For a hotel staff, it is their sworn duty to do everything in their power ensure their guests feel safe and right at home. However, who makes the staff feel safe when the guests are the ones causing terror?
Hotel employees looked back on their most unusual patrons and, therefore, memorable situations and shared the perplexing insanity to Reddit. For once, after so many stories of hotel staff gone bad, now the staff has their shining moment as the victim.
Content has been edited for clarity.
“Turns Out He’d Been Doing It For Years”
“We had a man who would stay with us every month or two for a single night. Probably mid-50s, short, unassuming, casual suit, about as bland and unnoticeable as possible. Would show up around 7 o’clock with luggage and adult beverages, check in, and not come down until checkout.
One night he called down because his TV wasn’t working and when he opened his door he was in full drag: dress, pantyhose, make-up, wig, but still spoke in his normal voice and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. Mentioned it to the manager in the morning and it turns out he’d been doing it for years, just coming to the hotel, dressing in drag, drinking, and watching TV by himself. No visitors, no phone calls, never left the room.
He was very unassuming and polite whenever he interacted with staff. Had some guests that went out of their way to be in your face with their predilections, almost daring you to say something, but this guy just politely kept it to himself, only letting staff see it when needed and only after seeing you enough times to be comfortable with you.”
“We Spent About 10 Minutes Trying To Get Her Awake”
“I worked at a high-end resort with private homes, cabins, and a few general lodging buildings. One of the general buildings had 11 rooms and a common area on the first floor with a TV, fireplaces, etc. One of the private owners was staying in one of the rooms. I think her home was being worked on, but she wanted to use the resort amenities.
She proceeded to get extremely wasted at dinner and go back to her room. It was close to midnight and I was doing my final rounds before heading home for the night. I walked into the common area of the lodge and found Ms. Private Owner passed out on one of the coaches, face down, bottom up, in a night gown that was pulled up revealing all her lady parts. I called my Night Audit to come help me rouse her and get her back to her room. I didn’t want to be the only one there when she woke to avoid any type of harassment blame.
We spent about 10 minutes trying to get her awake before she finally came to and let us carry her back to her room and bed. The whole time she was thanking us and asking us to ‘stay the night with her.’ Wink wink. We refused, got her into bed with a bottle of water and some aspirin on the bedside table. She never mentioned anything to either of us again.”
“The Room Was Offline For Days”
“The Noodle Room will always stay in my head.
Entering the room was like walking into a giant’s bladder. The smell of urine – ancient, stale, concentrated urine – was overwhelming, and my first thought was that I was going to find the sheets or carpets soaked, or the toilet overflowing. But despite the smell, there wasn’t a drop of urine anywhere, or any visible source for the phantom urine stench.
What there was were noodles. Two empty bags of takeaway from the Wagamama’s next door, and all the contents upended into the bed. The white sheets were slick with noodles and duck teriyaki, the smell mingling with the pee-miasma that filled the room.
I cleaned the room as best I could, and tried my best to cover up the smell with air-fresheners, but nothing could get rid of the smell. The room was offline for days, just trying to air out the stink.”
“There Was A Lot Of Water Coming Through”
“Six years of hotel security. Even discounting all the weird stuff that got left behind in guest’s room (everything from weapons to adult toys of every imaginable size and shape), and the occasional room that would have made Hunter S. Thompson proud, it’s still hard to narrow it down to just one single incident.
One of the funniest came when we got a call about a suite where water was leaking through the ceiling in their bathroom. Ninety-nine percent of the time, when this sort of thing happens, it’s due to some sort of leak in the bathroom of the guest directly above them. Knowing this, me and one of the engineers headed up first to the room above the leak, to stop the source of this flooding.
Guest poked his head out the door, barely opening it a crack, and reassured us that there were no leaks. We shrugged and headed downstairs to talk to that guest and to see how bad it actually was. There was a lot of water coming through. We headed back upstairs, thinking that it might even be something like a broken pipe. We knocked on the door and waited. Eventually, the guy came back and we explained the severity of the situation. He asked us to wait a moment. We wait at the door for at least five or ten minutes before he came back and opened the door.
