Well this is just horrible. A Facebook user shared a video taken at the Country Inn & Suites Newport News last Friday, where a front desk clerk loses his temper. Here’s how the Facebook user describes the incident:
I don’t post a lot, but my mom came down for my son’s birthday and was placed in a non-smoking room that was obviously smoked in. The guy obviously had a problem with us, listen when he turns to go back in his office……and believe me, I handled my self better than I ever thought I would.
Here’s the video:
https://www.facebook.com/100008129897907/videos/2091836487763994/
The hotel’s general manager issued the following statement:
On behalf of Country Inn & Suites by Radisson Newport News, Va. I want to apologize for the inappropriate behavior and comments of one our employees from an incident that occurred on Friday, May 4. We are taking this matter very seriously and effective today (May 7, 2018), the employee in the video has been terminated. As a result of this incident we will also be re-training every employee this week on our code-of-conduct policies to help ensure something like this never happens again.
Obviously hospitality employees deal with a lot of stress, and in some cases with a lot of people in bad moods. It’s possible that the guy recording the incident was provoking him in some way (including recording him), but there’s simply no excuse for this kind of behavior and slur. At worst he should have called the police to have the guest removed from the premises, but even that should have been avoided if at all possible. But to say something like this is just terrible.
(Tip of the hat to LoyaltyLobby)
Snowflake....
"ooo Mummy, he called me a name. Mummy, Mummy, the bad man called me a name, my feelings are so hurt, what should I do Mummy."
For Christ's sake America, toughen up. This is worth space? Really?
Just checked who added this garbage, yep, just as I suspected. C'mon OMAAT, you're better than this dudes. Maybe those new staff are adding to the drivel with crap like this being part of the blog...
Snowflake....
"ooo Mummy, he called me a name. Mummy, Mummy, the bad man called me a name, my feelings are so hurt, what should I do Mummy."
For Christ's sake America, toughen up. This is worth space? Really?
Just checked who added this garbage, yep, just as I suspected. C'mon OMAAT, you're better than this dudes. Maybe those new staff are adding to the drivel with crap like this being part of the blog lately.
Meanwhile, in Syria, in Haiti...
"ooo Mummy Mummy the bad man called me a name".
Time for someone to give them self an almighty upper-cut.
This happens quite often in america; why the surprise. This was how they acted and treated each other.
@Jason have you been to the outback ? The indigenous are absolute ferall , spitting and cussing on/towardstourists , looking to antagonize and be controsersial , I stood up to them in non-passive agressvise and they all absolutely had no idea what to do and moved in to their next target - Australia racist ? .. nah mate .. where just realists not racists and don’t put with crap behaviour from anyone
I ask that you don’t post stories like this. We have more than enough one-off, negative story (especially those that don’t have full context) to fill the Egyptian pyramids. Leave these to the tabloids and clickbait world where they belong. If you MUST share (not sure why), balance it with positive stories which don’t get the recognition that they well deserve. Just my preference, and hopefully others as well. Thanks.
Lucky,
This posting is below you. I read your blog to learn about travel. There is already more than enough confrontation in life. I am bombarded unsolicited with confrontation
by all sorts of media outlets. So great, tempers got raised in a spat and as payback someone got fired. There's a back story to both of these individuals and human compassion is short supply in both of these individuals and those watching and promoting the train wreck.
@Shaun: I'm so sorry that a elite scholar and academic like yourself has to deal with people. You should always be safe in your ivory tower, and only have to interact with humanity at those times needed for you to pass judgement. Why note write a missive (use big words so that people know you are a "uni type") demanding "inclusitivitiness".
@Shaun
That's awful. Racism in Australia was so bad that ,even as a temporary resident for study ,you could only cope with it for 24 years. Dreadful.
@Jason. You bring up an excellent, though largely overlooked point. I lived in Oz for twenty-four years, firstly as a scholar, and later as a physical anthropology researcher. The racism is there is now increasingly latent rather than 'in-your-face' blatant. But it still happens and I witnessed many such despicable acts, and on occasion, was also targeted in my early years.
