What’s Your Worst Hotel Experience?
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I’ve been working in the hotel industry for the past 30 years and have come to realize that no matter how much effort you put into pleasing guests, problems always arise. One thing for certain – there’s never a dull moment because you’re dealing with people from all over the world and with different people on a daily basis.
What we have to deal with on a daily basis will probably surprise you. So, here’s a “behind-the-scenes” look at some issues I’ve had to deal with over the past couple of weeks.
Because our hotel is completely non-smoking, our front desk staff are required to have the guest initial the “warning” when registering that they will be charged a $200 fee for smoking in a room. Recently, a gentleman questioned the charge on his bill by stating that he hadn’t smoked in the room. His wife had, but we failed to make her aware of the fee!
Often guests try to get a free night by complaining about something. One such case involved a woman who complained of “bugs” in her room. Little did she know that we had been sent a warning about her from the hotel association because she had tried to pull this off several other times. This lady carries a bag of dead bugs in her suitcase and drops them in the room after checking in.
When I travel I always make sure that before checking out that I’ve packed everything and do a thorough check of the room (including behind the bathroom door) to make sure nothing is left behind. We have a storage room full of items – everything from cell phone chargers to false teeth. We even had someone check out and then return a few hours later to claim their cat that had been left in the room! The hotel will NOT phone guests to advise them of lost items. I did this once several years ago because a guest had left an expensive camera. I spoke to his wife who advised me that her husband wasn’t supposed to be in Ottawa at the time!
So, have you had a bad hotel experience? What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you and did the hotel try to resolve the problem? We pride ourselves on customer service at our hotel even though we realize the customer is not always right!
that’s the way I see it
40 Comments on this post
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Junk Drawer Kathy said:
I guess I'm lucky I can't think of a single bad experience. I cannot believe the dead bug lady. That's outrageous (and disgusting).
October 3rd, 2009 at 5:53 pm -
David said:
My worst experience: I was woke up at around 3am to a big fight between a man and a woman, which I have encountered before, but this time was much worse. It was obvious he was physically abusing her, so we called the front desk and the police. While waiting for them to arrive she locked herself in the bathroom, and the guy tried to beat down the door. Luckily the police showed up before he could do anymore harm, but he did not go easily.
October 4th, 2009 at 1:07 am -
Charmaine said:
My worst experience: Checking in into a room full of cochroaches! We sprayed with aerosol but more came out in the end! Spent our time killing cochroaches but we gave up in the end fearing that the cochroaches will enter our mouths when we're sleeping. Threaten for refund since the staff is unwilling to do so and shifted to the expensive hotel beside it.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:16 am -
Andrea said:
MY worst experience was in a hotel in Montreal. We ran out of toiletries and towels and they refused to bring us new ones. The place was filthy with scum in the tub and the swimming pool had stuff growing in it!
October 4th, 2009 at 11:52 am -
Grace said:
The bug lady is totally outrageous. I am a smoker and I hate cheaters - I often book into a non-smoking hotel and never ever cheat. That's just inconsiderate and wrong. Worst experience? Was upgraded to a penthouse suite, cold, drafty froze our butts off - asked for a downgrade to our original reservation - toasty warm LOL
October 4th, 2009 at 12:20 pm -
jakill said:
My husband is a smoker and some years ago, before the public smoking ban came into force in the UK, we went to Guernsey for a few days. He was rather dismayed to find he couldn't smoke anywhere indoors there. The hotel owner was also a smoker and he spent some time chatting to her as they smoked together outside the hotel. She told him that, if it was found that a guest had smoked in a room, the hotel - or rather she, as the owner - would be fined £1,000. Later a couple of barmen in the local pubs told us they were fed up with the extra work of clearing up all the dog ends outside every door to their establishments. Nowadays though, people seem to have got used to the smoking ban.
