What happens in a 5-star hotel doesn’t always stay in a 5-star hotel. It may sound like a sentence out of nowhere, but hear us out. Movies and TV shows let us in on what goes on at luxury accommodations — you know, VIPs throwing wild parties, shady trades, and sex workers offering their services. But the thing is, these are far from being just rumors, and there’s so much more happening behind those polished doors. Hotel employees have a front-row seat to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the industry, and luckily for us, they’re sometimes willing to share tidbits of hotel secrets that management wouldn’t want you to know.
So here we are with an exciting, tea-spilling round of luxury hotel confessions! Today we’re serving a steaming cup of piping hot gossip, complete with luxury hotel insider tips and some rather dark hotel stories that’ll make you question everything you thought you knew about 5-star accommodations. As it turns out, there’s a whole host of hotel industry gossip and staff secrets lurking beneath the surface. We found some brave 5-star hotel employees who shared their most scandalous experiences — and if you’re a fan of shocking hotel stories, you’re in for a treat!
In this compelling exposé, we collected everything from the pettiest guest requests to the biggest cover-ups, as shared by the hotel employees who have seen it all. By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll have enough hotel staff secrets to rival the juiciest tabloid headlines. You’ll learn about the bizarre requests made by high-rolling guests, the mysterious happenings in vacant rooms, and the creative ways staff members handle the unexpected. But be warned: after these confessions of hotel insiders, there’s no going back to blissful ignorance. Let the tea-spilling commence!
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paperconservation101 wrote:
"My SO worked for a fancy hotel. The building owners (not the chain, the actual building itself) came to visit. He was on the Forbes billionaire list.
He was a nice man who had buffet lunches everyday and tipped every staff members he saw a crisp $100, every time he saw them.
House keeper walking past? $100. Bar tender setting up? $100
Shift swap? 100 on the way in and out."
Hungboy6969420 replied:
"This is how you billionaire"
"When we see 'instagram influencer' on your booking, we roll our eyes."
Cool-Lemon-7662 wrote:
"A lot of lonely people going on vacation to end their life. Happens a lot but is never mentioned on the news."
Zebidee replied:
"I've left the 'do not disturb' sign on the door all day because I wanted a quiet day alone, and around 4PM housekeeping plus a manager came and knocked to do a welfare check for this exact reason.
Note that I've spent a lot of time in hotels and have only had that happen once, but it makes sense I guess."
"We don’t want you to know that the people who stayed in the room before you were nasty.
Housekeeping gets the brunt of it. I’ve seen them carry out bags of used s*x toys, peel used condoms off of every surface, and scrub sh*t - actual human (presumably) - off places there’s no reason for human sh*t to be.
The worst, though, was the couple that wanted a home birth but not, you know, at home (because gross). we had to deal with that hazmat situation. Screwed them as hard as we could with penalties and fees, though."
Apologies for being gross but the s**t thing I don't understand. I've heard stories from my niece (who works in a hotel) about human c**p being smeared all along a cupboard and on a TV in a hotel room once. I said 'was it kids?' That's gross enough. She said 'nope, just a middle aged, normal looking couple' beggars belief. Why? How? What for? The questions are endless. Maybe I don't want to know.
nintendorks0401 wrote:
"As part of our training as bellman we are to ask open ended questions to the children to make sure they aren't being used for s*x trafficking when bringing in luggage to "Dad and daughter" types. My dad works in security in the same hotel so he often gives me a heads up if the guest with the child is already under suspicion regarding their behavior at the front desk for check in. It rarely happens but hotels are the breeding grounds for s*x traffickers."
chibinoi replied:
"That’s so sad to hear, but I’m glad to hear hotel staff at your place have training to look for signs of s*x trafficking."
"I spent 10 years in the boutique and 5 star hotel world. Got stories for days. But here is my favorite that sums up hospitality (former anyways).
Our concierge was Les Clefs D'or, had all the connections, this dude could get you into the French Laundry same day. He would often greet guests with sangria and sprigs of mint from his garden. Sometimes he had lemon slices from his tree too! He loved to tell guests all about his garden and they ate it up.
