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
80s horror GIF by absurdnoiseGiphyMy 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.
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.
GiphyDON'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.
GiphyThis 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.
Giphy
Reddit user u/Silver_Reddit asked:
"Housekeepers who worked in casinos/hotels, what's the weirdest thing you walked into?"
"One night"
meryl streep GIFGiphyI was a bartender at a Marriott hotel years ago. Along with regular bartending duties, I also delivered bar orders as part of room service. One night I received a typical order (Wine, beer) from a room that called down to the bar. I brought the drinks to the room and was greeted by an early 50's man wearing a white robe. He greeted me and asked me to place the drinks on a dresser fairly close to door.
As I went to place the drinks down I noticed the bed had between 10-13 sex toys laid out neatly along the foot of the bed. The sizes ranged from normal to horse. They were evenly spaced and all facing towards the headboard.
While he was signing I made my way to the door and as soon as he handed me the book I smiled and said "thank you, have a great night! He just smiled and that was it, 0% acknowledgement on his end.
"I worked in a casino..."
I worked in a casino where I watched a middle aged man literally shake a solid turd down his pant leg, sit back down and continued on his machine. I turned around with backpack vacuum on and went to my lunch break. I didn't get paid enough to pick up stranger's crap.
"The event manager wanted to..."
When my wife and I were looking at wedding venues, one we went to was a hotel. The event manager wanted to take us up and show us the "honeymoon" suite.
She opened the door, and there were two, old men (like 60s-70s), shirtless drinking vodka in the room. She was so extremely embarrassed and apologetic. She was very sweet too, but you could tell she was so mad at whoever screwed that up for her.
We didn't choose the place (wasn't why), but I hadn't thought about that in awhile, and figured someone else may get a kick out of it.
"Dead body"
Found a dead body under the bed, Manhattan.
Well this blew up.
Here you go :) https://youtu.be/jG0EDUp7i5A
"Youth trip"
south park kyle GIFGiphyWas on a youth trip with my church. Guys stayed in one room girls stayed in the other. All us bored kids start looking around the room, ya know because kids, and we found a nug of weed under the bed. Super big find for a couple of church kids. We go to tell the girls what we found and they go on to tell us they did the same thing and found blood all over the wall.
"I had a teacher"
Had a teacher who was the manager of a Marriott in Germany for a while. She has wild stories.
- Once found an anaconda in the bathroom, wrapped around the shower curtain pole.
- Pulled naked devil worshippers out of the pool at 3 AM when the pool closed and they refused to get out. They weren't even guests.
- Saw the janitor with a wheelbarrow, a hose, and a shovel. He went somewhere, went to lunch and came back. After his lunch she followed him and asked what was up, he didn't speak good german and just said "Cleaning up African lady leg." Turned out some lady had jumped from the top floor of one side of the building (Hotel was kind of like an L shape, one side higher then the other) hit the emergency ladder on the way down and had her leg torn off before becoming mush on the roof of the other side of the building. He had shoveled most of her into the wheelbarrow at this point, was just working on getting her leg unstuck from the ladder. Acceleratour
"Worked housekeeping for a few weeks..."
Worked housekeeping for a few weeks, guess the weirdest sh!t was a 70 ish couple left their room so I went to clean it. Big bottle of ky and a sex toy so big even Ron Jeremy would have been jealous left out on the bed.
"I was a supervisor at a hotel"
Scary stuff! I was a supervisor at a hotel in Canada about 6 years ago, a man's 80 year old father called me one Sunday morning very worried about his son. He was supposed to meet him at 9 for breakfast but didn't show up, The father asked me to see if he was up in his room. I went up and knocked but no answer, I could hear the shower running so I assumed he was in there. I slid a note under his door to call his father asap and went back to work. 40 minutes later the father called back asking if I found him.
I went back up and was about to knock when I heard the shower still running so I went into full blown panic mode and entered the room, he was on the floor between the two of beds actively overdosing. Called 911 and hopefully saved his life. I have never heard anything more from them. Cleaning the room afterwards was super sketchy because there were needles everywhere.
"I used to work on a military base as a house keeper..."
I used to work on a military base as a house keeper. I was there for about a month and a half.
