As of 2023, there are around 187K hotels in the world with approximately 17.5M guestrooms. The pandemic has significantly impacted this industry, which is a major player in the global economy. However, the sector is bouncing back and is expected to see 7% growth from 2021 to 2025.

However, the comeback might not be as glamorous as it sometimes looks from the outside. There's a new Reddit post that asked "People who work in super luxury hotels, what's the one thing management doesn’t want normal citizens to know?" and the replies show that there's definitely more than meets the eye.

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#1

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) This is a bit different but funny


I used to be in the entertainment business and traveled worldwide non stop. I always flew with a few suites and a tux with it in a separate dark garment bag.

I was in NYC for a show and was asked to wear a tux for the event. No problem…. That’s why I have it…. But I did not have it. I had it before in maybe Chicago but multiple hotels unpacking, repacking and I managed to lose the entire garment bag

I freak out and figured out the last 4-5 hotels and called each one. No tux and all said they would have called me if the maid found after checkout.

Get a call from security from a well known hi end hotel in LA later that day. Security went to the room and the garment bag was squished into the dark corn of the closet and had been there about two weeks with multiple guests!

They offered to overnight it to me…. I sent a very nice thank you e mail.

About 6 months later I check into the LA hotel again. As I received my key the front desk asked if I could like to leave a forwarding address for my tux this time 🤓

Actually met the guy who found it and tipped him $100

dd113456 , Free For Commercial Use Fashion Lifestyle Images Report

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#2

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) A lot of lonely people going on vacation to end their life. Happens a lot but is never mentioned on the news.

Begany11 , Pixabay Report

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#3

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) You can tell the difference between the new money and the old money. You can take the old money down the pub and they get on well with everyone. New money tends to be a bit snobby and wants to associate with other people who are like them.

It’s hard to describe.

VixenRoss , Andrea Piacquadio by giving them a small donation. Report

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Judes
Judes
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are plenty of old-money people who would never go down the pub and associate with the plebs.

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#4

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) Hotel chains have a "list of banned customers" circulated among their member hotels, for those customers who have created a lot of issues in the past including criminal issues, absconding etc.

BrushNovel9003 , Annushka Ahuja Report

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Ge Po
Ge Po
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Absconding. Secretly leaving without paying. Had to look it up. :)

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#5

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) I stayed at a lovely little boutique hotel on our honeymoon once in the South of France. It was home to a Michelin star restaurant. They knew every time we walked out of the room and approximately how long we would be gone because our room would be tidied every single time we left it for more than like 5 mins and a new compote of fresh fruit from the property on my dressing table. The whole place knew our names and our rental car on sight (even the front gate to the property would open automatically, there was no like “rolling down the window and talking to the intercom” after the first time we arrived). And they packed picnics and things for our outings without us ever asking like, “Hello Weddingelly, I know you mentioned you are going out to hike tomorrow, we packed you a picnic of fresh pastries and charcuterie from our chef for your trip and here are two umbrellas in case it rains.” Another time we were looking for some small restaurant in the village and the front desk person, instead of just giving us directions, walked us there. It was so incredible, I was speechless

Edit: sorry I am in Chicago for a wedding this weekend and so did not check til now. It was the Bastide at Marie St Moustieres and its actually only a 4 star: https://www.bastide-moustiers.com/en/

But actually in France it is not uncommon to have this level of service. We also had very good experiences at Les Bories in Gordes (5 star, has Michelin star restaurant), Alain Llorca in Colle de Loup next to St Paul de Vence (4 star, has a michelin star restaurant), Hotel Bevengudo in Les Baux de Provence (4 star, no michelin restaurant but chef is michelin trained with Alain Ducasse) just to name a few standout ones.

There are many small places to stay that are exquisite and with excellent food throughout that area. We went in late October and it was very nice and quiet

WeddingElly , Luca Luperto Report

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Donkeywheel
Donkeywheel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Completely standard in France, Italy or Switzerland as long as you stay away from the chains or the cheap hotels in city centers for the ryanair crowd. The level of hospitality for the price is unrivaled.

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#6

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) I won't name it for obvious NDA reasons, but I used to manage a lodge style hotel up in the Rockies. Lovely, old place, all the top people had stayed there back in the day. Beautiful furnishings, native art, log fires, a big, big ballroom, very like those lodges in Yosemite or Yellowstone, but privately owned, not NPS/Xanterra. It always closes for the winter (it was just too expensive to keep the road clear) and anyway about 40 years ago now the caretaker I hired for the off-season, he seemed a nice young man, went nuts and tried to kill his wife and son. I still think about that.

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#7

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) Don't know about super luxury, but the amount of food waste would make you lose your faith in humanity in a hot second.

willflameboy , Harrison Haines Report

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#8

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) What goes on the room next to you. This week we to evict and have arrested a couple for causing over $15K in damages to a room. This was done quietly late at night and the nearby rooms never found out.

Twours1944 , Emmanuel Codden Report

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LinkTheHylian
LinkTheHylian
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was going to ask how nobody heard, and then I remembered nobody heard all the s**t that happened in 'The Hangover', including dragging a tiger into the penthouse suite, so I guess sometimes Hollywood shows us real life things.

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#9

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) I worked at a hotel in a ski town that has a very “secret” system of tracking guests preferences and information. From their dogs name all the way down to their preference of pillow firmness.

They told us it was vital that guests never find out about the stored info as it would come off as creepy.

Dirty_Casual_ , cottonbro studio Report

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pep Ito
pep Ito
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think that's the reason, because that's precisely what the clients of these hotels are looking for, that level of attention. What is really happening is that there is a European data protection regulation that would oblige them to let the clients know that they keep that information and also that they do it in a secure way and with all the precautions and I am sure that most of the luxury hotels are not in a position to do it.

