Hotel horror stories! - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

ptbarnum · 07-09-2008, 11:32 AM

Hey everyone, how are you all doing today? Hope everyone is having the most fantastical week ever. And if not, then too bad for you. Well in light of recent 4th of July festivities, I wanted to ask how everyone spent their mini vacation?

Did everyone get a chance to make a quick getaway, or anything like that? With any type of vacation there always seems to be that little snafu that gets in the way of your perfect plans. I want to hear everyone's hotel horror stories!

You know you all have at least one frightening experience to recount, and I'd love for everyone to start a discussion about it!

So what's YOUR worst hotel experience?

**c0urt** · 07-09-2008, 01:02 PM

thats mine

**space virgin** · 07-10-2008, 12:00 AM

This vaguely smells like canned pork product in disguise especially for a first post... but I'll play along for a while to see where it goes.

I work in the hotel industry. Just recently we had a housekeeper dismissed for not changing sheets-- BETWEEN GUESTS.

One guy jumped from the 3rd floor inner-courtyard balcony to commit suicide (after running the water in the bathtub which overflowed and flooded about 8 rooms). In front of several people including a couple of small kids. It worked.

Someone shat in one of the stairwells at the same hotel.

One recent Monday morning I found torn fishnet stockings, overturned chairs and bobby pins all over the place in one of our meeting rooms. Also, at the golf club I worked at one of my nicknames was "Coitus Interruptus" because of the number of times I was called upon to roust randy couples from various locations (almost always mid-pump).

At hotels, it's apparently standard operating procedure to check your common sense and manners at the door. Also, checking into a hotel seems to immediately bring some people back to their early childhood where anything goes and Mommy will always, ALWAYS be there to clean up. People feel free to pee in sinks without rinsing, pee into cups and leave them for housekeepers to clean up later, leave used condoms and/or vomit everywhere (including in "SURPRISE!" locations-- seriously, the MINI-FRIDGE???-- just for extra fun), throw beer bottles at pedestrians from third-floor balconies (that room ran $500/night) and streak through the lobby.

Unfortunately, motherhood doesn't always imply cleanliness even if logic would dictate it should in social situations. Some people find it perfectly acceptable to change their baby's diaper on the lobby floor in full public view regardless of the EMPTY bathrooms with changing stations less than 20 feet away. This was after the person told me "oh, I know the owner of the hotel and just dropped in to say hi" after my insincere, totally appalled "can I help you?" Turned out that was actually TRUE. So many things wrong with that.

Additionally, people also see nothing wrong with changing their baby's diaper at a banquet table in the middle of a wedding. And leave said dirty diaper on the table for the wait staff to clean up after the function is over.

Far too many people see nothing wrong with answering the door butt naked for room service. In my experience the perpetrators are always men and always butt ugly.

As for travel hotel disasters, the "beach hut" that I stayed at in Kerala was not only located on a (okay, beach front) hotel rooftop, we also shared the room with several rampant mice that kept us up all night scurrying in the thatch ceiling and pooped all over our clean sheets during the day while we were out.

ptbarnum · 07-11-2008, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by space virgin

This vaguely smells like canned pork product in disguise especially for a first post... but I'll play along for a while to see where it goes.

I work in the hotel industry. Just recently we had a housekeeper dismissed for not changing sheets-- BETWEEN GUESTS.

One guy jumped from the 3rd floor inner-courtyard balcony to commit suicide (after running the water in the bathtub which overflowed and flooded about 8 rooms). In front of several people including a couple of small kids. It worked.

Someone shat in one of the stairwells at the same hotel.

One recent Monday morning I found torn fishnet stockings, overturned chairs and bobby pins all over the place in one of our meeting rooms. Also, at the golf club I worked at one of my nicknames was "Coitus Interruptus" because of the number of times I was called upon to roust randy couples from various locations (almost always mid-pump).

At hotels, it's apparently standard operating procedure to check your common sense and manners at the door. Also, checking into a hotel seems to immediately bring some people back to their early childhood where anything goes and Mommy will always, ALWAYS be there to clean up. People feel free to pee in sinks without rinsing, pee into cups and leave them for housekeepers to clean up later, leave used condoms and/or vomit everywhere (including in "SURPRISE!" locations-- seriously, the MINI-FRIDGE???-- just for extra fun), throw beer bottles at pedestrians from third-floor balconies (that room ran $500/night) and streak through the lobby.

Unfortunately, motherhood doesn't always imply cleanliness even if logic would dictate it should in social situations. Some people find it perfectly acceptable to change their baby's diaper on the lobby floor in full public view regardless of the EMPTY bathrooms with changing stations less than 20 feet away. This was after the person told me "oh, I know the owner of the hotel and just dropped in to say hi" after my insincere, totally appalled "can I help you?" Turned out that was actually TRUE. So many things wrong with that.

