Check into hotel with assumed name
 

I was wondering how people still check into hotels with assumed names. Every hotel I have been at requires that I give them an ID and a credit card for incidentals. Are people creating fake IDs? Constantly I hear about politicians and other famous people checking into hotels under an assumed name, but it just sounds odd to me how they would pull that off unless they tell the hotel, "I am "A", put me in the records as "C".

I saw an archived thread from 4 years ago, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to re-open that (and I didn't know how since it was in a weird format).

Also, is there any law against using an assumed name (other than in New Hampshire)? It would seem to me that it would constitute something like identity theft or fraud by deception or something like that.

Last year I resigned as a Front Desk Manager at a Marriott hotel in the Northeast. We would have this request quite often.

We'd generally require the reservation to be made in the exact name of the person checking in (unless there were notes stating otherwise), but at checkin it was not uncommon for a request to be made to have it so no one could locate them there.

We'd change their name to Duck/Daffy or something similar and let them know that would be appearing on their bill, while at the same time maintaining their real name on an internal field in our system on visible to us.

IANAL, but I believe that in most, if not all, states, it is not illegal to use an assumed name so long as there is not an attempt at fraud or other illegal activities.

I work with actors, we do it all the time.
The reservation is made under your real name, then when you check in, you have them put an assumed name in the main area on the system where they would look if someone is calling and trying to get your room via phone.

Your real name is still on the reservation (for those times when you lose your key or have to get one reset), but the "public" assumed name is what they see when looking you up on the system.

"Hi, Mr. Gladstone. How are you this evening?"

http://www.moviequotes.com/repository.cgi?pg=3&tt=50222

You have your people call their people... ;) and it can be done. Only not so much for us, the hoi polloi.

You could pay cash for the incidentials, or you could use a prepaid credit card that you pick up at the gift card kiosks that would not have the name on it. I would say that 95% of the time I have not been asked for an ID at a hotel.

I would assume that people using an assumed name would have a fake id from a state far away the teenager checking you in has never seen and no clue if it's real or not.

People must do it, my BIL is named John Smith, and he says he has gotten the "sure your name is John Smith" look when he has checked into hotels.

My favorite assumed name: Mick Jagger was said to have checked in to hotels under the name "Bernd Klapprott."

But unless you're Mick or the equivalent, all you need is protection from phone calls, so just tell the front desk that you don't want to exist as far as phone calls are concerned, different properties use different terms (e.g. "non-registered guest") to describe this.

I still haven't figured out how a hotel near LGA let my roommate check in before my flight even took off. What if what she told them wasn't true and I arrived and my room was gone?