A woman from Thailand on a solo trip recounted her nightmare stay at a Japan hotel where she discovered a stranger hiding under her bed. Taking to Instagram, Natalia Khomenko, revealed that she was staying at the APA hotel in Tokyo when she found a man hiding under her bed.
Natalia Khomenko said the man hiding under her bed screamed at her and ran out the door.(Instagram/natalisi_taksisi)
“I booked my solo trip to Japan because I thought Japan was a very safe country. I stayed in a very well-known chain hotel in Japan – APA hotel – that is in Tokyo near Ryogoku Tower,” she said, adding that she stayed in the room for a day and everything seemed fine.
However, the next day when she returned to her room after sightseeing, she was shocked by what she found in her room. “I unlocked my room, took off my clothes and laid down on the bed. That’s when I encountered a weird smell,” she said, adding that at first she thought it was coming from her hair or the bedsheets.
She even joked to herself about it smelling like a dead body under her bed but when she bent down to look under the bed, she was horrified to see a pair of eyes staring at her. “I saw an Asian man under my bed. I started to jump and scream and then the man climbed out from under my bed and stared at me for three second. Those seconds felt like my life was over,” she revealed.
Watch her video here:
To her horror, the man screamed back at her and then ran out. Terrified, she called the hotel administration who came in with cops. “They found a power bank and a USB cable under my bed. I kept asking the hotel how it happened. And they didn’t have any answer for me. Even more, they suggested upfront that police won’t find the intruder because they had no cameras,” she said.
Natalia reached out to the hotel and the booking platform, Agoda, seeking help and compensation for her ordeal. “When I reached out to Agoda, through which I booked the hotel, they offered me $178 in coupons, which was ridiculous compared to the $600 I paid for three nights,” she said.
The incident marred the rest of her trip and she revealed she was unable to sleep and felt constantly on the edge. “It was a nightmare. I am left wondering how someone could get into my room, how someone knew that I was alone in that room and how the hotel can’t take responsibility for such a severe breach of safety.” she said.
Her story shocked many on social media who were baffled at how something so terrifying could happen in a country widely regarded as one of the safest in the world.
Users claiming to be former hotel managers also hinted at the hotel staff’s involvement in the incident, claiming that the master keys to hotel rooms are typically only accessible by housekeeping staff and the duty manager.
Meanwhile others shared similar experiences.
“I had a similar encounter with APA, but in Osaka. I sat on the bed while watching TV and an old man just walked into my room, as though it wasn’t his first time. And I have no idea how he managed to come in. He looked at me while I looked at him with shock and fear. He stood there for a while and went off. I also moved to another hotel the next day and never booked APA anymore,” a user said.
AloJapan.com