One time someone checked out early so I had a room added to my list. Knocked, went in and there was blood everywhere. I immediately called down to the the front, I need help now. I was new, I was not prepared for this. Blood. Blood everywhere. It had soaked down through the duvet, layers of sheets to the mattress. There were bloody hand prints everywhere. On the mirrors, on the head boards, on the back of doors, showers, carpet, the kitchenette, in every crack and crevasse of the bathroom, on the shower head... EVERYWHERE. Someone had decided to have a finger painting session during that time of the month with their boyfriend.
Turns out some brass' daughter had got a room while visiting dear ol' dad and had her tinder date over. Daughter had enough foresight to tell her parents that she was on her period and may have bled through the bedding, but she was scared and didn't know what to do. When we said her date was accountable too, she claimed that she 100% didn't have someone else in the room with her. It was $1800 to clean up that mess and replace everything and dad was loosing his mind over it, yelling, and screaming the whole time. They kept saying there was no way that it should cost so much. Calling us liars. After sitting in and listening, calmly, after being screamed at, my boss slid over the pictures to him. From that point on you could hear a pin drop. He got out his checkbook, wrote the check, and quietly left.
"I will NEVER forget this one room"
I will NEVER forget this one room I had to clean as a housekeeper... it was one of my first jobs, I was 16. We were given 30min max per room and I walked in and immediately radioed my manager letting her know I would need longer. The stench smacked me in the face immediately... B.O. and meat. The tan carpet and all of the sheets were stained with deep red bbq sauce and there were over 40 rib bones EVERYWHERE.
There was a tripod left on its side in the corner of the room and handcuffs on the floor lamp, which they obviously lost the key to, because they tried to break the base of the lamp to get them off. I almost cried trying to get the damn bbq sauce out of the carpet... the manager sent two women up to help me when she saw what I was dealing with. I only assume a cheaply made food porn was filmed the night before.
"My mother was once a housekeeper"
Over It Abandon Thread GIFGiphyMy mother was once a housekeeper at a Harrah's casino hotel. She opened up a room and a terrible smell hit her. Apparently a handicapped man staying at the hotel was waiting for his help to show up but they never did and his sh!t had overflowed its container and his phone was dead and he couldn't move. she went to go find help and left that day and never came back.
"Worked a summer job at hotel"
Worked a summer job at hotel near Cedar Point back in the early 90s. Went to a room to see if the guest had left without checking out. She checked out alright. Shot herself in the head on the patio. Room was on the 3rd floor... her blood and brains dripped down 3 floors between the deck slats. Had to keep 3 rooms closed for days afterwards. Lots of power washing and bleach.
Almost as bad as the fella who slipped running on the treadmill and caught his twig and berries between the roller and belt. 911 was summoned.
"My husband use to manage a hotel in our town"
Not me but my husband use to manage a hotel in our town. Our town is very industrial in Alberta (that gave the town away right there) so when oil was high all the hotels where full of drillers and rig pigs and frat boys.
So when morning, the house keepers where cleaning a room and saw a 10" thick sex toy with ribbed edges, metal I believe they thought it was. Course no one touched it to confirm. Left it where it was and finished cleaning the room.
Older tough looking guy was renting the room. No one said anything and he didn't say anything either. This was about 10 years ago.
"My mom cleans houses for a living"
My mom cleans houses and babysits for a living.
It was a Monday, so she hadn't been to this clients home since Friday morning. Come Monday, she's vacuuming the master bedroom as usual. Next she goes down to vacuum under the bed when she sees the clients dead cat fully stretched, like the cats home team just scored a touch down and it's face, eyes and mouth wide open like it had seen a ghost. My Mom screams and calls the family. The father of the family comes and takes care of the cat while keeping it out of sight from his wife.
True story bro. My Mom says she has more weird stories from this house, Lemme know if y'all wanna hear them.
"I was working on a job in a shady part of WA"
on the run hotel GIF by Turner Classic MoviesGiphyI don't know about them, but I was working on a job in a shady part of WA called Yakima. We were working 12-14 hour days. I just left my gun in the drawer and I'm not a cluttery person so I just empty my pockets into the nightstand drawer every night. One day I left my gun, a roll of duct tape, some big zip ties and a knife in the drawer. When I came back, room was clean and the drawer was organized nicer. After that, the housekeeping lady would scuttle away upon my visage.
