10 People Who Checked Into a Hotel and Immediately Wanted to Check Out

Booking a place to stay while traveling can be stressful enough, but it’s not always the hardest part of the trip. Even places that seem clean and secure at first can end up giving you a nasty surprise. From weird encounters to unexpected issues with the room, hotel stays can turn into horror stories you weren’t planning to tell.

• I checked into my hotel, locked the door, and crashed into bed. Hours later, I was jolted awake by footsteps in my room. I saw a man stuffing clothes into a bag and screamed so loud he almost fell over the dresser.
  “Calm down!” he shouted. “I’m just grabbing my stuff. I checked out this morning but left things behind!” My heart still pounded in my chest. “How did you get in?” I asked. He held up a keycard, “Front desk said I could let myself in.”
  I stared in shock. What kind of hotel lets random people back into rooms? I slept with a chair against the door for the rest of my stay.

• My wife and I were on a budget, so we booked the cheapest hotel we could find. At check-in, I sighed, “I can’t wait to take a bath after that long flight.” The receptionist gave me a nervous smile.
  “About that,” she said and handed me a tiny washcloth and a plastic cup. “We don’t have showers or bathtubs. The sink in your room is all you get.” My wife and I stared at her in disbelief, grabbed our bags, and walked right out.

• The room I’d booked in someone’s row house on the outskirts of London (long before Airbnb) was so tiny I could barely find space to stand next to the single bed. What was worse is that the utility meter was right over my head, on the wall, and it buzzed and clicked the entire night. I was young and lacked the gumption to complain, so I just lay there trying unsuccessfully not to listen to it. Good thing I was only there for one night. © DaytonaDemon / Reddit

• I once got a hotel room where the bathroom wasn’t in a separate room, or even closed off at all. One of the walls just had a toilet up against it, and there was a sink off to the other side, and a glass shower. The third of the room that had the bathroom stuff was all tiled, and I would keep stubbing my toe on the ledge back to the carpet © Bootsn-cats / Reddit

• My girlfriend and I walked in after being gone all day, and felt something wet on the floor. The lights were out, and it was nighttime, so we couldn’t tell what it was. We turned on the lights to see that the toilet was just broken. The tank cracked, and the water was pouring everywhere. The entire bedroom and bathroom were soaked.
  We went down to let them know, request money back, and cancel the room for that night, but they offered us another room instead. Okay, sure. We walked into the new room, and someone was already staying there. The poor woman looked horrified when we walked in. We got ALL our cash back after that and left. © xoriginal_usernamex / Reddit

• I stayed at a horrible place in Paris. There was a bidet in the room but no toilet. Everything was greasy and oily, covered in a film of shine. I slept on top of the covers on top of a pile of my dirty clothes.
  When I came home from a night out with friends, the proprietor asked if I’d like to hang out with him and watch a movie. I did not take him up on the offer. © Instar5 / Reddit

• Clerk told me, “You don’t want to stay here. Seriously, here’s the key, go check it out.” The door wasn’t locked, and the light wouldn’t turn on, but I could see the cockroaches crawling on the mini-fridge. Yeah, ok, nope. © Unknown author / Reddit

• There were elevators on each side of our hotel room. Both shafts had a loud bell that rang when the car arrived on the floor. Plus, we could feel shaft vibrations in our bed.
  Not only did we hear the elevator doors opening and closing (with percussive bells), but hotel guests would often stand outside our room door talking in full voice during the night as they waited for their elevator to arrive. © Unknown author / Reddit

• We choose a ground floor hotel room in Cancun. Unfortunately, there was a gap on the bottom of the front door, and the room was overrun by palmetto bugs. They sound like little helicopters.
  My girlfriend woke me up asking what the sound was. We turned on the light, and they were on the floor, the walls and on our bed. We literally just put on our clothes after shaking them out a few times and went through the balcony exit, went to the concierge and demanded a room on the 4th floor.
  After they saw the room, they stopped arguing and comped us dinner and drinks, plus gave us a new room. © MadLintElf / Reddit

• It was already after midnight, and we’d been driving since early morning. The carpet looked like it hadn’t been vacuumed in weeks. My wife saw a mouse run across the floor.
  The bathroom had mold all along the bottom of the walls. We slept in our clothes, on top of the bedding, for about 3 hours. Then we got up, checked out and finished our drive home. © cherrycolaholic / Reddit

It’s pretty common for hotel guests to forget a few items after checking out, but it’s not always the usual stuff like phones or wallets. Hotel employees have seen it all, and they’ve shared some truly bizarre discoveries.