The scene inside the room can best be described as the end result of telling a movie set decorator that you want the room too look unquestionably like people have been getting busy in it and giving him absolute carte blanche. The bed looks like it’s been ransacked. There was bubbly on the nightstand. Rose petals everywhere. Crumpled up clothes near the bed. Bathroom mirror fogged up from a recent shower. Palm prints on the mirror. And the best part: a pair of panties stuck to the wall in the shower, through the magic of condensation.
They were a little too preoccupied to realize that their prolonged aquatic play time had resulted in significant overflow and flooding.”
“An Overwhelming Smell Of Burnt Plastic Suffocated Myself And The Maid Assigned To The Room”
“About a year ago, we had a problem with some locals who booked a smoking room through a third party at a super low rate. Room number was 246. There was traffic all night long, obviously selling illicit substances. The overnight guy was new and should not have been left alone so early after starting. He just figured ‘they were having friends over for a birthday or some sort of family event.’
I work mornings, 7am – 3 pm. I kept getting a call from this man claiming he stayed in Room 246 last night and left a few things in there, wanted to know if he could come get them. I told him, ‘Since your name is not on the room, or the card used to pay, we can’t let you in. If you have the owner of the room call in and give you permission, then that would be OK.’
He told me that the woman whose name it was under was stranded in the middle of nowhere, couldn’t get a cell signal, and had car problems, so they couldn’t come back and get their belongings before checkout at 11 am. He kept calling, probably six more times in one hour, and I, eventually, told him to stop calling and we wold not speak to him anymore regarding Room 246.
So, at that point, watching the footage from the previous night on the room, I thought this guy just wanted to rob them or steal something from the room. I reset the keycards on the room so that the guest needed to come to the front desk to get a working key, not to prevent the addicts from being robbed, but rather preventing any confrontations or potential stabbings.
So, 11 o’clock came around (checkout time). No one else had called about the room and no one came to checkout. We gave it another hour and entered the room to see if anyone was still in there. Here is where the good part starts.
As soon as we opened the door, an overwhelming smell of burnt plastic suffocated myself and the maid assigned to the room. There were purses lining the whole east wall. There had to be at least 20-30. There were 5 children’s backpacks scattered throughout the room, all looking to be jam packed with who knows what. A sizable bag of weed (approximately the size of a melon) was jammed in between the bed and the backboard. There was one Lockbox (locked unfortunately) and 12 cartons of un-opened boxes of smokes. The worst part? NEEDLES. Needles all over the freaking room, most without a cap, and looked to be used.
‘Forget that,’ is what my (hardly English speaking) maid said.
HA! ‘Yes, Lidia, forget that.’
But wait, there’s more!
If there was just a bag of weed in the room, I would have probably just given it to our maintenance crew and called it good. BUT, I was not going to make my maids try to pick up those needles. So, we called the police, told them about the room, and they came down. The cops arrived and tried to give us some flack about not cleaning it ourselves, and reluctantly went to inspect the room. They were up there for almost two hours before my boss and I started to wonder what they were up to. We decide to go up there and make up some nonsense about having to make a report to corporate that we had to call the police and needed to know what exactly was happening, blah blah. I knocked on the door and saw the peephole go dark, a little murmuring and one of the cops said, ‘What!’
‘Uh, it’s just me. The front desk,’ I said as I held up my name tag.
Cop let me in. I guess I was silhouetted and he thought maybe I was the room occupant. I asked them what the was deal and they had almost the whole room in big black bags, needing it all for evidence. They had even started to take the pillows and sheets off of one of the beds and bag them up as well. They told me the purses were all stolen, along with the suitcase of new clothes under the bed we missed.
I spoke up and said, ‘Did you see that big bag of weed between the mattress and backboard that I mentioned?’ Both of them look a little puzzled as I grabbed it and showed them.
Cop said, ‘First of all, stop touching things unless you have gloves on.’ I promptly dropped the bag before he continued, ‘You think thats a big bag of weed? [Cop #2], show him The Lion King backpack.’
Freaking four bricks of weed were stuffed inside! Holy heck!
‘Oh, and the lockbox had a bag of Crystal in there too,’ the cop said. ‘Good thing you called us kid.’
WOW, did this just get way over my head. Apparently, there was enough Crystal to have a street value at $15,000 – $20,000. Purses and electronics all added up to about $5,000, plus all the weed. There was also a big wad of twenties and tens in the lockbox accompanied by plastic baggies and a handful of Zig Zags.
