I’m in Chicago for work this week, training a crop of new hires. We’re booked at a hotel I’ve stayed at half a dozen times before, a short walk from the office.
Only this time, after checking in, when I told someone where I was staying, they said, “Oh.”
You know, the sagging, “Oh” that leaves you wondering what the rest of the story is?
Turns out, someone was stabbed to death in my hotel two weeks ago. AWESOME.
I checked the BedBug Registry, but didn’t think to look at police reports. The good news? It doesn’t appear to be a random attack – of the variety in which some creeper is hiding under your bed. But that hasn’t stopped me from checking the shower every time I come in – just to be on the safe side.
It’s gotten me thinking about what happens in my hotel room before it becomes mine. While someone dying in my room is a pretty long shot (I hope), there are other situations that probably have occurred. A prostitute turning a trick? High school kids throwing a party? A drug deal going down? A marriage ending? A child conceived?
I’ve gotten you thinking now, haven’t I? It’s kind of hard to stop once you imagine other people in your hotel room.
I could try to be all deep and extrapolate some moral from this situation, like how interwoven our lives are or something… but instead I think I’ll just leave a juicy tip for housekeeping. Thanks to them, I can pretend I’m the only person who has ever used this room.
pithypants 
well as long as the sheets are laundered…
Two things to consider:
1) All those things you imagine may have happened – they probably did. So how much worse could it get?
2) Never worry about the sheets. It’s the bedspread which never gets cleaned.
What’s life without a little adventure and possible CSI technicians? Have a wonderful, restful stay! 😉
Oh yeah, you definitely got me to thinking endless possibilities. It only came across my mind the two times I bought a house but people are in and out of hotels all the time, from all walks of life. Can be a little creepy to think you got checked into the wrong room. Keep checking that shower.
I never think about my hotel rooms. And if I start, I turn on the TV, or look at the different soaps in the bathroom, or go to the ice machine. Anything to avoid thinking about the room. Especially the bedspread and the carpet.
You HAVE got me thinking, but its all bad! Notice when we are thinking about the previous occupants, its never a OCD woman who was so impeccably clean that she scrubbed the room with a toothbrush both before and after she used it? Its always gross, scary or grimace-worthy things. I wish they had hotels for ‘normal’ people, you know where you had to have your bags swabbed and pass some kind of hotel-etiquette test before you could say there. Id become a member of that chain!
but what if you check in thinking you’re one of the ‘normal’ people and they swab/test your bags and you find out that actually you lean far more towards the side of the banned people from the hotel chain?
I’m with you, I’m thinking the ‘normal’ I mentioned would not be considered normal at all – except by themselves (or ‘us’) Isn’t that always the case though – everyone considers themselves ‘normal’ because to them, in their world, with their experiences, they are. And by the same token they (we) are bat-shit-crazy to the rest of the world! 🙂
I’d really rather not think about who has been in my hotel rooms doing what before me. Sadly, there is one hotel I’ve stayed in for work enough times that I’m pretty sure I’ve had the same room more than once. Now that I think of it, that might make me feel a little better. Anyway, maybe take a blacklight with you. You know, to check for traces of blood or… wait. Nevermind. Do NOT take a blacklight with you. That’s the worst idea ever.
It’s true, when the room is clean, I never think about all the thousands of other people who’ve been in that room. It’s kind of creepy.