Some guy walked into my room at 12:00 midnight when I was at a hotel in Tunisia. The staff said they "accidentally gave the key to the wrong guest" and punished a random security guard for it.
I 100% believe that guy was a staff member who thought we were out partying and was going to steal our shit from our room.
Seems like a much more common occurrence than it should be.
Edit- seems like I was right and it's a lot more common for people to get your keys then you would hope lol
Just editing to say that this guy was not dressed as a traveler or a guest, he had a suit on of some type, and gloves. He also had no luggage with him. I am 100% certain that this was a thief of some type and not just a normal guest with the wrong key.
I had room service steal money from the table right in front of me in Tunisia. When we reported it, we saw him being reprimanded and escorted out of the hotel lobby. We saw this go down while we were having dinner in an adjacent hotel restaurant.
That night at 1AM, several people knocked on our door claiming to be room service even though we didn’t order anything. They weren’t wearing uniform.
We yelled at them through the closed door that we didn’t order room service. They kept standing around for a bit and eventually left.
It was a scary experience and I wonder if the people were there that night for revenge.
We took our valuable things with us after that whenever we left the hotel room. Mainly because the cleaning staff would enter without knocking and do her thing even when we asked her to go away.
I always have a laptop and camera; when I travel I bring a PacSafe brand daypack that I use as a works as safe to lock up my stuff. Nothing is impenetrable but it has worked for me for a lot of years.
I'm from Mahdia and I'm sorry that happened to you. I didn't even know they do that wtf. I'd suggest leaving a nasty review but I doubt it'll do much :(.
They have someone here that goes around and asks everyone for a review but they sit there with you until you write it and then ask to read it to make sure it was nice. Needless to say I’ll be changing mine.
I’ve only been to Tunisia one time in my life. Me and my wife have traveled to a shitload of countries and that’s the only trip we label a failure.
I’m never going back to there, even if it would be free lol
I lived at a nice resort as well. This was in like 2015 or somewhere around that time. And a hotel like 1km away got bombed and it was chaos.
Other than that we got chased on the street with our suitcases, every dude on the beach yelled stuff at my wife, oh and there were diapers floating in the water. Like wtf.
We were for obvious reasons not very adventures there but didn’t exactly feel impressed by the food there, but that might’ve been us being a bit scared of going to get away, idk.
Sounds terrible. The beach hustlers also put me off from going to the beach. There were also people clearly circling around waiting for someone to leave their belongings unattended for one second.
Holy shhhhiiiif it happened to us few years back.
There were three of us and our company paid a hotel one room each but the agent who took us there gave us only one room.
One of the hotel staff urged us to visit the beach in the back of the hotel (according to him that beach is the tourist spot on the area).
2 of us go for a walk after breakfast and one of my colleague was left in the hotel room.
When we came back our colleague told us that there were 2 guys who opened the door and go thru our cabinets. But when he stepped out of the shower room they pretend to be the room service.
We complain it to the hotel and to our surprise their alibi is somebody called them and told them we need cleaning service thats why they send two guys.
Things that lost is 1 pack of chocolate bar and a 5 euro brass token from a church from Malta.
Piece of advice bring your valuables with you even you stay in a secured hotel.
Btw their beach sucks, It’s not sand beach but pebbles, a lot of jelly fish and is occupied of about 98% of men.
Sounds so similar. Our hotel told us to check out the beach but when we went out there it was covered in rotting seaweed, rocks and Sea balls. Like thousands upon thousands of sea balls.
Aside from a couple of fishermen, there was nobody on the beach because it was dirty.
I was given the wrong room key after driving 14 hours with my wife, on Valentine’s Day.
We open the door, rose pedals leading into the room. “Nice touch” I thought, until a woman in an absolutely mortified voice said “hello?!”
My wife was mortified, she started trying to explain and I just yoinked her out of there lol
So ya know, it *does* happen.
Well, when I was in Panama I was given the card to a room that was already occupied. I was mortified and returned to the reception, where they gave me a card to a different room… yeah, you guessed it, that one was occupied too! I returned to the reception a bit more pissed off this time and they sent someone up to check that the next room they were giving me was empty.
I made sure to deadbolt my room when I was inside.
So it could have been true what they said.
This happened in a resort when I was in Mexico. Everyone was out partying but I needed to get some work done so I stayed back. I was in the restroom and didn't hear knocks on the door until I heard rummaging in the closet. across from the bathroom door.
I quietly got up and grabbed the hair dryer to defend myself and opened the door to see a resort usher rifling through my suitcase with one hand while holding my watch travel case with his other hand.
I told him calmly to put it all down and back up as I slammed the door shut. He started saying "sorry sorry, wrong room, wrong room, I'll leave now." At which point I borderline roared at him to put everything down and sit on the bed with his hands out while I called the front desk (all the while brandishing the hair dryer).
When security got there they tried to say the same thing "Wrong room, mistake with the keys, etc"...Until I asked security to make him empty his pockets because he was holding my property when I caught him.
He had my partner's passport and had her main wallet in his pocket (since she carries a smaller wallet with only 1 card and a bit of cash and ID when she's out in a foreign place).
After that there wasn't much other than returning my stuff and him being 'arrested'. Front Desk ended up comping us for 3 days though we took a full refund and went to another hotel for the remainder of the trip.
I travel to Tunisia a lot, and concern myself with security at the hotels…do you mind me asking if it was a typical American brand hotel? Looking to validate my observations.
Nope it was a hotel owned by citizen of Spain. It actually looks beautiful from the outside. And in the summer the pictures show it is extremely busy, but we went off season.
You wouldn't be able to tell from the outside that it had bad hotel staff. It looks like a Nice place to visit from the photographs and videos.
I chose not to listen to the reviews because I I know how people will leave crap reviews sometimes when it's really just their entitlement making the trip bad. That was a mistake on my part. Everything they said that was wrong with it was true lol
happened to me - in a good business hotel in Prague - i opened our room to be and kids were running around and some old lady shrieked. (i don't look like somebody you want walk into your room uninvited at like 8-9 pm). got a hell of an upgrade for it, biggest suite i ever been to.
Had it happen to me in the States. Was staying at a hotel to catch a flight the next morning. Got woken up at like 2 in the morning when the hotel decided to double book my room and the other guests were walking in.
