I used to be a bellhop at a 5* hotel and yes, I was crooked, AMA!

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Walk up to a bellhop and ask him if he knows where you could get something to smoke. If he gets your drift, which he should, he'll most likely help you out, if he doesn't understand, be more direct. If he knows how to help you out, he will and if he won't, it's no big deal, he's not going to report you to anybody and chances are he won't care and you'll never see him again. Just tip the guy if he did help you out.

Also, bar staff and waiters are excellent people to ask weed from. I think 9 out of 10 of our male waiters, chefs and barmen smoked weed after work.

I think 9 out of 10 of our male waiters, chefs and barmen smoked weed during work, and 10 out of 10 smoke after work.

FTFY, assuming they are like waitstaff everywhere else.

Pretty accurate, now that I think of it, they started smoking when they had a bit more time and the managers had left, which was towards the evening, an hour or two before they left work.

What was the most fucked up thing you ever saw/had to deal with?

A guy passed out on his doorstep with blood, bottles and syringes all over him. The room was completely trashed, the windows were hanging from the hinges and he had thrown up everywhere.

He was completely pale and I thought he was dead at first, but nope, just a minor overdose, the paramedics got him back up on his feet.

EDIT: Also Rod Stewart, he was an absolute prick.

EDIT 2: I forgot about one case where a woman checked into her room went absolutely insane in her room, banging on the door, screaming and not letting anyone in even after we called the police. We never learned what was wrong with her, but we eventually just opened the door with our keycards, but she had barricaded the door, so the cops had to use quite a bit of force to get through the barricades and force her down. We never learned what was wrong with her, but she didn't look the type to go mental on drugs, so I'm guessing she was just mentally ill and probably forgot her meds or something.

Tell us the Rod Stewart story?

Nothing much to tell, he was just a prick in general, waltzed in, demanded anything and everything via his manager, almost never spoke to anyone, kept scoffing at everything, demanded a whole section of the restaurant to be sealed off for his breakfast and acted like a prick, in general.

This is opposed to Lenny Kravitz who came back from his concert and asked if he could use the piano in the lobby to put up a mini-show for the guests and staff of the hotel and bought everyone drinks afterwards.

Rod Stewart's just an entitled snob, not pleasant to be around at all.

Rod Stewart = He looks like a prick with that smirky smile

Lenny Kravitz = All around nice guy, alot of good stories about him. You should've asked for a photo.

I should have, god only knows why I didn't. I never really asked for pictures with any celebrity staying at the hotel, I guess it was partly due to the fact that we were supposed to be servicing them and they get asked for their autograph all the time, so instead of having them feel like they're being mauled for autographs in the place they're staying, as well, I refrained.

Should have asked Rod Stewart for one, now that I think of it.

servicing them

Giggity

Although I'm not gay, I would probably service the shit out of Lenny.

There was that video of him singing with a choir.

Classic Lenny.

Rod Stewart's just an entitled snob, not pleasant to be around at all.

So you didn't think he was sexy?

He was much shorter than I thought he would be and not sexy at all, even though I'm not usually the one to rate men's sexiness.

Has he seen the rain yet?

As I recall it was a sunny day, so unless he went back to England at some point, I don't think so.

After hearing the story about Lenny Kravitz, I'm 90% sure I know the hotel chain.

All your base are belong to me.

It's not a chain at all, though.

Damn. Who cleaned that up?

The syringes were collected by the paramedics, the room was repaired by the maintenance guy and cleaned by the maids. Needless to say, the maids and maintenance guy were pissed off beyond oblivion, especially since the hotel was fully booked and the room was supposed to be available 5 hours after the maids and maintenance guy came in.

Hot damm. Did they fix it in time? Did you have to warn the incomming guests?

Nope, it took quite a while, also to get the stench out, they had to call in extra maids because other rooms needed cleaning, too. Fortunately they only had to wait an extra hour or so and as far as I know, they were comped in some way.

Escorts/Hookers etc

What is your opinion of them staying in your hotel? Do you ever bother to call the cops?

