SAN ANTONIO – When Kyle Kennedy applied for a job at the Menger Hotel six years ago, he expected to work in its housekeeping department.
Little did he know he later would end up keeping house there, watching over the business and its guests during the overnight hours.
Kennedy is a night auditor and front desk agent at the historic hotel, one that some people say is the most haunted in the city.
“I've had the occasional person claim to have seen or claim to have felt something,” he said, but adding that he never has witnessed anything unusual. “If it's an old building and it's been around long enough, there's always a ghost story, and the hotel isn't any different.”
The Menger moved in next door to The Alamo in 1859 and has since played host to numerous presidents and other people from history.
Legend has it that some of those guests from days gone by have come back as ghosts.
However, he said most nights, any disturbances there are the result of living, breathing people.
The hotel is just steps away from the downtown party scene and, on occasion, he has to comfort guests disturbed by noise from revelers outside.
At other times, there may be internal disturbances, from a room that is too hot or cold to a malfunctioning fire alarm.
“There is nothing that can go wrong in a hotel that is better for going wrong at 2 a.m.,” he said, jokingly.
Kennedy has to balance it all while also trying to balance the day’s ledger.
Another big part of his job involves going through mounds of paperwork and making sure all of the accounting is in order.
It’s enough to make the average person want to go to sleep, yet Kennedy manages to stay awake all night and get it done.
“Coffee really is the secret to keeping it all going. You don't get enough sleep, coffee. You wake up too early, coffee,” he said. “I sometimes joke I am a professional vampire.”
That would make him a vampire working in a hotel with a ghostly reputation.