Wrong Hotel

As a rideshare driver, one of the most common questions I get asked is "What is the most interesting passenger you've ever had?" or perhaps "Tell me a story of the craziest rider you've had." Over my time as a driver, this list has grown and grown and grown, and I'd often joke that one day I'd make a book of these stories to which the response usually consisted of a gasp and a "You should!"

So here are some of my stories. Some are sad. Most are funny. Some show how passengers can be some of the best customers and some show how they can be the worst. Some may make you laugh and others may make you shake your head. All are true and from my personal experience. However, location and names have been altered for privacy (and because I can't remember that many people's names all the time).

Wrong Hotel

Passengers sometimes put in the incorrect pick up or drop off location into the app, and of course it's always the driver's fault even though we have nothing to do with it. When the passengers get into the vehicle, I always confirm their name and their destination. Often times, before I even get the first word out, they're going "yesyesyes!" and making a shooing motion without actually listening to what I said, promptly followed by getting angry if it's the wrong location, their emotions shared with accusations that I don't know where I'm going.

It was an early evening, and I was picking up a group of travelers from the airport. After I confirmed who they were and got all of their luggage in the car, the three passengers got into my vehicle, and I looked at the destination. It was a hotel that they were staying in for a bit. The one thing I've noticed about when a person puts in any sort of building that's a chain (that is, there's many of them around), that it's very important to confirm WHICH one it is. Thus, I ask them about the hotel name, the street it's on, AND the city it's in just to make sure it's the right hotel. The man in the car - for there were also two women - nodded and confirmed that was their hotel, thanking me for picking them up.

I head out of the airport and make my way to the highway as I drive along silently. The group is talking amongst themselves, mostly about what to have for dinner since they're all quite hungry, but also talking about things they're going to do and places they want to visit while they're in the area. I actually quite enjoy when I have multiple passengers who talk amongst themselves because then I can be the silent driver who isn't really there according to their point of view, focusing on my driving and my own thoughts rather than attempting to entertain my passengers. Here and there, they ask me a bit about some restaurants or some shopping areas. Some of them I'm familiar with and give a general opinion on, pointing out what's good or bad about them, and some I've never been to since I don't really go out very much. They ask about shopping centers and if we have Wal*Marts (we do), and if there are diners open 24/7 (there are) and other such questions here and there but mostly they keep the talk amongst themselves.

The ride is about 40 minutes or so before I get off the highway. We are only a few miles from the hotel, and the topic abruptly changes to if they're going to go out to eat for dinner or order in or take food back to the hotel. They're debating on going right away or waiting an hour or two. I debate in my head if I should offer to them - or let them know - that if they'd like to change their destination, I can accommodate them but I also don't want them to think I'm intruding upon their conversation.

As I hesitate for just a moment to make my offer, the guy looks around and asks, "Where are we?" "We're right by the hotel," I reply, "I just have to make a Michigan-U." For those who do not know, in Michigan, we don't like left turns. We enjoy splitting our major roads up with a barrier between the two sides of opposing traffic because people in this state have severe issues staying on their own side of the road. In order to get to anything on the other side of the road, or to make a left turn, you often have to go past your destination and then get into a lane which was created specifically for making u-turns so that you can move to the other side of the road and take a right into your destination instead.

The guy looks around a bit more as the two ladies continue to talk about their food choices. As I turn around, I point up a bit at the large, green, glowing hotel sign, "There it is right there." "Um...hold on a moment," he says as he gets out his phone. I can't literally hold on and stop in the road so I continue on, pulling into the parking lot of the hotel as the guy gets on his phone, talking quietly to the two women about the hotel. Curious, I pull up to the drop-off location but don't end the ride, thinking perhaps they had indeed decided to go and get food first.

The guy looks back up at me again, asking what hotel it was. I confirm the hotel name, and he goes back to his phone as I wait patiently. "Wait, what city are we in?" he asks. Confused a bit, I tell him the city and the road and again the hotel name. "That doesn't sound like our hotel," one of the women says, "Check your phone." The guy continues to do stuff on his phone as both women join in, all three of them tapping away on their phones quickly to try to check their hotels as I wait. Twice more they ask me for the address of where we are despite me having confirmed it with them at the very beginning.

"This isn't our hotel," the guy finally says with a frown. He proceeds to give me a different address but with the same hotel name. Curious, I put the address into my Waze app just to see how far away it is from us. As it comes up, I pause a moment as I say slowly, "That hotel is only about six minutes from the airport." "Yes, that's the one!" the guy nods, "Yes, when we booked it, they said they were right next to the airport, just a few minutes away. Can you take us there?"

I sat there dumbfounded for a moment. I understand accidentally typing in the incorrect address perhaps but the app does show the address and the city. Even if they got the street name wrong, it showed the wrong city. On top of that, I confirmed the address and they said it was the right one. Even if all of that had happened, he had just said that he knew for a fact that the hotel was only a few minutes from the airport and yet hadn't questioned that we were, perhaps, headed in the wrong direction considering the trip took forty minutes?

Keeping these thoughts to myself, I agreed and rolled back out to head back to the airport and the correct hotel which was forty minutes back in the other direction. The entire way, the women continued to complain more and more how hungry they were and how the trip was taking SO long (as though it were my fault they put in the wrong destination and confirmed it). They complained how everything was going to be closed due to the unexpectedly long trip, and the guy asked me if he had to pay for the trip since "I" went the wrong way.

Yes, Sir, you do have to pay for the trip where I confirmed your destination and followed exactly the directions you put into the app and then was kind enough to drive you and your complaining friends all the way back as well. I do hope they got some dinner, though.