Hotel Oddity #10

A thin

What is this? Anyone have a clue? It was mounted on the inside of our Westin Hotel room door.

I know, I could have asked hotel management. But you know—you check in late, catch an early flight the next morning… There’s not always time to satisfy curiosity.

A thing mounted beside a hotel room door.

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  1. says: Frsnk

    The IR reader is for a remote so you don’t have to get up to turn on and off
    You turn it on when you go to sleep and if anyone comes in then the alarm goes off. Its to make people feel safe and secur.

  2. says: Chase

    You’re correct – it’s an INNCOM IR transmitter. It connects to the thermostat for energy savings. Designed for use in retrofit situations where a wired connection is not feasible. I believe that’s it’s sole purpose.

  3. says: Rick

    I hope they don’t start ringing up from the reception to complain there’s too much motion in your room or something. ;)

  4. says: Bambi

    Thanks for your hypothesis, Tom! I’ve subsequently stayed in another hotel with a motion detector in the room, and this time I did ask. Answer to be published shortly in another “Hotel Oddities” post.

  5. says: Tom

    First time I saw one of these in a room I took it apart to make sure it wasn’t a spy cam. What I found in the manufacturer information indicated that it was a device that reported room occupancy back to a central system.

    I believe what you have pictured here is an INNCOM S541 infrared wireless transmitter.

    I’d imagine the primary reason is to make sure that they don’t have squatters (that is, that each room occupied is being billed), but you’d probably hear claims of being able to report occupancy to firefighters, emergency responders, etc.

    Tom