Hotel Secrets from Reddit Users

Posted in Media

I’ll admit it, I’ve become a big fan of Reddit. It seems like every viral video/story/meme/whathaveyou started there and as somebody who likes to be up-to-date (and ahead of the curve), I end up checking it several times a day. Yesterday, one of the top posts was an AskReddit question entitled What is something about the company you work for that they WOULD NOT like the customer to know?

Intriguing, right? While stories of Ivy League admissions office improprieties and repackaging Costco lasagna in fancy restaurants are fascinating to me, I was more interested in the hotel employees who chose to dish dirt on their employers. Instead of combing through the entire massive post, I’ve done the *ahem* dirt-y work for you and culled the best ones here. Enjoy! [warning: some language below is NSFW]

[–]SammyGreen 2140 points 4 hours ago

I used to work at a 4 star hotel. Every guest’s credit card info was stored in plain text in our database WITH their full name, home address, email and the CC’s security code. ANY employee who had access to either the office or reception computer could copy it down. It would have been easy as hell to copy down all this info, quit, wait a few months and engage in some serious CC fraud. Especially working the nightshift when I’d literally be in the only employee in the entire hotel so I wouldn’t have to have worried about being caught copying down information.

 

[–]IAMATruckerAMA 384 points 4 hours ago

I was in hotels for ten years. Hotels consider a night perfect if they’re overbooked by 2-5 rooms. They count on no-shows to make up the difference, but they’re totally OK with you not having the room you reserved. Likewise, if you booked with a third party like Expedia or Hotels.com, you are not guaranteed anything and will be last in line for everything because you’re not considered a loyal customer.

[–]globetrotter0713 125 points 3 hours ago

Very true. Currently work in a hotel. Though it pisses off the front desk agents when we are overbooked.

LPT: If you’re concerned about a sold-out situation…

  1. Call the hotel earlier on the day of arrival to confirm all of the details about your reservation. Usually they’ll put a note on your reservation so you’re more likely to get your booked room/not be walked.
  2. If you see a lower rate on hotels.com/expedia, call the hotel. 9 times out of ten we will match or beat it. It saves us the headache of dealing with these companies.
  3. If faced with the choice of walking two identical reservations, except one joined the loyalty program and one didn’t, I’ll walk the one that didn’t every time.

 

[–]NAbsentia 418 points 21 hours ago

In the 80s I was a night auditor at a Best Western. The GM, a real crook, had hung a banner on the outside that faced the freeway proclaiming rooms for 29.99. This is in a resort area, Southern California, on the 101. People would drag in at 1 AM and ask for the 29.99 rate. I was written up for giving it. We were told to upsell the rooms for 79.99. I never did it. The GM confronted me with secirity tape that showed me not haggling. I sent a file detailing the GM’s embezzlement and other misconduct to the district office. I was fired.

[–]jmev 299 points 1 day ago

I did this once. I called the hotel and told them the price online. When I made the reservation he told me he’ll make a note of this and when I showed up there was different person there at the desk. I explained that I had a lower price and got in a huge argument with the person because they thought I was making it up. So if you do this make sure you prepay.

[–]benduffy 193 points 23 hours ago

When doing this, always get it as part of the emailed reservation confirmation. If they say no or they can’t, just tell them you will book it online. Most hotels don’t like online bookings because the OTA (online travel agent) will take 25-40% of the reservation fee as commission.

 

[–]RoomServicer 51 points 1 day ago

I deliver room service in a high end hotel, and any unopened alcohol delivered to a room, or brought in and left by a guest, gets resold. It gets bagged up by housekeeping, or picked up by us, brought back to our coolers, and then sold again. I think it’s a little weird, especially when it’s stuff that the guest obviously brought in because we don’t sell it anywhere in the resort. EDIT: To reiterate, this fabulously profitable resort in a tourist city sells alcohol at a 300%-400% markup, 21% service charge, and delivery fee. And if the guest doesn’t use it, they salvage it like some sort of Dickensian crackhead trying to scrape the barrel to pay the landlord. Also the servers and supervisors are exempt from overtime pay, by some legal voodoo.

Also, the place is fucking FILTHY. A couple wet rags will be used to clean shmutzy shit off of service trays, then used to “polish” silverware, glassware, whatever surface needs to be wiped with an unsanitary wet rag. Is the rag failing to get the silverware shiny after wiping curdled milk off a tray? Give it a quick rinse in some tap water, if you feel like it. Every time you grab a lid to put on a coffee pot is like reaching into a Schrodinger’s box of cockroaches. It drives me crazy. The place gets cleaned up real good on inspection day. I guess they check in at security, so we get plenty of heads up.

 

[–]SpookiMulder 148 points 1 day ago

The laundry room at the hotel I work at looks like it belongs in a 3rd world country

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