The sooner we stop taking on customers' problems as well as our own, the better off we will all be.
Paco - I couldn't agree with you more! My own situation arose many years ago when I was a snotty nosed newbie captain. I vowed never to let that happen again, and kept to it!!
Times have changed and so have my thought processes as far as letting somebody edge me towards risking my neck. (Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?)
Although offering an alternative is a good way of sweetening the pill, in most cases the alternative would be "I'll locate a good hotel locally for you and we can look at it again tomorrow". When a big wheel wants to get home, this would seldom appease him/her..........