Hotels are weird, if you think about it. You're paying money to lay down on a pillow for sure a thousand other people have slept on. Hopefully, the hotel has done their due dilligence, cleaned the room as best they can, and provided excellent service to make you forget this fact.
It's when the hotel doesn't cover the previous tenants that we seem to find the biggest problems.
Reddit user, harbac, wanted to hear the horror stories from the moment you checked in when they asked:
"What was your worst hotel stay experience and what made it so terrible?"
You don't expect opening the door to your hotel room to feel like a raffle, spinning the wheels of a slot machine hoping for them to line up to a pleasurable experience.
*Grandpa Simpson Leaving The Restaurant GIF
"My dad went to a hotel once and checked in to a first floor room. He went in the room, put his stuff down, opened the curtains...and a man was hiding there."
"My dad went “excuse me”, closed the curtains, got his stuff and left. Went to the front desk to explain that a man was hiding in his room. Turns out the guy had just robbed a place and somehow got into the room with an open window."
arcant12
Peeing With The Buddy System
"The bathroom locked from the outside. If you accidentally shut the door all the way, you had to have someone in the room open the door for you when you were done. If you were by yourself, you were SOL until someone came back, or you called the front desk from the bathroom to send someone up. This was pre-mainstream cell phone usage, so you may not have had your phone on you at all times."
"Needless to say, we got our stay comped."
cousin_geri
Double Up!
"Motel 7 in El Paso had a software problem, lost track of occupied rooms. Rather than checking, they issued keys to possibly occupied rooms and waited to see if anyone complained!"
"I twice opened my new hotel room door to find other guests in there. Jesus."
FrankieMint
Hotel Room A/C Is Famous For It
"The air conditioner was SPITTING OUT ICE while I was sleeping. Woke up thinking I wet myself but then realized half the bed was soaked. Other than that it was fine."
kimochii12
Ready To Peace Out
"I needed to find a hotel in Dayton, OH because of my daughter’s gymnastics competition. I read online reviews and the Travel Lodge there got good reviews. The price was good too, so I booked it."
"I had difficulty finding it because it was dark and their sign wasn’t lit. Parking lot was pitch black. Just outside the entrance there were 2 sketchy guys that looked like they were negotiating a drug deal."
"Inside the motel lobby was dimly lit with flickering lights. The room was no better. Stained sheets, holes in the bedspread and hair in the shower. The fitness room consisted of a stair stepper that was broken and an old tv on the ground that was also broken."
"I told the front desk that I wanted to cancel our reservation. She said, “I don’t blame you. This place is gross. I had an I interview at Kohl’s & hope they hire me so I can quit this place.”
DareWright
Keeping The Answers Close To The Chest
"Checked into a casino hotel in Shreveport, La. Put our stuff in the room and then went to the casino. Came back hours later and could not get into our room. Traipse to the front desk to find out why the card key was not working. Was informed that our room had to be exterminated due to "an infestation". When I inquired what type if infestation? I was told that the desk clerk was not allowed to divulge that information. Got hotel manager and he lead us back to our room, let us in and the place was tossed: furniture overturned, mattress off of bed, etc. There was our luggage and belongings pretty much where we left them."
"Manager than took us to our new room and gave us the key cards for it. I asked how the hell do you check someone into a room then discover it is infested with whatever? He was unable to adequately answer my question. I asked him about what type of extermination chemicals they used because our stuff had been exterminated as well. He again could not comment. Wound up throwing out any consumables, didn't wear anything from our luggage and checked out early the next morning, never to return again to that hotel. When we got home washed everything in the hottest water available. As an aside: itched for a couple of days afterward but this was probably power of suggestion."
whatoosee
A Lot Of Movement
"Happened over Christmas time in China. Came back to the hotel after dropping my boyfriend off at the airport so was clearly not in the best mood only to find a lot of my belongings moved around the room and items missing... including my passport..."
"There was food that she moved into the bathroom, my deodorant was in the shower and my shower gel was on the tv cabinet, things were taken out of my suitcase and other items were put into my suitcase, jewellery was on the floor etc. Just really random stuff had been moved."
"I had to go to reception and try to speak Mandarin (I was studying) and explain the situation. My passport was the main issue and I managed to get it back but I had gifts from my mum that were thrown out."
"Turns out the cleaner had taken my passport with the sheets to the laundry room which is crazy as it was actually in a cupboard (no safe available). Checked out 2 weeks early and got a refund for all the missing items as she admitted to throwing them away but she wouldn't say anything about why she had gone through my things or why she had moved anything."
mao64
These are probably the ones you were expecting.
Just, so much blood.
Kind Of Hard To Miss
"I stayed at a Travel Lodge a few years back. Went to get into bed and there was a blood stain on the sheet right in the middle of the bed. Pulled the sheet back and there was a HUGE puddle of it on the mattress, still wet. Not nice!"
kaylrobs
"Not as bad as that but Airbnb I stayed in a few weeks ago. It was just a room in the bottom on someone's house that had 3 other secluded rooms. Was pretty rough even by my standards but was late so settled in, finally laid down to find the duvet was covered in dry blood."
