Hotel Housekeepers Confess The Most Disturbing Things They've Seen On The Job

The thread was overflowing with examples relating to sewage problems.

That Stinks

"Guest from overseas clogged the toilet and figured the tub would be his next best option. We found out weeks later when he checked out. We ended up calling a hazmat company to take care of it and then charged his company (who was paying for his stay) for the damages."

– thatswhashesaid

A Fecal Matter

"I asked this of a hotel manager when I went for a job interview recently. All the answers involved sh*t. Sh*t left neatly inside a pizza box was mentioned as the oddest, and the worst was sh*t in a kettle. Who sh*ts in a complimentary hotel tea kettle?"

– Lurkingmenacingly

Boo To Poo

"worked in a hotel through college as night auditor so usually i only got to hear the good stuff."

• "always hosted large groups for conventions, etc. One time was boys tennis team from out of state. every one of their rooms had sh*t in the toilet tanks, AKA an upper decker when they left; something like 100 rooms."
• "another time was a cheer squad and the pubic restroom was out of service for a week because they broke the toilet flushing so many tampons since they were all on the same cycle."
• "and lastly, had a homeless person break the lock to the roof access and was living up there for like a month before being found. he had basically set up a fully furnished home complete with a FULL SIZE MATTRESS. and lawn chairs. when they cleaned it up, found his 'sh*t corner' with a mound like 3 feet tall."

– ALostSoul77

These were peculiar sightings, to say the least.

Dark Matter

"I found a used condom filled with BLACK. To this day idk how it happened. It was just black goo. Similar to semen but black…"

– xoxo_baby_xoxo

Bag O' Birds

"Big rubbish bag full of frozen.. crows? Ravens? Black birds anyway. Just sat there in the hallway. Didn't really know what to make of that so I called Head of Housekeeping and it became her problem. Very weird indeed."

– Krissy_ok

The Mascot

"Kinda wholesome story..."

"I have a friend that owns a small motel just off a highway. I would hang out with him and chat on some late nights. One night, he got a call that one of the guest heard a loud crash in the room next door."

"Checked the computer and saw that the room was unoccupied. Friend and I go to check it out. We knock and there is no answer. He opens the door and there was a cat in the room. It knocked over a lamp and smashed it. It was super friendly and came right to us."

"We took it back to the office and looked at the room records. The prior person that was in the room 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.' Still was a dick move of the cat's old owner to leave the cat behind."

– mrsheikh

Condom Lamp

"Not me but my partner has a few."

"The one that sticks out to me is when he described walking in to the sight and smell of several dirty and semen-filled condoms melting/fusing themselves to the burning hot lamp/lampshade which had been left on, next to the bed. There were also assorted dildos and other sex toys (used, and also filthy) scattered all over the dressers/tables."

"Pretty sure he said he immediately turned around and walked back out."

– AgesAndAons

Want Cream Cheese With That?

"I worked in the industry and I was at the front desk for this one, the guest discovered it. Our guest was just enjoying his morning bagel, toasted in our fancy toasters. Wife comes in the room and says there's a weird smell. Looking around, they check inside the toaster and the last guest of the room had disposed of their used condom in there. Half the bagel gone, the guest was quite upset."

– Alstar45

Unsanitary Practices

"I used to work at a very well known hotel chain. I mainly worked at the bar but housekeeping were short staffed so I helped out for one day. The worst thing I saw was the manager telling us to not change the bedsheets to save time. This was my first day working in housekeeping, I can imagine the other stuff they did that I wasn’t privy to."

– 33nippels

Leaving Scraps

"I was cleaning rooms at a motel that had a contract with with a railroad so we very rarely saw customers that weren't railroad employees on a layover for their next trip. It was a great job as far as the customers go. We became a second family to them. They would tell us stories about their family and friends back home and they would get to know us as their extended family and friends. Quite possibly the most wholesome situation ever. Anyway, when I first started, I found a fried chicken leg bone in the shower, discarded in the soap dish. I can't get that out of my mind. There's so many unanswered questions... Did he always multitask by eating in the shower? How do eat chicken in the shower and not get soap/shampoo in it? Does fried chicken just taste better in the shower? Did he prefer leg meat or were breasts too hard to eat while bathing? This happened 5+ years ago and it still haunts me!"

