Hotels are meant to be places of comfort and relaxation, but behind the neatly made beds and friendly smiles, there’s a world of bizarre, shocking, and downright insane stories waiting to be told. From rooms that never officially exist to guests who never check out (literally), the hospitality industry has seen it all. Whether it’s luxury hotels with mind-blowing quirks, spooky hauntings, or scandalous secrets, these 50 hotel stories will make you see check-ins in a whole new light. Buckle up, because the world of hospitality is about to get seriously weird!
1 Coney Island’s Elephant Hotel Burns
The Elephantine Colossus was a 200-foot-tall elephant-shaped hotel built on Coney Island in 1885. It housed a concert hall, museum, observatory, and more. It later became a brothel but mysteriously burned down on September 27, 1896.
2. In the 1940s, the YMCA provided dormitory housing at most of its U.S. locations and boasted over 100,000 rooms-more than any hotel chain at the time.
3. Sweden has a “sourdough hotel” where people can leave their sourdough starters to be fed and cared for while they are on vacation.
4. During Mardi Gras, popular hotels in New Orleans apply grease to balcony support poles to prevent intoxicated revelers from climbing in.
5. André the Giant became so intoxicated during the first script read-through for The Princess Bride that he collapsed in the hotel lobby. Unable to move him, the staff set up velvet ropes around him and instructed the maids not to vacuum.
6 Las Vegas Dominates Large Hotels
Only 28 hotels in the world have 3,000 or more rooms, and 15 of them are in Las Vegas (as of March 2025).
7. The world’s largest hotel suite sits 22 stories underground in the Grand Canyon Caverns. A one-night stay for two in “The Caverns Underground Suite” costs $700. The room has a 70-foot ceiling and measures 200 x 400 feet.
8. When the Lorraine Hotel, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, was converted into a museum in 1988, one of its long-term residents refused to leave. She argued that MLK would not have wanted millions of dollars spent on a memorial. Following her eviction, she took up residence in front of the museum in protest.
9. During a border dispute in 1863, a businessman rushed to complete the construction of the Hotel Arbez. Spanning both France and Switzerland, the hotel enabled smuggling by allowing people and goods to move freely inside.
10. Australia once had a floating hotel, which now lies abandoned and forgotten in North Korea.
11 Hotels Use RFID for Towels
Hotels use RFID chips to track their towels and linens. One hotel in Hawaii saved over $15,000 in stolen towels in 2011 by implementing RFID technology.
12. The British once referred to mainland Europe as “The Continent.” As more continental European tourists traveled to England and the Americas, they pushed for a breakfast of pastry, fruit, and coffee-similar to what they normally ate. This preference, along with its low cost, led to the creation of the “Continental Breakfast” in hotels.
13. In 2013, a woman was murdered in a hotel room by her husband while her nine-year-old daughter tried to call 911 four times. The calls failed because the hotel’s phone system required dialing 9 first (making 911 actually 9911). We then passed Kari’s Law, ensuring that hotel phones now permit direct 911 calls without a prefix.
14. During World War II, Winston Churchill temporarily ceded sovereignty over Suite 212 of Claridge’s Hotel to Yugoslavia. This allowed Prince Alexander to be born on Yugoslavian territory.
15. On September 11, 2001, a guest at the Marriott World Trade Center, located at the base of the Twin Towers, woke up to the sound of the first plane crash but went back to sleep. After eventually waking up, turning on the news, taking a shower, and packing his things, he only decided to evacuate when the South Tower collapsed onto the hotel.
16 Las Vegas’ Atomic Bomb Parties
In the 1950s, Las Vegas embraced its proximity to Nevada’s nuclear testing sites. Hotels and casinos promoted “atomic tourism,” hosting rooftop viewing parties where guests sipped “atomic cocktails” while watching mushroom clouds rise from bomb tests just 65 miles away.
17. Marriott, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, began as a root beer stand in 1927.
18. In 2004, security removed and banned Linda Ronstadt from the Aladdin Hotel after she dedicated a song to Michael Moore in support of his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Her comments sparked chaos among the audience, leading to her immediate expulsion before she could return to her suite.