"Decided to sleep with just a sheet and heater on high woke in the middle of the night to a faint/tranc like voice speaking another language nonstop for 30mins (probably longer after I fell asleep)."
"First thing in the morning noped out of there.."
kosterzoo
What?! Even More Blood?
"Went to a historic hotel in Chattanooga, TN. Walked in the room, blood everywhere. The bathtub, the curtains, the walls, floor, lamp, everywhere! Hotel refused to move us. We moved ourselves to a different hotel that night."
ResLifeSpouse
"I stayed in a hotel on the strip in Vegas for a conference a few years ago. Was talking to my wife on the phone while getting ready for dinner, and had to tell her "Honey, got to go, I think I just found wet blood in my room.""
"Called the hotel, and they said they'd send someone up to look at it. I pointed out what I had found - a drop on the frame of the dresser. He took it apart, and someone had bled all over this thing and all they had done to clean it was wipe off the surface. The frame around every drawer had puddles of blood."
"They neither moved me or reimbursed me. Unfortunately it was the same hotel where the conference was held so I was kind of stuck."
Matosawitko
Look up reviews, ask around, and be willing to cancel if something goes wrong. There's no need to sleep in blood.
Ever.
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The finite nature of a hotel stay can lead guests to behave in ways they wouldn't normally. And where there is saucy behavior, there are the artifacts left behind.
And who is there to pick up those pieces on the following morning? The hotel staff--cleaners, maintenance people, technicians, even managers when things get unruly enough.
Some Redditors who've occupied those positions recently shared the wildest things ever left behind by guests.
Some were gross, some exciting, and some just downright puzzling.
MichaelJCaboose_ asked, "Hotel cleaners of Reddit, what's your most memorable find left behind by a guest?"
Many people chose to share the times they came upon the disgusting remnants of an uninhibited night before. The guests responsible left a collage of artifacts that looked more like a still-life picture of hedonism than a living quarters.
Alone Time
"Three empty bottles of wine, about two dozen cherry pits scattered all over the floor and under the furniture, and red-colored puke all over the bedspread."
"There was only one guy staying in the room."
-- OneWayRabbit
The Consequences of Fame
"Found a human poo in the kettle once. Worse part was it was a 'celebrity' (crappy uk reality show) doing a guest appearance at a local club."
"Him and his mates filled the rooms iPad with di** pics too. Hotel got rid of the iPads shortly after that."
-- Geknock
Taking it Literally
"By the tub: empty gallon JUGS of milk next to empty CONTAINERS of Quaker Oats."
"Ma'am that is not how you have an oatmeal bath."
"If it matters, it was whole milk."
Of Another Species
"Not me, but my best friend works in house keeping at a hotel chain. I've heard some nightmare stories, but there are two that really stand out. The first was after a furry convention came through town, and there was an absurd amount of sex toys left behind. It's pretty common to come across them from time to time, but this almost had to be purposeful."
"The second was a massive unflushable sh**. She refused to dispose of it, and left the task to her manager. She described it as inhuman, and the size of a football. It took a spatula and a knife from their kitchen to make it manageable enough to flush."
People Explain The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To Them On Their Birthday
No Closet Is Too Nice
"Friend worked a 5-star hotel and found a turd in the closet." -- Boganvillia
"That's not a very nice thing to call your guest, but as someone that worked in customer service, I agree. They are turds." -- theassassintherapist
"Closet poopers are what happens to shy poopers if they don't face their poop anxiety." -- Stunning_Honeydew201
OTC Drug Use
"Packets and packets of ibuprofen. Just everywhere - bottles too. It was football players staying there."
-- Locust45
Work Retreat
"I do maintenance. Had a group of part time housekeepers that are mentally handicapped working with their job coach go into a suite with adjoining door. There were 3 construction workers staying, 2 and their supervisor."
"In the one side with a pull out couch and DVD player, they found a full size blow up doll, empty small bottles of lube, used condoms, several beer bottles, and a stack of porn on DVD. Doll was on the pull out couch and everything else was all over the bed."
Other former cleaners described the times they came to a vacant room to find some very unexpected objects. These weren't as gross as the previous examples.
But the mysteries of what exactly the guests did with these items are still unsolved.
Steer Clear of Gadgets
"Almost tazed myself with a 'tube of lipstick' that I found under the bed." -- Naprisun
"insert lipstick taser gif here" -- georgiomoorlord
"so nobody's talking about this person using hotel bed lipstick" -- ST4R3
Hisssss
"Wasn't the cleaner, was overnight manager. The morning shift housekeeper called me to a room that had a live diamondback rattlesnake in it. We were located downtown, no way it just came in from outside."
"Found out a week later the guest was part of that snake handler church."
Back on the Road
"My friend's family owns a motel. He tells me they once found an auto transmission in the bathtub of a room." -- smorkoid
"Yup, I've heard of this before. You go to the town on a bachelor party, take a pill and then wake up and your transmission is in the bathtub full of ice and 3rd gear was removed" -- cavegoatlove
Making it Cozy
"I worked as a hotel cleaner during undergrad."
