Look at various fields in the service industry, and you’ll find they all share a common trait: ‘the customer is always right’ stands as the 1st rule of business. This especially applies to high-class hotel industry, with 4-star and 5-star facilities pulling every imaginable move to make sure not a single frown appears on their guests’ faces.
Slobodna Dalmacija carried out a survey among the best hotels in Split, coming up with a fascinating repertoire of clients’ whims and demands. What were the strangest items hotel guests have ever left behind? Any quirky wishes that had to be met?
As it turns out, plenty of both.
“The most bizarre thing we’ve ever come across is a prosthetic leg a guest left in his room. He never asked to get it back. We often find sex toys and lubricants, even in rooms of some of the older guests. All forgotten belongings are kept in storage for two years, whether it’s an item of clothing or a plain toothbrush. One such item was a suitcase filled with clothes that never got claimed by its owner”, said Maja Golub, manager at Hotel Park.
The staff at Hotel Park is more than used to getting special requests. They are always handled with a single rule in mind: ‘It can’t be done’ is not an acceptable answer. Whatever the guests ask for, they get. When it comes to regulars, they can be sure to find whatever they usually demand waiting in their room.
“There’s an older foreign couple that always requests 15 pillows; some of them are filled with buckwheat, some are anatomical, each has its own purpose. We put them in the closet, every pillow marked with a tag that describes the filling.
We have a guest who always asks for red satin sheets, with a remark they need to be very slippery. He always finds the bedspread ready. Another guest suffers from spine-related issues, so we empty the room for her; all that’s left are a closet and two large planks on the floor, covered with sheets and a pillow. This is what she always sleeps on.
On one occasion, we had a guest who was following an international football game in Split, so he asked for an artwork to be taken down and replaced with a poster of his favourite club. We never ask why they want these things, all we have to do is to meet their demands”, Golub said.
One of the more bizarre demands in Hotel Park was a request for the room temperature to be kept at 11 degrees Celsius at all times, resulting in a lot of work for the technical service. The temperature in the hotel is never set below 18 degrees Celsius, so the staff had to come up with a way to meet this peculiar demand. As the room had to be kept very cold, the cleaning staff had to open and close windows rapidly whenever they tidied the room. The entire floor was much colder than the rest of the hotel throughout the week.
“Sometimes we get groups of guests whose faith entails particular rules of conduct. One of such guests was a rabbi whose faith prevented him from touching the door knob on the weekends. Our housekeeper carried him on a sling, all the way from the parking lot to his room, closing the door behind him as well”, said Golub.
In Hotel Le Meridien Lav, guests usually forget to pack their swimsuits and luxury beauty products, and it’s not a rare occurrence for the cleaning staff to find various sex toys as well. Most of these items have been returned to the guests. When it comes to special demands, one of the more memorable ones was the entire hotel getting booked by a single group of Jewish guests.
The staff of Hotel Vestibul recalls multiple occasions when they had to organise romantic dinners and dates for their guests. One couple was presented with a dinner at the hotel terrace, followed by a special performance of a klapa group who sang for them exclusively. Another VIP couple landed in Split only to head straight to the Blue Cave on Biševo island, followed by a lunch in Komiža and a stop in a secluded bay on Brač.
“We organised a fishing trip for a rich foreign couple; they were accompanied by a fisherman from Matejuška. In the evening, the catch was taken back to the hotel and prepared for dinner .
We always present out guests with farewell gifts, engravings printed after an original that was painted using Plavac mali wine. However, guests often take their own memorabilia, such as hotel room keys. When we call them to inquire about the key, they often say they forgot to return it”, said Neno Nizić, the owner of Hotel Vestibul.
The Radisson Blu Resort seems to get the gadget lovers, as their staff frequently finds forgotten tech items. On occasion, it happens that some guests leave jewellery or cash in their safety deposit boxes. “Sometimes they leave substantial amounts of money. We call them and organise the delivery even before they’ve noticed they left the money behind”, said the staff at Radisson.
Sex, romance, health, and wealth – four key elements both when it comes to demands or forgotten items. We’re all focused on same key subjects in life, aren’t we?
