Next time you feel like arguing with fellow guests about who gets to use the common-use computers at San Diego hotels, you might want to remember this story. A 49 year old woman and a 23 year old man got into a tiff about using the internet at the Dustin Arms Hotel at 444 G Street near Fifth Avenue, in the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, CA.

The argument started around midnight, and within a short time, the situation seemingly had gotten out of hand, so the man went into a fit of ‘hotel rage’, got hold of a steak knife and stabbed the woman thrice - In the neck, chin and chest. Man’s been arrested and the woman’s in a hospital. Recovering. One thing for sure - Neither of them will ever fight again over a hotel lobby computer. And how on earth do you stab someone in the chin? I mean, do you bring the knife down from up, or the other way round, or do you slash from side to side? FYI, that was a rhetorical question. Please don’t do any experiments to find out.

Since we’re on the subject of raging tempers inside hotels, let’s see if we have some more examples. One of the most famous examples of hotel rage is that of actor Russell Crowe throwing a telephone at Nestor Estrada, the concierge at the Mercer hotel in SoHo NYC, early in the morning, around 4 am.

The incident occured in 2005, when Estrada was unable to patch Crowe through to his wife Danielle Spencer in Australia. Estrada was injured by the projectile telephone, filed a lawsuit, Crowe apologized, and then the whole thing was hushed up. Photo by Foraggio Fotographic via flickr (creative commons).

Note to hotel desk clerks - When a guest asks you for something at 4 am, make sure you do it. Or wear a helmet.

There’s also the case of British rocker SIOUXSIE SIOUX, who threw her phone out of a hotel window in Japan, because the window wouldn’t open and the airconditioning was bad for her voice. The 50 year old Siouxie and the Banshees frontwoman apparently stayed out of Japan for quite some time after that.   

The Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida has come up with an innovative way to beat the stress. They have an extra called ‘Pillow Games’, where you get a bag of 30 small pillows and a CD with pillow music (whatever that may be…) so you can let it rip.

Posted on September 27th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Hotels