The Crab-Filled Hotel Room
Hotels are some of the most comfortable places for guests of all ages and backgrounds; you don’t have to clean up after yourself, and everything you need is already in your room. However, on the other end of the spectrum, hotel rooms are the absolute worst places for some of the people who work there: namely, the housekeeping staff. The things they have to see on a daily basis often leave them in absolute shock….
Whether seedy motels or five-star resorts, no place seems to be free of absurd guests with weird tendencies. From bad hygiene to crazy fights and random requests, these maids and housekeepers have seen some of the strangest things on the job. Luckily, most of them handled the extreme situations, including drunken people and dead animals, with grace. Check out their wacky stories.
I used to work at a hotel that was right by the ocean. This one time, I went in to clean one of the rooms. This room was a really huge suite. It had four bedrooms and was spread across two whole levels: the ultimate luxury. When I walked in, it took me a while to figure out what was actually going on inside there….
The Hermit at the Hotel
There were crabs literally everywhere. The people staying there took the time to put crabs in every place they could. In the coffee pots, the toilet, the vases, the sinks, the dishes in the cupboard, and so on. Most were tiny babies and still alive. We put them in buckets and took them back to the beach. But honestly, it was so freaking weird. Reddit User: NineAnne
I only did this for a few months as a teenager, so I don’t have too many strange stories but plenty of disgusting ones. But there was this Japanese businessman who lived in this hotel room for months. Nobody knew anything about him except that he would just ask us to hand him towels when we knocked on his door. He’d only barely open it and stick his hands out to receive the goods….
What Is This?
The few times I was in his room, there were all sorts of appliances plugged in all over the place, and his trash cans were full of energy shot bottles and cup noodle containers. He apparently never took advantage of the breakfast bar or dined at the restaurant downstairs. It seems this guy was a hermit who just did whatever his job was and sustained himself on ramen and 5-Hour Energy drinks. Reddit User: [redacted]
I used to work in reservations in a big chain hotel in London. Housekeeping once told us there was one regular guest who used to always leave a single whole raw egg in the bed when they checked out. Nobody ever figured out why or where on earth they got that single raw egg in the middle of central London….
I’m a Bit Tied Up
For anyone who doesn’t know, grocery stores aren’t common in the area, and they certainly don’t sell eggs one by one. I could have maybe understood the logic if they had left it there during their stay as a way to say they wanted breakfast in bed and maybe wanted the egg to be cooked by the staff. Rather leave a nice tip. Reddit User: Nalma22
I was working through a temp agency for Motel 6. So one of the other workers has a room to clean. The occupants are supposed to be gone, as they had technically checked out earlier that day. So the worker goes into the room, and there’s a man tied up in the bed with some type of weird leather outfit on….
Time for an Afternoon Nap
He also had his mouth duct-taped closed. She didn’t even help him because she was so shocked at what she had just seen. She literally walked out of the room and straight away called the cops. He was actually fine, but the other person who he had been having a “fun” night with had just left him and took all his things. Reddit User: creolecakez
We’re not the housekeepers, but we were guests the one time when we had this weird experience. We had a hotel room one time and checked in around 3 or 4; I can’t remember what hotel it was. When we walked in, one of the housekeepers was asleep in the chair; apparently she had taken a rest and checked out for who knows how long….
It Was a Zoo in There
We woke her up when we came into the room. She was very apologetic; she took her cart and stuff with her right away. We never said anything to the staff or saw her again; the room was clean and set up, so nothing to complain about. Hats off to all those hard-working housekeepers out there who deal with crazy guests. Reddit User: rura_penthe924
I worked at a regular hotel. It was a pet-friendly room, and some old couple brought their cat and a large dog with them. They let the cat run all around the lobby at check-in, which was weird, but okay. After they checked out, I get a text from my coworker to come and look at the room. They had neglected to bring a litter box for the cat, so….
Orange You Feeling Okay Today?
Their solution? Take a hotel towel, lay it on the closet floor, and dump an entire box of cat litter on top of it. The dog was also trained to use puppy pads. Except he was about 100lbs, and instead of cleaning it up each time the dog went to the bathroom, they just laid down a new one. They had only been there for two nights, but it was the most disgusting room I ever saw. Reddit User: bury_a_friend
I worked for a hotel chain in Colorado, and one day my coworker and I went to strip a bed, and the bed was full of oranges. I was taken aback by this; I couldn’t quite comprehend why someone would leave all these oranges in their bed. Maybe on top of it if their bag of oranges had broken or something….
