Working in the hotel business is never going to be boring, that is a given you know going in. How could it be? You are inundated with people from all parts of the world and all walks of life. Everyday will probably never be the same twice. And the things some staff discover. The men and women of the hospitality world could write a soap opera than wold be stranger than fiction. Heck just staying in hotels has left me shooketh!
Redittor u/ghst0 wanted the hospitality staff out there to tell us a few tales by asking.... Hotel staff of Reddit, what was the most memorable thing you saw in guests room?
You Better Werk!
GiphyHad a man that 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 alcohol, 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, getting drunk and watching TV by himself. No visitors, no phone calls, never left the room. kentonk
Salad is LIFE!
As the owner of a bed and breakfast place for the last 8 years the craziest thing i ever found was an old battered notebook with "Why i love salad" written on the front and then literally 40-80 pages on why salad was amazing. There'd be the occasional suggestion that the author believed salad to be alive in some sense. Looked like it had been written on and off over the course of several years. BestShelter
The Clean Up....
I had to clean up a room after a pimp got kicked out, so all their stuff was still in there and the room was completely trashed. The T.V. was smashed, chairs/table flipped and tossed, Someone threw a bottle of lotion against a wall, and the whole room was covered motivational notes like "Get That Dough" or "[Hooker name], the Bread Winner." There was also a vibrating adult toy, a smashed iphone, and some pants toting the line between really short shorts and a denim thong.
I learned a lot about the fine art of hookery after the experience like how much perfume they use to keep the room from smelling like disapproving headshakes from Jesus. Or how they use literal gallons of mouth wash and a ton of disposable toothbrushes (they must be training to become dentists).
Overall I think it was a good lesson into my career options if the whole hotel thing doesn't work out. AllergicToStabWounds
The List is Endless....
Well....
-checked empty room left with doors wide open, on table was brown bag with over $20,000 cash.
-tried to wake a guy up to checkout, but he was dead.
-basketball team used a toilet for communal poops, no flushing. All weekend. The entire toilet was encased in a mountain of poop. They must have had to stand on the ledge of the sink and lean over. Or straddle one foot on the bathtub and somehow not fall into it. It took devotion. Horrible and wtf at the same time. Woebegone67
Happiness in the bathroom....
GiphyI was visiting my mother's old college friend at a hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. My mom didn't say why we were going to go visit her in her hotel room of all places. Well, when we get to her room I immediately noticed the air conditioner was turned all the way down and there were towels all over the floor. We walk in and she just grins and says "look in the bathroom." Well... as soon as we walked in we noticed 6 penguins hopping in and out of the tub filled with ice. She worked for Sea World and apparently when they travel with the penguins, they hang out in the rooms with them was awesome. arangus
Join us?
I was once delivering a food service tray to a young couple. After knocking and hearing "come in" I tried to fish the keys out of my pocket but just couldn't wrestle the tray etc. So I called out that I couldn't open the door.
The lady came to the door and tried to open it just a crack but again we couldn't get the tray through the small opening. "F**k this!" she says and throws the door open. I was literally shocked because 1. She looked like a Victoria secret model and was wearing a really nice matching bra and French knicker set (purple with white lace in case you're wondering) and 2. Her boyfriend was coming out of the shower in his towel, dripping wet looking like some kind of superhero caught between cases.
All three of us laughed it off but I'll never forget how both looked so shocked and yet were the hottest real life couple I've seen ever since. IGiveBagAdvice
Room 405.
I used to work as a chambermaid in a hotel and 1 day my supervisor told me to inspect room 405 because a colleague was doing her rounds and hadn't returned.
I entered said room quietly and walked in on another maid having sex with the hotel Jr manager. She was mid 20s and he was 50 something.
They didn't see me, I quietly exited and pretended I didn't see anything. I returned to my supervisor and said the room was empty as I didn't want to get involved. wannabebunny23
The Stench....
I used to work in a hotel as a summer job and was the first one to enter a room when a guest had left. This hotel had some very expensive rooms. One day I was greeted with a disgusting smell while entering one of the expensive rooms.
The bath was flooded, the shower was used as a toilet, leftover food was scattered on the carpet. The best part was a trashbag full of human waste next to the bed. Closed the door and rang my boss.
The hotel had to completely renovate the whole room and the guest was charged a not so small amount of money (don't remember how much exactly.) This was the worst case that I came across but it happens more often then you think. Marverus
Lady Parts...
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 (think he home was being worked on, but she wanted to use the resort amenities).
She proceeded to get extremely drunk at dinner and go back to her room. It's close to midnight and I'm doing my final rounds before heading home for the night. I walk into the common area of the lodge and find Ms. Private Owner passed out on one of the coaches face down, @ss up in a night gown that was pulled up revealing all her 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/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. Wthermans
The Morgue.