"My first day of work someone left a hatchet in the bathtub."
"Also, someone completely decorated the room with framed family pictures.. and left them all there. I think their stay was only 2 days. They set some up on the furniture.. but also legit hung some on the walls."
-- Eric_Partman
Finally, some people shared about the times they were pleasantly surprised to find that guests left behind some really nice stuff.
And, of course, finders keepers was in full swing.
Ahhhhhhh
"I worked for a hotel that had cabins, so I would be in and out all day in the hot sun. On one of those hot days I opened the fridge to find an unopened bottle of Dr. Pepper in the freezer part.. it was perfectly slushed."
"It made my day. This was years ago, too!"
-- Syndaquil
As If They Knew
"A whole box of magnum ice creams. My fave!" -- nightcana
"If this was in Melbourne, you're welcome. I bought them but got invited out. Checked out the next day and left them in the freezer and I couldn't stand the thought of putting them in the bin." -- hemansteve
Repurposed
"My partner gets apartments ready for the next people renting them out after leases are up, they've found so, so many bdsm toys. One of which (a flogger) is my cats favorite toy over all others now including her very expensive cat toys hahaha"
Celebrity Guest
"My girlfriend worked the front desk at a hotel where snoop Dogg stayed."
"He left his drawers and white tees. Snoop also left a bunch of Tic Tacs."
"But the best thing he left was a plastic Tupperware bowl over the smoke detector."
-- niketen
It's a fun idea to think back on all your hotel stays and recall anything you've left behind over the years.
And then, depending on what exactly it was, you can imagine what the other side of that story turned out to be.
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Hotel Housekeepers Describe The Strangest Thing They've Ever Seen In A Guest's Room
Staying in a hotel offers the guest a unique luxury: live exactly as you'd like--within the bounds of the law, hopefully--and then walk out without cleaning anything up.
Then the staff swoops into to clean it all with unbelievable efficiency before the next guest arrives to do the exact same thing.
After all, that's a big part of what the guest pays for.
But some people completely overstay their welcome. They trash the place, break the law, ad leave things utterly destroyed. Or, in some cases, the do things that are absolutely puzzling.
karmeleon_ asked, "Hotel housekeepers, what's the strangest thing you've seen in a room?"
Keep That Thing Safe
"I mean, when you work in housekeeping, things related to sex, drugs, and just general grossness quickly become far less strange, lol."
"But my favorite story is when I had to get a witness to open a room safe that had been left locked by a guest. Its contents? One Taco Bell bean burrito. Best guess is a particularly drunken guest mistook the safe for the microwave."
-- khaliandra
A Deeply Uncomfortable Honeymoon Setup
"I worked room service at a mid-range hotel. One of the funniest things I remember seeing was during a champagne and chocolate covered strawberries delivery for a honeymoon package."
"This one was requested for delivery before the guests arrived, and I could tell the second I walked into the room that I was not the first person to have been in there. Someone had tossed rose petals around the room and added some decorations for their magical night."
"The one that stood out though: a 3'x3' print out of the bride's father with a massive, cheesy grin and a thumbs-up. It was taped to the ceiling directly above the bed."
Took Some Getting Used To
"I initially found it strange that high school/college aged boys will 'hang out' in each other's rooms completely naked."
"They'll answer the door, completely nude and 100% shamelessly and carry on a conversation with me as if nothing was out of the ordinary."
"At first I thought they were doing it for a laugh to see if I would say anything, but the amount of times it happened dismissed that thought. People are just strange."
Great Guests. A Little Too Great.
"My friends family ran a little hotel at the beach. Nothing fancy, but it was oceanfront. My friend once went to a room to clean, and found the ENTIRE place CLEAN."
"Not just wiped up and etc. the walls and ceilings had been scrubbed, the carpets looked like they had been shampooed, the tub/shower looked brand new (quite an accomplishment at the beach with super hard water and salt spray), the bed frame had been cleaned..."
"...the old beach furniture had been cleaned and repaired, the knobs and track on the sliding glass door had been polished, the railings on the deck had been thoroughly scrubbed, the dirty linens were stripped and folded with a sign saying 'dirty.'"
"We were kinda curious if someone had been killed or what."
My Bed, My Morals
"I worked at a hotel many years ago. We used to get professional sports teams stay for two or more weeks at a time."
"One team that came a few times was particularly interesting. Each room had two players (two double beds per room) and it was funny to see very religious books on one bedside table and porn on the other."
"The most disgusting thing I ever found was a used tampon in the bed sheets and condoms in the toilet. Come on, the bin is just next to the toilet and that thing doesn't flush!"
Mysterious Disappearance
"I worked front desk at a hotel. Our housekeepers found a big purple sex toy in a room and brought it to the housekeeper's office."
"Laughs were had by all until it went missing the same day. Still don't know which one of my co-workers took it"
-- legosinspace
Two Horrible Messes
"I'm not a housekeeper but I worked at a hotel and there were two stories."
