InterContinental Hotels: Priority Club & Inter-Continental Ambassador - Weird "Prank" at HI

This has to be the strangest thing that has happened to me at a Priority Club hotel thus far.

I am staying at the Holiday Inn in White River Junction, VT. I get back to my hotel room after a long day at work and find the door won't open. The keycard works fine, but the door won't open more than an inch as if the privacy/safety latch on the door was on. No matter how much shaking of the door I did it would not open.

I go downstairs and find the front desk attendant with 3 other gentlemen, all experiencing the same problem. Apparently some person, likely an employee, thought it would be a funny prank to play on guests to somehow close their doors such that the privacy/safety latch somehow engaged and made it impossible to get back in. The front desk lady was at a loss as to what to do, so she paged the hotel "engineer." Apparently there was a special tool that could be used to unhook the privacy latch from the outside. After about 20 or 30 minutes of waiting around in the lobby she came over and said the man didn't see the point in coming in for this issue and he had requested we all go back to our rooms and attempt to open the door by "gently using our shoulders." If that failed, we could go down to the lobby again and she would tell the engineer to come in and use the tool to gain access.

By this point I was a bit miffed. I decided to upgrade from the gentle use of the shoulder to push in and instead "helped" the door open with a 'gentle' kick. That worked. I feel bad for the hotel --- the other guests were construction engineers and left to go "get some tools" out of their truck to help open their door. :D They made it clear they were leaving in the morning anyway so any collateral damage was not their problem and didn't bother them. :D

Needless to say housekeeping won't be getting a tip for the duration of my stay here.

I bet some folks will be seeing "damage" charges on their cr. cards. Weird employees.

After about 20 or 30 minutes of waiting around in the lobby she came over and said the man didn't see the point in coming in for this issue. . .

Completely unacceptable (and stupid, as one could get injured trying to kick down a door -- I probably would). I would have raised hell with the hotel general manager and insisted that the engineer come in.

A stunning example of poor customer orientation from both hotel and externalised sub-contractor. :eek::eek:

The problem is that not only it happened once, but there are many chances that nothing will be done to make sure it won't happen again.

Depending on the resting position of the security latch, closing the door with sufficient force does cause the latch to sometimes engage. Happens occasionally. Four rooms in one night is weird, but not outside the realm of possibility.

I dont know what I feel worse for you for, -Getting locked out of your room, or -Having to stay in White River Junction VT..

I dont know what I feel worse for you for, -Getting locked out of your room, or -Having to stay in White River Junction VT..

:D:D

Depending on the resting position of the security latch, closing the door with sufficient force does cause the latch to sometimes engage. Happens occasionally. Four rooms in one night is weird, but not outside the realm of possibility.

Well, I suppose you could be correct. I had never seen or heard of this occurring before and given the amount of people involved I just assumed this was due to enemy action.

For the record I wrote to PC's customer support Wednesday night. They wrote back around 4am and said the manager would talk to me before I checked out. Unfortunately for them I was gone under 90 minutes later. I replied to PC's e-mail with my phone in case the manager wants to contact me but I have not heard back since. In either event I just hope that this doesn't happen again.

Completely unacceptable (and stupid, as one could get injured trying to kick down a door -- I probably would). I would have raised hell with the hotel general manager and insisted that the engineer come in.

And looking at it from the other side - if it's as easy to circumvent as front desk suggested to the OP that it is, it's not much of a security feature is it!

And if it is such a common occurrence that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that it could occur to four different doors at the same time then I would expect the hotel to have a simple tool available to rectify the situation without needing to call in someone from maintenance and all front desk employees to be aware of an alternate resolution than a shoulder charge.

I would have (truthfully) told the front desk clerk that I have had surgery which prevents me from giving a shoulder butt or "gentle" kick to the door. This whole situation was ridiculous -- the engineer should have come in and fixed the situation.

I would have (truthfully) told the front desk clerk that I have had surgery which prevents me from giving a shoulder butt or "gentle" kick to the door. This whole situation was ridiculous -- the engineer should have come in and fixed the situation.

Especially since it was 4 rooms, not just one.

Well, I suppose you could be correct.

After nine years and five hotels, trust me when I say that I'm correct.



And yes, there is a simple tool that all F/D should be trained on that helps in this situation - especially when families in two connecting rooms leave (without their keys) through room A and room B has the latch engaged.

Of course, my favorite tool to use in those situations was the bolt cutters :)