduled departure time.

  Needless to say, she waited, 'cause I had the key to the shuttle.  As it turned out, the room I was waiting for at the time also failed to arrived by the 8am departure time, so my angry guest got to see that I had not singled her out for special treatment.  We took off for the airport on time, and the other guest went later.

  Don't think this is an isolated case, because it isn't.  I could rattle off many similar examples from real life that I have personally observed over the last several months.  Some people think that there is an automatic 5-minute grace period associated with any schedule.  They are told by the front desk when they register and request shuttle service that I depart precisely on schedule, and still they don't believe it.  They just don't understand that it's not about them?  They never stop to consider that other guests have schedules to keep too?

  And they don't seem to understand that there is more to a shuttle schedule than how long it takes to get from a hotel to an airport.  There is also the time it takes to unload the first group of guests and their baggage (sometimes at three or four different airlines) and the time it takes to pick up arriving guests and baggage waiting for transport to the hotel.  Add to that the time it takes to drive from the airport back to the hotel and unload in time to pick up the next group of passengers with their baggage.

  Folks, if you travel, please try to remember that hotels often provide shuttle service, but those shuttles are run for the convenience of the guest, not at the guest's convenience.  So if you check into a hotel and the desk clerk tells you that the shuttle leaves on time, believe him or her and plan accordingly.  Oh yes, having kids to deal with is no excuse.  They need to be part of the planning process.

  • 3:50 am
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