In an ideal world, extremely rich people would always be fantastic customers: they would be grateful, pleasant, and leave massive, life-changing tips. Of course, some do (like Jennifer Aniston, who once came into the restaurant where I used to work, ordered nothing, and still left the waitress a $100 tip)! But many don't. In fact, extremely wealthy people get a bad rap in the service industry for being demanding, entitled, and even stingy. No one has more experience with this than than people who work in high-end restaurants and luxury hotels, since they deal with the wealthiest, most privileged segment of society.
Someone asked Reddit: "people who work in high class restaurants and hotels, what is the most ridiculous, stereotypical 'rich person' thing you've ever experienced someone has done?" These 25 servers, bartenders, and hotel employees share their high-end horror stories...
Prepare to be infuriated.
1.) From emartinoo:
I've met two celebrities through my various work experiences.
Tim Allen requested that we close the small bakery that I worked at for him while he is as dining there. We did. He didn't leave a tip.
Later in my career I met Mario Batali (famous Food Network chef) and he was the most normal person ever. He took a class with us, and then proceeded to pay for everyone else's class that was in his group and bought lunch for the staff as well.
I guess both are stereotypical rich person things, for vastly different reasons.
2.) From alex-manutd:
I operated a premium chain restaurant in Canada. One day this Indian gentleman started coming in, at first by himself. On the first day he spent $200 on wine and tipped $1000. The next day he did the same again. When we saw him the third time I had servers fighting over him. Anyway, one evening he got drunk on wine and Brad the busboy made the mistake complementing his watch. Mr. S. takes off his Tag and gives it to Brad. The next morning Mr. S comes back to get his car and asks if Brad is there, I say yes and go get him, Brad knows what's up and is removing the watch as he walks over to Mr. S. Mr. S says, "Brad I'm really sorry I got drunk last night and gave you my watch." Brad is chuckling as he is removing the watch and says it's no problem and he was just holding the watch until Mr. S returned. The next thing Mr. S. said, I could not believe: "Brad you don't understand, I'm sorry because it was very rude of me to give you a used gift." And at that moment Mr. S pulled out a box with a brand new Tag Heuer inside and handed it to Brad.
3.) From arnber420:
I interviewed at a large hotel attached to a casino and while I was being shown around the front desk, a woman walked up, said nothing, and got room keys after being greeted by the front desk agent. She immediately turned and walked away. Then the manager who was interviewing turned to me and said, “That’s Mrs. Richladypants. You never ask her for her name, her ID, or god forbid a credit card. She stays here comped once or twice a week because her husband spends so much in the casino. If you upset her she will yell at you and then hand the person working next to you a $100 bill just to spite you.”
I ended up turning down a job there, thankfully so because apparently she wasn’t the only guest of her type there.
4.) From diarm:
I worked for a resort in the Seychelles for 4 years. I have hundreds of stories which would fit this post but one that stands out was a very wealthy Canadian family who stayed at one of the private residences for a couple of weeks.
They brought their own staff including two personal chefs but also asked for a hotel chef to assist their team with prep and local ingredient knowledge. A chef I was friendly with was selected to spend the two weeks with them.
One day, another member of their staff came down to one of the restaurants and purchased two bottles of wine for €11,000+ each. Now we had far more expensive bottles on the list but this was still a notable sale and later that night, I asked my mate what they had cooked to accompany the wine.
Turns out they had poured both bottles into the pot while making a Coq au Vin.
5.) From Auto_Fac:
My uncle works at a very upscale restaurant on a very well-to-do and desirable vacation island in the Atlantic Ocean.
One of their regular customers is a billionaire oil guy. My uncle has told me:
he arrives on a yacht that tows a smaller yacht. The smaller yacht is still big enough to have a helicopter.
he demands to have his dogs seated at the table and feeds them foie grass and expensive water.
when he takes humans to eat my uncle has never seen him with the same woman twice, and often it’s a table of women.
if he really liked the meal he will go through the restaurant and, in front of everyone, peel off crisp 100s from a giant roll of money in his pocket and tip every service person whether they helped or not.
one time the owner got a call from health inspectors saying they received a complaint that dogs were seen eating in the restaurant. All the owner did was speak the billionaires name and the health inspector said, “Oh okay, bye.”
