Hi,

In June 2002 I stayed for a week at the Doubletree IH35North in Austin TX. They use a credit card type of Key for the guest rooms. There is not old fashioned key for emergency use.

I returned to my room at 10PM the first night and my key did not work. I went to the front desk and they recoded it. Still didn;t work. They did it again and sent a security guard with me. Still didn;t work. Tehy sent the guard back with a pass key. It didn;t work either. They have a thing on the wall that looks like a little box with a glass panel in front. They break the glass give the guard the key from the glass box, we go back and that one doesn;t work either. They offer me another room and say they will unlock my room at around 830AM the next AM. I tell them this is unacceptable because I have to take my medicine before bed, and because I am speaking at a conference in the AM commencing at 8AM and will need to wear a suit and tie, not T Shirt and Levi's.

Tehy say the mechanic left at 8PM and they will call him from home. They give me a large quantity of free drinck coupons and invite me to wait int he bar. At around 1AM my room is unlocked. Mechanic tells me once I leave I will not be able to return to the room until the "rebuild the lock".

At noon the next day I go to the front desk, they say the lock is fixed and give me a new key. I go to the room and the new key doesn't work. I see a maid walking down the hall. I ask her to try her key. It works. I get her name, go back down to the front desk tell them its still broken and that Maria the maid has a pass key that works.

Three other people at the conference that I know of had similar problems.

So my advise is if you use cardkeys for door locks, have an old fashioned key override or keep a mechanic/locksmith on premisis 24 hours.


My key problems were very important and I will never stay at this hotel again and tell all my friends the same.

[This message has been edited by u600213 (edited 02-14-2003).]