"The first, this couple on their honeymoon checked out in a hurry, and when the housekeeper went into the room there was sh** spread on the walls and a hole dug out of the mattress. Still no idea what went down in there."
"The second I guess wasn't discovered in the room, but a guest killed a woman, chopped her up, and put her in his suitcase and rolled it out of the hotel. A trail a blood led to the dumpster where he dumped the suitcase."
An Absolute Party In There
"I was a housekeeper for 3 weeks in a classy boutique hotel when I first moved to a different country before finding a better job. The first room I cleaned was one of the fancier suites, and upon opening the door, it was clear the occupants had set off numerous confetti crackers the night before."
"There was golden confetti EVERYWHERE. But most of it was concentrated in the bed and in the big clawfoot bathtub. Then a trail of wet confetti to the shower. Nightmare to clean up."
Zero Chill
"My wife used to be a housekeeper for some cabins in a state park. One time, one of her co-workers found a brand new pistol tucked behind a dresser. Apparently no one claimed it, so she got to keep it."
"On another occasion, one of her other co-workers that was extremely religious, found a plate of home-made brownies and ate a couple of them. They turned out to be edibles!"
"She had never had marijuana in any capacity and ended up on the bed, slowly talking about how she thought she was dead and they had to call 911!"
Making Himself at Home
"Not me but a former colleague who used to work as a hotel housekeeper."
"The strangest thing he ever found was a Polish guest who had left the mini-fridge filled to the brim with sausages."
-- amvoloshin
Yikes
As a hotel guest: I won a company contest to fly myself and a guest to a week-long paid vacation; fancy hotel, free daily activities, etc. What they did not tell us -- and I doubt we were the only ones in this situation -- was that the company paid someone to brazenly ignore the Do Not Disturb sign, and enter our room to drop off free swag while we were away. Came back to find company-branded bluetooth earbuds nestled between the handcuffs and the pillows.
Lions, Tigers and Bears
After a decade of managing hotels, managing housekeepers, there are just too many things. Drugs hidden inducting and then they forget the room they had been in, so they checked into multiple rooms and broke multiple chairs trying to get to the ducts to try and find the drugs (they never did). Dead bodies. Too many sex toys. Lots of drugs. Guns. Swords. Torture devices I was unaware were legal. All the things that go in a standard room occupied by Steven Tyler (the mind boggles). The hospitality industry is an odd one.
Back Exit
Not a housekeeper, but worked at a hotel. The amount of times a housekeeper, or hotel worker, has found a dead body or other things, was wild to me. You obviously don't want to alarm guest, so they try to always use a back entrance/exit
No staff was traumatized
My sister's husband's family had something against grandma dying in the family home so they put her up in the nicest place in the city for what was supposed to be her final days. She lived another three and a half months and the bill was crazy expensive. I like to think she did it purposely.
They had 24-hour nurses and no hotel staff was traumatized.
Socks
Once cleaned a room where in the bed, the couple left behind both a pair of crotchless panties (ew) and a single, abandoned sock that was pink and had the male/female symbols linked as a pattern...proof that they are hetero-socks-ual, if you may.
I still laugh at that pun. My coworkers never did.
Glitter bomb
We also had a lady who I'm sure had schizophrenia or something who took apart almost anything electronic (alarm clock, tv, lamps, etc) and put alluminum foil over the air vents etc. Also smeared her feces on most of the walls. We lost in court when we tried to seek damages.
As listed, TONS of people think they are awesome friends/lovers and pop confetti glitter and rose petals everywhere in rooms.
Lots of firearms under mattresses get left.
Lovely Ladies
A bag of sh!t, wrapped in a freezer bag and hanging in the free-standing cupboard.
This was the Marriot Hotel in Bristol.
The previous guests were two lovely ladies.
We had a group that would come every year for Passover. They had a bunch of rules and traditions that dictated certain things that they couldn't do during this time if it was "work". One of these was that they could not tear toilet paper from the rolls, the compromise was replacing the toilet paper with boxes of tissues. Pulling was fine, just no tearing. This also meant that if the toilet paper/tissue once used and discarded, did not make it into the wastebasket or toilet, they could not pick it up and the housekeeper had to do it.
Ok, sometimes super gross, but we respected it. What got us was one room not only had sh!tty tissue everywhere, but someone had taken the time to climb up on a chair, unscrew the air vent cover, shove a bunch of tissues into said vent, then put the cover back on and screw it closed. Not sure how none of that was seen as "work" but using toilet paper and cleaning up after ones self was considered work and a no-no.
The pillow
Nothing too crazy but one time a baggie of pot fell out of the covers when I made the bed. I finished up placed it on the pillow. I think they left me a tip the next day...
Out of this world
I'm the front desk supervisor at one of the biggest hotel chains, the brand I work for is a 3-star category so nothing too luxurious! This is my first hotel job and I've been here for 2 years now! This hotel is a pretty new hotel, only 2 years and a half old! When I started working here we had a room that smelled like sewage for about a year, the room was out of order for the whole year, when they finally fixed it, the first person that checked into that room was out of this world.
