All systems down at check-in?
 

They are "hoping" they are up by 4 pm check-in (according to employees, they have been down ALL day) - what happens if they are not? What happens if they aren't up by 6, 10, midnight? Do all the people who are currently littering the lobby just sleep here all night? Surely they must have a manual way of checking people in?

This is at the Doubletree Newark Airport.

5:10 and we just got keys. They did comp us appetizers and drinks for the inconvenience.

Every hotel should have a crash plan. Where I worked, we printed reports ever X hours. In an extended computer outage, the first step involves verifying exactly which rooms are still vacant. That process takes time, as you have to physically check each room. Once you know which rooms are vacant, you can begin doing manual check-ins.

So, the answer to your last question is no. Guests shouldn't end up sleeping in the lobby if computers are down for an extended period. Once organized, running the Front Desk "manually" isn't difficult. It just takes some time to initially set up the list of vacant rooms. Although clearly, some hotels will be better organized than others.

This once happened to me at the Hilton in Bonn, Germany. Their system was down, but they had a printed multi-page list of all guests known to be arriving. Based on that information I was given the keys to my room. They just asked to check by at the frontdesk once they were up, I believe it was to verify the credit card info.

At 4 pm (and they could have started this sooner, we overheard some talking they had been there since 11 - too early for usual check-in, yes, but this is an airport hotel with people coming and going at all hours) - anyway, at 4 we all had to line up, give our license and credit card which they photocopied, then they assigned us a room, no keys, and someone had to escort us to the room to let us in with a master key (they did this for everyone) - if we wanted to come and go, someone would escort us back to the room. This went on for an hour and then a little after 5 they gave us keys.

I have had this before, being escorted to the room by someone with a master key. In my case, no other keys were ever given, a major inconvenience when you want to organize unloading a car so as not to leave stuff in it overnight. I was eventually comped the night. (Doubletree LHR)

They photocopied your credit card???

Why on earth did you allow that?

Take your pick:

1) Because they swipe it when you check in, why would they not want a guarantee that you were going to pay/not trash the room?

2) Because they swipe it when you check in, what's the difference?

3) Because they said in order to give you a room, we're going to need your license and a credit card

4) Because we wanted a room

5) Because not one person of the 30 or so in line thought this was any big deal?

Yeah, this happened to me in Asia before. The computer is down right now. When it's back up, we'll charge your card.

Big difference. One is secure and processes the card, the other can be used by anyone for any purpose at anytime in the future Merchants are not allowed to store the cvv number for security reasons by copying the card they have breached this.

Maybe they were honest, but by allowing that and should the card be used fraudulently you might have waved goodbye to your protection. Who is to say that those photocopies are not still in a drawer somewhere?

Much better to have said pop down to reception later and we can charge your card

Let's face it, it is not the customers fault that the system is down, so payment should be taken by card once it is back up or at checkout.

It is just not something I would agree to in these days of identity theft, as they have your card, billing address, probably passport details etc.

This is the same reason why I am not keen on photocopying the passport, but at least with that they cannot spend it online or with a dodgy shop around the corner.