Strictly speaking, it's against hotel rules to have guests past 11PM but we didn't really care. What we did do, was let the guest know about this rule and generally it would end up with the guest bribing us since adding an extra person to the room charge would have cost them much more than just paying us off. If the guy had stayed in the hotel a bit longer and/or managed to come off pleasant in any time period he had stayed there, we'd just let them in no questions asked.

On a moral standpoint, we didn't care whether someone brought a hooker in, it was all about making a few extra bucks.

Really - Hotel rules can't have guests past 11pm?

So rock stars can't be having crazy ass parties then????

That was just the rule to avoid people checking in alone, paying for one and bringing someone with them since it costs the hotel money.

In my experience no rock star or celebrity ever had a party after their show, they'd come back late and head to bed, since they would usually get on a plane the next day and take off to their next destination. If they did want to party or did party so nobody heard, the "guests" were usually also checked in in separate rooms.

As for parties, you also have to consider the noise factor, it was a 5-star hotel and neighboring guests who have shelled out top dollar would be pretty pissed off if they came to the best hotel they could find and couldn't sleep in it because of other guests.

There is a bar, a restaurant in the hotel and about 500 bars in the neighboring area since it was right downtown, so the partying generally happened elsewhere.

What type of hotel was that?

I'm staying in different hotels all the time and I have never been to one that charges more for couples than a single person.

A regular 5-star one. The extra charge is for the extra costs, amenities, etc. It costs the hotel more money to house two people instead of one.

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Sure it does, one thing that differs, is the fact that in cheaper hotels, the cost difference would be barely noticeable, but with the margins of a 5-star hotel the difference is bigger, even for breakfast, for example.

Same goes for apartments, in some countries and regions it's common to charge rent per person and in others, the price is fixed even if there are 10 people living in the same apartment or house.

What about hookers having people visit them in hotels? A lot of towels were outside this one room.

I guess if you left them $20, they really don't care.

I'm not sure I'm following you entirely, who would leave who $20?

As for hookers having customers over, we didn't have that, the price for the room for one night would probably have exceeded what they would have made and we wouldn't let anyone in without checking in properly, since if they broke or stole anything, that would have been our liability.

Hookers usually book cheap hotels for their work.

Unless it's in Vegas

Note - That's awesome you can get weed from waiters in 5 star hotels or connects. Less likely to get robbed perhaps....For science.

For nature*

FTFY

You might be surprised. One girl I know, when touring, charges a grand for three hours, minimum. That's probably more than enough four one of your rooms. You're probably right, though: three or four stars is preferable.

Absolutely, but I never encountered any of that. I did have people bringing their escorts with them from abroad and getting them rooms and everything comped as well.

What's the fattest tip you've ever received? (Insert dick joke here). Also, did you ever find bud or blow for a guest?

The heftiest tip would be, ironically, from Rod Stewart's manager. He basically left me all the money he had in his pocket, swung it out and just handed it all over, totalling at about $250.

And yes, both. A guest once knew I was high (I used to get high during graveyard shifts and sit at my laptop and watch movies or play something), looked at me sternly and asked me if I was high. I panicked a bit until he bursted out laughing and asked me if he could get some from me.

....and....did he?

Of course, I had just bought 5 grams before I went to work and sold him one, so he was in luck and didn't have to wait at all. We even smoked up together in the parking lot.

Even if I didn't have any on me, I could easily have gotten it within 30 minutes.

TIL 5* hotel workers smoke lots of weed.

TYL everyone in the hospitality and catering business probably smokes lots weed.

You are good guy bellhop

the management would beg to differ

Who is the most notable person you have ever had to deal with?

The Queen of England. Not directly, but she was there when I was working. 3 blocks were sealed off outside the hotel and everyone, including the staff, got ID-d on the way to the hotel.

Wow, that's interesting. Any other celebs?

Plenty, but most of them didn't have that kind of beefed-up security.

From the top of my head, here are few that I can name:

• Lenny Kravitz
• Queen of England
• Rod Stewart
• Robert Kiyosaki
• Maurice Hennessy, Hennessy's CEO/current owner
• Enrique Iglesias
• Loads of presidents and diplomats from all over the world, not too noteworthy
• Some Nobel prize winners
• Pet Shop Boys
• Joseph S Blatter - president of FIFA
• Morrissey
• Roxette
• Bob Dylan

That's all I can think of right now, I only worked there for about 2 years, so I missed a lot of the more prominent visitors, but those visited during my time there.

