When room service becomes more than what you were hired to do, a Nakuru hotel worker shares some of her bad experiences
Room service is usually offered in hotels.
Imagine waking up at a time of your choosing, taking a luxurious, long shower and having breakfast delivered by room service. Well, unfortunately for most of us, this is only possible when we decide to go on holiday after months of saving.
But despite the thrill that comes with such a trip, have you ever wondered what the men and women who dedicate their lives to making your holiday unimaginable have to go through?
Mtaa Wangu caught up with Susan*, who shared some of the good and bad stories of customers getting a little too excited by the term 'room service' and getting carried away.
"I was part of the hospitality industry for almost a decade, so you can imagine how many interesting stories I have in my shelf," the Naka resident jokes.
While telling her story, Susan reveals that her first 'weird' experience with a customer was during her first job in 2013.
"I was interning at a well-known hotel near Lake Nakuru. The place attracts a lot of tourists and the majority of them were foreigners. One evening, a couple asked for room service and I obliged. When I delivered the food to their room, I found them both undressed and the lady holding massage oil. She demanded that I massage them both and even offer them a 'happy ending' in exchange for a fat wad of dollars. I was quite shocked and embarrassed by this request and quickly ran out of the room," she says.
The then 22-year-old rushed to report the matter to her supervisor. To her shock, the supervisor asked her to return to the room, apologise and accept the money in exchange for the bizarre offer.
Shortly after the incident, she handed in her resignation and sought work at another hotel.
"Many years passed after I retired from my first job before I experienced my second strange story. A well-known Nakuru politician checked into our hotel and ordered room service. When the food was delivered, he asked me to help him lift his heavy suitcase off the floor. While I was doing so, he locked the door and tried to force himself on me, shouting that he had paid a lot of money to stay at the hotel and should enjoy all the hotel's resources," Susan says, still visibly shaken by the memory.
Fortunately, she escaped unharmed when a colleague heard her scream for help as she walked down the corridor.
Together, Susan and her colleague reported the matter to their supervisor, who, like her first supervisor, brushed it off.
"The sad part of it all was that after I reported the incident, I was offered a promotion and a pay rise so as not to drag the hotel's name through the mud."
This was the breaking point for Susan, who decided to leave the hospitality industry and go into business for herself.
However, Susan says that not all requests for room service were sexual favours.
"Some hotel guests would assume that 'room service' meant that the hotel staff had to clean their clothes for free, while others would assume that it included hotel staff babysitting their children or pets on request."