He called the front desk a couple of times accusing us of throwing live bugs under his door and he requested new towels. As I'm walking up there with his towels, I see him running naked to his room from the other side of the hallway, I go back to the office & I tell my manager, he then calls the cops to have him kicked out. Once he leaves, we go into the room and we found cigarettes being dipped on bug spray, lots of them!! The smell of that room still haunts me.
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Sleep is a human necessity.
So much so that without it, we die. To make sure we don't do that, our bodies will force us to sleep whether we want to and are comfortable or not.
Every now and then that means having a less-than-five-star sleeping experience.
One Reddit user asked:
What's the worst place you ever had to spend the night?
We expected some interesting answers from more adventurous users who travel, hike, etc. Everybody loves a good seedy hotel story.
What we weren't expecting was a comment section full of bonkers stories about private islands, failed drug smuggling, surviving disasters and unintentionally doing permanent ear damage over some snoring.
Yeah. It's a lot.
Canada Didn't Have Hard Feelings
A bus terminal park bench after being turned away at the Canadian border.
I was on a Greyhound and stupidly tried to bring weed across the border to avoid paying expensive prices in Toronto. I was also pretty drunk as it makes bus rides tolerable.
They found it and charged me $100 to take me back to the bus station in Burlington, VT. I slept on a bench there until the next bus left in the morning.
It's one of the safer bus stations for sure, but cold hard benches suck no matter where they are
Canada didn't have hard feelings and let me in that time.
After A Rafting Accident
IN A TREE!
Had a rafting accident and the three of us ended up spending 18 hours (overnight) hanging on to tree branches in the middle of an over flowing river until we were rescued the next morning by the swift water rescue team.
We took turns sleeping as the other two grabbed on so we would not fall in.
Picture us in no shoes, shorts and t-shirts as the temp dropped down below 50 degrees that night. Made the front page of the local newspaper, our 15 minutes of fame I guess.
The Psych Ward
The psych ward.
Especially when they have to come in every 10 minutes and shine a light into your eyes to make sure you're alive. Or when there are people screaming down the hall all night.
Spent two months in one in 2018. I don't know how they expect you to get better when they keep you from getting good sleep, good food, fresh air, or any social connections whatsoever.
- d24602
Alabama In July With No AC
Used to live with a guy up in Hayden Alabama. I actually loved it, it was peaceful and we had very few neighbors, I took care of the dogs.
Mid July and the a/c goes out, it was supposed to rain all week with about 80% humidity coupled with 95+ temperature outside. The house turned into a swamp, we opened all the windows and doors, turned on every fan we could find and still it was just awful.
The bedroom was so hot we couldn't use it so we slept on the couches which were so soaked by the end of the day that you could press your hand into it and your hand would come up wet.
It was so bad, we walked around stark naked in a last ditch attempt to beat the heat before we broke down and called a repair service.
With Wet Toilet Paper In My Ears
I slept in a hotel bathroom with wet toilet paper in my ears once when I was a stupid kid.
I was sharing a room with my dad and my brother, both of whom were terrible snorers (my dad at least has a CPAP now and my brother's estranged, so two problems solved). I couldn't sleep, couldn't handle the snoring... so I went in the bathroom, wadded up some toilet paper, wet it, jammed it in my ears, and tried my best to get some sleep.
Wouldn't recommend, did some long-term damage to one eardrum from a bit of toilet paper that was stuck on there for years afterward.
A "hOsPiTaL"
My mom had a heart attack in one of the highest 'criminals per capita' cities in India, Etawah.
Some relatives took her to a hospital. I arrived the same night.
They showed me to the room she was in, and I don't think I've seen a more depressing room in my life - and I grew up here in India, in not a rich family.
The walls had spits EVERYWHERE.
The bedsheet had stains older than me.
The medical equipment was outdated.
Rats and mosquitos everywhere.
The walls had cracking paint.
The floor was filthy.
The bathroom was so bad, I took one look and I went outside to piss on some bushes.
When I asked where could I sleep, they flung a thin @ss dirty AF mattress on the floor, no pillow, and told me that's my bed. There was on fluorescent lightbulb giving off a feeble, 'vibrating' light that cast most of the room in shadows. The paint on the bedrails was chipped and stained, the small cupboard beside the bed was greasy with accumulated dirt so thick you could write in it.
I was quite stressed over the medical emergency for my mother and depressed because of the room, but I sucked it up and stayed for the night since we were to transfer to Delhi and a much better hospital in the morning. You know; one where you couldn't get infections just from touching the bed rails.
I fell asleep around 4 am, tired as f*ck. I could hear the rats scratching in the bathroom and see cockroaches on the walls from what little light came through under the door once the lights were out in mother's room. It's so vivid in my memory I can recall every single silly disgusting detail of the room.
And that is the story of the worst place I ever had to spend the night in, a "hOsPiTaL".
A Chartered Boat To A Private Island
I had a boat chartered to drop me off on a small island, and was scheduled to pick us up the next day.
As it turns out, we weren't able to get off the beach onto the actual island because of a razor sharp barnacle wall surrounding the whole area, so we were trapped on a sand bar until the next morning.
