Hospitality is a guest-centric business and customer requests are pretty much the norm. Yet, while most of them are par for the course, there are instances of several unusual and strange requests made by guests that hotels and luxury serviced apartments have had to deal with! Here’s presenting some of them for a fun read.
Top Unusual & Strange Guest Requests at Hotels
Weird, unusual, strange, unfathomable- here’s a list of guest requests at hotels that will blow your mind!
1. A Request For the Man Of My Dreams
Don’t think it’s about seeking privacy for an adventurous rendezvous between two individuals at a hotel. A woman named Sarah Kovacs Gryzwacz is the guest who made this request at Hotel Indigo in San Antonio Riverwalk. Legend goes that there was a specific picture of Hollywood superstar Nicholas Cage from the movie Con Air that the woman requested as a welcome present when she came back from a conference.
Of course, the hotel granted her request and when she returned, there was the picture of Nicholas Cage waiting in her room. At the same time, all other requests involving the Hollywood superstar’s pictures were also approved throughout the guest’s stay! Talk about the strangest of surprises! We’re only glad that she didn’t ask for the man himself to be served to her on a platter because that would’ve gotten out of hand!
2. A Duck in the Bathroom & Flamingoes Too
No, this is not about an actual duck! A guest at the Premier Inn, Goldstone, asked for a MASSIVE rubber duck to be placed in this bathroom. While it is funny at a basic level, what makes this even more interesting is that the guest in question was not a child or toddler. It was an adult man! Needless to say, the hotel complied with his request and swiftly at that!
What’s with hotel guests and avian species?! Another guest at The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, reportedly asked for a hundred plastic flamingos to fill up his whole hotel room and yes, in this case, it was also an adult!
3. Refrain from Touching the Bed
OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) is something that hotel staff often has to encounter with several of their valued guests. For instance, the housekeeping personnel at Maine’s White Cedar Inn were presented with a surprising request- the guest in question did not want his bed to be cleaned. In fact, it’s not just cleaning; he did not want to TOUCH the bed at all. He also put up a note on the bed with a DO NOT TOUCH message. Of course, that was one less bed to clean as far as the housekeeping guys were concerned!
4. Kobe Beef for a Dog
St. Ermin’s Hotel in London once fulfilled a strange request where a lucky dog’s owner was adamant that his pet pooch deserved nothing but the best Kobe beef. While many people across the world are often unable to get access to or even afford the same, the hotel arranged a fresh Kobe beef meal each day for the prized dog from a nearby restaurant. If this is not luxe fine dining, then what is!
5. Setting Up a Pillow Fort
Sean Fitzsimons was a frequent traveller to The Fairmont Winnipeg and wanted to infuse a little more excitement and fun into his stay. How did he do that? By requesting for a pillow fort to be built! Surprise, surprise! The hotel decided to oblige him and gave him a DIY fort kit, making the whole experience memorable and fun for the guest. He shared this story with his entire network, which also led to some unexpected yet welcome word of mouth marketing for the hotel too!
Some Other Gems Worth Reading
Yes you’ve read the top #5 on our list, but when it comes to strange guest requests, there’s a ton of other interesting stuff worth checking out too! Here are some other gems that you’ll absolutely love laughing to!
- Moving a Tiger to London from Miami– A man wanted to shift to London from Miami with his girlfriend and also their pet tiger. He thus wanted help from concierge Maite Foriasky at The Setai, Miami Beach. Surprisingly, she did find a way to relocate the tiger successfully to London!
- Wild Goat’s Milk in the Bathtub– Another one that takes the cake is a guest request at The Savoy in London, where the hotel staff had to fill up a bathtub with wild goat’s milk. The head butler at the hotel then, Sean Davoren, walked the extra mile to source the milk all the way from Wales and move it by taxi to the hotel. The customer also required another 30 bottles of heated Evian water to rinse off the goat’s milk, making it a luxury experience unlike any other!
- A Dinosaur – A plastic dinosaur was requested as a joke by guests at the Novotel Wolverhampton, which the staff members provided happily. In the same vein, a guest wanted a baby stegosaurus at the Monte Carlo Inn, Ontario. Even though it could not deliver an actual dinosaur to the guest, the hotel did provide him a miniature plastic stegosaurus with an apology note (yes you read it right!).
Meeting the Most Unusual of Hospitality Challenges
While we’re all chortling aloud at the weird and funny requests made by guests across hotels and serviced apartments like those at TheSqua.re, it’s also a fact that they did pose massive challenges for staff members and concierges. But as they say in hospitality, nothing is impossible! From delivering Ferraris and setting up a transatlantic logistics expedition to retrieve a toy left back home, hotels often pull off the biggest of impossibilities only to please their demanding yet loyal clients.
What stands out through all this is the sheer dedication of hotel staff members towards balancing both reality and imagination and the willingness to take on these huge challenges for their guests. It also goes without saying that drawing a line is sometimes necessary for the weirdest of requests that have no real base. It’s important to know that hotel staff members have their own limitations and cannot comply with requests beyond their control. So, the next time you see a hotel staff member going the extra mile to fulfill your request, take out a moment to appreciate their hard work and willingness to enhance your satisfaction.