There is one hotel I will never visit again. It's in Paris where I stayed when I was working there for three weeks. Three months later they wrote to tell me that they had found a miniature brandy missing from my minibar and they had deducted the equivalent of £18 from my credit card to cover it. I didn't remember seeing it, let alone filching it, but I never got my money back.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:15 pm -
Patricia said:
Worst experience–sound asleep in my hotel room when the fire alarm went off! I had to chase down 14 flights of stairs in my pajamas with all the other guests and wait on the hotel lawn for a good hour while the fire department checked out the non-existent fire. Then I trudged back up those stairs and tried to go back to sleep. Fat chance!
October 4th, 2009 at 4:45 pm -
dickster1961 said:
I have two experiences that come to mind.
Once, in Key West, the ceiling of our room began leaking due to a problem in the room above us. We had to move to another room. Another time, I was in bed watching TV when all of a sudden a guy comes walking into the room. Even though I had told my company and the hotel I would not be leaving until the next morning, the hotel gave my room to another person. Fortunately I was able to stay in the room
October 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm -
buckrobin said:
Either you're very lucky or you're not hard to please! The lady with the bugs had stayed at several hotels in the Ottawa area before she became "known." It's surprising what some people will do to try and get a free room!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:22 pm -
buckrobin said:
Fights are not uncommon in hotels. A lot of times an abused wife will leave home and check into a hotel only to have her husband find her.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:25 pm -
buckrobin said:
Last year when visiting Charleston I had the same problem with roaches. Getting angry with hotel staff doesn't usually produce results because in many hotels the staff aren't at liberty to resolve problems. The best way to complain is to do so when other guests happen to be around or just checking in. This will force the staff to do something to keep the incident quiet!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:30 pm -
buckrobin said:
There is absolutely no excuse for filth. I've stayed in some hotels where the bathrooms, in particular, aren't up to par. Most people don't realize that when changing beds, the bedspread and blankets aren't regularly changed. There aren't many hotels that do what we do - it's called "triple sheeting" whereby the blanket never comes in contact with the guest.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:34 pm -
buckrobin said:
We often get questioned why we charge $200 for people who smoke in a room. What people don't realize is that when someone smokes in a room it has to be thoroughly cleaned which involves cleaning of the drapes, walls etc.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm -
buckrobin said:
When our hotel went completely non-smoking a few years ago, we did get a few complaints from some regular customers but they have now come to accept it.
Occasionally, we have to charge guests for items taken from a room but would never charge someone for something as incidental as something missing from a minibar. We will charge for bathrobes or bathsheets.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:42 pm -
buckrobin said:
There are lots of reasons why a false alarm will go off. Usually it's a simple matter of maintenance using a torch to fix something and that will trigger the smoke or heat detector. Fortunately, at the hotel where I work this hasn't happened too often!!!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm -
buckrobin said:
We've had the problem of leaks occasionally - it usually involves someone letting a tub overflow. Renting a room that is occupied is actually a serious offence and in some places has resulted in lawsuits.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:48 pm -
anna said:
We were driving home from Florida and made it to North Carolina. We checked into a hotel only to find that we had been double booked with another couple. They got the other couple a new room, so we went into ours and found fleas in the beds! Needless to say, they comped us an upgraded room, but we barely slept and never stayed there again!
October 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm -
Becki said:
Ew! I haven't had any horrible stories either (or I've blocked them out!). Glad I won't be traveling for a while after reading the other icky stories!
BTW - Thanks for being one of my top droppers for September!
