Sure, just because someone has a few extra bucks in their bank account doesn’t mean they’re immediately a jerk. Look at Bill Gates. Not only does he give lots of money away to charity, but he also has a kind of sweetly, endearing nerd quality. That qualifier out of the way, everyone has a story about some rich jerk who ruined their day just because they could. And there’s no better way to exacerbate the behavior of someone who’s already terrible than by sending them on vacation, a several-day stretch in which “cut loose and behave indulgently” is implied in the title. Here are some of the worst instances of awful rich people behavior, gathered from the hospitality pros who were forced to live through it.
1. The Orgy on the Ocean
The skipper of a for-rent yacht probably regrets the fact that — assuming they don’t solicit any illegal or inappropriate behavior from the crew — his clients are allowed to do whatever they want. When one Russian group of men rented two of the company yachts for a few days, they brought along a cadre of prostitutes. As soon as the yachts were at sea, the clothes came off and the sex began. Everywhere in the ship. All day long. For the entirety of the outing.
2. All the Drugs
In some parts of the world, people are actually paid to party with their customers and work as a kind of liaison between customers and the ship’s crew. One of these employees who worked on a small yacht was put to work over the course of several weeks working for an Englishman and his aging friends. Though the guests were in their 50s, they still immediately started doing lots and lots of cocaine on board, before every outing. Because, why not?
3. Not Worth $800 a Week
One quick departure from the hospitality industry was a young woman who was hired for $830 a week to serve at the beck and call of a couple who’d rented a yacht for several weeks. When she was asked to peel her client’s shrimp, that wasn’t an issue. However, when they asked for a foot rub, that was the last straw. After a few hours on the job, the couple’s behavior was so awful that the service girl quit … only to be called “little b*tch” by the tourists until she was able to get off the yacht at the next dock.
4. A Lesson in Bad Taste
Perhaps this one isn’t necessarily awful, but it’s certainly not going to win any awards for patience or good taste. On arriving in Madrid, one Russian millionaire family demanded that the hotel’s hospitality expert book them a helicopter that would pick them up from the hotel’s roof so they could celebrate their daughter’s birthday. Once aloft, the Russians wanted to be able to throw balloons into the sky while listening to the girl’s favorite pop song on a loop.
5. The Sadistic Slob
On one outing in a yacht, a young waitress remembers a couple with a particularly nasty woman. She loved to wake up the staff in the middle of the night just to have water delivered. She insisted the cook make her a meal she wouldn’t eat moments after she knew he’d quit for the evening. She also spilled drinks just to watch someone rush to mop it up.
6. The Wine Aficionado
Just because a sommelier is required to have an extensive education on vintage and taste and all the various intricacies of wine-making doesn’t mean they aren’t treated like high class waiters. For one sommelier, a consistent part of his job was finding the wine that his rich clients demanded, even if that wine wasn’t in the same hemisphere as the restaurant. It was a regular occurrence for wealthy customers to insist that their favorite wine be packaged at its home winery, then shipped onto a private plane where a pilot would deliver it to the restaurant personally.
7. It’s Not Stealing if you Pay For It
One receptionist at a luxury hotel in Paris said that several of her wealthier clients were actually thieves, too. Not only did the richest clients regularly steal all the regular stuff like pillows and shampoo, on one occasion the receptionist says that a customer of the hotel actually took a painting off the wall. When she confronted the customer, the rich woman replied that is was completely fine to charge her card, she simply needed to have that painting in her life.
8. The Most Demeaning Job in the World
At one resort, the club manager says that a banker from the United States visited with his own private butler, an African American man. Immediately something seemed amiss when the banker refused to do anything for himself, however, the manager confirmed the banker’s a-hole status when he heard the man refer to his butler as “my labrador.”
9. The German Sports Fan
While visiting one resort, a German millionaire took over a suite plus three additional rooms for himself and his bodyguards. Upon arrival, he insisted that one of the hotel’s staff show him around the grounds in a golf cart while his bodyguards ran behind them. According to the report, the German tourist made his bodyguards run for more than 45 minutes, periodically sprinting when the tourist urged the hotel employee to pick up the pace.
10. No, JUST Like Home
Some hotels are lavish enough to offer services in which they’ll tailor the decor of a suite to make the surroundings more home-y for visiting guests. Unfortunately, some guests demand some pretty eclectic considerations, like one person who actually insisted the hotel replace the bathtub, installing one that was gold-plated and encrusted in diamonds.
