A Hotel Cleaner Slowly Built an Entire Zoo of Towel Animals in a Guest’s Room
Hotel rooms usually feel temporary. You live in someone else’s design choices for a few days. The towels are folded neatly, maybe the pillows are stacked just so, but it all fades into the background after night one. But this didn’t happen with one long-term guest in Riyadh. For him, the room slowly changed each day until it felt less like a hotel and more like a small zoo.
The guest eventually shared photos online, and what stood out most was the care behind each fold. This wasn’t just routine housekeeping. It was the housekeeper who chose to add something playful to turn an impersonal hotel stay into a lasting memory.
The Unexpected Tradition Behind Towel Animals
What looks like a simple hotel trick is part of a much older craft. Towel folding grew out of origami, with the same principles of turning flat material into recognizable shapes. By the 1500s, European banquet halls were already featuring napkins folded into swans, peacocks, and other figures to impress guests at the table.
Fast forward to the 1980s and 1990s, and cruise lines like Carnival popularized towel animals as part of their daily cabin service. By the mid-90s, it was common to find towel elephants, swans, and monkeys perched on freshly made beds. Carnival even published books of designs and ran onboard classes so guests could learn the craft themselves.
Hotels eventually picked up the practice, particularly resorts in Asia and the Middle East, where attention to detail in housekeeping often doubles as a form of hospitality theater. It’s a skill many housekeepers are formally trained in, and some resorts even hold towel art competitions during staff appreciation weeks.
Building A Zoo, One Towel At A Time
In Riyadh, the housekeeper didn’t stick to a single towel fold. Each day brought something new: monkeys swinging from the lamps, elephants on the desk, penguins lined up across the dresser.
Some collapsed after a few days, others stayed intact, but together they formed a room that looked more like a safari than a hotel suite. By checkout, the collection told its own story. The display turned a long work trip into something personal.
The guest left snacks and a generous tip in return — a small gesture for a connection most hotel staff rarely get to make. Towel animals stand out because they interrupt the routine of hotel life. Folding one can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, and that kind of effort is easy to recognize when you walk into the room.
Social media has amplified the trend. TikTok and Instagram are full of “room reveal” videos where people return to cabins or hotel rooms crawling with towel creatures. Some resorts even stage full “towel zoos” by the pool as part of their entertainment schedule. The popularity hasn’t slowed down despite environmental concerns. Norwegian Cruise Line tried to phase the practice out in 2019, citing water and laundry costs, but guest demand brought it back. The animals, it seems, aren’t going anywhere.