October 5th, 2009 at 2:06 am -
Staci said:
My worst hotel experience was this place called the Adventure Motel in Kissimmee, Florida. My family went there for me to visit Rollins and Sanford and for us to go to Sea World. Oh, it was an adventure all right, an adventure not to catch anything from the sheets, toilet, shower, etc. My sister had a total Mr. Monk meltdown that night. She didn't want to sit down, but she didn't want to stand either, that's how bad it was, but I swear it was the only available room in Orlando. There was nothing the hotel could do short of gutting the place and starting over. The next morning we checked out and got the nicest room we could afford in Daytona Beach. At that point I think my mom was willing to go bankrupt just to be able sit on a clean bed.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:40 am -
Staci said:
My worst hotel experience was this place called the Adventure Motel in Kissimmee, Florida. My family went there for me to visit Rollins and Sanford and for us to go to Sea World. Oh, it was an adventure all right, an adventure not to catch anything from the sheets, toilet, shower, etc. My sister had a total Mr. Monk meltdown that night. She didn't want to sit down, but she didn't want to stand either, that's how bad it was, but I swear it was the only available room in Orlando. There was nothing the hotel could do short of gutting the place and starting over. The next morning we checked out and got the nicest room we could afford in Daytona Beach. At that point I think my mom was willing to go bankrupt just to be able sit on a clean bed.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:40 am -
Staci said:
My worst hotel experience was this place called the Adventure Motel in Kissimmee, Florida. My family went there for me to visit Rollins and Sanford and for us to go to Sea World. Oh, it was an adventure all right, an adventure not to catch anything from the sheets, toilet, shower, etc. My sister had a total Mr. Monk meltdown that night. She didn't want to sit down, but she didn't want to stand either, that's how bad it was, but I swear it was the only available room in Orlando. There was nothing the hotel could do short of gutting the place and starting over. The next morning we checked out and got the nicest room we could afford in Daytona Beach. At that point I think my mom was willing to go bankrupt just to be able sit on a clean bed.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:40 am -
Allen Davis said:
My worst hotel experience was when I was traveling through Iowa in December. The first experience was not the blame of the hotel. It was snowy and I hit a slick spot. I went sliding all over and finally ended up in the divider between the highway. Although I was safe, my adventure was not over. A police officer stopped by and drove me to a local hotel. There was a ban on any tow trucks until after the storm. All was going good and I had finally fell asleep. Except that at 1am the whole hotel was swarming with noise. I looked out the peep hole of my room and could see tons of college students in the hall way. A lot of them appearred to have been drinking and maybe this is why their voices were yelling through the hall ways. Finally after two attempts by management to silence them, there was silence in the hall ways. The next day the tow truck driver drove me to my car and pulled me out of the divider. I was cold, tired (lack of sleep), had to pay for a motel room and pay about $200 (forgot the amount) to get towed.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:11 am -
Auntie E said:
That is so funny about the teeth, who wouldn't know their teeth wasn't in their mouth? We stayed at a hotel in Vegas and I believe it was the worst. At was suppose to be family friendly but as you entered there were Strippers Pole dancing. We had to walk right pass them to get to our room. Once in the room the bed were truly dirty and the shower had a torn curtain and water on the floor. The hall was filled with Young Men who were drunk all night long. It was suppose to be smoke free room but , it reeked of smoke. We got three channels on the TV. We just slept on the top of the beds, I had brought sheets with me so I used them. I will tell you they had a number to press on the phone for a room exchange,lol. We didn't complain because we had no intention of returning to that hotel!. One night and we were out of there fast.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:35 pm -
Windroot said:
My worst experience was a few hours spent in a total fleabag in New Haven. My own fault really, but I have never stayed in a worse place. Luckily, we were able to leave after a few hours and find other accommodations. The number of good experiences far outweigh the bad.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:17 am -
nipsy said:
Hahaha…now that I work at a cheap local motel as head housekeeper, I think I am seeing a side I never knew existed.. What some people will do to their rooms is beyond even my imagination!!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:05 pm -
Theresa said:
I have to say that any bad hotel experiences has been purely because we chose a cheap place to stay and so I wouldn't complain since you get what you pay for. Obviously sometimes we may choose a hotel/motel that we don't know is in a questionable area. Almost 20 years ago the husband and I went down to LA when we were living in the SF area. We stayed at a popular chain but it was in Inglewood. That night the husband woke up and happened to look out the peephole and there were guys loading BIG guns into a car. We never stayed in that area again. Other than that no problems. I certainly don't envy you or anyone who has to deal with people, especially the bug lady!
