In Nashville, Tennessee, Aaron Howard and his buddies were eager to catch some rest. They’d embarked on a birthday trip to see the Arctic Monkeys, leaving work at 10 p.m. one Tuesday night. They drove through the dark hours, hit some local bars, and aimed to check into the La Quinta Inn near the Grand Ole Opry by 4 a.m.
The snag? No one was around to check them in.
“We get in and sit down at the front desk for around 30 minutes, and nobody was there,” recounted Howard. The only person who wasn’t a guest was a police officer investigating a noise complaint.
“So as the police officer was leaving, we asked him, ‘We just want to check-in. Can we just go back there and try to check in ourselves?’ Howard explained. “He said, ‘I’m leaving, do what you gotta do, it’s not on me.’ So, at that point, we hopped behind the front desk, and as she was trying to check us in, we started answering the phones; they were ringing off the hook.”
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Howard and his friends all worked in the service industry, so while they waited, they answered the phones.
“That went on for about an hour and a half,” Howard said. They addressed guest inquiries, booked airport shuttles, and dealt with callers who refused to believe they weren’t hotel employees.
“One woman did not want to believe us; I said I do not work here, I’m down in the lobby at the front desk across from it, I’m not an employee— she demanded to speak to my supervisor,” Howard recalled.