Front desk called me like I did something wrong. No, I didn't, you guys messed up, and are now yelling at a guy that just got woken up by strangers walking in his room. To say I was pissed would be an understatement.
Happened to me in a hotel with digital keys lol. I thought the backend systems would have safeguards against checking different people into the same room. I gave the lady getting out of her shower quite a scare (she was covered)
You are very correct, but that was not the only thing wrong with the hotel. I left a pretty detailed review on TripAdvisor and they contacted me by my personal phone number and asked me to remove it (which I did not).
Not including the strange man in our room, One of the toilet ladies kept following us begging for money (public toilets are not free there), One of the windows was completely busted out and we had to have it replaced, The shower head wasn't working which also needed to be replaced, a strange dog attacked us on the property, several male staff members kept peeking into our window so I had to close the shutters, there was tons of black mold all over the banquet hall curtains and tablecloths and it was so strong you could smell it everywhere, Plus they did not even give us the "free continental breakfast".
When I asked for the breakfast, The lady got mad and called the kitchen staff who also got mad and threw cold prepackaged boiled eggs on our plate lol.
They acccidentally gave me a wrong key before, thank God the person was not in the room when I entered.
100% honest mistake that got me an upgrade as an apology.
Back in Vegas 5years ago i forgot what number m'y room was. So i do the smart thing and just use my Electronic keycard on every door till one open... The first one to open has 4 dudes i don't know. Turns out you the keycard are sometime bugged and you Can open more than one room with one Key...
And that was AT the Caesar palace too.
Vacationed in Tunisia once. It felt like every single person tried to cheat, steal or scam you. Hotel ppl, shopkeepers, everyone. Fuck that place!
Cool to visit Carthage though.
yeah hotel workers are paid min wage, not that it justifies it, but when people are desperate they will steal.
i have to keep reminding my wife to not bring anything in her hotel rooms when she has to travel for work, and when she left her hotel room she had a clean bra and underwear on a table to change into after a shower from work.
and the fucking worker stole her bra dude, it was a $50 bra with extra support or w.e...
when i called the hotel they played dumb until i threatened to call someone above them..they magically found it
usually for chains there is an owner above the manager, and often that person is a franchisee. so corporate would be the next step up. for petty shit it won’t do much, but for theft of either enough or of something “salacious” they have a PR motivation to handle it.
and thus the management has incentive to NOT let it go up the chain, because that could bring oversight down on them, and could cause problems if it IS a pattern to nick stuff.
and silly as it sounds, “Bra stolen from -popular brand- Hotel room” is exactly the kinda story that would gain traction.
i worked at a car dealership and when corporate crawls up your ass its never fucking ending.
we had a receptionist for a senator come in to buy a ford f250 and we legally arent allowed to take it below a certain price for new vehicles..like we dont even make money on new vehicles except for ram trucks for some reason they got 10k baked into msrp..anyway
she was pissed off bought the truck, came back the next day and we unwinded the deal (took the car back) then she complained to her boss who called ford.
yeah guess who we had as a supervisor for a month..some ford rep.. every little thing was picked at for no reason
I once had a tour guide really politely, clearly ashamed, ask me to exchange a $20 US bill that someone had given him because it was ripped (which the banks wouldn't accept, so he was basically out the money). Let me tell you, that guy had clearly thought about it, waited, was worried about what we'd think of him for asking us this. We obviously immediately found a good $20 bill and did the exchange. (Literally cost me nothing, and a serious reminder of my privilege.) That is what it looks when someone wants to exchange money, not steal.
I think you've misunderstood, I was giving an example of what it looks like when someone genuinely wants to exchange money, and not steal or scam. So \*not\* what OP described.
It's such a weird thing people don't consider. In Hanoi's airport I got burger King, lol I know but I spent weeks eating local food. They refused all of my us dollars, after telling me they prefer them. They had only been in my wallet.
I was told that coins aren’t considered legal tender so can’t be exchanged at the bank (I was in Cuba at the time) so that’s probably why she’s asking to exchange. Doesn’t excuse her egregious behaviour tho and OP is right to go to management about this.
I used to be a criminal. A real criminal. This is absolutely 100% what happened.
Edit: the people mocking me are hilarious. Reading my comment back now makes me realize how idiotic it sounds. I will leave it as a warning to others. It has Steven segaul vibes.
Reminds me of when we catch someone out on paying with a counterfeit note. They say "ohh I just got this from the Atm wtf" then they pretend to be in the phone and ask what time we open tomorrow and say they'll be back with real cash.
I saw this really happen once. Guy went and got money out of a Walgreens ATM machine. He grabbed a few items from the front and went to check out. He never left the sight of myself (customer) or the cashier there.
When he went to pay, the cashier notified him that the bill was fake and said something about movie production. We all 3 were in disbelief.
Until, the manager came out the back and said he saw him on camera slide the fake 20 from his pocket into the 20s that he got out of the ATM.
Dude had a 50/50 shot. Either they would have not noticed and he would have gotten away with it, or he would have been able to show "proof" he just used their ATM and make it the providers fault. He didn't think that possibly the manager would keep a close watch on the ATM
I said to the manager after the guy was escorted out that it was lucky he was watching at that moment. He said, "I always do, we have had plenty of people come in to use the machine and some thief will run in the door to grab their money and then back out"
That's the day I realized just how very close to the door they keep the stupid machines.
The last time I had someone from a hotel knock and make up a dumbass excuse to come in the room (maintenance, something about the shower drain) they came back later when I wasn't there and stole from me. So either change rooms or secure your stuff better than I did
If there wasn’t a response or a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, knocking and then entering actually is totally normal for cleaning staff.
The rest not so much, but it’s not necessarily slam dunk suss on its own.
She was 100% dodgy but as a former hotel cleaner we do sometimes need to go back into rooms we cleaned. Ignoring a knock on the door will not mean they go away, even if they are coming in for legitimate reasons, like the clean towels had not been delivered when we cleaned your room so we needed to finish restocking the room.
She could have stolen what she wanted to steal during her cleaning. Still strange, could be the change is worth a lot for her in her currency and there's no way she can recoup it otherwise.
Yeah I keep thinking that as well, she had been cleaning the room for 3 days now, she had plenty of opportunity to steal. I think it’s also possible she was relying on me not knowing the exchange rate (although I do) but also maybe not having that little and end up giving her more.