October 7th, 2009 at 4:54 pm -
jordasche bledsoe said:
Hello I am visiting from Adgitize. My worst hotel experience is one time my husband and son stayed in Beverly Hills and had to be to a very important meeting really early in the morning. Right as we were about to fall asleep we discovered we were in the room right over where they dump bottles and cans into a bin. That went on for what seemed like an hour (but probably not) then, oh then a couple got a room next to us and we listened to the woman mentally harass the husband and call him obscenities ALL night. The hotel man conveniently went to bed for the night. It was a nightmare. One thing I remember she said is "Where's my $40 you MF?? WHERE IS IT? How am I going to pay the rent now?" and I'm asking my husband "where the hell does she live that $40 will pay the rent?"
October 8th, 2009 at 12:19 am -
koe whitton-williams said:
We went to a hotel in Greece that was supposed to be fantastic according to a friend of our travel agent's best friend's second cousin's first husband with whom she was trying to reconnect. . . when we got there, the hotel was a disaster. So we decided to stay next door which was the local jail. We just had to figure out how to get arrested first, which was actually harder than we thought it would be since all the police on the island were on vacation on another island. Fun posting. . . love the found camera story. . . I wonder what the photos were like.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:00 am -
buckrobin said:
One of the problems in allowing pets is that they leave fleas behind. That's the reason we charge a "pet fee" because the room needs a thorough cleaning including shampooing of carpets when they check-out.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am -
buckrobin said:
It amazes me how some hotel/motel owners have the nerve to rent rooms that are in horrible condition. They should be putting some of the money they earn into keeping the place up to standard.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:51 am -
buckrobin said:
Not an experience I would like to have! I've been lucky over the years in the road trips I've taken. Only once did I hit a major snow storm when driving through the mountains in PA and what normally would take 7 hours to drive home took me 18 - there were cars all over the place in the ditch.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:54 am -
buckrobin said:
The worst motel I stayed in was years ago when a friend and I were driving to Myrtle Beach and we stopped off somewhere in Virginia for the night. It was late and we were tired so all we wanted was a bed. On checking in the front desk clerk asked "Would you like to see the room first?" I can see why because it was a disaster but being so tired we stayed anyway.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am -
buckrobin said:
I've also been fortunate in that most experiences have been good ones - and working in the industry, I'm fairly picky when it comes to accommodation.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am -
buckrobin said:
Yes, it is beyond belief what some people can do to a room overnight! I don't envy our housekeeping staff who have to face some of it!
October 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am -
buckrobin said:
One time when traveling to Texas, a friend and I stayed at this motel near the Texas/Arkansas border and it was a frightening experience because the cops were being called several times during the night.
And you're right - you do get what you pay for, but I've stayed in some cheap places that were actually better than the more expensive ones.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:03 am -
buckrobin said:
Staying in hotels with paper thin walls is an experience unto itself!
Thanks for stopping by!
October 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am -
buckrobin said:
Staying in hotels in another country it's important to realize that what we consider 4-star is actually about 2-star! When I travel I really don't care much what facilities a hotel has to offer since for me it's just a place to sleep. As long as it's clean is all I really worry about.
It was after the camera incident that we initiated the policy of waiting for the guest to phone us with regard to items lost!
October 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am -
Staci said:
I think that money went towards painting the gigantic plastic alligator in front of the hotel, LOL.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:42 pm -
Rose bestflash sites said:
Hi,
We went to Niagara Falls on a whim one weekend in the middle of the summer (not July 4th or any special holidays or big events going on so we figured we'd be able to find a room somewere). We stayed up there really late so we could see the Falls at night and didn't have reservations. So we figured we'd start driving back toward Buffalo/Erie and just get a room along the way when we got tired. We were stopping at every exit between Buffalo and Erie and couldn't find a single vacant room!October 15th, 2009 at 4:18 am -
Connie said:
as of now, i never experienced some like that worst hotel vacation experience and i am very lucky
November 8th, 2009 at 11:06 am