Anyway, the cops were up there for about another hour bagging everything up. We gave them copies of the ID’s we had on file, as well as a video snapshot of every single person who came in and out of the room, and the vehicles they drove. Fun morning. Thank god it was a Sunday, so we were super slow and could manage. That’s just ONE story. Be happy I didn’t grace you with the story of the dead guy that got dumped in our parking lot.”
“We Never Found The True Identity Of Who Stayed In That Room”
“I work at the reception of a high end hotel and see a lot of people, but I’ve never been sent to check on someone until, except for once, about four years ago when a guest was locked in their room and hadn’t left it for their entire stay. As I was left with the keys and spare keys for the hotel rooms (locked in a drawer behind me), I was sent to check on this guest, as they hadn’t been heard from at all throughout their stay.
I unlocked the door, walked in and was greeted with a horrendous smell. It smelled like something had crawled up someone’s butt, laid eggs, died, and then the eggs hatched and the spawn all died too. I called on a cleaner who was at the end of the hall to come in with me, as I was worried about what I would find.
Walking into the bathroom, there were dead, skinned rats hanging from the towel hanger and blood was smeared across the walls. I immediately called the cleaner into the bathroom to witness the scene, when I heard a scream from the bedroom. There was a severed human finger with the key chain holding the hotel room key on it with a note that read something like, ‘Thanks for the stay! I had an amazing time.’
We immediately called security and security called the cops and the whole room was cordoned off as a crime scene. We never found out the true identity of the person who stayed in that room as they apparently used a fake passport to prove their identity when they booked the room and paid upfront with cash.
Needless to say, I eventually packed up and quit, and now I’m back in college studying theoretical physics and am never working in a hotel again.
“This Kid Looked Like Marky Mark”
“I used to work night shifts a nice hotel in San Francisco back in the early 90s. I worked both check in and check out since it was an overnight shift.
This kid who was in his early 20s and looked like Marky Mark (really ripped, tan, and wearing an Armani suit with no shirt underneath) kept coming and going all night and giving me little updates every time he came back. He was bringing in ‘company’ two at a time, and not all of them women, obviously.
As appalling as he sounds, he was actually a really funny, charming guy. He really won me over when around 1 am, he said, ‘I was just down the street at Hotel Diva partying and I go in the bathroom and Lars from Metallica is in there. He mouths off, so POW – I break his jaw!’
I hate Metallica and later confirmed through the grapevine that Lars did in fact have his face busted up by someone, so cool.
Anyhow, the kid kept going until 3 or 4 am. Then, in the morning, I was checking people out of the hotel and this very nice unassuming couple was checking out from the suite attached to the guy’s room. I asked them if anyone else was staying with them and they said, ‘Oh, that’s just our son.'”
“Her Parents Refused To Pay For Damages”
“A young couple (both of them were 19) stayed in their room mid-week, and there were noise complaints coming from either side about shouting and arguing. So, I locked up downstairs and me and my colleague on shift went upstairs to see the fuss. We heard shouting and banging and so I knocked on the door. The guy opened the door and I saw his girlfriend sitting on the bed crying.
He was shirtless and the room was a complete state. There were aluminum cans all over the room, vomit on the floor and in the sheets, the TV had been ripped off of the desk stand, and this guy answered the door with, ‘What the heck do you want?’
He proceeded to threaten me, punching his own face while he did. We went back downstairs, called the police, and they then got him out of the room and he tried to fight them downstairs. He also, at that point, called my colleague ‘Hitler,’ due to the fact that he did look a bit like a young Hitler. He told him to lose the mustache multiple times but, apparently, he didn’t mind looking like the leader of the Third Reich.
His girlfriend’s parents came to pick her up after the police took the boyfriend to the cells for the night. Apparently, he often refuses to take medication for some problem he has, then gets wasted instead, and his parents basically disowned him because of his attitude and similar previous problems. I tried to use his card details to take payment for the damages, but nothing, and her parents refused to pay for damages.”
“It Definitely Wasn’t A Vape That set The Alarm Off”
“I’m the night auditor. Basically, I just watch the desk for eight hours while everyone’s asleep and print reports. I don’t know if other states have this, but in Ohio, we have this thing we call Amish Country. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a place where lots of Amish people live. So, my hotel has a lot of Amish guests. This is important, I swear.