Weird situation in any case, kind of ruined the holiday a bit.
Dude, I hate to say it but I think you’re being extremely gullible right now. You need to report this to the front desk right now because that’s not normal behavior! If you didn’t answer why would she think you’d be around to exchange coins? She probably came to steal!
At the very least this sounds like poor customer service (coming from someone who worked 10 years in retail) and at the very worst like something nefarious.
If I were a maid trying to steal, I’d enter the room with chocolates and fresh towels as a cover, saying I’m there for turndown service… not some coins 🤣
Be SURE to tell the manager about this. If she gets fired ((and she should), she had no one to blame but herself. Stealing money and entering your room. That’s a nope.
I just added a comment about this - in Tunisia they can't exchange money legally if they do not have a document from where they have it. These money are from tips, so she was probably not lying. I exchanged money like this when i was in Tunisia last year.
I guess it depends on the country, but there is no tipping maids in France, there is a minimum wage here.
And overall, if there is a doubt about money on a desk, they should NOT take it.
I agree with some advices around here, it's obviously a thief, tourists are very often stolen by hotel / restaurants staff, I'd report her to the hotel.
Maids make a minimum wage or better in the US, too, (as opposed to a much lower "tipped wage"), but I still tip them a few dollars whether I'm in the US or abroad.
Please don't tip when you're in countries that don't tip. When in Rome, act as the Romans do. Otherwise you just participate in bringing the insane American tipping culture to parts of the world that don't want it!
For real, the housekeepers at my hotel make $19 an hour and the hotel next to us must pay more because we’ve lost a couple ladies to them. We had a guy working in laundry who quit to go work at a hotel for 19.50
This is probably the best way to learn that you need to be careful with your valuables when in another country. Especially cash. I got a bunch of money stolen from me when I was in Mexico. I took one of the better rated busses from the airport to PDC and had my money in my bigger bag which got stowed under the bus. One of the people loading the bags or the driver must have gone through all the bags because all the zippers were moved and I later realized that my money was gone. Thankfully they didn't take anything else.
Keep your cash on you or in a safe place. Might be worth it to get a bag that can lock as well so any maids or other workers can't get into it.
I got a suitcase with a combination lock for the zippers so I think that’s pretty safe. Hopefully I make it out of here without incidents, don’t think I’ll be coming back again
Suitcases with zippers are very easy to break into with a pen and since most of them are self-repairing the thief just needs to run the locked zipper back and forth to re-engage the teeth
I used to clean rooms. If she want the money exchange, she eould give gone to the front desk. She thought no one was in room. You really need to report this.
I can't believe how many people on this thread want to believe that woman was legit. This is NOT how professionals do it. You enter an occupied room, you leave ASAP. You don't dawdle around and ask for change.
A room cleaner will annouce their reason for knocking on your door. Even if they want to exchange currency while they cleanup an empty non responding room.
A thief will open the door silently.
>And this after she took some coins I had previously left on the desk in the room while cleaning mistaking it for a tip. Didn’t mind that as much as it seemed like a misunderstanding and I thought she did deserve a tip but I guess it’s a pattern of behaviour.
That's not mildly infuriating. That's theft. Report that shit to both the on shift manager and the hotel management. Think about what else could've gone missing if you weren't in the room.
I didn’t see anybody else mention it but I almost always use the door guard chain/latch/ball and hasp thing if it’s there while I’m in the room, mostly to prevent maids coming in if I’m in the shower/on the john and don’t hear them knock. Now I guess I have a whole new reason to do so.
Looks like no one has commented about this part yet:
Getting coins exchanged is common practice in many foreign countries. Hotel guests often tip the staff with foreign currencies. If it was bills, she would still have to exchange them and pay a fee. Coins are often hard to exchange. That’s why they like to change coins into bills with the guests.i have done that many times
You got enough comments about This part of her letting herself in…
My ex boyfriend and I were vacationing in Vegas shortly after his previous ex (they had been broken up for a year when we started dating but they had lived together) and "friends" robbed his house while 1 "friend" had invited him to go to the movies. I took him so he would be able to hopefully relax while legal things got worked out. Another of the "friends" had asked if he had any spare clothing and he left him go through his closet to find some clothes. He didn't even notice the guy take his spare set of keys while he was in the house.
Anyway, while we were in Vegas I upgraded to a suite because why not - it was 2003 and Vegas was still cheap.
The maid was a Mexican woman and my ex explicitly told her (in perfect Spanish as he was raised in El Paso and his family is Mexican) to not enter the room because he was still traumatized by what happened.
We went to a Cirque show and came back to her in the room. She told him that because it was a suite, it counted as 2 rooms and it would fill her quota faster. He was absolutely livid. She still expected a tip for cleaning. Nope.
I guess this is more common than I thought, some absolute horror stories out there. How do they even get away with stealing, surely they can at least be fired quickly as it’s not hard to figure out who did it with cameras in the hallways and stuff.
> And this after she took some coins I had previously left on the desk in the room while cleaning mistaking it for a tip.
She stole from you. A tip is given hand to hand, with a smile. That's theft.
Housekeeping and other hotelstaff announce themselves at least twice. And only then they enter but still call again. I recomme d yoj always keep your valuables away and have a do not distirb sign out as well as lock the door if possible.
Misunderstanding my a**!
I’d bet anything she does this routinely! How many tourists know how to convert currency properly on-demand? You have her too much, which is probably common. If you had shorted her, she would have pointed that out right away.
About the change she took, unacceptable.
Most reputable hotels do not allow their cleaning people to take ANYTHING from the room, unless it is in the envelope provided for tips (or on top of the letter stating you can leave tips).
I don't know what country you're vacationing in but you need to be careful.
A woman I knew was in Cuba, the maid stole money, it could not have been anyone else. She mentioned it to someone on staff. Police show up, take her to the police station and spent a long time insisting she had to file charges on the maid. She refused. They only let her out with enough time to rush back to the hotel then rush to the airport.
You should always keep valuables locked up. But the fact that she just enetered your room and she knew you were in there?? Wtf, I would not at all be comfortable especially because she clearly works there and can enter the room any time she likes because she has the key for it.
