Travelers waited at hotel front desk. When no one showed, they took over, TikTok shows
A group of friends who traveled to Tennessee for a concert were more than ready to check into their hotel late at night — only to find no one working the front desk.
So, the friend group — which WZTV reports included Kenzie Brooks, Aaron Howard and Noorain Dobani — decided to work their own shift at the La Quinta Inn they were staying at, according to a TikTok they posted detailing their hotel antics. They stood behind the counter taking calls and even prepared breakfast for hungry guests, the viral video shows.
“When you arrive to the hotel and there is no staff so you now have a new job,” the TikTok video’s text said. “We’ve been working for 2 hours.”
Several TikTok users complimented the group, saying their decision to help serve breakfast when there was no staff around was kind.
“When I say I need friends. These are the friends I’m talking about needing,” one user wrote.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which owns La Quinta said in a statement to McClatchy News that the experience of the group “in no way reflects our brand values.”
The company explained that the empty hotel front desk was caused by an employee who left their shift early without telling anyone. That employee is “no longer with the hotel,” which is an “independently owned and operated franchise,” the company said.
“Once discovered, arrangements were immediately made to bring additional staff on-site,” the company said.
One of the biggest demands in the comments of the video was for the group of friends to give a “story time” about how they ended up running the Nashville hotel for the night.
In a follow-up video , Brooks said the three friends arrived after they went to a casino for Howard’s birthday. They were originally planning to check in earlier, Brooks said in the video, but they didn’t.
They stood at the counter for around 30 minutes waiting for someone to come check them in, but no one came, she said. They eventually found a housekeeper who said no one had been working the front desk for hours, Brooks said in the video.
At one point, a female guest came downstairs saying that her card was charged $600 by the hotel, Brooks said in the video.
“Instantly, we’re like, OK manager mode,” Brooks said in the video. “We run businesses back home. Manager mode kicks in and we’re like, all right let’s see what we can do.”
The group took more calls throughout the night as more people called asking about charges on their cards, Brooks said. At one point, there were around 10 people in the lobby concerned about money being taken out of their account, she said in another video.
They also called the hotel’s general manager who had “no idea any of this was going on,” she said.
Tired and ready to go to bed, the group continued to wait for someone to help them, Brooks said in the video. Then, she said the police showed up and told them to “do whatever you have to do” in order to check in.
In a second follow-up video, Howard took over the “story time” to describe how the group called the general manager, who they said was in California, but were told they couldn’t check into their room.
Then came the breakfast service. People started to come down at 6 a.m. to get their breakfast but there was none out, Brooks said in the video. So they found the keys to the kitchen and started to serve breakfast.
“They were really enjoying breakfast,” Howard said in the video. “There was a whole line for breakfast, they were thanking us.”
Howard said in a third video that an employee came into the hotel around 7 or 8 a.m. The group of friends had a one request for the worker: to check into their room.
The employee tried to tell them they would need to pay a $25 fee, Howard said in the video. But the general manager from a nearby Holiday Inn came in and the group told him the situation, Brooks said. They got their room key and headed up to finally relax in their room — where they found a woman inside.
The friends apologized to the woman and rushed back downstairs, Brooks said in the video. After retelling their story, Brooks said the Holiday Inn manager gave them a room at his hotel instead.
Wyndham said the hotel’s management is “working to address and make right any concerns from impacted guests, including the three individuals at the center of the story” and called the situation “unfortunate and unexpected.”
Brooks, Howard and Dobani are from Gwinnett County in George, Atlanta News First reports.
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