Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Were these homeless people? Did they harass hotel guests or otherwise make hotel guests feel uncomfortable about walking through or using the lobby? Did they seem to have access to other areas of the hotel where there could be a security risk?

Alternatively, was the city fully booked due to weather/airport issues or some special event so that the sleepers could have been people with reservations who would have been walked except for the problem that there were no alternative hotels with vacancies?