IAmA maintenance tech in a resort town, and it's spring break! AmA!

Ever get to hook up with college chicks?

Not as of yet. Still waiting.

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Few summers ago some college students drunkenly made a hole from one unit to another to adjoin their rooms. Not sure what it cost but I assume it wasn't cheap.

Garbage disposals are costly though. ~$250. Our labor rates are high :)

I am going to guess gulf shores and you hate LSU students when they come to town as they are typically the last to have spring break.

How much cocaine or other drugs have you found when cleaning the houses?

Quite a bit of drugs. Before I took this job I was a cleaner for a private party who had lots of high end contracts. We've found whole 8 balls in the couch cushions, dime bags, LOADS of free beer, liquor. The list goes on. Mostly just free frozen food and toiletries though.

I have no hatred for LSU. Just the rowdy ones who think they own the place.

.so....

...you keep it?

At this job I haven't found anything, nor would I keep it if I did, I value having a paycheck.

Have you ever been "paid" in a unique way?

Sadly no. But sometimes I get tasty food and snacks.

Hi! Can you really see if people are watching porn through your hotel's wifi or you don't bother?

Yep. Not worth the time though. I enjoy walking the pool area more than people's shitty taste in porn.

What is the craziest thing you've fixed/seen?

A few days ago I walked in and found this. The bill was a little over $300. All in all not bad but minor damage adds up fast.

That is actually pretty funny.

Yep. And I just found out today that the bill was substantially more than previously stated. With carpet cleaning, deep cleaning, broken furniture and admin fees it was closer to $900 total.

wtf

College kids. At least they had a good time. Lol

Strangest stolen items?

Hangers. We call them "permanent" but all that means in without the clip that goes on the bar it's useless. We replace probably more than 100 a season.

That or TV remotes.

What's the funniest thing a renter did that caused no irreparable damage?

Over the course of a week stay someone slowly and systematically put water in the freezer. There was quite a large chunk of ice holding the ice bin in place. More than an inch thick, I admire their dedication to the prank.

Verified.

Thank you mod.

What's the strangest excuse you've gotten for something broken?

Towel bars. It's always towel bars. "I just pulled the hand towel and it fell off the wall". No, wall anchors don't just give up like that.

Either that or them trying to explain away why they don't know how to evenly load a washing machine to keep it from walking all over the place. Do they not do their own laundry at home?

At a resort town? Perhaps not :p

This would explain a lot of issues with tourists...

I've been to many calls for washing machines walking out of the closets. Of course the laundry had been finished in most cases but I can only assume the cause was an uneven load. But noone wants to hear that. On the one where it was still in place a comforter was being washed. They stopped it a and called. Had they opened the lid to see the thing had shifted to one side during the spin cycle making it HORRIBLY unbalanced they wouldn't have felt so dumb when I grabbed and rearranged it, started it back and it was magically fine.

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Some are older than others, and it is mostly those that cause complaints like that. I have a new washer and dryer but still attempt to make sure the load is even.

Man I can't keep a damned towel bar on the wall.

We use plastic anchors that look like evil screws. They work wonders.

Weirdest request / phone call?

One lady wanted us to walk her dog because it was raining outside.

Yes, I'm sure that's what they pay you for ;)

Chea, if she was hot it would be one thing, but old Mother Hubbard will get no dog walking services from me.

Where is this resort town you speak of?

I will say it on the Gulf of Mexico, a place impacted by the BP oil spill a while back, and a great place to live.

Edit: Trying to keep a little anonymity, I hope you understand. People talk. I'm on the clock.

If we're taking the same place, I live here :)

It's possible, been to the octopus lately?

Yep I know where you are now ha!!

But I also know where you are. 'Que dramatic music'.

During Spring Break, what percent of the calls you get would you say are related to toilets?

And sorry for the mess in 204...chinese food.

Not as many as you'd think. I get 3 on a bad week. Only one of those will be a clog. The others will be broken flush arms or stuck.

