We checked into a hotel last month and plodded through the tedious check-in procedure in a daze. It was a Millennium Hotel, but I won’t say in what city.
I liked our room right away because it had an open window. Then I thought: isn’t it strange that the window is already open? And the tv was on and tuned to CNN—also unusual. It wasn’t until all our bags were settled in that I noticed a man’s jacket sprawled on a chair. The room was already occupied.
I tried calling the front desk, but in ten minutes of trying, they never picked up the phone. Then I noticed that the room number printed on the phone didn’t match the number of the room I was in. Sloppy.
Bob took the elevator down to the lobby, leaving me alone in the room to face the jacket-man when he returned, or emerged from under the bed. We changed rooms without incident—just inconvenience.
I wonder now how many times other people have entered our various hotel rooms while we’ve been out. It happened once while we were in—in bed. It was in Paris. Two men entered our room in the dead of night. Luckily, we woke up and Bob dramatically commanded them to get out. “Pardon,” they said, “c’est une erreur,” it is a mistake. The strange thing was that they had been standing there whispering for a moment. If it had truly been a mistake, wouldn’t they immediately back out of an occupied room?
How are hotel rooms assigned to multiple parties? The most basic computer system shouldn’t allow it.
9 Comments
Thanks FrequentTraveller, for your comment which prompted me to go back and read this fun post and the good comments on it. You’re probably right, and as JJ said before you, it’s probably the clerk’s typo. Still, an interesting lapse in security.
happened twice to me… in the same hotel (Residence Inn in San Mateo, CA), and both times due to an error by the same check-in clerk.
An optimistic explanation would be that the clerk was dyslexic and tired from too long shifts.
Interesting, but I wish you would have disclosed in what city this hotel was.
A couple of years ago I was on a plan to Tokyo from London, sat in my seat waiting to go when a bit of commotion happened that attracted the attention of the stewards – turns out two women with the same name were allocated the same seat, both were issued boarding passes, both had valid passports, neither looked like each other and there was an obvious age difference, absolute madness that not one of the security or boarding checks picked this up, first person to notice was the second woman finding the first in ‘her’ seat!
Having worked in 5 star hotels for Hyatt and Millennium, guests being given keys to the wrong room is a common occurance.
Typically the room is not allocated to multiple parties as mentioned in the article, but human error by the check in clerk misreading the room number on the screen or transposing digits is the most common cause. Electronic key cutters are typically not linked to the PMS (property management system), so the room numbers are entered seperately as the keys are created.
Ever got to the room and your key didnt work? You were probably given the right room number but the key was for a different room…
interesting story, but GREAT writing. Love your description of the jacket man emerging.
Rick’s comment was hilarious.
Good one, Rick!
I woke up in a hotel room in a city. Won’t say where. Right away I noticed thieves had been there in the night. They’d taken everything out of the room and replaced it with exact (but cheap) duplicates. I turned to the gf, woke her, and told her what I’d discovered. She rubbed her eyes and looked at me and then spoke.
‘Should I know you?’
The same happened to me in Paris once – I checked in, and entered the correct room – where there was already some lady and she was sleeping and I woke her up.