Wake Up Calls - In Bed With Strangers

This week, we're diving headfirst into the bizarre and often bewildering world of hotel wake-up calls. Prepare for tales of missed alarms, phantom rings, and the sheer existential dread of a disembodied voice shattering your precious vacation slumber.

We'll also explore the psychology behind the wake-up call. Why do we trust a stranger to rouse us from our deep sleep? What's the appropriate level of politeness when answering a phone half-conscious? And is there a secret society of hotel operators who delight in delivering the most awkwardly timed and vaguely worded awakenings imaginable?

Listeners beware: this episode may trigger flashbacks to your own hotel wake-up call nightmares. But fear not! We'll offer survival tips, including the strategic placement of multiple alarms and the crucial art of the pre-emptive "do not disturb" sign. So grab your lukewarm continental breakfast, settle in, and prepare to laugh until your internal alarm clock goes haywire.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hey Alex, how you doing, man? Hey Kelly, what's up, man? Oh, I was just reminiscing about the days when things were different. Back in the days when we did some weird stuff back there. What it would you remember any things that you used to do that kids don't understand today? Talking about dead ends? Yeah, I'm talking about dead ends, but just, you know, some particularly strange ones.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I mean, when you say things were different, things were different just a few months ago. It seems like things are changing a lot by the month. But you're talking about like when we were kids?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

I'm talking about probably up until about 10 years ago. About 10 years ago, you would you would go um on a business trip. You just took a business trip, didn't you? I did, yeah. Yeah. What what time did your um meeting start in the morning typically at these business trips? Well, it was at a conference. So those things you start at eight in the morning. Eight in the morning. So you have the like a general session that you go to or breakout rooms or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Eight to five. You might have stayed out a little late the night before, maybe sometimes. Oh yeah. On the rec. You're bonding with your co-workers and all that sort of thing. Yeah. Well, how how do you wake up in time to get to the conference? Well, now I set my phone. Yeah. How did you used to? Um, an alarm clock? Yeah. Did you ever call down to the lobby and ask for a wake-up call?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Oh, dude. You're right. That is what you did. Called called down to the lobby and asked for the wake-up call. You just trusted that they would do it. Sometimes they didn't do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Those hotel employees have to go through training on that. Do they still do those? They have to go through training, and you know, one of the things they have to do is say your name. So, yes, Mr. Milam, or yes, Mr. Sir in 426. Um, your wake-up call, and then they have to repeat back the time you want the wake-up call for. 4 a.m. Yes, we can certainly do that. Room 426? Yes. 4 a.m. wake-up call. We've got it in the books. Thank you. Have a good night, sir.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

I do remember there was nothing like a super loud telephone in your the biggest alarm, and then you have to answer it. And I remember later on it was like an automated thing. But back in the day, it was like the person downstairs calling you.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

It was a real person calling you at a specific time. Now, these wake up calls, they're kind of a thing of the past because now you have you don't even use an alarm clock anymore, right? You've got your phone sitting next to the bed. You you tell Siri or Google or whoever to set a set an alarm for you to go off at a certain time. Do you ever set your alarm for P.M. instead of AM? Oh, I I did that just a couple weeks ago, actually. Really? So set the alarm and you you think you're getting up at 6 a.m. and you set it for 6 p.m. Yes. I did happen. Uh what what happened a couple of weeks ago? Did you still have a job? Still married?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just it was just a city doctor or wherever you had to be. It was a new it's a it's a new phone. And I didn't have all the you know, in the old one I had a lot of presets, you know, because it saves all your old ones, and I had to make a new one, and I didn't press, I didn't toggle the PM. Oh yeah. I mean I didn't toggle the AM or whatever, and uh it never went off. And and then it turns out Yeah, it's said for PM. No, those things are never wrong.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

If you do something wrong, it's your fault. Yeah, pretty much. What you can't do with the wake-up call is snooze it. You can't tell the guy, can be coming back in seven minutes. That's right. You're not gonna do that. I think that'd be stressful to have to do the wake-up call.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Oh, yeah. In in the UK they call it an alarm call, and in Asia it's called a morning call.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It's funny that even though wake-up calls don't really happen anymore, otherwise they wouldn't be a dead end, um the term is still in our vernacular. Like if somebody says, Oh man, that was a real wake-up call, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