I had three(!) local uni colleagues who migrated from Australia so that their...
@Jason. You bring up an excellent, though largely overlooked point. I lived in Oz for twenty-four years, firstly as a scholar, and later as a physical anthropology researcher. The racism is there is now increasingly latent rather than 'in-your-face' blatant. But it still happens and I witnessed many such despicable acts, and on occasion, was also targeted in my early years.
I had three(!) local uni colleagues who migrated from Australia so that their non-Australian wives/partners (who were Asian and Pacific islander) would be spared further racial abuse. Another local friend who was based in PNG would only bring his foreign wife of 40+ years for holidays rather than to live there. He also cited blatant racism. Pretty drastic stuff. I mostly enjoyed my years there, and would never claim that the WHOLE place is racist. Most locals are outwardly friendly. But the fact is, numerous locals ARE racist will let their targets know it in no uncertain terms.
@BDB, the person filming strongly suggests that he is black. I think he would know his own race.
@Lucky this is newsworthy really ? Just like when you report the near misses lol I hate those. Air Crash investigators and NTSB need to conserve their resources for the real deal.
Lucky you're just as bad for posting this. F off.
The vile clerk speaks with a Canadian accent. Just an observation of no consequence.
There are two different issues here:
1-How both people handled the interaction. Personally I am a firm believer that no matter how badly the customer acts, you never engage the same way. Someone had to be the adult in the room, and in a service/customer paradigm, it should be the service side. That is what the service industry is all about. I’ve worked in it for many years, and you come across bad people...
There are two different issues here:
1-How both people handled the interaction. Personally I am a firm believer that no matter how badly the customer acts, you never engage the same way. Someone had to be the adult in the room, and in a service/customer paradigm, it should be the service side. That is what the service industry is all about. I’ve worked in it for many years, and you come across bad people all of the time. That doesn’t mean it’s ok for you to be an asshle too. If you resort to acting the same way as they do, then you lose your right to ever complain about it. Period.
2-His racist comment is disgusting and despicable, and there’s no other words for it. I don’t care how far anyone is pushed, it’s just NEVER acceptable. And to be honest, anyone who tries to justify why it’s acceptable is just as bad as the person who said it. I whole heartedly agree that Trump had given license to let people think it’s now okay to treat people like this. But it’s our job these days to remind these people that just isn’t true.
The customer is always right,
my ass.
Some people can deal with morons over and over again, one after the other and still be extremely polite and apologetic.
But other people can't. Because we all have a tolerance limit.
Still , this was handled in a wrong manner.
But, buddy, I hear you...
Let’s see the whole video from the beginning then judge for ourselves.
@Jason, yeah, Australia is worse than the US, but China is the absolute worst when it comes to this stuff. Just google racist Chinese laundry detergent commercial if you don't believe me.
"The hotel clerk uses the standard insult when some whites get into a disagreement with a black person"
A quick click through to the Facebook page strongly suggests that everyone involved here was white.
The man filming identifies himself as black.
Any white person calling any black person any kind of animal - regardless of whether the white person or any bystanders believes that white person has been "provoked" - is degrading and dehumanizing...In short, it is blatantly racist. There's no excuse for it, and if you cannot see that, you are part of the problem.
@Claus J. K. - Did you actually *read* the blog post?
It contains the following words from the hotel GM, in the following order, which, strung together, have understandable meaning to a layperson and address your comment directly:
"...We are taking this matter very seriously and effective today (May 7, 2018), the employee in the video has been terminated..."
Happy to be of service! :)
I have worked in hospitality myself for the past 28 years and if you get off like that at clients, then you are in the wrong trade. You don't have to be smiling and say "Have a nice day" all the time. But if you are faced with an unreasonable customer, then you put on the professional attitude and speak to them in a calm but firm way. This jerk should be fired. But he probably owns the place since he get's away with that behaviour.
And if you think this crap started with Trump or became 'normalized' with Trump you are kidding yourself. Trump is not the cause. The reason we hear and see this more and more is one simple reason: cell phone cameras. This ish has been going on for a very long time. While its gotten better, its also gotten filmed.
The hotel clerk uses the standard insult when some whites get into a disagreement with...
And if you think this crap started with Trump or became 'normalized' with Trump you are kidding yourself. Trump is not the cause. The reason we hear and see this more and more is one simple reason: cell phone cameras. This ish has been going on for a very long time. While its gotten better, its also gotten filmed.
The hotel clerk uses the standard insult when some whites get into a disagreement with a black person, in anger, they resort to the same tired insults we have been hearing for years. He knew he messed up the minute it came out of his mouth. Again, because of the cell phone.
Who's the dufus who questioned Australia? You have no clue mate.
Really? A white person in the south calling a black person a monkey? Big shock. This is America.
These young blacks aren't used to it. But they have phones. We just had to take it, and we heard a whole lot worse. And if you didn't like it, you got the 'I'm gonna call the police' speech, which we all knew would end badly for us.
Thank God for cell phones.
Oh God, the Trumpist racists commenters will have a field day.
ORANGGE CHEETOH and Steve BannonS ENDORSEMENT of racism have made goons like this feel empowered to hurl racist insults an nonwhites!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE GREAT NEWS! IS THAT DNALD DRUMPH HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO NORMALIZE RACISM TRY HE MAY!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!! FUCKK THE TEABAGGERS- AMERICA IS FORWARD LOOKING NOT BACKWARDS!1!!!!!!1!!!!!!
Did anyone just stop and think that perhaps the guest really was a monkey? Now, I’m offended that the desk person called him a “fucking” monkey. How does the desk person know what the monkey does in private? Shame shame.
Americans.....need we say more.
This employee just lost it plain and simple - his future clearly does not lie in dealing with members of the public. However I think it is highly inappropriate to be videoed. If that happened to me I would simply refuse to deal with matters until the camera was stopped.
Why did housekeeping fail to reclassify the room as smoking or block it from available inventory?
Clips like this will haunt a business for many years to come, unless they change their name.
Australia is the best country in the world to live. Deal with it Americanas.
Ugh...welcome to Hillary's America.
How is this racist? Both participants are white.
I’ve worked for Hilton Front desk and some guests did act like monkeys and I called some of them aholes. This is not a news story. It’s just the only one on video.
in this country ppl care more about reaction than cause of the reaction.
Great editing job. What led to the confrontation?
Clearly Andy has not ever been to any other country.
Looking for a payout...
Terminating the employee seems extreme. They could have just fired him ;)
Whatever the customer said, the staff should not escalate as he clearly did
If you’re on the phone you can warn someone and if necessary terminate a call
Far more difficult in a face to face situation
Very easy to say “ I’m sorry “ “ let me see what I can do” even if the customer is speaking BS Clearly it was not the employee’s own hotel
@Andy - ever been to Australia? That country takes the cake, if you want to go there
@andy. What utopia do you live in?
The only career I've had since 1986 is hotels. I spent 7 years on Front Desk, with 3 as a manager. I've had to remove people, I've had people leap across the desk and try to punch me(for walking them to a hotel across the street) amongst so many other things. And I've never seen anything like this ever. We certainly don't know what happened prior to this, but There is no excuse... EVER for this kind of confrontation.
All parties were inappropriate in the interaction
If I was the guest I would leave plain and simple
The guest in this situation provoked the situation without question
No sympathy from me
I wouldn’t stay in the brand even on its best day
Ugh! Film horizontally, folks!
Ahhh yes. The delightful US of A, the epitomy, the utmost, the height of the very most racist country I’ve ever been to.
As Steve Bannon now openly says in public... this guy should wear “his racism as a badge of honor”
He already did. A disgrace of a place. All of it.
Customer service gone to the dogs.
His property? Is he the owner?