Yeah that's all nonsense. Mint, lemon, and any other garnish we got from the local grocery store. The sangria? Cheapest boxed stuff we could find. But he sold the story like no other. At the end of the day, it worked."
"I was a valet in college at a very swanky resort. The members had a certain sticker on their car and the owners/partners have a black sticker (which I had no clue) but knew they belonged. When a guy pulled up in a very nice Benz I said, “welcome back (not knowing his name). He was so p*ssed that I didn’t know who he was, he was an a** to me but I couldn’t care less. Moments later another younger guy pulled up to valet and asked me what the guy said to me. I hesitantly said he was mad I had no idea who he was. The young guy (looked disappointed) and said “that’s my father and he is an a**hole, don’t worry about him at all.” Then he gave me $20 to park his car and was extremely nice to every employee who ever interacted with him."
"I worked in 3.5 Star properties and it was the same. I actually had someone say "do you know who I am? I could take one of your stats away." The stars are for amenities not quality. I told him the same thing, that every guest regardless of who they are gets the same service."
"My husband worked at several luxury hotels and residences (rich people who live at the hotels) and besides how absolutely disgusting everything inside the rooms actually is... I was most shocked by the behavior of the ultra rich.
I’m not talking businessmen and doctors. I’m talking Saudi Princes and Heirs to Dynasty families. The level of comfort and technology these people have come to expect is things we cannot imagine.
“What do you mean there isn’t there access to intercoms next to the bathroom for when I need services while going potty?” “The television inside the shower is only a 40 inch and there is no gold in this room I need a better suite”. “I’m gonna need you to go out, buy me better bedding, remake my bed, and then do it again tomorrow because I won’t sleep on the same bedding twice”.
And that’s just the tip of the icebergs."
When we'd have some middle eastern royalty come in they would have massive staff. Including one person who had staff to wipe their butt.
ApostrophesAplenty wrote:
I’ve always wanted to know: how does a celebrity’s alias for a booking get advised to the hotel? Does their assistant or whoever makes the reservation say that the booking is for JeffMegaStar (or whatever the celeb’s name is), but they will be travelling under “Phil McCracken” or whatever?
And how does the person doing the check-in know that the person standing in front of them (who they may or may not recognise) is going to be under “McCracken”?"
OldheadBoomer replied:
"I've worked with a few celebrities and athletes in the past, in a different capacity than hospitality. The ones I worked with always used fake names, plus their room was actually reserved and paid for by their assistants so their name never showed on paperwork. However, since they were listed as staying in the room, their name was added to the card, and that's where the fake name comes in.
One guy, the late author Tom Clancy, always used the name of his lead character, Jack Ryan when getting a room."
We had celebrities in the hospital. They always had fake names. And in rounds we referred to them by their fake names. Not sure how medical records kept it straight.
"NEVER EVER EVER (I REPEAT!!) USE A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN FROM A HOTEL OR BANQUET HALL!!!
Picture this: it’s an expensive Sunday brunch. Well little Timmy just double fisted strawberries directly into that chocolate, bit into both strawberries then triple dipped into the chocolate AGAIN! And some old rich lady just sneezed on it. And somebody else just dropped their snack into it. The best part: that chocolate gets strained and saved for the next weeks brunch. Chocolate is waaay too expensive to throw away.
Chocolate also does this thing where it’ll seize if it has the wrong moisture content (from people dipping fruit, and the juices going into the chocolate.) So it’ll get so thick it won’t run through the machine. Wanna know how they fix that? They add canola oil until it’s smooth again.
So, yeah, next time you’re at a wedding and they have a chocolate fountain, think of this post. Think of this post when you dip into that dirty watered down with oil chocolate."
Ew. I don't even want to KNOW about the one at golden corral dammit. I knew that chocolatey fountain of wonder was too good to be true. Should have thought it through
"Did maintenance at some hotels as pure grunt labor.
People will flush anything down a toilet.