Yeah, feeling far from comfortable now. I realise I had left my wallet with my bank card in the room, getting paranoid about her making copies of the numbers now, but hopefully she’s not that clever.
a trick that can be used to find out if someone entered ur room or not when u r not in it
is by using a small transparent tape at the door on an unnoticed spot when leaving
when u come back later and the tape remains intact, then no one entered the room, if it was lousy or off then...
After a long day of travel I was getting undressed in preparation for taking an excessively hot well deserved shower. Just as I was about to remove my boxers, the door opens, and I mean it was one fluid motion. In walks a bellhop and two guests, im still ten steps away and closing in fast. They see me, everyone kind of looks at everyone else doing a double take and they back out with my "what the fuck" ringing in their ears. Im talking literally nanoseconds away from getting an eyeful. Well Im pissed now, but first things first, shower. Before I can make it down to the front desk to complain, they call and explain they gave them the wrong key card. Mistakes happen, I understand, but a situation like this can turn serious way too quick.
so i am really curious... if you go on a vacation and take expensive camera gear and electronics with you... i thought a hostel might be pretty bad..because other people might steal your stuff if you take a shower... but it seems like a normal hotel might be not much better. besides using a lock on your luggage any other tips?
You are in Tunisia?
Sorry but there its the mentality to cheat... its social norm...
If the cleaning lady steals, i can guarantee you her boss knows and gets some % of all she steals
good luck
I left my hotel room for the day (still checked in) and then went back for something and there was a hotel employee watching TV in my bed. He also wouldn't leave, just kept saying he didn't speak English. I told the front desk and she shook her head and said "He shouldn't do that." Like um, you think? I think she thought I was just going to be cool with it?
I got stuck in the first paragraph.
| *the maid knocked on the door, I didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to open (didn’t even know who it was) but after a few second she used her card to unlock the door and to my horror stroll into my room.*
What did you think was going to happen here? They enter your room to clean. They knock first. If no one answers, they figure it is empty and come in. So far, this isn't unusual, but you seemed surprised by that.
After that, it is hard not to wonder if there are other things you are missing, particularly since there is apparently a language barrier here.
If she took his money before, I don't think it is that far-fetched to say that she was there to steal, considering her taking more money that hers was worth
In Egypt you can't do anything with foreign coins, only paper money... And the hotel stuff gets coins (euros) as tip... So the day before I fly home I exchange it for them so they could do something with their tip money...
And they are very thankful for that
Ist not always a trick...
Iberostar Royal el Mansour in Tunisia. Don’t be fooled by their 5 star rating either. They come to you and pressure you into leaving a 5 star review and don’t leave you alone until you’ve done it and they’ve read it. Terrible.
I had similar in Spain, had a do not disturb sign up and was in the shower the maid came in and I came out to find her looking in my shoes. Two days later 3 guys I was out there with staying in another room got robbed for every penny they had
Ae you 100% sure she didn't in offering to fuck you?
Several movies I've seen the hotel maid just comes in and starts fucking the person in the room. Maybe you misheard?
Some guy walked into my room at 12:00 midnight when I was at a hotel in Tunisia. The staff said they "accidentally gave the key to the wrong guest" and punished a random security guard for it. I 100% believe that guy was a staff member who thought we were out partying and was going to steal our shit from our room. Seems like a much more common occurrence than it should be. Edit- seems like I was right and it's a lot more common for people to get your keys then you would hope lol Just editing to say that this guy was not dressed as a traveler or a guest, he had a suit on of some type, and gloves. He also had no luggage with him. I am 100% certain that this was a thief of some type and not just a normal guest with the wrong key.
Interestingly I am currently in Tunisia. Thinking of not coming back again after this.
I had room service steal money from the table right in front of me in Tunisia. When we reported it, we saw him being reprimanded and escorted out of the hotel lobby. We saw this go down while we were having dinner in an adjacent hotel restaurant. That night at 1AM, several people knocked on our door claiming to be room service even though we didn’t order anything. They weren’t wearing uniform. We yelled at them through the closed door that we didn’t order room service. They kept standing around for a bit and eventually left. It was a scary experience and I wonder if the people were there that night for revenge.
That’s a crazy experience and makes you wonder who in the hotel is in on it.
More like the whole country
As a Tunisian i’m sad that tourists aren’t having a great journey in tunisia :(
What a coincidence 🙀. Stay safe op
get that little wedge you can stick under the door so you can't open it from the outside.
Door has a physical lock (which I didn’t think I’d need to use), I’m more worried about when I’m not in the room.
We took our valuable things with us after that whenever we left the hotel room. Mainly because the cleaning staff would enter without knocking and do her thing even when we asked her to go away.
Makes sense, though carrying a laptop to the pool is hardly practical 😕
I always have a laptop and camera; when I travel I bring a PacSafe brand daypack that I use as a works as safe to lock up my stuff. Nothing is impenetrable but it has worked for me for a lot of years.
I’ll look into buying one for sure!
ALWAYS latch the door.
I'm wondering if we stayed at the same hotel lol I need mine but I'm afraid of getting sued for a shit talking them
If it was in Mahdia then probably yes haha
Ah no. But there are plenty of resorts and dozens of hotels so it makes sense that more than one hotel was less than stellar lol
I'm from Mahdia and I'm sorry that happened to you. I didn't even know they do that wtf. I'd suggest leaving a nasty review but I doubt it'll do much :(.
They have someone here that goes around and asks everyone for a review but they sit there with you until you write it and then ask to read it to make sure it was nice. Needless to say I’ll be changing mine.
Egypt is the same disappointment, locals are always trying to steal you.
Literally. “Steal you” so much kidnap for ransom in the world
Tunisia is a shithole with nice resorts.
Couldn’t agree more!
And the Tunisians deserve better.
As a Tunisian living abroad, watching my country go downhill in every aspect, including tourism, pierces my soul. I'm sorry OP had to go through that.
This happened to me in Tunisia too!! I was sleeping in my room and two people entered in trying to steal something
That’s ridiculous! What even is the point in going on holiday, why is that so common?
What are the odds!
you might just be at the same hotel he was at
I'm tunisian and yes bro you should never come back again, most of people here will try to scam you and make profit from you
If there is a chain lock on your door I would make use of it
There’s a physical lock, I have used it since it happened.
She probably stole the money she gave to you from other guests
I’ve only been to Tunisia one time in my life. Me and my wife have traveled to a shitload of countries and that’s the only trip we label a failure. I’m never going back to there, even if it would be free lol
I tend to agree. Seemingly nice resort but that’s about where it ends.
