Curious to hear from hotel employees about the bizarre incidences that have transpired on their watch, Redditor Slider-678 asked:
"Hotel workers, what is your craziest story?"
If you think the cleaning staff is expected to always go above and beyond by doing more than just turning down the bed, you have another think coming.
Why I Quit My Job
"I worked in a decent hotel in college, was the night auditor. One night the police came in and went directly to a room around 2am. They escorted a prostitute out and asked to speak to the manager."
"After they were done speaking with my manager the officer handed me the phone and she told me to go in and clean up the room. I never made beds or did any of that so I wasn't sure exactly what she wanted. I went to the room and there was trash everywhere. There were uncapped syringes, used packages that had contained drugs and general filth everywhere. I called the manager back to tell her that I wasn't touching anything because of the uncapped syringes. They were literally all over the place and I wasn't going to pick up piles of clothes or move blankets."
"The manager said that if I didn't clean the room I was fired. I said fine, you have a half an hour to get here because I am leaving. I was the only one there overnight. As she pulled into the parking lot a short time later I walked over to my car, didn't even wait for her to get inside."
– EntrepreneurNo1145
Slow Attacker
"Working at a luxury hotel, I once got a call to remove a snail from a guests room as it was 'coming after them' and that they were 'afraid for their young child.'”
– Additional-Car2163
Rage is real.
Deescalating Violence
"I worked night shift, and was the only employee in the entire hotel from 11pm to 6am. Around 3 am I get a few calls about a fight in an upstairs hallway. I grab a pair of scissors and tuck it up my sleeve and make my way upstairs to see what is going on. When I get there there are 2 guys having a full on brawl. I'm 6,2 and very broad shouldered, but these guys were taller and ripped as hell."
"As I approached a 3rd guy, just as large as the other 2, comes out of a room with a knife yelling 'get the f'k off him'. I stop a ways away and just shout at them. They all stop immediately and look at me. I'm getting ready to run for it when they all just deflate. Knife guy drops the knife, the others let go of eachother, they all hang their head, and one mumbles 'I'm sorry.' under his breath."
"They looked like a bunch of toddlers who had just gotten caught stealing cookies. I told them they would have to leave right now, or I would call the police, and they all just nodded. They followed me onto the elevator, and spent the whole time apologizing and pouting while I escorted them out. I have never seen a situation go from 100 to 0 so fast."
– Vypernorad
Standoff Over A Girl
"Some guest was in the parking lot, waving a gun around & threatening to shoot up the place, resulting in a tense stand-off with cops for about an hour before they finally took him down (alive). The impetus behind the whole thing? He, his buddy, & the buddy's wife had gone out that night with the intent that the wife was gonna let the gun guy f'k her up the a**, but she got cold feet at the last minute and they locked him out of the room when he got mad. So, yeah, he was so drunk and wanted to tap that a** so badly that he decided to threaten a whole hotel."
– throwtheclownaway20
Kitchen Brawl
"High strung cook had an argument with a-type bistro attendant. It just kept escalating to a pull-apart brawl when a kitchen knife got involved. The pair crashed through the swinging door and was rolling on the carpet when the regional manager just happened to be walking in. Cops were called, I think both got fired or arrested."
– The68Guns
These items left behind by former hotel room occupants are not your everyday pick of the litter.
The New Employee
"I have a friend that owns a small motel just off a highway. I would hang out with him and chat on some late nights. One night, he got a call that one of the guest heard a loud crash in the room next door. Checked the computer and saw that the room was unoccupied. Friend and I go to check it out. We knock and there is no answer. He opens the door and there was a cat in the room."
"It knocked over a lamp and smashed it. It was super friendly and came right to us. We took it back to the office and looked at the room records. The prior person that was in the room abandoned the cat when he checked out three days earlier. He was already on the other side of the country when we called him, and he said he was not coming back for the cat."
"My friend took ownership of the cat and now she is the motel cat. She walks all around the property and takes care of any mice or critters. She even has her picture on the wall as one of the 'employees'. Not sure why the maid service did not see it when the room was being cleaned. We think that the vacuum scared the cat and she hid somewhere. Still was a dick move of the old owner to leave the cat behind."
– mrsheikh
"Someone left their boa at ours. Who knows where it was hiding when the housekeepers cleaned the room, but when the next guests checked in and crawled into the bed, it was under the pillows. It scared them SO bad. We had to call animal control to come get it."
– bittyitty
Is It Alive?
"Found one of those black fuzzy caterpillars in a room. I carried it outside, oh so carefully not to lose it. Put it down on sidewalk and it didn't move. I picked it back up to make sure it was alive and realized it was someone's fake eye lash."
– Love-Dizzy
People are wild.
A Whiff Of Senior Sex
"When I was 15 I was a bus boy at a local resort (Little America, Cheyenne, WY). Occasionally, the restaurant I worked in would ask one of the bus staff to deliver room service to one of the rooms, they always asked male staff for safety reasons."
"On one occasion I was asked to deliver a tray to a room. I took the tray to the room and a scantily clad woman answered the door. I never went in the room but could see there were about 8-9 men and woman in their 60’s-70’s (almost all of them nude) in the room. . . even at 15 I knew the room smelled like sex. I remember I was tipped well."
"Went back to work, no one ever asked how things went and I never really mentioned it to anyone because I didn’t think anyone would believe me."
– wyoflyboy68
Ask And Ye Shall Recieve
"Probably not the best story to share on politically-correct Reddit, but I also worked room service in my late teens. There was a female waitress in the restaurant that constantly complained about the males-only policy for room service. After weeks of being chewed on, the hotel manager finally relented and let her carry every other order. She lasted 2 weeks before she said no more and quit doing room service."
"I saw my fair share of sexcapades, but she was getting the full-frontal nude creepers ordering one drink at a time. Poor girl wasn't prepared for all of that. This would have been late 1980's."
– PantherChicken
Sure, a getaway in a nice hotel is always something to look forward to.
But based on some of these stories, ignorance is bliss.
That doesn't keep me from peeling off the bed covers that are presumably never washed and keeping my shoes on in the rooms I've booked for vacations.
After all, who knows what remains trapped in all of the fabrics and draperies?
If only hotel walls could speak.