What was Morrissey like? I imagine him to be a massive hand-pull

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by hand-pull, but I only saw him briefly before my shift ended so I didn't interact with him or his crew, just saw him coming and going a few times. He looked casual from what I can remember.

That's cool. Why did you quit?

I got fired.

Dylan. Was he a dick? It won't upset me if he was. He's Bob Dylan.

Not at all, actually, nothing like Lenny, but still likeable and didn't ask for anything outrageous nor did he appear to be a dick.

What were you fired for? Ever had anyone bribe you for a room key (or any other co-worker)? One time I bribed a janitor $40 for a room late at night due to the system being down and the room costing $200. Surprisingly easy.

Answered why I got fired here.

I did have people trying to bribe me for a key, but it wasn't worth it. The maids had schedules in the morning for rooms to know which ones to clean and if the wrong room would have needed cleaning up and the system said it was vacant, it would have raised some questions. That, and if the guest had fucked the room up and it was found out his credit card data wasn't stored or there was no security deposit left in the register, I would have been the one to pay for it.

Also, the room keys were magnetic plastic cards and it logged the person writing it. I could have used my own card which unlocked all the doors, but then that would also leave a mark.

We mainly took bribes for things that were impossible to trace or prove and stole/borrowed things (from the hotel) that nobody would notice.

What was the most extravagant task you ever performed for a guest?

1. Brought the guest a second mattress since he complained the 3 mattresses that were already in the room weren't soft enough, it was a pain in the ass, believe me.
2. Ran to 5 different stores to buy a bottle of Cristal since we had just ran out.
3. Rearranged an entire room in the VIP suite because he "didn't like the way it was set up".

There are probably more, but I can't recall all of them.

For the guest that didn't like the arrangement of the room; did he happen to have tentacles, be grouchy, and have a strong hate towards sponges?

Yes, he also demanded all the neighbors to move to another room away from him for extra peace and quiet, but we couldn't accommodate that.

Have does the lost and found work at your hotel.... Anything cool you found an kept?

Things people lost went in a ziplock bag with labels on them (except chargers) and into the storage room, if someone would ask for their stuff back, we would mail it to them. If it was something more expensive, we'd contact the guest and ask vaguely if they left anything behind to avoid sending something to the wrong person.

And yeah, I kept an iPhone charger for my iPod and a phone charger to replace my broken one. We had hundreds of those and here's also a protip: ever lose your charger while travelling, ask from the hotel lobby, they're bound to have hundreds of them and will find one that also fits your port.

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Thief.

You took one too. Honor among thieves, and all that.

Actually I took more than one.

I'll be spending the weekend at an obscenely-expensive resort hotel and wondered what nice sort of thing I can do for the front desk people to apologize for all the pricks they'll have to deal with at the event I'm attending.

I really don't even know. I personally did like to just talk to guests and I even made quite a few friends that I'm still in touch with. Most guests should feel welcome and the staff usually really are friendly towards the guests. It's when the staff is using less and less words per sentence but still smiling at you, you should know you've probably been a dick somehow.

Feel free to chat up people in the front desk and talk to them, I always appreciated that, especially when I could combine it with doing real work, i.e. showing you where something is on a map, so my boss couldn't get all over me for just chatting.

Sometimes people would also bring a small present for being really hospitable or helpful, like a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine, etc.

Thanks for the info, cky. When visiting a hotel I always try to act as if I were a guest in a private home. It usually pays off when I return for subsequent stays.

No problem and yes, it most certainly does.

Whenever I visit a hotel, I just try and remember what annoyed me and try not to act that way, but then paradoxically, I get slightly more annoyed at the staff if their service is sub-par since I have a comparison reference from firsthand experience.

I'm lost now.

What was the strangest thing you have ever found in a room?

I usually didn't go into rooms so I wouldn't be the one to find much, but once I was delivering a bottle of Jack Daniels in the middle of the night to two escort girls to some immensely rich Russians who stayed in a separate room and found two pairs of D-cups in my face.

No question, just wanted to confirm that all your crazy stories are totally believable. Source: I was a bellman at a 4* hotel and have matching stories.

