When it comes to guests’ room, hotel employees expect a mess and maybe things being left behind. But what they don’t expect is what some things guests leave behind. Content has been edited for clarity purposes.
The Audacity Of These Guests
“I was a housekeeper at one of the well-known motel chains. We were told not to touch any of the guests’ belongings. If they had something on the bathroom counter, we were to clean around it as best as we could without disturbing their things.
I was in the bathroom and all I saw on the counter was an empty toilet paper roll. So I picked it up to throw it away so I could start cleaning and all these little tied-up baggies fell out. I was flabbergasted at first and a bit shocked. I ran out in the hallway to get my co-worker and have her come to my room.
She informed me those baggies were approximately 50 grams of crack.
I was in a mad rush to shove them all back in the roll before the owner of these baggies came back to his room and shot me. I got them all picked up and left without cleaning a thing.
At the end of my shift, the manager said he wanted to talk to me. I went into his office and he wanted to know why I didn’t clean room 201 (apparently they complained). I decided to tell him what I had found and he decided to call the police. I have no idea what happened at that point as I got outta there.”
Language Barrier
“It was around 5:30 p.m. We arrived at our hotel for a five-day holiday, checked in at reception, and were given our room key cards.
I should mention the country we were in had Spanish as its first language. I do not speak any Spanish, and the young lady at the reception desk spoke very little English, but there were no problems checking in.
We found our room, opened the door, and went in to see a tiny baby wrapped in a swaddling cloth asleep in the middle of the bed.
At first, I thought it was a large doll, because it looked just like a beautiful China doll, with a little mop of blonde hair and rosy pink cheeks. Its eyes were shut and it was totally still. I went over to it, gently stroked its cheek, and realized it was warm and breathing. It was a tiny baby, possibly around two months old.
When I got over the shock I picked up the bedside phone and dialed ‘0’ to speak to reception. The conversation went like this:
Me: ‘This is Mrs. Cook, from Room 127. There’s a baby on our bed.’
Reception lady: ‘Baby on bed? Ah, you want cot? I get cot for you?’
Me: ‘No, this is not our baby. It belongs to someone else.’
Reception lady: ‘Ah, you want cot for friend baby?’
Me: ‘No, this baby doesn’t belong to us. It should not be in our room. You need to find the baby’s mother.’
Reception lady: ‘You need Mummy for baby?’
Me: ‘Yes. We’ve just found this baby asleep on our bed. It’s not our baby, so you need to find out who has left it in our room.’
Silence from the Reception lady. At this point, the baby began to stir and make little gurgling noises.
Me: ‘You need to find the baby’s mother and ask her to come and get her baby right away. It’s waking up now.’
Reception lady: ‘Me phone baby Mummy?’
Me: ‘Yes. Is there anyone else there who speaks English? This is an emergency!’
Reception lady: ‘No peoples here. English baby got emergency? Me call doctor?’
Me: ‘No, the baby is lost. It needs its mother. You find mother and tell her come to Room 127 and get baby.’
Reception lady: ‘Baby list? I call doctor?’
At this point, the baby woke up fully and started to cry.
Me: (speaking very slowly and carefully): ‘Baby not sick. Baby hungry and needs milk. Mummy has left baby in our room. Mummy has lost her baby. I am not its mother. I don’t know who its mother is. Please can someone come and get the baby?’
Reception lady: ‘Mummy left baby no milk so baby get list?’
Me (getting frustrated): ‘Can I speak to the Manager? There is a lost baby in our room and we need help urgently.’
Reception lady: ‘Emergency help for list baby?’
Me: ‘Yes. Call the Manager. It’s an emergency. We’ve got an abandoned baby that needs feeding right now.’
Reception lady: ‘Me call emergency for list baby?’
Me: ‘Yes, call right now. It’s urgent.’
By this time baby had started screaming loudly and thrashing its little arms and legs around. I hung up the phone and picked up the baby, patting its back and comforting it on my shoulder. Its blanket was damp and there was a wet patch in the center of the bed. I handed the screaming baby to my husband and asked him to hold it for a minute.
I went into the bathroom and thoroughly washed my hands, as I had been traveling for hours and felt unclean. I returned to the room, took the distraught baby from my startled husband, and gently put my little finger into its mouth. It started sucking my finger vigorously.
We decided to take the baby down to reception, so we got our card keys and walked down the corridor to the lift. In the background, we could hear sirens wailing, but paid them no attention.
As we exited the lift and entered the reception area, I saw a well-dressed young man in his mid-twenties standing at the desk. I approached him and asked if he spoke English, and was very relieved when he said he did. I explained to him that we had found this baby in our hotel room. It didn’t belong to us, and we thought it had been abandoned by its mother. I asked him to explain that to the reception lady. He talked to her in Spanish and I saw the relieved look on her face when she realized the baby was not dying.
