A Reddit user asked people to share ‘secrets’ that managements of 5-star hotels don’t want us to know about and here are some of the best responses we found. 

1. “My parents used to own a hotel and they said they’ve only ever had two people die, the entire time they owned it, and they were both in the same room.” – ImOkNotANoob

2. “We don’t want you to know that the people who stayed in the room before you were fucking nasty. Housekeeping gets the brunt of it. I’ve seen them carry out bags of used sex toys, peel used condoms off of every surface, and scrub shit – actual human (presumably) shit – off places there’s no reason for human shit to be.” – chupawhat 

3. “At my last job, there was a guy that stayed in a luxury suite. He got so fucked up he shit twice on the floor and threw up once. Housekeeping was doing their best because we had a full house and a family of four needed that room. Of course, they were the only room that asked to check in early.” – I_CUP_ness 

4. “Watching for signs of sex trafficking, lots of cheating spouses there under fake names (and you can’t confirm if they’re there when the spouse calls pissed), jacuzzi and swimming pool deaths (usually from alcohol), guests expose themselves to female staff frequently especially housekeepers and room service, people will legit give you keys to their rooms, sometimes dealing with really shitty organizations for their banquets income, etc.” – hipstertrashbird 

5. “As a woman who has worked at two upscale hotels in the past, there is this very strange expectation that female hotel employees moonlight as prostitutes in the hotel where they work. I’ve had men just up front tell me that, like when I was a housekeeper. I also had businessmen dial the front desk and strongly allude to it, or expect me to come to their room when my shift is over. Like I’m one of the amenities.” – gridironbuffalo 

6. “LOTS of prostitution and all the drama/legal trouble that goes along with it.” – weirdoldhobo1978 

7. “I worked in security for one and housekeeping called us all the time for drugs they’d find in a room. The first thing we’d ask for is the room number and we’d look up the name of the guest. If it was a VIP or someone important to us we’d tell them to leave it there and “we’d take care of it.” – mchop68 

8. “Bed bugs are actually a big issue for hotels, including 5 star hotels. Look for the signs and check everytime u get to ur room. U do not want to bring them home with u.” – CptBLAMO

9. “We went on lockdown once because a man walked into the lobby with a shotgun. We were sealed up tight for about 45 minutes. We were told that we’d be fired if we talked to the media. By the time I finished counting my drawer the news was saying that an attempted bank robbery had spilled over into our motorcade before they drove away. By the time I got home that story was gone from everywhere but a single news outlet who issued a correction stating that a car had backfired in the motorcade. We weren’t allowed to discuss it. It was kept as quiet as in-house celebrity gossip.”  – lassofthelake 

10. “A lot of the employees are sleeping with each other. Likely all over the hotel, at least at the ones I’ve worked at.” – shmallory

11. “I worked as a housekeeper for a Marriott hotel, and we were told not to change pillow cases unless they looked dirty considering they didn’t want to do that much laundry everyday.” – Santas_Blackberries 

12. “Worked at the high end restaurant at a ski resort that hosts a famous film festival. Lots of sex in the walk in coolers, but never the people you’d want to walk in on.” – johnnycakeAK

13. “Didn’t work at one, but delivered newspapers to one. The prostitution thing was something the desk saw a lot.” – Who_dat_22

14. “Dead people. In some places there’s a reasonable chance somebody has died in your bed. Obviously it varies with the type of hotel and its clientele, but some places you get deaths weekly (not that the hotel is unsafe but unfit old people over exerting themselves). One place I worked maybe 40% of the beds had been died in.” – KaneMomona

15. “I use to work events at hotels and one time we had a guest break their wine glass inside a water refill barrel…I left work for two weeks to go on vacation and when I came back, all the glass was still piled inside the water refill barrel. People must have been drinking out of it because there were events booked while I was gone.” – damien_gray 

16. “As a teenager, I worked in a large, 5-star hotel as a room attendant and was actually trained to do this. We had to fill the sink with hot water and put the glasses in there to soak. Then we had to use a used bathroom flannel to polish them up and put them back. We were so over-worked. We were given around 20 rooms to clean each shift.” – eyeball-beesting 

17. “Shit happens, but it’s mostly drugs or prostitution. Mostly it’s quiet and no one knows it’s going on until we go to clean their rooms.” – jesst

18. “A lot of lonely people going on vacation to end their life. Happens a lot but is never mentioned on the news.” – Cool-Lemon-7662 

19. Worked in five-star hotels in Beverly Hills.. boy do I have stories. Husbands who will say hello to staff with their mistress on their arm on Thursday night and their wife on Friday night. Famous teen celebrity left a room full of needles and various drug paraphernalia behind for housekeeping to clean up. – candybarkiller

20. “We legit had someone once break into the archive room and steal everyone’s credit card details. Nobody noticed until like a month later. Was a shit show. I’ve had to deal with people throwing the furniture off balconies and throw onto other guests’ cars. Sadly a lot of DV incidents. Hospitalisations. People killing themselves. Undercover cops looking at CCTV for high-end criminals? And don’t even get me started on how ‘clean’ those rooms are.” – Turdmuffin_yumyum 

Do you have some other secrets to add? Let us know in the comments section.