"I Was Just Gaslit" — Woman Says Hotel Falsely Accused Her of Having a Pet in Her Room

When most of us stay at hotels, we expect a certain level of comfort and unobtrusiveness. For the most part, we only stay in hotels because we have to, regardless of whether we're on vacation or are made to travel for another less luxurious purpose. By and large, the most we want out of our hotel is to make our stay as easy as possible.

Unfortunately, Elana on TikTok (@elanaexplores) apparently couldn't be afforded that simple pleasure.

As a self-proclaimed travel creator, you'll often find her on vacations and in different locations for her vlogging purposes. To that end, she's probably often staying in hotels. However, one of her hotel stays wasn't exactly the most glamorous, especially after the staff apparently claimed that she was keeping a secret pet in her room, which she totally was not.

"I was just gaslit by a Courtyard by Marriott hard," Elana explains in her TikTok, which was posted in mid-September 2023. According to her, she had been staying at the hotel while on an important family visit.

While Elana was away from the hotel one day, she got a call from a female staff member at the hotel. She then asked her if Elana was traveling with a pet in her room.

Elana assured the staff that she did not, in fact, have a pet with her on her travels.

Unfortunately, that answer didn't seem to satisfy the staff member. She reportedly kept insisting that there was a pet in Elana's room while a deeply confused Elana continued to tell her that there wasn't.

"The lady just argued with me over and over and over," Elana remembered in her follow-up video. "And I don't have a pet right now, so there's no way they found my pet."

Elana even claims to have asked the staff to go into her room and check that there wasn't an animal in her room, but the staff member was having none of it.

"She just refused and just kept accusing me of having a pet," Elana remembered.

After speaking in circles with the staff member, Elana "activated Karen mode" and asked to speak with a manager, with whom she verified her room number. After checking her room, they returned to Elana with a profuse apology.

According to Elana, the pet was actually in the room next to hers. Not only that, but the animal was actually a service dog who was likely legally allowed to stay in the hotel to accompany their person.

To their credit, the hotel decided to comp Elana's first night at the hotel as an apology for the mishap.

Yet despite the hotel's efforts to make up for their mistake, the damage was already done As Elana remembers, she was in no emotional state to be berated with accusations of something she didn't do.

"I'm already dealing with the situation here with my family," she remembered in her follow-up. "I was already not in great moods when [the staff member] interrupted that family time to tell me about my pet that they found."

Marriot has not responded to Distractify's request for comment.

This probably won't put a damper on Elana's travel vlogging, but we can safely assume that this is among her least favorite hotel stays.