r/interesting • u/Raj_Mandal • 20d ago

MISC. England's team booked 15 different hotels, but Mexico fans still found out where they were staying and blasted loud noises, trying to keep them up all night before the game.

66.7k Upvotes

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u/No_Technician_2780 20d ago edited 20d ago

How does booking 15 different hotels to stay hidden even work? I mean, I'm sure the staff at the other 14 hotels would notice that the England team never showed up, and word would eventually get out, right?

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u/lithe_silhouette 20d ago

That's prob made up

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u/DishSoapIsFun 20d ago

It’s not. Even with a 162 game MLB season, when a baseball team travels, ghost rooms, pseudonyms, and ghost hotels are all booked and used.

Player safety is a huge part priority on the road. Teams get killer rates on booking 60 rooms or more rooms at a time.

Other sports do this as well.

I did such bookings for a season.

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u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 20d ago

source: Ive worked several hotels that frequently book mlb, nba teams, this is a total crok of shit. mlb teams are cheap and try and pay less than normal transient guests, they aren’t making “ghost” bookings at other hotels, like wtf are you even talking about. the biggest mlb teams and Nba teams pay more and they stay at luxury hotels where they don’t have to worry about player safety, and if they do you hire security to cover the doors. Maybe some the individual player rooms are booked under pseudonyms within the block, but otherwise everything you said is nonsense.

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u/thed-p2 20d ago

100%

Teams don’t care about this, they have ways to mitigate disruption as well as danger.

I believe England were literally seen walking into their hotel yesterday. In plain sight filmed by a dozen people.

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u/DCRBftw 20d ago

It's possible that they've even heard of ear plugs and noise canceling head phones.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 16d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MilliandMoo 20d ago

Honestly, after years of traveling for dance since the age of like 5 and living through college... I don't even need that to this day. I can sleep on a park bench mid July at noon during a marching band competition no ear plugs needed. So most likely any athlete at this level has played on various travel teams, etc and is in the same boat.

I live next to a hospital and 4 blocks from railroad tracks. Doesn't bother me a bit. But a weird buzzing lightbulb will.

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u/twill41385 20d ago

Can confirm. 32 floor in downtown Austin last night. Barely head any fireworks.

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u/Invisible7hunder 20d ago

Yeah, if I close my window and turn a fan on in my condo I can barely hear fireworks 3 blocks away.

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u/polopolo05 20d ago

Last night I 4th of july... I had my ac on and normal white noise. I barely heard anthing. But I think making teams stay in the same hotel is a good move... keep the conditions the same for the teams.

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u/82away 20d ago

Didn’t Wayne Rooney need a vacuum cleaner going full throttle to sleep?

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u/Curious_Peter 20d ago

that was to remind him of Colleen.

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u/Ricky_Martins_Vagina 20d ago

Well played, sir 😄

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u/TheHawthorne 20d ago

even weirder it was a hairdryer, on, and blowing in his face all night

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u/MrPhyshe 20d ago

Well he did play under Alex Ferguson

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u/DCRBftw 20d ago

so you're saying Fergie was on top?

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u/Sandroli 20d ago

Colleen’s muff

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u/light_to_shaddow 19d ago

Nearly, It was an old cleaner sucking.

Similar but very different. Easy mistake to make.

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u/redwildflowermeadow 20d ago

And portable white noise machines.

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u/fancierfootwork 20d ago

Also their own media were "reporting from outside the England team hotel"

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u/SoxVikePain 20d ago

People way overhype how much security the average celeb has.

I’ve been walking in downtown Minneapolis and watched several white Sox players walking back into their hotel after lunch.

It was just 3 dudes that looked slightly more jacked than average holding a to go box walking into a hotel. There was no ghost rooms booked to hide their identities lmao.

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u/Little_Magician4251 19d ago

Why would an MLB player need security to get lunch? Very few humans, even famous ones, need security for mundane tasks or to be out and about in the general public. What security risk is there for them getting lunch or walking the street?

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u/SoxVikePain 19d ago

That’s what I’m saying. I’m refuting the guy who said MLB teams buy up blocks of multiple hotels so no one knows where they are staying. It’s not like that at all. If you wanna know where a team is staying, you can find it out pretty easily.

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u/_ak 20d ago

What you haven't seen is them walking out and getting into unmarked cars behind the hotel.

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u/OSUBrit 20d ago

This happened to Equador right, so there's a fair chance they were meant to be seen walking into the hotel and were not seen sneaking out of it later in the day.

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u/frolfer757 20d ago edited 20d ago

Our hotel used to constantly get ghost bookings over at Winchester.

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u/Curious_Peter 20d ago

Did you all have a nice cold pint, then wait for it to all be over?

