A Scam and Lessons Learned

Well, my week started out on a pretty INCREDIBLE note...

For those of you who don't know what I do for a living,

I am the Sales and Catering Manager for the

Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn hotels here in Tallahassee.

Basically, in a small nut shell, my job consists of bringing in groups to these two properties (among a plethora of other things. :).

On Monday, I got a call for an incredible piece of business and

sealed the deal right there on the phone!

The client that I was speaking with seemed like SUCH A NICE GUY, and

I felt like we established a good working relationship.

I was really excited to welcome all of the group members to our hotel!

My boss sent out an e-mail to all of our ownership team and I was on cloud 9! :)

This meant awesome things for not only the hotel, but for me individually.

The owner of our hotels is such a sweet man...he is like our papa bear. :)

He called me directly and told me that the company loves me,

they are happy to have me, and after this group's payment has actualized,

I was going to get a substantial bonus.

{Que me doing a major happy dance...all the while my head is getting BIGGER and BIGGER.}

As the week progressed, things with this group went from great to sketch to sketchier.

The first individual was scheduled to check in on Monday and

we were supposed to recieve a package on Tuesday with the other group members'

purchasing credit cards.

Well, the guy didn't come....and the package wasn't delivered.

And my client was unreachable. As in, phone off and he wasn't returning my calls.

After a long week of trying to get a hold of this man (I won't go into further details because it would be A LOT of information.), I came to find out on FRIDAY that...

he was a CON MAN. And this incredible piece of business/group was a SCAM.

{Cue the "Dun. Dun.Dun." music.}

Basically, these guys take the identities (just names) of individuals who work

for a major company, say they are doing a project and will be staying

for an extended period of time, check in,

and then leave the hotel before paying for their rooms.

They have done this with MANY other Hilton and Marriot properties

and hopefully we can help catch them! :)

They never checked in to our hotel

but we were holding the rooms ALL week LONG!
This was a MAJOR let down but I have learned several things

from all that has happened this week.

1. Don't let your head get too big. :) Not once did I thank God for sending me this group....and only when things weren't working out was the first time I prayed about it. Sometimes it seems weird to me to pray about work things,

but then I remembered this verse:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you will recieve an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." -Colossians 3:23-24

2. It is okay to think the best of people, but be careful and use your best judgement. When things seem too good to be true, they usually are. Don't let this hinder you from being the person God made you to be, though (I totally think the best of people and I don't think that God would want me to all of a sudden be super cautious)....continue to trust, but put your trust ultimately in HIM, not things of this world.

3. I have the best, most supportive husband. He let me vent this week when I wasn't getting answers, gave me a hug when I needed to be comforted, and made me laugh more times than I can count. Case in point: A facebook status dedicated to me. :)

Well, I am not going to let this hinder my weekend....Matt is working today but hopefully this afternoon we can get out and enjoy this gorgeous day.

That is if I can get out of my pajamas and clean some before he gets home. :)