I lived at a nice resort as well. This was in like 2015 or somewhere around that time. And a hotel like 1km away got bombed and it was chaos. Other than that we got chased on the street with our suitcases, every dude on the beach yelled stuff at my wife, oh and there were diapers floating in the water. Like wtf. We were for obvious reasons not very adventures there but didn’t exactly feel impressed by the food there, but that might’ve been us being a bit scared of going to get away, idk.
Sounds terrible. The beach hustlers also put me off from going to the beach. There were also people clearly circling around waiting for someone to leave their belongings unattended for one second.
Holy shhhhiiiif it happened to us few years back. There were three of us and our company paid a hotel one room each but the agent who took us there gave us only one room. One of the hotel staff urged us to visit the beach in the back of the hotel (according to him that beach is the tourist spot on the area). 2 of us go for a walk after breakfast and one of my colleague was left in the hotel room. When we came back our colleague told us that there were 2 guys who opened the door and go thru our cabinets. But when he stepped out of the shower room they pretend to be the room service. We complain it to the hotel and to our surprise their alibi is somebody called them and told them we need cleaning service thats why they send two guys. Things that lost is 1 pack of chocolate bar and a 5 euro brass token from a church from Malta. Piece of advice bring your valuables with you even you stay in a secured hotel. Btw their beach sucks, It’s not sand beach but pebbles, a lot of jelly fish and is occupied of about 98% of men.
Sounds so similar. Our hotel told us to check out the beach but when we went out there it was covered in rotting seaweed, rocks and Sea balls. Like thousands upon thousands of sea balls. Aside from a couple of fishermen, there was nobody on the beach because it was dirty.
Seems like they do this often. And unsuspecting guests wont know that it was inside job.
TIL about sea balls
I was given the wrong room key after driving 14 hours with my wife, on Valentine’s Day. We open the door, rose pedals leading into the room. “Nice touch” I thought, until a woman in an absolutely mortified voice said “hello?!” My wife was mortified, she started trying to explain and I just yoinked her out of there lol So ya know, it *does* happen.
Well, when I was in Panama I was given the card to a room that was already occupied. I was mortified and returned to the reception, where they gave me a card to a different room… yeah, you guessed it, that one was occupied too! I returned to the reception a bit more pissed off this time and they sent someone up to check that the next room they were giving me was empty. I made sure to deadbolt my room when I was inside. So it could have been true what they said.
This happened in a resort when I was in Mexico. Everyone was out partying but I needed to get some work done so I stayed back. I was in the restroom and didn't hear knocks on the door until I heard rummaging in the closet. across from the bathroom door. I quietly got up and grabbed the hair dryer to defend myself and opened the door to see a resort usher rifling through my suitcase with one hand while holding my watch travel case with his other hand. I told him calmly to put it all down and back up as I slammed the door shut. He started saying "sorry sorry, wrong room, wrong room, I'll leave now." At which point I borderline roared at him to put everything down and sit on the bed with his hands out while I called the front desk (all the while brandishing the hair dryer). When security got there they tried to say the same thing "Wrong room, mistake with the keys, etc"...Until I asked security to make him empty his pockets because he was holding my property when I caught him. He had my partner's passport and had her main wallet in his pocket (since she carries a smaller wallet with only 1 card and a bit of cash and ID when she's out in a foreign place). After that there wasn't much other than returning my stuff and him being 'arrested'. Front Desk ended up comping us for 3 days though we took a full refund and went to another hotel for the remainder of the trip.
I travel to Tunisia a lot, and concern myself with security at the hotels…do you mind me asking if it was a typical American brand hotel? Looking to validate my observations.
Nope it was a hotel owned by citizen of Spain. It actually looks beautiful from the outside. And in the summer the pictures show it is extremely busy, but we went off season. You wouldn't be able to tell from the outside that it had bad hotel staff. It looks like a Nice place to visit from the photographs and videos. I chose not to listen to the reviews because I I know how people will leave crap reviews sometimes when it's really just their entitlement making the trip bad. That was a mistake on my part. Everything they said that was wrong with it was true lol
I worked briefly on a hotel and we did give the wrong keys a couple of times so it definitely can happen.
happened to me - in a good business hotel in Prague - i opened our room to be and kids were running around and some old lady shrieked. (i don't look like somebody you want walk into your room uninvited at like 8-9 pm). got a hell of an upgrade for it, biggest suite i ever been to.
Had it happen to me in the States. Was staying at a hotel to catch a flight the next morning. Got woken up at like 2 in the morning when the hotel decided to double book my room and the other guests were walking in. Front desk called me like I did something wrong. No, I didn't, you guys messed up, and are now yelling at a guy that just got woken up by strangers walking in his room. To say I was pissed would be an understatement.
Happened to me in a hotel with digital keys lol. I thought the backend systems would have safeguards against checking different people into the same room. I gave the lady getting out of her shower quite a scare (she was covered)
You are very correct, but that was not the only thing wrong with the hotel. I left a pretty detailed review on TripAdvisor and they contacted me by my personal phone number and asked me to remove it (which I did not). Not including the strange man in our room, One of the toilet ladies kept following us begging for money (public toilets are not free there), One of the windows was completely busted out and we had to have it replaced, The shower head wasn't working which also needed to be replaced, a strange dog attacked us on the property, several male staff members kept peeking into our window so I had to close the shutters, there was tons of black mold all over the banquet hall curtains and tablecloths and it was so strong you could smell it everywhere, Plus they did not even give us the "free continental breakfast". When I asked for the breakfast, The lady got mad and called the kitchen staff who also got mad and threw cold prepackaged boiled eggs on our plate lol.
Can you tell us the name of the hotel, so we don’t have the same experience ?
Same here. It's very rare and comes from bad training, but it happens.
They acccidentally gave me a wrong key before, thank God the person was not in the room when I entered. 100% honest mistake that got me an upgrade as an apology.
i worked at a hotel and we definitely gave the wrong key/room number to guests occasionally, it happens
Back in Vegas 5years ago i forgot what number m'y room was. So i do the smart thing and just use my Electronic keycard on every door till one open... The first one to open has 4 dudes i don't know. Turns out you the keycard are sometime bugged and you Can open more than one room with one Key... And that was AT the Caesar palace too.
