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.
#1
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
#2
A lot of lonely people going on vacation to end their life. Happens a lot but is never mentioned on the news.
#3
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.
#4
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.
#5
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
#6
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.
#7
Don’t know about super luxury, but the amount of food waste would make you lose your faith in humanity in a hot second.
#8
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.
#9
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.
#10
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.
#11
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.
#12
That we don’t wash our comforters unless we physically see a spot on them
#13
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.
#14
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.
#15
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.
#16
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.
#17
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.
#18
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.
#19
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.
#20
Bedbugs are prevalent.
#21
The towels used in the kitchen are cut up old bath towels and wash cloths.