Additionally, people also see nothing wrong with changing their baby's diaper at a banquet table in the middle of a wedding. And leave said dirty diaper on the table for the wait staff to clean up after the function is over.

Far too many people see nothing wrong with answering the door butt naked for room service. In my experience the perpetrators are always men and always butt ugly.

As for travel hotel disasters, the "beach hut" that I stayed at in Kerala was not only located on a (okay, beach front) hotel rooftop, we also shared the room with several rampant mice that kept us up all night scurrying in the thatch ceiling and pooped all over our clean sheets during the day while we were out.

Good golly miss molly! That sounds like all kinds of horrible, although I'm sure you've got anecdotes for days. I could only imagine what other experiences you've had that you aren't sharing!

**raoulduke** · 07-11-2008, 11:55 AM

I've found the Hampton Inns to be generally terrible. I've stayed in a few across the US and usually find the service to be very rude and the rooms untidy.

Sorry to SV for having wasted a decent post on this thread.

**AKguacamole** · 07-11-2008, 05:51 PM

I haven't had too many bad experiences myself, but I used to work at a hotel front desk back where I grew up, and apparently that hotel was known for its amount of drug use. One night a few people I recognized, friends of friends, rented the hot tub room which happens to be right next to the front desk. They came out and chatted periodically, and soon enough they told me that it was basically a coke/meth orgy going on all night in there. What the hell was I supposed to do?!? That's an uncomfortable position for the employee to be in. Besides that, in that same hotel the cleaning crew found a bad full of used needles in a room, and I've had to kick out a few drunk people trying to rent rooms, that were so incoherent that they were unable to find their wallet in their pocket.

**space virgin** · 07-11-2008, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptbarnum

Did you get a chance to watch the video? What do you think about Hampton Inn hotels?

I didn't watch the video, the link looks effed up. I worked for Hilton and don't really think much of many of their brands (except for brand-spanking-new properties because they haven't been destroyed yet). Why do you ask?

ptbarnum · 07-24-2008, 12:22 PM

space virgin - Hmmm that's odd. If the link doesn't work, try searching YouTube for "Ballad of a Traveler".

raoulduke - I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences! They generally try to make sure everyone is satisfied with their stay; one guy told me he was awoken by a delivery truck really early in the morning, and Hampton Inn refunded his money for the bother!

Anyone have any more stories? These are tooooooo good!

lewiseagle · 03-26-2011, 09:29 AM

If the representative of the vehicle through the ever an evil force, it will be much like a motorcycle taxi. Many people think that the entire experience is exciting and interesting, but for other people is impossible.

**pinknic38** · 03-26-2011, 11:36 AM

This thread got a bump thanks to spammers, but I will actually add my 2 cents here because I have a recent hotel horror story...

I stayed at some place called the Geneva Motel.. we were in Geneva, IL (myself, the baby, and my best friend) over Halloween, visiting her mother and her sister that was in from Las Vegas... we had an early thanksgiving thing. Anyway her mom put me up for free at this motel, knowing I was on a budget. Cool. So get to the room the first night, it is dirty as hell. The place looks like something you either rent by the hour or get stabbed to death in. There is not a fitted sheet on the bed - just a flat sheet, but they didn't even tuck it opposite direction, like we do in the military. Gross. Whatever, so the people next door are playing Black Sabbath at some insane decibal - the walls are vibrating. I have a cranky, sleepy toddler. So I call the owners (because there is no front desk...) and let them know the noise issue. I hear through the wall the owners call the people next door, the music gets turned down, whaever. 2 minutes later my room phone rings. Assuming it's the owners to let me know the issue had been taken care of, I picked up. Nay. It was the people next door calling to bitch me out over the noise complaint. They were so shitty and mean and I was pissed that the owners told them which room was complaining. Whatever, it wasn't like I called the cops.

But funny you should mention the cops, cos not long after that, the cops show up, several cop cars, beating on the front door of the room on the OTHER side of me. They proceed to beat loudly then yell "POLICE, OPEN UP!" for TWO FUCKING HOURS. I dunno if the guy did open up or not (I was awake this whole time and my kid was in and out of sleep... it was like 1am...) but they eventually left. The next morning, we checked out, all was well, and the people next door apologized for the noise thing. WTF.

I left them the nastiest review on TripAdvisor and on Yelp.

terrenceglain · 03-28-2011, 12:40 PM

As for biking auberge disasters, the "beach hut" that I backward at in Kerala was not alone amid on a (okay, bank front) auberge rooftop, we aswell aggregate the allowance with several aggressive mice that kept us up all night scurrying in the beard beam and pooped all over our apple-pie bedding during the day while we were out.

peterkeviin · 04-05-2011, 03:10 PM

That sounds like all kinds of horrible, although I'm abiding you've got anecdotes for days. I could alone brainstorm what added adventures you've had that you aren't sharing!

BrianSimon · 04-06-2013, 04:44 AM

brainstorm? Right?