Towels, sheets, giant sh*ts that no human could have possibly downloaded, pillows, paper, food, bottles, and just about everything else.
Best one ever, got a call to snake a toilet in a room. Twitchy Latin guy tells me it is super important I be careful to not damage said flushed item. Gotcha. I managed to fish out his bags of various powders and pills out without breaking a single bag open. He offered me some product as a tip, and when I declined, just handed me a stack of $20s and ushered me out the door. It was an $1,800 tip.
Oh, and ladies, tampons and pads do NOT get flushed down the toilet.
And for everyone else, flushable wipes, aren't."
Flushable wipes are evil. We had a house sitter when my mom was on sabbatical and we ended up having to pay a couple hundred bucks to get all that s**t unclogged.
"As soon as you walk in ask tons of questions about every aspect of the hotel. Always order a specialty cocktail with dinner or lunch, and use every outlet of the hotel. They will immediately flag you as a forbes shopper. Everyone in the hotel will know your name, and a picture we stole from your Facebook will be all over the hotel behind the scenes.
You'll get the best service you've ever had."
northwesthonkey wrote:
"Not a 5 star hotel, but I worked at a Hilton in Seattle and we had a furry convention.
One of the cats pooped in the elevator."
OSRSgamerkid replied:
"By "cats" do you mean...?"
I have nothing against doing stuff that makes you happy in your free time, but aggressively gross furries should be treated with the same contempt as other a******s.
Soullikeether wrote:
"Bedbugs. Every single hotel from run down motels to 5-star resorts has dealt with bedbugs."
AninOnin replied:
"And I've never seen one. How do they deal with them so quickly and effectively?"
Tkieron added:
"Massively exterminate them by cleaning the entire room.
Hotels have a protocol for dealing with a bedbug infestation because it can destroy the hotel/corp reputation and even bankrupt the company. Bad news travels fast. So if it gets out it's incredibly bad for years.
So they go scorched Earth on the room. Steam cleaning, massive chemical cleaning, bagging everything up etc. Cleaning companies come in etc.
They take it as serious as anything else bad that can happen. It's a terrible issue PR-wise."
We'd get folks with bedbugs in the hospital all the time. It's caught at admission (I was in a psych ER so everyone was stopped and examined on admit. All cloth is bagged, the person is showered with some chemical, and the room is fumigated.
"Used to work in one as well.
Would often get famous guests trying to break the rules because it was convenient for them or because their children wanted it.
I don’t care who you are, rules are rules, if we say no open flames in an area, we mean it."
"Was in room service. If someone buys a bottle of booze and doesn’t open it (e.g. they leave it out for us to take), policy is to bring it back to the kitchen to put into inventory to be resold. A coworker shared that the record, as far as they knew, was one bottle of champagne that was re-sold 7 times"
"I use to work events at hotels and one time we had a guest break their wine glass inside a water refill barrel... I left work for two weeks to go on vacation and when I came back, all the glass was still piled inside the water refill barrel. People must have been drinking out of it because there were events booked while I was gone."
Omg this one makes me so mad as an ex manager. Glass clean up safety procedures must always be taken seriously and dealt with asap. I would have fired who was on shift
"I am a subcontractor that works in the It business and the W hotel in Miami beach has seen some things. One day I come in to work and there is a big scramble at the upper floors(that is were the penthouse are). Seems this kinda known millionaire, had a little too much drugs and god knows what else and was destroying the room. He was actually throwing furniture out the balcony, ripped everything out of the fridge, might of even thrown a mattress out the balcony. It was a big deal at the time but they keep it hush with no police involved, a guy that’s paying 9k-13k a night is not going to be arrested. When the team finally got into the room, there was cocaine all over the tables, bottles everywhere, and a couple of high class call girls that were in true fear. Next day they book the same room to Jennifer Lopez."
"Never trust glass in rooms. GRAs are so stretched thin on time that they will clean the glasses with the same rags they clean the bathroom, after all their goal is to make the room look clean.
