Anyone who works in the hotel industry can tell you a million stories of unusual guests who do odd things. It just comes with the territory. Though some guests stand out more clearly than others.
I was working in my office one day when I heard a whole bunch of women screaming at the top of their lungs. I ran from my office to see what was going on and found a group of housekeepers all completely freaking out in the hallway by the elevator. Looking around I couldn’t see any reason for all the panicked expressions they had on their faces.
I asked the nearest one what happened and several began pointing down the hallway and yelling it went into that room down there. I asked what went in there and was told about this large hairy rodent which was running around the hall and had just entered an empty guest room. I looked at my maintenance man who can come running down another hallway to investigate the noise. I could see my confusion reflected in his face as we walked down towards the room the housekeepers had indicated. Most of the housekeepers were still heading for the outside door.
We entered the room and began looking around. We looked behind and under all the furniture and could find no evidence of any rodents. My maintenance man theorized whatever it was must have gotten out through the open vents in the heat and air unit under the window as it was the only possible exit. We left the room and told the housekeepers the monster was gone and they could stop worrying.
I returned to my office and the day progressed with no further events. The following morning was also a fairly quiet environment. Guests ate their breakfast and checked out. Housekeepers started their shift and began cleaning rooms for the next group of guests. Suddenly the sound of screaming once again disrupted the day.
I charged down the hallway to nearly the exact same spot I found the housekeepers the day before. Two housekeepers were standing next to the very room we had searched the day before screaming it’s in there. My maintenance man let out a sigh making it obvious he was thinking here we go again. We entered the room and immediately found the furry intruder. It was a small chipmunk. It was scurrying this way and that trying to find an escape from the room. We were laughing a bit at the idea that the guest who had stayed in the room had checked out just a short time before the screaming began so obviously the little guy had been in there all night with the guest.
We tried to gently corner the intruder until it and nearly managed until a housekeeper who was feeling brave opened the door to see if she could help. The chipmunk took the opportunity to run out the open door and across the housekeeper’s feet. We chased it down the hallway. We herded it towards the outside door and eventually trapped it in the entry way. I opened the door and it ran out and headed for the nearest tree. I walked after it and made a point to tell it that if it wasn’t a paying guest there would be no more check-in for chip.
Hilarious!