I carried the distraught infant to a quiet cool spot in the reception area and tried to comfort it. I used the ‘little finger in mouth’ trick again, and it stopped the noise for a few minutes. Meanwhile, my husband, the translator, and the reception lady were in deep conversation.
At this point, the hotel’s front doors swung open and four large men in official-looking green uniforms marched in. I noticed the weapons in their holsters and the batons on their belts. I felt quite afraid.
Two of the men noticed me sitting quietly in the corner. They came up to me and abruptly snatched the baby out of my arms. One of the men picked me up, turned me around, grabbed my arms behind my back, and handcuffed me.
The two other policemen approached the front counter, where my husband and the translator stood in stunned silence as they watched me being handcuffed. Then both of them started talking loudly at once, explaining there had been a mistake and I should not be arrested as I was just trying to help a lost baby.
Just then another man wearing a suit and carrying a black briefcase rushed into the hotel, followed by a young girl wearing a cleaning maid’s uniform. She had tears streaming down her face. I was still pushed against the wall handcuffed.
Later I was told the whole story by the pleasant young man, our translator. It turns out the baby belonged to the young cleaning maid who had started working at the hotel the week prior. Management was unaware she had a young baby. Her planned babysitter had bailed at the last minute, so fearful of losing her job she had brought her baby to work. She’d fed her bub and then settled her down to sleep in what she thought was an unoccupied hotel room. She’d then started her cleaning rounds.
The thing is, being new and unfamiliar with the large hotel, she was disoriented and mistakenly thought she had left her baby in Room 227, on the floor above our room. When she went to check on her bub 30 minutes later and found the room empty, she panicked. She was scared of the hotel manager, and her boss, and didn’t want to lose her job, so she called her sister, who called the police. The maid met the police when they arrived in the hotel car park.
The suited man turned out to be a doctor who had been called by the reception lady to attend to a sick English baby. He took the baby from the policeman’s arms and handed it to the relieved mother, who was still crying copiously. Then the translator and my husband came over to where I was still handcuffed and demanded that I be released.
Shortly after this the hotel manager arrived and was briefed by the police, the reception lady, and the translator. The young maid was sitting in a corner feeding her baby, still crying.
As a result of all this, the manager offered us upgraded accommodation and free meals and drinks for the duration of our stay. He was incredibly apologetic. I think I also received an apology from the burly police officer who cuffed me, although I couldn’t understand what he said.
I was most concerned for the young cleaning maid. She looked to be in her late teens, and cried and hugged her baby in the corner for the next hour as we gave statements to the police and sorted things out.
I spoke to the manager and asked him not to sack the cleaning maid, and to understand that she was just trying to do her best to support her baby. He listened to me stony-faced and made no comment.
The following day we were asked to go to the local police station to sign our witness statements. We were taken there by the hotel chauffeur, who spoke good English and explained to us what the police were asking us to sign. It was a statement detailing what had happened, stating we did not want any further action to be taken.
On the way back I asked the chauffeur to take us to a shop that sold baby items. I bought some booties, a pink jacket, and a pretty baby blanket. I had them gift-wrapped.
The following evening I asked the new reception man – who spoke quite good English – if the cleaning maid was on duty, and said I wanted to speak to her. The young girl appeared at the desk five minutes later, but would not make eye contact with me and still appeared very upset. Her eyes were red and I thought she had been crying. She looked so young and vulnerable.
I gave her the parcel and an envelope which contained a wad of cash, equivalent to 100 Australian dollars. I asked the reception man to translate and tell her that I was not angry with her, and I was sure she was a good Mum and wanted her to accept this gift for her baby. I told her the hotel manager had promised me he would not sack her, and she would keep her job. On the back of the envelope, I had written my name, phone number, and email address.
I asked the reception man to translate for her: ‘Here are my contact details. Please call me if you have any trouble or need help.’
She opened the present and when she saw the baby gifts she broke out into a huge grin. I motioned for her to open the envelope, and when she saw the wad of cash I thought she was going to faint! Her gratitude enveloped me and I can still see her smile to this day – but I never heard from her again.
Later the reception man told me the money I gave her was far more than she would earn for two months’ cleaning work. I was absolutely shocked and wished I’d given her far more – because that was just the cost of one day’s meals and drinks for my husband and me – and we had been given five days free. I learned a lot about inequality that day.
So that is how the weirdest thing I ever found in a hotel room almost got me arrested. The dear little thing almost got me arrested and ruined our holiday.”
Possible Missing Person?