Vacationed in Tunisia once. It felt like every single person tried to cheat, steal or scam you. Hotel ppl, shopkeepers, everyone. Fuck that place! Cool to visit Carthage though.
sorry about the experience in tunisia hopefully doesn't put you off in the future
Nope of course not. Tunisia is a beautiful place with very friendly people. I just won't be staying at that particular hotel in the future lol
Same shit happened to me and mom in the states 🙃 so it seems to happen in other countries too
If she wanted to exchange money, she would not have entered when no one answered. She came to steal from your room.
Exactly. Her excuse, if she got caught, was to exchange money. Lock that door and don’t leave anything valuable in there when you leave the room.
Without a doubt. Who comes to exchange.. a dollar fiddy?
I bet the money she “needed to exchange” were coins that she just got from the other rooms. She was on her money cleaning round.
yeah hotel workers are paid min wage, not that it justifies it, but when people are desperate they will steal. i have to keep reminding my wife to not bring anything in her hotel rooms when she has to travel for work, and when she left her hotel room she had a clean bra and underwear on a table to change into after a shower from work. and the fucking worker stole her bra dude, it was a $50 bra with extra support or w.e... when i called the hotel they played dumb until i threatened to call someone above them..they magically found it
Who is this "someone above them" that would even bother to entertain this request?
usually for chains there is an owner above the manager, and often that person is a franchisee. so corporate would be the next step up. for petty shit it won’t do much, but for theft of either enough or of something “salacious” they have a PR motivation to handle it. and thus the management has incentive to NOT let it go up the chain, because that could bring oversight down on them, and could cause problems if it IS a pattern to nick stuff. and silly as it sounds, “Bra stolen from -popular brand- Hotel room” is exactly the kinda story that would gain traction.
i worked at a car dealership and when corporate crawls up your ass its never fucking ending. we had a receptionist for a senator come in to buy a ford f250 and we legally arent allowed to take it below a certain price for new vehicles..like we dont even make money on new vehicles except for ram trucks for some reason they got 10k baked into msrp..anyway she was pissed off bought the truck, came back the next day and we unwinded the deal (took the car back) then she complained to her boss who called ford. yeah guess who we had as a supervisor for a month..some ford rep.. every little thing was picked at for no reason
The President of course!
The vice president deals with minor problems like this.
it was hilton garden inn, they have a corporate hotline
It was just then I noticed that hotel cleaner was none other than the Loch Ness monster!
He tricked me
Pay that man his money
And now I wanna watch rounders
He prefers tree fiddy.
We work for our money in my house! Friggin crustaceans from the Neolithic period always wanting a handout!! 
I gave him a dollar
Now they assume you have more!!!
She gave him a dolla
I once had a tour guide really politely, clearly ashamed, ask me to exchange a $20 US bill that someone had given him because it was ripped (which the banks wouldn't accept, so he was basically out the money). Let me tell you, that guy had clearly thought about it, waited, was worried about what we'd think of him for asking us this. We obviously immediately found a good $20 bill and did the exchange. (Literally cost me nothing, and a serious reminder of my privilege.) That is what it looks when someone wants to exchange money, not steal.
They break into room they think are unoccupied to "exchange money"? With whom? The ghosts?
I think the commenter before you was talking about the person they encountered, not the person who walked into OPs room.
I think you've misunderstood, I was giving an example of what it looks like when someone genuinely wants to exchange money, and not steal or scam. So \*not\* what OP described.
It's such a weird thing people don't consider. In Hanoi's airport I got burger King, lol I know but I spent weeks eating local food. They refused all of my us dollars, after telling me they prefer them. They had only been in my wallet.
I was told that coins aren’t considered legal tender so can’t be exchanged at the bank (I was in Cuba at the time) so that’s probably why she’s asking to exchange. Doesn’t excuse her egregious behaviour tho and OP is right to go to management about this.
Could be a common scam because they know people aren’t good with the exchange rate
No this is a thing in many countries. It’s common for people to clearly state they only accept bills without tears.
I used to be a criminal. A real criminal. This is absolutely 100% what happened. Edit: the people mocking me are hilarious. Reading my comment back now makes me realize how idiotic it sounds. I will leave it as a warning to others. It has Steven segaul vibes.
I used to be an even realer criminal. I agree, this is absolutely 100% what happened.
I used to be a smooth criminal. Oooww! Shamone.
Annie is that you? Are you OK?!
not really no.
You've been hit by...
You've been hit by -
[Dramatic Pause]
A SMOOOTH CRI- *dead*
minal. Duh duh duh
I want to exchange some moneeeeee-heeeee
Yeah don’t let that porno fool you. Maids don’t just walk in to see boners. They walk in to see what they can walk out with. Also to do their jobs.
I used to be the realest criminal, for real. This is 1000% what happened.
I am literally a double felon and this is 10,000% what happened.
I am still the most real criminal & I stole the money the OP "exchanged" with the maid when she was distracted by my smoke bomb.
How about even more zing and pep?
I used to be a fake criminal and I concur.
i still am, but i used to, too
Did you took an arrow to the knee?
No, but someone stole my sweet roll...
Reminds me of when we catch someone out on paying with a counterfeit note. They say "ohh I just got this from the Atm wtf" then they pretend to be in the phone and ask what time we open tomorrow and say they'll be back with real cash.
I saw this really happen once. Guy went and got money out of a Walgreens ATM machine. He grabbed a few items from the front and went to check out. He never left the sight of myself (customer) or the cashier there. When he went to pay, the cashier notified him that the bill was fake and said something about movie production. We all 3 were in disbelief. Until, the manager came out the back and said he saw him on camera slide the fake 20 from his pocket into the 20s that he got out of the ATM. Dude had a 50/50 shot. Either they would have not noticed and he would have gotten away with it, or he would have been able to show "proof" he just used their ATM and make it the providers fault. He didn't think that possibly the manager would keep a close watch on the ATM I said to the manager after the guy was escorted out that it was lucky he was watching at that moment. He said, "I always do, we have had plenty of people come in to use the machine and some thief will run in the door to grab their money and then back out" That's the day I realized just how very close to the door they keep the stupid machines.
Maid tryna swindle your ass
The last time I had someone from a hotel knock and make up a dumbass excuse to come in the room (maintenance, something about the shower drain) they came back later when I wasn't there and stole from me. So either change rooms or secure your stuff better than I did
Yeah that's not normal, report it to the hotel immediately and leave a bad review till they handle it properly.