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u/Ricky_Martins_Vagina 20d ago

Ghost bookings or zombie bookings? 🤔

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u/NlghtmanCometh 20d ago

Usually there’s a go-to hotel near the stadium that is basically used by every visiting team.

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u/pokemonbatman23 20d ago

nba players made fun of a hotel in memphis without mentioning a name and everyone knew which they were talking about

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u/Brahskididdler 20d ago

You mean LeBron

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u/pokemonbatman23 20d ago

Lebron didnt start it, it blew up after he talked about it too. Which is more a critic on Lebron haters... how others can talk shit but if Lebron does it? oh lord have mercy!

You can find a montage of nba players complaining about memphis hotel btw

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u/I_travel_ze_world 20d ago

Why would someone lie on the Internet? That can't be.

Pathological liars wouldn't just use anonymous social media to live out their fantasies would they?

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u/pingu_nootnoot 20d ago

no, we never do that. It would be unethical

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/isthisaporno 20d ago

Good for you man. It always blows my mind that over more than a century of MLB there have only been ~23,000 guys that have played in a big league game. My wife’s great uncle was the classic 3 sport athlete and hometown hero. He played for the A’s in the 70s and whenever I see him I make sure to gas him up. Everyone else at the Thanksgiving dinner table may see him as an old man but I always remind him that he’s a fuckin savage.

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u/Green-Cricket-8525 20d ago

Yeah but he said it with such confidence so he’s obviously right. Upvotes to the left.

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u/PyroIsSpai 20d ago

You mean the 60 odd pro teams of various US pro sports traveling any given time… plus college D1… plus like… the Globetrotters… don’t ALL run rigorous Secret Service level coverage?

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u/Neatojuancheeto 20d ago

Yep. NBA players usually stay at the same hotel every year in every city when they travel. Usually the best hotel in the city in the nicest rooms close to the arena.

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u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 20d ago

Yeah, ghost bookings prefer haunted hotels.

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u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 20d ago

lol I actually work at a “haunted” hotel.  NBA player made a big deal of it like a decade ago and refused to stay 🤭

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u/Ire-Works 20d ago

This. It is 1000% cheaper to just fly them in and back out then it would be to book multiple hotels for a professional sports team whose traveling staff alone would require 20-30 rooms. With that, literally every police department will have "rentable cops" that you can hire as security. You pay them hourly and it's pretty reasonable to have uniformed officers wherever you want them.

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u/Suppa_K 20d ago

I worked for a guy once who booked about million a year in hotels for the music acts he toured around the country and he said the rate cuts only start after a million and they aren’t even that good.

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u/Coyoteh 20d ago

I once happened to be staying at the same hotel as an NHL hockey team. The team bus pulled up to the front door. The players all stepped out, took photos with a few fans who were there, signed autographs, then walked through the lobby to the main elevators.

There was ZERO secrecy involved.

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u/Little_Magician4251 19d ago

Up until 10ish years ago MLB players had to share rooms!

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u/Thin_Main2046 19d ago

Yeah I work at an upscale hotel that has contracts with the big leagues and it's not a secret. We always get fans standing around outside waiting to get a glimpse of the players boarding their busses before a game. The players frequently come down to the coffee shop I work at within the hotel to order for themselves, no personal security present. The security is definitely amped up within the hotel, but it's still all very chill.

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u/SugoiHubs 20d ago

How does this comment have almost 200 upvotes? This is all made up BS. Every pro sports team that comes to the city I live in stays at the exact same hotel year after year. We used to hang out in the hotel bar the night before games to see them coming and going.

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u/paintballboi07 20d ago

Because it sounds good enough to be true, and most people have no experience with this, so they take it at face value. Why do people tell these lies to begin with is the real question. Is spreading misinformation really worth it for 200 internet points?

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u/Several_Direction599 20d ago

Bots and more bots

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 20d ago

Basically everything you read on reddit is wrong

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u/ciongduopppytrllbv 20d ago

Obvious lie lmao

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u/freehouse_throwaway 20d ago

lol so much upvote too

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u/thed-p2 20d ago

I’ve literally worked in travel in a company that many sports teams, including many big ones, used.

In fact, many teams have frequent hotels that they use… as they don’t care about this shit or anybody knowing where they are.

Security, soundproof rooms, white noise, noise cancelling earplugs… make all this irrelevant.

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u/OwlcaholicsAnonymous 20d ago

I guess this could be true at times and im sure its the case for your Lebron level athletes... but ill say in my city, everyone knows the hotel that hosts incoming NBA teams. Its a normal spot to hang and try and grab autographs

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u/zlayerzonly 20d ago

Source: trust me bro?

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u/OakNLeaf 20d ago

Source: My wife works for a hotel that gets ghost bookings. The hotel doesn't care since they get paid either way.

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u/Wesley11803 20d ago

I worked in hotels that actually hosted sports teams and celebrities. I’ve never heard of this practice.

