Working at high-end restaurants and luxury hotels might sound like a dream job, but let’s be honest, it’s often more ridiculous than glamorous. From guests ordering gourmet meals for their pet to acting like a $2,000 bottle of wine is just casual hydration, staffers have seen some truly baffling things. 

So when someone online asked, “People who work in high-class restaurants and hotels, what’s the most ridiculous, stereotypical ‘rich person’ thing you’ve ever seen?”, the internet did not disappoint. Employees from around the world came forward to spill the beans, and what they shared ranges from hilariously weird to downright jaw-dropping. Scroll down for a hilarious peek into the world of the ultra-wealthy, where money talks, but sometimes it says the weirdest things. And remember, behind every ridiculous story is a hospitality worker trying very hard not to laugh (or cry).

#1

I am a cocktail server at the huge pool of a 4 star hotel. A woman said in a mono-tone voice and without any eye-contact “I lost my sunscreen. Find it.”.

Image credits: bluebunny20

#2

This isn’t as much a specific instance, but something that happens all the time with entitled or rich people. I work at a very expensive hotel in Hawaii and people will just come up to the desk and yell words at you. Like no hello or please, just “LUAU” or “ATM”. It’s like they aren’t even thinking of us as people.

Image credits: maddierose1418

#3

I operated a premium chain restaurant in Canada. One day this Indian gentleman started coming in, at first by himself. On the first day he spent $200 on wine and tipped $1000. The next day he did the same again. When we saw him the third time I had servers fighting over him. Anyway, one evening he got drunk on wine and Brad the busboy made the mistake complementing his watch. Mr. S. takes off his Tag and gives it to Brad. The next morning Mr. S comes back to get his car and asks if Brad is there, I say yes and go get him, Brad knows what’s up and is removing the watch as he walks over to Mr. S. Mr. S says, “Brad I’m really sorry I got drunk last night and gave you my watch.” Brad is chuckling as he is removing the watch and says it’s no problem and he was just holding the watch until Mr. S returned. The next thing Mr. S. said, I could not believe: “Brad you don’t understand, I’m sorry because it was very rude of me to give you a used gift.” And at that moment Mr. S pulled out a box with a brand new Tag Heuer inside and handed it to Brad.

Image credits: alex-manutd

Everyone loves eating out, whether it’s a casual burger at a neighborhood joint or a lavish meal at a five-star restaurant. According to Statista, in 2024 alone, full-service restaurant franchises in the U.S. had an estimated output of $80 billion. Dining out isn’t just about food, it’s about the experience. And depending on your budget, the definition of “treating yourself” can vary wildly.

Naturally, if you’re paying top dollar at a swanky restaurant, you expect high-quality service. But here’s the real question: Shouldn’t customers be held to a standard too? What about behaving well, being considerate, and not treating hospitality workers like personal assistants? Because, as some workers will tell you, being rich doesn’t always come with manners.

#4

Ordering $150 caviar to-go for their cat.

Image credits: zhougdog

#5

Ordering the most expensive wine in the house…pouring two 1/2 glasses…taking a sip…and sending it back knowing full well they are paying for it.

To those folks I say THANK YOU! Nothing makes employees happier than free (expensive) booze.

Image credits: underbite420

#6

I don’t even work at that nice of a restaurant, but last month I got chewed out over the phone because some lady left her baby’s actual silver spoon on the table, and we didn’t know where it was so obviously one of us had stolen it.

Image credits: startush

To understand more, we spoke to Nikola Rujkov, a hospitality staffer in Munich who is originally from North Macedonia. “Oh, the things we see,” he said with a laugh, “guests can be really hard to manage sometimes.” Nikola has worked in multiple high-end hotels and says some rich patrons leave behind unforgettable stories, not always in a good way.

#7

Worked at a grocery store in uppity Gold Coast Chicago when I was a teen.

We sold soup for lunch and when bagging them, we put it in a paper bag followed by a plastic bag to make sure it’s secure.

Lady buys a soup, I proceed to bag the soup and she says no, I’ll just put it in my bag.

I say, M’aam are you sure?

Mind you she has a Louis Vuitton bag that looks brand spanking new.

15 minutes later she comes in raging that she has minestrone all over her Louis Vuitton and demands to speak to a manager. Smh.

Image credits: jkeemi

#8

Don’t work at any high-class restaurants or hotels, but I currently live in an old yet nice and comfy apartment in Giza (around 20 minutes from the pyramids complex). The landlady is a very nice old lady, probably in her 60s, and is filthy, filthy, filthy rich.

Last year my car had to be repaired after a minor crash for more than a week, and when the landlady found out from the bawabs (doormen) about my situation, she sent one of her English-speaking maids to give me car keys for a BMW 520i, Mercedes-Benz S600, and a brand new Land Cruiser. “The madam insist you use her car until yours is repaired”. I was shocked, of course, and asked her if she still could go around with her lending this much cars to me. “No worry, madam has 12 cars in al-Qahirah”. Okay, I guess… I ended up only using the Land Cruiser because it’s the cheapest one (I think).

Another story is when she knew I would graduate from college soon. She asked me to come visit her place, I did as she asked, and she just gave me a set of keys and some money. “Here, I have nice villa in Ain Sokhna. Go visit it with friend and family, food and drinks is on me, I have maids and cooks there. Car you can use mine, the money is for fuel. Happy graduation.” I told her that I just couldn’t take it, but she just shooed me away and told me to return her keys only after I really visited the villa. Haven’t gone to the place yet, but I will soon enough when I have time.

Ridiculous, yeah, but in a really good way.

Image credits: ezadskoo

#9

My former boss (insanely wealthy), used to stay in presidential suites and would have any and all red removed. He was a high roller at several casinos and they made special chips just for him as a substitute to red chips. He hated the color red because when you’re losing money, you’re “in the red.”.

Image credits: anon

“Some guests make so much noise, you’d think they were at a nightclub,” he shared. “It’s two in the morning and they’re partying in their suite. When we politely ask them to keep it down, they act like we’re insulting royalty.” Nikola says staff often bear the brunt of this entitled behavior, no matter how unreasonable.

#10

I worked for a resort in the Seychelles for 4 years. I have hundreds of stories which would fit this post but one that stands out was a very wealthy Canadian family who stayed at one of the private residences for a couple of weeks.

They brought their own staff including two personal chefs but also asked for a hotel chef to assist their team with prep and local ingredient knowledge. A chef I was friendly with was selected to spend the two weeks with them.

One day, another member of their staff came down to one of the restaurants and purchased two bottles of wine for €11,000+ each. Now we had far more expensive bottles on the list but this was still a notable sale and later that night, I asked my mate what they had cooked to accompany the wine.

Turns out they had poured both bottles into the pot while making a Coq au Vin.

Image credits: diarm

#11

Oh yay, I love this one. First and foremost, throw a 6 year old’s birthday party at a tapas restaurant called “______ Wine Company.” Try to feed them tartare. Scoff when your child asks for balloons or French fries. Try to feed them jalapeno creme brulee for dessert. Try to quiz them on picking out scents in wine. Sigh when they don’t care. Keep ordering more wine when they fall asleep on the booth. Complain to in-laws about how exhausting motherhood is. Have to Uber home with a six year old. Everyone else:

Order a walnut salad and then yell at your server for it having walnuts, because you’re allergic.

Yell at server because the top of the creme brulee is… Burnt.

Inquire about the immigration status of the chef.

Tip your server $40 immediately after telling her she “doesn’t look too bright,” tell her she’ll get over it.

Shove your server when he comes to warn you that your reservation on the table is officially past the previously agreed upon time. Scream that he isn’t allowed to touch you back when he tries to disconnect your arm from his collar.

Edit: these were all different people.

Image credits: Wolf_Craft

#12

I play poker for a living and every now and then some rich guy will sit down and start going all in every hand for $300-500 without looking at his cards.

One day I was in a game where a guy was betting $1000-3000 dollars without looking at his cards. It was insane to me but for him I guess it wasn’t that much money.

Image credits: badreg2017

“Then there are guests who treat us like their personal butlers,” Nikola continued. “One lady asked me to find her lip gloss at three a.m.! Others ask us to run their errands or track down their lost shoes. It’s wild how some people assume we exist solely to cater to every whim they dream up.”

#13

I was a cook in the #1 restaurant in Vancouver Wa. Around 2003-2009 a grandson of a huge hotel chain rolls up in his Lambo. He always ordered about $10 of food and tipped $100. He sat at the cooks counter and me being a line cook we hit it off for our love for college football.

One day he asked if I would come over to his house for a huge boxing match Maywether vs De La Hoya and cook for him and his family. I get there and he has several Lambos a huge house on the river and let’s me do whatever I want in the kitchen. I cook the meal for 4 people and he gives me half of his Filet Mignon and tells me to join them for the fight. I watched the fight and then cleaned and packed up and charged him $300 for the cost.

