A cheeky monitor lizard was caught napping inside one of the expensive rooms of a luxury hotel in southern Thailand.

The 6ft long reptile was spotted when one of the hotel staff went inside the room to clean after the guests checked out for the night in Krabi province on April 28.

As the cleaner entered the suite, she found the lizard laying down enjoying the cold tiled floor while sleeping so she immediately went out and closed the door trapping the animal inside.

The worker said the lizard might have found an opportunity to enter the room when the guests left and forget to close the door properly.

She said: ‘The only way it could have entered is by creeping inside the room when the door was left open. I think the guests forgot to close it.

‘It was a very hot day. The lizard might have been looking for a colder place and was attracted to the room. I’m glad the guests were not in the room or they could have panicked.’

The maid informed the other staff about the reptile and called the animal rescuers to help them evacuate it from the property.

When the team entered the room, the reptile was aggressive and hid under the bed after trying to attack the volunteers.

The rescuers eventually caught the animal by moving the beds aside and placed it in a sack to be released back into the wild.