I had a really awful experience there. I contacted hotel management and they responded. I have posted the correspondence below.
Issue: Someone gained access to our room and put excrement in my toiletry bag.
Situation: My husband and I were guests at the Coast Bastion hotel in Nanaimo while attending a large conference. On (DATE REDACTED), we went to an off-site dinner function organized as part of the event's social activities. We left the lobby on a shuttle bus between 6:30 and 7:00 pm. About 10 minutes prior to our departure, my husband realized he forgot his phone and ran upstairs to get it. He was in a rush to not miss the shuttle and said he did not "make sure" the door to our room had slammed shut and locked.
We returned to the hotel about three hours later at approximately 10 to 10:30 pm but instead of going to our room, we went to the hotel bar with some colleagues. We retired to our room an hour later. We noticed that the floor right inside the door was moist and there was a hand towel on the floor. At the time it seemed innocuous; nothing else was out of place.
We went to sleep and woke up 9 am on Friday morning. I went to the washroom and saw that my toiletry bag wasn't where I'd left it the night before. I see my hair dryer cord peeking out on the tile floor below the bottom shelf where the towels are. I reach under and pull out my bag and see that my hairdryer and toiletry bottles are there but they are covered with something brown about the size of a fist with the consistency of mud and it smells foul. It is human (?) feces. I don't know how to react; I am shocked.
I call my husband and I show him and he doesn't know how to react, either, but our first reaction (after "Was it you? Was it me? NO!") was to get rid of it, because that's what you do with excrement. We realize that the moistness in the carpet is urine.
We clean. We scrape the feces into the toilet, rinse everything, flush a million times, use loads of soap and wipe down the floor and the towels which we also rinse in the hottest water. We are both queasy. I discard the hair dyer and the bag; I don't want them anymore. We check our belongings. Nothing was missing or otherwise disturbed.
Our response was not to call hotel staff; I apologize for that. My immediate fear was that they might think this was somehow our fault and that either my husband or I somehow sleepwalked or had a psychotic break and mistook a 10" vinyl bag on a low-lying shelf for a toilet.
No. We are sure it happened when we were out for the evening but hidden so we wouldn't discover it until the morning. Moreover, we didn't have it "in us," biologically because we both had usual normal bowel movements in that toilet at expected times. Also: this is crazy.
I am sending this email because perhaps you may already be aware of a problem employee or situation in which there is someone recently fired or reprimanded or fed up or something. Perhaps there is another case -- or cases -- and hotel management needs information on the pattern. Because it is crazy. I assure you that we are both unremarkable, polite, and educated middle-aged Canadian citizens. Neither of us have a history of psychotic breaks or bowel problems.
Their response was:
"After a thorough review we have determined that this is a very unique and isolated incident. The guest room lock was read and we found no unauthorised access based on your description of the evening."
Welp. I guess that was helpful?
Here's the thing that makes it one star: on checkout, our room was (unexpectedly) comped for the night. Thanks, Coast Bastion -- but the comp came BEFORE I sent that email.
Cue Hitchcock music. I'm not sure whether to be grateful for the comp or worried that they actually DID know what went on. read more