Sleeping Like a Naked Baby
Then I went to clean the dresser. And guess what? There were even more oranges. Then I went to the side table, and there were just endless cans of mandarin oranges. I know that this story isn’t exactly shocking or disgusting, but it was just seriously weird. Imagine how you would feel walking into a room full of oranges that you weren’t expecting. Reddit User: rigtek
I’m currently housekeeping in a really small town in Utah. This isn’t too weird, but one time there were a lot of polygamists who were staying in our hotel and working at a local farm. Most of them had shrines with pictures of Warren Jeff in their rooms. Gave me the chills for sure whenever I would go into the rooms….
An Unexpected Visitor
Also, the one time I accidentally walked in on a guy sprawled on his bed, sleeping completely naked. I’m still not sure how he didn’t hear me knocking and yelling super loud, so he knew that housekeeping was coming in. Even when I walked in, he was still absolutely fast asleep and didn’t wake up when I left either. Reddit User: imaterribledaughter
I worked at a huge water park resort. I was doing a late shift at a time of year when the resort was almost empty. So, tired of knocking on all the doors, I just barged into the rooms. I normally always knocked, but I was getting tired after 20 or so rooms without a guest. So I came into this room on the 4th floor. I walked in, and there was an old, heavy guy feasting on a bucket of fried chicken….
The Left Behind Baggage
The lights were off, and he was sitting in front of the TV. He stared at me for a couple of seconds, and I apologized before he could say anything. I left the room immediately. I later found out that the room was supposed to be vacant. I have no idea where he came from, why he was there, or how he got there. Reddit User: diceid
This story isn’t mine, but it’s just too good not to share. My friend from Ukraine worked at a crappy casino hotel in Wendover, Nevada because they would sponsor his work visa. He wasn’t a housekeeper but would have to do maintenance in rooms. He said one day that he went to a room where the people had already checked out….
Honey, We’re Home
When he got into the room, he looked in there, and there was a chicken in the room. Like a live chicken, just chilling there. I’m not sure what he did after that, because I couldn’t stop laughing when he was busy telling this story. Maybe the story is funnier when he tells it with his accent. Why eez cheeken in room? Reddit User: pounds
This crazy housekeeping story is related, but we’re not housekeepers. When my wife and I were looking at wedding venues, one we went to was a hotel. The event manager wanted to take us up and show us the “honeymoon” suite. She opened the door, and there were two old men, shirtless and drinking vodka in the room….
Two for the Price of One
She was so extremely embarrassed and apologetic. She was very sweet too, but you could tell she was so mad at whoever screwed that up for her. At least we knew that their honeymoon suite was one people enjoyed. We didn’t choose the place, and this wasn’t even the reason why, but it was just a funny experience. Reddit User: CoolBeansMan9
I think the Marriott has the best crazy hotel stories, honestly. People think because it’s a nice chain hotel that weird stuff doesn’t happen there, but it really does. I was working overnight a few years ago and watched this guy walk a lady of the night out the front doors to the driveway to wait for an Uber….
The Hotel Room Became a Doggy Bag
He then returned and waited by the elevators. Eventually, a woman arrived who gave him a big hug and a kiss. At this point, I’d say it was safe to assume it was his wife thanks to the big wedding ring on her finger. She had come up from the parking garage. He took her up to the room without even changing the sheets. Reddit User: Rinnyroo
I will never forget this one room I had to clean as a housekeeper. We were given 30 minutes max per room, and I walked in and immediately radioed my manager, letting her know I would need longer. The stench smacked me in the face immediately. It smelt of body odor and meat. The tan carpet and all of the sheets were stained with deep red BBQ sauce….
The Perfectly Made Bed
There were over 40 rib bones everywhere. There was a tripod left on its side in the corner of the room and handcuffs on the floor lamp, which they obviously lost the key to, because they tried to break the base of the lamp to get them off. The manager sent two women up to help me when she saw what I was dealing with. Reddit User: _sissy_hankshaw_
I’ve worked as a housekeeper in hotels for quite a few years now. The weirdest thing that has happened to me was one day when I walked into a room that didn’t have the “do not disturb” sign up. When I went in, the guests weren’t in the room (well, from what I could see at that point), and their bed was perfectly made.
All the Paws
Either they had really good bed-making skills or they hadn’t slept in their bed that night. Turns out it was the latter option. When I walked into the bathroom to clean there, they were there sleeping on the bathroom floor of the hotel room. I can’t understand why they would choose that over the super comfy bed in their room. Reddit User: h_free_since_73
I worked in a hotel that allowed pets with a small deposit, so the number of animals was unreal. The dogs and cats were absolutely fine, but what got my goat was the folks that tried to avoid paying the fee and pretended they didn’t have an animal. Okay, whatever, you don’t like spending money any more than the next guy….