I worked as a GRA in a five diamond for years and there was over a year period that went by where we didn’t get a clean glass delivery. We didn’t have dishwashers in the room, so management was complicit. This was in a five diamond, one of the top resorts in the world. Never trust glass in hotel rooms."
"Worked in five star hotels in Beverly Hills.. boy do I have stories:
Husbands who will say hello to staff with their mistress on their arm on Thursday night and their wife on Friday night.
Famous teen celebrity left a room full of needles and various dr*g paraphernalia behind for housekeeping to clean up.
Middle eastern royalty ships in multiple Ferraris and Lamborghinis to the hotel from their home country to drive for the week; caught drag racing later that night by the cops in the neighborhoods of Beverly Hills.
Largest checkout bill I’ve ever seen was roughly $2 million for guest who rented out an entire floor of suites for three weeks, promptly paid via wire transfer.
Had to procure $100k cash for a guest whose wife wanted to shop on Rodeo Drive the next morning, the local bank doesn’t even have that much. Had to get an armored car from the central LA bank branch to deliver."
"I don't work in one anymore, but used to. This isn't really shenanigans, but: the staff is not nearly so impressed by famous or rich people as some of them seemed to think we should be. It was a fancy hotel. We had rich and famous guests all the time. And it was usually the ones nowhere near the top of the ladder who tried to be the most imperious and expected the most deference. If you have to try to convince us you're high status, you aren't. We'd provide polite, professional service for all our guests and try to be helpful and accommodating, but being a C-list actor or whatever isn't going to get you a table in a full restaurant or an upgrade to the already-occupied fancier suites. And if there's a severe blizzard and the airport is closed, we can't open it for you because you're too special to have to wait to fly out. Even if you're a Very Important Businessman."
"Not a 5-star hotel, but about 2 years ago I was on a work trip in a Midwest city. Mid-range hotel for a major brand, which I picked because I have status with them.
I went to Orangetheory Fitness after I finished with the client. Picked up takeout and went back to the room. After I cleaned up I got into bed to watch a couple episodes of Jane the Virgin. I kept getting a whiff of... something. I thought was my gross sweaty workout clothes.
Went to bed and about 10 minutes in I realized I was... damp. You know how sometimes you wake up sweaty? But not 10 minutes after turning in. I then realized that the previous guest had p*ed in the bed.
Went down to the front desk and they were horrified. And got me in a new room super fast. And we’re so apologetic.
Housekeeping should have caught it but honestly if they were using gloves and the smell wasn’t strong, I can see how they missed it."
"I worked in security for one and housekeeping called us all the time for dr*gs they’d find in a room. The first thing we’d ask for is the room number and we’d look up the name of the guest. If it was a VIP or someone important to us we’d tell them to leave it there and “we’d take care of it.”
If the guest was someone we didn’t know and not important to us we’d go up there and take it out of the room, then threaten to evict them from their stay if they did it again.
The clues/hints we would use: -what’s their status tier? Diamond members almost always got a pass -how did they book the room? If it was a 3rd party like Expedia…no pass -how many times had they stayed at our specific property? 5 or more…pass -how much had they charged up? If they were spending money on property outside of the room rate… pass"
"I wrote travel guides to places in the Middle East (Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, etc) and have stayed in lots of five star hotels around the world for work.
The whole five-star system is murky from the start.
The manager at a top-class London hotel told me that the hotel grading system in general is “utter nonsense”. The problem, he said, is that the list of criteria to reach each of the star ratings is little more than a tick sheet, albeit with around 500 factors to consider. For example, one criterion for being considered five-star is fresh flowers being present in guest rooms, but there’s a huge difference between a big ornate display of orchids and a bunch of daffodils. The presence of either would technically tick the box and in theory you could fulfill all the required five-star criteria yet be hugely inferior to the hotel next door that offers all the same things but at a much higher quality and standard.
The Forbes Travel Guide gave just six London hotels a five-star rating (including the one my insider works at) but that means that fantastic hotels like The Ritz, The Langham, The Berkeley, and Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park are “only” four star. Are they really 20 percent inferior to the five-star-rated Al Bustan Rotana in Garhoud in Dubai which is basically a business hotel near the airport?
