17 Hotel Workers Revealed Secrets Hidden From Customers’ Eyes

When you check into a hotel, you want to believe that the owners and employees are doing everything to make the guests’ lives comfortable and relaxing. But you never know whether this will be the case. Reddit users shared the secrets they’ve learned from working in high-end hotels.

• If you book directly and not through a third party (every online site), we can do a lot for you as far as rates and comps. If you book a third party we really can’t do anything for you other than give you a room. We can give you the same rate as a third party if you book directly and there are a lot more perks. © RedWingWay / Reddit
• The hotel I worked at had a color-coded rag system, red for the bathrooms, green for the cups, spoons, and glasses and yellow for everything else. © Expo737 / Reddit
• Our maids made better money than some of the managers. Between overtime and tips, they made bank. I remember one guest going crazy about the maid stealing her purse. The maid’s reaction shocked me. She was less offended about being called a thief than about the insinuation she would carry a Michael Kors bag. © KaneMomona / Reddit

• I have worked at two hotels that are rated by Forbes and randomly “inspected” frequently, and there is a very specific checklist of things the hotel/restaurants must do/offer in order to keep their rating. We always had to be suspicious of any single diners because they could possibly be inspectors.
  Once we had a particular woman staying at the hotel and somehow management figured out and confirmed she was an inspector. They literally took security cam stills and printed them out to give to all employees, so we would know who she was. So if you are dining alone you might get the 5-star treatment. © MsFrenchieFry / Reddit
• I think it’s more certain wealthy people think they own poor people. I worked at a five-star hotel and had many experiences of this behavior.
  Once a guest told me I could finish his food. Sitting at a table full of people. He left some of his bread rolls and basically said I looked hungry, so he left me some. But it wasn’t in a jokey way. He said it like he was doing me a favor. © Oldmanfirebobby / Reddit
• You’ll never know what goes on in the room next to you. This week we had to evict and have arrested a couple for causing over $15K in damages to a room. This was done quietly late at night and the nearby rooms never found out. © counterslave / Reddit

• Bedbugs. Every single hotel from run-down motels to 5-star resorts has dealt with bedbugs. © Soullikeether / Reddit
• Never use a chocolate fountain from a hotel or banquet hall. The chocolate in them never gets replaced. It only passes through a filter and some new chocolate is added. People drop their food into it, and some people sneeze on it.
  As a result, the chocolate gets thick. Do you know how they fix that? They add canola oil until it is smooth again. © Unusual_Form3267 / Reddit
• Worked at one hotel that had over 200 rooms and the main sewerage pipe cracked under the kitchen. It was concreted in, so it would have meant ripping up the whole kitchen in the middle of peak tourist season to fix it. The owner refused so every time the hotel was at capacity just before the evening meal when a lot of the guests were getting ready the whole kitchen used to flood up to about half an inch with sewerage stuff. This went on for 3 months until the end of the season. © JavaRuby2000 / Reddit
• I spent 10 years in the boutique and 5-star hotel world. Got stories for days. But here is my favorite that sums up hospitality.
  Our concierge had all the connections. He would often greet guests with a welcome drink and sprigs of mint from his garden. Sometimes he had lemon slices from his tree too! He loved to tell guests all about his garden, and they ate it up. This was a lie.
  Mint, lemon, and any other garnish we got from the local grocery store. The drink? Cheapest boxed stuff we could find. But he sold the story like no other. At the end of the day, it worked. © Duwinayo / Reddit

• When you complain, the nicest, more understanding guest gets the better compensation, the rude guest gets the bare minimum. Always treat the staff with respect and be friendly, you’d be surprised by the number of people who are rude. Even for the smallest of issues. © Mrkse7en / Reddit
• I have worked for an industrial laundry complex that did laundry for hotels. I was part of the department that sorted up incoming laundry. I can tell you exactly where your missing belongings end up. It’s not that the maids steal them.
  People leave them on the bed somewhere where the maids don’t see them, and they get gathered up with the laundry and sent to places like the one I worked at. We got phone chargers, jewelry, clothing, and sometimes phones as well, all sent with the laundry. We gathered all that up and handed it to our boss at the end of our shift, so that if the hotel called, she would have it and could send it back. © NerdyGuyRanting / Reddit
• Was in room service. If someone buys a bottle of booze and doesn’t open it, the policy is to bring it back to the kitchen to put into inventory to be resold. A coworker shared that the record, as far as they knew, was one bottle of champagne that was re-sold 7 times. © Rhinowalrus / Reddit
• Checking in late at night sometimes means free upgrades or discounted upgrade rates. We would try to sell every last suite at night for almost 80% off. We just wanted something, so they don’t go unoccupied.
  Sometimes if we were oversold on rooms, the late arrivals (midnight) would get a free suite upgrade because we had no choice. Of course, this could also backfire if the hotel is sold out. You may get downgraded for being a late arrival. © Mrkse7en / Reddit

• I used to work at a restaurant inside a hotel that had a lot of famous people stay in. They all went out of their way to keep a low profile. Channing Tatum was particularly chill. I never came across any influencers but the upper middle class families were always the worst to deal with. © goatinstein / Reddit
• I worked a little time in a hotel, I will suggest to people to bring their own sheets, towels and shower products. The food you eat in some luxury places comes from groceries. © kristiansands / Reddit
• Housekeepers are under some pretty strict time constraints (20–30 minutes for a normal room, 30–40 minutes to clean a suite) and tubs already look clean most of the time, so they don’t tend to really disinfect every corner of it and just give it a quick wipe down to save some time. © dubdubdub3 / Reddit

Of course, it is hardly possible to keep track of everything and protect yourself from any trouble when traveling. But you should be more attentive when traveling and know some secrets of hotels and inns.