A 4-star hotel in Germantown, Wisconsin, has a snake problem in its swimming pool.
According to recent guests, the Country Inn and Suites by Radisson, 30 minutes outside of Milwaukee, is infested with snakes.
The Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department reports that the snakes range in size from less than a foot to up to few feet long. The snakes are believed to be northern water snakes and probably came from wetlands behind the hotel.
Michelle Griese and her 4-year-old son were among those who encountered the snakes during their brief stay at the hotel.
The two arrived at the hotel on the evening of August 12 and were warned by other hotel guests that there were snakes in the pool.
'I went up to the pool area, and there was a snake in the pool — in the hot tub, actually — and it was just swimming around, and that was just one of many snakes I was yet to see,' said Griese.
She said she saw a snake in the hot tub, a bigger one in the pool area, and another in the hotel hallway.
'We were set to stay on the first floor, and after seeing a snake slither under someone else’s door, I decided that this stay wasn’t really for me,' she said.
She knocked on the guest’s door to tell the man inside that there was a snake in his room and then watched the man attempt to catch the snake with a plunger.
She also said she saw hotel employees picking up the snakes and taking them outside. She was told by hotel staff that they had been dealing with the snakes for a few days.
“They just told me, ‘It’s by a marsh. It happens,' and I was like, ‘No. That’s not normal. I’ve never stayed at a hotel with snakes before.’” Griese said it’s an ongoing issue because hotel staff isn’t doing a very good job attempting to remove the snakes.
'She literally takes it through the pool room and just puts it outside of the doors, which I assume is where … the snakes are coming from since they're coming through the pool room,' Griese told the Journal Sentinel. “That didn't make any sense to me.”
AWashington Ozaukee Public Health Department inspector went to the hotel and found a snakeskin but no actual snakes. According to the inspector’s report, a maintenance worker told the inspector that he thought the snakes were of the species Nerodia sipedon —a common watersnake — which the inspector agreed to be “plausible” after reviewing photos.
Ahotel staff member said that some of the staff believe a pregnant snake must have entered the building to lay eggs.
But the hotel issued a statement that the snakes entered through a door propped open by a guest.
Statement from Country Inn & Suites management: “We are aware of an incident involving a snake or potentially multiple snakes in our pool area on Saturday 8/12/23. While this is certainly an unfortunate occurrence, it was an isolated event. Furthermore, we want to assure the public that the safety and security of our guests is and always has been our number one priority. We had and will continue to have a service agreement in place with a reputable pest control company to minimize the possibility for similar incidents in the future. We also want the public to know that it is our understanding the species of the snake(s), represented no imminent danger or threat of harm to our guests. As stated in the public Washington County Health Department report, it is believed the snake(s) entered our pool area through a set of emergency doors that had been propped open by a guest. We have taken additional operational steps in an effort to reduce the likelihood of a similar incident in the future. Since Saturday 8/12/23, we have had no snake-related incidents within our building. Thank you to our loyal guests for your support and understanding with this matter.'
Interestingly, according to a hotel guest who posted a review in September, 2022, the hotel’s snake problem does not appear to be an “isolated event.”
“Once we got into our new room, we found a snake in our hotel bathroom,” the guest reported. “We also had a family member find a snake in the pool! No thank you to this hotel!”
Photo Credit: Fox 6 Germantown, WI.