One night, it was 4 am. I was printing reports and, then, the fire alarms went off. And they were freaking LOUD – flashing lights, the whole shebang. I fell out of my chair and rushed to check what room it was coming from. It was a room on the first floor. Nice, I can just walk ove– and, then the phone rang. I got about 10 calls in the span of five minutes asking if we needed to evacuate. I managed to calm everyone down and I went to the room where the alarm went off.
There were two boys (15-16 years old) just standing in the hallway. I ask if it was their room. They said it was. I just looked at them and went, ‘Well, is there a fire?’
‘No.’
‘OK. Well, then, why is the alarm going off?’
‘Oh, I think someone might’ve been vaping. I dunno.’
I figured out how to reset the alarms and all the people in the lobby returned to their rooms. I called my manager, and she said I had to fine them $200 because we’re a smoke-free hotel. She said if they can’t pay, I had to kick them out.
I walked to their room and, when they opened the door, there were at least four boys, and no adult. I sheepishly told them about the fine and they started speaking Pennsylvanian Dutch. These freaking kids were AMISH. Oh, and the room 100% smelled like weed. It definitely wasn’t a vape that set the alarm off. They were definitely stoned off their rear ends. Well, they paid the fine (IN CASH) right then and there. I’m sorry, but what teenage boy carries $200-plus on their person?
The thing is, stuff like that happens all the time. We get tons of Amish kids, year round, coming into the hotel, changing into ‘English’ clothes, and making a mess of things – destroying the rooms, making a mess of the breakfast area, leaving trash in the ‘living room’ areas around the lobby.”
Must Be A Magic Spot On The Floor Where All Sound Just Carries Through”
“Tonight’s been fun. We’ve got an almost full house because people like flowers and the town where I work currently has a lot of them. Of course, it’s still relatively quiet, except for these two rooms.
First floor lady came up to the desk to complain about a noise from a neighboring room that woke up her and her daughter. She didn’t know if it was next door or above her. I’m the only one here so, I’m not supposed to leave the desk. Thankfully, two of my bartenders were willing to go check it out. They reported back that they could hear the tapping sound from the room on the second floor. They thought it sounded like water dripping.
I called up second floor dude and he apologized and told me there was no dripping in his bathroom, but he was tapping his foot and that he would stop. All was well in the world. Until first floor lady came back and reported that she heard it again. I apologized, called second floor dude again, he said he would stop. I apologized again to first floor lady, offered to upgrade her to a newly renovated room on the top floor. She said that one of her daughters was still sleeping, so they did not want to do that.
Another fifteen minutes and she was back at the desk. The tapping started again. She asked for earplugs but, somehow, the industrial sized box we got when construction started has vanished. I called my GM and asked where they were, but the GM had no clue. I called my sister property and huzzah! They had ear plugs. I told first floor lady that I was going to run and get them ,but she said it was not worth it and that she better get her room comped for this. Again, I apologized and offer to move her room, but she still refused.
I just got back from getting the earplugs just in case. Hopefully second floor dude has gone to bed.”
“Here’s The Kettle You Asked For”
“My girlfriend works at guest relations and she tells me all sorts of crazy things.
Once a guest came to her desk and said that she was in her room with her husband and her infant child. At 11 o’clock at night, their door was knocked on. When she answered, a man from housekeeping holding a kettle in his hand said, ‘Here’s the kettle you asked for.’
She said that they did not ask for a kettle. The man said sorry and went. At 11:30, the man came again with the kettle. The woman again explained that they didn’t want the kettle.
Here comes the crazy part: the woman and her family went to bed around 12 o’clock and when they woke up, THERE WAS A KETTLE IN THE ROOM. Housekeeping let themselves into the room and put the kettle on THE NIGHTSTAND. They (obviously) went crazy at the sight of that.
Turns out the call center of the hotel does the same job for another hotel too. So when a call from the other hotel comes and asks for a kettle around 11, they mix up the hotels. They tried to send the kettle to the wrong hotel, same room number. The guy from the other hotel called the call center again at 11:30 to ask for the kettle again and the housekeeping came again. And, finally, the guy from the other hotel called at night yelling when they explained that someone in the room refused to take it. He said to just come in and put it somewhere in the room.
This story is by far my favorite one.”