"I worked as front desk for night shift"
I worked as front desk for night shift (2300 - 0700) in a small (20 rooms) hotel + restaurant. We have a regular customer who used to arrive at 3-4 am, always ringed before arriving cause he demanded help from the staff for his luggage and asked everyone to call him "Doctor". One night he asked me to take out the TV out of his room, I offered him a TV-less room but he insisted on just removing the TV. On another time, he arrived alone (as usual) and stayed for 3 or 4 nights. Last night he filed a complaint about someone from the staff sneaking into his room, drugging him. The weird part is that he arrived alone, and that night it was the only customer in the whole place. It was only him, the guy working as handyman who was in the restaurant at the time and me.
No one saw him go in or out with anyone, when he left his room (alone) at 4am I entered to see if everything was in order, he had put the sheets in the tub and were soaking wet, he ripped the pillow cases and tried to flush them in the toilet, there was a lot of red yarn in the floor. No signs of no one else. It bugged me to this day cause I don't know if he was psychotic or what. Other time one of the housekeeping ladies called me cause there was a bed that looked as if Jack the ripper had killed someone and were covered in blood, really strange.
"I was working through a temp agency for motel 6"
Lmao Lol GIF by OriginalsGiphyI was working through a temp agency for motel 6. So one of the other workers had a room to clean. The occupants were supposed to be gone. So the worker goes into the room and there's a man tied up in the bed with some type of bdsm outfit on. He was gagged also. She didn't even help him lol she just called the cops. He was fine, it was a kink of his but the other person just left him tied up and took all his things.
"I was a bellman at a Holiday Inn"
I was a bellman at a Holiday Inn and was asked to deliver drinks to a guy (who was paralyzed from the waist down) cause he was being "inappropriate" verbally to the restaurant waitresses. He ordered 2 martinis and 2 double screwdrivers... round 4. I walked in to a disaster. Enormous mess. Crap everywhere and chew spit all over everything... including his face. The toilet was covered in poop... of which I told no one for fear they would ask me to clean it up.
As I am about to walk out... he asks me if I want to make $50.... nothing sexual, so he said. I said sure cause I'm a high school student and $50 would be awesome. I trust that he wants nothing sexual and luckily all he asked was for me to go in his van and get him some clean clothes. He was clearly living in this van... the whole thing was full of clothes and crap scattered everywhere. I bring him back the clothes and he actually gave me $50. I come back to work the next day and turns out he wanted waffles at like 2am and cussed them out so bad when they said no that they finally kicked him out.
A tow truck shows up to pull his van to wherever... remember, he is paralyzed. From what I was told, this fool wheeled his chair to the tow truck. Stands up. And climbs into the passenger seat. Turns out he just divorced his wife and was traveling around the area getting all f**ked up and being ridiculous at various hotels. Best of luck to you sir and thanks for the $50.
"I was trying to get into my room"
On the flip side, I was trying to get into my room when I arrived to a hotel late at night by myself. My key wouldn't work so I was confused and trying it multiple times. After a minute or two I'm calling the lobby and a housekeeper comes out of the room with a guy. I'm kind of stunned and confused and say sorry while I'm also on the phone and they're both slinking away, without saying anything, like dogs caught rummaging through the garbage.
I was confused, then amused then, then annoyed at the inconvenience of getting another room. Funny story now though.
"In the 80s my aunt was a maid"
In the 80s my aunt was a maid in a hotel, but was on holiday when this happened. She was Polish, didn't really speak English, and she just made enough money to travel with her husband and friends to Vegas for a vacation. As the night went on in the casino, she decided to go to bed. As she took the elevator, it stopped one floor up and two huge dudes in suits walked in (I mean, like ceiling high) and a short man came in with them, smiling at my aunt.
They pushed the Penthouse Button. As my aunt was, well, scared, especially the two huge dudes and a grinning stranger, she started panicking, talking to them in Polish not to hurt her and giving them her watch. The men were obviously really confused, but the short one couldn't stop laughing. As the elevator stopped on her floor, she ran to her room, glancing back at the elevator. She noticed the men were checking which room she was in.
