Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Content warning: suicide mention
Hotels are the vacation destination of tourists both local and foreign. For the vast majority of us, we come home with great photos and stories of our holiday, including how our stay went and whether we recommend the hotel or not.
These are the tales that you don’t hear about, from hospitality and hotel staff, about the other things that go on in hotels – the stuff that you, as a guest, will never ever hear about:
This guest checked in, but never left
This guest checked into their room and proceeded to order enough room service and refills for the minibar to make three or four people very, very happy.
The room was tagged with a Do Not Disturb sign for the entirety of his three-day two-night stay so housekeeping didn’t clean the room for the duration of the guest’s stay.
On the 3rd day, someone from the front office flagged the room and, following standard procedure, security and housekeeping both went to check on the room. As they entered the room, they found that the curtains were drawn, no lights were on and the aircon was set to a wintery 16C. The guest was found surrounded by empty minibar alcohol bottles and the remains of his last meal.
The police were called, records were checked and the truth came out: the gentleman in question was a terminal cancer patient and had checked in, ordered a great last meal, watched pay-per-view TV movies, and then overdosed on his prescribed painkillers while listening to The Eagles’ “Hotel California.”
More than one staffer made the joke that he would never check out and then somebody started a rumor that the room might just be haunted….
The HIV+ bloodbath that was left for housekeeping
A couple checked in and paid in cash for their one-night stay. In the middle of the night, we received noise complaints about their room and the complaints included some shouting (him), some screaming (her), and the sounds of breaking glass.
Security was sent up to check immediately and they reported back that everything was fine – it was just a “minor” domestic dispute because both had partaken of a few drinks at dinner earlier that evening. There were no further complaints so we let things be.
The couple came down early the following morning to check out. They apologised for all the noise and explained that they had a fight and that some blood had been spilled. They were hesitant and then one of the guests added that housekeeping has to be extra careful when cleaning because they were HIV positive! Then they made a beeline for their pre-ordered taxi and left.
The room was tagged for special clean-up, which means a specialised cleaning service had to be called in. The room itself resembled a slaughterhouse! Blood coated an entire wall next to the TV, there was blood on the sheets, pillowcases, and it had even soaked into the mattress. All the soft furnishings and even the wallpaper had to be stripped and thrown!
The blood had even soaked into the carpet and stained the wooden floor beneath it, meaning that we had to tear out the carpets and also get the wooden parquet flooring redone! The room was tagged “out of order” for almost a year, and by order of hotel management, that room is not to be sold even if it is the last available room in the property.
Stabbed by a needle while cleaning
Working in housekeeping means you run risks other departments don’t, and that includes cleaning up all manner of biological and toxic waste materials. These guests had left their used syringes bundled in the towels that were in the bathtub for changing.
I only found out about that after I was stabbed through the palm of my hand. I called my superior in near hysterics and I have to credit them for the swift action that they took.
I was rushed to the hospital immediately where I didn’t have to wait even a single minute. Within a half-hour, I had Hepatitis and tetanus shots, two different HIV prevention medications prescribed for six months, and then monthly HIV tests scheduled for the next year!
Physically I was fine after a day but mentally I was pretty traumatised by the whole experience. My supervisor fought in my corner like a rabid wolverine and arranged for me to get a transfer out to a support position (desk job) because I was so scared of getting stabbed again.
The doctors kept assuring me that the tests and meds were all more precautionary than necessary. A follow-up call with the guest had them fax over medical records that showed that the needle was used for insulin and that they were also HIV negative, but still!
Screaming murder on the 6th floor
I was the night auditor at a small hotel, and I was coming off shift one morning after covering a few extra hours. One of the new room attendants ran down to the front desk and informed me that they could hear someone being attacked in one of the rooms on the 6th floor.
I grabbed my keys, alerted security, and headed upstairs immediately. I was barely out of the elevator, and I could hear the noise that the new room attendant had heard. Someone was definitely not being attacked.
Yes, she was screaming her head off, and he was roaring like a lion but he was obliging her repeated requests for “Harder! Harder!” I found a number of guests standing outside their rooms, listening with reactions ranging from amusement to disgust.
I called the front desk and asked them to give the room an “automated” wake-up call to settle them back down. Then I had to explain to the poor shaking housekeeper that what she had heard was not the sound of someone being murdered…
Caught in the corridor
I was working the night shift at the front desk when a guest came up to me giggling uncontrollably. He explained that a couple was stuck naked outside of their room. I was still on probation so I had to report the situation to my supervisor, who went up to check it out with security.
My supervisor came back a short while later and filled me in on the details. The couple was not naked, just clad in their underwear. It turns out they had dashed into the corridor to leave their room service trays outside, but they had accidentally let the door slip shut.
They were left out in the corridor, where the husband stood in front of his wife to protect her modesty, hoping that someone would pass by and be able to get them some help. Lucky for them, someone did agree to get them help.
I learned from the experience and made sure to at least put on a bathrobe and the keycard in my pocket whenever I put my in-room dining trays out of my room!
An alcohol-driven show
In the hotel where I worked, the reception desk was right next to the bar. This meant that if you were working night shifts, you almost always got to see something interesting when the bar closed up for the night.
Around midnight one night, some drunk girl wound up puking right in front of reception. The duty manager mopped the floors and signs were placed down to alert people that the floor was slippery and to be careful.
Of course, with the bar being a scant ten feet away and drunk people not being the type to read, this led to a night of entertainment and potential mini-crises to be managed.
There were a number of near misses but the “winners” were the two girls in towering six-inch heels who decided to go to the washroom. They walked out of the bar, right onto the freshly mopped and polished floor, with the inevitable results.
One promptly had her feet skid out from under her as if she’d stepped on the cartoon banana peel.
The second had the longest fall of my life as she alternated between skittering and sliding in her heels before slamming face-first into a pillar on almost the other side of the lobby.
Fortunately, both waved away any offer of help from me – good news because I had to duck in the back and giggle like I was drunk for a few minutes after witnessing that!
Right after that, the group of young Korean men who were wandering around the hotel after the bar closed came up to me and sheepishly asked me to help them locate their room.
I took one look at their keycard and realised that they were in the wrong hotel! No wonder they couldn’t find their room…
Hotels are transient places for many people – and the events that go on behind the scenes reflects that
From the light-hearted to the shocking and sometimes downright depressing, this just goes to show that there’s a lot going on in a hotel that the guest is never privy to.
The staff just hope that you will have a great stay at their property without needless complications and drama!
For more stories like this, read: Affairs, Secret Adoptions & Surprise Siblings: Malaysians Share Their Family Secrets and I’m A Foreign Cleaner In Malaysia, Here’s My Story: Why I Became A Cleaner & What It’s Like.
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