A dreadful case of mistaken identity

01 January 2000
A dreadful case of mistaken identity

I still feel the pain of humiliation when I remember my first public embarrassment. I was on duty at 7am ensuring that things were going smoothly when I was called to reception.

There was turmoil as a drunken tramp tried to check in using a BT phone card. I asked the vagrant to leave and at once received the most exotic expletives I had ever heard. I grasped him by the collar and walked him out of the hotel.

That evening, I started my night shift and was briefed to expect a guest who was walking the entire length of Britain for charity. He was staying at the expense of the hotel.

We were understaffed in the restaurant that night, so I immersed myself in serving customers. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I recognised the same tramp I had thrown out earlier walking through our restaurant.

I dropped what I was doing, picked him up in a fireman's lift and moved quickly to the fire exit. Once we were outside, I had no hesitation in returning the abuse I had received that morning.

Back at reception, I proceeded to tell the head receptionist about my escapade. I stopped halfway through when I noticed the look of horror on her face. I had thrown out and banned the charity walker who was supposed to be staying with the managing director's best wishes.

When I had tracked him down in a local pub, it was only my magnificent crawling that saved my bacon. n

If you can relive the worst moment in your catering career, share it with us. Send it to: My Worst Moment, Caterer & Hotelkeeper, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. Everyone who has an item published will receive a framed copy of the original cartoon accompanying the article.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking