A guest in a Chinese hotel who intentionally flooded her room after a dispute with staff had to pay 280 times the cost of the original one-night stay in damages.
The incident occurred in the early hours of 28 October 2025 at a hotel in Hainan, China’s southern island province, after a woman completed a late check-in but followed it with an online request to cancel her reservation.
When the hotel manager Xiong refused the 108 RMB (€13) refund, explaining it would be against the establishment’s policy to reimburse a guest after they have checked in, the woman instead began complaining about the quality and soundproofing of the accommodation. Remarkably, she was then offered a free upgrade but turned it down. Her ongoing frustration led to her calling both a local government helpline and the police – but she probably came to regret the latter.
Back in her room and while waiting for authorities to arrive, the guest threw towels and bedding into the shower, poured soap on them, turned on the taps and left them running for several hours from approximately 2am until the early morning – actions that only became apparent when water from her bathroom began pouring through the floor and into the ceiling of the lobby downstairs.
Hotel staff estimated the damage caused at a value of around 20,000 RMB (over €2,400). The police finally arrived in response to the hotel’s call, and through questioning succeeded in making the angry guest admit responsibility for the flood and losses.
Chinese law states that purposely damaging private property can result in either fines or a custodial sentence for higher order damage of 5,000 yuan (over €600), pursued by criminal charges.
Despite facing potential detention, the woman ended up paying 30,000 RMB (over €3,600) in compensation to the hotel, which online commenters pointed out is nearly 300 times more than the cost of the hotel room she was trying to wiggle out of in the first place.
Trashing hotel rooms became a celebrity phenomenon during the 20th century, with perhaps the first instance carried out in the Jazz Age by Zelda and her husband, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who allegedly set fire to their Ambassador Hotel bungalow in LA due to fears they might not be able to pay the bill for it. The Who’s Keith Moon has recounted causing $24,000 in Holiday Inn damages in 1967 when he marked his 21st birthday by chucking a five-tier cake across his hotel room, sparking a food fight and a fire extinguisher frenzy.