– Immediate_Scallion69

Something sinister was at work here.

The Stiff

"This guy came in for a medical conference or something, he was a med school student. Very nice, we all liked him."

"The event ended and he extended for another week. NBD. His week ended and he didn’t check out, the housekeeper went into the room and saw his feet at the foot of the bed so she thought he was sleeping. I called him, no answer. Went into the room and he was dead."

"The police ended up putting together a timeline. Something happened and he got removed from his program? I’m not sure the details but the police traced his debit card transactions from bars to liquor stores to strip clubs, he had never drank before according to his parents. It ended with him buying a bag of heroin and dying in the hotel room. It was sad."

– MSFNinja

The Odor Gave It Away

"Found one too."

"3 days in a row, we couldn't reach a guest with a do not disturb on the door and expected to check out, but his card on file still cleared so we just extended him."

"One of the porters came down and said how the 5th floor was weirdly rank, and I immediately put the worst case scenario together."

"Myself, the porter, and our MoD came in, smell was like a shock to the system. He had a note next to him which I don't touch, but read before the police arrived. It was to his wife, he knew she was cheating on him with his best friend, and mentioned something about how since their kids were grown up, he had nothing left to live for. Mostly empty bottle of Smirnoff & a couple empty packets of painkillers."

"The hotel offered us counselling, which was nice, but we basically just returned to work and kept on with the shift."

– JGAllswell

When Ropes Raise Red Flags

"I manage a hospitality business. I'm always afraid something like this will happen."

"One of our current long-term tenants has big ropes in his room. The kind you see being made into a noose, even the cleaning lady said so. Turns out he's a self-proclaimed life coach/therapist, and SAYS THAT the ropes are used for binding therapy (binding people)"

– redditorbali

Tragedy Unawares

"When I was 18 I worked at a hotel for a year. One day, this room was late for checkout so I was sent to go knock on the door. I knocked and a guy responded 'Leave me alone, I'll be out in a little bit'. Okay, rude, but whatever. I relayed the message to the girl working the front desk. I pass the front desk about 30 minutes later and she says he still hasn't came out of his room and sent me to knock again. I knock, no response, I ask if he's okay, still no response...he's just in there....groaning. We end up calling the police, they enter the room with a key card, turns out this guy had been in a car accident on his way to the hotel and had been bleeding internally during his entire stay. He was taken to the hospital where he later died (we only know that because he left all of his stuff behind and his family came to pick it up eventually). Upon entering the room to clean it, there was copious amounts of blood, vomit and shit EVERYWHERE. Bloody handprint smears and poop all over the bathroom floors and walls, even in the shower. It trailed all the way from the bathroom into the bedroom and onto the actual bed. I told management that I wasn't comfortable with cleaning it up and they essentially guilt tripped me by telling me that if I didn't do it my pregnant coworker would have to. I tied trash bags around my arms/legs and went at it, took me over an hour, had to wet vac the carpet and parts of the bed. They ended up renting the room out that same night, instead of having hazmat cleaners come in."

– BallOfAnxiety98

A Sad Case

"Not me, but my mom came across a corpse while cleaning one time."

"The door had a 'do not disturb' sign for far too long, and eventually she went in and found a dead man in the bathtub. Turned out he had killed himself."

– flugf

Travelers tend to forget it's customary to leave a tip for housekeepers who clean up after you.

They work hard and must put up with a lot of...well, sh*t.

So the next time you stay the night at a hotel or motel, don't forget to show your appreciation for the people who make your beds and leave chocolate on the pillow.

They're doing their best to ensure you have a nice, clean, comfy room to come back to after your day out.

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.