A poor old man was kicked out of a 5-star hotel after complaints about his smell. The next day he gets a free stay in the presidential suite.
An old man named Jeremy decided to travel to New York from Texas to meet his daughter at a 5-star hotel. He had traveled for over a day because he had no way of buying a plane ticket after spending his money on a night at the hotel he was staying at.
He didn’t choose just any hotel to stay in. He was in one of the most luxurious hotels in Manhattan, where diplomats, celebrities and other influential people usually stayed.
As he sat in the lobby, the man stood out like an ant among wasps. Guests and staff alike glanced at him as if to ask what he was doing in the hotel. Some guests even went to the front desk to complain about the old man’s presence.
“Have you lowered your security level? How can you let just anyone in here?” a man asked.
“Usually the hotel lobby smells divine, but today it smells like trash,” his wife added.
The hotel receptionist decided to approach Jeremy to ask him to leave after hearing complaints from hotel guests. “Sir, you are distracting our guests. Could you please leave the hotel and wait somewhere else?” she asked him.
“No, I have to wait here. I have an appointment with my daughter,” the old man replied.
“I’m sure your daughter won’t mind you waiting somewhere else. You need to leave right now, or I’ll have security escort you out,” the receptionist repeats, growing impatient.
“I’m waiting for my daughter. She works here,” Jeremy replies, desperate for the receptionist to listen to him.
The woman refuses to believe him. “Sir, we have heard stories like this countless times. Please do not make up such an absurd story. What is your daughter’s name?” she asks him.
When the old man answered, his eyes widened. Jeremy had insisted that he was at the hotel because of their manager, Samantha Jennings.
Jeremy also claimed that he had a room booked in his name. He tried to give evidence, showing a scrapbook and a booking slip, but security guards were already lifting him out of the hotel grounds.
“If you’ll listen to me, I have every right to be in this hotel like everyone else!” Jeremy shouted. However, the security guards had already entered the hotel and warned Jeremy not to come back, or the New York police would take him.
Barred from entering the hotel, Jeremy lost all hope and cried. All he wanted was to see his daughter, but the cruel staff chose to throw him out.
That same night, Samantha Jennings arrived at the hotel. The receptionist told her that a man had tried to wait for her, claiming to be her father. Samantha then remembered all the times she had asked her late mother about her father, hoping that she would one day introduce him to her. “Could this be him?” she thought.
“Where did he go?” Samantha asked. Although she wasn’t sure if the man was telling the truth, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night without knowing for sure if this man was her father or not.
“We had to kick him out because other hotel guests complained about his smell. The security guards might have an idea where he went,” the receptionist told him.
Samantha searched all night with the help of security. “He was wearing a black shirt, and a distinctive purple raincoat,” the head of security told her. With that description, Samantha drove through the streets of Manhattan in her car, hoping to find the man who claimed to be her father.
As the sun was about to rise, they found an old man wearing a black shirt and a purple raincoat lying on a bench. He was awake but seemed deep in thought.
A female voice interrupted his reverie. “Excuse me, sir,” the woman said. “It’s cold outside. Please get in the car.”
Surprised, Jeremy looks up at the woman, only to realize it’s Samantha herself.
“Is that you, my dear girl? I’m sorry, I tried to wait at your hotel, but they sent me out. I don’t have a phone, so I walked around the neighborhood and ended up here.”
“Let’s go back to the hotel first. You must be hungry,” Samantha said as soon as Jeremy got into his car. Jeremy decided to show Samantha some papers when they were settled in at the lobby coffee shop.
“My name is Jeremy Hopkins. Your mother and I were together for ten years, until you were about six months old. At that time, I was offered a job in Europe to work for a flour milling company. The pay was good, so I decided to take the job,” he explains, showing the photo of himself with Samantha’s mother.
“While I was there, I was blinded by this romantic European life. I told your mother I wasn’t coming back and that we should get a divorce,” Jeremy told his daughter. “It was the worst mistake of my life.”
“When the flour milling company I worked for closed down a few years ago, I contacted your mother. I asked her if it was too late to start over, and she said yes. I asked her if I could see you to find my daughter, and she simply said we would meet at the right time,” Jeremy told Samantha, who was listening intently.
“Before your mother died a month ago, she wrote me a letter. She knew where she could find me, and I got the letter. She told me you were my daughter – a successful businesswoman who ran one of the best hotels in Manhattan. I couldn’t be prouder,” Jeremy told her, handing her a small photo album.
As she flipped through the album, Samantha saw pictures of herself, the same ones she had in her album at home. This time, it was Samantha’s turn to speak.
“I always asked my mom where my dad was, but she could never tell me. I assumed you were dead,” she revealed.
“I always wanted to meet my dad, but I thought it was a hopeless case because Mom didn’t like talking about you. I didn’t know she contacted you before she died,” Samantha said, tears streaming down her face. “She was listening after all.”
“I’m glad to see you, Samantha. I don’t expect you to forgive me for leaving you, but I came here to wish you a happy birthday. I booked a room here last night, but they wouldn’t honor the hotel reservation slip I tried to show them when I was fired. Maybe we can celebrate together next time,” Jeremy said, holding his daughter’s hand.
Samantha shook her head. “I forgive you, Dad. You had your reasons back then. I’d like to get to know you and spend more time with you,” she said, squeezing her father’s hand in return.
After talking a bit more, Samantha and Jeremy headed to the front desk, where she scolded the woman who had kicked her father out. “We’re an all-inclusive hotel! We don’t discriminate against guests based on their appearance,” she said.
The woman apologized after realizing she had made a mistake. She apologized that the man had been denied his hotel reservation, forcing him to sleep on the street. To make up for her blunder, she reissued his room reservation and offered him a free upgrade to the presidential suite.
That weekend, Samantha and Jeremy celebrated her birthday together. They toured New York, ate at delicious restaurants, and stayed together in the presidential suite, where they slowly built their relationship.
Eventually, Samantha discovers that Jeremy is living alone in Texas and offers to take him in so she can take care of him. His move to New York marked the beginning of their beautiful father-daughter relationship.