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I don’t believe I’ve ever stayed at a 5-star hotel before, but hey, I still have some time, right?
And when I finally do get to that pinnacle, I’m gonna find out about some of the secrets below first-hand. I can’t wait!
People who have worked in fancy hotels, what goes on behind the scenes that most people don’t know about?
Here’s how AskReddit users responded.
1. Pampered.
“Middle Eastern royalty books an entire floor for a month.
Staff spends weeks preparing for every detail of the visit. Entire floor rearranged to accommodate children, nannies, private dining quarters for men and women, etc. Private chef is brought in.
They left after one week (on private 747) because it was too cold. In Chicago. In November.”
2. All a ruse.
“Our concierge was Les Clefs D’or, had all the connections, this dude could get you into the French Laundry same day.
He would often greet guests with sangria 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.
Yeah that’s all bulls**t. Mint, lemon, and any other garnish we got from the local grocery store. The sangria? Cheapest boxed stuff we could find. But he sold the story like no other. At the end of the day, it worked.”
3. Seen it all.
“I worked at one of the premier hotels at a ski resort in the country; top 10. Met celebrities, royalty, politicians, athletes.
Hockey players are the nicest athletes by a wide margin. Royalty is great or more likely, awful. A list celebrities want to be left alone or treated as just another person. Politicians are bigger a**holes when they’re with their families. Saw lots of s**, drugs, underaged drinking, escorts, the usual.
I was most amazed by how nice staff were to guests when management continually made our lives harder and s**ttier. We’d just let it roll off our backs and keep smiling until we just quit. We were paid so little and respected so little by management. If you weren’t thick skinned then you quit by week’s end.
Best thing I saw was the hotel dog (think alpine dog that people can pet, kids can get woken up by him in the morning, plays on the ski slopes, etc)…well he escaped his pen, made straight for the high end restaurant and went hog wild. Jumped on a few tables and scarfed $100 steaks like they were M&Ms.
Me and another guy saw it (we worked during the ski day and cleaned up into the evening so it was just him and I finishing up in our department at the time which was by the dog’s kennel)…we both saw he was going to escape and we could have stopped it but we just wanted to watch the world burn. Greatest day of work there by far.”
4. At the Ritz.
“I worked at a Ritz Carlton a few years back, its literally the same as anywhere else. The hotel staff is amazing at their job, but on their personal time they’re just as f**ked as everyone else.
The kitchen staff had a few folks with drug issues and had to be sent home a couple times because of it. In my time there I saw 2 waiters get fired due to embezzlement. The turnover rate for management was very high because they didn’t pay enough for the area. The staff parties were WILD to say the least.
We weren’t allowed to greet celebrities by name since they wanted to be anonymous, so we would use their alias that day. Some were greeted by pr**titutes or “escorts” who were always super nice to everyone.
A regular would rent out a room for a day, once a month, and make 30-40k that day from clients. Celebrities, business guys, you name it. Crazy.”
5. They all have ’em.
“Bedbugs.
Every single hotel from run down motels to 5-star resorts has dealt with bedbugs.”
6. Terrible.
“A lot of lonely people going on vacation to end their lives.
Happens a lot but is never mentioned on the news.”
7. Sketchy.
“The pr**titution thing was something the desk saw a lot.
The best one was when the gentlemen got robbed by two young ladies and immediately demanded the front desk call the cops.
When the desk asked if he wanted to call the cops and tell them he hired two hookers (illegal)… he suddenly just grunted and marched up to his room.”
8. FYI.
“NEVER USE A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!
Little Timmy just double fisted strawberries directly into that chocolate, bit into them and then triple dipped into the chocolate AGAIN!
And some old rich lady just sneezed on it. And somebody else just dropped their snack into it. The best part: that chocolate gets strained and saved for the next weeks brunch. Chocolate is waaay too expensive to throw away.
Chocolate also does this thing where it’ll seize if it has the wrong moisture content (from people dipping fruit, and the juices going into the chocolate.) So it’ll get so thick it won’t run through the machine. Wanna know how they fix that? They add canola oil until it’s smooth again.
So, yeah, next time you’re at a wedding and they have a chocolate fountain, think of this post. Think of this post when you dip into that dirty watered down with oil chocolate.”
9. Scandalous!
“Watching for signs of s** trafficking, lots of cheating spouses there under fake names (and you can’t confirm if they’re there when the spouse calls pi**ed).
Jacuzzi and swimming pool d**ths (usually from al**hol), guests expose themselves to female staff frequently especially housekeepers and room service, people will legit give you keys to their rooms, sometimes dealing with really s**tty organizations for their banquets income, etc.”
10. The perks.
“At a certain Beverly Hills hotel, where I valet’d for a short amount of time, many stars cars are just left there. They come and get them whenever.
There was also a code name for Justin Bieber who visited often (I can’t remember it). He picked it himself. His G-Wagon and a Bentley were just kept down there free of charge.
Usher also left his bike there a few years back and has just never collected it.”
11. Check in late!
“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.
Sometime if we were over sold on rooms, the late 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 late arrival.”
12. All kinds of stories.
“Worked in five star hotels in Beverly Hills.. boy do I have stories:
Sheikh picks up a hooker in the bar, takes her to his room. She roofies him and steals tens of thousands of dollars of cash, watches and valuables
Husbands who will say hello to staff with their mistress on their arm on Thursday night and their wife on Friday night
Famous teen celebrity left a room full of needles and various drug paraphernalia behind for housekeeping to clean up
Middle eastern royalty ships in multiple Ferraris and Lamborghinis to the hotel from their home country to drive for the week; caught drag racing later that night by the cops in the neighborhoods of Beverly Hills
Largest checkout bill I’ve ever seen was roughly $2 million for guest who rented out an entire floor of suites for three weeks, promptly paid via wire transfer
Had to procure $100k cash for a guest whose wife wanted to shop on Rodeo Drive the next morning, the local bank doesn’t even have that much. Had to get an armored car from the central LA bank branch to deliver
The list goes on.”
We want to hear from more hotel workers!
In the comments, tell us about what goes on behind the scenes.
We look forward to it!