So unfortunately, as night fell, the tide started rising, and only a tiny sliver of the sand bar stayed above sea level. The ground was soaking wet and sopped through the tent we were sleeping in, but to add insult to injury, turns out the sand bar was also a huge horseshoe crab mating ground, so the entire island was swarmed by horny horseshoe crabs.
So the rest of the night we basically were wet, cold, and being swarmed by horseshoe crabs f*cking against our tent.
Truly one of my worst nights
The Doll Room
My aunties house. She collects dolls. Antique, creepy @ss dolls. Her guest room doubled up as one of her doll storage rooms.
Imagine being in a room with hundreds of creepy dolls on shelves all around the room, all staring at you. Didn't help that her house is Victorian and weirdly laid out. Her living room was ground floor, and then you'd go down a steep set of stairs into the basement (which is where the guest room was..) this led out to her back yard, weird house built on a weird slope.
I couldn't move from fear, I literally lay there all night terrified to move incase one of the dolls moved. 😂 Branches hitting against the window and the rattling of her heating pipes helped make it a very horrific night.
I refused to ever sleep there again, so she introduced me to the other guest room (that I didn't know existed) and this room was first floor, zero dolls, pretty pleasant place to sleep. Wtf did she torture me with the doll room 😂😂
Triple Locked Doors
Some crummy motel in Montana.
We had started a road trip and I couple tell I was the only person of color to come through that place for years probably. The maintenance guy followed me into my room and gave me some story about checking to see if the cable was working. Other staff and guests were sizing me up.
I triple locked my door and the window, and I slept with my pocket knife under my pillow that night
Maybe Max Knew
Llano State Park in Junction, TX.
I was five months pregnant and enormous (twas a 12+ lb baby boy) ... it was Memorial Day weekend and we decided to go camping. We had the one baby in the oven, an 18 month old "Max", and a ten year old "Jake".
Why we thought this was a good idea, I'll never know. Chalk it up to rose tinted glasses. We live in the Houston area. The drive alone was arduous enough.
We get there though, and it's lovely and wind blown and wild. We set up camp and the balmy ninety degree temps take a nose dive. We had sleeping bags but this cold was relentless. Plus it was windy.
Max kept crying and crying, something he never did. He was always a chill child. But from the moment we set up camp he had become clingy and fussy and now that night had fallen he was full on wailing.
We didn't know how to handle a crying child. Hand to God, he had never cried like this before. We never had to comfort him. We had no clue what to do besides hold him close and rock him gently.
He didn't seem to be sick. No fever. He wasn't prone to ear infections and his ears didn't seem to be bothering him. He was dressed warmly, unlike the rest of us.
It was full on dark, just past nine, when a park ranger rolled into our campsite. He said he was going to have to ask us to leave if Max didn't settle down because we were disrupting quiet time.
So we gathered our things and bundled into our truck. As soon as we were in the truck Max stopped crying.
He began baby talking and leaned into me and snap! fell asleep. We waited a beat and then moved back to the tent, which we hadn't dismantled yet.
We had just begun to settle down when he woke and began to cry again, this time with renewed vigor. We went back to the truck.
I told my husband he and Jake should go ahead and sleep in the tent and I would stay in the truck with Max, the screamer. Quietly, they did just that. A couple of minutes later Max woke up screaming again. He didn't settle down until my husband and Jake got back into the truck.
We resigned ourselves to a long, uncomfortable night cramped in the truck. I needed to pee, but didn't dare leave because I thought Max would wake up crying again. Max slept through the night.
As soon as dawn broke we packed up the rest of our stuff and in the midst of doing that my husband saw fresh, large piles of animal scat behind the area where our tent had been pitched.
Now there haven't been bears, wolves or mountain lions in Texas in decades. But that was one big pile of sh*t.
Maybe Max knew something we didn't know. In any case... that was THE most uncomfortable, long night ever.
10% Off
On a drive to Florida, my dad pulled into a Super 8 in Tifton, Georgia. I had misgivings from the get-go, as the place didn't look great, but it was only one night. Only one night, you can live through anything, right?
For some reason, my father was adamant that no one but himself enter the lobby to check in. We absolutely had to stay inside the car at all costs. This was the first clue that perhaps something wasn't quite right, as this rule was not so strictly maintained elsewhere.
Upon opening our room door, a moldy smell immediately hit our nostrils. Stepping into the room gave a strange sensation on our feet, which quickly revealed itself to be caused by the stickiness of the carpet. Oddly, the carpet had also been cut up and laid back down repeatedly. A quilt carpet. One does so wonder why.
The entire room was covered with a layer of dust - some surfaces moreso than others. The nightstands, for example, only had a light, but visible coating; the beer cans crumpled and stashed behind the television, on the other hand, boasted a good quarter- to half-inch. The walls had a odd sickly yellow tone, as though they'd been plastered with successive layers of smoke, dirt, and general bodily fluids.
