Most people go to hotels to have a place to sleep and live while they're away from home.
However, some people spend less than a full night in their hotel room while engaging in activities they prefer not to do at home.
As a result, people in the hospitality industry have seen things.
Reddit user AlgorithmOmega asked:
"Hotel and motel workers of Reddit what’s the weirdest thing you’ve come across in the rooms?"
Be Prepared
"An absolutely giant thing of cherry flavored lube."
"Like I'm talking a f*cking massive cooking bowl sized tub of it with a label and all."
~ Jollygreengiant69
No Vacancy
"Not a worker, but use to travel for work. Once we were checking into our rooms and me and a coworker went to her room first."
"She opened the door and there was two people living in the room. They were sex workers who were friends with the housekeeper. They were given keys to use empty rooms."
"Nothing really eventful—we walked in the room, it had two beds, a girl was laying on each bed watching TV. When we came in one girl screamed."
"The girls told us their housekeeper friend gives them keys to rooms that are empty to stay there and kept begging us not to tell the front desk. They were also gathering all their sh*t together quickly."
"We walked out and went to the front desk and told them there were people living in the room and we needed a new one. We saw them all loading into a crappy beat up car leaving the parking lot while we were in the office."
"We didn't mention the housekeeper giving them keys."
~ Some_Cod_8604
If Found...
"Been working hotels for almost 20 years."
"Found a briefcase that had 'if lost, please mail to the FBI' with an address. It was locked."
"So we mailed it back. 6ish hours later a guy came racing back asking for it."
"We told him it was already mailed. He said his job was going to fire him and walked away."
~ TheLastMan
Maybe They Were Planning A Craft Project
"A large sack full of pinecones."
"We do not have any pine trees nearby, so they had to have brought them with them."
"It confuses and haunts me to this day."
~ JudgeQuick
Was Paint Not An Option?
"Had a lady check in early & ask for a late check out. She still hadn’t checked out by 2pm & wouldn’t come out of the room."
"When we were about to have her escorted out by security, she finally left. In the room were 100’s of little White-Out bottles everywhere."
"She had painted every reflective surface with White-Out including all the plumbing under the sink, all the fixtures, every screw & had started painting the mirrors."
"We never found out why."
~ MenacingGummy
Music Video Country Singer GIF by Thomas RhettGiphy
Heartbreak Hotel
"Not me, but my wife worked as a night front desk attendant for a very budget hotel. She had some stories."
"The saddest was a couple who were celebrating their wedding night/honeymoon at the hotel. They had been drinking at the reception and came in very happy and friendly."
"The man came back down after couple of hours because he couldn’t sleep due to back pain. He talked to my wife for a bit and offered her some wedding cake before heading back to the room."
"He proceeded to take some of his wife’s opiate pain pills, which interacted with the alcohol in his system. His new bride woke up the next morning a widow."
~ Gostaverling
No Pancakes?
"Former Motel 6 employee, outside of New Orleans, Louisiana."
"As far as weirdest I’d say the room covered in smeared butter and syrup."
"Literal piles of empty syrup bottles in the bathroom."
~ iputitthere
Did André The Giant Stay There?
"A giant pocket knife like one of the Swiss Army ones—but it was the size of my arm—under a bed."
"I have no idea where it ended up after moving many times, but I did keep it."
~ Spiritual_Quit_4833
Ted
"An old couple who are regulars would always stay at the hotel every summertime and the lady would always bring her teddy bear. She’d request the housekeepers make sure to change its outfit daily."
"Odd indeed for the housekeepers to adhere to that request, but not after they realized how well this couple would tip. Anyone who happened to clean their room for the day would be lucky."
"Bear had a name, forgot what it was, but the staff eventually started greeting it."
~ Velvetystardust
Mummy Dearest
"I worked in a cheap hostel in Lisbon, Portugal about 10 years ago."
"We had this very odd guest who'd speak in a super low voice and walk really slowly. He'd also leave random bits of clean toilet paper around the hostel."
"Then the cleaning lady found him in his room completely rolled up in toiled paper."
~ ritaleyla
Enjoying The Indoor Pool
"A live fish in a bath tub."
~ supe3rnova
Bloody Mess
"A few years ago I was staying in a remote part of Oregon for work. Staying all by myself."
"I get up in the morning and go into the bathroom to take a shower. The curtain had been bunched against the wall."
"I get undressed, turn the water on, and pull the curtain fully across tub. When I do, it exposes a bloody handprint on the white curtain."
"Scared the living sh*t out of me. I nope hard out of there and skip the shower leaving as fast as possible."
"As I check out I tell the front desk employee about the handprint.
"She sighs, rolls her eyes and says, 'Probably just some hunter cleaning his kill in the bathtub. They’re not supposed to but they do it all the time'."
~ ye_olde_tosser
Well, Actually
"I cleaned the cabins at a destination hunting spot on a lake in the middle of the Maine woods. We offered guided fishing and hunting—whatever was currently in season—for game birds, deer, moose, and black bear."
"These were all wooden construction log cabins with propane for the lights, stoves and the refrigerators. Each cabin had at least one cast iron wood stove for heat—the big cabin that slept 16 had two."
"Water was brought up from the wells with hand pumps at the kitchen sinks. We'd fill an aluminum bucket and put it on the wood stove to heat the water so we could wash the floors."
"Can confirm the hunters weren't supposed to drag their kills into the cabins and at least every other week some group did."
"There were numerous butchering stations set up around the site and a taxidermist and professional butcher on call to collect kills for trophies or cutting and packaging the meat."
"But we'd still walk into cabins to find blood, feathers or fur all over the common area or kitchen. Occasionally we'd also find some or all of the organs and carcass there."
"Trophy hunters were the best. They'd take just heads, hooves and the pelts, but leave everything else."
"A white-tail buck carcass minus the head and hooves is about 200 pounds, a black bear boar is about 400 pounds, and a bull moose about 1,000 pounds."
"Dragging one out of a cabin without fur to grab onto? Big fun..."
~ LakotaGrl
Was The Guest Named Baldrick?
"A bathtub full of turnips."
"Also, no one saw him bring them in and he never appeared on camera bringing them in."
"It still keeps me up some nights."
"So someone had gotten a room for a man that was down on his luck."
"Well, the guy never technically checked out, but when our cleaning crew went in I got a call at the desk informing me of the turnip tub—obviously I had to investigate."
"She cleaned it up and tossed 'em, but around 10pm the turnip guy came back and asked where his turnips were. When they informed him they were tossed out, he turned irate and destroyed our lobby."
"We never found out why turnips. The gentleman that got him the room had no idea and was petrified he would have to pay the damages."
"Insurance covered it and he vowed to not get strangers a hotel room again."
~ ladymerida
Have you ever worked in the hospitality industry? Do you have any stories to share?