“We once had a guest check-in at the beginning of a month. She did not come down for breakfast in the mornings. She refused any and all service to her room for an entire month. No new sheets, no new towels, and no general cleaning. But every day she would come down to the front desk and ask for four bars of regular soap and an apple. That was it.
We tried looking her up on Google to see if she was a missing person somewhere or wanted or something, but we came up with nothing. Finally, after about a month, her bank called us to try to figure out why she was staying here for so long, suspecting fraud. We verified the account with the ID and it all checked out, but she refused to talk to the bank herself, so the bank wouldn’t let her transactions keep going through. We had to evict her from the room because her card would no longer authorize the room.
She left the room out of the side door with no belongings, in the same clothes we had seen her in day after day asking for those bars of soap. Inside her room, they found piles and piles of unopened soaps, just sitting there. Blood was splattered everywhere, in the bathroom, in the bedroom, all over the sheets and the duvet. And there were apple cores everywhere on the floor.
We never figured out what was happening.”
“This Wasn’t Just Any Jewelry”
“I was checking into a large Las Vegas hotel on The Strip whose name begins with ‘P.’ I was there for a trade show, and my room was paid for as part of my agreement to attend the trade show with the company responsible for it. Rooms were apparently in short supply, and the check-in process, although pleasant, was quite a bit longer than usual.
After perhaps 20 minutes, I was given a key to my room, and I walked to the elevator bank that corresponded to my floor. I got off at my floor, walked to the assigned room, used my key, and entered. It was late, and I planned to crash until the following morning. I was just starting to open my suitcase when I saw the suitcase on the floor and several pieces of expensive jewelry on the pass-through between the area where the bed was and a small living room-type area. This wasn’t just any jewelry, but two genuine Rolex watches, and several diamond rings and gold chains. There was somewhere between 30k and 100K there at wholesale values. And yes, I know what I’m looking at. Let’s just say that’s part of my business.
I grabbed my suitcase and left, being sure to close the door behind me, and went back to the front desk, to the person who checked me in (with glares from several people waiting in line), and once she was done with the guest she was checking in, I explained my situation.
‘That’s just not possible!’ I was told.
Was I sure I’d gone to the right room? I countered with, ‘Do your keys open any room on the floor, or what?’
Well, she couldn’t give me another room until security was called, so I’d have to wait. Again.
A casino security officer arrived after maybe 15 minutes. He listened to my story, and also told me that it was impossible. I handed him my key and suggested he use it in the room indicated on my check-in portfolio. He left in a bit of a huff. He had more important work to do, but he’d check it out!
Twenty minutes later, he was back, wide-eyed, and thanked me for my honesty. Sure enough, no people, but lots of clothes hung in the closets, and yes, quite a bit of jewelry was left out in the room.
I was finally given a room of my own, and it was a slightly upgraded suite, which was nice.”
Stinky Room
“My family was in the hotel business. One day a particular room just started to stink very badly for no apparent reason. We checked everywhere and multiple times looking for the source of the scent, but no dice. We sprayed everything in the room numerous times with deodorizer to the point of empty bottles. Then we left the room open daily for months to air it out without any change.
Finally, we somehow tracked the smell to the table lamp. We were dumbfounded, asking ourselves how it could be emanating from there. Whoever was the previous guests had broken the table lamp, put a fish in it, and glued it back together.
My brother and I died laughing and actually applauded this guy’s ingenuity. He got us good, and I ain’t even mad at that.”
Never Trust A Room
“My husband and I recently had a trip to Manali. The hotel was booked by a travel agent. We checked in around 8 p.m. We could sense something was wrong due to the different infrastructure of the room.
While checking in to the hotels, I usually have all the lights off and open my camera to find is there anything fishy. I was taught in my college during women’s safety class if there is any spy cameras, there would be a red blinking light. But I didn’t see anything like that till my last visit.
So, I checked all places and to my shock, I found three red lights on my mobile camera in the living room as well as the washroom. I have installed two different apps on my phone to recheck it. Yes! I again had a warning.
I immediately called the tour agent to change my hotel.
To my surprise, a lady who held a higher position in the company told me that they couldn’t change the hotel as the tour operator was one of the shareholders. If we wish to change, no money would be refunded and we should write a letter to the hotel management that we were checking out of our personal choice.
We asked the hotel management about this. They were ready to change the room for us but didn’t explain even a word about the warning sign.
My husband was ready to file a case against them. But I was sure that we were not there to run behind the local policemen and I knew the trip would be a complete disaster. We simply checked out and moved to some other hotel late at night.”
Room 237
“I did housekeeping for a summer and it was pretty much all bad. But one day I came into work and my boss was overly angry that morning grumbling about how we were low on towels or something.
I thought, ‘How is a four-star hotel with over four hundred rooms low on towels?’