Of course, she panicked, didn't sleep all night, kept talking to her husband how she almost got kidnapped or whatever, but nothing happened all night. In the morning, someone knocked on the door. As they opened, a hotel employee said they got a gift from someone. It was a huge bouquet of roses. In each rose was a 100$ bill. And a card saying: "To the crazy lady from the elevator. Thanks for the watch- Eddie Murphy"
True story.
"So I was doing one of my first few overnight desk shifts"
water wolf GIFGiphyOh oh pick me!
So I was doing one of my first few overnight desk shifts at a hotel it had been a fairly quiet night until this point. I go into the server room behind the desk and there's water POURING from the ceiling. Like literally just pouring out over all of the computers. So I call my on duty security guard and my management team who tells me to have my security guard go to every room above the server room until they figured out where the water was coming from. He finally figured it out around 4-6 floors up..
So he gets to the room and sees water spilling out from under the door so he knocks, no answer, repeats this a couple times (deadbolt was locked so the master key was useless) he FINALLY gets in (maintenance came up with the deadbolt key thing) and this dude is laying on the bed Stark naked spread eagle (and this was a BIG dude) and there's a lady of the night also naked passed out in the shower with it on full blast and her butt over the drain.
She flooded 5-6 floors of rooms (1 room per floor) all the way down to the server room.
"I've been a hotel manager for about 5 years"
I'm late to this because I'm working overnight at a hotel tonight and I just woke up. I've been a hotel manager for about 5 years (a year of that was spent in housekeeping) and the worst was a chick who had overdosed on something and smeared poop literally all over herself and the bathroom. The smell was indescribable. There were sex toys and syringes everywhere too. Her boyfriend tried to call us and say she had just forgotten to take her insulin that night... I think I showered like 10 times after work that day.
Most recently the weirdest thing we found was a cat. Some fool had left a cat in his room and trashed it. The cat had no food, no water and no litter box but was the sweetest little dude ever. The owner called back and tried to get his cat and we lied and said we'd turned him over to animal services. He's happily living with another manager now.
Another time, another manager and I were inspecting rooms and she radioed me to say there was a brown smudge on a pillow and she wasn't sure if it was poop or chocolate. She asked me if she should touch it and I said yes, like an a**hole. It was poop.
"Not what I walked in to.... but the aftermath"
angry oh no GIF by CBCGiphyNot what I walked in to.... but the aftermath Two very business looking men, clean cut, amazing manners, five star reserves. High class hotel. Stayed for a week. DND sign in door. Left garbage and dirty towels outside door. Walk in. Omg. First I see a puddle of blood in the hall. Turn left into bathroom. Blood and human feces ALL over the place. Yes, even the ceiling. Freak out. Think someone was murdered. Investigate deeper. Used condoms TIED to the lamp shades. Blood and feces all in the beds. On the walls. Headboards. Desk. You name it. Condoms galore. Must have been $200 worth of them. "Dirty" bottles and toys (if you know what I mean). Freaking TERRIFYING. Hazmat came in to save the day. Got a $100 tip. I can't put into words everything I saw that day. But imagine.
"We rent out whole hotels and the staff knows"
On the flip side of this... I go to kinky parties in hotels. Like we rent out whole hotels and the staff knows. Most people try and do a good job putting away toys before the housekeepers come in. I went down to the pool with a few friends and then we came back to her room.
She put the do not disturb thing in the door but in Vegas or at least the hotel we were staying in they do wellness checks on the third day. They made the bed, cleaned the bathroom, put her various stuffed animals on the bed, her diapers on the table and her plugs lined up on the nightstand. We felt super bad for the staff. As a rule of the party people are suppose to be respectful of the staff. Don't put the staff in any awkward situation that kind of stuff....
It was an honest mistake. It wasn't my room but I wish they would have just turned around and left. no one got in trouble with the people hosting the event or the hotel but it is one of those things where we are trying to be as polite as possible because we are all nice people and not many hotels will let us do this.
26.
To every housekeeper reading this ... as a former road warrior... thank you for your thankless work... I used to stay 200+ nights a year in hotels and you made it bearable in 99% of the time... road warriors sitting on a clean throne deucing right now be sure to drop some cash on the bed to say thanks when you check out - And say hi when walking down the hall... you'll make a crap job a little better for the person cleaning up after you.