Scaring Away the Housekeeper
But the problems arose when we needed to get into the room for things like maintenance and cleaning and had zero idea that we should be expecting an animal when we walked into the room. Almost everyone who worked there had a story of being bitten by a dog at some point because of the owners neglecting to tell us they had one in there. Reddit User: lovebyletters
This is a story as a guest; I’ve never worked as a housekeeper. I was working on a job in a shady part of Yakima, WA. We were working 12-14 hour days. I just left my gun in the drawer, and I’m not a cluttered person, so I just empty my pockets into the nightstand drawer every night….
A Little Bit Too Much Wine
One day I left my gun, a roll of duct tape, some big zip ties, and a knife in the drawer. When I came back, the room was clean, and the drawer was organized. After that, the housekeeping lady would scuttle away upon seeing me. I should have left a note for her to tell her that it wasn’t anything to be scared of. Reddit User: AudZ0629
One time I walked into a room, and it was completely covered in red stains. Absolutely everywhere you could see. It was on the beds, the carpets, the floors, the walls, all over the bathroom. And even a bit on the ceiling. No idea how they managed to do that. At first, I thought it might be blood, but then I noticed it reeked of alcohol….
This Room Is Currently Occupied
They spilled red wine absolutely everywhere. The room had to be shut down, and they had to bring up the shampoo machines. I’m not sure how long they had to close the room down for, but I think they may have had to repaint too. I still wish I knew how the people managed to do that in the room and why they did. Reddit User: FrozenNord
On the flip side, as I’m not a hotel worker, but I was a guest for this story. I was trying to get into my room when I arrived to the hotel late at night by myself. My key wouldn’t work, so I was confused and trying it multiple times. After a minute or two, I’m calling the lobby, and a housekeeper comes out of the room with a guy….
Broken Champagne And Relationships
I’m kind of stunned and confused and say sorry while I’m also on the phone, and they’re both slinking away without saying anything. They were later caught rummaging through the garbage. I was confused, then amused. However, I was very annoyed at the inconvenience of getting another room. It’s a funny story now since it was a while ago. Reddit User: HowieFeItersnatch
I’ve been in the hotel and hospitality industry for four years or so now. I’ve been a bartender, server, and even worked valet; occasionally I help out housekeeping if they needed a hand with the small stuff. (Be kind to the housekeepers; they’re the hardest working people in a hotel). So my story was about this guy who had booked a hotel room….
The Broomstick Alarm Clock
One poor gentleman had purchased a case of champagne and prepared to propose to his girlfriend. She bailed on the trip and ended the relationship. I took him breakfast on his last day, and the room was covered in broken bottles of champagne. Let’s say he didn’t take the break-up well, and I felt really bad for him. Reddit User: IrishPotatoHead
I was the one that was found by housekeeping, so I felt pretty bad. I had somehow passed out after a night of drinking on the trip I was on. But I was “smart” enough to take my clothes off and sleep in the bathtub so that if I needed to get rid of whatever was in my system, I was close and wouldn’t make a mess….
Another Kind of Room Service
I was then woken up by the housekeeping service. They kept poking me in the side with the end of a broomstick asking if I was alive. It turns out that I had forgotten to put the “do not disturb” sign on the door that night. It wasn’t the way I wanted to be woken up, but fair enough, it was actually my mistake that time. Reddit User: Karldamilfslayer
I was working at a hotel a little while ago, and sometimes the people who stayed in the suites would end up throwing a big party. We always hated being the ones left to clean this up because the place would always be completely trashed afterward. So, the one time, it was my turn to clean up the suite after the party….
Nail Clippings And Weird Sleeping Arrangements
I went into one of the massive bathrooms in that place and looked in the bathtub. There was a guy left over from the party the night before who was in there just eating an entire rotisserie chicken. He looked up at me when he heard me come in, stuck out a greasy finger as he finished chewing, and then said, “Don’t mind me.” Reddit User: -eDgAR-
I worked in a fairly nice hotel and did some shifts in housekeeping. This is certainly not the weirdest thing that someone had found, but I walked into a room to find the mattress stripped and pushed up against the French doors. I then found all of the bedding in the bathtub but set up as if someone had slept in it, as in pillows at one end and duvet folded over….
The Creeper Tax
I went to get one of the full-time housekeepers, and she helped me sort the room out. We then found a surprising amount of nail clippings piled up on the dresser: definitely at least three pairs of hands’ worth. We asked the receptionist about who was staying there, and they said it was a guy on his own that stayed for one night. Reddit User: BlackNutG
I worked housekeeping and front desk at a Marriott in my local city. On my very first day of training in housekeeping, my trainer and I went into our first room. There was a stack of nude magazines on the bed, a $20 bill, and a note. The note asked whoever was cleaning his room to leave their underwear there for the $20….
