《The Software Detective》17. Let me show you to your room
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I pulled my suitcase outside of the trunk of my car. As the rain fell heavier, I rushed into the safety of the hotel. The large sign on the hotel displayed its name: Seven Stars Hotel. Unlike its name, it wasn't a highly rated hotel and the Wi-Fi here was also probably terrible, too. But I was still terrified the mafia was after me, so these poorly ran hotels were my best options.
As I entered the lobby, sitting behind the main desk computer was the receptionist sleeping. She looked so peaceful. I almost didn't want to wake her up to check me in. Luckily, the loud bang of the thunder outside jolted her to life. She looked around, confused and half awake. "Oh, hello there. I hope you haven't been waiting for too long!" she said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "My name is Bethany, and I will assist you this evening.
"Hey there Bethany, I can see you towards the end of your shift." I said, now standing in front of the front desk. I pulled out my ID and credit card.
Bethany took my cards and checked me into the hotel. "Oh no, I just started. I work the overnight shift." After a few minutes of clicking on her keyboard and mumbling to herself, her eyes grew wide and she smiled, "Awesome. I could do it without asking the manager for help!"
I chuckled. "Yeah, starting a new job is always so very stressful." I said, taking my cards back.
"I didn't just start this job; I've actually been here for two years now." Bethany said. I'm seeing why this hotel has such poor ratings. She walked around the counter with a tiny envelope with cards inside of it. As she walked to the elevator she continued, "Let me show you to your room and I will explain some features of the hotel and its history."
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Stepping into the elevator, Bethany pressed the button for floor number 5. "So, this hotel has some pretty rich history. It first started as a family-owned bed-and-breakfast in the 1980s. Later in the 1990s, a popular chain bought the hotel from the family. This location used to be one of their popular locations since it is right near the interstate, and it is a 5-story building. But things went downhill when the first death happened in the early 2000s.
The elevator dinged, letting us know we had arrived on the selected floor. "Excuses me, did you say first death? As in there are over one?" I said, picking up my luggage as the doors slid open.
Bethany took the lead and walked down the long hallway of closed doors. "Yeah, there have been multiple deaths, there have been a few murders, a few suicides, and a plethora of accidental deaths." Bethany said. A plethora? All the critical reviews said that they burned the waffles at the free breakfast. I can't believe they missed such an important detail. As we passed the door after doing, she continued. "There was one person who somehow made it to the roof and jumped, then jumped off. Because of him, we put a fence around the roof and made sure no one can open a window. There was another guest cracked her head on the toilet when she slipped getting out of the shower. To prevent future occurrences of that, we have non-slip bathmats outside of all showers. Then there was one time that was poisoned by their vengeful wife, so he died in the dining area. That wasn't on us, so there was no harm, no foul."
"Ummm, shouldn't you give this information before people book their stay?" I said.
"We actually do. Before you sign your name to make your reservation, we explain all this in great detail in great detail."
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"It was 500 pages long. There's no way that anyone can read all of that."
"People usually don't, but that is why we added a line at the bottom of the Terms and Conditions explaining that after I give a speech about the hotel's history you cannot give a refund." Bethany said, stopping at the door at the end of the hallway.
"I feel like this is a bit of a scam, like you're basically locking me in to staying at this hotel of death."
Bethany took out one of the key cards from the tiny envelope and opened the door. "You always have the freedom to leave, in the terms and conditions we offer guest that left a gift bag and a free night if they want to return. But I think you're going to want to try laying down on the mattress first. In each room there are luxury mattress the queen of England sleeps on, and the thread count on the sheets is out of this world. You will feel you will sleep on a cloud." With the door opened fully stood to the side and stuck her hand out. "I hope you enjoy your stay!"
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