History Main / RoomDisservice

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* The ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' episode "Double Vision" did this three times. One was Nene, pretending to be a drinks stewardess to watch a boomer designer; then Linna posing as the laundry girl; and finally Reika/Vision who impersonated a call girl in order to poison him so that she and her allies could kidnap him using a fake ambulance.

* This trope is used once in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', where some of the girls dress as room maids of a high-class hotel in order to kill a mark staying there. It works fine, until one of them bumps into actual employee, leading to a ShootTheDog moment. This is quite odd, considering that the girls look far too young to work in such an environment in the first place.
* In ''VideoGame/FatalFury 2: The New Battle'', Joe Higashi uses this approach to try and ambush Krauser, who has beat the living hell out of his best friend Terry Bogard [[HeroicBSOD and left him a psychological wreck.]] Krauser of course recognizes him.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

** In Film/DieAnotherDay a Chinese agent poses as a Masseuse. (She fails but lives, because she's not there to kill Bond, only to find out what he's doing in Hong Kong.)

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** In the same episode a pretty female FBI agent does the same thing disguised as a maid, much to Tony's appreciation.

* In the early '70's ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', a recurring sketch was the Landshark, a huge shark that tried to get into people's apartments by knocking on the door and saying, "Uh, candygram..."
* During a Creator/DiscoveryChannel documentary on ([[TheThemeParkVersion actual]]) {{ninja}}, some individuals where asked to act as bodyguards and "protect" a target (prevent his cap from being taken off) and were told that the attacker would strike like a ninja of antiquity would. He disguises as a set maintenance personnel to get through the bodyguards. [[spoiler: Though at first they're reluctant to let him in, but he succeeds in the end]].

* In the ''Series/{{Decoy}}'' episode "The Phoner," Casey orders groceries delivered to the apartment where she's staying. Unfortunately for her, the deliveryman turns out to be the rapist she's trying to catch.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'': In "Go Away, Ghost Ship," Scooby, Fred and Daphne hide in a service cart while Shaggy and Velma are dressed as a high rise penthouse room service so they can get in to see a troubled shipping magnate.

A classic ploy of {{Heroes}} and {{Villains}} alike for getting close to their opponents is to pose as hotel room service. Naturally, this works best if their target actually ordered some; people tend to get suspicious, otherwise.

They may be delivering poison, a bug, or a bomb; launching a sneak attack; passing equipment or information to an inside man; freeing a hostage; or just performing reconnaissance.

Other kinds of delivery services may be substituted for hotel room service, depending on where they're staying and other circumstances. Apparently, half of all high-class call girls are actually assassins.

Also see DeadlyDelivery, SickbedSlaying, RansackedRoom, JanitorImpersonationInfiltration, InnOfNoReturn, and DeliveryGuyInfiltration. Not to be confused with FanDisservice.

Also see DeadlyDelivery, SickbedSlaying, RansackedRoom, JanitorImpersonationInfiltration, InnOfNoReturn, and DeliveryGuyInfiltration. Not to be confused with FanDisservice

* ''Film/WhiteSands'' (1992). The protagonist arrives at his motel to find the room being cleaned by two maids. So he doesn't expect a thing when they later knock on his door...until he finds himself with a gun at his head, whereupon the two search him for listening devices by [[KnifeNut slicing off his clothes with knives]], then they steal his briefcase full of money and leave instructions on where he's to meet the BigBad.

** In Film/DieAnotherDay a Chinese agent poses as a Masseuse. (She fails but lives.)

* In the mini-series ''Brotherhood of the Rose'', a maid walks in on the protagonist as he's struggling with a hitman in a hotel room. She produces a silenced pistol and tries to shoot Saul, but only hits her compatriot (in the original novel she's just an InnocentBystander).

''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'': In "Go Away, Ghost Ship," Scooby, Fred and Daphne hide in a service cart while Shaggy and Velma are dressed as a high rise penthouse room service so they can get in to see a troubled shipping magnate.

* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'': In the short story ''The Little Things'', a gang of kidnappers has targeted a young noblewoman and plans to get their hands on her by substituting for the room service waiters. Unfortunately for them, the "noblewoman" was one of Inquisitor Vail's undercover identities, and that room service order was for a romantic dinner between her and Cain. [[{{Understatement}} It didn't go well for them.]]

* ''Series/{{Preacher}}''. Played with in the episode "Sundowner". Fiore, [=DeBlanc=] and Jesse are hiding in a hotel room from the Seraphim. There's a knock on the door.

** In the same episode a pretty female FBI agent does the same thing disguised as a maid, much to [[FetishFuel Tony's appreciation]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', in its typical parody/deconstruction of all things Spy Genre, uses this trope a few times. An early episode of the first season has Archer training Cyril to be a field agent and lays out a hypothetical scenario where its unclear if this is in effect or if the three muscle-bound guys at the door really are hotel employees (Archer's point being that you can solve the problem either way by brandishing your gun at them: killing them if they are assassins or scaring them into not asking for a tip if they are just employees). It is later played straight in the second season when Archer is trying to protect a JailBait German heiress from kidnappers at a ski resort.

* ''Series/{{Preacher}}''. In the episode "Sundowner", Fiore, [=DeBlanc=] and Jesse are hiding in a hotel room from the Seraphim. There's a knock on the door.

-->'''Fiore:''' [[OhCrap It's not.]] ''[Seraphim shoots him [[MoeGreenSpecial through the peephole]]]''

-->'''[=DeBlanc=]:''' Probably just... [[RoomDisservice the towels]].

-->'''Fiore:''' [[OhCrap It's not.]] ''[Seraphim shoots him through the peephole]''

* In ''GrossePointeBlank'' Grocer refers to a couple of female assassins as "Queens of the hotel hit."

* In ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]]'', this trope is employed as part of an attempt to ruin Bank's new casino. They sneak into a prestigious reviewer's room while he's out and do all sorts of nasty things to the room, placing bedbugs in the bed, dirtying things, and feeding noxious gases into the vents.

** This scene was parodied in ''AustinPowers''. Fails when Oddjob-parody Random Task's shoe-throwing is shown to be a completely ineffective means of fighting.