The Brilliant Pillow Prank
According to the woman training me, that guy was a regular, and she started taking the money as a “creeper tax.” I think that we should start implementing the “creeper tax” in a lot more situations, as this is a regular thing at hotels that we housekeepers have to deal with. She’s now one of my really good friends. Reddit User: taylor_mac1252
Well, here’s a story. We found a dead body, which is strangely pretty common at hotels. The business guys eat badly and drink heavily because they’re on the road so much. Airplanes don’t help either. It freaked a bunch of the housekeepers out to walk in and find a guy dead in bed. It was hours past his checkout time….
The Coast Is Clear
It must have happened while he was sleeping. Anyway, the following week, they played a joke on me and took a bunch of towels and pillows and stuffed them in a bed. It looked exactly like a human under the covers, and they told me it was another cold one. They hooked up a walky-talky speaker, and when I got close to it, they screamed bloody murder, so it blared. Reddit User: hmb2000
I used to work in the hotel department on a cruise ship, which was pretty fun, but some weird things did happen. I would do “turn down” service during dinner, which means that I was in charge of leaving small mints on pillows, taking out trash from the afternoon, just a general quick clean. I had an older woman who was somewhere between eighty and ninety….
The Concept of Washing Dishes
She would repeatedly walk out of the bathroom nude because she couldn’t hear me knock on the door. I wish I thought she was feigning ignorance, but I think she was just confused often. I made sure for the rest of the trip that I kept my eyes closed when I would first come into the cabin and make sure the coast was clear. Reddit User: MaceFaceKillah
I worked in a really high-end, fancy hotel as a housekeeper for many years. The thing that I noticed the most during my time working there was that rich people do the weirdest things. It seems like they’ve grown up living really out of touch with reality and don’t know how to function without someone doing things for them….
Scoring a Free Night
The worst time was when I had this one really rich guest who clearly didn’t understand the concept of dishes. We have dishwashers in the room that housekeeping will sort for you, and we even put the dishes back afterwards. But this person didn’t know that dishes are washed and used again. They would just throw everything in the trash. Reddit User: _daGarim_
I worked as a concierge for an upscale hotel, so naturally, because there wasn’t a line for my desk, I fielded complaints regularly. One day a woman, very nice and patient (this actually was rare), calmly explained to me that her five-year-old had opened the door to their bathroom, and there was a housekeeper on the toilet in there….
A Sweet But Creepy Experience
The housekeeper and the boy screamed so loudly that I had already gotten noise complaints from the adjacent rooms. This was a bit of an awkward situation, but I felt bad for both parties; it really was just an accident, and even housekeepers need a bathroom break. Needless to say, that family got a free night and an upgrade. Reddit User: heodeggerian
I work as a housekeeper for an old folks’ home. A guy who is like 90 years old at least was wandering the halls at about midnight when he was supposed to be in bed. I encountered him, and he told me with giant wandering eyes that I should get out now. “They’re coming. Nothing lasts forever. The walls are closing. They’re melting. You should go before it falls down….”
The Monster Underneath Your Bed
It was eerily calm and gave me chills at the moment. The weirdest thing happened a few days later, and he ended up passing away. I’m not sure what was going on with him at that time, but a part of me thinks he knew that his time was coming to an end. I felt very sad after that, because he was so sweet. Reddit User: iratemistletoe
The door kept locking on housekeeping, and I worked as maintenance. I unlocked the door with the master that swings open the top latch as well as the deadbolt, then got called back to do it again. I investigated the room and then saw a hand under the bed when I took one step into the room. I left and locked the door behind me….
Setting Fire to the Room
I then called the police. They removed the person who was trying to hide under the bed after check out. There was no follow-up. It was just creepy, as I don’t know their intentions. They may have just been having a giggle or trying to find somewhere to sleep and were out of money. No clue what they were trying to accomplish, but they looked genuinely creepy. Reddit User: galkasmash
This wasn’t me, but a coworker. She came into a room and found that the tenant had decided to sprinkle a mix of ash and/or salt on the carpet, then laid down trash bags on top of it all, placed candles in every corner, including the vanity, and left paper bags filled with random damaged toys and dolls, some of which were burnt, melted or cut….
