10 secrets hotel staff won’t tell you

Ever wondered what hotel staff get up to when you’re off gallivanting on the beach on holiday?

Or what they think when you order a sandwich with the crusts cut off at 3am from room service?

According to staff commenting on this Quora feed, the hidden side of hospitality isn’t all that pretty:

1. Hotel staff hear everything

Farhad Aqeel writes:

We can hear you having sex. Yes, we do. Even if your TV volume is at maximum volume, we can hear.

2. Staff don’t care about your affairs

They might hear it, but they don’t really care if it’s not your significant other you’re doing it with.

Stacy Jean writes:

We host gentlemen and ladies who are having affairs. Yes, we know who you are. No, we don't really care, so long as your payment goes through and you don't cause permanent damage to the room. We're not there to make moral judgements; we're there to make money.

3. Your bed sheets might not be clean

Stacy Jean writes:

It is not only true for unused beds, but in general. Cheap hotel managers and owners encourage staff to check if the sheets look clean. If they do, they tell housekeepers to just tighten them up from the corners.

4. They see a lot of monkeying around

​Brent Decker writes:

We have to throw out so many mattresses a year it'll spin your head. Gallons of spilt wine, excess bodily fluids, sh** beds, and one of my favorites, that time we had a guy kill a monkey in his room.

5. People die in hotels

Stacy Jean writes:

I used to ask my hospitality professors "What's the weirdest thing that ever happened to you while working at a hotel?" Their answers inevitably began with "Well, the thing that people don't realise is that people die in hotels”. I haven't ever worked at a property that doesn't have its own grisly story, endlessly recounted by the staff.

6. No seriously, sometimes the sheets don’t get cleaned. At all.

Peter Mayer writes:

Sometimes sheets are not changed daily. This is not only true for unused beds, but in general. Shady and cheap hotel/motel managers and owners encourage staff to check if the sheets look clean. If they do, they tell housekeepers to just tighten it up from the corners.

8. Lost and never found

Marco Scolari writes:

Lost and Found - DO NOT ever lose anything of value at a hotel. If you do, notify security immediately. In many situations, unfortunately, valuables will end up in a guest's or staff's pocket. If it does make it to the lost and found, their policy is to keep it for a specified amount of time, and then the person who checked it there can claim it.

9. Avoid hotel glasses

An anonymous user writes:

Never ever drink from the glasses provided in the room. These glasses are not cleaned properly. And if the glasses smell of lemon and lime and are super shiny, then furniture polish has been used.

10. But even this doesn’t get to the bottom of it…

Debjyoti Samanta writes:

The one thing that many hotel tell-alls have in common is the revelation that no one talks about what has happened in any given room, which can be anything from affairs, arrests and parties to drug deals, deaths and even murders.

NB: These posts has been lightly edited for clarity.

More: 10 secrets hotel workers won't tell you