I get in my bosses car (mine was broken down and I rode my bike everywhere.) I look at the check I got and it said $1700. The cost to fix my car was $1400 so this covered it completely. I drove home with tears in my eyes. I cried myself to sleep that night. Making a cooks wages is crippling.

Fast forward to today I no longer work in the service industry and this guy just opened a homeless women’s shelter a few months ago.

I wish more more people who came into money had 1/10th heart of this guy.

#14

I’ve got a pretty good one! I work at a luxury property in California, and we had the co-founder of a large payment processing company stay with us a while back. He only liked to sleep on his own bed, so when he woke up that morning, he paid a team to load his bed into a truck and have it delivered to our property. We then removed the bed in his luxury suite and setup his bed that his team had brought us. He only stayed with us one night and the process was done to send the bed back home the following day. It kind of blew my mind that he went through all that trouble, just so he could always sleep on his own bed. To each their own, I guess!

Image credits: Techno_Wasp

#15

I know it may be technically off topic, but I worked IT (computer tech) in a small, tourist ski town and had a few run ins with properly rich people.

The worst was a local lawyer. Called for support because his email wasn’t working. I showed up (no one at my office would take the call, but I was young and eager for work) and asked “What’s the problem?”

He told me he didn’t have time to explain the problem. That his time was too valuable and I should just “figure it out” because that’s what he paid me for. Let me assure you, as someone that bills by the hour, I definitely made that one work.

The others are actually way more positive. Though also super-wealthy.

1) Old lady calls up, computer has a virus. Show up at her “condo.” To be clear, “condo” is 4-stories, directly on the ski slope, with a private elevator and dedicated movie theater.

Computer itself is just junk though. Standard Dell crapola from 2004 or whatever. I start the virus scan and it’ll take like an hour or more. Half an hour in, this little dog is yipping at me (friendly like) and the old lady picks her up, then asks how much longer. I tell her I can’t really say. Scan has another 30 minutes, but if a virus shows up, it could take a lot longer to clean it up.

Old lady, Mrs. Callendar, she says “Oh, no rush, we just wanted to know if we should tell our pilot to warm up the plane yet or not.”

Yeah, a $1000 PC, and my $95/hr virus scan are literally holding up a private f*****g plane. And she’s okay with that.

For the record, the DOG’S name is “Marie.”

And I took about 45 more minutes, and removed a minor virus, then reset her browser’s settings to disable about 35 toolbars and fixed the issue.

2) Guy calls because his internet is crapped out.

Show up, typical wireless internet (directional terrestrial) for the area. Mid winter. Go climb up on the roof and hammer a bunch of icicles away from the dish antenna. Come back down, reset everything. No prob. Kids all back online.

He asks if I could help with sat-tv. I say I’d try. Basically same problem. A bit of ice, and dish needs fine-tuning on direction. Fix it, he’s happy.

Leaving, he tries to give me cash. I say we bill through the company, but if he has a business card or something, that’s easiest. He says, “Yeah, but don’t bill the company, I’ll write my personal on the back.”

Get card, thumb covers part of it. Card says “PepsiCo.” Read “President” near my thumb. Expect to move thumb, see “of Western Marketing” or something. Nope. Says: “And CEO.”

(Super secret, business card had a coupon on the back. Good for one frito-lay or pepsi soda product, or 75¢ off anything else from PepsiCo.)

3) Guy calls our local repair shop (only one for 100+ miles) asking if we install routers. Sure, yeah. “Do you sell computers?” Yeah, those too. “Well, I’d like to buy… (he counts on fingers or something) Like 5 PCs, one for each room, and 3 or 4 laptops to throw around the place.”

This is like $30k sale in a shop that typically does $1000/week in sales tops. Check with boss. He says get credit first. Guy insists he can pay cash, but I should bring it all to his new house next week.

Credit goes through. Show up at mountain mansion. 6000 sq. ft. Entire flat-bed truck of empty wine crates, straw spilling out of their wooden slats.

Go to unload, old, chubby guy walks up in sandals and cargo shorts. “Hey, are you the computer guy?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” Look at guy, assume he’s property manager/butler/cousin/something. “I’m looking for Mr. XXXXX”

“Oh, that’s me. Here, let me give you a hand with those boxes.”

He helps unload, shows me the place, thanks me profusely for showing up on such short notice, etc. Turns out he was retiring from a CFO gig at a major company in Chicago.

In the process of installing things, I saw the full house. Wine cellar alone was huge. 18 ft. ceilings with a rolling, library-style ladder on a half-moon shelf of wine. Connected directly to that was a walk-in humidor. Outside of that, a massive media/theater room. The whole house was connected to a smart-home system that juggled a DVD jukebox (this was before streaming) to every TV in the house, complete with 12″ touchscreen tablet “remotes” that, when carried, would cause the show to follow you from room to room, opening and closing hidden screens, curtains, and activating/dimming lights. Insane, and yet, the guy was super friendly.

Image credits: Xepher

It’s not just the staff that takes the heat, chefs get their share too. “We’ve had requests for only imported shellfish, or avocados that are ‘exactly ripe.’ Like, how do you guarantee that? Some even demand custom menus without allergens or carbs. It’s like being asked to create magic every time.”

#16

I used to work at a ski resort that sits at the top of a steep canyon. The geography is pretty extreme and people don’t want to drive through the snow, so everyone with enough money stays directly at the resort. Our rooms generally weren’t over the top luxurious, but we had probably the second or third nicest hotel in the resort area and saw some rich clientele.

One time someone in sales or reservations screwed up with a conference which caused the significantly larger and more 5-star luxury style place up the hill to become oversold. So naturally they bumped some of them down to our hotel.

Normally this isn’t a big deal. We’d comp them enough stuff like free spa passes at the 5* place and a meal and they’d be happy. They’re coming for some random conference that sold a huge block of rooms. They probably didn’t even know what hotel they were at or what type of room they were in.

As someone who works at a higher end hotel you get really, really sensitive to peoples’ body languages and you can tell when people are grumpy. Normally they’re just tired from a long trip or pissed at their spouse or something and it has nothing to do with you, but you can see it 100 yards away.

This guy walked through the door and was broadcasting his s****y attitude like there was a giant lighthouse light strapped on his head. Not only was he pissed off, but he kept making eye contact with me to let me know he was pissed off about the move and pissed off that he had to wait in line to check-in. I knew when he walked up that he was going to go off.

He gave me the typically s****y attitude interrogation. What’s going on? Why did this happen? Are you incompetent? Yadda yadda.

It was really unpleasant but I’m a pro. I was doing pretty good at the hospitality verbal kung fu and not giving him anything to be pissed off at me about. He started asking about the amenities of the hotel, looking for an opening.

Do you have a pool? Yes, sir we do. Here’s your key.

Do you have a restaurant? Yes, sir. Its really fantastic. Here’s a voucher for a meal on us. Would you like me to make you a reservation?

Do you have a spa? Yes. We have steam rooms, sauna, and a masseuse on contract. We also would be happy to take you to the 5* spa at any time. Here’s the number for our valet driver. What time would you prefer your appointment?

It’s also worth nothing that we’re like 100 yards away from the other building. We even had 24 hour valet to come pick them up and drive them around literally on call if they didn’t want to walk through the snow. We have a better restaurant than the 5* place at normal prices, a nice gym, nice pool, the whole 9 yards. Thiswas a wipe-your-a*s if you ask nice kind of hospitality environment that most people really enjoyed.

He couldn’t really find anything to complain about but he was still interrogating me. Then he asked me about the ski lockers.

Do you have ski lockers?

Yes, sir. The ski locker is on the first floor, just across the walkway from the tram center so you can unload without having to walk up any stairs. The locker number is just your room number. Here’s your combination.

Do you have boot warmers?

No, sir. We do not.

He’d finally found something to go off about. The dude threw his head back and let out a big, “Oooooh.”

You don’t have boot warmers? What kind of place doesn’t even have boot warmers in the locker room. You expect me to put on my skis when they’re frozen cold in the morning. What am I supposed to do, put them in my room where they’ll get all smelly?

Dude proceeded to unleash on my for a good three or four minutes all the pent up rage he’d been building for the last hour or so, except his target was how ridiculous it was that we didn’t have electric bootwarmers in his private ski locker at the luxury hotel. I worked in high end hospitality for ten years, and probably the second worst a*s-chewing I ever received from a customer was over our lack of f*****g boot warmers.

Image credits: anon

#17

So I’ve played at a lot of these venues with rich clientele, but the one that takes the cake is the rich cockwaffle that comes and demands we play [Insert Pop Song on the No. 10 Billboard] because his little princess likes it. Now while we have taken requests before, what’s difficult here is that my fellow colleagues and I, professional string musicians, are getting paid by the venue to play classical music. That we have pre-agreed on and prepared. My colleagues and I do not know the melody nor harmony nor even the bloody key of generic pop song No. 7. Not even that, but we are not getting paid by you or your “little princess”, so we aren’t gonna play it. Not that this makes us exactly…loved by some of the venues patrons.