6.) From jesusbrate:
There‘s a thing in Stockholm‘s rich kid district called „vaska“. Basically, you order an expensive bottle of champagne, pay for it and watch how the waiter wastes all of it by pouring it down the drain (some places let you do it yourself).
Sadly, it’s an established thing in these kinda circles, like, it‘s on the menu cards and all that. Honestly the dumbest way of flexing I‘ve ever witnessed.
7.) From startush:
I don't even work at that nice of a restaurant, but last month I got chewed out over the phone because some lady left her baby's actual silver spoon on the table, and we didn't know where it was so obviously one of us had stolen it.
8.) From zhougdog:
Ordering $150 caviar to-go for their cat.
9.) From bluebunny20:
I am a cocktail server at the huge pool of a 4 star hotel. A woman said in a mono-tone voice and without any eye-contact "I lost my sunscreen. Find it."
10.) From tweedleedeedee:
I worked at a nice restaurant in downtown Portland and one day a lady called to make a dinner reservation for a large group. But first she starts asking all these questions about "security" (we had none) and how I thought the staff and patrons would handle a "celebrity" dining there. Is there enough space to be private? They like to be private. Would it be okay if they brought their own security, to stop people from taking pictures and such? etc. But of course, she couldn't name names. I rolled my eyes, told her whatever they need to do, and booked the date and time.
Yes, I was super curious who it would be, and stayed past my shift to see who walked through the doors when the big night came. The group arrived, and it was... no one. Not one of us who worked there recognized a single member of their party. They sure acted like they were someone, but all we saw was a loud group of douchey-looking 20-somethings. They actually did bring a "bodyguard" who stood in the corner with sunglasses on the whole time. The only attention they got from other diners was the occasional side-eye because they were being such rude and obnoxious assholes.
Shock of shocks, they treated our staff horribly, and tipped even worse. Will never know who that person thought they were.
10.) From [deleted]:
Back when I did waitering, there was a woman and her friends at one of my tables. The woman asked for a can of Coke (Coca-Cola, just so we're clear).
When I brought their drinks and gave the woman her Coke, she looked at me, and, in that typical rich bitch voice, said "Excuse me, honey? I asked for Fanta, not Coke". So I apologised, wrote it onto my notepad, and went back to get her a can of Fanta. Brought it to her, and again, she turned to me and said "I didn't ask for Fanta, I asked for Cream Soda".
By this time, I was getting a bit annoyed, but went back and got her a Cream Soda anyway. And surely, when I returned to her table, she did the same thing again. "I asked for Sprite. Should I call the manager?"
So, for the last time, I smiled and I went back to the kitchen and packed one can of each: Coke, Cream Soda, Fanta, Sprite, Pepsi and Sparberry Soda, into a small plastic box and took it all to her and said "Here you go, miss, take your pick."
She looked offended and almost made a scene. She started lecturing me about how I'm incapable of getting the simplest order right and that she wants to talk to the restaurant's manager. I told her that I can call him, and that I'll show him all the soda types I wrote on my notepad that she asked for, and we can get his opinion on the matter.
She turned and took her damn Sprite out of the plastic box and said "Just leave it." Her friends were silent throughout the whole ordeal and none of them gave me any issues further on. I didn't receive a tip, as expected, but I shrugged it off. Most customers were decent.
11.) From whirler_girl:
Had a business dude rent one of our apartments for 3 weeks at this fancy hotel I worked at. Second day, we get a maintenence call, he wants us to remove to the TV. Not replace it, just remove it entirely.
As housekeeper I head up with maintenance to clean up any mess from the move and got to see it all. The guest is removing our TV - because he's gone and bought his own. Bigger. Flashier. Brand new. There was also a brand new (I cleaned up the packaging) PS4 he was hooking up to his new TV. We had no idea if this was against policy so we left it. Guy's paying for the room, he's not broken anything, idgaf.
At the end of his stay, he leaves it all behind. Maintenence dude took the TV (easier to smuggle out the service entrance for him) I took the PS4 and sold it for more travelling funds. Thanks, ridiculously rich business dude! You paid for 2 weeks of travelling!
