Hi there! Welcome to the Bored Panda luxury hotel. Here’s your room key and a list of amenities we have to offer. A complimentary breakfast will be provided in the restaurant each morning between 7 and 9, and there's a gym on the third floor that’s available for all guests. Feel free to call the front desk if you have any questions, and enjoy your stay!

You might associate staying in a hotel with rest and relaxation if you only book them while you’re on vacation. But spending time in a hotel is an extremely different experience for the staff. Employees of luxury hotels have recently been spilling secrets on Reddit about what really goes on behind the scenes, so we've gathered some of their most unsettling stories below. Enjoy reading through these details that management might want to keep under wraps, and be sure to upvote the tales that will make you rethink your next stay in a hotel!

#1

Bed Bugs: Larger hotels have better insurance to compensate for bedbugs. We wont say their name but we will hand you over to human resources who files a claim and start a compensation package. As for when it happens it can cost us between 2500 and 5k to clear a room of them and we treat the rooms on each side of the infected.

Image credits: anon

#2

We had valet service at our hotel, and due to huge amounts of theft and breakins by bums in our lots we had to go thru guests cars and take everything of value out to hid stuff in our conference room, then put it all back in before we brought their car around.

Was ridiculous. *and* we had to keep it under wraps.

Image credits: Harambeaintdeadyet

#3

When I worked at a nice hotel, the 'affair [code of conduct]' was brought up in training. Never mention a person being a regular and don’t mention anything about their partner or the fact it’s a different partner. That became a rule after some valet basically kickstarted a very nasty divorce with a wealthy guest.

Image credits: jeepfail

#4

Worked a while back at a 5-Star/5 Diamond resort in Vegas in room service. At that time, if you bought a bottle of booze for your room and didn’t open it (including putting it out with your dishes), then it is re-sold. Was very frequent.

Image credits: Rhinowalrus

#5

We over book rooms just like a flight over books seats. If your method of payment isn't authorizing enough money for what you have been spending we'll have the valet give your keys to the front desk and we'll lock you out of the room until you get a new method of payment.

Image credits: Wildwill6969

#6

A family member used to work at Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Yes, it's super fancy. For about a year, they had a phantom pooper. As in, random dumps left in random places. It was always in corners where security cameras didn't reach. They figured it was an employee, and had some ideas, but never knew who it was, until someone left and it stopped. This was about 20 years ago.

Image credits: 1955photo

#7

My cousin worked in Vegas at a few major resorts from 2008 to 2015. He said that for most of them, the staff was the best people to ask where to get drugs from as they were the ones around the most. He said not to ask directly, but if you have a bellboy bring up something, ask them or ask room service. They usually can sell directly or know who's holding in the hotel.

Image credits: itsfish20

#8

During housekeeping, hotels use different-colored cloths to wipe your drinking glasses, cutlery, toilets, and sinks to avoid contamination. They just don't bother separating these cloths after wiping and moving to the next room.

Image credits: curry-sauce

#9

I used to work at a high-end lodge that hosted holiday parties/fancy dinners for software giants, and one exec peed ALL OVER a room. It was $13,000 in damage. We regularly had rich guys pull up in their Lamborghinis with a sex-worker. My favorite was the couple we had to essentially evict from their room due to smell and noise complaints. When we got in, there were dozens of designer shoe boxes and coke residue everywhere. The woman left with her foot hanging out the window as they drove away — wealthy people are weird.

Image credits: nikitasaurus

#10

We know criminal enterprises have funded casinos in the past. I worked at Revel Casino (Ocean Casino Resort) in Atlantic City before and after its opening. One thing they kept mentioning in our onboarding was that the triads (a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate) were funding the casino. I thought it was super strange that these execs were just openly telling this to brand-new hires.

Image credits: PlayfulBabee

#11

A well-known luxury hotel and resort chain keeps a database of you. They get pictures from the internet and basically 'stalk you' to create a profile. They put what you ordered to eat, how many towels you needed, what drink you liked, your kids' names and birthdays, addresses, and phone numbers. Everyone working in the hotel has access to this database and can see your information. It's not all good stuff, either. We know 'you were an asshole to Jen' while you were staying in London. The one I was at had to remove cameras in the lobby because big wig guys would bring their mistresses and no evidence was allowed to be recorded.

Image credits: SweetieBabex

#12

I only work as a housekeeper at a regular 4 star Hotel, but probably about 25% of people either bleed or leave s**t stains on the beds. It's truly atrocious how disgusting people are, especially when they know someone else is cleaning it up. Even the wealthier guests. And the best tippers are the cleanest people. If someone fully s**t on the bed and used towels to wipe, left cum on the shower door, drank heavily and puked on the carpet in multiple places, and clogged the toilet, that person will not tip at all. But the person who barely used the full bed and didn't use the shower at all and was super clean and polite, now that's a good tipper.

Image credits: kpo987

#13

Having worked in the casino industry, one of my fellow slot managers used to be a hotel manager at the Rio in Las Vegas. He had a couple try to book a room but the hotel was completely sold out. Shortly after he got a call from housekeeping that an older couple was found unresponsive and most likely deceased in their room. They called the police, and the authorities removed the bodies. Not long after, housekeeping cleaned the room. Seeing that the earlier couple was nearby, the manager called them over and offered them the room. They were ecstatic and took it not knowing what had just occurred. The manager gave them a discount on the bill

Image credits: Subject-User-1234

#14

One thing management definitely wouldn't want guests to know is how sometimes housekeeping cuts corners if they are running behind. If you're staying just one night and your sheets look and smell clean enough, they might not actually get washed. That's right, management sometimes instructs housekeeping to skip the wash if it seems unnecessary. So, that 'fresh' bedding you're snuggling into? It might have been slept in by the previous guest. Sweet dreams!

Source: Former luxury hotel employee bf.

Image credits: IDriveLikeYourMom

#15

I worked in golf resorts for a while, dealt with elite 1% asshats for many years.

I’m not going to give anyone a playbook at stealing identities, but billionaires are notoriously careless with their bank information.

In a hotel, there are times where you need a credit card authorization form, faxed. It’s a major security risk to send it through any other electronic way. But these one percenters see all that as an inconvenience. They will be like “listen, I don’t give a s**t, I don’t care about your policy, you’re going to take my info however *I* give it to you.”

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg was burned for having a password “dadada”? This is exactly what some of these wealthy people do.

Image credits: nyliram87

#16

Front desk knows all the call girls. We give them water on the way out and sometimes call them taxis. Management doesn’t like us doing it but escorts tip well.

Image credits: ColorfulClouds_

#17

Convention attendees get so out of control that the hotel will only host the convention if they have a private security force. Since private security isn't law enforcement or licensed, they do pretty much whatever it takes to keep trouble out of the public eye. Mostly, it's locking people up in rooms or escorting them out of town, but they can get rough at times. But none of the convention attendees know they are there and the hotel staff pretends they don't see them. Even those who run afoul of them don't know exactly who it was who grabbed them.

Image credits: rusty0123

#18

I work in a Vegas casino and I’ve seen, on multiple occasions, luggage down at the trash dock. I mean luggage with airport tags still attached that look like they’re in use.

Could draw a couple conclusions. Are people buying new luggage here? Not likely. We sell it, but these are newer bags I’m seeing. The much more likely scenario is these people are either no longer here or no longer alive. Deaths happen here and you’ll never hear about them. Trafficking is the darker thought for me. Plenty of beautiful young women here being way too loose with their own safety.

—no one is blaming the women. But getting blackout drunk and wandering off into Naked City or down Flamingo rd at 2am is disregarding your own safety.

#19

Not a hotel employee, but associated with a popular convention that everyone would recognize.

The convention attendees get so out of control that the hotel will only host the convention if they have a private security force.

Since the private security isn't law enforcement or licensed, they do pretty much whatever it takes to keep trouble out of the public eye. Mostly it's locking people up in rooms or escorting them out of town, but they can get rough at times.

But none of the convention attendees know they are there and the hotel staff pretends they don't see them. Even those who run afoul of them don't know exactly who it was that grabbed them.

#20

Keep your door secured unless you want your toes to get sucked like chicken wings.

#21

My buddy was a dive instructor at a luxury resort on an island.

One of the guests had a heart attack on the diving excursion(before he got off the boat).

The nearest Doctor couldn’t come for 24hrs, so they put the corpse in a guest room and cranked up the aircon.

Of course reception gave the key to the corpse room to a newly arrived honeymooning couple. They were greeted by the star of weekend at Bernies

Edit for clarity: Dr was to sign off death, do formalities not to save life.

Mauritius in the early 1990s.

Image credits: MrAlf0nse

#22

My brother worked in an upscale hotel in Southern California. A morbidly obese guest sat on the toilet in his room, shattered it, got his femoral artery slashed by a chunk of broken toilet, bled to death, and flooded his room when the water line ruptured. My brother found out about it from the maintenance guy who found the body. Management made sure no other guest ever knew, including the guests in the room below the death scene who called for maintenance because water was running down their wall.

Image credits: UtherPenDragqueen

#23

Some luxury hotels that cater to sports teams have standing agreements that no room service is allowed after the team departs, otherwise, the girls the athletes brought back the night before will rack up huge bills the team has to pay (Edited for clarity)

Image credits: TakeThatPlant

#24

Well, I dont anymore but when I did, I was have a lot of sex with the corporate women who would be staying over or were there for Christmas parties that sort of thing. Without fail, any time I was working the after hours bar, I was getting some women sitting at the bar and chatting me up.

I had sex with more 40 year old women when I was 20 than Ive had since becoming 40. Just an absolute shagfest when I was working.

#25

Las Vegas, city of excess, people over do it, drink, d***s, and die in their hotel rooms all the time.

Image credits: RussellZoloft

#26

$2k per night and this place has a serious rat problem.

Image credits: prof_dynamite

#27

We take notes on your reservation profile. Everything from anniversary information to fav cocktails and foods. Add notes to pass along to other staff.

Image credits: dez_navi

#28

Did valet at an upscale hotel in SF the number of times I parked luxury vehicles with d***s haphazardly/precariously stowed in obvious places always blew me away. Not surprisingly those guests were great tippers as they learned who to trust. So many escorts too, always laughed at dudes who’d come to the restaurant for lunch with a new lady practically every day like he was showing off his catalogue of women as if no one knew he paid for them all.

Image credits: lazerayfraser

#29

Human trafficking became so bad that the company gave us training on looking out for it.

There is policy in place to knowingly cause you issue and pacify you (ex: routine elevator maintenance during a busy period because the tech travels around and it is now or 3 weeks from now. The elevator did not "have unforseen issues")

Professionals are the worst guests for partying and puking everywhere and pissing in halls and breaking things and f*****g in public areas... lawyers, doctors, teachers. In that order. Whenever they had conventions, extra staff were on the next day for dealing with damage.

EDIT: I forgot to add overbooking as an example of dicking with people. We assumed not everyone would show on a 100% occupancy night and booked more than we could hold. The rare time we did have everyone show, "heres free stuff and a ride to x hotel". We even had friendly agreements with neighbouring competition to let each other know when we could take each others overbookings.

Image credits: anon

#30

It's pretty common to have a dead guest. There's a standard procedure for it and we take care of it quietly.

Image credits: Why_am_I_here033

#31

Porn shoots. And you know those carpets and upholstery ain’t getting cleaned.

Image credits: pay-this-fool

#32

I worked cooking at an ultra exclusive resort in Utah ($3k-$12k/night)

Nothing that exciting happened in my year there. I found a bottle in the tallboy (large fridge) labeled 'Kristen Belle's Breastmilk. DO NOT USE'

Most celebrities were nice, except for David Beckham. He specifically requested no staff members make eye contact with him

I had put in my 2 weeks, and was really drunk on a day off, and made a post on FB about how Gordon Ramsay was coming and I hoped he wasn't filming Kitchen Nightmares with us. I was fired within 24 hrs, lol. I did get to cook fish tacos for him and his family though, and I heard he complimented the dinner kitchen crew directly (partially open kitchen), which is cool.

Image credits: OM3N1R

#33

There is this hotel near the Seatac airport. people will rent rooms on the back side top floors and then suicide off the balcony. Yeh they are not going to run that in the news. Not often, but when it happens no one knows.

Image credits: pogiguy2020

#34

Just recently quit my job at a very old hotel that’s rated 4-stars and extremely popular.

For an entire summer, we weren’t given sponges and had to scrub toilets, tubs, etc. with nothing but our gloves hands and tilex. Some housekeepers bought their own sponges, but there was no way I was going to spend money when the hotel makes millions every year. When we finally got sponges, we would use the same one for every sink, toilet, and tub/shower.

There was mold growing behind the wallpaper in some of the bathrooms, especially the poolside rooms.

We prioritized speed over cleanliness every time.

If pillow cases didn’t /look/ used, we were taught to not replace them.

It just has to look clean, it doesn’t have to actually be clean.

#35

Friend of mine recently confirmed the cliche that the cleaning staff uses ONE cloth for cleaning the entire hallway.

That means they start at room #1 with the furniture and stuff and end with the bathroom. Then they proceed with room #2 and start with the furniture again...

On good days they would use two separate rags for the room and the bathroom but they would still start with the sink and end with the toilet only to start with the sink in the next room again.

This is so disgusting to think about that many people forget about it very fast after hearing this. Kind of a self protection measurement of our brains I guess.

If I have to stay in a hotel I always pack a bunch of desinfectants and will refuse to let the staff clean my room.

#36

House cleaning throws the bad responses in the rooms response booklets out. Unless it’s a department they don’t like….

#37

My mom used to work as a cleaner in a fancy hotel. She actually ended up quitting because of how disgusted she was that 99.999% of the bedding, towels, etc NEVER got washed. She said there’s such a time pressure to get “x” amount of rooms done in “x” amount of time that many cleaners would just remake the beds and re-fold the towels.

#38

In the 90s, I was doing a shoot at one of the top five hotels in Paris. The manager told us they basically had a racial quota - they would turn down the majority of Arab reservations to help their European customers feel more comfortable. He was quite open about it.

Edit: just to clarify, he was talking about Arabs wearing traditional dress, eg: full burkas etc. which I guess made wealthy Europeans nervous. It was a time when a lot of mega-rich Arabs were out there throwing tons of cash around.
And if anyone is interested, the hotel was Le Bristol.

#39

I used to work as a freelance bartender and hotels were always the worst run situation I would end up in. Here are some examples from a really nice looking hotel in an old monastery.

The beer lines had never been cleaned, like literally never. I asked where the equipment was to do it and no-one could tell me. I eventually found it dusty in a closet in the cellar.

The breakfast buffet leftovers were usually reheated and given to the staff, but sometimes became the following day's breakfast buffet.

The chefs were just s**t faced pretty much every day.

The worst I saw though was the wine put out on tables at a wedding. They married them up, recapped them, and put them back in the cellar. Not even the same wine getting poured into bottles. Guests had drank straight from them and everyone had seen, and no-one had an issue with this. In my country this is actually illegal, it's called diverting waste. This was the final straw for me in this particular venue. I told the manager that I didn't give a s**t what he did after my time there ended but there was no f*****g way I was letting that wine be resold. He tried to tell me that it was perfectly legal, I cut him off and told him that it wasn't, it doesn't matter either way, it's disgusting and immoral, and if I find a single bottle of that wine in the stores I'm walking out.

Luckily when you're freelance bartending somewhere you're there because they desperately need you, so threatening to leave works really well.

#40

My friend works at a high end hotel. The stories she tells are off the walls. You have no idea how many rooms are rented or at least attempted to be rented by escorts. Please be nice to the front desk. Chances are they are working doubles and lates non-stop because of labor shortages and scheduling problems. It's a s**t show. What you really should ask about is what you see at Disney.

#41

Vegas security is the easiest thing to bypass. Wear a black shirt, say “im here for the gig in the ballroom, which way do I go?”. It was surprising a mass shooting hadn’t happened sooner, and it did not get better since the shooting.

Experience: I worked in special events for 10 years in Vegas.

#42

My story's quite tame compared to most of the ones here. When I was in college in the early 1990s, I was a banquet server at a semi-high end place, and there was a couple who stayed in a room for several days and ordered room service for all their meals, including at least one bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, which at that time was $150 plus tip.

They were otherwise unremarkable except for one thing: When they checked out, they paid their bill entirely in quarters, which they brought to the lobby in canvas bags. We guessed they most likely owned a car wash, or a laundromat.

#43

I worked in room service at a very chic hotel in Miami. One guest requested that a specific waitresses (not a room service worker) always deliver him food. Not exactly sure what went on in there, but he tipped her with a big bag of weed each time. Which she would promptly bring back to share with the room service staff. Calvin Klein brought his own food because he was on a special diet. He was an a*****e about it too. I can confirm that the concierge will get you WHATEVER you want: women, d***s, Cuban cigars, guest listed at clubs...

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I worked at a nice but older resort--one step above a cheap motel. A local hooker stole all the furniture from one of our rooms. It was old crappy wicker furniture. We had a local couple, who were staying with us to avoid being served for a lawsuit. We weren't allowed to say that they were staying there. The police eventually showed up for them.

There were several times when guests would come to the front desk claiming the maids had stolen something from their room. They would be irate, demanding we call the police. Every. Single. Time. They found the item either in their luggage or car, or their travel companions had moved/packed the item.

One gentleman claimed that he forgot his very expensive camera in his room. My manager pulled up video that showed him packing up his car, placing the camera on top of the car and driving off without realizing it.

#44

There's a great book about this titled Hotel Babylon. The story was taken from a bunch of different hotel employees and their testimonials.

A good follow up about the same industry secrets but for airlines is Air Babylon, by the same author, Imogen Edwards-Jones.

There's a whole series showcasing lots of industries.

#45

My wife claims that the amount of people who s**t in the shower far exceeds however many people you think s**t in a shower

Edit: 1000 people have commented waffle stomp. You do not have to comment waffle stomp. Please stop giving me notifications.

Image credits: Mynamesrobbie

#46

I worked in fancy hotels for over a decade some corporate owned, private owned and indian owned. Just about anything you can imagine happens. I was in a group of managers of different properties who would meet weekly for drinks and we would share " well you wouldn't believe this s**t" stories. We had a saying, "don't ever say I have seen it all or what's the worst that can happen".


But to be specific, fires, death, robbery, prostitution, sex in every nook and cranny, drunk people doing stupid s**t, "important people" doing stupid s**t and thinking their clout can make it go away. However, the best ones are really the most un-wild and just mechanical failures. Things like fire systems going off , a boiler busting and water raining down an elevator all the way to the lobby. Scissor lifts falling through the floor because the dirt washed out under the foundation concreate.

If you really want to get a daily dose of what it's like front of house ppl have a sub called r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk/


Probably the most scarry thing is really just the turn over rate. The owners/ corporate overloards are always trying to save a buck anywhere they can. And it's a shark filed world. I have seen so many times were they would fire the managers of departments who were loyal and hard working just to save 2k a year promoting someone who barely knew what to do. We ask the employees to deal with the unexpected all the time and never reward them and it's just a game of how long will they put up with this s**t vs do they believe they can do better vs will someone do it for less pay without them realizing it.

#47

I used to work in accounts receivable for a couple of luxury hotels that were owned by the same LLC. We would open blocks of rooms for GENERIC SPORTS SEASON about 8 months in advance. Due to high demand these reservations had to be a two day FRI, SAT stay. Payment was made in full (450-800 depending on room type). Refunds were available only if you cancelled a month before the arrival date. When I first started in the position I discovered $63,000 worth of reservations that had been cancelled on time but were never refunded. I showed it to my manager, an absolutely incompetent woman who couldn't check in a guest if she needed to, she got back to me after discussing it with one of the owners. I can't remember how exactly she put it but I was told to just forget the matter and not to mention it to anyone. I got a $500 dollar cash Christmas bonus that year.

#48

We have a secret way in from the parking garage that leads to the executive offices. It’s uh. For prostitutes.

#49

These comments remind me that when I was on vacation last year, a guy (drunk) tried to do a back flip on the balcony and fell off. I wanna say it was like the 10th floor, maybe. It was pretty big talk around the city.

Edit: he did not survive.

#50

The bellman or night valets will happily set you up with an escort.

Hotel bartenders and servers routinely work 10+ hours without a break.

If your behavior (fighting for example) on property requires calling the police, you will just be escorted back to your room IF you are there with your family. If you're alone, you're at a minimum being kicked out of the hotel and probably arrested.

Hotel management is aggressively incompetent. If you're terrible at everything and want a mediocre salary with long hours and no responsibility, but you can wear a blazer, this is the job for you.

Conventions are hotbeds of adultery.

The big hotel chains will nickel and dime you to death, and not always legally. Some of them have been sued for it, lost, and continue to do it anyway.

Everyone on staff hates the majority of the guests.

Labor and wage violations are rampant.

#51

All the coworkers are banging each other.

#52

I have a pretty interesting one. We know criminal enterprises have funded casinos in the past. I worked at Revel casino (now ocean) in Atlantic City before and after its opening. One thing they kept mentioning in our onboarding was that the triads were funding the casino. I thought it was super strange that these execs were just openly telling brand new hires.