Image credits: AngryPuff

#18

TL;DR: Average snobby rich people, but also many celebrities were encountered with a mix of good and bad experiences including Jenifer Aniston and Michael Ian Black.

I used to be the head host and event manager for a very popular and swanky restaurant in Austin, Texas. For the most part they were quite civil and in no way demanding for special accommodations (the owners of the restaurant required us to notify management in order for them to get special treatment however). They clearly did not want to make a fuss about being there and what not. Regarding generic rich people, it was never quite that bad, although I did have one guy slip two $100 bills at different times in order to move up the waiting list faster, and another couple who came in to eat before heading next door to ACL to see Jack White. It was a weekend night at 6:30, our busiest time, and I informed him it would be a 2 to 2.5 hour wait. He immediately got agitated and started to go on about how he had tickets to the show and needed to be seated immediately and at this point I can tell he has already had way too much to drink. I pointed out to him that pretty much everyone in the restaurant was pretty much doing the same and they made reservations. He got angrier with me because he had called earlier trying to make a reservation. We don’t take reservations for the current day after 5 pm so he was lead to believe I lied to him and asked for my manager and begin to berate and insult me in front of all the other guests. Luckily the no nonsense manager was on duty and asked him to leave and while doing so took one of our chairs outside the entrance and through it into oncoming traffic.

We also got celebrities on a weekly basis in the summer time and during ACL and SXSW.

Two instances in particular stand out the most. One with Michael Ian Black and the other with Jennifer Aniston

MIB:
Upon his entering I didn’t realize it was him at first, and we were required to ask for both First and Last name from the head of the party in order to put them into the Open Table system. The reason why was to ensure we knew exactly when and for how long they were seated and who their server was in case they called back with complaints or the occasional praise.

Anyway in walks MIB and after asking him for his name his just snaps immediately at me exclaiming that I don’t need his name. I apologize and explain, and at this point I just label them as guest X, but he proceeds to think I was explaining in order to still receive his name. I then inform him there is a slight wait and he then gets annoyed even more and points out there are several empty booths. I tell him those are for reservations within the next hour and unfortunately I can’t seat him there. I direct him to the bar while he waits. I get to seating him and begin to tell him about the restaurant as I’m supposed to do and he just snaps that he and his guest would like to not be bothered. For the rest of his visit, he was rude to several servers and food runners, and unnecessarily condescending concerning his order. I don’t quite remember what tip he left, but it was subpar. Even more so based on the fact I sat him in one of the best servers in the restaurant. I just wanted to go up to him and tell him not to worry about us calling paparazzi and informing them he was there because 1. I’d get fired immediately, and 2. They literally would not give a flying f**k lol

JA:

Now to anyone who is worried here, Ms. Aniston was not the rude one, in fact she was quite friendly. Earlier in the day I get a call from this woman wanting to make a reservation for 8 (no problem, it was the same day as the woman’s World Cup so we were really slow) and she wants a table by the window which was also not a problem. However then she proceeds to demand that no other parties be seated at any tables directly next to them for the duration of the meal. I explain to her I’ll try my best to accommodate this, but in no way can I guarantee it if more guests show up than is possible to reach that goal. She. Goes. Off. She starts telling me I better do this because the table is seating several high profile people and that they demand they have this demand met. I ask who the people are and she will not reveal information because I’ll call the paparazzi. I’d also like to add, I don’t have a f*****g clue how I would even go about doing that. Anyway they show up and I realize it is Jennifer Aniston, as well as Jason Bateman, Sia, and Sandra Bullock (she wasn’t as exciting to see because I had seen her multiple times in Austin over the years and got to meet her while eating at a restaurant she owns. They were absolutely the nicest people. Incredibly friendly. They even allowed for the employees to take a few pics after the meal. But the best part was when the assistant to Ms. Aniston, the woman on the phone, was finally seated, she had to eat at the bar by herself and was not included.

Image credits: anon

Some guests truly believe that booking a presidential suite means owning the entire hotel. “One guy insisted we clear out the elevator whenever he needed to use it,” Nikola said. “He wanted no other guests to ride with him. We get it, you paid a premium, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one who matters.”

#19

I interviewed at a large hotel attached to a casino and while I was being shown around the front desk, a woman walked up, said nothing, and got room keys after being greeted by the front desk agent. She immediately turned and walked away. Then the manager who was interviewing turned to me and said, “That’s Mrs. Richladypants. You never ask her for her name, her ID, or god forbid a credit card. She stays here comped once or twice a week because her husband spends so much in the casino. If you upset her she will yell at you and then hand the person working next to you a $100 bill just to spite you.”

I ended up turning down a job there, thankfully so because apparently she wasn’t the only guest of her type there.

Image credits: arnber420

#20

Late to this party but I have a positive one to throw in amidst all the negative.

I’m loosely aquainted with someone who is obscenely rich. He dated my best friend for a while back when we were in college. As you can imagine, he bought her fancy things all the time, took her on expensive family vacations with his folks, ect ect. He was a stereotypical rich kid, but he was also kind and still very down to earth.

They dated about a year and in the spring we went spring breaking in his family’s condo at a famous spring break beach location and there was just me, my best friend, him and a couple of his friends. The group decided we wanted good old fashioned Waffle House breakfast after a night of revelry. After eating, I noticed he was lingering behind the group. He’d said he had to take a leak, but he stopped back by the table on his way out to the car. Curious, I ran back to the restrooms just so I could pass by the table to see what he’d done.

He left the waitress a small pile of Benjamins as a tip. Had to be 4 or 5 hundred dollars. I couldn’t quite tell because they were folded and rumpled from being in his wallet.

My mouth fell open when I saw it and I forgot I was even heading to the restroom. I looked out by the car and he was watching me through the glass windows, held up his finger to his lips mouthing, “shhhh,” and beckoned me back out to the car.

I didn’t tell, but my eyes were glued to the table as we pulled away in his car. The waitress collapsed into the seat of the table when she saw it. Pretty sure she was crying.

Letting that guy get away was the dumbest thing my best friend ever did in her life.

Image credits: WifeyP

#21

My uncle works at a very upscale restaurant on a very well-to-do and desirable vacation island in the Atlantic Ocean.

One of their regular customers is a billionaire oil guy. My uncle has told me:

* he arrives on a yacht that tows a smaller yacht. The smaller yacht is still big enough to have a helicopter.

* he demands to have his dogs seated at the table and feeds them foie grass and expensive water.

* when he takes humans to eat my uncle has never seen him with the same woman twice, and often it’s a table of women.

* if he really liked the meal he will go through the restaurant and, in front of everyone, peel off crisp 100s from a giant roll of money in his pocket and tip every service person whether they helped or not.

* one time the owner got a call from health inspectors saying they received a complaint that dogs were seen eating in the restaurant. All the owner did was speak the billionaires name and the health inspector said, “Oh okay, bye.”.

Image credits: Auto_Fac

Cleanliness is another obsession. “Some are hygiene freaks,” Nikola added. “They’ll make us clean everything twice, like every tile, every glass, every corner. I’ve had colleagues tell me about guests who travel with white gloves to inspect rooms. It’s not a service, it’s a test.”

#22

B***h about the tiniest details that they deserve and require (“my Merlot was served at 20 degrees Celsius, it is supposed to be served at 17 degrees Celsius”) , and then don’t tip.

Rich people don’t get rich because they are generous…

#23

Ask to purchase two of our high rise bar chairs and keep them in the back for when they come and there is too many people at our bar and they have to wait. Our bar chairs cost 8,000 each. These people wanna spend 16,000 just so they can sit whenever they come in. Thank god our managers and owners have enough sense not to pander THIS much to such freaks.

#24

The dudes fiance lost her rediculously big and expensive engagement ring in the pool so he ordered the hotel to close the pool area to everyone and got all the staff to look for it. The thanked the hotel guests who helped with expensive bottles of wine.

Despite all this, Nikola insists it’s not all bad. “We also meet lovely people, guests who are kind, respectful, and generous. They make the job feel worthwhile.” He added that it’s these thoughtful guests who restore faith in humanity and keep the staff motivated even after dealing with the demanding ones.

#25

Once saw a wolf of Wall Street type character trying to impress his flock of sheep in an expensive bar. He approaches the server and abruptly orders a round of expensive whiskeys. He then pulls a wad of $100 bills out and extends his arm to her saying “TAKE SOME PEASANT” the whole time refusing to look at her, instead looking at his friends for approval.

She swiftly smashed the entire wad out of his hand and I took great pleasure in his angry reaction while he scrambled to pick up the cash in a crowded bar.

#26

A young man I’ll call Business D****e tried to send back two bottles of Penfolds Grange, not because of the taste, but because he was trying to impress older potential clients with his stunning wine knowledge (yeah, right).

The potential clients were so grossed out by the display that they paid for the meal and insisted on paying for both bottles and drinking them. Business D****e tried to reach for a bottle to pour himself a glass and the client told him that since it wasn’t up to his standards he couldn’t possibly let him have any. Effective Business Shaming 101. It was like watching Jack Donaghy at work.

