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s/o Hotel employee stories
It seems like several people here have worked in hotels, so let's tell stories. Because, really, hotels are crazy places to work (I miss it). I worked as a concierge in a huge convention center hotel (1000+ rooms).
One time, there was some sort of adult/swinger convention thing, so we had some really interesting people in the hotel. I was working in the private club lounge and this lady came in looking all upset. She asked if housekeeping was going to do a turn-down service on her room. I told her they did it for all of the club-level guests. She then asked if I the housekeepers would mind if she had some adult toys on her bed. I just told her they'd seen it all, don't worry about it. She seemed very relieved.
We had a guy die in his room once, too. That was sad.
Re: s/o Hotel employee stories
I worked as a maid in a small Best Western for about a month one summer during college. It was relatively new but in a small town (5000+ people) in rural Missouri so not a top-class joint.
The worst things I saw were the backed up toilets people had left huge floaters in.
Also one time I cleaned one of our "jacuzzi suites" that had a ton of blood on the tile and lube on every surface and doorknob in the place.
And also the people who booked 3 rooms and smoked tons of weed in all of them and got a major case of the munchies. I've never seen so many pizza boxes, beer bottles, or chip bags in my life. They'd also managed to rip the air conditioning unit out of the wall.
I worked graveyard room service at a Westin hotel when I was in college, then moved up to bartending.
Graveyard room service is very interesting - once a guy asked if he could order a young woman. I told him we weren't that kind of establishment and he should go a few blocks down the street to engage such services. Another guy called to ask for candles and vegetable oil - not sure what for. Another guy was sitting inside the armoire when I brought their food into the room. And I walked in on a honeymooning couple once when they didn't answer the door (I was delivering the welcome champagne package and they weren't supposed to be in the room yet).
Bartending was fun, especially the private parties.
I worked front desk at a popular hotel chain in New Orleans for a little over a year until we moved in January. Absolute worst job for someone with anxiety. I'd work the 3-11 shift with no managers on duty, just me at the desk and one house person. I was overwhelmed the majority of the time and had to go on an anti-depressant to cope.
Our regular guests were spectacularly nice but everyone else made me want to go back to retail. One elderly lady who got special treatment because she knew the VP made me fax pictures of her breasts to her doctors office, complained that I was taking too long because I would still have to answer the phones and check ins, and would have me fired. She also said that I was going to hell because I was a Protestant.
Chaperones with field trip groups would leave the children unattended at night to go party in the Quarter and expected me to babysit them.
The worst was the time a 20-something guy ran up and down the halls screaming "God has to forgive these people" and then hopped behind the desk with a gun before police got him.
Also, the regular businessmen would request the same rooms over and over because they would stash their porn under the mattresses.
Never ever again.
I never worked in a hotel, but shortly after college, I worked as a concierge for a class-A office building in Washington. Some of the requests I got were ... interesting. Law firms were the worst. They were always the ones who wanted cocaine and prostitutes.
Updated September 2012.