"I was the one that was found by housekeeping"
drunk on one GIFGiphyI was the one that was found by housekeeping. Passed out after a night of drinking on the strip. But was "smart" enough to take my clothes off and sleep in the bathtub to avoid having to clean vomit the next morning. Was woken up by housekeeping poking me with a broom stick and asking if I was alive. Forgot to put the do not disturb sign on my door.
"I'm currently housekeeping in a small town in Utah"
I'm currently housekeeping in a small town in Utah. This isn't too weird, but there were a lot of polygamists staying in our hotel and working at a local farm. Most of them had pictures/shrines with pictures of Warren Jeffs in their rooms. Gave me the chills for sure.
Also, I walked in on a guy sprawled out buttnaked, sleeping. I don't know how he didn't hear me knock super loud and yell "HOUSEKEEPING" but he was sleeping like a baby with his penis out.
"I was at random party"
fried chicken eating GIFGiphyI was at random party taking place in a suite and I go into the bathroom and see a guy in the bathtub with an entire rotisserie chicken. He looks up at me and sticks out a greasy finger as he finishes chewing and then says, "Don't mind me."
"I was a second shift house attendant"
I was a second shift house attendant at a decently fancy hotel attached to a casino. This was one catered towards businessmen and high rollers. Well one night I'm delivering chocolates to the VIPs. Basically the important people get complementary chocolate with their stay. One of the rooms was a suite, which is like a small apartment with a sorta hook shape. You walk in, there's an entry area that leads to a small dining area and then it turns about 30 degrees into a living room type area and then hooks again to the bedroom with the bathroom in the same view. I think you see where I'm going with this. Basically, I knock a few times and get no response and since there's no Do Not Disturb up I head in and cautiously poke my head around. Good thing I did because I see two dudes in the bathroom going at it. They're doing it, hard in that tub. So I freaked out a bit, leave the chocolate on a nearby table and dip the heck out.
"As a guest on the 7th floor..."
season 4 help GIF by Black SailsGiphyAs a guest on the 7th floor in a South Korean hotel I thought it was weird they had a "In case of fire" box with a rope about 2-3 stories in length.
"Crabs!"
Crabs! Crabs everywhere! It was a hotel by the ocean and in a huge 4 bedroom 2 level suite. They people staying there took the time to put crabs EVERYWHERE. In the coffee pots, the toilet, the vases, the sinks, the dishes in the cupboard etc... Most were tiny babies and still alive. We put them in buckets and took them back to the beach. . But honestly it was so fricking weird
"One time I walked into a room"
One time I walked into a room and it was completely covered in red stains. Absolutely everywhere you could see. On the beds, the carpets, the floors, the walls, all over the bathroom. And even a bit on the ceiling. No idea how they managed to do that. At first I thought it may be blood, but then I noticed it reeked of alcohol. They spilled red wine absolutely everywhere. The room had to be shut down and they had to bring up the shampoo machines. I think they may have had to repaint too.
Bonus story: That very same day I walked into a room that was very heavily smoked in. The smell was so extremely bad, that I couldn't breathe at all. My manager said that it takes at least five people chainsmoking for at least twelve hours straight to make a room smell as bad as that one did. That also required a machine. And they had to replace the mattresses and curtains. Smoking was not allowed anywhere in the hotel.
"I used to work in reservations"
I used to work in reservations in a big chain hotel in London. Housekeeping once told us there was one regular guest who used to ALWAYS leave a single whole in-tact raw egg in the bed when they checked out. Nobody ever figured out why or where on earth they got that single raw egg in the middle of central London (grocery stores aren't frequent in the area and they certainly don't sell eggs one by one).
"A couple came to this luxury dude ranch"
A couple came to this luxury dude ranch I worked at and spent over $5000 to stay there only to not come out of their room the entire time. Went in to clean the room when they left and saw incredibly expensive unopened alcohol and boxes of sex toys around the room. On the bed they left a note that said enjoy.....um what? We threw out the toys (who would use a used sex toy left by an unknown person?) and got hammered that night.