#27

Used to be a bartender, had 4 guys walk up to the bar and order 4 shots of Remy Martin Louis XXIII… which was $435 a 1.5 oz pour.

It’s normally poured into a snifter and a discerning drinker will usually dilute it down slightly because its between 40-100 years aged and is like 55% alcohol by volume.

These four rich wankers didn’t know any of that and wanted it in shot glasses… and the proceeded to throw back $1700 worth of the finest cognac you’ll ever taste.

They tipped me $300 so I forgave them quickly but that was such a rich person thing to do.

At the end of the day, hospitality is about balance. Guests have a right to good service, yes, but also a responsibility to be decent humans. As Nikola says, “You can be rich and classy, or rich and chaotic. The choice is always yours.” 

Well, these posts definitely prove that some folks could use a crash course in basic manners and etiquette. What do you think—ever had the misfortune of dealing with someone like that in real life?

#28

Tl;dr at bottom

Used to work at an incredible restaurant in NYC, conveniently located across the street from a large block of very expensive apartments. One of the regulars was a well respected costume designer, probably in her early or mid sixties. It was not uncommon for her to eat every meal of her day there. Running gag that she’s crazy wealthy but lawl can’t feed herself. Cut to the night before a predicted Snow-pocalypse. It’s not supposed to start until ~10, but it’s already flurrying by 8. Right around 8 30, as we’re scrambling to beat the rapidly worsening snow-fall and inevitable, spontaneous MTA service changes, our friend starts knocking on the front door. I barely turn the key and she bursts through the door, “You’re not closed are you?!” All I could say back was, “Snow.” “Well, do you have bread left? Anything, really!” “No, I’m sorry. There’s nothing left.” She very over-dramatically exclaims “What’ll I do?! I’ll starve!” Then looks back at all of us, says, “Okay, thanks anyway. Stay safe!” We thank her, she turns towards the door, notices the snow again and turns back with, “Oh this is looking bad, what are you all still doing here? Get home!” She leaves, we have a hearty chuckle, and finish everything up. 10, maybe 15 minutes. We’re zipping our jackets to walk out the door and our friend is back. She heard that transit service would be bad (duh) and wanted to make sure we could all get to where we were going safely (aww). We assured her we were all fine, and she started to go but not before leaving us with “Well if any of you get stuck, just give me a call. When **partner** and I bought the top floor we figured the extra apartments could be work spaces, but now they’re just empty.” Then off she went, leaving my four co-workers and I flabbergasted. I still can’t believe that this person, in one 20 minute span, went from begging us for scraps of bread, to offering not even just a spare room in her apartment, but an entire apartment on her floor.

tl;dr Lady owns more apartments than I do matching sock pairs, but can’t buy herself bread.

#29

Story from my dads golf club. Its a really nice club in Canada and celebrities want to play regularly. The proshop gets a call and the interaction was something like this:

PS: pro shop, how may I help you?

Agent: hi im xxx xxxx, you may have heard of me im an agent for a very large celebrity…

Ps: sorry sir, i cant say I do.

Agent: well im an agent for a big celebrity and he would like to play there.

Ps: well he can play with a member or he can join if he likes. To join he would need to be nominated in.

Agent: well hes a pretty big celebrity.are you sure you dont know who I am?

Ps: pretty sure.

Agent: well he would like to play in his own group.

Ps: sorry sir, this is a private course. He can either apply to join or golf with a member. We would be happy to ask the members if someone would play with him.

A week later.

Agent: his its xxx xxxx calling back. Im sure by now you have figured out who I am and who i work for.

Ps: sorry sir, we havent looked.

Agent: oh, well im the agent for Will Smith.

Ps: thats fine.

Agent: he would like to golf at the club

Ps: is he looking to join or would he like to golf with a member?

Agent: he would like to golf alone

Ps: sir, this is a private club. He is welcome to apply or to golf with a member. He cannot golf alone.

Eventually I think he ended up golfing with a member. Still pretty funny. Also i doubt Will Smith had any involvement other than just asking his agent to set it up. Probably not hos fault.

#30

I have worked in many restaurants as a waiter, nothing too fancy, but good enough so that rich people that frequent the michelin restaurants in the area drops by some times.

The worst customers i have had are some of these rich a******s that gets seated and refuse to look at the menu and want as little to do with me as possible. They want to order a filet mignon or some other fancy meat dish with red whine sauce etc , a really specific whine that they tasted while they where visiting french vineyards. I tell them that we cant serve the food or wine they have requested, they then stand up and yell at me and proclaims that this restaurant are s**t and they cant seem to understand why their friends or someone they now have recommended this restaurant, and then leaves the building while making a big scene for everyone to watch.

How the hell can i serve them a filet mignon and french wine when i work for a italian inspired seafood restaurant with handpicked and self imported italian wines. Rich a******s…

#31

Around 10 years ago, myself and my best friend worked for a hospitality company specialising in sporting events. This particular time we were working at a high class horse racing event tending to the owners and shareholders. One particular owner was very snotty to the two of us but we had to grin and bear it all while he bought £500 bottles of wine to drink a single glass and have us throw it away. On the third day of the event a quiet old lady that had sat quietly in the corner with her grandson the entire time approached us after the rude man and his guests that day had been extremely disrespectful to myself and my friend. She was a firecracker. She told us that she had been listening to the treatment we had endured over the previous couple of days and had negotiated to buy the company the rude man worked for and was working to relieve him of the position that he held. I don’t know if this ever came to pass but she made the two of us smile for the rest of the week after that. She was the hero we never deserved. I can’t remember most of what she said but one particular thing did stick in my mind, the first thing she said to us after the man had left ‘I could buy and sell every single person in this room, so I have’. Legend.

#32

I worked at a nice restaurant in downtown Portland and one day a lady called to make a dinner reservation for a large group. But first she starts asking all these questions about “security” (we had none) and how I thought the staff and patrons would handle a “celebrity” dining there. Is there enough space to be private? They like to be private. Would it be okay if they brought their own security, to stop people from taking pictures and such? etc. But of course, she couldn’t name names. I rolled my eyes, told her whatever they need to do, and booked the date and time.

Yes, I was super curious who it would be, and stayed past my shift to see who walked through the doors when the big night came. The group arrived, and it was… no one. Not one of us who worked there recognized a single member of their party. They sure acted like they were someone, but all we saw was a loud group of douchey-looking 20-somethings. They actually did bring a “bodyguard” who stood in the corner with sunglasses on the whole time. The only attention they got from other diners was the occasional side-eye because they were being such rude and obnoxious a******s.

Shock of shocks, they treated our staff horribly, and tipped even worse. Will never know who that person thought they were.

Edit: Oh wow, I went to sleep and this blew up! This happened about 9 years ago, so a little before the YouTuber invasion I think (but maybe not). Just some punks who thought they were someone. 🙂

For those of you asking about the auto grat, that actually jogged a whole new memory: we DID try to add 18% but the party threw a massive fit about that, complained about the service (which I’m sure was fine, it was a well known place) and refused to pay it, so the manager took it off so as not to create a bigger scene. Left the server in tears. I think everyone just wanted to get them out by that point.

#33

I’m none of the above, but a soldier. We held an annual ball at a local marina hotel restaurant/bar, and had it reserved for the evening. Barkeep/host grabs our commander a few hours into the event and says “There’s a guy, he’s a daily regular for the past fifteen years, wants to grab his usual nightcap. Do you mind?”

The commander agrees and the gentleman comes in, sits at his spot, and proceeds to enjoy the show while “occasionally” covering costs for those of us grabbing drinks, in exchange for a little small talk about what we do. After about three hours, he grabs his coat and heads out.

He then returns about an hour later, and proceeds to shut down the joint with us, still covering drinks “here and there.”

The next day when I came in as part of the clean-up crew (grabbing drunkenly abandoned uniform or materials), the host gave me the breakdown after I asked how long their charges normally take to process, as I hadn’t seen my bar tab hit my account yet.

Turns out the regular owned a chunk of the marina, and covered a combined $12,000 bar tab as “thanks to the servicemen and women.” I had a tab of over $450 waiting on my card, completely covered that night. It was glorious.

**Edit – D**n, I thought this would get buried.

I hope somewhere up there in the north country this old rich dude is still getting his daily nightcap and making people’s lives. He was engaging to talk to, pleasurable company, and didn’t leave things hanging when one was ready to move on.

If I run into him again, I’ll tell him the tab he covered was almost dollar for upvote to the karma I received off this story!

#34

Back when I did waitering, there was a woman and her friends at one of my tables. The woman asked for a can of Coke (Coca-Cola, just so we’re clear).

When I brought their drinks and gave the woman her Coke, she looked at me, and, in that typical rich b***h voice, said “Excuse me, honey? I asked for Fanta, not Coke”. So I apologised, wrote it onto my notepad, and went back to get her a can of Fanta. Brought it to her, and again, she turned to me and said “I didn’t ask for Fanta, I asked for Cream Soda”.