Edit: not sure if this counts but I totally forgot about the seriously loaded drug addict who hired our penthouse, DND'd for 3 days and painted every inch of it black before doing a runner.
12.) From badreg2017:
I play poker for a living and every now and then some rich guy will sit down and start going all in every hand for $300-500 without looking at his cards.
One day I was in a game where a guy was betting $1000-3000 dollars without looking at his cards. It was insane to me but for him I guess it wasn’t that much money.
13.) From jkeemi:
Worked at a grocery store in uppity Gold Coast Chicago when I was a teen.
We sold soup for lunch and when bagging them, we put it in a paper bag followed by a plastic bag to make sure it’s secure.
Lady buys a soup, I proceed to bag the soup and she says no, I’ll just put it in my bag.
I say, M’aam are you sure?
Mind you she has a Louis Vuitton bag that looks brand spanking new.
15 minutes later she comes in raging that she has minestrone all over her Louis Vuitton and demands to speak to a manager. Smh.
14.) From hautemamabear:
I’m three years into Sous chef at a private resort in Upstate New York. Most of our guests are returning from generations before them. Wealthy. Very wealthy. We get some Congressmen, Actors getting away from the daily crap. But mostly families that are crazy rich, and four generations deep into annual visits. Insane the amount of requests. But... one that stands out as a ‘whatinthefuck’? 60 something year old woman crying as loud as she can because we didn’t have the cookies she wanted. Guys, you would’ve thought she was just told someone died. Made a huge scene in the dining room. Her husband has the backbone of a jellyfish and just sat there trying to console her. ‘It’s ok honey. I’ll get you cookies. Don’t cry’. The owner went out and bought store bought cookies because we do not have time for that shit. WE DID NOT TELL HER THEY WERE STORE BOUGHT. She was happy by the end of the night. Yay? fast forward to dinner the next night. Same shit. ‘Where’s my cookies?’ We gave her the same store bought cookies. Same package. ‘These aren’t the same. The Baker used too much butter this time.’ Next night? ‘Oh these are much better’ BITCH ITS THE SAME PACKAGE!! She comes every year. We all know ahead what week the ‘cookie lady’ is going to be staying w us. So we can get her shitty grocery store cookies.
15.) From sweetrhymepurereason:
A young man I’ll call Business Douche tried to send back two bottles of Penfolds Grange, not because of the taste, but because he was trying to impress older potential clients with his stunning wine knowledge (yeah, right).
The potential clients were so grossed out by the display that they paid for the meal and insisted on paying for both bottles and drinking them. Business Douche tried to reach for a bottle to pour himself a glass and the client told him that since it wasn’t up to his standards he couldn’t possibly let him have any. Effective Business Shaming 101. It was like watching Jack Donaghy at work.
16.) From Goldschlager777:
As a valet, probably tossing us the keys to the car, expecting us to know who they were. It was quite the experience to try to write a ticket out for them, they took offense to it.
17.) From Slylylyly:
I used to work in a luxury hotel. A colleague of mine got a call from an in house guest, asking for a car to take him somewhere. Naturally, he offered him what options we had, and the guest got annoyed and closed the line.
A few minutes later, the guest came down to the front desk and asked for my colleague. He then proceeded to show him a cardboard bag literally overflowing with cash, and started saying 'You dare ask me which car just because of different prices? Can't you see how much money I have? Why do I care, just get me a f*cking car ready.'
People...
18.) From SuitAndTy89:
Worked in a fancy smancy lobster pound/restaurant on the water where had a lot of outdoor seating. These very very wealthy people come to eat and demand a table outside for dinner. Now it’s just before sundown in the middle of summer in Maine and we’re on the water so mosquitoes are definitely not scarce. These people sit down order a $200 bottle of wine a massive lobster each and some appetizers. They seem to enjoy the meal up until the sun sets and the bugs come out. These people were not happy and complaining and complaining about it and the “shitty restaurant not paying for mosquito spraying” the waitress gets a couple candles to light and asks if they need anything else and those mother f*ckers asked her to stand next to them with a flyswatter. She laughed thinking they were joking and the man said “what ever happened to good service nowadays” they also left 0 tip on a $350 bill
19.) From maddierose1418:
This isn't as much a specific instance, but something that happens all the time with entitled or rich people. I work at a very expensive hotel in Hawaii and people will just come up to the desk and yell words at you. Like no hello or please, just "LUAU" or "ATM". It's like they aren't even thinking of us as people.
