I worked in hospitality in my teens and 20's. I dealt with some right arseholes in that time. In some cases, management were supportive, but mostly it was just "suck it up, buttercup. Don't like it, you can leave."

Just prior to christmas, I was checking in to a small motel in the middle of nowhere on my way through to a job site. I had arrived a couple of hours before check in time, and the room wasn't ready. I gave the front desk person my card, and did all the admin things I needed to do so that I could go straight into the room when it WAS ready, then said I'd go get some lunch and come back at check in time. Now, it's the middle of the day in the Australian outback, and it was well over 40 degrees. The lady took pity on me and said that I was welcome to bring my lunch back and eat it in their activities room if I wanted because the only places doing food had no air conditioning. I was grateful, so I brought back a lemonade Icy Pole for her. She was super excited (and thus began the Treat War, but that's a story for another time).

As I was eating my lunch and enjoying the luxurious air conditioning, I heard raised voices from the front desk area. I wandered out to see if everything was ok, and saw a middle-aged man in a suit yelling at my new friend. When I went closer, I saw that his suit had the logo of a well-known real estate agent. He was carrying on about how his status entitled him to an early check in, while my new friend was trying to explain to him that this was an independent motel, they didn't have any sort of reward program, and none of the rooms were ready yet because it's still an hour until check in time. He was having none of that, and continued to yell, swear, and stamp around.

I felt this was unacceptable, so I looked up the number for the head office of the real estate company and called them. I explained what was happening and held the phone up for them to hear how he was carrying on. His name was also on his suit jacket. Just his first name, but it was enough. Let's call him Chad.

Head office thanked me for bringing this to their attention, and told me they would deal with it immediately. I hung up.

Chad's phone rang. He declined the first call, but the phone rang again. He answered in a very grumpy voice.

I got to watch as he deflated. His tone turned from angry, to worried, to pleading, and his body language changed from "I'm to boss, do what I say" to "subservient serf waiting to be kicked by the king." While still on the phone to the other caller, he apologised profusely to the front desk lady (and, to his credit, it was a proper apology. He owned his behaviour and didn't make excuses), packed up his stuff and kind of drooped all the way back to his car.

I could say everybody clapped, but it was only me and the front desk lady. I mean, there SHOULD have been an audience to witness this, but given the population of the town is less than 200, even having two people in one spot was pretty miraculous. I was pretty happy with how things turned out. So, it seems, was my new friend, because I got upgraded to the only room with a bathtub and the rate for my next booking was significantly lower than I had paid before.