Upon waking up on the final morning of our Spring Break trip, we noticed the lights flickering on and off in our hotel room. It was early, around 7am, and we wondered if the hotel was performing necessary maintenance while most of their leisure guests were still asleep.
Upon stepping into the hallway, it was pitch black, except one emergency light that was still on. We cautiously began to walk to breakfast.
Upon arrival at the host stand, a manager greeted us and explained that the hotel-wide power outage was unplanned and still being worked on.
As a result, hot breakfast options might not be available. He verbally shared what room temperature food items they could guarantee (yogurt parfaits, bagels, muffins, smoothies, etc.) and we cautiously took our seats.
Natural light poured in through the floor to ceiling windows, so you could say that the lighting during our meal was actually lovely! We were presented with two menus, the guaranteed menu and the regular menu, in case they could produce the salmon eggs benedict my husband was hoping for.
Never did they overpromise.
They stayed in communication, both the server and manager.
And ultimately when they shared that hot breakfast was doable, it felt like a heroic achievement. By the time we left breakfast, the power was restored in the entire hotel and most guests never even realized there had been an issue.
To us, the issue was quickly made a non-issue because of how communicative and compassionate the staff were and their calm ability to under promise and over deliver.
Have you been in a situation where top notch service was given during unexpected circumstances? Let me know in the comments below.