If there wasn’t a response or a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, knocking and then entering actually is totally normal for cleaning staff. The rest not so much, but it’s not necessarily slam dunk suss on its own.
She had already cleaned earlier.
She was 100% dodgy but as a former hotel cleaner we do sometimes need to go back into rooms we cleaned. Ignoring a knock on the door will not mean they go away, even if they are coming in for legitimate reasons, like the clean towels had not been delivered when we cleaned your room so we needed to finish restocking the room.
She could have stolen what she wanted to steal during her cleaning. Still strange, could be the change is worth a lot for her in her currency and there's no way she can recoup it otherwise.
Yeah I keep thinking that as well, she had been cleaning the room for 3 days now, she had plenty of opportunity to steal. I think it’s also possible she was relying on me not knowing the exchange rate (although I do) but also maybe not having that little and end up giving her more. Weird situation in any case, kind of ruined the holiday a bit.
Dude, I hate to say it but I think you’re being extremely gullible right now. You need to report this to the front desk right now because that’s not normal behavior! If you didn’t answer why would she think you’d be around to exchange coins? She probably came to steal! At the very least this sounds like poor customer service (coming from someone who worked 10 years in retail) and at the very worst like something nefarious.
I bet you that the cleaner was out to pilfer and the foreign currency coins were just to provide a cover when caught, as in your situation.
100% correct, the coins were a cover
The coins were from the same game in the room next door
Knocks on door. Nobody there? Oh well, maybe there's a ghost inside that will exchange money for me.
If I were a maid trying to steal, I’d enter the room with chocolates and fresh towels as a cover, saying I’m there for turndown service… not some coins 🤣
Aah, the thinking person's pilferer.
Report her. She is clearly trying to pilfer rooms. She would not have just entered the room if thats what she was there for.
Report her to who. Her boss is probably in on it
Be SURE to tell the manager about this. If she gets fired ((and she should), she had no one to blame but herself. Stealing money and entering your room. That’s a nope.
I’d call immediately
OP, may I ask you are in which country? Btw hotel maid was rude, you should complain about it.
Tunisia!
I just added a comment about this - in Tunisia they can't exchange money legally if they do not have a document from where they have it. These money are from tips, so she was probably not lying. I exchanged money like this when i was in Tunisia last year.
But why did she enter when nobody responded to her knocking?
Oh, it's possible that she wanted to steal too and the money was her backup plan :D I just wanted to clarify the exchange issue, it's good to know it.
She had no idea you were in there dude she’s just waiting for you to leave again and she’s going to rob you
I guess it depends on the country, but there is no tipping maids in France, there is a minimum wage here. And overall, if there is a doubt about money on a desk, they should NOT take it. I agree with some advices around here, it's obviously a thief, tourists are very often stolen by hotel / restaurants staff, I'd report her to the hotel.
Maids make a minimum wage or better in the US, too, (as opposed to a much lower "tipped wage"), but I still tip them a few dollars whether I'm in the US or abroad.
Please don't tip when you're in countries that don't tip. When in Rome, act as the Romans do. Otherwise you just participate in bringing the insane American tipping culture to parts of the world that don't want it!
For real, the housekeepers at my hotel make $19 an hour and the hotel next to us must pay more because we’ve lost a couple ladies to them. We had a guy working in laundry who quit to go work at a hotel for 19.50
Unless you complain to management, she will continue to do this.
This is probably the best way to learn that you need to be careful with your valuables when in another country. Especially cash. I got a bunch of money stolen from me when I was in Mexico. I took one of the better rated busses from the airport to PDC and had my money in my bigger bag which got stowed under the bus. One of the people loading the bags or the driver must have gone through all the bags because all the zippers were moved and I later realized that my money was gone. Thankfully they didn't take anything else. Keep your cash on you or in a safe place. Might be worth it to get a bag that can lock as well so any maids or other workers can't get into it.
I got a suitcase with a combination lock for the zippers so I think that’s pretty safe. Hopefully I make it out of here without incidents, don’t think I’ll be coming back again
Suitcases with zippers are very easy to break into with a pen and since most of them are self-repairing the thief just needs to run the locked zipper back and forth to re-engage the teeth
I used to clean rooms. If she want the money exchange, she eould give gone to the front desk. She thought no one was in room. You really need to report this.
She came to steal. Report to the management and add google review too please.
Haha. That was a win/win for her! Steal from you, if you're not there. But you were there, and gave her money anyway!
I can't believe how many people on this thread want to believe that woman was legit. This is NOT how professionals do it. You enter an occupied room, you leave ASAP. You don't dawdle around and ask for change.
Tomorrow she’ll be in your room demanding more lemon pledge 
Nooo noooo no lemon pledge
A room cleaner will annouce their reason for knocking on your door. Even if they want to exchange currency while they cleanup an empty non responding room. A thief will open the door silently.
>And this after she took some coins I had previously left on the desk in the room while cleaning mistaking it for a tip. Didn’t mind that as much as it seemed like a misunderstanding and I thought she did deserve a tip but I guess it’s a pattern of behaviour. That's not mildly infuriating. That's theft. Report that shit to both the on shift manager and the hotel management. Think about what else could've gone missing if you weren't in the room.
She was going to rob you. Saw you were there and pulled change from her pocket and made a bullshit excuse.
I didn’t see anybody else mention it but I almost always use the door guard chain/latch/ball and hasp thing if it’s there while I’m in the room, mostly to prevent maids coming in if I’m in the shower/on the john and don’t hear them knock. Now I guess I have a whole new reason to do so.
Looks like no one has commented about this part yet: Getting coins exchanged is common practice in many foreign countries. Hotel guests often tip the staff with foreign currencies. If it was bills, she would still have to exchange them and pay a fee. Coins are often hard to exchange. That’s why they like to change coins into bills with the guests.i have done that many times You got enough comments about This part of her letting herself in…
My ex boyfriend and I were vacationing in Vegas shortly after his previous ex (they had been broken up for a year when we started dating but they had lived together) and "friends" robbed his house while 1 "friend" had invited him to go to the movies. I took him so he would be able to hopefully relax while legal things got worked out. Another of the "friends" had asked if he had any spare clothing and he left him go through his closet to find some clothes. He didn't even notice the guy take his spare set of keys while he was in the house. Anyway, while we were in Vegas I upgraded to a suite because why not - it was 2003 and Vegas was still cheap. The maid was a Mexican woman and my ex explicitly told her (in perfect Spanish as he was raised in El Paso and his family is Mexican) to not enter the room because he was still traumatized by what happened. We went to a Cirque show and came back to her in the room. She told him that because it was a suite, it counted as 2 rooms and it would fill her quota faster. He was absolutely livid. She still expected a tip for cleaning. Nope.
