Newbie bloopers

I think my mistakes in life are the things that make me laugh the hardest. Once enough time has passed, the most embarrassing moments are usually the funniest to think back on. It will be fun to put some of these in writing and have them to look back on for a good laugh. These are some of our funny mess-ups while being resort owners.

Speed Dial

One evening a couple arrived as guests of our hotel. They were very excited for all the adventures they had booked with us during their stay. We had scheduled a rest day for their first day here so they could relax and settle in. But they did not want to sit around and “rest” on their first day. Instead, they wanted to add a tour. We decided on zip lining and I gave our the zip lining tour company a call. In our office we use a land line phone that has a built in address book. Many of our tour operators and partners numbers are in the phone and easy to access by just clicking up or down arrows. I clicked down to the name of the zip lining place and gave them a call. I asked if they could add our 2 guests to the zip lining for the next day. I was told that NO, there was some really bad weather coming in and they were cancelling all reservations for tomorrow. They said they had a big group reserved, but it was cancelled. I was super confused because I have never heard of weather cancelling zip lining before. I said “Is it a really bad storm coming in? Lots of wind?” My mind was racing trying to think of what would cause risk to the zip lining. I was picturing hurricane like conditions rushing at people suspended on the zip line. The guests were bummed. Considering all the tours they had already scheduled, this was the only additional thing they wanted to do. I was bummed for them too.

A couple days later, I was calling zip lining again but I accidentally pushed the down button one extra time. This time it landed on our SCUBA diving partner. I suddenly realized what had happened. When I called to reserve zip lining I was actually talking to a SCUBA/snorkel company and they were telling me that the whole boat trip was cancelled. A weather cancellation is super normal for a boat trip. What was a completely confusion conversation now all of a sudden made sense.

Thinking about the two of us, on the phone, having a conversation about two completely separate things, and both of us being a little confused by what the other is saying, but just continuing on cracks me up every time.

Good day for a wedding!

After running this resort for over a year, I’ve gotten really good at remembering guests’ names. It wasn’t easy at first. But over time it seems like I’ve just adapted to what I need to do! Of course, there are exceptions. I might meet a guest very briefly on arrival and then mistakenly re-introduce myself the next morning. But nothing as funny as the mix-up Ryan experienced when we had a wedding party staying with us.

Francine had been helping to plan the wedding for some months and we were expecting a small group for the wedding. The bride and her family were staying with us and some friends were staying at a nearby hotel. On arrival day, the bride got delayed and her mom and dad arrived a day before her. When her parents arrived they came in our van with another couple and all entered the lobby together, at the same time. I wasn’t sure at first is this other couple was part of the wedding, but I quickly realized they were not. They were a father and daughter staying with us for the week. (Lets call him John so as not to use his real name)

Ryan gave a tour of the property to both of these couples. No one knew it, but he assumed he was giving the tour to the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom. He kept assuming this for the next couple of days leading up to the wedding.

The bride and groom arrived the next day and a day after that, it was wedding day! It was a beautiful ceremony, on a beautiful sunny day and everything went as planned. The morning after the wedding, I was talking to Ryan about a conversation I’d had with John about our dog Ruger. Ryan said “who’s John”. I got a little impatient because at this point, John had been with us for several days and I knew John well. I thought Ryan knew him too. Ryan said “you mean John with the wedding party?”. No, I told him he was the man traveling with his daughter. “But he is the father of the groom, right?” Ryan asked. “No” I said, “he has nothing to do with the wedding”. Ryan’s face looked a bit shocked and he told me what he had done on the wedding day.

Ryan said that he had seen John early in the morning on the wedding day and proclaimed “Beautiful day for a wedding!”. to which, John looked at him funny and just sort of acknowledged him. Then a couple hours later, Ryan saw John again and said “Such great weather for a wedding!”. This time John said something like, “Why do I care”. Ryan said he was a little confused but that comment but not deterred. He thought maybe John was just a bit grumpy. And then Ryan proceeded to do it a THIRD time. “Great day for a wedding, don’t you think?” Surely John was just baffled at this last one. Awarding Ryan the worst small talker ever.

Good thing it wasn’t March 12th

For many of our tour partners, we pay them by bank transfer, but for some we send checks on the day of the tour. One day we were sending some guests for an ATM cave tour and I sent a check along to pay the ATM tour operators. All good so far.

A week later I overheard our accounting manager saying we still needed to pay our ATM tour partners. I asked why this was the case since we sent a check. She informed me that we had sent a POST-DATED check. I knew it had been me, so I looked back to see what day I would have written the check. And at the same moment I realized what I must have done wrong. In Belize, they write the date DD/MM/YYYY. In the states, I was taught to write the date MM/DD/YYYY. On our Belize check, it clearly states day/month/year where you are supposed to put the date.

I had written the check on March 6th, which meant, with my month/day mix up, I had actually written it for June 3rd. Seemed lucky to me that it was only 3 months out! But, three months is a long time to wait to be paid. They returned the check and we wrote a new one.