Fun with Hotel Floorplans

Here’s a funny little anecdote about a recent stay I had at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. To set the backdrop on this comedy, understand that the Hilton is one of the largest hotels in a city laden with large, convention scale hotels. It is adjacent to the convention center and has two towers – more than 1,600 rooms in total.  My BFF checked into the hotel to attend the same conference as I just a few days earlier than I was to check in. She let me know she was lucky enough to be checked into a room on their coveted Concierge Floor.  When I checked into the same hotel, I too was bestowed the privilege of the Concierge Floor as I checked into room #2724. I texted my BFF to let her know the good news and she replied back that she was staying in room #2726. What are the odds that in a hotel as large as this, she and I would be blocked in rooms next door to one another? On the second evening, after having met in the Concierge Lounge for breakfast that morning and in various classrooms throughout the day, we had planned to meet in our hallway before moving onto the banquet. I volunteered to meet at her room but as I walked to her door, I discovered something out of the ordinary. Room #2724 and room #2726 were actually separated by room #2725. This hotel had rooms in sequence and not set in the traditional manner with odd rooms facing one direction and even rooms the other. I made mention of this very minor discovery as well, “Whatdya know,” I began, “as it turns out we’re not neighbors.”

“Oh I’m so relieved,” she returned.

Huh? She was ever so prepared to take this story to her grave but given my discovery, she was able to relay to me the details of what is now one of the funnier hotel stories I’ve been a part of. Apparently the night before she was up late into the evening speaking to her son on the telephone when she heard noises coming from her neighbor’s room. Noises of… pleasure. Her curiosity quickly turned to nausea as she heard what she presumed was her BFF in the throes of passion with either himself or with someone who was not his fiancé who she knew and whose wedding she’d soon attend!

Alas it was not I, and we never did discover who it was, although it’s quite conceivable we know him given the size of our conference! The only thing that could have made this story even funnier and more ironic was if I too was awoken late at night to the same sounds and made the same mistaken presumption!

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