The Weirdest Requests From Hotel Guests, According to Reddit

In the world of hospitality, one rule has historically reigned supreme: The guest is always right. The concept may be problematic for a number of reasons, the biggest being that the guest is, in fact, not always right. But it does carry an important guiding principle: Do what you can to accommodate guests, and go above and beyond to offer incredible service. There are some guest requests, though, that fall outside the realm of what anyone would consider normal — especially at hotels.

And if there’s one place where hotel employees are going to share the unusual demands they’ve received from guests, it’s Reddit. On the popular subreddit r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk, employees have disclosed the most shocking encounters they’ve had on the job, with one user comparing working at a hotel to being employed at an “adult daycare.” So, we took a scroll through the sub, specifically seeking out threads containing weird, surprising, and downright hilarious guest demands.

Without further ado, here are eight of the weirdest hotel guest requests from the r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk subreddit.

Hot Guys for Grandma

Guests requesting that photos of celebrities be placed in their rooms before check-in is actually a relatively common request at hotels. Less common: a group of elderly women asking that their room be covered in photos of attractive men. Luckily, the employees at one hotel leaned into the silly request, plastering photos of “hot guys” on nearly every surface in the room, much to the guests’ joy.

User 13yearsofabuse commented:

“We had a group of older ladies checking in, one of the rooms had a request to have hot guys in their room. We printed pictures of hot actors and placed them throughout the room. One in the shower, one ‘sitting’ on the chair, one in each bed tucked into the coverage. They thought it was absolutely hilarious and raved about it the whole weekend. They were a fun group, for sure.”

Copious Meat Storage

A guest asking the front desk for a freezer to store meat during their stay is suspicious in the best of circumstances. But if said guest gets angry at the size of the freezer, things can get a whole lot weirder a whole lot faster. A rule of thumb: If your request requires multiple members of hotel staff to jump through dozens of hoops to execute, it’s probably an outlandish ask — especially when raw meat’s involved.

Now-deleted user commented:

“Some guy came in at 10:55 at night (5 minutes before I clock out for the evening and go home), I check him in and he asks if we have a freezer that he can put some meat in. Guests often ask if we can store their leftovers from expensive restaurants in our refrigerator, and we almost always accommodate them by letting them store their items in our break room refrigerator. I take him upstairs to the break room so he can put it in the freezer. He takes one look at the freezer and fucking loses it because I’ve taken him to a “regular” freezer when he was expecting an industrial-strength, professional kitchen-style deep freezer.

I’m not even going to go into the details of what he said to me but he started off on a LONG rant beginning with “I travel all across the country every week and every hotel I’ve been to has had a deep freezer for me…” There was a lot of “what are you going to do to make this right? huh? huh?” I knew he was jetlagged and probably exhausted but in dealing with him that night, I think died a little inside.

Took him back downstairs to the manager who made some sort of arrangements to have the meat taken to the freezers in the dining hall on the other side of the conference center complex, and of course, since there was no one from dining or catering in at that hour, we had to send emails to like a dozen people and get security involved so they could unlock the freezers in the kitchen.

This dude literally thought we were out to get him because we didn’t have a complimentary meat locker attached to the lobby.”

A New Year’s Eve Kiss

Unfortunately, it’s not unusual for hotel staff to face their fair share of harassment from guests, and this Redditor was no exception. While working at the front desk on New Year’s Eve, the user encountered several men complaining about not having someone to kiss at midnight before the group turned and asked them what their plans were for the evening. Not only is the request unprofessional and uncomfortable, but it’s one that alarmed the user enough to injure themselves on the stapler they were using at the time.

User airborne_tortose commented:

“I had a guest (he was a regular at the time, highest tier in the loyalty program, etc) who got me to type up his work reports for him every once in a while. (And I did it gladly, because I can type quickly, which got him outta my lobby faster than waiting for his hunt & peck routine to get the job done.)

On New Year’s Eve a few years ago, I was starting my audit paperwork at the desk and there was a group of guys at the lobby fireplace bemoaning their upcoming lack of NYE kisses, unless they found someone to smooch at midnight. Then they all turned and started asking what I was doing at midnight… I noped out of there so fast I left part of my finger in the stapler.”

A Nicer View for a Midnight Stay

Requesting a better view isn’t an out-of-bounds ask, and in most instances, hotel managers are willing to swap your room if one in a similar price range is available. But if you’re not going to be in town long enough to even enjoy the scenic vista, a room with a view feels like overkill. Take this mystery guest, who checked in after dark and left before sunup, as an example.

User thebossapplesauce commented:

“I’ll never forget the woman who demanded a nice view…she checked in well after dark and had a flight to catch well before sunrise.”

The Installation of an Electric Vehicle Port

Electric cars are great. You can reduce your carbon footprint and maybe even save a bit of money on gas. But in 2024, gas-powered vehicles are still the overwhelming majority, which means every hotel might not be equipped with a charging port to top off at. Most hotels advertise whether or not they have ports for electric vehicles, and if they don’t, call and ask. If the answer is no, don’t book a room there or demand one be installed on the spot. It’s really as simple as that.

User fezzipop commented:

“I once had someone demand we build an electric vehicle charger overnight before his arrival the next day. He even called customer care. We had to explain to both him and customer care that it doesn’t work that way.”

Bald Spot Management

Every once in a while, we could all use a little help getting ready in the morning. Still, most of us wouldn’t seek out a hotel employee to help us with our hair. According to this user, one guest felt empowered to ask for assistance filling in the bald spot on the back of his head during his stay. In the grand scheme of requests, this one falls on the relatively tame end of the spectrum, but we’re sure the employee still got a kick out of it.

User primotesta commented:

“A guy once asked me to paint his bald spot with spray paint because he couldn’t see properly.”

Changing the Tides

Many hotel employees are taught to go above and beyond to satisfy their guests’ wishes. That said, it’s safe to assume that no person on the planet will ever be able to control the motion of the ocean. That’s why it’s completely mind-boggling that this guest thought that shifting the time of the tides was in the realm of feasibility. As the employee points out in their comment, they were just a college intern.

User PrinceAngore commented:

“I worked at a resort near a very large and famous riptide, it was a common enough occurrence that people wanted to see it, that we had a shuttle in the morning.
One day I was asked to move the tide to 1 or so in the afternoon, because a Dad wanted to get some golf in first…I was in fact a college intern, and NOT the moon!”

A Full Refund After Losing a Soccer Game

It’s not always easy to cope with losing, but if the contest in question is a kid’s soccer game… well, it’s not exactly the final match of the World Cup, and the loss is certainly not worthy of getting a weekend’s stay comped. If you’re asking for a full refund because of the outcome of a child’s sports game, there’s a good chance you’re not just weird — you’re probably also an asshole.

User targetgoldengoose commented:

“Once when a guy’s kids soccer team lost he asked for a refund for the whole weekend. I asked him why? He said he wasted his whole time spending it with his kid because the team lost and now he wants his money back. I was dumbfounded.”

*Image retrieved from DragonImages via stock.adobe.com

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