A few days ago we stayed at a four star hotel, fancier than our usual. We reserved and the guy said it would cost 60 euro. When we got there we started the usual checkin process. You always have to give both passports. They normally copy out the information and it takes a couple of minutes for each one. This place had some kind of scanner which automated that. We mentioned it to each other and the young woman checking us in indicting something like ”pretty cool huh”.
After they enter the passport info they print a form for each of you to sign but this place (high tech) had a screen where you did it and the first odd thing happened. A form came up and I didn’t look at it carefully and signed with the stylus in the rough way you do with digital signing. Then a second form came up and Wynette noticed it had my name on it so she signed my name. Then a third form came up with Wynette’s name on it and she signed again.
Then the woman said it would be 65 euro. We asked about it and she said that was the rate. Oh well, it is not uncommon for the rates to change a bit. So then I held up my phone and said targeta to indicate a credit card payment, actually Apple Pay, which is actually a Mastercard. She said it was not possible because of festivo. What, a four star hotel can’t take credit cards on a Saturday? So we gave her 65 euro cash. Second odd thing.
We got the digital key and were about to go up to the room and Wynette says we would like receipt since we paid in cash. The woman looked a little flustered and punched some keys on her terminal and came up with a receipt but, guess what, it really is only 60 so she gives us 5 euro back. Third odd thing.
A few hours later we had lunch at their restaurant and paid with Apple Pay with no problem. Fourth odd thing.
We have found Spanish people to be unfailingly honest and straightforward so this incident surprised and puzzled us. It seems possible, even likely that she was trying some kind of scam but I wonder exactly what it was. Maybe she was just trying to skim off the five euro but that seems unlikely to me. Why go through an elaborate process and jeopardize your job for five euro? It might be worth it if she could pocket the whole 65 euro but I don’t see how she could manage that. We had a room. Our passports were in the system, surely the hotel has some minimal accounting cross checking that would catch that. So maybe it was all some kind of misunderstanding.
Sure sounds like the young woman was trying to put the extra 5 Euros into her pocket. Maybe 5 here and 5 there over the course of the day or week or month would add up to something she wanted or needed.
I wonder how often people think to ask for a receipt, like Wynette did. And even after that, how many people would report it to the management when it could have been just a “misunderstanding “?
Wynette pays more attention to details that I do, so we got our five euro back and a good story. For me the key clue is that she flat-out lied about them not taking credit cards. I’m still confused about the three passport document signatures. I can’t see how that would help anything. Maybe that was just an error.