"In the late 90s"
Chicago Bulls Wrestling GIF by WWEGiphyIn the late 90s I had a roommate who managed a hotel in Manhattan. He came home one night and told me they found a 3 foot Nitrous tank in one of the rooms. They disposed of it personally. These days they would probably call the bomb squad.
"This couple made a hasty retreat"
This couple made a hasty retreat from a five-star hotel I was working for. They left an entire brick of cocaine on the bathroom counter.
"Cleaned a room..."
Cleaned a room that contained both a deck of Uno cards and a knock-off deck of Ono cards
"Someone I know..."
Someone I know worked housekeeping at a casino. He walked in on a guy smearing poop over the walls with his bare hands. He was pissed that he lost money and thought he was justified to do it. Housekeeping called security, he was charged and banned.
"One of the housekeepers was asleep in the chair..."
We had a hotel room one time and checked in around 3-4 ish (can't remember what hotel it was). When we walked in one of the housekeepers was asleep in the chair, apparently had taken a rest and checked out, for who knows how long. We woke her up when we came in the room. She was very apologetic and took her cart and stuff with her right away. We never said anything to the staff or saw her again, the room was all clean and set up so nothing to complain about.
If she is anything like the housekeepers I know that was one of MANY jobs, working double shifts isn't uncommon and many of those ladies work extra when offered. You are good people for not saying anything.
"Working double shifts"
Agreed, that lady needed that sleep. No one willingly breaks rules, and jeopardizes their job unless they're desperate for some sleep.
"I stayed at a hotel that hosted a Magic The Gathering tournament"
magic GIFGiphyI stayed at a hotel that hosted a Magic The Gathering tournament (was visiting Atlantic City, only realized what it was as I played magic a decade ago). In the morning as I was leaving a housekeeper had a room opening and cleaning; he stops me and says "wtf is this? Is it worth money?" I look in and someone has filled the bathtub nearly to the brim with lands/commons.
"I worked as a Concierge"
I worked as a Concierge for an upscale hotel so, naturally, because there wasn't a line for my desk, I fielded complaints regularly. One day a woman, very nice and patient (rare) calmly explained to me that her five year old opened the door to their bathroom and there was a housekeeper pooping in there. The housekeeper and the boy screamed so loudly that I had already gotten noise complaints from the adjacent rooms. Needless to say, that family got a free night and an upgrade.
"I worked for a hotel chain in Colorado"
GiphyI worked for a hotel chain in Colorado and one day my coworker and I went to strip a bed and the bed was full of oranges. The dresser oranges. Side table, cans of mandarin oranges. Not exactly shocking or disgusting, but it was weird.
"
Had an American guy come into our hotel"
Hotel worker.
Had an American guy come into our hotel, meant to be staying for 3 days. Went into his room and never left the room in over 2 weeks (he kept phoning down to extend his stay).
The strange thing was, he had the same routine every day. Around 8am, he would order 8 bottles of beer and 20 cigarettes to be sent up to his room. He'd sign the cheque off to his room for the beers but had to pay cash for the cigarettes as they came from the hotel shop, which wasn't owned by the hotel therefore wasn't able to charge to the room. The cigarettes came to around £11, and he would always give us a £20 note and told us to keep the change.
Lunchtime rolls around, and again, 8 bottles of beer, and 20 cigarettes.
Come dinner time, again, another 8 beers, but 40 cigarettes this time (assuming to keep a stock of when the shop closed at night time).
This happened every day he was staying with us. No one ever saw him leave the hotel, so assumed he had a stack of £20 notes to pay for his cigarettes. He also instructed housekeeping not to clean his room.
When he eventually left, the maid was greeted with hundreds of empty beer bottles, the bin was half full with cigarette ends and ash, and the room was left remarkably clean, albeit smelling awful.
We tried to research the guy, but could only find he was part of an American broadcasting company (it was a long time ago and can't remember), so assumed he was over here to lie low.
He checked out, paid off his bill (didn't even bother to check the bill), into a taxi and never to be seen again.
"I walked in on a couple sleeping"
I walked in on a couple sleeping on the bathroom floor of a hotel room in the hotel I work for. The bed was untouched and everything was normal with that one exception.
