11 Behaviors That Give Away Your Social Status At Hotel Check-In, According To Reddit's Hotel Workers

Whether you're a wolf of Wall Street, a Hollywood starlet, a suburban soccer mom, or of hard-working blue-collar stock, we all want to be treated like royalty when we travel — or at the very least, like everyone else. But while all money tends to spend the same in the White Lotus resort class, the most experienced hotel front desk employees and concierges can often tell the silver spoons from the coupon clippers.

No matter what Julia Roberts would have us believe in "Pretty Woman," markers of social class tend to go far beyond decoding the number of tines on a fork or puttin' on the Ritz with a luxury shop makeover from Rodeo Drive. To find out what hotel workers were saying, I took a deep dive into Reddit in search of conversations about wealth, class, and social status indicators, then chose the conversations that generated the most agreement from other employees. 

Because we all deserve first-class treatment when we travel, no matter where we happen to hail from, we combed Reddit's front desk threads to find out which behavioral tells hotel workers say reveal the most about a traveler's social status at check-in. Don't forget to add a winning smile and a tip to sweeten the pot.

It's common for hotel chains to place an incidental hold on guests' credit cards — that is, a temporary authorization on a credit card account to cover any additional costs that may arise during a stay, such as minibar usage, movie rental, room service, add-on spa services, or property damage. If not needed, the funds are released after checkout.

Even so, front desk workers say that some guests in the lower tax brackets can't hide their reaction to the incidental hold, which can run up to $1,000 depending on the hotel or resort. Frequently outlined in fine print, these charges can come as a surprise to some guests — especially those who tend to roll with a low bank account balance. While most financially comfortable guests won't even react to these charges, those who visibly wince are often seen as telegraphing their lack of economic cushion. "Naive travelers of very modest means or poor credit who are going to immediately notice a transient hold on their debit card since it's linked to their bank balance," shared one Redditor on r/TalesFromThe FrontDesk.

On the flip side, individuals with money will often overlook the transient charge altogether, even when that charge ends up being much higher than expected. One front desk worker recalled accidentally mistyping the incidental hold at a whopping $10,000, a charge they quickly learned couldn't be reversed until the end of the guest's stay. "So I just shook for the remainder of his stay – anticipating the nuclear fallout that was coming when he noticed," they reported. "Either he never did or he just didn't care. Must be nice to be that well off."

Many people would find it absurd to spend their hard-earned, hard-saved vacation budget on extra hotel room days just in case they might want to use them. But according to hotel workers on Reddit, many seriously affluent guests won't even think twice about booking out extra nights just in case they might want to show up a few days earlier or extend their stay. After all, why leave it to chance only to find out your room is booked when you realize you're not quite ready to head back home?

One hotel worker recalled a wealthy party traveling with nannies and staff by way of their extra large superyacht. When the party had not arrived days into the overwater bungalow booking, the employee confirmed with the guests' butler team that the stay fell in the middle of an island-hopping tour. "Turns out they had book their stay 2 days in advance, 'Just in case' they wanted to come to the resort earlier than they wanted," the Reddit user reported. By the end of the stay, these guests had barely even been to the resort aside from a couple of days spent by the pool. 

Responding to the post, another Redditor recalled a rich aunt who had booked rooms for extra days at a theme park hotel because it was more convenient than keeping track of which family members were arriving on what day.

If you've ever checked into a hotel and thought, "Wow, this is nice. But it would be a whole lot nicer without all the other people," you may relate to why some wealthy travelers prefer to book out a whole floor. According to some hotel employees, it's not uncommon for celebrities and various uber-wealthy types to just book whole blocks of rooms simply because they can.

Take it from one former butler who spent several years in Tokyo working in luxury hotels, who dished on r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk, "For these type of people it is totally normal to book out entire floors for privacy." According to the Redditor, these types of guests will often make use of a hotel's staff elevators to avoid those pesky unwanted interactions with regular everyday folks. They also tend to limit their interactions to their own staff, which they bring with them everywhere they go.

