Eight of the strangest things hotel workers see

Everything from glow-in-the-dark writing to religious conceptions, hotel workers have seen it all

What goes on behind hotel doors...Reddit users share their experiences of working in the hospitality industry

Hotels hide all sorts of secrets, according to inside accounts from those in the industry.

The best and worst of humanity is revealed when its colourful spectrum pays to stay the night and be fed and waited on, hotel workers have said.

Reddit users gave various scenarios in answer to the question: "Hotel workers, what is the strangest thing you've seen guests doing?"

Here are 10 strange things they've seen:

1. Domestic disputes

One hotel worker was asked by a woman if she could use the workout gym at 11pm. When they returned at 3am to close it, the woman had set up a bed for herself on the treadmill.

The hotel worker said: "We ended up giving her our last room, after she had a fight with her husband and was refusing to sleep with him."

2. Romeo and Juliet endings

A valet said a "really nice old couple" arrived at the hotel, had a nice dinner and drinks in town and returned to the hotel.

The next morning, the first person to the room found a note on their door saying "Do not enter, call the police". One of the elderly pair had been diagnosed with a terminal, uncurable disease and they had both decided to "go out together, instead of letting the disease win."

Business went back to normal quickly at the hotel. "The weekend after this happened, the room was re-opened and no one even knew that it happened," said the Reddit user.

3. Spoilt guests

This hotel worker received the strangest phonecall, and follow-up experience, from a guest staying upstairs in the hotel.

"She called the front desk and said, 'There are bubbles in my toilet. Why are there bubbles in my toilet?' I told her they might have flushed the water pipes. She then says, 'Hold on, I'm going to bring some down.'

"I said, Ma'am, that's really not necessary,' but she was already off the line. About five minutes later she comes down the elevator with a wineglass full of clear water.

"'Well, it was bubbly a minute ago!'. I had to walk in the back and beat my head against the wall for a bit."

4. Double standards from wealthy guests

Several hotel workers described guests who, despite spending thousands of dollars on dinner, would take hotel items like the salt and pepper shakers, plates and cutlery from the restaurant - or decorative objects from their room.

One CEO of a large corporation would, apparently, ask for a tray of cookies every night which she would proceed to chew and place back on the tray.

5. Hotels for holy purposes

One hotel worker asked a couple why they had come to the area. "Completely straight-faced, the lady replied: "We are here to conceive our child in the name of Jesus Christ."

The couple stayed the night and checked out without any other remarks.

The hotel worker said: "Later that day when housekeeping went into the room, they had left a mess. All over the room, it smelled like rose fragrance oil, and it was dripping off the wall. When they looked closer, the housekeepers noticed the oil was rubbed on the wall in the shape of a cross.

"The most awkward part was calling the couple that afternoon and telling them we would need to charge them an additional cleaning fee."

6. Ghosts of previous guests

A guest came down to a hotel worker at 4am to say that the words "I'm watching you" were written on the wall.

The hotel worker went upstairs with him, and there on the wall in glow-in-the-dark pen were the words. A previous guest had obviously had a rather dark sense of humour, said the Reddit user.

The guest was allowed to change rooms.

7. Not very clever

One couple came to complain to a reception worker that they had received a parking ticket, despite having a valid parking permit.

"We couldn't understand why, there was no way the permit wasn't valid. We asked, did he display it in the window as we had told him to do?

"He said, of course. He put it in the window as soon as he got upstairs to the room. That's when we realised he'd put it in the bedroom window and not the car window."

The guest had to pay the fine.

8. Stealing

TVs are especially vulnerable to guest theft, according to Reddit users. One hotel had them bolted down to the tables, while others said whole widescreens were mysteriously spirited away.

One hotel worker said he removed a mirror to find a giant hole had been knocked through the wall behind it and filled with stolen goods.