GiphyDead people. Sadly, if you work in this profession, on a long enough timeline, this will happen. MrShkreliRS
Yep you get to be maintenance, housekeeping, coroner, and everything else for $10 an hour with no food or bathroom breaks for 8 hours + SuperHotelWorker2007
"ACTION!"
Not Staff but a guest. I was staying at a Hotel in Tennessee. I think it was a Holiday Inn. This was like 5 years ago. So I was in my room watching TV during the day. I hear what sounds like sex in the room next to mine. It keeps going on for a few hours. There were a number of breaks and stops during it. I could hear the guy asking If she was alright and how she was doing. she was really loud and hamming it up. I eventually put it together, that they were filming a porn. A_Drunk_Monkey
And your name is?
As a guest, weirdest thing that ever happened was that a really cute blonde in a suit walked straight into my room. I was seated naked on the couch talking to my SO and I jumped up in shock. Ensued a really awkward moment.
Apparently she got the wrong room + her key card could open ours (a master key?)... still not sure how this could ever happen. Hotel compensated us with champagne. dw_jb
You're a Doll....
GiphyThere was this one guy who stayed at least one night every week and he always requested the same room. We thought he was maybe making drug deals or something so we searched the room after he checked out one day.
Turns out he was hiding a blowup doll under the mattresses. We threw it away and he only came back once after that. I kinda felt bad for him. AbohZati
So. Rude.
We had a high school soccer tournament in town for a few days. When I went to clean the room, I was initially very excited because the beds were already made, so I just had to clean the bathroom, vacuum, and take out the trash.
I put my hand on one of the beds while I was getting back up from picking something up off the floor and heard this awful crunch. Pull back the sheet, and there's a layer of potato chips all spread out between the bottom and top sheets.
I had to strip both beds and remake them, and then vacuum again because of how many chips ended up on the floor during that process. I was blessed to not have that room again during their stay, but over the next several days other housekeepers discovered similar incidents involving shaving cream, craft supplies, and silly string. Little animals.
It wasn't the grossest room I ever cleaned by a long stretch, but I feel like its a better story than forgotten anal beads, booze bottles, and the general grossness of people who do their own hair removal in hotel bathrooms. (Honest to God, you'd think an alpaca got drunk in the shower.) MrsMeredith
Roar and Run!
A bear.
First, you gotta understand that a lot needs to happen for this to occur. Our lowest floor, was still about a meter and a half from the ground, and each outside room had a balcony rail. However, a guest had decided to want to unload his motorcycle from his truck and leave the ramp down, so (I'm assuming) he could ride the bike up when he was done.
The guest that was staying in the room had room service, decided to leave the food uncovered and the balcony doors open, and later went to the hotel pool/spa to relax. Upon returning, they had gone to us at reception and said that there was a bear in the room. Puzzled, we quietly approached the room and slowly opened the door. Lo and behold, there was a bear eating room service and making a mess of my afternoon.
We called Parks Canada to deal with it. Guest was not charged a cleaning fee. little_asian_man_89
Snap....
A woman came down to the front office and told me her TV isn't working and it needs to be fixed. I told her I could do it but I would be in her room and if that's fine with her.
She told me to go ahead and left the hotel. I went to her room and walked to the TV. Looking at her bed I saw a ball choker, cuffs and a whip. I was like. Damn girl.... Well I fixed her TV and saw her the next day on check out. explision
I can't breathe!!
Entering the room was like walking into a giant's bladder. The smell of pee - ancient, stale, concentrated pee - 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 pee stench.
What there was was 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.
As I gingerly pulled the noodle-soaked sheets from the bed, a huge, greasy c**k-pump covered in semen rolled out and flopped onto the floor. The bin contained used c**k-rings. 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. CelestialMollusc
Meow....
GiphyCats. Cats everywhere. And a $100 tip with a not that said, "thanks for taking care of these guys, be back in a week."
She didn't come back. Flapdoodle65
You're Hilarious. Not.
My buddies and I created such a scenario once. We had just finished up the Marine Corps Ball in Vegas and our buddy was still passed out drunk when we went to check on him. So we rolled him up in every sheet and blanket we could find so the cleaning staff would stumble across him then waited in the room next door. Sure enough, the cleaning lady shows up and unearths a 6'4" 245 pound Marine much to both of their surprise. He screamed like a girl and she started swearing at him in Spanish. It was hilarious. Vict0r117
16? That's Ambitious!
Not me, but my wife worked for a well known hotel chain. She had a call to send up 12 bottles of champagne to one of the high end suites. She walked in to Mike Tyson with 16 scantily clad Asian escorts. callingacrab
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.