'I look forward to seeing if she "reports" me': Hotel front desk worker searches hotel for mysterious food smell bugging just one visitor

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 8, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

We hear a lot about hotels being so noisy that guests can't sleep, but has a smell ever bothered you at a hotel? 

Some hotels have pools with the strongest chlorine smell ever, and it wafts into the hallway even outside the swimming area. Other hotels offer complimentary breakfasts, but there's no way the smell can waft from the main lobby to the rooms in most cases, since there's usually a big space in between the two areas. If anything, the complaint that most unhappy hotel guests have is noisy neighbors. But this woman stayed at the hotel where u/Catona works as a front desk employee, and she had a bone to pick with the strong scents she kept smelling. 

This woman had a pretty silly complaint, and it makes you wonder if she was just lonely and wanted someone to talk to. Maybe she doesn't have many people in her life to, so she has to make up the silliest excuses possible to get a little bit of attention. Or maybe she really was bothered by the smells, but come on, it's a hotel, people have to eat! 

After that, read about this family that is in a huge argument over an upcoming Thanksgiving meal, with one sibling revealing, "My mom thinks I'm putting turkey over my own family."

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    Cheezburger Image 10413579776
    via Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Crazy old woman thinks no one should be allowed to eat food in hotels because she can smell it.
    via u/Catona
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    For context, I work at a small, 62 room property where we only have one desk attendant on shift at a time. As such, we do solid 8 hour shifts and don't get actual breaks. We take breaks to eat when we have the chance. It's currently in the middle of our slow season right now and there is very, very little to deal with during my shifts so I can take a break to eat pretty much whenever I want.
    via u/Catona
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    I was taking a moment to eat some dinner when an older woman came in through the lobby door. She just walked straight through into the hotel and I had no reason to think anything of it.
    via u/Catona
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    A few minutes later she comes back in through the front door again, this time she still walks straight through but gives me this weird, glaring kind of look as she does.
    via u/Catona
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    It should be noted that anytime anyone comes through the lobby I am always standing, ready to greet and assist them (unless occupied with another guest of course).
    via u/Catona
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    5 or so minutes go buy and this time she comes back through the lobby again, but from the inside of the hotel going out the front door. Once again giving me a strange glare as she does so but not stopping or saying anything to me.
    via u/Catona
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    This happens two more times, until the last time she stops in the middle of the lobby and just stares at me. I ask her if I can assist her with anything and she says "I can smell food and I can tell that you've been eating".
    via u/Catona
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    (Internally, I'm thinking "OK? And?) I tell her yes, I have been taking a break for dinner. She tells me that I am not allowed to eat while I am on the job, and that she is going to report me.
    via u/Catona
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    I tell her that is not true, and as we do not get breaks we are perfectly allowed to consume food whenever we like. She snaps back with saying "Don't lie to me! I'll be having a word with your manager!" and wanders off.
    via u/Catona
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    About 10 minutes or so later I get a call from the woman, from her room, where she states "I can smell your food in my room and you need to stop eating!". Now this is getting really strange and ridiculous. This woman is literally on the other end of the hotel and there is quite frankly no possible way that she can smell my food outside of the lobby, let alone somehow across the hotel in her room.
    via u/Catona
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    I'm right out done with this woman and her ridiculousness at this point and tell her that quite plainly, there is no way that she could be able to smell my food from her room, and she can speak with the owner in the morning who will confirm to her that I am permitted to eat while on shift.
    via u/Catona
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    She, yelling at this point, says "THIS WHOLE HOTEL SMELLS LIKE FOOD BECAUSE OF YOU AND IT'S RUINING MY STAY! If you don't fix this problem I will be contacting your corporation and filing a formal complaint!"
    via u/Catona
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    I had long been done eating my very much not at all fragrant turkey sandwich at this point and decided to wander down to where her room was to see if there were any offending smells wafting about down there.
    via u/Catona
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    I get to the end of the hall where her room is at and it does in fact smell like food down that way. It smells like someone in a room near by had microwaved some delicious lasagna or something.
    via u/Catona
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    I call back to her room and tell that I have "investigated the problem" and that it appears that another guest of the hotel has prepared some food, and "apologized for the inconvenience" but that anyone is allowed to eat food here and there is nothing I can do about the fact that she can smell it.
    via u/Catona
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    She snaps back at me saying "This is a HOTEL! NOT A RESTAURANT! Why would people be eating here?? This should not be allowed and I am still reporting you!" Yes, whatever lady, you do you.
    via u/Catona
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    A little while later I get a call from a woman saying that her mother is staying at our hotel and that she had just called her very upset, saying that she felt unsafe because there were "noxious fumes inside the hotel" and that her mother had said she tried to report the problem to the front desk but that no one was at the front desk because they were too busy eating and were ignoring
    via u/Catona
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    everything, and asked me if I was aware of the problem and if she needed to contact authorities because of it. At this I could not help but let out a laugh. I explain to the daughter of this woman, who she had called to complain for her now...that the "noxious fumes" were someone microwaving food in a room near by and there was
    via u/Catona
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    certainly no hazardous substances or any threat to anyone's health at the hotel, and that I have personally spoken with her mother a number of times over the last hour. Her response surprised me, as I was prepared for more ridiculousness. She just said "Oh........it sounds like she is in one of her moods .....sorry about that. I'll take care of it"
    via u/Catona
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    And I haven't heard from the old woman since. What is wrong with people like this? It's like they are a classic stereotype of an old miserable person that just wants to make other people miserable in any way they can and manifest problems for them to complain about. I look forward to seeing if she "reports" me in the morning.
    via u/Catona

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smells shift guests workplace-stories hotel guest jobs hotel job front desk work tales from the front desk hotel room workplace hotels food
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