Don't Take It Personally

The service industry perpetuates the notion that the customer is always right. The hospitality industry markets to guests based on service quality. The hotel industry has historically perpetuated gender, racial and ethnic stereotyping by placing women in gendered jobs with little power, such as hotel desk agents or cleaning personnel. Guest agents, the focus of this study, encounter a range of guest behaviors that may be negative such as yelling or throwing items. How do front-desk agents relate to guests when guests misbehave? This research examined this perplexing dilemma from the women desk agent's perspective.