Lorenz P: Two of my funniest hotel-stories:

It’s been a whole month now, and one thing I’ve learned while doing department rotation at a hotel is that when you work with guests from all over the world, not every encounter is going to be an ordinary one. That’s why this blog is about my top two weird, but entertaining guest encounters.

1. Hillsong Church:

During my department rotation, I got to see a wide range of events in our hotel’s massive conference area, which included a theater-room with a stage for p.e. ted-talks and over 300 seats. A wide range of companies, from pharmaceutical to tech, held their meetings and seminars here. 

But none of them compared to the weekly spectacle hosted by the Hillsong Church. Founded in 1983 in Sydney, Hillsong grew into a global evangelical megachurch with branches in over 27 countries, drawing in more than 150,000 attendees worldwide each week at its peak. Known for concert-style worship, live music and celebrity members. To get a better picture for those interested, here's an interesting documentary about them:

Either way, their Copenhagen branch met every Sunday at our hotel. So our task was (apart from many others) to set up a kiddie pool filled with water on the theater stage.

I was wondering what that was for, but I would soon find out.

On stage, they dunked newcomers in the plastic tub while singing worship songs like their lives depended on it. Watching a middle-aged black man in a white dress being baptized felt more like a cult than a church, but it also was very entertaining.

2. Romantic housekeeping surprise:

   
   

My department-rotation didn’t leave out housekeeping.

My time there was - in contrast to my expectations - not that hard thanks to Paulina, my shift manager and a true angel, who spared me from scrubbing bathrooms. Instead, I was assigned to inspect rooms already cleaned by the housekeeping staff. Checking for missed stains that required deep-cleaning like stains in the carpet, or general maintenance issues like clogged sinks. It was a straightforward job: I had a list of about 50 rooms (the hotel had a total of over 330), all supposedly vacated by 12 p.m.

Unless - and here it gets interesting - a guest requested a late checkout.

This involves the guest notifying reception before the checkout-deadline and paying an upcharge, then reception has to inform the shift manager, and of course, the person cleaning the rooms. Except that this time the shift-manager didn’t inspect the rooms herself, so she would have also had to notify ME. That part didn’t happen. So I was working through the list, room by room, everything going smoothly, until I reached one with a “Do Not Disturb” sign. 

No late checkout notice, well past noon, and no answer after several knocks and loud “housekeeping” yells - so I assumed the guest had left and the girl cleaning the room had simply forgotten to remove the sign. I unlocked the door and stepped inside, only to find a couple mid-session, making sweet love. They were so into it that they didn’t even notice me, so I got out silent as an Apache. To this day, I still hope they didn't hear the door closing behind me.