It’s also difficult to maintain a consistent roll-call of criteria, as modern demands change. For example, Wi-Fi in the room is a relatively recent expectation and what we expect as standard has changed over the years, so what constitutes luxury now has altered accordingly. When Savoy Hotel in London opened 1889 it was boasting about features such as electric lifts, “speaking tubes” to link each floor, and fully plumbed bathrooms.
Now though, in the era of Internet, crowd sourcing is often the most reliable way to judge somewhere. When hundreds of people on sites like TripAdvisor say a place is overpriced and terrible then it doesn’t matter what the official book says. And if a one-star hotel gets nothing but praise from 90 percent of the people commenting? There’s your consensus of rating right there."
"The baby changing station in the mens room is just the drugs table for all the servers. Physical lines in it from use over the years."
Wow I don’t like this one, I’ve grown up with the drugs in the industry but it’s called the damn cool room or restock closet ffs or walk out to your car
"We don’t bat an eye at pr*stitution or whatever goes on in the rooms as long as it doesn’t affect other guests. Half the women that come to the bar are working girls looking for a sale. The only thing that the hotel industry ever really reports is human trafficking. There are tell tale signs and if something doesn’t add up we do report it to local authorities.
I don’t know about all 5* hotels but I’m sure this happens at most of them. Front desk/reservation staff will basically stalk you online if you’re a notable VIP and your picture will be shared internally to ensure everyone recognizes you so you feel special when you arrive and everyone already knows who you are."
I found (so far I’ve been housekeeping only two months now) that the sex workers are so clean to clean up after, the room always smells like perfume too
"All my experience is at mid level Marriotts and stuff. We knew when QA season was, and as the 7-3 front desk guy I would look for the inspector. Same day reservation? Platinum? Never stayed here before? Unreasonable number of points?
We had all these stupid things we were supposed to do every day that we NEVER did unless we knew the inspector was coming. We all had to have pieces of paper in our pocket with today's "big idea" because apparently if the inspector wanted to ask any employee down to the housekeepers, they had to be able to know "today's celebration is family" or some BS. We would identify the inspector beforehand every year lol and in the morning they'd check out and reveal themselves and I'd always have to go, "What!?! Wow, great, let me get my GM" like she wasn't right behind the door watching the camera.
Glad to know at every hotel level were all just halfa**ing and looking for the inspectors."
"I've been working in a 5 star Hotel for about 3 ½ years. There's plenty of stuff going on that we pretend to do on the outside and in front of guests but we actually don't.
"First in first out" - you know, how you're supposed to take out the things that expire first and not the newer drinks/foods to make sure you're not wasting food? I don't think anyone did that. I am pretty sure the kitchen staff even put meat on the buffet that was past it's "best by" date.
Overbooking - during big events or fairs or festivals, the hotel will sell more rooms than they actually have just to make more money. It works in a way that Bc of that time period of an event, you pay in advance and you can't cancel your booking. Meaning, if you don't show up, you still pay. The hotel expects people to not show up so they try to book as many people as possible and a few more.
Secret signals - I used to work at the front desk the most time. It's more or less the first impression and the one place everyone goes. Guests, scammers, robbers, you know. If we were threatened or received a call of someone threatening us or the hotel, for example, saying they placed a bomb inside the hotel, we had to subtly let our coworkers know. The signal for "help" at the front desk was dropping a stapler. For F&B, when harassed by a guest and in need of help, the go to was dropping something, like a glass, and making noise like loudly apologising. Draw attention from other guests and employees so the guests will stop. It was considered rude and unprofessional to just tell a guest to stop harassing you."
"I have worked at two. Hotels that are rated by Forbes (formerly Mobil) and randomly “inspected” frequently, and there is a very specific checklist of things the hotel/restaurants must do/offer in order to keep their rating. We always had to be suspicious of any single diners because they could possibly be inspectors. So you could be a regular Joe Schmoe but if you are dining alone you are going to get the 5 star treatment. Once we had a particular woman staying at the hotel and somehow management figured out and confirmed she was an inspector. They literally took security cam stills and printed them out to give to all employees so we would know who she was. I still remember her name was Katrina.
