Woman stays at California Marriott. Then she returns to her room—and is shocked by the message left on her TV’s welcome screen
When you think of hotels, you think of relaxation. Vacation. A holiday breeze. Worst-case scenario, if you travel for work a lot, you think of business trips. But under no circumstances do you ever want to associate hotels with a lack of safety.
Unfortunately, it’s hard not to get paranoid thanks to the sheer volume of hotel horror stories out there. From unwelcome intruders to dirty rooms, the negative testimonies never seem to end.
However, one woman’s hotel experience takes the cake—which is probably why it’s going viral. And it involves one disgraced, dead financier.
What happened at this Marriott?
TikToker Drazzzil (@drazzzil) posted an eerie video on Feb. 9 that has since accumulated over 433,000 views. In this video, Drazzzil captures something disturbing in her Marriott hotel room, in which she was staying for a California work trip.
“I left this morning at probably about 7 a.m. and just got back a minute and just got back a minute ago, and the first thing I noticed was that my TV was on,” Drazzzil begins in her video. She pans her camera around her hotel room, the window clearly showing it’s nighttime. “And I’m like, that’s weird, I didn’t leave the TV on when I left this morning.”
Drazzzil then moves the camera closer to the TV, which is indeed on and showing the Marriott home screen. And the message on the home screen?
“Welcome, Jeffrey Epstein. Thank you for staying at Courtyard by Marriott,” it reads.
‘I got chills’
“I got instant chills,” Drazzzil says, clearly unnerved. “Looked around to make sure nobody broke into my room. And I’m just feeling pretty creeped out by it.”
In a follow-up video, Drazzzil says that when her partner, who was traveling with Drazzzil, reported the situation to the Marriott manager, he “was super weird about it.”
“He was freaked out that it was on there,” Drazzzil says. “Asked, ‘What can I do for you? How can I support you? Can I get you a drink?’ [My partner’s] like, ‘No, I’ll take a water, but can you get it removed?
I think it’s weird.’ He’s like, ‘So do I.'”
The next day, Drazzzil says Epstein’s name was still on the TV, so her partner raised the concern again. This time, the manager said, “Someone in the hotel does have that name,” chalking it up to a glitch.
“To me, it seems creepy,” Drazzzil finishes.
Commenters aren’t having it
Ultimately, Drazzzil posted a final follow-up, revealing Marriott fixed the name on her TV after three days of waiting. Drazzzil’s viewers, however, weren’t having it.
“I would want an answer before it being fixed,” one viewer commented. “That is not okay.”
“Fixed is not the issue,” echoed another. “Why and how it got there is the question.”
Most people just couldn’t believe Drazzzil didn’t insist on changing rooms.
“I would’ve changed rooms in heart beat,” one person commented. The continued, “I have the highest rewards status with Marriott and usually use my Marriott app as my room key & I would assume if that persons name were still logged as the guest they can probably still access the room.”
“I would have insisted on changing rooms,” another agreed. “That’s very suspicious. No thanks.”
Ultimately, commenters seemed to reach a consensus that “it was probably just a prank someone pulled.” Still, not an ideal travel situation.
@drazzzil This is not okay @Marriott Hotels @Marriott Bonvoy !! How creepy- and how is this even possible!!?? Do better! #epstein #epsteinfiles #marriottbonvoy #notokay ♬ original sound – Drazzzil
Marriott TV policy: What’s really happening here?
Drazzzil is not the only person who’s had questions about names appearing on hotel TVs. It seems that this convention is a staple of Marriott hotels.
According to posts in the r/Marriott subreddit, the name displayed on the TV of your Marriott hotel room is indeed supposed to be yours. Marriott has a system in which the TV pulls from the corresponding reservation attached to the room; therefore, whatever name you input for your reservation should be the name that shows up on your TV.
However, Marriott customers other than Drazzzil have also reported seeing names that aren’t their own. One such customer also took to Reddit to voice their concerns about seeing the wrong name on their TV, worrying that “someone else may have access to [their] room.” In response, one self-identified Marriott worker assuaged the OP’s concerns.
“I’ve seen this happen at my property from time to time,” the worker wrote. “It is nothing to be concerned about. It is because the box on the back of the TV that connects to the TV provider hasn’t updated/is offline from the company. It has nothing to do with who is registered in or has access to your room.”
The Mary Sue has reached out to Marriott via email and Drazzzil via TikTok comment and DM.
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