birdiedouble

I had an experience this week at a Hampton Inn that has me a curious. At about 5 am, an extremely loud argument broke out in the room next to us (this is the second time this has happened to us). This lasted off and on for 5-10 minutes, but was violent enough to prevent me from getting back to sleep. Around 7:30, I went down to get coffee and stopped at the desk to report the disturbance and wondered if the party was checking out that day. The clerk commented that they had been there awhile and had some other complaints about the occupants and would pass my complaint to an in charge manager. I was out for awhile in the morning and when I returned to pick up something at the hotel around noon, housekeeping was going into the offending room and there was still luggage and at least one occupant. Stopping back at the front desk I inquired if they were either checking out or being asked to leave and was told the occupants were there on an insurance case and the manager needed to talk to the insurance company before asking them to leave. I ended up changing rooms at this point.

So here is my question, how common is it that behavior like this results in an eviction?

BrlDsguise

By violent argument do you mean there were sounds it items being thrown or a physical confrontation?

birdiedouble

It was a very emotion filled argument. No throwing, no physical confrontation as far as I could tell (for that I would have called the police). The loudness seemed to come from one person in a very agitated state at whoever they were arguing with in the room.

Staley Cornell

Insurance case as in an insurance company is paying the bill? If that is the case, the company might have paid in advance for X number of nights and it might be difficult to remove them if payment had already been made. Glad you got your room changed though!

Points Scrounger

I have encountered it once - room across the hall from me. I believe it was something along the lines of a woman being told by her partner that he was leaving her? The guy apparently literally left her at that point, with her being escorted out by security.

indufan

By definition, this isn't violent.

neo_781

I am not sure you can generalize to get a good answer. There are always going to be a variety of factors - number of complaints, did hotel security get involved, were the police called, number of incidents, etc... Also another factor would be that each General Manager/Hotel Manager is going to have slightly different interpretation of how to handle the situation.

I think the best you can expect for is the hotel to move you to a quieter part of the hotel (or move the offending guests). As long as your life (or someone else was/is not in danger) the choice is up to the individual property to evict or not.

writerguyfl

As neo_781 notes, this isn't a one-size-fits-all situation. Even aside from different General Managers having different interpretations, different jurisdictions will have different laws.

The city where I worked the bulk of my hospitality career required law enforcement involvement to evict a guest. (I honestly don't know that meant we needed a court order or if we could just call the police and ask. All I know is that it wasn't something we could legally do on our own.) From what I was told from colleagues in other parts of the country, other hotels didn't have that restriction.

For us, we could ask a guest to leave, but they didn't legally have to comply. We didn't tell the guest the second part. Fortunately, in the roughly eight years I worked in hotels in that city, asking was all it took.

As for this case, I would hope that the hotel would not move to evict a guest solely on an after-the-fact report of an argument. Hopefully this won't happen again. If it does, pick up the phone and tell the hotel while it is happening. Doing that, a hotel employee can document the situation.

If the argument is actually violent, call 911. Doing that may save a life.

Often1

OP has failed to identify the property. If he did so, it might help because others might have useful information. Otherwise, this is simply a generalization.

It is far from hard to evict a paying guest, no matter who has paid and for how long. The terms are geerally-speaking quite clear about noise, committing crimes and the like.

It's just that properties hate doing it, although the fact is that they are damaging themselves with other guests.

Best thing to have done was to have: 1. Called the FD immediately; 2. Followed with a call to 911 (presuming in the US). Better the cops put an end to something before i turns tragic.

If you wait until later, it's not that important -- unless you simply want to move somewhere else.

birdiedouble

Thanks for the feedback. This was in a mid sized city and reading through the TripAdvisor reviews after we got home it doesn't lead one to believe that this is a common occurrence at this property. Based on a strange interaction I had with housekeeping shortly after we checked in and what the desk clerk said to me in the two conversations I had with her I believe this room was a known issue before we arrived. I'm a little puzzled why a property would let someone who is so disruptive stay or continue to put guests in the adjoining room. I have another stay at this property in about a month and if it weren't extremely convenient for my needs I would consider staying at another hotel.

BrlDsguise

Honestly I find it strange that you peered into the room during housekeeping. If you are overly concerned about an argument breaking out in a neighboring room stay elsewhere.

smmrfld

Uncle Nonny

Usually it's people bumping uglies that disturb my sleep. Call the cops. They have to investigate it regardless of what the front desk says.

Winniesbestfriend

birdiedouble

Far from it. I just find it odd that this type of extreme behavior is tolerated in establishments that cater to people trying to sleep. If the same scene happened in a restaurant, bar, airport, retail establishment...the offenders would be asked to leave or prevented from travel. What makes a hotel different? That's all.