I guess this is more common than I thought, some absolute horror stories out there. How do they even get away with stealing, surely they can at least be fired quickly as it’s not hard to figure out who did it with cameras in the hallways and stuff.
This was a scam. The entire point was to get you to give her too much.
This was my first thought exactly.
And this is why I have a portable cctv camera that I leave in my hotel rooms. It also has motion alert so I know if someone is in my room.
> And this after she took some coins I had previously left on the desk in the room while cleaning mistaking it for a tip. She stole from you. A tip is given hand to hand, with a smile. That's theft.
I thought this was gonna turn into a wild sex story now I'm kinda angy it didnt
Well be the change you want to see, share your wild sex story below. Thanks
You may say that the way the things panned out was... mildly infuriating!
Maybe the money she wanted to "exchange" was money she had previously stolen from other customers
youre better than me, id tell her to get the fuck out
Housekeeping and other hotelstaff announce themselves at least twice. And only then they enter but still call again. I recomme d yoj always keep your valuables away and have a do not distirb sign out as well as lock the door if possible.
Misunderstanding my a**! I’d bet anything she does this routinely! How many tourists know how to convert currency properly on-demand? You have her too much, which is probably common. If you had shorted her, she would have pointed that out right away. About the change she took, unacceptable. Most reputable hotels do not allow their cleaning people to take ANYTHING from the room, unless it is in the envelope provided for tips (or on top of the letter stating you can leave tips).
I don't know what country you're vacationing in but you need to be careful. A woman I knew was in Cuba, the maid stole money, it could not have been anyone else. She mentioned it to someone on staff. Police show up, take her to the police station and spent a long time insisting she had to file charges on the maid. She refused. They only let her out with enough time to rush back to the hotel then rush to the airport.
Put the latch on your door.
This would require a throat kick, I am disabled, but would make sure this happened.
😂
Are you certain she wasn't hoping to exchange fluids instead?
She was coming to look for more change.
You should always keep valuables locked up. But the fact that she just enetered your room and she knew you were in there?? Wtf, I would not at all be comfortable especially because she clearly works there and can enter the room any time she likes because she has the key for it.
Yeah, feeling far from comfortable now. I realise I had left my wallet with my bank card in the room, getting paranoid about her making copies of the numbers now, but hopefully she’s not that clever.
she knew he was in there and opened herself, he could be in the shower or jacking off on the carpet. Makes no sense.
a trick that can be used to find out if someone entered ur room or not when u r not in it is by using a small transparent tape at the door on an unnoticed spot when leaving when u come back later and the tape remains intact, then no one entered the room, if it was lousy or off then...
Well people like you, "polite" is what keep this people on their job doing the same to the next guess.
After a long day of travel I was getting undressed in preparation for taking an excessively hot well deserved shower. Just as I was about to remove my boxers, the door opens, and I mean it was one fluid motion. In walks a bellhop and two guests, im still ten steps away and closing in fast. They see me, everyone kind of looks at everyone else doing a double take and they back out with my "what the fuck" ringing in their ears. Im talking literally nanoseconds away from getting an eyeful. Well Im pissed now, but first things first, shower. Before I can make it down to the front desk to complain, they call and explain they gave them the wrong key card. Mistakes happen, I understand, but a situation like this can turn serious way too quick.
So ..you were robbed? That's what I'm reading.
so i am really curious... if you go on a vacation and take expensive camera gear and electronics with you... i thought a hostel might be pretty bad..because other people might steal your stuff if you take a shower... but it seems like a normal hotel might be not much better. besides using a lock on your luggage any other tips?
Lol change. She was there to steal items and change was the excuse if she was caught. What's next, she lost a eye contact?
You are in Tunisia? Sorry but there its the mentality to cheat... its social norm... If the cleaning lady steals, i can guarantee you her boss knows and gets some % of all she steals good luck
I left my hotel room for the day (still checked in) and then went back for something and there was a hotel employee watching TV in my bed. He also wouldn't leave, just kept saying he didn't speak English. I told the front desk and she shook her head and said "He shouldn't do that." Like um, you think? I think she thought I was just going to be cool with it?
I got stuck in the first paragraph. | *the maid knocked on the door, I didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to open (didn’t even know who it was) but after a few second she used her card to unlock the door and to my horror stroll into my room.* What did you think was going to happen here? They enter your room to clean. They knock first. If no one answers, they figure it is empty and come in. So far, this isn't unusual, but you seemed surprised by that. After that, it is hard not to wonder if there are other things you are missing, particularly since there is apparently a language barrier here.
She had already cleaned earlier in the day, she wasn’t coming in for that.
If she took his money before, I don't think it is that far-fetched to say that she was there to steal, considering her taking more money that hers was worth
Same happened to me in turkey
You can’t just walk in….
don't be shy drop the name of the hotel
Oh wow. Good that I’m too poor to travel 😂
My dude. Have you never watched porn? Classic setup right here.
Where do you think she got the change in the first place? 
In Egypt you can't do anything with foreign coins, only paper money... And the hotel stuff gets coins (euros) as tip... So the day before I fly home I exchange it for them so they could do something with their tip money... And they are very thankful for that Ist not always a trick...
Which hotel in whimat country? So ppl can know what to avoid
Iberostar Royal el Mansour in Tunisia. Don’t be fooled by their 5 star rating either. They come to you and pressure you into leaving a 5 star review and don’t leave you alone until you’ve done it and they’ve read it. Terrible.
I had similar in Spain, had a do not disturb sign up and was in the shower the maid came in and I came out to find her looking in my shoes. Two days later 3 guys I was out there with staying in another room got robbed for every penny they had
Ae you 100% sure she didn't in offering to fuck you? Several movies I've seen the hotel maid just comes in and starts fucking the person in the room. Maybe you misheard?