This is especially common when the guests are celebrities traveling with an entourage. Neil Diamond's band and tour crew, for example, booked an entire floor for their stay, a necessary move to avoid the lobby full of middle-aged ladies waiting for a chance to catch the crooner. Snoop Dogg and his entourage reportedly took up three floors at one hotel, with the Reddit user reporting heavy consumption of chocolate chip cookies served with 2% milk, delivered via room service.

It goes without saying that there are a handful of sketchy reasons someone might wish to use an alias when they're booking a hotel room. But when that booking comes with an expensive hotel room or block of hotel rooms, according to Reddit front desk workers, it's a strong indicator that there's about to be a low-key VIP on the premises.

One r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk worker recalled booking rooms for the Canadian rock band the Barenaked Ladies during the 2000s. According to the Redditor, the band habitually booked their rooms under the names of characters from "The Simpsons" — names like Ned Flanders, Ralph Wiggum, and Milhouse Van Houten. "I always remembered how funny it was," they recalled.

Another Reddit hotel worker whose former place of employment was near a sports stadium and arena recalled their experiences working with sports celebrities in the era before cell phones became ubiquitous. "One very huge athlete who was in house a few times always registered under the same false name," they shared on r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk. That pseudonym? The athlete's name spelled backwards.

If you saunter up to the front desk flashing your cash and bragging about your immense stock portfolio, you might as well be wearing a neon sign that says you're not as rich as you claim to be. According to some hotel workers, that's because the truly wealthy don't tend to feel the need to impress anyone, announce what they've got, or demand special treatment. As one Reddit user put it, "Money talks, wealth whispers." That's also why some front desk employees insist it's not the top-tier wealthy folks but the mid-level wealthy guests who tend to give the most entitled "rich guy" attitudes.

One front desk worker asserted that the worst-behaved folks are invariably gold rewards level guests. "The guests that I have the most issues with surprisingly are not the three upper tiers," they shared on r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk. While the higher-tiered guests tend to be a bit picky, likely because they simply know what they want and have the money to buy it, they also tend to be polite and appreciative. But, too often, the guests with just enough money to have an excuse to act entitled are a different story. "I'm never surprised when I look up a difficult guest and they are gold level," they dished. Another Reddit user recalled pleasant interactions with a pair of lovely EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winners, contrasted with one ego-tripping black card member who was irate over not getting a free upgrade.

If you roll up to the front desk decked out in Balenciaga, you might be wealthy, but you're probably not wealthy enough to, say, own your own private island. Much like talking about money, some hotel workers say the quickest way to tell the truly wealthy from the newbies and wannabes is how much they care about Hermes, Chanel, and other bougie brands. The extremely wealthy, they observe, don't tend to care about these things as much as the status-seekers. According to one Reddit hotel worker, these types of designer labels are the domain of folks who want to appear wealthy but aren't. "The rich just wear clothing without worrying about the labels. A standard T-Shirt, but it's been custom hemmed to fit them better... not a Tommy Hilfiger shirt."

Other hotel workers concurred, chiming in with tales of extremely wealthy folks in well-worn clothing or hippie attire. Echoing the sentiment, another Redditor added that the only visible difference between the very wealthy and less financially secure types is often the vehicle they drive up in. The aspirationally wealthy types, on the other hand, want everyone to know they've got wealth, they added — often a sure sign that they're "one bad quarter from homeless."

There's nothing wrong with being flustered, overwhelmed, and even a little chaotic when you travel. But scuttlebutt within the Reddit hotel worker community says that a high level of organization and preparation when you're traveling can be a sign that you belong to society's upper crust.

Working and middle-class folks, one Reddit user claims, tend to be less prepared on the whole in terms of everything from their valet tickets to tipping. Wealthier guests, on the other hand, tend to be better at handling the business of traveling. According to the Redditor, the wealthy tend to already know what to expect during check-in and tend to get through the process faster and with less fuss. "They also tend to trust the process. ...They don't ask the front desk a million basic things they could Google in two seconds."