By this time, I was getting a bit annoyed, but went back and got her a Cream Soda anyway. And surely, when I returned to her table, she did the same thing again. “I asked for Sprite. Should I call the manager?”

So, for the last time, I smiled and I went back to the kitchen and packed one can of each: Coke, Cream Soda, Fanta, Sprite, Pepsi and Sparberry Soda, into a small plastic box and took it all to her and said “Here you go, miss, take your pick.”

She looked offended and almost made a scene. She started lecturing me about how I’m incapable of getting the simplest order right and that she wants to talk to the restaurant’s manager. I told her that I can call him, and that I’ll show him all the soda types I wrote on my notepad that she asked for, and we can get his opinion on the matter.

She turned and took her d**n Sprite out of the plastic box and said “Just leave it.” Her friends were silent throughout the whole ordeal and none of them gave me any issues further on. I didn’t receive a tip, as expected, but I shrugged it off. Most customers were decent.

Edit: “waitering” is a South African term; but I learned some better terms and ways of referring to that from you guys, thanks you! :).

#35

Worked in a fancy smancy lobster pound/restaurant on the water where had a lot of outdoor seating. These very very wealthy people come to eat and demand a table outside for dinner. Now it’s just before sundown in the middle of summer in Maine and we’re on the water so mosquitoes are definitely not scarce. These people sit down order a $200 bottle of wine a massive lobster each and some appetizers. They seem to enjoy the meal up until the sun sets and the bugs come out. These people were not happy and complaining and complaining about it and the “s****y restaurant not paying for mosquito spraying” the waitress gets a couple candles to light and asks if they need anything else and those mother f*****s asked her to stand next to them with a flyswatter. She laughed thinking they were joking and the man said “what ever happened to good service nowadays” they also left 0 tip on a $350 bill.

#36

Had a business dude rent one of our apartments for 3 weeks at this fancy hotel I worked at. Second day, we get a maintenence call, he wants us to remove to the TV. Not replace it, just remove it entirely.

As housekeeper I head up with maintenance to clean up any mess from the move and got to see it all. The guest is removing our TV – because he’s gone and bought his own. Bigger. Flashier. Brand new. There was also a brand new (I cleaned up the packaging) PS4 he was hooking up to his new TV.
We had no idea if this was against policy so we left it. Guy’s paying for the room, he’s not broken anything, idgaf.

At the end of his stay, he leaves it all behind. Maintenence dude took the TV (easier to smuggle out the service entrance for him) I took the PS4 and sold it for more travelling funds. Thanks, ridiculously rich business dude! You paid for 2 weeks of travelling!

Edit: not sure if this counts but I totally forgot about the seriously loaded d**g a****t who hired our penthouse, DND’d for 3 days and painted every inch of it black before doing a runner.

Edit 2: I actually posted my black room story in r/talesfromhousekeeping under “I want it painted black” (we all like the same puns I see). Pics and everything!

EDIT 3: cause there’s some serious b******t going on about how it’s totes impossible to travel for 2 weeks on the price of a PS4. One, chill out. I did it. It really happened. I had a great time, thanks for asking. I got 240 for the PS4 plus controller plus baggie of weed I’d found in a separate hotel room. Add d**g dealing to grand larceny guys, we rackin em up. Two, I lived in a Toyota corolla, ate instant noodles made on my lil gas stove and travelled from Abel Tasman nation park around to Opparara Basin. Lot of beaches, lot of hiking, lot of chill days with a book and view. It’s totally doable when you’re a scruffy s**t who doesn’t care about showering daily or eating regularly. I had an absolute ball, and I thank rich PS4 dude for that. I am in no way intending to misinform wannabe travellers. My advice if you’re road tripping? Make a budget. Be sensible. Then double the amount of money you think you’ll need, and go with that. You won’t need it, but you’ll be prepared in case of an emergency or some super cool s**t you see off the beaten track you just *gotta* do.

Edit 4: to yall who saw my post history and saw I was struggling a few months back: thank you for your kind words. I am much better and much happier and I got through it. *You are all so lovely*. I wish you all happiness and cheap road trips.

#37

This is more in the vein of a “rich d*******g” stereotype, but my dad used to work as a valet for Lawry’s in downtown Chicago. Some pretty well-known football player came in about 15 minutes before closing with a group of friends. He made them re-open the kitchen, so they could all have steaks. Then they stayed for almost 2 hours after close being really loud and obnoxious and rude to most of the staff. He also tipped everyone horribly, especially considering everyone had to stay later because of him.

In contrast to this guy, there was another NFL player that came in that was not as famous. He was extremely kind to everyone and tipped amazingly. He didn’t drive there, so there was no car for my dad to get, but he asked my dad if he could hail him a cab and when he did he gave him $100 just for that.

#38

I worked at a restaurant in the lobby of a rather nice hotel. There was a rich dude that basically lived there. He would eat in our restaurant every night. Our chef had to hand-pick his steaks from a local butcher. The steaks were f*****g massive. It was always specially prepared just for him. Every f*****g time this fuckstain would take two or three bites and complain to everyone in ear shot that his steak was terrible. Every. F*****g. Time. This dude was odd. He would only drink our cheap wine that we served by the glass. However, he would request that you open a fresh bottle just for him. He couldn’t possible drink a glass of wine out of a bottle that was first opened for someone else. Even if I just opened the wine and poured a glass to the person next to him. That bottle was considered “tainted” to him. If you are that f*****g picky, just buy your own d**n bottle of wine. Victor, f**k you. Oh, and one last thing. He parked in the handicapped spot out front, even though he is not handicapped. But because he spent so much d**n money at the hotel, the managers refused to make him move his car or have it towed.

#39

Worked at a Hilton for a little while. Made about a dime above minimum wage cleaning bathrooms, walkways, polishing brass handrails etc. I walked around with an obvious cleaning cart and was not service staff.

Once, about 2am, this obscenely rich family barged in fighting with each other, generally being asses, and their airport shuttle driver was hauling in case after case of luggage, poor guy. The matriarch of the family snapped me over (pushing a custodial cart) and threw a $50 bill at me, and barked to have the luggage brought to their room. Then they laughed at me for bending over to pick up $50 and laid the rich attitude on thick.

I went “yes ma’am i sure will!” Wheeled my cart away $50 in the black, and took a nap in the way back of the laundry room behind the machines. Oh man, it was so warm and noisy- you could sleep off a nuclear bomb. I miss that spot.

The family wanted my head when their luggage was still in the lobby the next morning. Fortunately i was so anonymous and unworthy of their attention they couldn’t describe me, and the camera worker in security was too hungover to give a s**t.

For all the s**t i got away with, though, that job sucked. The worst was that the place hosted child pageants. Ive never seen such a group of vicariously entitled behavior. Yuck.

#40

Long time lurker here,

Worked abroad at a high end beach club in Greece where all our clients had to speak English as all the staff were Brits. Now this place is fairly top end, tabs at the end are often £20,000 after a week kind of place.

I worked all over but mostly in the restaurant and we had some great ones:

-asked to turn down the volume of the insects in our *outdoor* restaurant

-had a competition with his mate to see if he could get the biggest bar bill of the week

-bought a bottle of rosé costing £60+ just to have a glass

-their villa was 5/10min walk from the club so paid extra for a private driver for the week

-paid for a in-villa host for 3 meals a day for 2 weeks, just for when they wanted to eat in, my friend was the host and she made 5 meals in total

All I can think of at the minute, was a brilliant place to work though, and all in all the guests and staff were brilliant to work for/with, going back this summer!

#41

I work at a Marriot, one that is more expensive than your typical hotel but by NO MEANS a place that millionaires or celebrities would come to, especially because of our suburban location. However that doesn’t mean I don’t often get people who think that because they are paying 150 bucks a night on a Marriot hotel room (honestly not that much but it feels a lot to them) that they can be just as rude and entitled as the other comments on our thread. My favorite little story is the guy who was shooting hoops at our sports court too early in the morning, and when i asked him to stop he just looked at me and threw the ball as far as he could into the parking lot, saying “I’m paying too much to be treated this way. I’m talking to your manager”.

#42

Not working there but saw someone claiming he can fire the waitress cause he has the power.

#43

Not a restaurant/hotel worker. However, we were living in the Bahamas for a few months and to occupy her time my mother volunteered at the school. This got the attention of a rich person. She invited us to Windermere Island… this is the kind of gated area where royalty have estates and you do not get to visit.

The experience was surreal. We realized we weren’t invited to chat, we were summoned to listen and entertain this bored housewife of a Texas oil tycoon. She had no interest in us, just talking about how she thought these kids should be ‘helped’ (she never came to the school). We spent a couple hours there as this lady rambled on with the most twisted thought process… not crazy, just twisted by circumstance. Like a bird in a gilded cage. Then we were dismissed.

