Insane Hotel Horror Stories Go Viral, Prove Some People Are Awful

A viral Reddit thread is exposing hotel horror stories, and it’s an absolutely wild read.

I was scrolling through Reddit Friday morning as I often do while drinking my black coffee (a true cowboy never puts anything in his coffee), and I stumbled across a thread that is 100% a must-read.

There’s often a lot of crazy stuff on Reddit. OutKick readers know that because we cover the chaos regularly.

This thread might simply be on a different level.

Hotel horror stories go viral.

You know a thread is likely going to be good when it’s titled, “Dear hotel receptionists of Reddit, who was the most horrible guest you have ever encountered?“

It absolutely did not disappoint. Check out some of the responses below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com: 

• There was this one guest who demanded a room upgrade because “their aura didn’t vibe” with the one they booked. When told no, they started yelling, cursed the staff, and threatened to leave a bad review—only to call back later asking for a discount because they forgot their wallet.
• Had a woman throwing raw steaks at the housekeepers in the name of Jesus.
• Had a guest who clogged the toilet, blamed us for ‘faulty plumbing,’ and then left a handwritten complaint on the bathroom mirror in lipstick. 10/10.
• Probably the guy at a stag party who managed to sh*t himself in the lobby and then run away pursued by security as he dribbled a trail of diarrhoea across the lobby, up the stairs, in the lift, etc, like the world’s worst Hansel and Gretel. When security caught up to the (surprisingly fast) drunk guy, he had made it to the first floor public bathroom and flooded it trying to flush his trousers and underwear. Just standing there, runny sh*t dripping down his legs and full bait and tackle swinging in the breeze.
• Either the regular in room 222 who always, always ALWAYS wet his bed, or the couple in 250 that were staying with us after their house had burned down who would inspect their towels each night and any tiny spot would come exchange them with the front desk, then inspect those. This was a little “no tell motel” that sold rooms for 25 a night in 1990. Mainly catered to construction workers, cheap business travelers, and people who balked at an ID with their credit card because they weren’t using their real name.
• I used to work as a night receptionist at a hotel in Jalandhar, India a few years ago. Most nights were uneventful, but one guest will forever be burned into my memory. It was around 2 a.m. when a man came stumbling to the front desk, looking panicked. He whispered, ‘There’s someone in my room!’ Naturally, I was alarmed. I immediately checked the system to ensure he hadn’t been double-booked, but everything looked fine. I offered to check the room with him. As we entered, I turned on the lights, and there it was—the “intruder.” It was a life-sized cutout of a Bollywood actor that we had placed in the hallway for a promotion earlier that day. For some reason, he had brought it into his room, propped it in a corner, and forgotten about it. I tried to keep a straight face as he muttered something about being ‘too tired’ and shuffled back to bed. The next morning, he checked out like nothing had happened. But I’ll never forget having to ‘rescue’ someone from their own cardboard celebrity at 2 a.m.
• Probably the one who shat into the ice machine. Or the one who mugged a blind woman and stole her cane. Or the one who turned on the fire hose and flooded their floor. Oh, wait, that was the same guy who shat into the ice machine. Or the one who slapped me because an ice storm hit, the phones were down, and I had to knock on doors if they had scheduled wakeup calls.
• We had a guest, who clearly had a pet in his bag and kept denying it. The bag was squirming, and the dog inside was whining. What a selfish piece of sh*t to do that to the dog.
• Had a guest who pooped in the shower and left a “thank you” note on the wall. Classy
• One night a sketchy dude came in with a really long coat. He looked like trouble and like he hadn’t slept for weeks. He paid cash, which even 02 years ago was usually a bad sign. I gave him his key and he went to his room. About 5 minutes later he came back in a huff, yelling. He had a long object inside his coat with his hand on it, he didn’t threaten me but I was on edge. He threw the key over the desk and told me that it didn’t work. I looked and let him know that wasn’t the key that I gave him, so of course it didn’t work. He found the right key and stormed off. About two hours later the police arrive and one is holding one of those parabolic listening devices. They asked if I’d checked the dude in and what room he was in. He was wanted for armed robbery with a shotgun. I gave them the info and they went and staked out the room and arrested him when he came out. It is pretty scary thinking back on it, I’m sure the long object under his coat was the shotgun.
• I have too many but will start with one. I was working in a party hostel in Prague and it was just after lockdown so there were barely any guests. Anyways, the owners opted to allow a family of Syrian refugees ( a father and two teenage sons) to stay for free through an NGO. Anyways, they are in a dorm room and opposite them is the bathroom. My duty at night is to check the bathrooms and I find the toilet opposite them completely covered in sh*t. I concluded that someone must have stood on the seat and then squatted. Since this family were the only ones next to it, I figured it had to be them. Worse, they were staying for three more nights. So, I tried to explain the next day but they spoke little English, resulting in me using my skills in mime to try to get my message across. I guess it worked as there was no sh*t seats after. The family were not horrible but it was a horrible experience.
• Had a guest take a bunch of plates, silverware, etc from the breakfast, they filled a children’s carriage and dumped everything in their room for the cleaners to fix later. Another time a guest tried billing to a nonexistent store, quickly racked up a bill over $1800 for the entire stay and ate for $800 the first night. They called us racists when we threw her and the rest of her family out the same evening, they never paid for anything either. During the few hours they stayed they also trashed the room. The family (their small children) were caught stealing from a nearby store not long after.. trashy people like playing the victim card. Great times, probably forgetting someone.
• Some guy was hauling off on my GM (who was a really decent person) and I was doing houseman stuff. It just kept escalating and I finally said “Kevin, I’m gonna take out this trash.” The guest looked at me like I just challenged him to a fight until I went around the corner with my bin full of garbage.
• It’s mostly just people lying about having service animals, constantly. And then when you ask them the two questions you’re legally allowed to ask them about their “service animals”, they get super defensive, couldn’t/wouldn’t answer the questions/yell at me “you can’t legally ask me that!!!!!”/make a scene and then lie to management, who watch the security tapes and see they’re full of sh*t. People who exploit rules and laws made to help the lives of the disabled are some of the sh*ttiest humans.

More than anything, all these stories are a reminder that there are a lot of awful people in the world. There are a lot of people who think the rules don’t apply to them.

Is there anything worse than dealing with someone who is entitled? I think the answer is no. It’s beyond upsetting.

That sums up probably more than half the stories above. People just need to chill out and recognize they don’t deserve special treatment. As for the story about the armed robber, that’s one of the scariest things I’ve read in a long time. Bone-chilling to the core.

Insane hotel room horror stories are going viral. (Credit: Getty Images)

Fortunately, I’ve never really had a bad hotel experience. Knock on wood because it can clearly happen. Have you had a wild experience? Let me know at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.