Jaunt is an occasional feature of my writing. These articles are for fun and pleasure. You probably won’t find any earth shattering ideas in them. So enjoy.
I recently came across a memory of mine on Facebook from 2011. At the time I was managing a hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida. I have many memorable occurrences during my hotel management career. As you can probably understand, many of them I cannot pass along and still maintain a Christian newsletter. :)
Picture a 15 story building with a descent sized lobby. On the afternoon of April 15th of that year, I had walked out of my office and was in the lobby. That day it was pretty busy with people coming and going.
I noticed two men walking in from the main entrance heading in the direction of the elevators. What made these men stand out was that they were holding between them about a seven feet long body bag. Yes, a body bag. Not an empty body bag, but one that had someone or something inside.
I usually tried not to be too intrusive with hotel guests, but knew that I had to inquire as to the body bag. So I said, “Excuse me, but what do have there?”
I was thankful that their response did not include anything about a dead body. I was also thankful that they did not put the bag on the floor and unzip it for me to see.
The one guy at the head of the bag responded simply, “It’s an alligator. We have one more in the truck that we still have to get.”
In my befuddlement I asked, “How big is it?” Not sure why I said that because size was really not the issue. But he quickly responded that this gator was six and a half feet long.
I informed him that alligators were not allowed in the hotel. Pretty much anything that had to be carried inside a bodybag was forbidden. I can only imagine what the other hotel guests were thinking as they watched this encounter.
The lead guy didn’t seem phased by my inquiries and matter of factly told me that they would keep them in the bathtub of the room and would be feeding them lizards and insects.
I was then imagining one of our housekeepers going into that room to clean the bathroom. So I informed him a little more sternly that alligators were not allowed in the hotel. He acted as if I had just told him that he couldn’t bring his own pillow to his room. So I further explained, “We don’t even allow puppies or kittens, we certainly are not going to allow a 6 feet 6 inches alligator…and his brother.”
So they retreated back to their truck. We voided their checkin and went back to no body bags traipsing through the lobby.
P.S. I googled alligator bag to see if it was a thing. The only things that popped up were bags made of alligator.
What’s the weirdest thing you have ever experienced in a hotel? I’d love to hear your answers.