#44

I worked at the St Pete Florida Best Buy as a seasonal employee- part time way back in 2003/04 while I was in my first semester of college nearby.

I know- no high-brow fancy-pants place I worked… *but*- I did deal with a crazy rich customer.

About 3 days after black Friday- I had a guy in his early 30s come sauntering in to the store.

… He parked some kind of fancy-a*s bright yellow sports car sideways across three parking spaces- and I overheard some chatter about it as this guy enters the store. (To his credit- he parked as far from the store as humanly possible and walked. At least he didn’t pull that s**t in handicapped spaces like one might expect.)

Now, mind you, at the time- I’m freshly 21 and I don’t look a day over 13. Red-hair in pigtails, freckles- my nicknames at work were literally “Jail-Bait” and “Pippi”. I don’t look old enough to have a job, let alone to buy alcohol – but I s**t you not…

This guy walks in the store and turns toward the computer section- and he spots me and flags me doesn’t (he waves at me. At least he doesn’t snap or call me “babe” or “hon” or some c**p.).

Anyway- I’m thinking “Ohhh…. lucky me!” But I’m pretty good at appearing friendly while I’m crying on the inside and so I greet him with a smile and internally cringe bc this guy opens his wallet before he opens his mouth… and I’m expecting NOTHING good.

Much to his credit- he was actually VERY polite and seemed to have a sense of humor. He pulls a WAD of cash out, flips out 5 crisp, brand-new $100 bills and says “Before we get started- I have a favor to ask…. If you can get the Mexican place (he points across the parking lot towards the mall) to make me a couple marguaritas in to-go cups, so I can enjoy a drink while I shop- I’d really appreciate it, and you can keep the change.”

Now- the combo of his flashy car, his parking job, the way the guy looked and the butt-load of cash he pulled out and started to hand me got some attention and my assistant manager and a couple other employees are all staring at me and this guy in utter disbelief…

I mean- let me be clear- at first, I COMPLETELY did not believe him to be serious. When the guy takes out a THICK wad of cash and asks for 2 marguaritas- I’m like… Yeah okay…but I exchanged a quick look with my asst manager- fortunately he was an awesome dude and he actually just shrugged and let me go! (I’ll be straight up though- before I EVER CONSIDERED walking out of the store- I stopped at our front registers and ran one of those counterfeit detection markers across the 100’s to make sure they were REAL! I honestly was more stunned when i realized it was REAL- legit cash.)

ANYWAY…As soon as he assumes I’m on my way to handle his drink order- he literally starts pointing to stuff- sending everyone on staff scurrying- he’s asking for fifteen of this desktop computer package- twenty of those laptops over there- a dozen of that all-in-I’ve printer… a c**p ton of 19″ & 21″ monitors… A ton of plasma tvs… Digital cameras… Dyson vacuums…

Again… This was 2003. I didn’t even own a cell phone yet. I’d never seen anyone toss around cash like that and I had no clue who the guy was…. But it’s pretty clear he was serious and when the other employees found out that this guy had handed me $500 to go get him a couple of drinks- they all FLOCKED to see if they could cash-in on helping him out too.

So my manager DID actually let me go across the parking lot- and I sweet-talked the bartender into giving me two large kids sippy cups with marguaritas in them. I gave her a $50 tip and promised her I’d send the guy over for drinks after he was done shopping. (And yes, I kept my word. More on that later.) She even made me a baggie with a little cup of salt, one with sliced limes- and 2 little ketchup-cups filled with shots of Patron!

So about fifteen minutes has passed by the time I got back… And I walk in with one of those cardboard beverage containers and a little cardboard tote (think happy meal style) with the drink extras in it.

The guy was halfway done shopping by this point- or at least halfway done listing stuff he wanted- and now his girlfriend/wife/whatever she was is on his arm. She’s exactly what you’ld expect- bleach blonde, sz 2, in 5″ heels and a leopard miniskirt – but to her credit…. She was actually nice to all of us and she and the dude were actually fun and funny to deal with and to help.

So he took one of the marguaritas and -I’m not kidding… He offers me the other one. (That, unfortunately, my manager was *not* okay with. It sadly sat and melted until the end of my shift… So sad, it sitting on the Geek Squad desk mocking me.)

Anyways- I forget what huge tech company the guy worked for- I feel like the company had offices in Tampa or they were having a corporate event there (or both)- and that’s what he was shopping for.

But it’s been a long time and I definitely didn’t recognize him or his name- and frankly- I was more wrapped up in the craziness going on – I’m not sure I even found out exactly who he was…

But I do know, in total, he dropped about $45,000 on gifts for employees of their company AND that before leaving, he thanked all of us, shook our hands and handed each of us two $100 bills.

There were maybe 6-8 employees, both of the warehouse guys, at least one stero-installer tech, even the Lexmark printer rep had helped him out and got tipped… AND he gave even more (not sure how much) to the assistant manager *AND* both of the Geek Squad guys who had helped him immensely…

Anyway-

It was the only day of work there that I didn’t absolutely hate.

Normally we had to be obsessively annoying about asking people if we could help them and I hated that s**t- but that whole evening was hilarious because the only cool manager we had was working that evening (I can almost guarantee the store manager and the female assistant would have literally chased the rich dude off when he came in and waved down the first employee he came across to go “get him a drink”… But it ended up being a completely kick-a*s evening and I’m sure was talked about for a LONG time to come. To this day- I feel REALLY lucky I was so close to the entrance when he came strolling in.

I only worked for that store, like, two days a week (if that). I was new there too- and had only worked VERY part-time as a seasonal employee (making $7.35 an hr).

Between the $438 that I had left from getting the marguaritas – and the $200 he handed each of us when he left- plus he had been forking over 20’s left and right while we were loading the trucks…

I was TIPPED more in that single shift than I made in the entire month of November. I was VERY grateful that the assistant manager wasn’t a huge d**k about it- because i KNOW the other two managers would have not taken him seriously and probably wouldn’t have let us accept tips at all!

It took pretty much everyone we had working that night- to gather all that s**t (back then, the computers had heavy a*s giant monitors- not flat screens!!!)… Plus we had to do *all* the set-up c**p that the store did for every device that we sold… Plus we had to haul, recheck the inventory (plus ring up) and then repackage /wrap up all of it AND load the trucks….

We were wrapping giant boxes and pallets of stuff with plastic wrap and they had two big-a*s trucks come pick everything up. About a dozen of us were still there at midnight – loading and just hanging out… And the assistant manager didn’t even have trouble getting us all approved for the extra time because we’d BLOWN away our sales goals with the single night’s purchases!

The guy didn’t leave until after midnight with all the c**p and still, some of it had to be delivered the next day!

It was a crazy thing- and I was VERY happy that just being in the right place led to my taking home almost $500 more than anyone else, just bc I went to get the guy a $6 marguarita.

Some of the long time Best Buy employees were pissed that a young, new holiday part-timer got the huge tip (just for going to get him drinks) and said that I should have been made to share it- but the manager was VERY cool and told them to back off & to leave me alone.

I DID find out that the guy closed out the night at the Mexican place’s bar bc the bartender came in the next day, found me, and gave me the $50 back. Apparently she’d been tipped REALLY well too- and she thanked me immensely for sending them over bc it pretty much paid for her kids whole Christmas AND her school books, so that felt awesome.

So…I wasn’t working anywhere fancy- but I think the experience still qualifies as a true story worth telling.

-K

On A Final **CRAZY** Side Note- one of the other people who was working there that night along with me… was the freak that m******d singer Christina Grimme.

I remember him from my time working there (yes- he was always quiet, alone and creepy). As soon as I saw his face on the news- I got some serious chills. I had worked along side him for several months like 15 years before he became a m******r.

#45

Strange thing happened to me the other day…

I was in a supermarket (Tesco in the UK) grabbing some food to cook for the next day with a friend. I had left my wallet at home on purpose to avoid trying to eat unhealthy outside of my house.

I’m in the queue, raw chicken in my hand and i notice I’ve f****d up – I’ve left my wallet at home. Luckily my friend was with me in the queue and before I can say anything else he says “don’t worry, I got you”.

Some random suave looking dude in front of us (in his 40s or 50s) turns to us and says “no guys, don’t worry, I got YOU”. We think he’s joking so proceed to laugh and continue talking amongst ourselves.

The suave dude instructed an assistant to grab him two packets of cigarettes and scan our stuff too – at the SELF CHECKOUT. We were confused at this point… He was being serious about buying our stuff? We wholeheartedly tried to reject his offer. In the end he kept insisting so we allowed him to pay for both of our shops.

Whilst the assistant scanned our food, we entertained small talk with him. He didn’t seem to care much about our questions (he didn’t tell us where he was from when I asked), but asked us a tonne of questioned and joked around.

He then proceeds to pay for the total shop, approximately £30. He puts in a £50 note and of the £20 change returned to him, he gives £5 to the assistant and tells us to “keep the change”, probably feeling bad because we’re poor students.

