How to Handle 'Guests From Hell'

Anyone who has waited tables, worked a counter or dealt directly with the public lately knows that whoever said, "the customer is always right" was wrong.

If you doubt it, consider how eager you would be for Gerard Finneran to visit your restaurant. Mr. Finneran's antics as an airline passenger were chronicled in several publications, but here's the way Esquire magazine described it:

"Gerald Finneran, a 58-year-old investment-bank president from New York, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a flight attendant and defecating on a service cart while drunk during a flight from Buenos Aires to New York. According to the complaint, Finneran used 'linen napkins as toilet paper and wiped his hands on various service implements used by the crew' and then 'tracked feces throughout the aircraft'."

Granted this may be an extreme case, but I'm sure your front-line service people occasionally run into bizarre, totally off-the-wall behavior that defies any standard of decency and common sense.

Handling a genuine "Guest from Hell"

When you're convinced you've got a "guest from hell" I would say you've got, not only the right, but an obligation to deal with them firmly, swiftly and without apology. There's no law (yet, anyway) that says you have to put up with people that are abusive, repulsive or pose a threat to your employees or other guests.

The key though, is identifying whether you've got a genuine "guest from hell" or "guest that's been through hell."