When I stay in hotels, I am always given a room that someone is already in.
I swear. Last night this happened to me for the FOURTH time in my life. Most people have never had this happen, and I have had it happen 4 times in the last 4-5 years.
- The first time it happened to me I was on a work trip to St. Louis. It was at a really nice hotel. We had been out to dinner with our client team and got back to check in kind of late. Fortunately, I had been drinking some wine, so I thought the situation was funny. If I were dead sober, I probably would have been slightly scared! I open the door to my room and there is a large black man sitting at the desk in his boxers. Um... Anyway, I went back downstairs and they had to give me a nasty smoking room!
- The 2nd time it happened, I have witnesses. Reuter, Michelle, Ploth & I were down in Nashville. We got to our room and walked in the door. It was pitch black, but as our eyes started to focus, we realized there was a large bump on the bed. Someone was there sleeping! We took off back downstairs to get a new room.
- The 3rd time was when I was moving from Chicago to Norfolk. I left after work and had driven for 7 hours. I finally pulled off at midnight to get a room. When I walked in the door, there was a woman and her 2 daughters. They didn't see me, so I just walked back out. She must have heard something, though, because she goes "Honey, is that you?" Nope. It wasn't.
- I have been staying in this hotel every other week for the last year. It is to the point where one woman, Valerie Love according to her name tag, knows me by name. Usually, this is a good thing since they will give me rooms in the areas that I want to be in. Well, last night Valerie was with a customer, so I had to deal with some clearly incompetent worker. Off to my room. As I walked up, I noticed the curtains were shut. They always leave them open after cleaning. Then, I opened the door. Oddly, the first thing I noticed was a tissue laying on the dresser. Gross! Did they even clean this room? As I looked around, I realized someone's stuff was there! Grr! Are you serious?
So, I am a magnet to getting already occupied hotel rooms. It couldn't be something useful like always randomly finding money. Or bumping into famous people. It has truly gotten to the point that when a desk clerk gives me my room key I just want to say "Are you SURE there is no one in this room?" Because, with my luck, there WILL be.