The strange thing about that encounter that has stayed with me is, he probably will have no recollection of what happened in a couple of months. It’ll be something he’s completely forgotten about. He genuinely did that out of the good in his heart, there was nothing to gain for him. But the memory stays with me and although he’s most likely forgotten, it’s something I’ll never forget.

#46

My roommate in college worked at a private resort/club as a waitress back in her hometown. She would tell me all sorts of stories about how snobby most of her clients were. My favorite story was when a woman asked for “a Cheeseburger with no cheese with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.” My roommate took the order and moved onto the next person at the lady’s table. After she was done taking orders, she reread everyone’s request back to them to make sure they were correct. When she got to the lady’s order, my roommate made the “mistake” of saying, “…and, Ma’am, you wanted a hamburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise.” The woman was livid and said, “NO! I WANT A CHEESEBURGER WITH NO CHEESE WITH LETTUCE, TOMATOES, AND MAYONNAISE!!!” She called my roommate all sorts of terrible names and told her how stupid she was for not knowing the difference between a cheeseburger and a hamburger. Then she mentioned how she hated being served by “lower-classed” servers as they didn’t know how to properly take orders.

Ironic thing? My roommate’s dad worked for the heads of the US. As in, he occasionally would be in the same room as the President. Needless to say, he made a VERY large income which was why she was able to go to our private college, lived in one of the richest cities in the nation, and had gone to all of the best schools. She only worked because she enjoyed making her own money and her parents had instilled in her good work ethics. She was a really cool roommate–very down-to-earth and sweet.

#47

I worked at a taco restaurant that was the place where rich people went to pretend to be poor for a few hours. I had this one legendary table. 12 kids, about 8 or 9 yrs old.

This one kid was being awful– just absolutely awful. She kept bragging loudly to her friends about how many people she’s convinced her dad to fire. Kept telling her kid friends that she was going to get me fired. She barked orders at me in an English accent, laughing as I was forced to go get her a soda or w/e. I kept coming back with her drinks, and she would look me IN THE EYE and pour her drinks all over the table and then ask me in an English accent to clean it up.

I was being SO PATIENT that day but laaaawd knows I was about to quit on the spot so many times.

You know the worst part? The REALLY rich and bastardly part? At the end of this table from hell the dad tips me only 15% (20% is standard especially for huge parties) and has the GAUL to say *”sorry about my daughter, we think she has this gluten allergy that makes her really misbehave sometimes”* !!!!!!!!

Luckily other tables around the room who bore witness to this absolute t*****e slipped me 20s for my trouble. That was really sweet.

#48

Worked as a hostess during the restaurants busiest month. Restaurant was full, people were waiting for tables, and a man storms through and asks if there are any tables available (he was with a lovely looking woman who was most definitely twice as young as him). Told him that there was a 30 minute wait for ppl with no reservations. He looks into the restaurant and sees a table being prepared for the n3xt patron. He points it out and says “that one is available. I want to go there.” I tell him that it’s being prepared for someone else, but if he’s willing to wait, he could go to the bar and start off there. Visibly pissed, he insists on going to that table but I tell him it’s for the patrons that have been waiting. He then proceeds to dig in his coat pocket and takes out a $100 Bill and waves it in my face. “I’ll make it worth your while” he says. His date asks me to just give them the table as to not upset him. I tell his date that it’ll be a 40 minute wait now because of how full we are.
Dude then has the audacity to yell out the typical ” DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” b******t and that he’ll complain to the manager. I’m fully aware of who he is but at that point I honestly could not give two f***s, so I ask him to wait for a minute. I go to a couple who have been waiting for said table and proceed to lead them to it. I go back to the desk and look at my computer and tell the guy that he’ll have to wait because he didn’t make a reservation. He starts to yell at me that I’m being rude and that he’ll get me fired. My manager comes over and asks what the problem is and the guy proceeds to tell her the situation. What I forgot to mention is that there are a few patrons that witnessed the whole thing, they back me up that I handled it professionally and the guy was being a bit of an a*s.
Boss tells him the same thing I told him that he can wait at the bar and start off with drinks. He says no and leaves the restaurant with his date (I fèel super bad for her).
Boss then turns to me and whispers what an a*s he is and she didn’t think that he could be one because of the characters that he plays. Next day I’m promoted to event planner and worked at the restaurant for an additional 3 years.

#49

My girlfriend used to work in a pretty expensive restaurant in a touristic place, so lots of foreigners came there

thing is, we live in Poland, so we don’t pay with dollars here. quite a few of her guest wearing suits more expensive than few months of our rent gave her 1$ bill as a tip, saying stuff along the lines of “here, buy yourself something when you’ll visit USA”

might’ve been unintentional, but college students aren’t really the people who can afford to travel on the other side of globe, and tipping them an equivalent of a chocolate bar doesn’t help.

#50

I worked as a busboy at a restaurant that was part of a hotel that was at the end of its life. The owner, a reputed mob boss, and his eccentric wife, lived in a top floor suite that was two stories tall and lined with white marble, Italian statues, red carpet, etc. The wife would do her grocery shopping from the restaurant’s kitchen, and it would be us busboys who took it up. However, she made very specific demands on how the food should be prepared. Once, she asked for 7 pieces of American cheese, and it needed to be on a plate in a star pattern. Another time, she wanted 5 raw eggs, each wrapped in a napkin and then wrapped in plastic, placed inside a large styrofoam cup. Failure to prepare the food to her exact specifications meant being fired. On top of all that, she never once met us when we brought the food- she would buzz us in and instruct us to put the tray in their private elevator, and send it up to her. I was once berated because I put a plate of bread on the left wide of a tray instead of the right.

After the husband died, they closed the hotel. For a couple years after, she lived in that penthouse alone, and it was creepy to drive past at nights and see this 14 story hotel completely dark except for her couple lights on the top floor.

#51

Long ago while working at Domino’s Pizza we’d deliver anywhere in our small town…..except one hotel. The Coeur d’Alene Resort didn’t want our low brow people stinking up their hotel. When guests of the resort would call us we had to tell them the resort only allowed us to meet them at the service entrance. This wasn’t our rule but rather what we had to do in order to be allowed on their property.

Large scale conventions were pretty common at this resort. Some bigwigs at these companies tried to convince us to break the resort rules *just for them*. However the resort owner also owned half the town….p**s him off and kiss your business goodbye.

So one day we got a phone call from some guy. He ordered ten pizza’s, no big deal as we get large orders from there now and then. We were told to deliver it to the top floor suite. Of course we had to tell them we’re not allowed to and can they meet us at the service entrance. Yea, he grumbled and huffed.

A few minutes later we got a call back from Jerry Jaeger (the president of the Hagadon Hospitality division and manager of the resort). He told my boss to please park at the service entrance and wait for a security guard to escort us up to the penthouse.

That’s when I met a gruff but really awesome guy that insisted on being called Auggie…..August Busch III, CEO of Anheuser Busch.

Nobody dared to cross Hagadon or Jerry before then or since. Leave it to a college dropout turned CEO or one of the largest beer companies to set them straight.

#52

Well not a restaurant but I work in an Olive Oil store so not necessarily rich customers but at least upper middle class.

In the store, we have this chocolate balsamic vinegar and being in a suburban white town I usually get a lot of sexual comments I remember once this lady came in and was making some comments and it turned out she was the Mom of someone I went to school with.

However, sometime before Christmas this lady came in and spent a really long time. She was talking to me for a while how she left from NYC to come to this store. She has an apartment overlooking Central Park and she has another house in California. She wasn’t necessarily bragging but she was telling me her life story haha. From this I figured she must be rich. However when all the other customers left it was just us and she started making some sexual comments concerning the chocolate balsamics but they were all subliminal. I just kinda laughed even though I felt really awkward, I’m 19 and she’s older than my grandma. Eventually she just blurred out “how much for me to take you back to the city with me for a couple days”. Then before I got the chance to respond a customer walked in and she just left. I told my coworkers and she has come back twice when I’m not working asking if was working and when is the next time I’ll be working. Honestly tho if she was willing to give big money I might do what I gotta do.

#53

This lady ordered the “Ike and Tina Tuna”

I politely asked her if she wanted the plate, or platter.

Aghast she replied, “I *don’t* understand the question, and I *won’t* respond to it.”.

#54

There was this classic trick I used to do when seating people. If, based on the logistics, I needed someone to sit at a table I knew was the least desirable one (close to the toilet, entrance etc) I would always make it look like it’s reserved for VIP clients or ‘in case the boss decides to come in to eat’. Pretentious rich people want the opportunity to be seated somewhere ‘special’ so badly that they never ask questions and go for it right away. It made my job a billion times easier back then.

#55

So, not a restaurant or a hotel, but a travel agent. Client is a d**k. Client can’t drive and crashes car. Client walks out of police station after filling out all paperwork following the crash and decides to.. commandeer the first helicopter he sees to get him where he wants to go. Because rich people logic.