You had a close call, it could have been a lot worse, maybe I should change my behavior.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

But people really don't know what that means. I was kids today, they probably use that just like when they say something's a broken, like a broken I don't mean to be a broken record. I'm thinking, yeah, when somebody under 30 years old says that, I think, I wonder what if they even know what they're saying.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Well, we even still call the thing in our pocket a phone, right? It's not a phone, it's a it's a little pocket computer that you use for a million things more than use it to make phone calls. Right?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

And if you make a phone call, you're gonna dial a number, but there's no dialing anymore.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah, yeah. Well, the the amka omka debora is a swahili phrase, and this is why they call it that in Africa. It's from the Bible, the book of Judge Judges, um, and it is calling upon Deborah to rise and sing. And so it has something to do with rising and singing, and to say uh Amka Amka means um Swahili means rise and sing. So that's why they call it that down there. Now that's beautiful. There's a thing in the military um called Revely. You heard of that one? Oh, yeah. Um, and then if you ever go to Disney, you can actually set yourself up for uh if you're on a Disney property, they'll give you a free wake-up call, and it'll sound like this.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Hiya, pal. Mickey Mouse here, and you know what time it is? Why? It's time to wake up. Big doings going on today. So rise and shine, and we'll see you real soon. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Big doings going on today. Yeah. And of course, the original wake-up call, we know what that is. Uh the rooster.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Oh, that's right. That's right. The rooster was what would wake up to everybody back in the day. You couldn't really set the time, though. It kind of was automatic. It was set, it was preset.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Whenever the sun comes up, right? Yes. Don't roosters crow whenever the sun comes up. That's right. That's actually a really cool thing about nature. Like that you will always, if you're on a farm, you don't need a wake-up call as long as you got a rooster around.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

You you're you'll be up at the crack of dawn.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I wonder if the bird flu. By the way, you heard about this blue bird flu, right? Uh current? Current one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not a dead end.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

It's the one we got now. I heard about the measles going on, but no. What about bird flu? You don't know about the bird flu. That's why the eggs are so expensive.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

You know, oh the birds are dying. Okay. I don't think the flu is killing the birds. I think I keep reading about how people are destroying the birds because they have the flu. I don't think the flu is killing them.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Okay. But that's why eggs are expensive.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Sure. If if that's not true, just uh email us at uh not at Dirdom City. I'm sure somebody out there that if I've I've just messed that up, I don't think the flu is killing the birds. I think that we're killing the birds because they have the flu, which um is a little harsh. It's just a flu. What does that have to do with wake-up calls? But you can't give them chicken soup because they're already never mind. They need cannibals. Well, so you can't recover from the flu because they can't have the chicken soup.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

That that Disney thing was actually um something that they still do. It's a free, it's a free service. So if you go there, there's a button that says wake up call, and you can pick which character you want. But if you're really um if you're really into wake up calls, you can visit a website. It's called Snoouster, S-N-O-O-Z-E, S T R. Snoozedr.com. And here's what they say in snoozeter.com. It's super reliable. They've delivered 10 million calls since 2005. It works with any phone on a landline or a mobile device. It's easy to use, set it and forget it, nothing to download or install. And here's the part that uh you might really like is it's great for heavy sleepers. So you choose secure awake when you schedule your call, and they will call you every few minutes until you answer the phone.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

It's automated, I assume.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Well, there's different tiers. So you can actually have an automated version that's a little less expensive, or you can have a real person if you want to pay a little more. Snoozer.

unknown 9:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

So there's actually a company where there's real people that will call you and wake you up.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, yeah, they have they have both options. And it starts at a dollar a week for an annual plan and 14-day free trial. So Alex and I are sponsored by Snooster. If you use our uh code here, you'll get a discount for the first uh year, 50 cents a week, and you'll be sure to wake up on time. I don't believe you. So I do think we should offer one lucky caller, or one lucky listener. If there is somebody listening right now, if you want us to give you a wake-up call, email us your phone number and the time you want to be woken up.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Just one time. I'm not doing that. Email us your phone number. The time you want to be woken up. No, I'm not doing that. What time zone you're in, because we have lots of cities around the world that listen to this show.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