My emotions ran so high that I felt as though I simply was too overwhelmed to respond. My mother, God bless her, did that for us, by throwing a protest, but my father pointed out that this place was cheap, and it's not like we could stay anywhere else on such short notice if we abandoned this place. Further protests were met with a firm refusal to allow us to stay elsewhere. It was only one night, after all...
We attempted to make the best of it. I went to brush my teeth, but found myself unable to do so when the water from the sink faucet was brown. Attempting to procure water from the bathtub produced the same result. At this point, I realized I had few options outside of simply going to bed and hoping to fall asleep and wake up and get the hell away from this horrible, horrible place.
I pulled back the bed sheets, which had the texture of laundered sandpaper, and immediately noticed an odd type of circular hole I'd never seen before. "Cigarette burn," my mother said. She also warned me not to look at the underside of the bedspread, or inside the nightstand drawers, or behind or underneath the bed, with the implication that this had been done during my fruitless attempt to procure clean water in the bathroom.
I didn't sleep. We arrived in Florida the next day. My father sent off a lengthy, angry email of complaints to the Super 8's management, and in return, received a tepid apology and 10% his next stay in response. "Screw that," we responded in unison.
Or so we thought.
A week later, guess what parking lot we pulled into in Tifton, Georgia?
While my mother screeched and I fought tears, my father shouted about how they'd given him 10% off.
The Astrodome
The Astrodome during hurricane Rita. I got to take a shit in a trash can with an audience of dozens and that was one of the nicer parts of that week.
The smell in that place must have been dense.
Wow, that's just miserable sounding. Glad you survived it.
An Italian Cave
Ironically in Italy's beautiful Cinque Terre.
But we were sleeping in a cave by the beach that we didn't know was preoccupied.
Me and my brother were travelling with basically no money and decided it would be super fun to sleep on the streets instead of spending money on a hostel.
Our Mother had gifted us this trip for our birthdays and paid and planned the whole trip. Most nights she had booked us a place to stay but some nights she planned for us to find our own accommodation. She didn't know this but we had no spending money as we were broke as hell. One night we decided to spend the money we did have on booze instead of a hostel.
We searched the day for good spots to sleep and found a couple of good options. We stumbled across a cave by the touristy part of one of the beaches. There are five famous beaches that are extremely crowded during the day but at night everybody returns to the hotels and restaurants leaving the area clear. The cave we found was out of the way slightly enough and nobody goes there at night time.
Once it got late enough we headed over to the cave with different bits of cardboard we found in a dumpster. We set up two cardboard beds are drank Italian wine while watching the beautiful night sky over the sea with waves crashing. We thought we were in heaven.
The first hour was fine but soon enough the novelty and wine were wearing off. We realized the genius cardboard idea wasn't so comfortable after only an hour. Restlessness I can handle. What came next though still has me itching.
Once we had settled, stopped talking and started trying to go to sleep we started to hear little noises coming from within the cave. Squicky little noise letting us know we weren't alone.
I don't have any phobias and am really not scared of much but it's at this stage I should mention my childhood fear of rats. When I was little my father, who was a history teacher, would tell me stories including the history of the Black Plague. The tales of disease caused by rats haunted my young dreams and to this day I can't handle the sight of a rat.
So here we are trying to get to sleep when we start to hear the little noises and footsteps getting closer and closer.
We ended up making it through the night without any serious rat interactions. We were so creeped out by the rats that we resorted to setting up a rat barrier. We had plastic bags that we set up a perimeter around our sleeping area. It wouldn't keep the rats out but if they walked over the plastic bags they would make a ruffling sound notifying us if a rat was getting too close.
All night long the plastic alarms were going off making us jump up screaming and yelling trying scare off the rats. The cave itself also had little tiny rocks falling from the ceiling at random times. These little rocks also started tripping our plastic security alarm.
What we thought was going to be a night to remember ended up being a night to remember.
Not Even My Worst Tinder Hookup
BDSM themed love hotel in Tokyo after I missed the last train home. 3AM. Drunk off my ass with a tinder date.
Neither of us are good at Japanese. Call first place that pops up on Google maps as taking reservations at 3am. Go.
Oh lawd, there is a cage in this motherf*cker, it is in a basement of a very dubious looking building. The "bed" is a hard rubberized block. There are no sheets. There are no pillows. Reception gave us 3 towels to lie down on the bed.
There is the scariest shower room I've ever seen (don't worry, I did not take a shower in there), and no toilet - so if you have to pee, you have to walk down past reception to the shared toilets.
I can hear a lady screaming in another room. I am with a guy I met 4 hours ago and if he wants to murder me, i reckon nobody will come to find out till at least morning. On the other hand, dude didn't live here like I do and was probably thinking I was going to murder him or at least mug him.
In good news, I didn't get murdered. Had an alright time, made fun of badly censored porn that was on the TV, slept on a puddle of towels on a rubberized bed with a stranger as both of us hoped not to wake up with the other one absconding with our valuables, and train-of-shamed home in the morning.
Was my first Tinder hookup. It was not my last one or my worst one (dude was a cool guy, it wasn't his fault, and he took it all in stride and wasn't an a**hole. Also, he is probably on Reddit, I wonder if he will see this?).
