While unexpected things happen when you travel, usually you can count on some level of normalcy if you stay with major hotel chains like Hilton. But sometimes something so utterly bewildering happens that leaves us questioning all that

A recent post on Reddit has given us a prime example of the latter. It’s so absurd it’s almost admirable. But not really.

Picture this: one moment, you’re cozily ensconced in your hotel room, perhaps watching TV or getting some work done on your laptop, and then — plot twist — you hear someone trying to open the door to your room. Then, you hear a knock and its the hotel manager decides it’s the perfect time to insist on entering your room and painting your door.

Yes, really:

Hotel Manager decided to come into my room while I was still in there to paint the door (that didn’t even need painting in my opinion)
byu/dudsa15 inmildlyinfuriating

The story unfolds in a Hampton Inn, a place where the doors were, apparently, in such dire need of a makeover that it just couldn’t wait (except the guest says they didn’t even need painting). The poster, understandably, is less than thrilled when the manager shows up and tells him to paint when he’s not in the room.

An hour later, the manager is back at the door:

I stand up and go to the door this time and the manager is back. I don’t know if he assumed I’d be gone and was going to paint my door without me knowing but he had a shocked expression on his face. He again, asks if he can paint my door. I give him the same response that I am in the room and don’t feel comfortable with him painting the door while I’m in there nor do I want to smell paint fumes for the rest of my stay. He does not take no for an answer and says he has to paint the door. I told him to come back tomorrow when I have checked out. He said he will not be here tomorrow and he is painting the door.

Cue the traveler’s reluctant surrender. They agree to supervise this intrusive and unnecessary maintenance worried that if they didn’t, the manager would return while they were out.

Turns out they were right on the money, the manager had already painted their coworker’s room, without supervision.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room – or should we say, the painter in the hallway? The audacity! While it’s posted in the “mildly infuriating” Reddit post, this certainly was not handled according to Hilton standards. Then again, perhaps our poster should be happy that they didn’t wake up to the manager sucking on their toes like another Hilton guest experienced in Nashville.

The post doesn’t mention if the guest asked for compensation and we haven’t confirmed the details of this story or where it happened, if it did. We’ll update this post if we hear back from Hilton on our request for comment.

In the meantime, the poster notes that “Hampton inn is not my hotel of choice but I’m on travel for work and this is the only hotel available in town” so we’re guessing he won’t be benefiting from Hilton’s food and beverage credit or getting a MyWay benefit anytime soon. Turns out, while the door didn’t need painting, his thermostat did need fixing.