10 Creepy Things Guests Faced in Hotels That Still Haunt Them Today

Think your hotel stay is all fresh sheets and mini soaps? Think again. Behind the welcome mints, guests have reported some seriously strange and sometimes unsettling things.

From creepy discoveries to weird staff behavior, these are 10 hotel experiences that might catch you off guard. Before your next vacation, read this list so you know what to look out for and what to avoid.

• I stayed at this weirdly cheap hotel in Bali. At check-in, the guy told me not to use the elevator after midnight, said it “sometimes stops on the wrong floor.” I laughed, figured it was some old superstition or an excuse for a faulty lift. Of course, that night, coming back from a bar at 12:30, I took the elevator.
  It stopped on the 13th floor. The doors opened, even though I hadn’t pressed that button. The hallway was pitch black. No lights, no sound. Just...cold. Like the AC was cranked way up for no reason.
  Then I heard someone whisper my name softly, from somewhere down the corridor. I hit the “close door” button about twenty times. When I told the front desk the next morning, the clerk just sighed and said, “That floor hasn’t existed since the fire in ’98.” He slid over my breakfast voucher and added, “And next time, take the stairs.”
• When I was 12, I was staying in a motel with my mom on a road trip. We were in the middle of nowhere in Texas at a motel that had a decent rating in our guidebook and was really cheap, so we went for it.
  In the middle of the night, the owner knocked on the door and told us we had to leave because he wanted the room for someone else!!! My mom was outside arguing with him while I was gathering our things, and I was terrified because I heard him start yelling. I looked out the window and saw about half a dozen bikers in vests appear out of nowhere (maybe a nearby room?) and start confronting the owner.
  My mom came inside quickly, and we watched them start harassing the guy, things like “She’s paid to be here. You’re gonna let her stay tonight! We don’t want to ever hear like this from you again!” And the owner was saying things like, “I don’t want any trouble!”
  Everybody left fairly quickly, and we didn’t ever hear anything about it the next day at checkout. We weren’t able to sleep very well because we were so shaken up, but it was better than getting in the car again. © sweetrhymepurereason / Reddit
• I was traveling out of the country right after finishing up a huge 5-day work event where I had about 10 hours of sleep total during the 5 days. I got to the motel, which is kinda run-down, and the carpet and blankets are damp, but I’m so exhausted I don’t even really think about it.
  I fall asleep pretty much immediately at like 8 PM local time. At maybe 11 pm or so, I get a call from the motel phone saying there’s been a complaint about noise. I tell them that’s impossible, I’ve been sleeping.
  They ask me if maybe it’s someone else in the room and I tell them nope, I’m here alone, so there’s definitely no one else making noise. They ask me again if I’m sure I’m by myself and not causing any noise. I say yes again. Fall back asleep immediately.
  When I woke up and thought about it some more, I realized how weird the entire interaction was. There was absolutely no noise I could hear anywhere nearby, and I don’t know why the motel staff would need to clarify so many times that I was alone. Apparently they never called.
  So I assume it must’ve been someone calling the different rooms to see who was in the rooms and how many people. I’ve never been so glad to always use the extra latch chain lock. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Family vacation. 1 am. My brother and I had just finished watching The Shining on TV. Neither of us had seen it before.
  We heard someone trying to open our door. No one else was supposed to have keys. Someone tried to swing open the door, but the hotel lock stopped them. They kept trying to open it multiple times, banging the door against the lock.
  After a few tries, they gave up. The hotel desk clerk accidentally entered the wrong room for their key cards. It was probably the best way I saw The Shining. I can’t be scared more than that from that movie. © helpicantchooseauser / Reddit
• A friend and I once stayed at a pretty fancy B&B for the night. The lady who owned it was absolutely lovely, but would appear out of nowhere.
  We’d be sitting alone in a large room with one doorway, and suddenly she was in the room with us. Either this joint had secret doors or something really creepy was going on. She seemed to know things that we’d said or done as well.
  The thing that tripped us out the most was hearing someone trying to open our door during the night. She was super lovely and the building was beautiful, but we were relieved to check out the next morning! © redraymus / Reddit

• Was in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua last year. Massive spiders all over the room. Even woke up with a couple of little scorpions in my bed the first morning.
  Next night I’m sitting at the bar, and chatting with a mate, feel a tickle on the back of my neck and think it’s a mosquito or something. Brush the back of my neck and another scorpion, this time way bigger, plops on the ground at my feet. Stared at it for a moment in shock. © crow_man / Reddit
• My dad went to a hotel once and checked in to a first-floor room. He went in the room, put his stuff down, opened the curtains...and a man was hiding there. My dad went “excuse me”, closed the curtains, got his stuff and left.
  Went to the front desk to explain that a man was hiding in his room. Turns out the guy had just robbed a place and somehow got into the room with an open window. © arcant12 / Reddit
• The bathroom locked from the outside. If you accidentally shut the door all the way, you had to have someone in the room open the door for you when you were done.
  If you were by yourself, you were SOL until someone came back, or you called the front desk from the bathroom to send someone up. This was pre-mainstream cell phone usage, so you may not have had your phone on you at all times.© cousin_geri / Reddit

• Happened over Christmastime in China. Came back to the hotel after dropping my boyfriend off at the airport so was clearly not in the best mood only to find a lot of my belongings moved around the room and items missing, including my passport.
  There was food moved into the bathroom, my deodorant was in the shower and my shower gel was on the TV cabinet, things were taken out of my suitcase and other items were put into my suitcase, jewelry was on the floor etc. Just really random stuff had been moved.
  I had to go to reception and try to speak Mandarin (I was studying) and explain the situation. My passport was the main issue and I managed to get it back, but I had gifts from my mum that were thrown out.
  Turns out the cleaner had taken my passport with the sheets to the laundry room, which is crazy as it was actually in a cupboard (no safe available). Checked out 2 weeks early and got a refund for all the missing items as she admitted to throwing them away, but she wouldn’t say anything about why she had gone through my things or why she had moved anything. © mao64 / Reddit
• The air conditioner was spitting out ice while I was sleeping. Woke up thinking I wet myself, but then realized half the bed was soaked. Other than that, it was fine.© kimochii12 / Reddit

Your next summer vacation could take an unexpected turn — better watch out for the creepy hotel experiences others have lived through.