Hotels can be great places to work, but it's definitely not always an easy job. Guests can be demanding, but they also get up to all sorts of freaky things behind closed doors. Often, they leave hotel staff have to deal with the aftermath.
Reddit user u/Silver_Reddit asked:
"Housekeepers who worked in casinos/hotels, what's the weirdest thing you walked into?"
20.Â
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
19.
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.
18.
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).
17.
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.
16.
In the late 90's 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.
15.
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.
14.
Cleaned a room that contained both a deck of Uno cards and a knock-off deck of Ono cards
13.
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.
12.
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.
Agreed, that lady needed that sleep. No one willingly breaks rules, and jeopardizes their job unless they're desperate for some sleep.
11.
I 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.
10.
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.
9.
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I 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.
8.
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.
7.
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.
6.
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.
5.
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.
4.
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.
3.
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.
2.
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.
1.
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Not 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?
