8 Hotel Workers Recall the Most Bizarre Things They’ve Experienced on the Job

We often see hotels as a retreat from the stresses of everyday life, but for the staff behind the scenes, their experiences can be quite different. Below, we’ve compiled genuine stories from hotel employees that range from awkward to downright shocking, giving us a deeper appreciation for the commitment of these hardworking individuals.

• I worked in a motel when I was 17 or 18. I was at the front desk when the housekeeping guy called me to check something out in a room that was being cleaned. I went up there, and the housekeeping guy was standing in the middle of the room, pointing up to the ceiling.
  There were a set of bare footprints on the ceiling, which is at least 10 feet high. Bare. Not shoes or slippers, and only in the middle — nowhere else. There was no way he could have jumped that high upside down, and there were no prints on the walls either. © Fluxywild / Reddit
• While working as a cleaner in a hotel, I went to clean a guest’s room, dreading it since they’d been there for a bachelor party. When I opened the door, I found… a goat. I have no idea how it got there, but it made for a good story for a while. © bluepaul / Reddit

• As the owner of a bed and breakfast for the past eight years, the craziest thing I ever found was an old, battered notebook titled "Why I Love Salad." Inside, there were literally 40–80 pages devoted to why salad was amazing. Occasionally, the author even suggested that they believed salad to be alive in some sense. It looked like it had been written sporadically over the course of several years. © ShaneMcD**th / Reddit
• I was working at a luxury hotel, and we had a fairly well-known band staying with us. There were no noise complaints, and they seemed like perfect guests.
  However, when they checked out, and we went to clean the room, we discovered that every single piece of furniture had been nailed to the ceiling — arranged exactly as it had been on the floor. I found it pretty amusing. Management, not so much. © yesWideSt**id / Reddit
• I worked for four years cleaning inexpensive motel rooms. Once, we had a guest stay for an entire week without letting housekeeping into his room. Each day, we brought him fresh towels and trash bags, and he would meet us at the door to take them.
  When he finally left, we were terrified of what we might find, but the room was spotless. He hadn’t touched a thing and had even cleaned with bleach. All the towels we’d given him were neatly folded, apparently unused. Even the bed was just as we’d left it. Super weird. © feedmeyourspaghetti / Reddit

• While working at a small boutique hotel, a woman came to the desk, visibly shaken. She said, “I can’t find my husband. He’s not in the room, and all his clothes are still there. He’s a sleepwalker.”
  Immediately, I head up to the CCTV station located in our linen storage to check the cameras. As I open the door and turn on the light, I’m shocked to see her naked husband asleep, sprawled across our bundled duvet covers, with one half of a duvet covering him.
  I woke him up, and, of course, he had no idea where he was. I wrapped him up and took him back to his wife. The couple checked out later, and the guy was extremely embarrassed. I told him not to worry about it, as he had given me a great story to share. © sbouvette / Reddit
• I used to work at a hotel. One day, I found a dark, hairy caterpillar in the bed of one of the guest rooms. I carried it outside carefully, not to lose it. I placed it on the sidewalk, but it didn’t move.
  I picked it back up to make sure it was alive, and as I did, I was shocked to discover that it was actually a woman’s fake eyelash. © Love-Dizzy / Reddit

• My friend owned a small hotel. One night, I was there when he got a call from one of the guests saying he heard a loud crash in the room next door. We checked the computer and saw that the room was unoccupied. We knocked at the door, and there was no answer. We opened it and were horrified to find a cat in the room. It had knocked over a lamp and smashed it. We took it back to the office and looked at the room records. The prior guest had abandoned the cat when he checked out three days earlier. He was already on the other side of the country when we called him, and he said he was not coming back for the cat.
  My friend took ownership of the cat, and now she is the motel cat. She walks all around the property and takes care of any mice or critters. She even has her picture on the wall as one of the “employees.” We’re not sure why the maid service didn’t see her when the room was being cleaned. We think the vacuum scared the cat, and she hid somewhere. © mrsheikh / Reddit

In our other article, we’ve put together a collection of useful tips that will definitely be helpful for your next hotel stay.