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#10

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) At an extremely luxurious hotel in downtown Seattle I worked in the kitchen and had the task of making breakfast lunch and dinner for pair of award-winning shizu. Chicken bone broth for Brea, the plain chick from the broth at noon and chicken and rice around ten. They usually stayed anywhere between a week and two. And even with this extremely strict diet they develop diarrhea every day and the room had to be spotlessly deep cleaned while the pup had their daily visit to the groomers.

This may have been more manageable except it had to be served at the same time the owners decided they wanted to eat so obviously the dogs ate with them. If course they did.

So basically luxury hotels will do just about anything to keep their luxury reputation. I have many more and many more disturbing stories if anyone asks but they have that same moral of the story. They get what they want free of consequence. Always.

ThisAlsoIsntRealLife , Goochie Poochie Grooming Report

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David
David
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Presumably the "consequence" is they are paying a lot of money. The hotel is for profit (I assume) and thus the management tolerates rich people because at the end of the day they figure they are turning a profit from it and would lose money if they didn't tolerate it.

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#11

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) The hotel rooms are not as clean as the people checking in assume. Most cleaning is done at most in a 15 minute period and lots is reused. Some cleaners don't even use water although they would say they did. I used to work in a hotel which was considered fancy as a housekeeper and the things I saw make it hard for me to stay at a hotel to this day. Faster, faster and faster is the motto for cleaning and if things don't look dirty ...that is fine.

SwimmingintheMyth , Liliana Drew Report

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#12

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) That we don't wash our comforters unless we physically see a spot on them

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Kraneia The Dancing Dryad
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Place I worked at put an extra flat sheet OVER the comforter. The logic was it kept the comforter cleaner from spills, etc. All it did was make extra work for the housekeeping staff/laundry folks as those sheets didn't help much.

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#13

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) Billionaire shat in the elevator multiple times, management didn’t stop him. We had to keep track when he used the elevator, to ensure we clean the mess before anyone else would find it.

EddyRosenthal , Liliana Drew Report

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#14

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) I worked in a very nice hotel 30+ years ago. Not super luxury, but very nice. The GM insisted that we use the fire exits in the non-public areas as storage. So they were completely blocked off. The fire department would do their routine checks for safety, but they always notified the management ahead of time. So the employees were told to run around and move the stuff away from the exits, then put it all back after the inspection was over.

OldGuySeattle , Animesh Srivastava Report

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Jill Bussey
Jill Bussey
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All inspections - factory, school, hospital, safety - should be carried out without prior notice. Absolutely pointless otherwise.

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#15

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) You'd be surprised about the lack of camera coverage. In every hotel I've worked at, cameras were only directed at first floor entrances, the elevators, the bar if we had one, the front desk, and the room we had the money safe/electronic equipment in. So basically, entrances + places where money was held or exchanged. None on the individual floors, none aimed at the parking lot.

Wilder_Boy , cottonbro studio Report

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pep Ito
pep Ito
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The op must think that because in American procedural series there are always cameras all over the hotel, we think that in real life it happens too. There is something called privacy. In Spain at least it should be notified with a sign that the area is monitored by cameras and the least expected in a luxury hotel is to find those signs throughout the hotel because it also gives the image of being an unsafe hotel because that's why they have put the cameras.

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#16

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) I work at a gym in an upscale gated community. We had to change the toilet paper to a fresh roll even if it was hardly used. On the plus side, we got to keep alot of toilet paper.

wingjet8888 , Vie Studio Report

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Kraneia The Dancing Dryad
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some hotels are like this too.... if there's only a little left, but not enough to toss, you either have to leave it till it's out (which may be the next time someone goes in there) or change it completely and take the roll with you--you couldn't leave the partial roll on top like you do at home, it looks "tacky". I took the stuff home, came in handy during the COVID when people were buying all the TP in stores lol

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#17

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) They know if you're there with your wife or not, and would never make any indication.

Low-end places will say "welcome back" not recognising if the other had been there before.

40_year_old_playa , cottonbro studio Report

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#18

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) Whitsunday islands, a certain island would confiscate any alcohol brought onto the island as they wanted to milk you for all you got. Also very dodgy employment contracts where the GM would laugh about it and think he was so clever where someone resigns and puts in notice only to be ejected off the island straight away with nowhere to go.

bunduz , Lou Stejskal Report

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Savannah greenleaf
Savannah greenleaf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now we have CEO's and owners of large businesses repeatedly attempt to eject themselves from the darn planet and keep failing. If you have massive funds and want to leave go ahead. Or at least realize no one really cares. The Legos I have in the other room would be more fun, cause less environmental damage, and no judging from people that may have lost sight on "being a person.". Probably took that rant a wee to far.

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#19

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) While on vacation in a popular spot we went out to eat, they had a high table turnover system.

There was a guy doing balloon animals. He'd go from table to table and my in-laws tried to catch him walking by. He quickly said he'd be right back. They got offended he made them wait.

I kept watching and basically he was the signal that the table was done eating and needed to be bussed and ready for the next guests.

I told my in-laws that and they argued it wasn't true but the manager came after we had been sitting for a while post it was our turn with the balloon guy and asked us to go to the bar if we we going to stay there any longer.

JetreL , Marcus Herzberg Report

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#20

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) Bedbugs are prevalent.

RoodysRun , Ksenia Chernaya Report

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Ace
Ace
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, they're very uncommon. Happens from time to time, sure, but 'prevalent' implies it's common and considered normal. It's not.

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#21

5-Star Hotel Employees Spill The Tea On Hotel Secrets, And Some Get Really Dark (30 Answers) The towels used in the kitchen are cut up old bath towels and wash cloths.

AssGetsPounded , ROMAN ODINTSOV Report

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