I Work at a Hotel in the Middle of Nowhere

As the title says, I work in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange hotel, though, that’s why I’m talking about it here. I came here 5 years ago looking for a job and wound up here. I’m not going into specifics right now, but nothing has been normal since even before I got the job. The nearest town is about 9 miles away, and the nearest city is about 25 miles away. I don’t want people coming and trying to find me or, even worse, stalking me (I already have one of those types around, and that’s plenty), but if you’ve driven down a long stretch of road surrounded by woods and see a really nice chain hotel in the distance, that’s probably this one. 

I wanted to keep a journal and share some stories of the curiosities that I’ve experienced with people to make sure I’m not going crazy. Everything I will tell you is real and happens in my day-to-day life. I’m 100% of sound mind and haven’t had any mental disorders that would hinder these accounts.

First, I’ll share some things about the hotel. The hotel is really nice, almost too nice to be just a chain. So nice, even I myself live here in one of the rooms on the 5th floor. It always has that premier hotel smell, nice decorations, and many accommodations for the guests.

The owner only speaks in Pig Latin. If you don’t know what that is, look it up; I’m not explaining in full here. You might ask why, or isn’t that hard for everyone to understand? My answer to that is I don’t know why, and yes. When I first met the owner, I was confused, but I picked up on it after a minute. I only realized it was Pig Latin when he ended every word in -ay. My friends and I would use it as code sometimes, but I didn’t know it would actually be useful in my life. I still keep a notepad and pen because he speaks too fast sometimes.

When I first met the owner for the night shift position at the front desk, he said: “owhay areyay ouyay?” My appropriate response of “What?” had upset him. So he said it again in a disgruntled tone. After thinking about it for a second, I ask him, “Are you speaking in Pig Latin?” and he nods his head in affirmation. Not to say it was a very long interview. Later, after working here for a couple of weeks, I asked the owner why he did it, but he just shrugged and walked away. I never brought it up again.

He upsets the cleaning lady, Lois, often with the way he speaks and to see her get angry is funny. Just last week he came in and tried to get her to do something, but she was too busy being her drunken self. He woke her up, and she got all pissy about it. I can’t really complain much about Lois though, she does her job well. I just don’t get how she does it. She’s almost always drinking, but it doesn’t seem to hinder her ability to do her job. Seeing her stumble down the halls trying to get her bearings is a little off putting, but if I haven’t gotten a complaint about rooms being dirty or messy, I won’t judge.

The hotel has 7 floors. The top floor has a couple of suites, one of which is currently being rented out by our semi-permanent guest. The 6th floor has one room with a constant water leak. It’s not a small leak either; it gushes out gallons upon gallons a day. Before I even started here, it’s been a problem. Apparently, the water suppression system in the room kicked on one day and has never stopped. The water never comes out from underneath the door, but we leave the window open so it can drain out. The owner has had many plumbers, firefighters, and water suppression experts come in to turn it off, but they leave all stumped. He even tried replacing it once or twice, and still no luck. 

Funny enough, we had to replace all of the other rooms’ water systems because of that one room. Anytime you go to the back of the building, you just see the water flow down the building and into the lot. We’re so fancy we have our own waterfall, I know, bad joke, but I think it’s funny.

The 2nd floor is always reserved. No one can ever take the rooms, but to my knowledge, the rooms are fine, and the cleaning lady takes care of them often, even though they’ve never been used. The owner is very adamant about those rooms being reserved, but I’ve never gotten a clear answer as to why. I’ve only been to the floor once or twice out of curiosity; it’s so quiet it just gives off a weird vibe, and I try to avoid it.

The 3rd floor has the noise room. The noise room is very obnoxious, to the point I want to pull my hair out. I will get constant calls all through the night about room 320 being absurdly loud. Every time I go to the floor, the noise echoes down the hall and reverberates in the elevator. When I get to the door and knock, the noise stops. I knock three times, unlock the door, and, without fail, the room is completely empty.

All the lights in the hallway are burned out on the 5th floor. Since this is the floor I live on, I’ve complained to the owner a couple of times about it. He always tells me he’ll get it fixed, but that never happens. Other than that, the floor is pretty normal.

 I think a ghost lives on the 4th floor. I get calls from time to time about a noise or somebody humming down the hall or some kind of groaning. Things get moved around, and people’s stuff will disappear, but nothing really important, like a sock or some kind of cheap jewelry. I’ve never had any kind of experience on that floor, but it bugs the cleaning lady to go up there. Now I’m not one for ghosts, as in I don’t really believe in them, but people swear they’ll see or hear it.

I think that’s all for the floors and such. I’ll talk about our repeat guests and other frequent people here later, but I guess it’s that time of the year for the vampires. Be back soon.