Unsolved Guest Mysteries‌‌

Laura2592
Level 10
Frederick, MD

Unsolved Guest Mysteries‌‌

This is just for fun, but we are puzzled by some of the mysterious behaviors of guests. Share your thoughts and your own unsolved guest mysteries for others to solve!

 

The Case of the Married Couple Who Sleeps in Two Beds. Ricky and Lucy? They had a fight? Just want to wake up to a different view every day? Terrible snoring? We have identical mattresses in both bedrooms and state that to guests. But fairly often on a 2 night stay we will have both beds slept in. 

 

The Case of the Overflowing Coffee Filter. Our cleaners have a great need for this case to be cracked. We periodically have guests who leave the grinds in the drip coffee maker and the filter is full to overflowing. Do they think their coffee is stronger if they overfill the filter? Just not know how much to put in?

 

The Case of the Missing Cutting Board. We had a set of 3 bamboo cutting boards in various sizes and over the course of the year they all disappeared. One at a time. Who is out there collecting used cutting boards? It seems like this would be hard to pack by accident. Is there a cutting board conspiracy?

 

What guest mysteries would you like solved?

 

 

31 Replies 31
Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Laura2592  I get the two beds slept in thing a lot. I figure it’s probably a snoring issue or something like that. The coffee grounds...my guess is they go to make another pot and are too lazy to start over with a fresh filter and grounds! 

Biggest mystery to date for me was the item of partially burned clothing in the trash.I asked the guest and never got a response. I was concerned it was a fireplace mishap. Another mystery surrounds why folks insist on moving the VERY heavy tilting wardrobe mirror from one bedroom to another. I do have a suspicion 😉 The room it’s in has a single bed. It’s the only bedroom that will  really fit the mirror or I’d move it permanently. Another sort-of mystery was the camera tripod set up and left behind in one of the bedrooms. My guests get up to all sorts of kinky tricks I think. 

@Colleen253 I try not to think about why certain items are positioned where they end up positioned in our bedrooms 😞

 

We found a burned dish towel. Like set on FIRE and crispy-- not just a random burn mark from too close to the stovetop.  It was one of our guests who left behind a lot of alcohol empties. Fire and booze doesn't mix. 

@Laura2592 @Colleen253 My very first guest ever had many little quirks:  Used the entire extra large shampoo bottle and spare,  and entire bottle of dish soap, he must have been very clean as these were economy size.  The bathtub spout and parts were taken apart (easy to put back together, but why take apart. Left the toilet the dirtiest I had ever seen a toilet in my life, but the strangest quirk of his was finding the fire extinguisher taken from the closet and it had obviously been used on the gas fireplace ( all it takes is a flip of a switch to turn on and off).  He was a business man  and really nice guy, makes you wonder sometimes.  I'm thinking he was just bored.  Now I ensure I have plenty of reading material and other things to occupy ones time other than fire.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Laura2592 I can understand the two beds thing. This happens to me a lot. I think one bed could be used for napping or reading. Also, if the guests are staying for multiple nights they might like the idea of clean sheets without having to wash/remake a bed. 

 

My biggest mystery is a small section of a wall that looks to have been fixed/repainted. There is a perfect square where the paint doesn't quite match. I think a guest dented/scratched the wall, took a paint chip to Home Depot, tried to match the paint, and then repainted the wall. They did a good job because I didn't notice it right away but something is off.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Laura2592  There's so many normal reasons for couples using both beds, that one doesn't seem mysterious to me. One snores loudly, or one likes to read in bed and the light disturbs the other, one thrashes around in their sleep, or they want to spice things up by having sex in various places. Sometimes one is a really early riser and doesn't want to disturb the other, who likes to sleep in. 

 

The only thing any of my guests has done that would have been mysterious had I not noticed it during her stay was a bath towel missing, with another I'd never seen before in its place. They were both green (different shades) but mine was thick and fluffy, the one in her bathroom was thin and scratchy. The only reason I noticed during her stay was because she asked me to remove a spider in her room, so I did a quick vacuum of her room and bathroom.

 

Turned out she'd gone on a booze cruise, taken my towel and didn't pay attention to which one she grabbed when disembarking.

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Laura2592 my vote on the cutting board: they ran it thru the dishwasher and then hid it in the woods when they realized that you can't dw wood....

My thoughts exactly! People on holiday, cant be bother to wash by hand so pop it in the dishwasher. Open dishwasher to find chopping board in pieces.....quick panic and throw in the bin hoping the host wont notice. Dont know about other hosts but i have some kind of photographic memory for items in my cottage! I always know when something is missing.

M199
Level 10
South Bruce Peninsula, Canada

@Laura2592 

 

Just to add to guest mysteries!  I have yet to figure out why my guests broke fresh cedar branches off the nearby trees and barbequed them??  Yes I did find the ashes, both in the barbeque and the cottage. Yeah they're not coming back.  Even my neighbour found their movements around the property odd, and he is a former hotel owner. 

 

As for the coffee filter, my inlaws are so cheap that they reuse their coffee grounds all day long. Do I drink coffee there anymore.  Ew, no!

@M199  They were doing some kind of smudging ritual to purify your property?

M199
Level 10
South Bruce Peninsula, Canada

@Sarah977 , @Laura2592 

 

@Sarah977 That is an intuitive thought and quite possible.  That thought hadn't crossed my mind.

 

 

Kath9
Level 10
Albany, Australia

@Laura2592 

  1. The Case of the Missing Whale Shark Oven Mitt: I had this cute blue spotty oven mitt in the shape of a whale shark that I had bought as a souvenir when I went snorkeling with whale sharks a few years ago (which was one of my life's highlights). Anyway, it suddenly went missing, never to be seen again, after I had some guests stay. I guess they liked it too.
  2. The Case of the Flooded Bathroom: Actually, this is not just one case but many. I have a glass screened-in shower, and it is not possible to flood the bathroom if the door is closed (which you would think everyone would do). However, I can't tell you the number of times I've walked into my bathroom and had to wade through practically ankle-deep amount of water on the floor. WHY???
Sara952
Level 5
Los Angeles, CA

Adding some of my own mysteries to the mix:

 

1. salt and pepper shakers found in the microwave 

2. Very (very) petite guest rearranged all furniture in the apartment , including an extremely heavy solid-wood frame to the opposite side of the studio.  She was alone as confirmed by security cameras.  I move furniture all the time and could not move this bed even a centimeter on my own.

3.  All remotes in the house in the very back of a top kitchen cabinet (would have to climb on the counter to get up there)

4. Guest said she left her shoes in a shoebox under the bed.  Found them 3 days later in the bottom of a plant in the middle of the bushes.

@Sara952  😄 LOL

this very tiny woman... she was Chinese maybe? I noticed they like to rearrange the furniture... maybe it's some Feng shui thing

@Sara952 

 

#2 I'm 5'4", weigh 98 pounds, am 71 years old, and people are amazed at how strong I am. But I wouldn't rearrange someone else's furniture 🙂

 

#3 Did they have kids? If so, maybe to keep them from playing with the remotes. Or maybe thought they were some kind of secret surveillance gear.