Other than Redditing what do you do in between fixing stuff?

Chat with front desk staff, look at other buildings work orders, walk the pool, mess around in the shop when we get a crazy idea to make something. It gets boring sometimes.

"walk the pool"? so like walk around the pool and see if stuff out there is busted?

Looking for busted things is only the cover for checking out bikini clad women. Some days are better than others, but there's ALWAYS something worth seeing.

I wish I had a job wear I could secretly check out bikini clad women....

The only other job I've had in that same vein was being a lifeguard. Such a sweet gig.

How often do you find evidence of drugs left in rooms? and to what severity? Whats the weirdest thing you have found/seen/walked into a hotel room?

I've not found drugs during my time here, but in the event we do it is protocol to notify front desk. They then contact local PD to come collect everything. After that I have no idea what happens.

As stated in another comment though when I worked for a private cleaning company I found several drug related things. The only thing I kept was the ganja. Friend of mine "disposed" of nose candy. Liquor and beer are the most common finds along with frozen food and other things like that.

As for weirdest, one of which was this , happened a few days ago. I'm going to start taking pictures of the more interesting things. Summer is coming, so is the weird shit.

Have you ever been doing your work while people were having sex, like they just didn't care at all, YOLO style?

Nah, but I've interrupted people on a few occasions. You can usually tell, disheveled looking, shirt may or may not be inside out. Very short and wanting to know how long it will take. They could ask us to come back later and we will. To each their own.

What's your pay like? I worked maintenance for almost a year, and my pay sucked. I of course still did things above my pay grade with no reimbursement...

Not too bad, It's a living wage. Living while having to save over some checks to do something really nice for the wife. I too do things that I could get payed more for somewhere else. Keying and rekeying locks, installation of large appliances. Things like that. But I like it because no two days are ever the same. Monotony makes my head spin. This job keeps me interested.

I actually enjoyed rekeying locks, it was kinda fun to work with. I also enjoyed comically easy work orders. One of my favorites was that the tenant's microwave wasn't working. I walked in, opened the cabinets above (it's a overhead microwave) plugged it in, and looked at her.

Same here. I enjoy what others might call tedious. Keeps my brain sharp.

Had several micro calls. Truly dead magnetrons most of the time.

I'm surprised that you have time to do a REDDIT AMA; being a maintenance tech, that is working during "Spring Break!"

Down time is real. This late in the day I'm just riding the clock because it's too late to get anything started. The AmA will continue into the evening if there is enough interest.

Hey man Just wanted to say as a building manager myself, i feel your pain. i know how under appreciated this field is. Keep up the good work

You too friend. My good days far outnumber the bad. I keep it positive.

How many panties do you sniff on a daily basis

Over 9000.

What's the most amount of damage you've seen done to a single unit?

Over $300 worth. Most people respect the fact that someone owns these units. Some however treat them like disposable hotel rooms. Cigarettes put out on the arms of couches/chairs, leaving already spoiled milk in the fridge with the door slightly cracked. Some folks have no home training. Most are well behaved though.

What is the stupidest thing you have seen a renter do?

Definitely trying to drag a 100lb or so marble top table across a tile floor by himself. The leg caught one of the grout lines and toppled over breaking the table and the floor.

...and the renter?

He avoided being injured, he's lucky. If it had hit his foot edge on he could have lost some toes or broken something.

What do you like to do when you're not working?

I enjoy playing video games as much as the next guy, inbetween taking care of my newborn son of course.

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When renters break things in our rental units, it is my job to try to fix it. If I'm unable to then I will contact an outside contractor to do so.

I'm going to assume the question was "what does a maintenance person do?" he realized his error and deleted his question.

In more or less words yes, they didn't understand what it was I did. Is the term maintenance foreign to some people? I feel bad for their car.

Where do you get your ideas?

What ideas do you mean?

Your ideas, like where do you get them?

Well, I guess my brain.