I just told you I mess up an AMP. I can't even wake myself up.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Oh, all right. I'll I'll tell you what. I'm gonna send out Alex's phone number is I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in the lighter notes. I want you to wake up call Alex the next time uh it's early and he needs to wake up. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

How about this? If you ever have to wake up, if you ever want to wake up, but you don't have to wake up at a certain time, let us know and we'll call you around that time. Plus or minus three hours. Plus or minus 12 hours. I don't want to get into any of that liability. I mean, can you imagine having a company like this and they're like, I was late to a job interview.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Right, right. And and the reason the person didn't give you the wake-up call is because they overslept.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

That's their wake-up call.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Those people would have to use a form of wake-up call as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah, yeah. It's sort of a big circle. That stresses me out. Uh in 1992, there was an album by a guy named John Mayall and the blues breakers called Wake U Call. In 1993, there was an album by a band called Petra uh called Wake Up Call. In 2003, Phil Collins had a song called Wake Up Call. In 2007, Maroon 5 had a song called Wake Up Call. In 2014, there was a TV series called Wake Ull. In 2017, there was a studio album by Theory of a Dead Man called Wake Up Call. And then finally, probably along the same lines as Boney M, uh Trippy Red and KSI had a song called Wake Up Call in 2020.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I'm guessing that none of those songs had actually anything to do with calling the fret desk and being asked to wake up.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

You never know. You never know. Well, if you've uh if you've traveled or if you're going to be traveling soon and you've never experienced it, I highly recommend you dial zero on your uh on your room phone, if there is one, because some rooms don't have them, and uh ask for a wake-up call. Do you think they still offer that? I there's only one way to find out.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Because if it is, then the dead end is null and void.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Well, I guarantee you, if you ask your kid or if I ask my kid what a wake-up call is, they're not gonna know what we mean in that context.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

If you if you go and try a wake-up call, let us know how it went. Let us know if they dropped the ball, if it was completely automated, how it was. I I like the Mickey Mouse one a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

If there was a real person with a with a with a nice soothing voice. So I was just in Chicago and uh got in kind of late, and we went and checked in. This was a fairly nice hotel. It was a Hyatt Regency, and I normally don't drink the bottles of water, you know, the $5 bottle of water that they leave there, but I didn't want tap water, uh, you know, and I was pretty thirsty. I like to have a glass of water next to the bed. So I go ahead and open it and take a sip. Somebody had already opened it, drank from it, and refilled it with tap water, because I could tell. And so I drank part of it, and then uh and then I refilled it with tap water and put the label back on it. So it's like I did to the next person what was done to me, but I wasn't gonna pay five dollars for somebody else's tap water.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Is that the golden rule? Is that what you did?

SPEAKER_02 13:38

You just uh it was more like it was more like the um uh lump of coal rule. And then I called for a wake-up call. That's almost like uh vinegar valentine. It is, it is. It it happened to me and I passed it along. Anyway, wake-up calls, they're a thing of the past, uh, but we want to keep them alive because I think that's a I think that's a dead end that should stay.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

I was staying in the hotel alive for my interview. I told a man behind the desk I need a 7.30 wake up call. He said five. I said thanks, I said 7:30, not 735. Cause this interview is important to the future of my life. He said yeah, yeah, whatever, whatever. The next morning I woke up and looked at the clock and I said, Oh shit, it was 9.15. I was supposed to be in my interview and I tried to call the office to explain. I got voiced out, so I said, Oh hell. I jumped in the show, I was so mad and stressed out. The guy behind the desktop, that's a good use. I had a great excuse to lie to late. That wasn't my fucking wake me up. That's why I was late for my interview. I showed up at my interview, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I walked in and I said, I'm so sorry. The guy at the front desk at the hotel, he was so drunk. I asked him for a wake-up call, he never called me. That's why I'm late. And the man who was interviewing me, that's funny. Last night I was at the hotel door, and there was a guy there, he was just there, it was a guy that cut it, that was the guy. The car was just too far to wait to stop. But he said, 'Do he had to go back to work because there wasn't a ball to wake up call that he had to make And he said, don't worry, I know, I know. He said, I'm gonna give this guy a call. And he said, 'Yeah, this guy was so happy that you gave him the call,' you're going to be a good one.