Published: 2012
Pages: 256
Genre: Memoir
I love reading memoirs from people who work in seemingly mundane customer service jobs such as waiting tables, working on a cruise ship or, in this case, working the front desk of a hotel. I've worked several customer service jobs myself and it seems that no matter what type of CS job you may have, the customers are all pretty much the same.
Jacob Tomsky (although he goes by "Tom" for most of the book) started out as a valet worker when a new high class hotel opened in New Orleans. He quickly moved up the ranks to the front desk and then to a housekeeping management job before he moved to New York. He tried to change careers, but his degree in philosophy wasn't really getting him anywhere so he started working the front desk of a five star hotel in New York City.
This book was great. I laughed when Tom described his cokehead managers who stole from the minibars and passed out in empty rooms. I cringed when he talked about bad tippers and rude customers (as a former waitress, those rang a little too close to home). He also gave tips on how to NOT be one of those terrible hotel guests (hint: a $20 bill gets you just about anything).
On top of the entertaining stories, Tomsky is actually a good writer and very humorous. This book had the potential to be a very dry selection of stories about weird hotel guests, but the author really put some life into it and it made all the difference.
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