So what makes a guy want to be an Excel Inn night desk clerk?

[Rabrrrrrr]

I have just arrived in Wisconsin for the weekend doing some business, and checked into an Excel Inn (first and, I will tell you now, the last time I will ever take a room in one of these shitholes).

And now I'm thinking, "Gee, what makes a guy want to be a night desk clerk at a place like this?"

Not that it is a job or position without honor, but if one wants to be a desk clerk in a hotel, why not go for a good one? There are plenty of hotels in this town - many of them very good ones. Why not go there? They probably pay better, the clientelle is certainly better dressed and probably much less likely to throw up bottles of Ripple or Thunderbird on the bedspreads (that seem to have come from some 1980s-era Route 66 moldy old motel after the Interstate took all their good patrons) or shoot the desk clerk to steal $40 or to drink their J&B scotch from plastic cups while "erotically" snapping the spandex on their rolls of fat before opening another carton of generic menthol cigarettes and dropping their casino multi-pass on the floor.

I've had some "low" jobs (though no jobs are without honor, I repeat (well, Tony Snow's job, but other than that...)), in my life, but I always at least tried to get the highest level possible in those jobs.

What makes a guy want to be a night desk clerk at an Excel Inn?

[graywarrior]

1. There are many many reasons. I was in that business for awhile.

Some of the reasons are so strange, you wouldn't believe it. It's a small circle of dysfunctional associations in that business.

[JVS]

3. What do you tell them to get the job?

[graywarrior]

4. I used to manage motels. I didn't care what they told me.

If they showed up, I hired them. If they didn't show up, I fired them. Then, they went next door to the Knight's Inn and told them they had experience.

Once you get caught up in that field, you get trapped into it. You don't even know why you're there. It's the strangest business I was ever involved in.

[JVS]

6. But when I was driving cab the motel clerks all seemed so serene

[graywarrior]

9. Drugs.

There is definetly a unique personality to cesk clerks. Either nothing ever bothers them, or they hate people so much they just don't give a fuck.

I did desk duty a lot and you get to the point where you just shut off. You hear the same question over and over, the same road story, the same complaints, the same requests. You learn to put on the "bland" look and tune it all out.

[mainegreen]

13. Oh yes the bland look. I love that look.

Let's me know the concierge cares!

:rofl:

[idgiehkt]

12. roflmao

"If they showed up, I hired them. If they didn't show up, I fired them. Then, they went next door to the Knight's Inn and told them they had experience."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[graywarrior]

14. Seriously.

:rofl:

[JVS]

2. Oooohhhh I want to do that! Tell me how!

Much better than food service

[SOteric]

5. Rabrrrrrr, my little rant-loving pumpkin of delight, -

Not all persons are equally employable. And not all jobs can afford to screen out the drunkards, drug addicts, convicted felons and persons with poor personal hygiene.

Ponder that while you consider your question.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Yes... and I imagine therein lies the answer to my question.

Imagine having to be the career counselor telling the kid that he can pretty much expect to go only as far as night desk clerk at an Excel Inn.

I'd have to quit my job.

Which is a good reason I'm not a career counselor at a high school.


And it sounds like you were kind of tsk-tsking me with your response. I feel...ashamed. :hangheadlow:

[SOteric]

8. No tsk, tsk.

More like a sigh of sadness that we can't all love our work and feel ourselves valuable.

Perk your head up, dude. -Or I'll send matcom over to your Excel Inn wearing only a trenchcoat and some sleazy ladies undergarments.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. I do find sadness that not everyone (not yet, anyway!) gets to have a job they love.

Hopefully someday all people can feel dignity and know no shame in their profession, career, vocation, or job.

And matcom in a trenchcoat and some sleazy ladies undergarments is precisely what I wished for when I blew out the candles on my birthday cake! It's perking me right up just thinking about it.

[BuelahWitch]

20. "Rant-loving pumpkin of delight"??