Moral of the story: If you are going to hoe, know where to go so you aren't caught out and have to sleep in a cold ass dungeon without a single pillow. Also know when the fck the last train runs if you aren't ready to pay for a room and you don't look like a freaking idiot.
The Death Of Innocence
I went to an all girls boarding school in Africa that was known as a farmers daughter school.
During a time where farmers were being killed to take their land, there was a riot outside of the school. We listened to the mob outside the fence (maybe 100 feet from our room) chanting about the different ways they were going to r*pe and torture us if they got in.
I was 12. I have never been so terrified in my life.
They finally dispersed at about 5AM... and we were required to get up and 6 to go to class. Definitely the day any innocence I had died.
Camping In South Florida
Went camping in South Florida in the summer when I was about 10. My older brother insisted on setting up the tent, and all was great until a massive thunderstorm in the middle of the night.
That's when our tent flooded because he had picked a nice concave spot to set up. Good job, brother!
Commence three kids whining about being soaked, so we all went to go sleep in the car. After the rain stopped it got super hot in the car so we opened the windows...But it being summer in Florida, within about five minutes we were swarmed with mosquitoes and spent the rest of the night wide awake smacking them and itching (and probably bickering and complaining, if I recall correctly, as we were little shits when in close quarters).
The inside of my mom's car the next morning looked like an insane tiny massacre had happened, with bloody mosquito splats everywhere.
The spots were still there years later, and a great way to piss my mom off REAL quick was to dare to mention them, lol.
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People Who 'Live' Out Of Hotels Traveling For Work Share Their Biggest Ups And Downs
For many of us, hotels mean we're on an exciting out of town trip.
But imagine a new one every single day of the week, all over the country or the world. Would that waffle maker thing be enough?
Surely there muse be some perks to the hotel life. Constant room service, posh front desk help, sweet pools and hot tubs would be lit.
But maybe all that bouncing around wears on ya.
A Redditor asked, "Those who basically "live" out of hotels due to work travel, what's the best and worst part of it?"Those who basically "live" out of hotels due to work travel, what's the best and worst part of it?"

Simple Pleasures
Never having to wash my own sheets.
Finding new and interesting places to hide the wad of cash.
Double Edged Swords
Best part: it's like being single again. Just get to make your own schedule.
Worse part: it's like being single again. Lonely.
Make it stop!!
The best is I spend almost zero time doing things like cleaning, so much of that sort of thing is just provided for me.
The worst is restaurant food becomes literally sickening after a while. Also it can be "Groundhog Day" pretty often: I often strike up a conversation with someone and it turns out to be the exact same conversation with someone else the last place I stayed.
DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING
Per-diem is essentially getting paid to experience new restaurants every day, I've tried such a wide variety of food from all over the country.
Getting sick! When you travel you're exposed to germs from new places, so usually a week or so after travel you'll start to get cold/flu symptoms. Actually fighting off a cold now.
In Limbo
Worst part: Missing out on hobbies, having to reconnect with your SO and kids when you get home because you missed yet another week
My dad travels a lot for work. He says sometimes it's hard to engage with home on weekends and stuff because he's still in travel mode, especially if he had to travel again the next week. I know my parents used to fight about it when we were kids.
Twilight Zone
After a long period on the road I will bolt awake and literally not know what city I am in. I have to concentrate for 30 seconds on the events of the previous day that led up to my lying here at the Hilton in City X. It's really disconcerting and unpleasant, like geographic vertigo.
One day I woke up in a cold sweat feeling stressed out. I started doing my normal morning routine of determining what country I was in, if I had enough in the local currency, what time was my flight out, and what my schedule was for the day. After I found out I didn't have an answer to any of those questions, I looked around and found out I was in my own bed. I didn't recognize my own bed!
'Sorry to cancel tonight but I'm 4000 miles away'
Tuck me in plz
Hotel beds are generally pretty comfy, but my bed at home is better. I can sleep in my favorite divot in my bed.
The worst was I never could sleep well in a hotel bed. I would get 3-4 hours each night.
This must be how the Rolling Stones felt...
Unhealthy: Sitting in airplanes, eating quick airport food, working long hours, jetlag, not exercising, and sleeping poorly all add up. When you see other middle aged business travelers in the airport, the majority of them do not look healthy.
It is hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle on the road. Restaurants and booze and lack of exercise add up. I have to try really hard to try to keep some balance, but don't always succeed.
First Class Always
All. The. Points. I get to keep all my airline miles, hotel points, and rental car points. This makes traveling for fun pretty inexpensive. Pick a brand and stick with it if you can to maximize this benefit. Also, get the credit card for the airline and hotel chain of choice.
Best part for me was the travel points and the ultimate credit card that was paid off at the end of every month. Made thousands on just the cash back bonuses alone.
Free airline miles is the best part, for me. I love traveling, so it's a bonus for me to get to see lots of new places and get paid for it. This year I paid $0 for all my family's personal plane tickets, because I was able to cash in miles accumulated through work for all of our trips.