Footnote: there was a pilot to go with the helicopter, to eliminate any confusion on that count. Client definitely would not be able to manage a helicopter on his own. Hell, he couldn’t even manage his own travel plans.

#56

There‘s a thing in Stockholm‘s rich kid district called „vaska“. Basically, you order an expensive bottle of champagne, pay for it and watch how the waiter wastes all of it by pouring it down the drain (some places let you do it yourself).

Sadly, it’s an established thing in these kinda circles, like, it‘s on the menu cards and all that. Honestly the dumbest way of flexing I‘ve ever witnessed.

#57

Worked at a private villa in Bali. One guest stood out. She only drinks and bathes in Evian, so one day I spent almost an hour filling a large tub from tons of Evian bottles. The same young woman complained that the path from her villa gate to her room wasn’t well lit. She wore sunglasses at night.

EDIT: Thank you for the silver!

#58

This was not stereotypical but ridiculous it was. I had a customer come in in the most basic cheap clothes. Pull out a bundle of 2000$ in cash. Buy a glass of our most expensive wine. Sit by himself for about an hour not doing anything then leaving having taken only 1 or 2 sips.

#59

I was in Amsterdam to judge the Cannabis Cup years ago, with about 30 people that had all expenses paid by this one rich dude that owned race cars we all worked on. We all were trying to go to lunch one day, when we came across a steakhouse. It was packed. They said we wouldn’t be able to all fit for hours. The rich guy, without even hesitating, asked, “Can we smoke in here?” They replied that there was absolutely no smoking in the restaurant (as is most of Amsterdam, outside of coffeeshops). He asked for the manager. When they came over, he said, “How much will it be to empty the restaurant?” The manager looked confused. Rich dude repeats, “I want to know how much money you want to get everyone out of here, so my friends and I can have lunch and smoke.” I think the manager made a phone call or something, came back, spoke with the rich dude, and said to wait a minute. We had to wait about 15 minutes, but slowly, everyone began leaving with to-go boxes, and had surprised looks on their faces, because they weren’t paying their checks. We ended up pulling together a bunch of tables and ordering a ton of food, while everyone smoked weed. I barely even got to eat, because I was the only one that could roll worth a s**t, so I probably rolled like 15-20 blunts, while waiters came around to check on us. It was really surreal. I think the restaurant told their customers that there was an issue and they had to close, but their meals would be comped (in reality, they were all added to my friends bill). I don’t even want to know how much he spent, just for lunch that day. At the time, it was a place I couldn’t even afford going to, on my own. This guy pays everyone to leave, pays the manager to shut the doors, pays to let us smoke weed in a place that doesn’t allow smoking weed. At first the waiters and staff seemed really pissed, but he would tip them like $100 every time they would refill his water or whatever, so they were soon having a great time. It was the most ultimate flex move I’d ever seen.

Edit: had the wrong restaurant name.

#60

I once stayed in a hotel an NFL team had rented for an away game. It was a really nice hotel and the only reason I was there was for a family members wedding and I was sleeping on a couch in a room. The whole place was filled with very wealthy people and to separate them from the other guests they rented the 3 top floors and had security to stop anyone from getting to the floors. Best part about the trip was seeing a guy valet park a rented muscle car by just stepping out and handing the keys to the nearest person.

#61

I used to work in a luxury hotel. A colleague of mine got a call from an in house guest, asking for a car to take him somewhere. Naturally, he offered him what options we had, and the guest got annoyed and closed the line.

A few minutes later, the guest came down to the front desk and asked for my colleague. He then proceeded to show him a cardboard bag literally overflowing with cash, and started saying ‘You dare ask me which car just because of different prices? Can’t you see how much money I have? Why do I care, just get me a f*****g car ready.’

People…

#62

My mum used to work in a snazzy hotel in Dublin, Mel Gibson stayed while filming Braveheart. He insisted that under no circumstances was anyone to ask for his autograph, and everyone was informed. Except one girl who on the Monday came in from sick leave, as soon as she saw the star she said “hello Mr Gibson may I have your autograph”?
Well he went into orbit, demanding that she be fired, not reprimanded, fired!
He’s was a real d**k, I hope he’s changed.

#63

Coworker thanked a family for their generous tip as he brought back their change and they said to keep it….but mom added “don’t worry, you won’t get rich doing this.” Rich, no, but leaving $60 on $240 is a decent hourly wage when your server also has 4 other tables besides yours.

#64

I worked briefly at a chocolate shop in the mid 00’s. There was a rich businessman who would come in a few times a year and buy gifts for his employees, easily spending $300-500 each time.

It wasn’t in a tipping environment, but he usually tipped $50.

On top of that, he was an absolute gentleman to the point that we’d have probably given him the same level of care if he had didn’t tip…. Honestly, he was the perfect customer.

#65

One day a couple friends and I went to a ren faire. We dressed up and at the end of the night we stayed at a very fancy hotel. We definitely couldn’t afford it but one of the friends I was with wife worked at the hotel and got us an insane discount. While we were in the elevator still dressed up an older lady kept staring at us. She finally said something I will never forget because I didn’t believe people like this exist. She said “I didn’t think people like you could afford to stay here.” I was honestly shocked. Felt like something someone would say in a movie. My friend spoke up and said “we have the gold.” And she just huffed.

#66

I work for a really ritzy hotel. Not to make this political, but a very rich republican client was having an event at our hotel and asked to replace the head of security (male, light skinned African American, ripped, but maybe a baby face) because he didn’t look scary enough. The head of security actually found a replacement, a shorter, not as big African American, but dark skinned. The client explains upon meeting the new security person, “now there’s a guy I’m a afraid of.” Everyone in the room wasn’t sure what to say, so it went silent for a moment and then we moved on.
Later when the bomb inspectors came to inspect the venue (we were having a very high profile politician come to the event) that same client rolled his eyes and said to me “women in the military…” as a female bomb inspector entered the room.
I had to walk away before I said some s**t and loose my job.

#67

When I worked at a casino, the GM received million dollar bonuses… I worked security at the gate, and the GM walked past me and I referred to him by his last name. Similar to “Hey (lastname), how are you today” while I held the door open for him. He snapped and threatened to fire me on the spot for being disrespectful. I was completely confused. Week later he walks by and “appologizes” for his threats but they were warranted. I was instructed to only refer to him as Mr. Lastname

Also, another day he threatened to fire me because I was helping a customer. When he walked by, I opened the door and did a quick nod towards him while still talking to this lady. It was explained by the director to me that I was supposed to stop everything, greet him, and not continue till after he had passed. So f**k the people who keep that place open, he was more important…

#68

My SO hotel building is owned by a billionaire. Forbes rich list. Lovely unassuming Singaporean man. This man was in town visiting his property. The hotel isn’t 6 stars. It’s 200-300 a night. But he stayed there.

Him and his business group had bookings at the top restaurants every night. 400 dollars a plate venues. They then come back to the hotel and drink insanely expensive wine. Anything they didn’t finish as sent to the staff as a treat. Every staff he saw in uniform received a crisp 50 dollar note as a tip and a firm handshake. The staff who brought him wine or made bookings received a crisp 100.

Just a kindly middle aged billionaire checking out one of his many many properties.

#69

Not stereotypical, but I was at a restaurant in Houston in 2004 during the MLB All Star Game week. George Steinbrenner rented out a large area of the restaurant and brought players, coaches and staff to eat brunch. We got there and were seated as all the MLB folks were leaving- I’m a huge baseball nut, so seeing all of the players was way cool. Anyhow, our waiter came to our table to welcome us and get our drink orders, and just had the happiest look on his face. I said, “man, must be cool to be on schedule when these guys come in.”, and he proceeded to tell us that he and his wife were the two servers for the baseball group, and that Mr. Steinbrenner left them a $50k tip. I’m not a Yankee fan, but looked at Mr. Steinbrenner a little differently from then on.

#70

I don’t know if this counts, but I used to work at a high roller casino as a cage cashier.
There was a lady at the marker bank (a marker bank is kind of like getting a loan to gamble more money), and where the marker bank was situated was almost directly behind me. I had no idea she was standing behind me since it was a busy night, so when the person working the marker bank came back to the counter she was irate. She demanded my name from him, which he told her, because in a high roller casino you basically have to kiss a*s of people who spend A LOT of money. Suddenly, not knowing what was going on from behind me, I hear a gruff and irritated voice yelling my name while I’m helping a guest. I had to leave the guest at the counter to see what this privileged high roller needed, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was that she “had a bone to pick with me”. She went off on me for what felt like a good five minutes, saying she spent way too much money to be ignored, to which I tried to explain I couldn’t see her from behind me, and she fired back that I have peripheral vision and I should use it (she was definitely far out of my peripheral vision).
What REALLY took me back was when she said I was “helping a bunch of nobodies” before her. I never encountered someone so entitled in my life, to the point where they honestly think other people matter less because of the money they have. I was in genuine disbelief to actually hear something so arrogant like that come from someone’s mouth.

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