Hotel Employees Describe The Worst Guests They've Ever Seen

Hospitality industry workers should be commended for providing service with a smile when confronted with annoying and combative customers, which is an unfortunate reality of their jobs.

For whatever reason, many entitled patrons vent their frustrations about unfair company policies on messengers who are just trying to take their food order or check them into their hotel room.

Who does that?

Strangers shared their unpleasant guest experiences when Redditor Riddlersoul asked:

"Dear hotel receptionists of Reddit, who was the most horrible guest you have ever encountered?"

We all have bad days, but that doesn't permit us to make sure others have them, too.

Bad Vibes

"There was this one guest who demanded a room upgrade because 'their aura didn't vibe' with the one they booked. When told no, they started yelling, cursed the staff, and threatened to leave a bad review—only to call back later asking for a discount because they forgot their wallet."

– KsenyaNagnatova_

Midnight Mess

"It all started when the guest checked in late one evening. He seemed normal enough until he asked, 'Does my room come with a microwave?' I told it didn’t, he looked absolutely devastated and said, 'I cannot survive without a microwave.' "

"I offered to warm something up for him if needed, but that wasn’t good enough. He stormed out and came back an hour later—dragging a full-size microwave he’d purchased from a nearby store."

"The trouble really started at 3 a.m. when the fire alarm went off, waking the entire hotel. Turns out, Mr. Midnight Microwave decided to cook a steak in his new appliance. Not just heat it—he’d seasoned it, wrapped it in foil, and popped it in like it was an oven."

"The foil caused a small fire, which set off the sprinklers in his room. By the time we got there, his room was soaked, the microwave was destroyed, and he was trying to 'save' his steak by patting it dry with hotel towels."

"When asked why he’d thought this was a good idea, he replied, 'I didn’t know microwaves couldn’t cook steak! This is YOUR fault for not having one in the room in the first place.'... Needless to say, he was charged for the damage, the room was out of commission for weeks."

– easha__

"Had a woman throwing raw steaks at the housekeepers in the name of Jesus."

– WestAd1175

People are nuts.

The Complaint

"I've told this story in the hotel front desk sub, but here goes."

"Elderly woman who stayed with her son who had mental disabilities. She'd sold her house, and hadn't bothered to even start looking for a new place, so was spending her money on a hotel than rather a home. After a while I switched to another hotel, and don't give her a second thought until she starts staying at that new hotel."

"She'd built up a ton of reward points, and would pay for her room with those points whenever possible. One day her point reservation was up, and when she came in, I waved her over and quietly asked if she wanted to use points again for that night, or pay with a card."

"She said she'd pay, and I thought that'd be it. Nope, next day I was told I had a guest complain about me, which I assumed was a joke. No, she'd made a complaint about me, saying that I had screamed at her, in front of a lobby full of people, that she owed me money. I refused to have anything to do with her after that."

– snowlock27

Not Alone

"I used to work as a night receptionist at a hotel in Jalandhar, India a few years ago. Most nights were uneventful, but one guest will forever be burned into my memory."

"It was around 2 a.m. when a man came stumbling to the front desk, looking panicked. He whispered, ‘There’s someone in my room!’ Naturally, I was alarmed. I immediately checked the system to ensure he hadn’t been double-booked, but everything looked fine."

"I offered to check the room with him. As we entered, I turned on the lights, and there it was—the 'intruder.' It was a life-sized cutout of a Bollywood actor that we had placed in the hallway for a promotion earlier that day. For some reason, he had brought it into his room, propped it in a corner, and forgotten about it."

"I tried to keep a straight face as he muttered something about being ‘too tired’ and shuffled back to bed. The next morning, he checked out like nothing had happened. But I’ll never forget having to ‘rescue’ someone from their own cardboard celebrity at 2 a.m."

– someonestoic

Hidden Objects

"One night a sketchy dude came in with a really long coat. He looked like trouble and like he hadn’t slept for weeks. He paid cash, which even 02 years ago was usually a bad sign. I gave him his key, and he went to his room. About 5 minutes later he came back in a huff, yelling."

"He had a long object inside his coat with his hand on it, he didn’t threaten me but I was on edge. He threw the key over the desk and told me that it didn’t work. I looked and let him know that wasn’t the key that I gave him, so of course it didn’t work. He found the right key and stormed off."

"About two hours later the police arrive and one is holding one of those parabolic listening devices. They asked if I’d checked the dude in and what room he was in."

"He was wanted for armed robbery with a shotgun. I gave them the info and they went and staked out the room and arrested him when he came out. It is pretty scary thinking back on it, I’m sure the long object under his coat was the shotgun."

– the_real_darkrock

Bridezilla

"Far too many to list them all, unfortunately. One of the worst was during my first week not in training (love it!) where I was thankfully in the back office right behind the desk doing some reservations work instead of being at the desk (where I’d mostly been during training)."

"A groom had emailed our team and asked us to please go into their room and get the bride’s dress to steam it before their wedding the next day. We made sure we had permission to enter the room and whatnot, and our staff, though very uncomfortable, got the dress."

"She noticed right away that there were rips and dirty spots on the dress, which she took pictures of as soon as she opened the dress bag. (Time stamps lined up right after she got the dress. There was no way she could’ve done it.) The bride came down after SCREAMING at our staff and accusing our staff of trying to steal her dress and then destroying it, making it 'unwearable' (it was a few tiny rips and smudge spots that, again, we didn’t do)."

"Was running around the lobby screaming at the top of her lungs, threatening to get violent with staff, screaming that her rich daddy would have the hotel closed down and all of us fired (it was a luxury hotel in a major U.S. city)."

"Her belief was that we stole her dress, wrecked it for fun, steamed it, and then put it back in the room. How any of that makes sense? No clue. Our manager calmly asked her to step around the desk and read the email from her fiance telling us to do this and that the bride requested it."

"She accused us of lying, despite the email proof from his direct email address, lmao. When the groom came down, our manager pointed out that he’d asked us to do that, and he played dumb."

"The day after the wedding, her father came down to check out and berated our staff for 'upsetting his daughter before her wedding' and asked for discounts. We said no, lolol. Genuine psycho behavior. Hope she got therapy."

– sashavelwhore

The following people don't deserve to stay in hotels or even exist.

Animal Cruelty

"We had a guest, who clearly had a pet in his bag and kept denying it. The bag was squirming, and the dog inside was whining. What a selfish piece of sh*t to do that to the dog. 🤷🏼♀️"

– emmascarlett899

Child Endangerment

"My dad used to do security at a hotel and casino. Kids were not allowed on the property. People would sneak their kids in suitcases and leave them in the room while they went to gamble. Inevitably, someone would hear the kids, and the family would be kicked out."

– TraditionalTackle1

No matter if you're a weary traveler from afar or an exhausted business person on a work trip or convention, there's no excuse for bad behavior.

Though many of the shocking examples of rude hotel guests stem from an individual who is a sandwich short of a picnic, be mindful of the service industry people trying to take care of you, regardless of your crappy day.

They're not the problem.