See anything wrong with the chain lock on this door at Miami’s Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel? It’s mounted backwards! Upside-down. It’s useless this way and, worse, gives a false sense of security. Another serious security risk.
Do all the rooms have useless chain latches, or only our room, 612? A polite letter to management brought only a generic “We appreciate your recent message.”
9 Comments
[…] wrote about this ages ago, way back in Hotel Oddity #6, but back then the idiotic installation was in the Miami Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel. I thought it […]
@bobby:
No — if you blow up the pix, you can see that the screws are regular Philips heads.
Aren’t the screws similar to what you see on a public toilet – – “one way” slotted or ramp screws that you can put in but can’t take out?
Good point, Roger. I hadn’t thought of the possibility that the chain lock was intentionally installed (or switched to) upside down with malice aforethought.
The interesting thing is that it is quite easy for a staff member or previous guest to have modified the lock in this was so they could re-enter. Only takes 5 minutes and a screwdriver (or even a butter knife.) Because most people have so little understanding of security and lock mechanisms, it might stay that way for a while before anyone noticed.
Thus this might be an indication of a deliberate attempt to rob sleeping guests.
On the plus side, if you can’t getting any interest from management, it would be equally easy to repair it yourself; if it switches back again during your stay, you KNOW you’ve got a problem!!
Not only unsafe, but hilarious! Who do they hire anyway?
‘Perhaps a new type of hotel review site with things from a security perspective could be a good (and necessary) idea?’
Slow to wake up today – you already have that site! OK bedtime now… 😉
Actually if I’d first read your entire post… Perhaps a new type of hotel review site with things from a security perspective could be a good (and necessary) idea?
Thanks for that! Good catch! That is soooooo dumb! Loves it! Presumably you pointed this out to management?