A man has been pardoned for accidentally enticing a flock of seagulls to ransack his room almost two decades ago.

Nick Burchill was banned by the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, British Columbia, after leaving pepperoni on his windowsill during a company trip, causing the ravenous birds to swoop into the building.

He had picked up a large amount of "Brothers' Pepperoni" from his home in Nova Scotia for his friends in the Navy, but his hotel room had no refrigerator.

So, he left it by the window, so it would remain cool because of the breeze, and went out for a walk for a few hours.

Mr Burchill said of the scene on his return: "I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room. I didn’t have time to count, but there must have been 40 of them and they had been in my room, eating pepperoni for a long time.

Mr Burchill speaking with staff at the hotell credit: Facebook

"In case you were wondering, Brothers’ TNT Pepperoni does NASTY things to a seagull’s digestive system. As you would expect, the room was covered in seagull crap. What I did not realize until then was that seagulls also drool. Especially when they eat pepperoni.

"I’m sure you have an image in your head. Now remember that I have just walked into the room and startled all of these birds. They immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room through the small opening by which they had entered."

He said the seagulls then "trashed" the room, describing the scene: "The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting."

Mr Burchill explained the seagull excrement left his room smelling "fairly ripe", smelling like fish and digested pepperoni.

When he asked someone at the front desk for help clearing his room, the member of staff assigned to the task looked shocked at the scene.

His things were moved to a smaller room, and on his exit the company he worked for was given a letter instructing them he was banned from ever staying in the hotel again.

After giving the hotel staff a pound of pepperoni two decades later, and submitting a written apology, the manager told him he would be welcome to stay again.

The hotel confirmed to the Times Colonist newspaper that the strange story was true and that long-time staff remembered the episode very well.

The director of public relations told the newspaper: "It's one of those things where you can't make this stuff up."