19. For 20 years, the world’s tallest “hotel” was a 105-story empty pyramid-shaped hotel in North Korea.
20. In 1966, aviation legend Howard Hughes overstayed his penthouse suite reservation at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. When hotel management asked him to leave, he bought the entire hotel instead. He continued living and working in the suite for four years while establishing himself as a real estate tycoon.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in Hotel
A contaminated rooftop air-conditioning unit at the Opera House Hotel in the Bronx caused New York’s largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, resulting in 12 deaths in 2015.
22. In 1907, socialite Ida Wood withdrew her entire $1 million bank account (equivalent to $21 million today), declared she was “tired of everything,” and shut herself in a hotel room with her sisters. She did not step outside for the next 24 years.
23. While sleeping in a hotel room, singer Teena Marie suffered a serious head injury when a large picture frame fell on her. The injury may have contributed to her death.
24. H.H. Holmes, a 19th-century serial killer in the U.S., designed and built a hotel specifically for murder. His “Murder Castle” featured soundproofed bedrooms, trap doors, walls lined with blowtorches, and two incinerators.
25. The “Bloody Benders” were America’s first known serial killer family, having lured at least 11 victims into their hotel in Cherryvale, Kansas, between 1868 and 1872. Before authorities discovered their crimes, the family vanished and was never seen again.
RE: Fact #29 (Waldorf Astoria’s Exclusive Debutante Ball) – I can’t believe people still do this.
Rich folks hate change.
RE: Fact #37 (Why Lower Floors Were Pricier) – My wife’s old office building had a crazy elevator accident once. Two guys were fixing it – one up high, one down low – and they totally missed a safety rule. Yikes! Her boss raced down, looked like he’d seen a ghost, and just said, “Call 911, stay away from that thing!”
RE: Fact #1 (Coney Island’s Elephant Hotel Burns) – Seriously? You were rehearsing a play in an elephant, half-naked, with some guy, in the middle of the night?!
RE: Fact #8 (Lorraine Hotel Resident Protested Museum) – That museum’s awesome; they even kept the spot across the street where James Earl Ray fired the shot, and the original concrete where MLK was hit. It’s a powerful place.
RE: Fact #23 (Singer Injured by Falling Frame) – Being from California, I’m super careful about hanging heavy stuff above my bed – earthquakes are no joke! I really dislike it when hotels do that too.
RE: Fact #34 (Whitney Houston’s Hotel Room Retired) – How do I cancel a hotel room?
RE: Fact #12 (The Origins of Continental Breakfast) – Lots of Brits still just call mainland Europe “the continent,” I bet.
RE: Fact #11 (Hotels Use RFID for Towels) – Hotels are total jerks about their minibars. They’ll charge you even if you just *touch* something! They’ve got sensors and everything.
That happened to me, and I was furious! Never again.
I fought them about it, of course. They didn’t even look into it, I had to argue to get the charge removed. Having to argue with the front desk about something I didn’t do? Nope, never staying there again.
RE: Fact #36 (Unsolved Chlorine Attack at Convention) – Seriously, what’s with all the furry hate? Yeah, some are weird, and some are messed up, but you can say that about any group. Most furries are actually pretty cool. My ex was one, and I went to a few conventions with her—everyone was super friendly. Judging them all just shows how narrow-minded you are.
RE: Fact #49 (World’s Oldest Hotel in Japan) – That guest book would be seriously huge.
RE: Fact #47 (Hyatt Walkway Collapse Killed 114) – Funny thing, I learned about this at my hotel. It was a little creepy standing where 114 people died.
RE: Fact #38 (Motel Owner Spied on Guests) – Wow, that was way longer than I thought, but I couldn’t stop reading.
RE: Fact #20 (Howard Hughes Bought His Hotel) – People always bring up Howard Hughes’s crazy antics, like locking himself in a theater for days to watch movies non-stop. But, they don’t usually mention his chronic pain. That plane crash in ’46 was brutal – crushed collarbone, chest, ribs, his heart shifted, and he had awful burns. He was probably in agony for the rest of his life. Refusing haircuts and nail trims? Probably allodynia, where even normal touch hurts. Maybe all those movies were a way to deal with the pain. He lived another 30 years after the crash, which is wild. I can’t even fathom being in that much pain for that long. Plus, he had OCD and was a germaphobe.
RE: Fact #19 (North Korea’s Empty Hotel Tower) – It’s like North Korea – all bluster on the outside, but totally empty inside.
RE: Fact #17 (Marriott Started as Root Beer Stand) – That’s why there’s always money in banana stand.