45 Shocking Secrets From Hospitals, Airports, And Hotels, Told By Their Employees

Hospital chaplain, someone passing away at age 90 surrounded by friends and family is actually a happy visit for me, not sad.

Young, traumatic passings, stillbirth, people being kept alive in the ICU well past their due date to family not honoring their wishes, these are the sad ones.

Hotel superchains (Hilton, Marriott, and such) keep notes on your account... forever. Do something "notable" and we put it down. When you check in, it displays on their screens. Good, bad, ugly... it's right there. Passed off a maid 10 years ago at the Orange County Hilton? It's still there when you check into the st louis hampton. Good tips? Bad tips? NO tips? Bought pizza for their desk staff at the Marriott Chicago? Yeah, that's there too. The moral?

Don't be a jerk; be Good... be better. We'll reciprocate, even decades later.

Hotels NEVER forget.

I supported doctors in IT for a while, I can tell you they are both the smartest and dumbest people I've ever met.

I had one who could take a human brain apart and put it back together, but kept all of his passwords, bank accounts, social security number, and every other personally identifiable thing on sheet of paper stuck to the back of his laptop. He got a very short and grumpy response when I suggested that was a bad idea and also told him I could make all that an encrypted file on his laptop.

You didn't ask, but the second dumbest for IT professionals are lawyers, but I assume they are very good at practicing law.

I used to work at a very small airport (three flights in and out a day on a turboprop) where we were all simultaneously the ticket agents, gate agents, security personnel, and baggage handlers. We also fueled and de-iced the planes, along with cleaning the cabin between flights.

DO NOT mess around with the people who have your travel plans in their hands. Don't yell at them if your flight is delayed or if your bags don't make it. They can make it a whole lot worse.

ICU nurse here. The odds that a patient that codes and is successfully resuscitated will survive until discharge are way lower than you would think.

People think airports run on giant systems and precision. Half the time it’s exhausted workers holding together a chain reaction with coffee and pure stubbornness.

If you pass away during flight the Captain will decide to continue to final destination or divert to nearest airport.

If diverting to nearest airport the crew will move the body to an empty row of seats. If empty row unavailable they will place the body in the rear galley and cover with blankets.

If continuing to final destinations the crew may leave the body in the seat and remove passengers to other seats for the duration of the flight.

Typically you may not know someone has passed away during flight. The crew does their best to maintain calm and not draw attention to the situation.

Comforters on your beds in hotel rooms are not washed between guests. If they are stained or look rough, then they wash them. They make your bed in a specific way so the comforter isn't the main blanket on top touching you. The sheets are cleaned every time though.

Some of the rooms are not vacuumed either. Just lint rolled.

Housekeepers are on tight schedules most of the time, with strict management breathing down your back, so don't blame them.

I used to work front desk for many years.

If you’re told to be at the hospital at 6 AM for your procedure you’re slotted for 7:30 or after. You have to go through admissions first. Then to pre-op. Then anesthesia will come and assess you. Next surgeon will stop by the bay. Then you wait. If an emergency comes up, you wait longer. It’s frustrating but please be glad that you are not the “emergency”.

Also, hospitals can get bed bugs too.

When requesting your medical records tell them ‘it’s for continued care’ and you won’t be charged to get your records.

We have a code phrase for "this person is being creepy" over the radio. You'd never hear it unless you needed to. - Hotel staff

Used to work in housekeeping for a hotel as a teenager. If someone requested early check in or we were on a time crunch, we were told to “clean” by making some quick vacuum lines in the floor and spraying lemon Pledge in the air to make it “smell clean.” And yes, the comforters never get washed.

Don't be embarrassed if you accidentally leave an adult item out in your hotel room and housekeeping comes. They've seen much worse. Don't use this as an excuse to leave them out on purpose.

Nothing is as clean as you think it is. Except for the actual sterilized equipment or one time use items

Although I think most people know this by now.
I’m referring to hospitals

If an aircraft goes tech (breaks or something) then they can often tell the crew in advance, but will not tell any passengers -they want them at the airport to wait.

Booked a 45 minute connection through O'Hare once. once.

Mid hotels with complimentary breakfasts? Yeah, everything is premade and microwaved, or slid into slots on a massive oven. Whatever isn't eaten gets put away and reheated for the next day.

The breakfast juice machine never gets unplugged, it has a switch under the front edge you can turn on. If you ask the staff nicely, they'll turn it on for you. I used to do it for parents with little kids all the time.

Showers and tubs, including Jacuzzi tubs, get sprayed with bleach, and that's it. I never saw the inside of the faucets or sprayers cleaned.

They keep a skeleton crew at night. I worked 3-11. After housecleaning left at 5ish, it was just me in a hotel of 30 rooms.

Key cards will deactivate if you keep them next to any magnetized strip, like a credit card.

A whole lot of co-worker adult "playtime" going on in hotels and hospitals. I can't vouch for airports, but I've worked in hospitality, and currently in healthcare, and it's common.

I can’t (or couldn’t) tell you if someone passed away in your room or any ghost stories because it’s bad for business. (I’m aware that some people seek those rooms, but not every hotel wants that kind of publicity)

I worked over ten years for a major (the biggest they said!) hotel company and my boss would get mad when I tell the new staff about these stories.

There are more than 250,000 passings in the US from medical mistakes and malpractice every year.