Something else interesting - one of the (5 star) restaurants I worked at (in a 5 star hotel) would frequently be closed for private events. There was usually a contract written beforehand stating the group must spend a minimum amount of money. We got automatic gratuity on whatever that minimum was but the goal was to go over so we would make more money. The people at the events usually didn’t know these details (they weren’t the ones paying) and towards the end of the night if they hadn’t reached the minimum we would have to start pouring the most expensive wine and liquors to meet the goal. Who wants a few rounds of McAllen 25 doubles etc. And people still tipped cash on the open bars so it was easy to walk away with $500 a night in tips after those parties. It was the easiest money I ever made."
"Watching for signs of s*x trafficking, lots of cheating spouses there under fake names, jacuzzi and swimming pool d*aths (usually from alcohol), guests expose themselves to female staff frequently especially housekeepers and room service, people will legit give you keys to their rooms, sometimes dealing with really terrible organizations for their banquets income, etc. One cool thing is that you can buy pillows, mattresses, etc from many hotel brands if you really enjoyed your sleep at a hotel."
"At a certain Beverly Hills hotel, where I valet’d for a short amount of time, many stars cars are just left there. They come and get them whenever. There was also a code name for Justin Bieber who visited often (I can’t remember it). He picked it himself. His G-Wagon and a Bentley were just kept down there free of charge. Usher also left his bike there a few years back and has just never collected it."
"I dont work there but I know someone who does.
Constantly delaying paying the allowance of interns. Not every staff you see is a full time, experienced person, a good number of them are interns who haven't even graduated and are made to take on several roles from being a janitor, housekeeper, receptionist and sometimes, assistant chef if they are short handed. They work until 12am with little breaks in the name of "experience" and the least that the management can do is pay them on time, but no, the allowance which is say barely 200$ a month keeps getting delayed and some of them completed their internship without seeing a single cent.
"Why not just quit?" Because if they do, they won't be able to graduate and it is arranged by their university/college and they can't just quit or switch to another hotel."
"When I first started working at the B&B, I couldn't handle all the cheating. It's because our location is quiet and secluded the bulk of our customers were affairs.
The most extreme case was one man sleeping with three different women in the same day. Arrived in the morning with one, sent her home, then arrived at noon with a different lady, sent her home and then spent the night with another different woman. This guy was no chad. Small build, glasses, quiet and mild mannered. If I passed by him in the street I would never have thought he has such a colourful s*x life.
The icing on the cake was when one guest asked me out during check out after one of his multiple affairs. Though I politely declined in my mind I was like "Is he serious? I know all of his secrets!"
One time a car filled with women came to bang on a room door. It was the wife of a cheater and she brought her girlfriends. The wife was crying and banging on the door but her husband just ignored her and stayed in the room with his mistress. The night guy on shift was so scared things would get violent. She finally left after hours of loud wailing and banging. Fortunately there were no other guests that night otherwise it would've been quite the scene.
Working there has made me so jaded with relationships. Thankfully the family gatherings, reunions and weddings restored my faith in humanity. Those events are always so wholesome."
"I worked at a 5 star hotel in England as a bartender. Hosted events and stuff. One thing that was common was my manager would just spam extra drinks onto the bill at events to make more money. Or for example if a big wedding ordered 50 bottles of champagne, they’d only give them 30 and would keep 20 back and if they ran out, they’d have to buy more. I reported this to Senior management and they just laughed saying it’s normal. I actually got told off for not taking part in this."
frankentriple commented:
"I stayed at a Marriott one night and it was the best sleep I ever had. The mattress was fantastic. Went home and called Marriott to ask what kind of mattress it was and got “ one moment let me transfer you to our mattress sales department.” One surprised frankentriple, 1300 dollars and two weeks later Marriott delivered a king size to my door. I’m sure my ex is still sleeping in complete comfort 15 years later."