:rofl::rofl: Off I go to change my MySpace name!

[rug]

10. The opportunity to meet such wonderful guests.

[Nikia]

15. Get paid a living for doing little most of the time

As opposed to hard labor at one of the local factories. They got a job at Excel instead of a nicer hotel because they are new to the field and need experience to compete for those jobs or like the people they work with. Also, some people are night oriented and would prefer working that shid\ft than having to get there in the morning.

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. This begs the question....

Why the hell would anyone *stay* in an Excel Inn? The word "spreadsheet" keeps coming to mind.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. I decided to go for the cheapest place I could find..

Big fuckin' mistake, that.

And I don't even have my swimming trunks, so I can't go hang in the jacuzzi. All I can do is listen to the assholes slamming their doors and letting their kids run up and down the halls while they talk loudly to each other.

But I'm here on what basically amounts to pro bono work, so I went for cheap, espeically since it's just for one night...

[BuelahWitch]

22. Because it's the Inn place for Rant-loving Pumpkins of Delight

Didn't you get the memo?:shrug:

[marlakay]

17. Cracking me up!

I am sitting here at B&B small hotel, night clerk reading this. Check out our site pensionanna.com
its a cool place. I live in a Bavarian town all touristy in the mountains. So lots of hotels. I am semi-retired. Which means we retired early and barely had enough to build house, most of our neighbors came from Seattle and don't have to work but we have mortgage left and have to.

Since I have been here I worked at gift shop...the owner was a republican nazi!! Bank of America...got me down to 10 hrs a week, couldn't afford that, Chamber of Commerce...cool job but holiday help only and now here. Best job I have ever had. Small place so one person works at a time.

Its nice to work alone, feel like I am home. I do everything from check people in and do reservations to cooking coffee cake for breakfast. Nice boss, one of the few open democrats in this area. Its more red here than blue but with Seattle folks coming over its changing!!

and best of all, when slow boss doesn't mind us surfing the net.

[OllieLotte]

19. Thats what the clerk posted on FR.

He said he needed to get a different job because this guy called "Rabrrrrrr" checked into this dive. He was wondering how he could possibly have stooped so low as having to wait on someone like that.

[Demoiselle]

21. Maybe he's gathering material for his novel. (eom)

[xmas74]

23. In a larger town, I don't know.

But in a smaller town, it might have been the only job available that didn't expect you to be on call at all times and expect you to sign your life over to your employer.

I was a night clerk at a Super 8. The job sucked, the pay really sucked. At least I wasn't expected to carry a pager w/ me at all times so they could call me in to work. Some places in town expected you to do just that-for the same pay.

If you are poor employers expect you to sign your life over to them for minimum wage.

[NewWaveChick1981]

24. My brother worked for two large hotel chains over a ten-year period.

He has told me some wild tales about the people who work at such hotels (and these were very well-known chains and are known for being high-end places to stay), and I believe it.

[dysfunctional press]

25. who says that he wants to be...?

if he wants the good job at the good hotel, experience counts.

and/or maybe he likes having a job where he gets paid mostly to read/study.

[NNadir]

26. If you watch "American Beauty" you will have insight.

[MountainLaurel]

27. It's better than Wal-Mart?

:shrug:

[Kat45]

28. It's better than being a night desk clerk at the Super 8 in my town.

Can feel the sleaze just driving by the place. My friend said that when the cops are having a slow night, they can probably just run the plates on the cars in the parking lot and they're bound to find something. :rofl:

[bridgit]

30. The Super 8 Ball...

:rofl:

[bridgit]

29. maybe interning for a advanced degree in Hotel/Hospitality MGT...

but why did you choose Excel Inn seems as pertinent a question :dunce: http://www.hotels.com/index.jsp?PSRC=G21&displayAd=false&googlekw=hotels.com_-_exact_match&js=1&zz=1171687038421

[madinmaryland]

31. Anything named after a Bill Gates program means trouble.

:wtf: