The hospitality industry is a gnarly one.
Anybody who’s ever worked in it is has their own share of insane stories, if only because people treat hotel rooms with not even a modicum of respect.
BuzzFeed recently reached out to their community of readers to ask them about the worst things they’d experienced working in the hospitality biz. Read at your own peril, and if you happen to be a vet of the industry yourself, keep in mind that these stories could trigger PTSD flashbacks.
17. Poop to the face is par for the course.
My most recent horror story was this: When I went to close down our pool for the night, I discovered the bathroom toilet clogged to the brim with what must have been an entire roll of tp plus the poo of ten men. I reluctantly grabbed a plunger and tried to gently remedy the situation. Apparently not gently enough as it turns out, because poo water came splashing back at me and hit my legs and FACE. The moment I got back to the laundry room I wiped my face down with hand sanitizer and wrote a very detailed note in the communication log sending my regards should I expire from a gruesome infectious disease.
16. I HATE THIS SO MUCH.
My horror story was watching a dog choke to death. This woman had a small dog with her and she had just checked into the hotel. She decided to explore with her dog on a leash. At one point she ended up on the ground level where the pool was. Get back onto the elevator to come back up to the lobby. What she did not notice was that her tiny dog did not follow her on to the elevator.
When she noticed he was missing she kept yanking on the leash (because she thought that somehow he got trapped inside of the elevator shaft), but it turned out that the dog was still on the level below and she essentially choked him to death. We tried to save the dog by cutting the leash but it was too late. I still hear that lady’s anguished sobs and the very faint dog barking to this day and it haunts me. That was the last time I worked at a hotel.
15.
When I was a housekeeping supervisor, I got a call that sent me to the fourth floor, where I found a trail of poop leading from the elevators to the end of the hall. While a team of people were cleaning up the trail, an elderly woman walked out of the room where the poo trail ended, like everything was totally normal. The next day, the housekeeper called me crying because that lady’s bathtub was also filled to the brim with poop.
14.
I was cleaning rooms in a small, Midwestern hotel. There’d been a rodeo over the weekend and the rooms were GROSS. I slogged through and came to one in which the bathroom was covered in blood. SO. MUCH. BLOOD. I started cleaning, and when I reached behind the toilet to wipe the floor, I found something hard and small, like a pebble. I opened my rag to see what it was, and IT WAS A FINGERTIP. SOMEONE HAD SEVERED THEIR FINGERTIP. We still don’t know what happened.
13.
There was a dildo under a bed I was cleaning. When I went to grab my claw so as not to touch the sex toy, I stumbled, my hand grabbed at the bedsheets, and a hypodermic needle lodged itself into my hand. I panicked and stepped backwards again, and a nail sticking up from the door frame went straight through the heel of my shoe. Oh, and no worries — I was tested after the needle was removed, and I’m clean!
12.
I worked front desk at a hotel a few summers back. Two guests who were both married to other people (they always made sure to remind us) would meet at the hotel, hook up, and request new sheets by the end of the night because the current ones got “dirty.” The worst part? They weren’t just having sex — they were peeing on each other, and all over the room.
11.
A housekeeper called me, saying a guy pooped and vomited ALL OVER his room, so we immediately deactivated his key so he’d have to come get a new one. When he showed up, I explained that we’d have to charge him a deep cleaning fee before reactivating the key. After he paid, I couldn’t help but ask what happened. He just shrugged and answered, “I dreamt that a bear was chasing me,” and left.
10.
A kid checked into his parents’ timeshare, saying they’d be joining him later. Well, his parents didn’t show up, but 25 of his friends did for a party that resulted in someone being thrown into a floor-to-ceiling window, guests complaining all night about the noise, and the cops showing up. The kid got arrested, along with everyone else who was too drunk or stoned to get away before the police arrived, and his parents had to foot the bill for the damages.
9.
I was working room service and got a call 15 minutes before closing. My co-worker disappeared an hour before, so I had to take the food. I went to deliver it, and a man answered in a towel — which was kind of shocking, but nothing new. I set the tray down, and the bathroom door opened. Guess who it was? My co-worker, BUTT-ASS NAKED. I set the tray down and slowly backed out. No words.
8.
I was a housekeeper, and one day I went into a room after a guest checked out. It smelled a *little* funky, but I couldn’t find the source of the stench. I went to strip the bed, pulled the sheets back, and the bed was filled with coleslaw. COLESLAW! I had no idea why, and I do NOT want to know why!