Thanks, I guess a bellboy's life is pretty much universal everywhere.

What's the most illegal thing you ever did for a guest? Disposed of any bodies?

I want to say chopped off a finger for a few hundred bucks, but nothing as sinister. For a guest, it would have to be lying to the police about him having returned to his room for a cocaine charge.

He paid me off handsomely and I had deniability even if the cops had proceeded somehow and found him in his room.

Nice reference, Tim Roth.

Surprisingly, my grave yard shifts were often like Ted's in the reception.

ICE!

Please elaborate.

The guest came to the lobby and said he got pulled over with some people he knew outside a bar since someone had seen him do cocaine, but he sneaked away and asked me not to tell the cops someone with his description came back. He had been staying there for a few days and was an easygoing guy, so I obliged and he gave me $100 for it, so that's how that went.

Doesn't every hotels have a whole bunch of security camera everywhere? Even if you lie, the cops can check the lobby footage and can charge you for lying..not worth it if i was you.

We did have CCTVs, but for that they'd have to subpoena the recordings, hardly a thing worth doing for a small possession charge and even if they would have gone that far, the resolution on those things was so terrible I could have said the description was unfamiliar to me, so I could have made a mistake.

Thanks for the AMA, sorry I'm late to the party. I'm curious if you received any other benefits through the hotel, like an employee discount? It would be a sweet place to bring back a girl after a date, after all.

No such thing as being late to a party, if you're late, the party just ended too early.

As for benefits, the staff got one night in the hotel every year and some discounts with partner hotels. I did use up mine to bring my girlfriend there for our first anniversary, food, spa and everything comped.

How sanitary is the hotel food? Do you get to keep what guests send back?

I didn't hear a single case of food being sent back, but the restaurant and front office (lobby, hotel etc) were almost two separate things. The food was sanitary from what I saw and if we're talking about leftovers, then nah, nobody bothered with that, we just threw it away.

The hotel kitchen often cooked a bit too much and the entire staff went in to have a bite of whatever it was they had in surplus. Also, I mostly worked graveyard shifts before I was fired and at that time only 4 people were working and of the 4, only one was probably awake, so I just fixed myself some pretty sandwiches in the kitchen and ate whatever I felt like having.

Also, we hosted Lufthansa's crew members every day, they would leave earlier and have their breakfast in the lobby, there would usually be too much served or they wouldn't have their breakfast from the trays, so we had the fruit salads, pastries and everything that was still left over on the tray, as well.

Sorry you got fired - Hopefully, it wasn't something illicit such as robbing a drug dealer while on duty : P

Unfortunately nothing like that, I had two shifts with 8 hours to spare in between, a friend invited me over for a couple of drinks and a couple turned into a couple of dozen, so I eventually went to bed 2 hours before my shift started and woke up 3 hours after it had ended with 43 missed calls from the hotel.

Two weeks later, I didn't work there anymore.

Oh damn that really sucks

Hope you get back on your feet soon.

What an interesting world of 5 * Hotel stories.

Oh no worries, it's been well over 3 years since I got fired.

Edit: On getting fired for illicit activities, there was a guy who worked the front desk and used the stored credit card data to make money on the side by using the cashback system we had in place for the Lufthansa crew, we would basically front them some cash and they'd bring whatever was left over back, he took the cash and used people's credit cards who had stayed in the hotel a long time ago to make up for the difference.

Once the credit card holders found out they had charges from the hotel even a year later and called the management, the guy got fired the same day with criminal charges.

What was the largest bribe you received and what for?

Nearly $200 to bring up a hooker into a suite, which would have cost him about 2.5 times more if he wanted to check her in. She stayed all night.

Did you ever have to turn down any bribes be sues you weren't willing to to it?

Yes, mostly for off-the-books rooms, I couldn't do that since the management would have found out the next day.

Other than that, I mostly took any bribe for things that were easily accomplished and couldn't be traced back to me.

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Yes, when we saw someone who was clearly with an escort/hooker, we'd ask the guest if she was also checked in since we weren't allowed to let guests up past 11PM.

It was pretty obvious when the guest was lying (which rarely happened) since an escort is pretty recognizable and the lies were made up on-the-go.

