20 Hotel Experiences That Definitely Deserve a Refund

In many cases, guests don’t set their expectations too high when staying at a hotel; they simply hope for good food, a comfortable room, and a peaceful environment. However, people in this article were taken aback by what they encountered upon arriving at their accommodations.

Hotel staff have encountered a wide range of situations, even the most bizarre ones.

• I worked at a small hotel. A woman came to the desk, visibly shaken. She said, “I can’t find my husband. He’s not in the room, and all his clothes are still there. He’s a sleepwalker, and I’m worried that he has wandered into another room.” We went to check the CCTV. Our CCTV is actually in the back of our linen storage. As soon as I got the door open and the lights on, we saw her naked husband sleeping spread across our bundled duvet covers. She woke him up, and he had no idea where he was. She wrapped him up and took him back to bed. © sbouvette / Reddit

Not every hotel provides the level of security you might expect.

• I came back to the hotel only to find that many of my belongings had been moved. Things were taken out of my suitcase, jewellery was on the floor, etc. Some things were missing, including my passport. I went to the reception and explained the situation. It turned out that the cleaner took my passport with the sheets to the laundry room. But my passport was in a cupboard when I left. I 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 TV remote in my hotel wasn’t working. It felt too light so I checked the batteries and found this.”

“My resort said everything in the bar fridge is complimentary.”

“This is my hotel lobby.”

With such adventures, you can turn gray without leaving your room.

• Stayed at a hotel about 10 years ago. Checked into the room, and threw my suitcase into the room without looking into the closet, the suitcase was bonked against the mini fridge with significant force. I start to get comfy, most of my clothing removed, starting to get into bed.
  Suddenly the phone is ringing, and a hotel staff is pounding on the door. I pick up the phone, and it’s the front desk, “You just racked up $700 in a few minutes in minibar charges!” Well? I was really confused. I didn’t drink a drop.
  I ended up having to get dressed to let the staff in to reset the fridge and confirm that I was not consuming a lethal amount of mini bottles. Bumping the fridge was enough to set off the sensor for every single bottle inside, even though the door was never opened. The staff that audited my mini fridge found that there was one too many bottles in it and left it in the room and said I could have it, no charge for the trouble. I ended up getting charged $21 for it anyway. © ChanceFray / Reddit

“Checked into the hotel, got undressed in the room, and decided to wash my hands. But interior designers placed the switch on the outer door of the room.”

Picture yourself waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone attempting to force their way into your hotel room.

• My mom and I had a guy try to enter our room at 3 am, luckily, his card didn’t work. The poor guy had no idea they’d just double-booked our room. He was so apologetic. But there’s nothing like waking up to the handle jiggling madly and the audible frustration of a man who’s trying very hard to get into your room. © Unknown author / Reddit

“Navigating the infinite zigzags with luggage was mildly infuriating.”

“The TV in my hotel room in San Francisco.”

Apparently, they don’t clean rooms in this hotel.

• We were supposed to leave this hotel in Turkey that day. The check-out time was 12 p.m., and it was still 11:30 a.m. I decided to quickly take a shower. As I was going out, the door suddenly opened with a key, a lady came in and said loudly, “We are moving in here after you, they have already given us the key. When do you plan to leave the room?”

It seems this hotel’s must-have service includes “Getting on the guests’ nerves.”

• One time I found the same brand of snacks in the market across the street from the hotel for, of course, 1/10th the price. I bought them and ate them. The next day I got a bill from the hotel claiming I ate the snacks. I tried to explain that I didn’t, but they said they found the wrappers in the trash, so they knew I did.
  I kept telling them to just check the room, and they will see their snacks are still there, I didn’t touch them, but they would just say it doesn’t matter if the snacks are still there. The wrappers are in the trash. It took about 30 minutes of explaining, and I even told them to look in the trash for the receipt and they will see. But they said they shouldn’t need to go through the trash.... Like what?!
  They did go through the trash! Finally, one of the employees came down and said they “found” the original snacks untouched and that I didn’t eat them. I wasn’t charged, but I won’t be doing that again. © Ill_Function_4919 / Reddit

“This emergency exit light in my single room-single door hotel room.”

“Looked all over the room for sockets and couldn’t find any. So I went to reception. When they found out why I was furious, the receptionist said with a disgruntled face that he would be right up.”

“He brought an extension cord and plugged it somewhere behind the bed.”

“Paid $300 for 3 nights at this specific hotel because they advertised free continental breakfast. This is their continental breakfast.”

“Dropped my hotel key card.”

“The resort me and my wife stayed at booked us a room where they have one of those doors that conjoins the neighboring room. The little kids who were there kept trying to open it to our room the whole night until I called the receptionist to remind them to stop.”

“This hotel uses the same bottles with no labels for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.”

“This tiny jar of chips for sale in my room. There was no price tag. I called the front desk, they said it was $6.99. And that’s for 4 almost whole chips and crumbs.”

Occasionally, hotels seem reluctant to let you leave.

• The bathroom is 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 stuck 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

Navigating the rules and offerings of hotels can be confusing, but we’ve got you covered with some helpful tips. Check out our article to learn what items in the hotel you can take home with you and which ones you should leave behind.