But most hotel workers also agreed that this shouldn't reflect poorly on the lower classes — if anything, it's a natural consequence of opportunity, since the wealthy simply tend to travel more frequently. When you've been through the check-in process so many times that you could write a manual on the subject, it tends to be much easier to be prepared. And that's to say nothing of the hired help working behind the scenes to help book wealthy guests' tickets, pick up what they need from the store, or even pack their belongings. "[T]hey're not stressing about the hotel if something goes wrong – they've done it a hundred times, who cares," opined one Reddit user.

Just as Reddit's hotel workers say the wealthy tend to be more organized and prepared during the check-in process, many have also noted a tendency toward minimalist packing amongst wealthier travelers. While it's not always true, some Reddit users have noticed many wealthier folks bring exactly what they need and nothing more, whereas the less privileged socioeconomic classes are more likely to overpack. "They often show up with way too much stuff—excessive carry bags, heavy non-rolling luggage, random loose items stuffed into shopping bags or tossed onto the backseat," one former five-star hotel worker shared.

But while overpacking is one of the biggest luggage mistakes travelers can make, don't beat yourself up if you're traveling with half your belongings. For wealthier hotel guests, it's really not that big of a deal if something on the packing list gets missed since they call down to the concierge and order another without sweating the cost. But for travelers who clock in to regular jobs, the cost of forgetting a swimsuit, a pair of sneakers, or, heaven forbid, a cocktail gown can really cut into the travel budget.

How guests engage with the valet workers during check-in can also say a lot about their social status. Ironically, some hotel workers say the guests with the most expensive cars are often the least concerned about passing them off to the valet. After all, people who can afford to fix any potential damage to their vehicle without incurring any serious hardship don't tend to think twice about handing their keys over. On the other hand, folks who have to earn every dollar they spend can sometimes tend to eye the valet a little more hawkishly.

Less privileged folks are also more likely to lose their valet tickets, one Reddit hotel worker reported. "Wealthy guests almost never lose them. They keep them in their wallet, a specific pocket, or somewhere they can grab it instantly." Less affluent guests, the Redditor added, are more likely to shuffle through their belongings looking for where they might have left it — once again likely an indicator of how frequently a guest tends to use this type of service.

In the world of hotel front desks, it's not always the struggling folks who tend to complain the most about the cost of things. According to some hotel front desk workers, guests who are overly concerned about pricing tend to neither be very wealthy or very poor, instead falling somewhere in the middle, especially when it comes to the folks asking for freebies. 

One hotel worker on Reddit recalled getting hassled by a customer requesting the lowest rate but then struggling to understand why his bill had gone from $90 to $105 after taxes. After going back and forth with the front desk employee, the man claimed he was a millionaire, adding that he was still simply frugal after having grown up poor before proceeding to ask about breakfast coupons. Others reported a constant influx of discount requests from guests claiming to be social media influencers.

"Very rich and poor people are usually nice," reported one Reddit user. "Middle class people are the most likely to be difficult or excessively rude." To the very wealthy, cost simply isn't a barrier, whereas lower-class travelers tend to be more appreciative of the front desk worker's position and inability to simply hand out discounts to anyone bold enough to ask.

Despite what Hollywood movie stereotypes might have you believe about the super wealthy, the hotel workers of Reddit say they're not usually the social group snubbing their noses at the employees. Once again, front desk workers say it's much more likely to be the middle class or moderately affluent throwing down rude behavior at check-in.

One of the best examples of this phenomenon comes from a tale on r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk recounting a businessman with an attitude problem. According to the front desk worker, the gentleman had arrived hours before his scheduled check-in, only to demand that they get his room ready immediately. Displeased that he'd had to wait in the lobby, the businessman quickly began to lose his cool, eventually unloading that he'd been waiting for "hours" before storming off and having his secretary call to complain.

Another Reddit hotel worker recalled their experiences working in an affluent college town known for its "spoiled rich kids." In a post titled "This job has destroyed my view of people," the Redditor lamented, "I would say that probably 80% of my interactions here are negative." According to the Reddit user, the bad guest behavior regularly includes thrown key cards, getting talked over, and constant demands to break hotel policies for guests on exception. It's yet another reminder that no matter what your social status is, being kind to the hotel staff is just one way to be a much better hotel guest.