We never explicitly asked for a bribe, if they suggested it, good for everyone and if we refused them to let someone up past 11PM, it wouldn't matter if the guest had gotten mad at us, we were simply following hotel regulations as we were supposed to and the hotel didn't want its image to be smeared by letting in prostitutes.

How much for a room upgrade?

Depends, the hotel had two wings, the old one and the new one plus suites. For some reason, the rooms in the older wing were more expensive, even though people liked the ones in the newer wing better.

The difference was usually around 20-30% and the suites were about ten times as expensive. Nothing a clerk or porter could do about upgrading you for less unless there were good circumstances to do so, since those kind of things left a mark in the software and messed up the cleaning schedules.

I also was a bellman at a 5 star hotel (about 15 years ago). Your stories seem very legit - very similar to things I experienced. edit: I see you already answered my initial question. How about this - ever get into any fights with hotel staff?

You mean if I ever got into fights with other hotel staff? No on that count, we all got along with a few exceptions, but there was never no need for physical violence.

If you meant guests, then I personally didn't get into any, but a barman I got along with very well, stopped a thief, as he was running out of the hotel and slammed him into the wall. No guests, though. We also had a brush with some thugs who came in demanding to be let upstairs to meet a "friend", they got quite threatening, so we hit the panic button and security arrived within the minute, slamming them on the reception table. The security wasn't your scrawny security-type guy, either, but extremely beefy, armed guys.

One of those thugs actually sneaked away to the restaurant, we heard a loud clank coming from that area and he managed to run, when we went back to see what he had taken, it turned out he took a big bottle of Russian Standart's vodka, which was actually a dummy bottle, I'm still giddy to this day when I try to imagine his face after opening the bottle and being greeted with water.

it turned out he took a big bottle of Russian Standart's vodka, which was actually a dummy bottle

So funny.

So dummy*

What crooked activities can one get up to working at a five star hotel?

Bribery, "borrowing" things and amenities, eating the food's hotel, bringing it home, peddling weed, selling alcohol for half off, not registering it and bringing back an identical bottle without the 500% markup, all sorts, really, whatever you could figure out.

the food's hotel? You ate a fridge?

At least I tried, that's one thing off the bucket list.

Say I'm a guy being put up in a 5* hotel for work or something, and I don't have any money for bribes beyond a few dollars in an expense account. How do I go about getting the best service / best time?

You're going to have a good time and receive good service either way, there just might be some things that could be cheaper overall if you decided to do some things off the books.

For example?

There are no surefire examples, it all varies on the system of any hotel, but there's cheaper room service, cheaper drinks and various services to be had for free that could usually cost money if you manage to pay the right person at the right time.

I wouldn't bet much on slipping someone some extra cash during the day, it's after when most of the staff have left and only the people working the graveyard shift are still working that you and the staff can get away with certain things.

For example, I could easily get you drinks for much less, the markup was at least 500% on drinks compared to what they cost in any store, if you wanted a bottle of whiskey, I could sell it to you for much less than in the hotel, but still twice of what it cost in the store, you would get it just as fast, I would just have to get a replacement by morning or the next stockpile inventory count and I usually knew when those were coming up.

Nobody ever counted food and since there's usually only one chef working the night and he/she is probably asleep until they're required, we could ring up a room service order, she would see the receipt, prep the meal and we could cancel it afterwards, effectively leaving the ordered item up for any value.

With guests we really liked and that were hospitable themselves, we would get them drinks on the house since there was always lots of beer lost and unaccounted for in the tap, we didn't have measuring devices on them, so it was collateral loss and we would just pour it without anyone ever noticing and not charge the guest, if the bar closes for the night, you can still get drinks from the bellhop, but that works without any additional money as well, just leave a good impression and you'll be helped out.

Want that really comfortable bathrobe to bring back home that they would like to charge you $50 for? Take it, I'll replace it with a new one before anyone notices. Does the hotel have some cards for sightseeing or whatever? You can have it for half off, the hotel maintenance probably miscalculated or lost one of them. You would be amazed at how many things the hotel doesn't keep count of at all and things that are considered a regular business loss with no investigation. Things like that, there were definitely more, but it all depended on the situation and I can't remember everything.

