15 True Hotel Stories That Are Too Surreal to Be Real

Hotels are often regarded as sanctuaries for rest and relaxation, providing an escape from daily stress. However, the reality of a hotel experience can sometimes be quite different. Today, we’re sharing true stories about hotel encounters that seem too surreal to be real.

• This happened over Christmas time in China. Came back to the hotel after dropping my boyfriend off at the airport, so I was not in the best mood, only to find a lot of my belongings moved around the room and items missing... Including my passport... I had to go to reception and try to speak Mandarin (which I was only studying at the time) and explain the situation. My passport was the main issue and I managed to get it back, but I had gifts from my mom that were thrown out.
  
  Turns out the maids had taken my passport with the sheets to the laundry room, which is crazy because it was actually in a cabinet (there was 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

• My dad went to a hotel once and checked into a first-floor room. He went into 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 through an open window. © arcant12 / Reddit

• An elegant couple in their 40s checked into our luxury hotel. Our 18 y.o. bellboy helped them with their many suitcases. 2 hours passed, and he didn’t return. We called, no answer. Hours later, we had to check the couple’s room, despite the sign of ''do not disturb''. We entered and found the bellboy and the husband playing PlayStation while the wife was making them snacks. The couple later explained that they often felt lonely, having no children, and missed the warmth of a family atmosphere. Bored, they’d invited the bellboy to stay and keep them company for a while.
  Our surprise grew when the bellboy admitted he’d agreed because they’d offered him $2,000!
  We were speechless.

• My buddy works at a hotel and shared this crazy story: a guest requested a room full of balloons for a surprise party. The staff spent all night blowing up balloons, only for the guest to check out without even seeing the room! © shyrochyn / Reddit

• Working at a luxury hotel, I once got a call to remove a snail from a guest's room as it was “coming after them” and they were “afraid for their young child.” © Additional-Car2163 / Reddit

• The bathroom sink and other random areas were filled with Greek olives. They were EVERYWHERE!! © Unusual_Figure_9728 / Reddit

• I worked at a hotel during the summer—let's just say it wasn’t the best one. There were 50 rooms and only two people at the reception. We usually got super busy, so it wasn’t easy to keep up with everyone.
  One couple booked a room for a week, and they had so much luggage that my colleague and I were shocked. In the end, they stole everything from the room—even the windows. They took out our windows. We both got fired that day. © serenityvoiid / Reddit

• A wealthy couple in their late 50s was checking out of a luxury hotel in Rome when the Front Office asked the Housekeeper to check the minibar. The Housekeeper called back to say the room’s curtains were missing. The Front Office manager was forced to ask the guests to open their luggage, and sure enough, the curtains were inside. Crazy! © DiegoBkk / Reddit

• As the owner of a bed and breakfast for the last eight years, the craziest thing I ever found was an old, battered notebook with "Why I Love Salad" written on the front. Inside were 40–80 pages about how amazing salad is. Every now and then, the author suggested they believed salad to be alive in some sense. It looked like it had been written on and off over several years. © D***musyo / Reddit

• One night, the people in a room stole everything they could. They took bedsheets, blankets, pillows, lamps, the TV, the phone, the remote, the Bible, shower curtains, towels, etc. If it wasn’t bolted down and wasn’t too big, they took it. They didn’t get caught because they used a side stairwell that couldn’t be seen from the front desk, and of course, none of the cameras worked.
  They used a fake name, and the card they used to pay didn’t go through. The hotel is relatively close to three universities, so we figured it was probably some sort of frat stunt. © loustone1955 / Reddit

• A guest called the police for a noise complaint about another room. The police arrived and went up to the noisy room with a front desk receptionist.
  When they got there, they found a woman, her two kids, her ex-husband, her aunt, and another random man. They were deep-frying chicken in the room at around 10 p.m. on a Tuesday. I remember seeing a man run out of the lobby with his deep fryer, spilling oil all over the place. © c***hiegoo / Reddit

• I worked for a 5-star hotel. Once, a guest lost her Cartier bracelet and asked the front desk, insisting that it was in her room and someone must've taken it. The moment the guest left, the girl from the front desk quietly opened the safe and took money out.
  She headed to the nearest Cartier store to get an identical bracelet after the guest had shown her a photo of the lost one. The guest was, of course, very pleased, and she continued to book with our hotel every time she was in town.

• I once had a man check in at night. He came back down and complained that he couldn’t see the ocean from his room. It was night.
  He kept arguing with me until I finally said, “Sir, I assure you, the ocean is there.” The hotel was less than 50 feet from the beach. © SecretBaker8 / Reddit

• I had a lady steal a mattress. She paid cash for the room plus a $200 deposit. She went to the room with a guy, pulled the mattress out, loaded it into a U-Haul, and then left.
  She came back in the morning and got her deposit back. We didn’t even know the mattress was missing until the maid went to clean the room, and the manager checked the cameras. © myownb*** / Reddit

• My friend owned a small hotel. One night, I was there when he got a call from one of the guests saying he heard a loud crash in the room next door. We checked the computer and saw that the room was unoccupied. We knocked at the door, and there was no answer.
  We opened it and were horrified to find a cat in the room. It had knocked over a lamp and smashed it. We took it back to the office and looked at the room records. The prior guest had 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.” We’re not sure why the maid service didn’t see her when the room was being cleaned. We think the vacuum scared the cat, and she hid somewhere. © mrsheikh / Reddit

Medical professionals encounter some genuinely unforgettable moments. Dive into this article to explore stories that are sure to leave a lasting impression.