Killer-Barbie replied:
"I did the same thing with a Best Western. I had that bed for 12 years before a fire (it didn't eat the bed, but it was so full of smoke it was unusable). I am seriously debating doing it again."
"We don't care about your backstory. Check in, be polite and don't be a jerk. We want you to have a good time and a good stay but we don't need to hear about everything that's going on in your life. We don't care.
There are celebrity guests and rich people. Please don't bother them. They are only going to return if you don't bother them. They are here for a reason. The reason in most cases is to be left alone.
If you book direct and not through a third party (every online site) I can do a lot for you as far as rates and comps. If you book third party I really can't do things for you other than give you a room. I can give you the same rate as a third party if you book direct and there's a lot more perks.
Most higher end clients book direct. We have them on file, we know them, we have their credit cards on file and we go out of the way for them. If you book third party we flag you.
We try and keep the restaurants and housekeeping up to above board standards but sometimes we short cut because your being a d*ck at the front desk and rushing us through everything."
Once I stayed at a small hotel in Moab and I decided I would book direct, thinking it would save the local business money. Front desk said they would not match the price I found online. They watched as I got on my cell phone, book the room cheaper, and surely have some of that go to the middleman. Wtf.
"The bed and bedding you're paying to sleep in, has 100% been sh*tted in."
I've been so mortified when I got my period overnight in a hotel. I Almost stole the sheets cause I'd rather be fined than leave them there. Instead I balled them up with a note that said "sorry" with a hazmat symbol doodled
"I worked in a Major Vegas Hotel as the Senior Hotel Manager. I’ve seen it all. A few things you wouldn’t know:
Every hotel has bed bugs at some point. It’s not the hotels fault, we noticed international travelers tend to bring them. Probably because they’re staying at multiple hotels per trip. You can even get them from the airplane. To check for bedbugs just inspect each layer of the sheets, under the pillows and mattress. They look like tiny roaches. If you see blood spots on the sheets the next morning that’s usually a sign you have been bitten, but the bites can sometimes take a few days to show or get noticed.
Checking in late at night sometimes means free upgrades or discounted upgrade rates. We would try to sell every last suite at night for almost 80% off. We just wanted something, so they don’t go unoccupied. Sometime if we were over sold on rooms, the late late arrivals (midnight) would get a free suite upgrade because we had no choice. Of course this could also backfire if the hotel is sold out. You may get downgraded for being a late late arrival.
When you complain, the nicest, more understanding guest gets the better compensation, the rude guest gets bare minimum. Always treat the staff with respect and be friendly, you’d be surprised the number of people who are rude. Even for the smallest of issues."
I'd never experienced bed bugs until I stayed at a hotel in Vegas. I'm still traumatized!
"Used to work in one two summers ago in a remote-ish place where we lived in accommodations across the street from the hotel. A lot of us have slept with each other (not me, had a gf at the time). And the busiest days are weekends, so we usually have Mondays off. Sundays were called Sunday Funday, where we would go to town or other people's "dorms", and do way too much c*ke."
Oh ffs… COKE? BP censored a SODA? Yes I know it’s also a drug.
"This wasn't a 5 star by any stretch, but while in training to install kitchen cabinets for this one company they put the majority of people up in a hotel. This one day we got all our tools to use on the job, chop saw, drills, table saw, etc, etc, etc. This hotel gave one free beer per person, and these guys from training were getting a LOT more than one beer. That night they decide to take apart all the furniture in the room, and install it on the roof.
The company was hit with that bill of course. They were not amused. They also changed how/when they gave out tools as well."
"Sometimes during peak times when we're really busy, instead of washing every single piece of linen, we'll just throw the cleanest looking ones straight into the dryer to get rid of wrinkles, but won't actually wash them."
"We went on lockdown once because a man walked into the lobby with a shotg*n. There were also two loud bangs in the motorcade around the same time. We were sealed up tight for about 45 minutes. We had people escape into our area in hysterics before the doors to the lobby were locked, but I never saw the person with the gun. One woman in particular was hyperventilating because he pointed the g*n straight at her before walking away.
