Originally Posted by
JackE
While passing through the hallway of a HR last weekend, I walked by a guest who was talking to an associate outside of his room.
Apparently when he returned to his room, it was latched from the inside. The associate asked if there was anyone staying with him and he said "no".
My initial theory was that the front desk issued a room key to another guest, but besides that being unusual, it's also doubtful anyone would stay for more than a few seconds after walking into a room with someone else's stuff strewn about.
Or he might have left the door ajar and an evildoer walked in and latched the door.
Any other possibilities?
This happened to me once in Conrad Tokyo. There was nobody inside, but the latch was on. I went to front desk, an engineer came up and opened the door by lifting the hatch with a tool (probably also used by burglars the world over). They acted like it was perfectly normal, so perhaps in some hotels vibration of walls etc. can cause hatches to fall to 'lock' position?