I was checking-in at the Renaissance Aliso Viejo, CA yesterday, and when I arrived around 7pm, it was a total zoo. The hotel's computer system had been down since 6:30am, and they were trying to process check-ins, check-outs and room assignments on paper.

I was told the hotel was completely sold out, and the front desk only had a partial list of people who were expected to arrive. They had no way to take credit cards, so everyone arriving was told to write their card info on a piece of paper. They checked a printed list of rooms to assign one to me, and because they couldn't issue room keys, I was escorted to my room by a hotel employee with a master key.

I went down to the restaurant for dinner, and when I was ready to go back to my room, another employee had to go with me, since I still didn't have a key.

This morning when I got up, I had a printed bill under my door. It wasn't for me (so they obviously thought someone else was occupying my room, and departing today), and I'm not scheduled to check out for two more days. When I stopped at the front desk to make sure it was corrected, the clerk wasn't surprised I had gotten the wrong bill. Apparently they had a lot of people in rooms that weren't documented (not a good situation in case of an emergency). But, they did have computers working again and I was able to officially check in and get a room key.

All in all, a messy and not very well-managed situation for the guests, and I can only imagine how impacting it was for the employees.