Vacations are supposedly a time of adventure, relaxation, and happy memories. But sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and the places we stay become the stuff of nightmares.
From creepy encounters to sh0cking surprises, these travelers had experiences they’ll never forget—for all the wrong reasons. Here are 13 stories of people whose vacation stays turned into unforgettable tales of discomfort, chaos, and horror.
Story 1
My boyfriend planned a romantic weekend at a luxury hotel. Everything felt perfect—until checkout. His card got declined, and he turned red with embarrassment. I smiled and paid for our stay.
As we were leaving, the receptionist discreetly pulled me aside and said, “Be careful, I’ve seen this guy do the same thing with other women. He comes here, his card gets declined, and they end up paying for everything.”
chose not to believe her. We were still early in our relationship, and I trusted him completely—I had no reason not to. But over time, he started pulling similar tricks more often. I noticed he was making me pay for shopping trips and other expenses.
The final straw came when he tried to steal my money by pressuring me to invest in a shady scheme.
I broke up with him. Yet the memory of that hotel stay still haunts me because it was the beginning of it all, and I wish I had listened to that girl.
Story 2
My dad went to a hotel once and checked into a first-floor room. He went into the room, put his stuff down, opened the curtains… and a man was hiding there.
My dad said, “Excuse me,” closed the curtains, got his stuff, and left. He went to the front desk to explain that a man was hiding in his room. It turned out the guy had just robbed a place and somehow got into the room through an open window.
Story 3
I discovered a hidden camera in our Airbnb bedroom. It was midnight. My husband quickly covered it with a towel, and we went to sleep.
At 2 a.m., the door burst open. The Airbnb owner stormed in, furious, screaming, “You idiots, this is a camera to see the outside! Why have you covered it?”
It turned out the camera was aimed at the street, not the bedroom. The owner, paranoid from a string of thefts in the neighborhood—including the theft of his car—had installed it to watch for trouble. He admitted to monitoring the footage obsessively.
We left first thing in the morning, feeling shaken and uncomfortable. Despite his explanation, breaking into our room in the middle of the night crossed every boundary. We left an honest review, warning future guests about the intrusion.
Later, as we read through other reviews, we realized this wasn’t an isolated incident. Other guests had experienced his outbursts and obsession with security. While we could understand his paranoia, it didn’t excuse the violation of our privacy or the bizarre behavior. It was an experience we wouldn’t forget, and one we wouldn’t want anyone else to endure.
Story 5
I needed to find a hotel because of my daughter’s gymnastics competition. I read online reviews, and they were good. The price was good too, so I booked it.
I had difficulty finding it because it was dark, and their sign wasn’t lit. The parking lot was pitch black. Just outside the entrance, there were two sketchy guys.
Inside, the motel lobby was dimly lit with flickering lights. The room was no better—stained sheets, holes in the bedspread, and hair in the shower. The fitness room consisted of a broken stair stepper and an old TV on the ground that was also broken.
I told the front desk that I wanted to cancel our reservation. She said, “I don’t blame you. This place is gross. I had an interview at Kohl’s and hope they hire me so I can quit this place.”
Story 6
The hotel I stayed in years ago to spend the night with my then-boyfriend when he was coming back from being away for months was a disaster. The building was under construction, so it was a mess with tradespeople everywhere.
And the reason it was under construction was that it was being converted from a hotel to a senior’s residence! It was already operating as such while still taking hotel bookings. None of this was disclosed on their website, which showed really nice rooms.
When I checked in, the staff member had to move a sign advertising their upcoming diabetes workshop out of the way. The room I stayed in had already been converted. Emergency assistance pull cords were everywhere, all the furniture and the bathroom were set up for accessibility, and it had the most uncomfortable bed ever.
I couldn’t believe it. I was so embarrassed to have to bring my boyfriend there, but it was too late to cancel and rebook. Haha!
Story 7
I showed up at a very nice resort hotel, extraordinarily late, for a company-wide meeting. My flight from the East Coast to the West Coast had been delayed, re-routed, and so on, and I ended up walking into my hotel at 4 AM.
The scariest-looking guy I’ve ever seen behind a hotel desk greeted me. When I said I was checking in, he seemed immediately flustered and started calling rooms. He apologized if someone answered. It took me a couple of seconds to realize he had no idea who was in which room, and he was calling rooms at 4 AM to see what was empty.
He finally located an empty room and gave me the key. I went to the room, closed the door, and hoped to get about two hours of sleep before my morning meeting. Realizing what he had done, I thought I’d be smart and take my phone off the hook before I went to sleep.
At 5 AM, someone was trying to get into my room. Apparently, he still couldn’t figure out who wasn’t answering and who was busy.
I found out the next morning that the person who tried to get into my room went back to the front desk and was told there were no more rooms. The desk clerk offered him the sofa in the lobby for an hour or two if he wanted to sleep there.
Story 8
Last year for Valentine’s Day, I got a room for my wife and me at a really nice hotel. It was pretty expensive, but all the reviews said it was really nice, and the rooms were big.
We got in, and the staff was extremely rude. We don’t look like the kind of people who can afford to spend a lot on a hotel room, and the staff made us feel like we didn’t belong there.
We got up to the room, and it was super tiny. It was boiling in the room, and the air conditioning didn’t work. I asked the staff if there was a way to fix it, and they just ignored us.
Story 9
I was about 4 at the time, so this is mostly based on my siblings’ stories, though I remember a few still shots. We were at a hotel with some family friends and their kids (5 kids total, us included, ages 4–13). The parents put us all in the same room to chill in the evening while they went out to do adult things (probably a fancy dinner).
We were chilling on the bed watching a movie when, all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise, the floor vibrated a bit, and then, I kid you not, hundreds, if not thousands, of mini spiders started flowing up the walls from two of the bottom corners of the room.
After a failed attempt to defend our ground by using marshmallows and ice cubes as projectiles, we huddled in the bathroom, sealing the bottom of the door with a towel. I slept in the bathtub with my sister that night. There were no phones to call for help (this was before kids/teens ever had cell phones), and we were very clearly instructed not to leave the room under any circumstances. We took those instructions a bit too seriously.
My parents discovered the scene in the middle of the night and probably woke up the whole floor with their initial scream. We all ended up okay, though.
