26 Deeeeeply Shocking Fancy Hotel Secrets Management Preferred To Keep Under Wraps
Reddit user Reasonable_Rush1196 asked the community, "What are some behind-the-scenes occurrences at luxury hotels that management might prefer to keep under wraps?"
Current and former employees revealed what really goes on behind closed doors. Like, I bet they'll make you question every vacation decision you'll ever make (at least they did for yours truly).
So, here are some hidden luxury hotel secrets management preferred to keep under wraps:
Note: Some secrets were pulled from our BuzzFeed Community and this Reddit thread by user akumamatata8080.
Note: Some submissions include topics of suicide and drugs. Please proceed with caution.
1."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."
2."The amount of fraud that goes on in luxury hotels, I think, would really surprise people. I handled all of those fraud claims, and it was especially rampant during the holiday season. It’s funny that people will know to use the cardholder name on the reservation but then actually put in their home address. Oftentimes, a quick Google search will bring up the cardholder's LinkedIn and can easily give you a location for that person. Then, you Google the provided home address, and suddenly, it’s definitely not showing the CEO of a financial group type of house. It was more frustrating when it was the front desk that wasn’t catching this, and it would land on my plate once multiple chargebacks came in. Another big giveaway of fraud is when they book one night for the most expensive room, don’t confirm their booking, and go through a third party like Booking Com or Expedia."
3."I had a friend who worked at a luxury hotel in a large city, and he said that [suicides] are quite common. People would check in, load up the room service, take advantage of the amenities, and then 'check out.' It got to the point that the staff would have a system in place that would 'red flag' people based on the potential of this happening, and they would make a point of checking in on them very frequently. When a guy with a low-limit credit card maxes everything out on room service and amenities, that allegedly raises an alarm."
4."I worked at golf resorts for a while and dealt with elite 1% asshats for many years. I’m not going to give anyone a playbook for stealing identities, but billionaires are notoriously careless with their bank information. In a hotel, there are times when 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 shit. I don’t care about your policy. You’re going to take my info however I give it to you.'"
5."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."
6."I work as a housekeeper at a regular four-star hotel, and probably about 25% of people either bleed or leave shit 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 shit 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."
7."We know criminal enterprises have funded casinos in the past. I worked at a casino 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."
8."One thing management definitely wouldn't want guests to know is 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!"
9."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."
10."People who work the front desk know all the female sex workers. We give them water on the way out and sometimes call them taxis. Management doesn’t like us doing it, but they tip well."
11."I was the night manager at a luxury hotel in the eighties. There were three suicides, two different DEA busts, and a German guy who was an international fugitive who got really drunk at the bar and announced he was wanted in four countries. There were plenty of times we had bed bug infestations (we closed the room for two days, threw a bug bomb in, and we were back open for business). The 'gourmet restaurant' would advertise made-from-stock soups that were actually cans of Campbell soup. There were several klepto employees who got pass keys and tossed guest rooms for valuables. There was also a steady stream of local cops and detectives who snagged free rooms for themselves and their mistresses. It was an eye-opener."
12."Always clean your cups and glasses in your room before you drink out of them (no matter how posh your hotel is). Housekeepers are paid minimum wage and are cleaning over 15 rooms and bathrooms a day. They are cutting corners. The same towel that was wiping the toilet and bath may have also wiped your cup and glasses. And you should remove that bedspread — most hotels hardly ever have them cleaned."
13."My brother’s ex and my cousin’s girlfriend worked as cleaners at the Charlotte Hotel in Rosewood, London, and the one in Mayfair (I forget the name). They and others often found the stuff some patrons left behind. Shopping bags, perfumes, random luggage, clothes, laptops, cameras, phones, and chargers. The hotel usually held them in the lost property storage for at least one month. The more expensive an item, the longer they kept it in storage (capping at six months). They destroyed unclaimed laptops, phones, and passports after six months. But they got to keep some of the other stuff they found (that’s how my cousin got a Leica Q2 camera from his girlfriend as a birthday present)."
"One of the weirdest things they found was a wooden box of long hair bound in a ribbon. The patron called to get this box back (apparently it was his late granddaughter’s hair)."
14."When a housekeeper loses a key while cleaning someone's room, the key has to be canceled because we don't know if some random person picked up the key and now has access to all guest rooms. Honestly, if you're staying at a hotel, ALWAYS deadbolt the door and use a night latch for this reason (or else the front desk issues a key to the wrong room because both are a common issue)."
15."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 Lamborghini 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."
16."We overbook rooms just like a flight overbooks seats. If your method of payment doesn't authorize enough money for what you have been spending, we'll have the valet give your keys to the front desk. We'll lock you out of the room until you get a new method of payment."
17."A family member used to work at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville (yes, it's super fancy). For about a year, they had a phantom shitter (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 they never knew who it was until someone left and it stopped. This was about 20 years ago."
18."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."
19."We had valet service at our hotel, and due to huge amounts of theft and break-ins from people in our lots, we had to go through guests' cars and take everything of value out to hide stuff in our conference room. Then, we put it all back in before we brought their car around. It was ridiculous — we had to keep it under wraps."
20."I worked in a super fancy hotel in Canada. The hotel was mostly a businessmen clientele. They flirted with me and asked me where to find the best sex workers. Some of them were well-known actors and politicians — they came with sex workers and dates (when they were married), and you would be shocked at how many of them called me for a service in their room. They did the, 'Sorry, I was in the shower,' and, 'Oops, I dropped my towel.' It happened at least once a week that I saw someone's dick 'by accident.'"
—Anonymous
21."I worked at one of the most famous hotel franchises. We would sometimes have people who were homeless sneak in to use the restrooms in the lobby. Usually, we noticed them hustling out of the hotel, so we always checked the restrooms afterward. One time, someone decided to take a dump and smear it all over the walls, mirrors, toilets...you name it! Housekeeping already checked out for the night, so the front desk geared up and had to wipe it clean."
—Anonymous
22."My mom worked in Salt Lake City at a resort in the eighties. International tourists would buy full bottles of high-end shampoo and other products, only to use maybe a squirt if they even opened it. All of the housekeepers would take it home when the guests left. She also found some OLD movie reels with the cartoons floating because walking animation was not a thing yet."
23."I worked room service at a five-star/five-diamond resort in Vegas. 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 was re-sold. This happened frequently."
24."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. However, 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."
25."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."
26.And finally, "Larger hotels have better insurance to compensate for bedbugs. We won't say their name, but we will hand you over to human resources, who files a claim and starts a compensation package. When it happens, it can cost us between $2,500 to $5,000 to clear a room of them. We treat the rooms on each side of the infected."
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
