You Just Never Know What You’ll See in Your Travels
Knock! Knock! Knock! Pound! Pound! Pound! Shout! Shout! Shout!
This is what I heard as I stood at the elevator waiting to go down to dinner at my hotel. The voice didn’t sound threatening, rather irritated that he’d either locked himself out of the room or was trying to rouse someone on the other side. I couldn’t understand the words. I assume they were in Norwegian since I’m now in Norway – in a generally very safe city.
I headed down to dinner and forgot about it, figuring it was young guys goofing around, as sports teams often visit this hotel on the weekends.
Exiting the elevator after dinner, I glanced right before walking left. I always try to be aware of my surroundings. And here’s what I saw:
The ‘knocker’ was now passed out in the hallway — in his underwear. He definitely wasn’t wearing attire appropriate for Norway weather in January. But at least he wasn’t making the loud racket on the hotel door any longer.
Not wanting to check on him myself (no way, no how, never, ever!), I got back in the elevator to alert the Front Desk (after snapping this quick photo of the guy in his skivvies).
Later the Front Desk told me that the guy was not a guest at our hotel but rather from another hotel in town and that they had him removed. I don’t know if he had time to don his britches or not or whether there was any criminal action involved. I hope the occupant of the room was ok. I’m hoping it was just a case of young fun where the alcohol got out of hand early in the day.
This is definitely my first time of seeing someone passed out in a hotel hallway. It just goes to show that travels are forever interesting (sometimes good, sometimes bad) and you never know what you’re going to see.
I give you huge kudos for notifying the front desk. I was held at gun point and robbed in my hotel room.. and once the police were called, my understanding is that neighboring guests confirmed hearing “commotion” but didn’t do anything about it. To this day, it feels like a stab in the gut when I ask myself what if someone had called the front desk, even to complain. A lot of what if’s that will remain with me. But neighboring guests like you are what we need more of.
Oh my… I got chills reading this. Robbed at gunpoint in your hotel room – how very, very horrible. A good lesson for all of us: if we hear or see something that doesn’t seem right, tell someone. Better be safe than sorry. And I’m sure every hotel manager would agree.
I had the most bizarre hotel experience of my life last week and with my travel schedule that’s really saying something! After several attempts to get my key to work in the lock the front desk clerk accompanies me back to my room to use the master key. We open the door to find a woman in my bed. She’s half naked and the other half of her is wearing my clothes. The rest of my clothes are strewn all over the room, the blankets are torn off the bed and apparently this unwanted guest had defecated all over my room! I throw the stuff still in the drawers in my suitcase and the clerk gets me a new room while he calls the police. Once the police clear her out I go back to the smelly room only to find my missing items covered in feces. I let the hotel know they could keep those. The clerk says “don’t worry, we’ll give you a gift card at Target to buy more clothes”. Say what?
How did she get in my room? Apparently the front desk clerk got a call from people on the 5th floor saying there is a naked woman roaming the halls. When he arrived the woman is clinging to the door to MY room telling him it’s HER room. Since she didn’t have any clothes, instead of taking her to the lobby nude he let her in with his master key. Then goes back to the front desk to verify she’s the right individual since obviously she wasn’t carrying any ID. He got busy and forgot about her until he walked in the room with me and saw her sitting on my bed with my clothes on. Now, how anyone can forget a naked woman roaming the halls I have no idea. But the important thing for me was that the room was actually secure and someone didn’t actually break in. The manager of the hotel told me that the young man who made the mistake will likely never forgo hotel procedures again. Ya think?
Oh the joys of travel….
OMG! OMG! OMG! What a string of very bizarre events. Thank goodness you’re ok. Now go splurge with your gift card! 🙂
Funny you should mention the hotel manager… because they didn’t do any follow up at all.
A copy of my letter below. I normally don’t broadcast my personal blow, but I had finally vented just recently when I was comfortable speaking about it. And their response only made me angrier.
http://withoutstringstied.com/2014/04/04/copy-of-my-letter-to-westin-and-starwood-brands/