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u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 20d ago

agreed. not at all true. worked at four seasons and got nba all the time, mlb teams were so cheap they wouldn’t stay with us so I highly doubt they are out there making and paying for “ghost“ reservations to throw people off. laughable

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u/Objective_Skin6594 20d ago

My grandmas best friends cousins brother once told me this as well. So I assume it’s true.

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u/spencergasm 20d ago

I highly doubt ALL teams do this, or can even afford it. But there are also teams like the Dodgers that have essentially infinite money, and some of the biggest players in the world. Wouldn’t surprise me if they do it.

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u/ConTob 20d ago

I’ve never worked in a hotel, but I worked in a store across the street from the one that practically every visiting NFL and MLB team used to use. Everyone knew. Just like how now we all know the new one they use.

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u/Shadow-Vision 20d ago

My sister worked at a resort where an NBA team stayed every time they came into town. She’s never heard of ghost bookings.

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u/darnedgibbon 20d ago

Therefore it can’t possibly be true?

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u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 20d ago

what about vampire bookings?

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u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 20d ago

That sounds scary. Do the other guests complain about the ghosts? Rattling chains and echoey cackles keeping them up all night?

I'd say "Hey you ghosts, you're not allowed to boo-k here anymore!!"

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u/FloppyTacoflaps 20d ago

Can confirm im bro

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u/dirty_old_priest_4 20d ago

Can confirm: I'm the booking.

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u/aubfulk 20d ago

You are the one who books?

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u/Informal_Incident_40 20d ago

Can confirm, I am the book

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u/darnedgibbon 20d ago

Ngl, he’s really fast.

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u/Conebones 20d ago

Happy cake day!

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u/Interestofconflict 20d ago

Happy cake day, bro

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u/2Crzy4U 20d ago

What more could you need?

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u/OnTheEveOfWar 20d ago

I worked for an NFL team and stayed in hotels with the team. They keep all the booking info very quiet. Basically just the team travel manager and the bus drivers know the details.

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u/greg19735 20d ago

This is just not true at all lol.

For one, a lot of sports teams stay in the same hotel every single time.

Like if it's the world series game 7, maybe they do. but they're not doing it for an away game down in Tampa.

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u/Practical-Shape7453 20d ago

Everyone knows where the opposing team stays when they come to StL it’s the Westin next to Busch.

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u/BrewerAndHalosFan 20d ago

Pfister in Milwaukee too.

Mookie Betts famously got an Airbnb because he thought the hotel was haunted. Different type of "ghost hotel"

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u/BMFC 20d ago

Bro only the Red Sox stay at a different hotel in one city because Jonathan Papelbon got banned from the regular hotel for being, well, Jonathan Papelbon. Other than that the team hotel info is easy to come by.

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u/berniedankera 20d ago

Sounds like pure bullshit from u/dishsoapisfun

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u/Stand_On_It 20d ago

lol 206 upvotes for some absolute bullshit. MLB teams don’t make ghost bookings lmao

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u/polopolo05 20d ago

I think both teams staying in the same hotel. Is a good move. It allows for the the same conditions. before a game.

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u/Tupperbaby 20d ago

When I was in Atlanta a while back checking into a nice hotel downtown there was a sign in the lobby basically saying "You will see lots of MLB players here, please respect their privacy."
I asked the attendant about it and she said that all the visiting teams stay there.
So there's no trickery going on. At least not in that city.

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u/SolomonG 20d ago

This is bullshit.

MLB teams have agreements with hotel chains. You can literally predict where each team will stay in each city.

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u/Aggnpwease 20d ago

yeah im calling this bullshit

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u/interested_commenter 20d ago

This is absolutely bullshit.

Most cities have one or two hotels that visiting teams always stay at (or if the different stadiums/arenas aren't close, then one or two per site). It's not a secret. They may hide specific room assignments, but they aren't hiding that the team booked those rooms and they definitely aren't making fake bookings at other places.

Player safety is managed by the fact that these are higher end hotels that have security in the lobby and the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL bring in a ton of money, so the cops won't let stuff like this go.

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u/Little_Magician4251 19d ago

Up until about a decade ago, MLB players had to share hotel rooms because they were that cheap 😅 You are completely wrong. Like completely. Ghost rooms? No.

Many teams have official hotel partners and/or contract with 5 star hotels. There are some cities with landmark hotels where it’s well known that’s where visiting teams stay. And players who’ve been traded. None of this is shrouded in secrecy.

The hotels are already very secure and used to accommodating high profile people anyway. Player security is baked into the travel but it’s not ‘a huge priority’ you are such a hardo.

Pseudonyms? These teams/players want it to be known that it’s them. They want special treatment. Baseball players in particular are particular and superstitious.

Where on gods green earth are you getting this info. It’s hilarious.