Well, I got my list of rooms to clean and went on my way. I got three or four rooms in then I got to room 237. Room 237 still haunts me.
So I knocked, ‘HouseKeeping!’
There was nothing, so that was the sign that I was clear to go in and do my job. Just opening the door, it smelled sickly sweet and I was already worried. I opened the door and there was cake everywhere. All over the carpets, the beds, the desk, even smeared all over the ceiling. At this point, I was in awe. Who the heck has the audacity to do this to a room?
So I decided to check how bad the bathroom was, and I could barely open the door, maybe a half foot. At that point, I was expecting a body or something terrible. Poked in my head and what do ya know? There had to be all the missing towels my supervisor was freaking out about, about 50 square foot room, about four feet high covering the entire floor with all the towels, soaking wet.
This actually made me giggle a little for the irony but still, what idiot delivered half our towel stock to one room? Either way, I just said whatever, called down to my supervisor, and told her I needed help or I quit.
You should have seen her face when I showed her why I called to say that.”
Weird Dude
“I worked in a small bed and breakfast/ bar. It’s in a pretty seasonal part of England and there are only three full-time members of staff. Basically, this leads to a lot of time in the off-season where I sit on my butt behind the bar with more chance of winning the lottery than seeing a customer or guest.
On just one such quiet night, a middle-aged, bearded gentleman walked into the bar, and little did I know at the time, straight into my nightmares. I’ll refer to him as the ‘Wizard,’ as that was what he immediately informed me he was. Not in a jokey way either, he truly and honestly believed he had magical powers.
Pretty strange, but hey, the dude wants a room, what does it bother me if he fancies himself a Gandalf.
However, very quickly after checking him in and serving him a glass, did I realize that this man was not just delusional but also terrifying. Throughout the course of the evening, he came out with such extraordinarily insane things that he began to deeply worry me. You know that feeling you get sometimes, where innately and without question somebody scares you? Yeah, this guy gave me that.
Eventually, I had enough and closed the bar, then kicked the guy up to his room. I didn’t even clean the place, I closed, locked up, and left a note saying categorically not to give this guy a room the next night. Except, of course, my colleague disregarded the note and gave him a room. I thought, ‘Brilliant. I would be done with that guy.’
I came in for my shift, checked the reservations, and flipped out. There was nothing I could do though, the wizard had the key, paid his cash, and was free to torment me yet again. This time I wanted someone with me if only to witness how strange this dude was. I called my cousin and friend and offered them cheap drinks all night, just to sit with me, just to bear witness to this creepy dude. Lo and behold, an hour passed, and in he walked, carrying the aforementioned stuffed tiger, assorted bags, and the aura of a criminal.
‘I’ve got you a present,’ he said, smiling a smile that will forever be imprinted on my mind.
He then proceeded to pull out the largest adult toy I ever did see and slammed it down to the bar and grinned. He took a pause. Then there was silence amongst everyone at the bar.
My cousin and friend were just staring, slack-jawed at it, caught between horror and hilarity. No way. I kicked the guy out of the bar, told him to leave in the morning and never come back, called my boss and explained everything, and promised that if he was there tomorrow, then I sure would not be. My boss, credit to him, agreed and came down to the bar to sit with me until closing time. That was the last of the wizard or so I thought.
The next day I get awoken by a call to get down to the bed and breakfast straight away, there was something I needed to see. The housekeepers had gone to clean the room and found the scene of utter desecration; the adult toy was cupped to the side table, the sink was full of blood, and the stuffed tiger was cut up. We had to pay them both triple to clean what could be cleaned, throw away the mattress, sheets, and everything else which was no longer fit for human/animal/corporeal-being contact, and charge it all to that guy’s card.”
The Guests Thought They Were Doing A Hotel A Favor
“A couple arrived at the hotel (fancy beach resort) for just one night. They looked like hippies and weren’t exactly clean, so they attracted everyone’s attention. Still, they got treated with great service, as any other guest would.
The next morning they asked for the general manager to go up to their room. They insisted upon it and said they wanted to show him something. Worried that it was a complaint, the on-duty manager went straight up and knocked on the door and was invited in.
He was surprised when he came in and saw the wall against the bed completely painted with graffiti! It was a big disaster of color and shapes of body parts.
Then the guests proceeded to explain that they were artists and wanted to offer their service to paint all rooms in the hotel! They said this one was a courtesy and for free.
The general manager had to go up and explain that their services were not required and that the guests would have to pay for the costs of getting the room returned to exactly how it was before since they hadn’t received permission to alter the room in the first place.
The guests got upset and yelled. They just couldn’t understand why the hotel didn’t want to keep the mural. They ended up paying just part (as they didn’t have enough money) and left pretty upset.”
