My Most Embarrassing Hotel Experiences During World Travel

[Steven Walker]

Travel often finds people encountering unusual situations at hotels that can either add to their enjoyment or detract or simply embarrass one. Most of these situations were the result of my lack of familiarity with the hotels rather than any specific flaw with the management or building. Instead, fate conspired against me to leave me blushing.

The Hotel that Accepted Cats

I was working in Huntsville, Alabama and on my return from vacation, I changed hotels to have a place more like an apartment than a hotel room and because my cats had caused damage to the furniture at the previous place that I paid for, but I didn’t want to take a chance at having damage again since they didn’t have pet friendly furniture.. But my plane got in after 11 pm, and when I showed up the management was closed for the night and would not reopen until I was supposed to be at work. So I blushed and found the management more than willing to let me stay, provided I pay a $200 damage deposit.

The Hotel with an Unwanted Bat

It was a glorious hotel room that was more like a cottage in Tanzania, but when you entered the cottage, it had a huge living room. The bedroom was huge but the bathroom was even bigger. The bathtub shower sat on a pyramid of marble. But when I went to open the drapes, a dead bat fell out. Imagine having to explain to the manager to please send someone to remove a dead bat from your room.

The Hotel Room with a Connecting Door

On my first conference presentation, I found I could travel to the hotel in Colorado by car, taking only a couple days vacation and spending less money than it would take to fly, so I opted in and decided to explore the west. Everything worked out well, despite all of my friends warnings not to travel after dark and avoid strangers and the like, until I got to a hotel in New Mexico. I arrived at dusk and the hotel clerk put me into a room near the desk because the crowd in town was kind of rough (I nearly drove into a couple drunks walking down the road). So you can imagine my reaction when I found my room had a connecting door, and the neighbor managed to open it. I pushed every piece of furniture against the door available and still slept very lightly.

The Hotel with the Confusing Power

My first trip abroad was a cruise from Greece to Egypt and Israel seeing many of the islands, but started in Athens where we spent four days in a hotel. The very first day I arrived, I was exhausted from lack of sleep but due at a first dinner with the tour group. So I checked in, and found myself in a dark room where every time I flipped a light switch on, different lights when on and off. I never could find which switch went to each lamp so I left all of the on and jumped into the shower. Then I tried to dry my hair with a hair dryer connected to a power converter. The breaker blew and I was in absolute darkness, in a strange room completely undressed. I wasn’t sure where the phone was. I managed to find my suitcase and pull out a hot fuzzy pink robe, then was forced to walk down to the lobby with my hair dripping wet to ask for help. The hotel manager was great, sending someone to fix it right away. I followed in my bare feet, and just as soon as it was fixed, tried to dry my hair again. Well, after two tries and two blown breakers I gave up on the idea, put my hair into a ponytail and managed to make it to dinner on time.

Locked out of the Hotel with the Outdoor Hot Tub

My husband took me to a fancy hotel where they had an outdoor hot tub behind the room in Goldendale, Washington. It was late October and the nights got very, very cold. We of course climbed into the hot tub, hanging our pink towels on the hooks. We soaked awhile then we decided to go in. I have this bad habit of always locking the door as I leave. So when we went outside, we left the key inside with our clothes and stupidly and rather instinctively, I locked the door and shut it. So my husband showed what a hero he was, donning two pink towels and going barefoot in search of someone to open our door at the office. Meanwhile, while we soaked, the temperature dropped below freezing and he hobbled over the frozen parking lot to find the manager had locked up and gone to bed. He eventually knocked on the neighbor’s room, they called and soon someone from the hotel came and let us in, but not without peeking. Needless to say, my husband never goes outside without first checking he has a key and I got off scotch free except for my blush.

Well, the point I suppose is that when you travel, keep on smiling, because even if something truly odd and embarrassing happens, you live to tell the tale!