'Can I have a room with an ocean view... and a dead mouse?' Hotels get bizarre requests - Liam Rudden

Traveling has always been a perk of the writer's life, for me. Being dispatched to explore and share experiences from places you might never otherwise have the opportunity to visit, a privilege never to be taken for granted.
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At the heart of every trip, however, is the hotel you find yourself based in. From China to Switzerland, Malaysia to the Great Barrier Reef, I've been booked into some of the best... there have also been one or two less than impressive establishments, like the Maltese hotel situated in the middle of a building site or the state run hotel where I was warned to be aware that there were security cameras in all rooms.

Still, one thing I have seldom had to do is complain. When I have, it has been for the usual reasons, a broken shower unit, unclean sheets or, on one occasion, a bad of cigarette butts hidden in a bedside cabinet.

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So I was intrigued to read the press release from The Inn Collection (www.inncollectiongroup.com) that dropped into my emails the other day, sharing some of the most outlandish guest complaints and requests received by hotels.

For example, in a scene that could have been lifted directly from an episode of Faulty Towers, would you believe that one hotel in the centre of London received a complaint that there was 'no ocean view' from one room.

Elsewhere, one guest complained to the duty manager that ‘because it was a foggy day they couldn’t see much of the sea from their seaview room.' Then there was the Australian guest who requested 'the ingredient list for the Cock-a-leekie Soup, as he was worried they would be similar to what you find in a Bushtucker Trial.'

Other guests mixed up a lake view for an ocean one and complained: ‘They’d seen a picture of the view from one of our hotels beside the North Sea from a bedroom, then booked a lake view room at one of our other hotels and complained that they couldn’t see the sea from their room… In the middle of the Lake District.’

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Other complaints included 'the soup is too thick', it was gravy, and that the bed was too high and could 'the legs be shortened by 12 inches.' Even those are almost sensible when considered alongside, 'There's cheese on the cheese platter, I ordered', 'My girlfriend's snoring is keeping me awake', 'There's no steak on the vegetarian menu' and 'My dog didn't enjoy his stay.'

The winner for me, however, is that of the guest who misunderstood the Do Not Disturb sign on her room door and thought she was therefore unable to leave her room. A sign of what was to come with lockdown perhaps.

If complaints can be bizarre, some of the requests hotels receive are downright outrageous, would you ask for 'a bath full of chocolate milk', 'a bath full of honey', for the 'toilet to be filled with mineral water' or 'the sound of goat bells to aid sleep' for example. They too pale into insignificance when compared with the guest who required 15 cucumbers a day', or another who asked for 'a dead mouse'.

​My favourite, however,​ was that for '16 pillows' for one single guest. To that, I can relate.

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