Anyhow, we were told that we'd be fired if we talked to the media. By the time I finished counting my drawer the news was saying that an attempted bank robbery had spilled over into our motorcade before they drove away. By the time I got home that story was gone from everywhere but a single news outlet who issued a correction stating that a car had backfired in the motorcade. We weren't allowed to discuss it. It was kept as quiet as in-house celebrity gossip."
Not being able to tell the news about it HAS to be illegal and my spiteful a*s would be right on camera, "yeah he came in with a shotgun, my boss said he'd fire us if we said anything about it". If you're firing me I'm taking you down with me.
"A lot of the employees are sleeping with each other. Likely all over the hotel, at least at the ones I’ve worked at."
That's been normal for years - when I started in the hotel industry, my first year was spent shagging every woman I could convince to come to bed with me (including the managers wife). This was in the early 80's. I've since gone on to be a reasonably successful high end Chef and manager ; not so much shagging these days though ....
"So I didn't work in one, but I lived in one for 3 months for a business trip. Despite the "5 star" labeling.. they are basically a street side motel, just dressed up. Some things I learned during my stay:
-its okay to take a pr*stitute to breakfast. As long as she's younger and prettier. Ugly ones had to leave.
-hotels do not invest in thick walls no matter how many stars.
-there will be mold. If you can't see it, it's been quickly painted over.
-everything breaks, frequently. I woke up to a waterfall flowing down my bathroom wall from the toilet in the room above me. The staff had experience fixing it.
Edits: read through the comments and figured I would add some clarifications. The hotel was not located in the US, it was in Asia. There was not a pr*stitute beauty contest every morning, but this was like an unwritten rule. The older less attractive men would pay extra to have the arm candy go to breakfast with them. You can definitely tell a difference in relationship between a family member and working woman. Paper thin walls, this I have encountered on more than just the stay mentioned, but this reaffirmed it."
"In the older institutions, really dedicated lifer staff tend to become really elitist. As for guests, the usual. Most people tend to just be another guest but, there is a lot of: Grandstanding, threats against jobs and security of the institution's reputation, entitlement (in my case, handouts of very expensive and VERY officiously regulated products), drugs, gambling, sleeping around with business associates to assure deals and bribery. All things pieced together by hearing multiple conversations within a week. I don't recall bribery of public officials or anything like that, though."
Bribery of public officials doesn't happen anywhere near other people! In the UK, the bribery is often an IOU for when they leave office because money earned outside of the salary has to be declared. It's why some ex politicians get paid so much for after dinner speaking
"Hotel food is generally not as good as a standalone restaurant because they have to be more accommodating to guest requests/modifications and have a broader "take all comers" menu. Being more accommodating to mods means you have to get rid of some of the details that might improve dish quality to make it more accessible; for example removing butter to make a dish dairy-free. A bigger menu means that each dish gets less attention and time devoted to it, lowering overall quality. It's difficult to make really interesting good when you also have to make pizzas and burgers and butter noodles for the kids.
Among professional cooks, hotels are often derided for having a low quality of food, but they typically pay better and offer more benefits than a restaurant job. So the cooks who do end up working in hotel kitchens tend to be the guys who are more interested in a paycheck than in refining their craft or whatever. I can't condemn a fella for looking to get paid, but I'm my experience they're more liable to cut corners and engage in "shoemaker" behavior."
I don't care. I love room service. I know the food's a little off. But the luxury of the convenience is amazing!
srcarruth wrote:
"That those balls of butter come premade, frozen in a plastic tub."
mcderyan replied:
"I hand scooped those delicate looking little b*stards at my hotel. Actually it was an enjoyable task. Much better than polishing silver!"
One of the worst places I stayed at was the Hilton in London. Ridiculously overpriced, really not worth it. Had breakfast in a McDonalds for the same price as a cup of tea in the Hilton.
One of the worst places I stayed at was the Hilton in London. Ridiculously overpriced, really not worth it. Had breakfast in a McDonalds for the same price as a cup of tea in the Hilton.
