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When you are traveling, it is important to keep close track of your reservations and committments or it can cause some real problems.

What would you do if you worked at a hotel and you found that a guest had left all his stuff in his room after checkout time?

That is what happened to the hotel worker in this story, so she got ahold of his employer who made the booking and extended his stay. Then it happened again the next morning. Finally, she saw the guest, and he acted like everything was completely normal.

Some people really are just unbothered about the details of life and believe that things will just work out in the end. I suppose he wasn’t wrong in this case. Read through the details of the story and see what you think.

Hopping for the best

This week I’ve been working morning shifts at a hotel.

You can’t have people staying past checkout time.

Around 12 or just after, I go through the rooms that haven’t returned keys yet, knock on doors and make sure guests have actually left so housekeeping can get in.

A couple of days ago, around 12:20-ish, I checked one of the rooms on the top floor because the key still hadn’t been returned.

Why hasn’t this guest checked out?

I opened the door and… curtains still closed, belongings still inside.

Weird.

First thought, maybe they extended their stay, and nobody told me.

They shouldn’t still be there.

Went downstairs and checked the system. Nothing. Double checked, triple checked. No extension, no room move, nothing.

The booking was through a company and there wasn’t an obvious number for the guest, so I started digging through the booking notes and eventually found a company contact number.

Going the extra mile is a good thing.

Honestly this sort of detective work isn’t really something I should even be doing, but I try to solve the situation if I can because mistakes happen.

The last thing you want is a guest coming back and finding their stuff packed up because somebody somewhere messed up.

Hopefully, this person can get it all figured out.

So, I rang the company and explained:

“Hi, your employee should have checked out about half an hour ago, but all his belongings are still here. If he’s staying, we need the room extending ASAP. If not, we’ll have to clear the room because housekeeping needs access.”

If it were this simple, there wouldn’t be a story about it.

To be fair to them, they were actually really helpful. About 10 mins later they called back, thanked me, admitted there’d been a mistake and extended the stay.

Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

What is going on with this guest?

Next morning…

Same guest.

Same room.

Same situation.

Once is a mistake, twice is

This time it was only a few mins after checkout when I noticed, but between everything else I had to do I called the company again around 12:20.

Different guy answered.

I explained the situation and even said, “This happened yesterday as well.”

The guest can’t stay in this room no matter what.

Only problem now was there were no rooms left of the same type, so if the stay got extended the guest would have to move rooms anyway.

I basically told them:

This is very reasonable.

“If we don’t hear back soon, we’ll have to clear the room, bag everything up and keep it safely at reception because housekeeping needs access.”

The response?

Very much a “not my problem” vibe.

Maybe the employer is just as sick of this guy as the hotel is.

Didn’t ask for the guest’s name. Didn’t really seem interested. I asked for a callback as soon as possible because nobody at a hotel actually wants to touch someone’s personal belongings unless they absolutely have to.

No callback.

Eventually we had to clear the room and safely store everything.

Finally, he shows up.

Later that afternoon, around 2:30, the guest turned up.

I explained what happened and mentioned this was now the second time his booking hadn’t been extended.

I guess it could have just been a mistake.

And he just casually says:

“Oh, I thought the company booked it for longer.”

That honestly caught me off guard.

The company might not have even told him.

Because I’m pretty sure the first time this happened, the company must have told him what went wrong and that his stay had been extended or he had to re-check in.

So, the next day he just leaves all his stuff in the room and goes out… hoping for the best?

In his defense, things did work out.

No checking with reception, no confirming the booking. Just assuming it would somehow sort itself out.

And the weirdest part? No frustration, confusion, apology, nothing really. Just complete indifference.

Some people just don’t worry about things like this.

At that point it felt like talking to a brick wall.

What gets me is mistakes happen, fair enough.

But between the company not calling back and someone just leaving their belongings in a room hoping everything magically works itself out, the whole thing just felt a bit bizarre.

It is certainly a weird situation, but maybe this guy has the right attitude (unless he was doing this intentionally). You really can’t get worked up about the little things in life.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

They should have checked the guest out, according to this commenter.

The hotel should always have the guest’s direct line.

I’m sure the guest had no idea all this was going on.

Hotels are a mystery.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who gets revenge on his company after they fire him and try to steal his custom program.

This commenter thinks it was an IT worker.

People can be oblivious to how the world works, but it still works out for them. In many cases, not worrying about things is the right way to handle it.

Of course, in this story it ended up causing a lot of extra work for the poor hotel worker.