20.) From Xepher:
I worked IT (computer tech) in a small, tourist ski town and had a few run ins with properly rich people.
The worst was a local lawyer. Called for support because his email wasn't working. I showed up (no one at my office would take the call, but I was young and eager for work) and asked "What's the problem?"
He told me he didn't have time to explain the problem. That his time was too valuable and I should just "figure it out" because that's what he paid me for. Let me assure you, as someone that bills by the hour, I definitely made that one work.
21.) From mshaw09:
I worked at a restaurant in the lobby of a rather nice hotel. There was a rich dude that basically lived there. He would eat in our restaurant every night. Our chef had to hand-pick his steaks from a local butcher. The steaks were f*cking massive. It was always specially prepared just for him. Every f*cking time this f*ckstain would take two or three bites and complain to everyone in ear shot that his steak was terrible. Every. F*cking. Time. This dude was odd. He would only drink our cheap wine that we served by the glass. However, he would request that you open a fresh bottle just for him. He couldn't possible drink a glass of wine out of a bottle that was first opened for someone else. Even if I just opened the wine and poured a glass to the person next to him. That bottle was considered "tainted" to him. If you are that f*cking picky, just buy your own damn bottle of wine. Victor, f*ck you. Oh, and one last thing. He parked in the handicapped spot out front, even though he is not handicapped. But because he spent so much damn money at the hotel, the managers refused to make him move his car or have it towed.
22.) From [deleted]:
My former boss (insanely wealthy), used to stay in presidential suites and would have any and all red removed. He was a high roller at several casinos and they made special chips just for him as a substitute to red chips. He hated the color red because when you’re losing money, you’re “in the red.”
23.) From Thuggibear:
I work at a Marriot, one that is more expensive than your typical hotel but by NO MEANS a place that millionaires or celebrities would come to, especially because of our suburban location. However that doesn't mean I don't often get people who think that because they are paying 150 bucks a night on a Marriot hotel room (honestly not that much but it feels a lot to them) that they can be just as rude and entitled as the other comments on our thread. My favorite little story is the guy who was shooting hoops at our sports court too early in the morning, and when i asked him to stop he just looked at me and threw the ball as far as he could into the parking lot, saying "I'm paying too much to be treated this way. I'm talking to your manager".
24.) From underbite420:
Ordering the most expensive wine in the house...pouring two 1/2 glasses...taking a sip...and sending it back knowing full well they are paying for it.
To those folks I say THANK YOU! Nothing makes employees happier than free (expensive) booze.
25.) And, finally, another Jennifer Aniston story!
From [deleted]:
Earlier in the day I get a call from this woman wanting to make a reservation for 8 (no problem, it was the same day as the woman’s World Cup so we were really slow) and she wants a table by the window which was also not a problem. However then she proceeds to demand that no other parties be seated at any tables directly next to them for the duration of the meal. I explain to her I’ll try my best to accommodate this, but in no way can I guarantee it if more guests show up than is possible to reach that goal. She. Goes. Off. She starts telling me I better do this because the table is seating several high profile people and that they demand they have this demand met. I ask who the people are and she will not reveal information because I’ll call the paparazzi. I’d also like to add, I don’t have a fucking clue how I would even go about doing that. Anyway they show up and I realize it is Jennifer Aniston, as well as Jason Bateman, Sia, and Sandra Bullock (she wasn’t as exciting to see because I had seen her multiple times in Austin over the years and got to meet her while eating at a restaurant she owns. They were absolutely the nicest people. Incredibly friendly. They even allowed for the employees to take a few pics after the meal. But the best part was when the assistant to Ms. Aniston, the woman on the phone, was finally seated, she had to eat at the bar by herself and was not included.
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