If you ever find yourself in a hotel and need something, just think about what you remember about the hotel, how many people seem to be working, what seems to be the most reasonable way to go about it and start with the bellhop, the front desk isn't usually too inclined to do you any favors off the books, but that's also possible, again, depends on the hotel.

Being a new face and plainly asking for cheaper room service or free drinks is usually a showstopper, though, strike up a light conversation and be subtle, if the employee likes you, he'll go out of his way to accommodate you, but if you're acting as if you're entitled to certain things, he'll have every reason and right to refuse. The best way I've heard it put was "if we were to spare nature and leave out the paperwork, would it cost less?".

tl;dr the bellhop can get you things for much cheaper at his own risk, so instead of paying the hotel, you'll be paying the bellhop who usually knows what he can or can't do without getting caught

other then Lenny any other celebs worth giving a pat on the back type of deal or mainly are they all assholes with alot of money

Sorry I'm late to this one, I originally misread this comment and thought it was a statement, not a question.

Robert Kiyosaki was a very down-to-earth and easygoing guy even though I'm 99% sure he's lying through his teeth in his books, the others I have no opinion towards, since I didn't interact with them that much, so I couldn't say, but most wealthy people that aren't even famous were usually just assholes with a lot of money.

The night Enrique Iglesias was staying, I left early, but a colleague of mine told me he was a great guy as well.

What's the most expensive stuff that you stole?

Hard to say, I didn't take big things, but I suppose some silverware and bedding items were pretty expensive.

I'm a little late to the party, but I'll ask anyway.

Did you ever have to chop someone's pinky off?

I wish

Have you ever been given a tip in the form of something else other then money? If you get what i mean =P

Just alcohol.

I'm considering applying for a job in a 5* hotel in the town that I live in.

I'll take for granted that I'm going to get close to minimum wage. What I want to know is what was a standard tip from guests in the hotel? How much were you making a week, roughly.

It varied greatly, I worked in Europe, so the tipping culture was a bit different and I had the job before the euro came, I'm guessing dollars and euros increase the total amount of tips, but the average was probably around $100-200 a week in tips when I worked evenings, which was the best time due to check-ins.

As a bell dispatcher, I was once tipped in weed for getting directions for a guest to the nearest smoke shop. I dont even smoke weed.

Netherlands? At least you now had some to sell or do with as you saw fit.

...even heroin?

Who would have wanted that and who would ask for it? Either way, I couldn't get any, anyway.

Have you ever been asked to join in Ménage à trois or fullfil some sort of bellhop fantasy?

I have, as a matter of fact, but I'm not sure it was a bellhop fantasy, they mentioned they've never been with a guy from my country, so they'd like to try.

The girls in question were the same ones who were escorting the immensely rich Russians and staying in another room, they ordered a bottle of Jack Daniels, I knocked on the door, they were topless, offered me some whiskey and proceeded to remove my ridiculous uniform.

Dude...you are truly awesome

But that's only partially correct, I ended up doing them both. Or they ended up doing me, either way is fine.

I just have this fear of... what if the bellhop is not 'bribe-ble' and somehow goes crazy and reports me or something if I ask him 'privately' if it's possible to get cheaper drinks/bathrobes or to get weed or something else.

And then tells anyone or something that I was trying to 'steal' from the hotel or something, or that I'm a pothead.

I don't know... can you give some direction? Thanks - excellent AMA

Impossible, the person in the hotel who's paying is always above the person being paid, don't worry.

Most bellhops are young and just got started anyway, so their salaries are low and are looking for any kind of extra income, if not, they'll just politely decline, they won't report you to anyone, that's a guarantee.

Do 5 star hotels also have bedbug problems?

Not that I know of.

This is oddly familiar.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1088al/i_used_to_be_a_bellhop_at_a_5star_hotel_and_yes_i/

On closer inspection, the OP seems to be the same one as in this one, what is this magic you're showing me?

I figured that the demographics may have changed, I'm bored and why not have new people ask things from me.

so... did you quit drinking and find a job? :)

I had already typed out a lengthy reply for this, but then checked the title of the thread and suddenly realized I didn't write "I'm an unemployed alcoholic, AMA", so I scratched the response, my apologies.

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Just sent it to the mods.