‘No one had been there for hours’: Guests find no staff at La Quinta. So they take over the front desk, make complimentary breakfast themselves
A trio of tourists went to Nashville for a birthday celebration, only to find themselves temporarily running the La Quinta hotel they were supposed to be staying at, in a saga that has captivated TikTok.
Video shared by Aaron, aka @ahow15, racked up views as it showed the friends positioned behind the front desk, answering phones, and even serving breakfast to hotel guests.
“When you arrive to the hotel and there is no staff so you now have a new job,” he wrote. “We’ve been working for 2 hours.”
@ahow15 You gotta do what you gotta do. #hotel #laquinta #newjob #singlemom #workinghard #rideordie ♬ original sound - ahow15
The 43-second clip raised a ton of questions, and the story only got better as the friends explained all of the events that led up to it.
In a series of follow-up videos, they say they had gotten to the hotel at four or five in the morning, only to discover there were zero employees in the lobby to check them in.
“We stood at the counter for like 30 minutes before even doing anything,” Kenzie, one of the TikTokers, shares in one of the videos. “Like, I went back to the office to make sure that no one was asleep at the desk. And they weren’t, so we were just like, okay, what now?”
The only employee they found was a maid, who told them no one had been there for hours and she didn’t know what was going on. During this time, they say that the phone was ringing constantly and a woman in the lobby was standing there screaming about how her card was charged $600 and she didn’t know why.
“So instantly, we’re like, manager mode,” Kenzie says, clarifying that they run businesses back home. They started answering the phones, and they say all the calls were about the same complaint the woman in the lobby had—cards were being charged and the customers didn’t know what was happening.
@ahow15 Replying to @Kayla Renee been a long damn day but heres story time part 1. Sorry, our came out and were famished. #hotel #newjob #singlemom #workinghard #rideordie #singlemom ♬ original sound - ahow15
They located the number for the general manager behind the desk, gave her a ring, and discovered that she also had no idea why nobody was working, and was across the country on a business trip at the time herself. The police came and left, and Kenzie called the general manager back to let them know they were going to try to figure out how to check themselves into their hotel room.
But the calls kept rolling in, so the friends stepped up. One started answering the phones, another tried to help customers check in and check out, and then they realized people were waiting on the complimentary breakfast to be served. So they found the keys to the kitchen and, as both Aaron and Kenzie are ServSave certified in food handling, set up simple options for the guests' breakfast.
“We saw people were upset and we just wanted to try and fix it in any way that we can,” Kenzie explains. “And I think we did a pretty damn good job.”
@ahow15 Replying to @Leah Elise part 2!! Thanks for all of the support for us helping out. We genuinely just wanted to jump in where we could. #hotel #newjob #singlemom #workinghard #rideordie @Wildkenz @— ♬ original sound - ahow15
It wasn’t until around 7-8am that a real employee finally showed up, followed by the general manager from a nearby Holiday Inn who was sent over to help. Shockingly enough, the dramatic saga actually continued from there but was resolved when they finally asked to just stay at the Holiday Inn instead—which they got to do for free after stepping up the way that they did.
“We want to make it clear, @la quinta did not cause any of this. This was the result of one person not being at the desk,” Aaron ultimately wrote in a comment. “We waited for over an hour and then took over with the permission of the appropriate channels.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Aaron via TikTok comment and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts via email.
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