Don't Smoke

Here is another story of one of our encounters with out of town guests. It is a little sad and a little our fault too.

When Jeremy woke up this morning he found that is phone had 5 messages. Last night he and I went to a meeting. We forwarded the Wildflower phone to Jeremy's cell phone. He put it on vibrate. Well, after the meeting we forgot to take it off forwarding and vibrate. Last night starting at 10:45 pm a man and his girlfriend who were staying at Wildflower, but not in a unit that we rent or give keys out to, went out for a cigarette closing the door of their unit behind them. They took NOTHING with them, to include jackets, snow boots or the key to their condo. The door was still locked. Being locked out, they headed down to our office. We have an emergency phone that you can use to call us. We also have the phone number to every reservation company in town posted outside. There is one company known for their lack in customer service. Of course the unit that these poor people were staying in is with that company. We could have helped them but of course we were sleeping away while Jeremy's phone vibrated.

At 7:30am when Jeremy got his messages he was telling me that these people had called until 11:45pm and left messages. We felt very bad and wondered what they had ultimately done. Hoping they had gone to their reservation office where they had picked up their condo keys, and where an emergency phone is located for that company, we went on with our morning. At about 7:45am I went out to the office and opened the door. There sat this poor couple in our laundry room (located off the office entryway) with the heater on high and sitting on phone books. They had found no one (meaing reservation companies) to help them and spent the night in the laundry room.

Lets consider the options they would have had. They were locked out with nothing. They had a phone and a phone book. After a few hours of not reaching the reservation companies I personally would have used the phone book that I was sitting on to reach a lock smith. Two of the three in Mammoth answer emergency calls. Or how about 911??? The man did mention he had a condo key in his car and had tried to break the windows to get in. Here is an idea, AAA or just a local towing service that could have come to unlock the car. They all answer emergency numbers.

Yes, Jeremy and I should have been available, on our night off, to answer an emergency call. We are truly sorry and feel very guilty, but the resourcefulness of this poor couple was lacking. The moral of the story? Don't smoke, you might get locked out all night and have to spend it sitting in a laundry room on top of phone books that you aren't smart enough to use to get out of your situation.