Tales from the General – Roberto Russo – GM
This story is from my time at The Inchcolm in Brisbane.
A couple, who’d clearly never stayed in a hotel before, checked into our amazing boutique hotel in the heart of Brisbane: The Inchcolm by Ovolo. From the moment they arrived, they seemed… a little off.
The man, let’s call him Mr Smith, was overly excited about everything — too excited.
His wife, Mrs Smith, however, appeared a bit on edge, as if she’d had too much coffee and not enough patience.
They got to their room, and for the first few hours, everything seemed fine. But then…things took a wild turn.
It started with Mr Smith getting “creative.” He turned the plush bedspread into a makeshift tent, draped over the armchair and a table. He then tried to “improve the ambiance” by rearranging the furniture like a feng shui enthusiast on a caffeine binge. Chairs were pushed against walls, pillows stacked into precarious towers, and the artwork was, well, “reinterpreted” into a new location on the floor.
Mrs Smith, meanwhile, called the front desk, demanded a change in bedding (because this particular bedspread didn’t “suit her mood”), and then…got a little too comfortable.
At some point, Mr Smith, in his attempts to “improve the hotel room experience,” decided to try and make his own DIY jacuzzi by filling the bathtub with everything. Bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and an entire bottle of bubble bath that probably hadn’t been opened since 1997. He turned on the water…and the result was not so much bubbles as it was a foamy disaster that started creeping down the bathroom floor, threatening to flood the entire suite.
Then, as if things weren’t already chaotic enough, Mr Smith, still in his creative frenzy, decided the room needed more “character,” so he moved the room’s coffee table to the window, created a “reading nook” in the closet with a bunch of towels, and redecorated the minibar. He stacked the chips in such a way that they looked like a mini pyramid and used the wine glasses to hold his “art supplies” (which, in reality, were just a bunch of hotel pens he’d gathered from the front desk).
The cherry on top was when the housekeeper entered to tidy up and discovered the scene. She stared in silence, taking in the strange furniture placements, the flooded bathroom, and the bubble storm spreading throughout the suite. This was when the Housekeeping Manager called me and asked: What shall I do with this now? She was annoyed but could not laugh at the same time.
My Front Office Manager at that time decided to talk to the guests to make sure we were on the same page and not missing something for this picture. Mr Smith offered an apologetic grin and said, “It’s just the ‘artistic vibe’ of the space, you know?”
The moral of the story? If you’re ever staying at a hotel, remember that “redecorating” might not be in the package deal and if the bubbles start overflowing, maybe it’s time to step away from the DIY jacuzzi.
Roberto Russo,
General Manager at Ovolo South Yarra in Melbourne, Australia.