"Last time I went to a Vegas casino"
Last time I went to a Vegas casino for a conference, they said my room wasn't ready yet but they'd text me when it was. A few hours later I got the text and went to the room. Upon entering I could hear a loud vacuum cleaner running, and saw a man on his hands and knees working on the floor behind the bed with a wet vac. I cautiously approached because I knew he didn't hear me enter. I inevitably startled him, and he stood up and shouted, "you're not supposed to be here yet!" I said, "I got a text that the room was ready and an electronic key sent to my phone."
He glanced down at the floor behind the bed, and back at me and calmly said, "This is really bad. It's going to take me a while. This is really bad." I asked, "what is it?" He said, "Not sure but it's bad."
I shrugged and set my bags down on the clean side of the room. I figured 2 "really bad" ratings from a man who's job is to clean Vegas hotel rooms is probably advice I should heed. But also made me realize I've stayed in rooms like that without knowing what kind of damage had been previously done. At least I knew not to walk on that side of the bed.
"I was an IT guy for a casino"
I was an IT guy for a casino. Got a call that a guest couldn't get his device connected to the wifi, so I had to go up and give him a hand.
Come to get his tablet connected. He's in the room. Older guy (60+), wearing a pair of gold booty shorts. He's got three girls (ID's meant they had to be 21, but they weren't much more than that) in there with him. Thongs and fuzzy high heeled slippers. Topless, shameless.
They want to connect the iPad so he can play some video to go along with the game they're playing. Couple bags of "toys" and tubes of stuff scattered all around the room. I've got my own kinks so, who am I to judge?
Got his stuff connected, and they were able to get his movie, and got it playing on the TV in the room. He tipped me a couple hundred bucks, all in $50's. I took the money.
Find out later, he was a VIP card member, and typically dropped $20 grand or so on the tables.
"I was a house keeper at a dive of a hotel"
I was a house keeper at a dive of a hotel in Chico, CA in the late 90's. A week or so before a local homeless woman had stuck her arm in a tiger's cage (a circus that was traveling through town) and got mauled. That weekend I was cleaning rooms and knocked on the door of a room paid for by a local charity organization. It turned out the guest was in the middle of sexy time. Quickly realizing it wasn't a good time to clean the room I said I would come back later.
To my dismay the woman opened the door and asked me to join her and her friend, I declined. She then reached out and grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me in. Her arm was covered in bandages and lacerations. It was the woman who had been tiger mauled! I yanked my arm free and ran away, I'll never forget what her shredded bandaged hand looked like.
"a friend was a maid at a cheap hotel"
Not my story but a friend was a maid at a cheap hotel in our university town. She has a bunch of gross and weird stories but the most absurd is when she came into work and found a full abandoned methlab in the bathroom of one of the rooms.
Her manager made her clean up a bunch of trash from the different ingredients and scrub chemical stains that must have been left by spills. Apperantly the room smelled like a bad science experiment (or just normal meth) and the management refused to get any police involved.
I imagine they believed it would discourage their regular clientele. I believe she quit very soon after.
"Worked at a huge water park resort"
Worked at a huge water park resort. I was doing a late shift at a time of year when the resort was almost empty. So, tired of knocking on all the doors, I just barged into the rooms.
(To clarify, I always knocked. But I was getting tired after 20 or so rooms without a guest.)
Come this room in the 4th floor. I walk in and there's an old, heavy guy feasting on a bucket of fried chicken. Lights off, in front of the TV. He stared at me for a couple of seconds and I apologized before he could say anything. Left the room immediately.
I later found out that room was supposed to be vacant. I have no idea where he came from, why he was there or how he got there.
"my friend from Ukraine worked at a crappy casino"
GiphyNot me, but my friend from Ukraine worked at a crappy casino hotel in Wendover, Nevada because they would sponsor his work visa. He wasn't a housekeeper but would have to do maintenance in rooms. He said one day he went to a room where the people had already checked out and there was a chicken in the room. Like a live chicken. Just chilling there.
Maybe the story is funnier when he tells it with his accent.
Why eez cheeken in room?
Hotel and service industry people have seen it all... that's why we should all leave better tips!
Do you have an experience to share? Put it in the comments below!
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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