A Date Night Ruined
Oh, and the candles didn’t set the room on fire, but they did damage and warped the wallpaper significantly. The tenant had the gall to insist that we had to let her stay in another room because she had too much luggage; she had five heavy double-strength black trash bags in lieu of luggage and nowhere else to go. Reddit User: akun2500
I don’t work there, but I decided to take my girlfriend at the time to a nice night out, and after that we went to this nice hotel I booked. At around 2 am, we were woken up to beating and banging on the door and told to go to the lobby by what looked like a swat team member. Well, we come to find out the people that were in the room right next to ours were doing some highly illegal stuff….
Two Weird Hotel Encounters
They were also selling substances out of that room for almost a month. So we had our night ruined by a drug bust. On a side note, we did get our money back and also had a long drive back home at almost 3 am. We basically got dinner and a show that night, but I was no longer in charge of date nights after that. Reddit User: Fyhyy
We had a regular customer at the hotel I worked at; the guest was a local doctor. He would go on week-long alcohol binges. One staff member would be designated to be on call and clean the room. We were always instructed by our manager not to talk about it. Another time, I cleaned a room after someone had checked out….
And the Award for Bad Parents Goes To…
The person had left their shower running, and the room was filled with steam. It smelled like strong whiskey and leather cologne. They had left a bejeweled carved cane with the head of a lion sitting on a perfectly made bed. It felt like a joke scene from a movie. When we contacted them about the cane, we were told to keep it as a souvenir, and they hung up. Reddit User: dylandblue
I did housekeeping a few years back for a small casino here in Oregon, and while it’s not one of the strangest stories, it’s definitely one of the most infuriating things I encountered. To set the scene, this was a small hotel of about five floors split up into multiple sections. Each section would have one housekeeper working on either side….
The Weird and the Weirder
One day, I come in and get my room assignment, and as I’m going through my section, my partner approaches me to let me know that they have a room in which a baby has been crying for the past hour and a half. These people left their infant alone in a hotel room for a minimum of an hour and a half while they went and played in the casino. Reddit User: murder_train88
So my mother works as a housekeeper. She told us this one story about this guy. He checked in with no luggage at all and ended up staying there for a few days; I wish I knew how to pack this lightly. After a couple of days of him staying there, she went to clean this dude’s room despite the “do not disturb” sign….
Rearranging the Hotel Furniture
When she walked into this guy’s room, she said that it was full of weird vintage clothing and also antique items. There were creepy dolls and stuffed animals everywhere. Despite it being so weird, my mom said that he had kept everything in his room perfectly organized, so she just ended up cleaning around the stuff and didn’t touch anything. Reddit User: Jarvincleballs2
When I worked at a cheap hotel, we had a guest completely rearrange the room. She flipped the mattress against the wall, the nightstand was against the door, the desk was in the middle of the room, and the TV was unplugged, moved, and covered by the blanket for some weird reason. She stole the art off the wall, too….
A Weekend of Pink Glitter Fun
So, my boss called her to let her know that her card would be charged to replace the stuff, and that was when she went off about “seeing things” in the room; she rearranged the room to fight them off as well as helping us by taking the cursed paintings off the wall. I don’t know what he said to her after that. Reddit User: kaelakitten
I worked the front desk of a 4.5 star hotel; it would have been a 5 star if we had a pool. Anyways, we had some high-class guests. This elderly couple checked in to our largest room on the top floor for the weekend; nothing unusual. They were perfectly behaved, and the wife called all us girls “dear” and handed us some $20s….
Old People Have the Best Stories
We thought nothing of it until housekeeping called us. This couple had covered the entire 2,000-square-foot penthouse with pink glitter. It was just everywhere. It was in the bathroom, in the closets, on the drapes. The manager called them to inform them of the obvious cleaning fee, and they didn’t seem to mind one bit. Reddit User: Sadmacarm
Well, this story isn’t mine, but my grandmother worked in a hotel for quite a while. She once told me a story of how she found a dead body on the floor of a hotel room. It turned out that the friends of the dead guy brought the guy into the hotel room while partying to sober up and left him on the floor to sleep….
The Bigger Than Life Poster
The unfortunate thing about the situation was that they had also left the window open for fresh air. It was winter, and I live in a Nordic country. He actually ended up freezing to death in the hotel room. His friends were just trying to help the guy out, so I don’t know how they coped with that afterward. Old people have the best stories. Reddit User: needikunn
I worked at a golf resort for about two months this summer, and during one of my last days, we walked into a room to do some stay-over service, where there was a bigger-than-life-sized poster of some random girl who had won a golf tournament in 2008, and nobody knew who she was or why it was in there….
It was signed, too. The next day, after the people had checked out, when another pair of housekeepers went in to clean the room out entirely, the people had left the poster there. It eventually ended up in the little office space that we kept our belongings and held morning meetings in, which is still pretty cool. Reddit User: chicagofxcker69