craz

I Never said that it was OK for the front desk not to be manned. That was WRONG too. But that doesnt give anyone the right to lean over and take what doesnt belong to them.

Most if not all Hotels have a pay phone within a few feet ot the FD, call the 800# of the chain. Now if they would say take it and settle up later on, no problem , just get the name of the CSR or said its OK. But thats way different from deciding to do so on ones own. If they said I coudlnt take it, I wouldnt, how long to wait maybe 15 mins max, then Id call back and tell them to either cancel the res or put me somewhere else at the same rate as I was on even a free stay and the other Hotel is a higher Cat.

I have gotten to some HIs that keep their front doors Locked after 11pm and had to be buzzed in. If I was kept waiting a very long time, that as well would be dealt with at check-out or simply by calling and telling them to cancel it and Id go elsewhere. ( Yes I did in fact do that once at 1am and told the CSR that I called the Hotel and no one picked up the phone and after waiting 15 mins Im out of here and I wont pay for the room even though its after Cancelling Time and I will be submitting a bill to Hilton if the Hotel across the road is gonna charge me more, It was $10 less.)

clarkef

What the OP did was technically wrong. However, a more nuanced analysis should take into account the totality of the situations.

1. The OP did not have any improper motives. He was not trying to put one over on the hotel or in any way screw the hotel

2. It was late at night.

3. The OP's wife and children were in the car.

Could the OP have handled it better. Yes. He should have called HHONORS and explained the situation to them and gotten directions from them.

However, to suggest that the OPs actions reflected a moral failure, or to analogize his actions with stealing is plainly wrong.

HotelFlyer

I worked on hotel front desks for years as an agent and manager. IMO what the OP did was OK. After all he told the Front Desk agent he was in the room - so it didn't get switched and given out to another guest. And the hotel did have his credit card information - if he no showed they surely would have charged him, so I think the room was his to take. Personally I never would have checked my family into a hotel that took guest's security so lightly! I would have called central reservations, told them what was going on and insisted they find me another room with the same accommodations and under the same terms. BTW I've also been the front desk person left all alone with phones ringing and guests needing attention and no way to get it all done. The hotel management should be held accountable for this not the front desk agent.

BJfly

Being caught suggests that I was doing something that should have been hidden or kept from public knowledge, so I am only using this word in the title as a reference to your post. (Another post had a very good suggest to me that my original post should have been titled "what would you have done").

Regardless, had I been "caught", I would have done exactly what I did do - which is explain the situation and not been the least bit embarrassed or defensive, and I really do not believe that the attitude of the night staff would have been any different than that of the day clerk when I told him what I did the next day.

I think it is fair to say that we disagree, and I think that it is also fair to say that you probably don't think that this was the crime of century.

I appreciate some of the more recent posts stating that perhaps I wasn't 100% out of line.

BJFly

Eastbay1K

Well, seeing as there was no one to help anyone IN the line

Cmonstretch

I used to help cover the overnight shifts at a HI, and I have been the GSR in this very situation. A couple things...

1. The employee definitely should have put up a "I'm away from the desk" sign.

2. The room number generally should not be written on the key packet if the name is written on there, it's a security issue. Lots of stalkers out there.

3. Normally after 10-11pm, you are the only one at the hotel. If a toilet floods, you are the one to go. Noisy kids in the parking lot, you're going. I can say from experience that the worst feeling in the world is to be running back from a room call and seeing someone waiting to check in.

It's not a matter of understaffing. It's usually a matter of feast or famine. There are either 20 things going on at one time, or you sit there for hours working on paperwork without seeing a soul.

I wouldn't have taken the keys, but i can see the temptation. I just wouldn't have slept well hoping that they didn't give my room out to someone else assuming I didn't check in.

BamaVol

Put your desk clerk hat back on for a minute and tell us what you'd do if a guest returned to the desk to state that the room was occupied. I'd have given the guest an apology and another room and then probably called the occupied room (after some quick research) and asked them to come up to the desk and check-in ... assuming someone answers the phone. No big deal if you can figure out what happened. I do appreciate hearing you confirm what many see here as the shortcomings on the part of the property & person on duty.

And I still wouldn't have done what the OP did. What would he have done if the authorities came knocking with weapons drawn to evict an unidentified squatter?

And welcome to FT, Cmonstretch.

Don in LA

I am bewildered by the majority of responses in this thread. Perhaps it is because I have a wife and 2 young children that I identify with the OP, but the options of (a) waiting in the car indefinitely, (b) waiting in the lobby indefinitely, (c) seeking out another hotel room late at night with said wife and young children in the car, etc. just don't compare with the ease and reasonability of what he did. If I were to find any fault at all with what the OP did, it would be that he didn't leave a note to the desk clerk stating what he had done and promising to follow up with the day clerk. But that's it.

Stealing? Nonsense. "Stealing" would be if he had no pre-paid-for (points or $) reservation and chanced upon the same situation and took someone else's keys and went to the room. The hypothetical about the accessible bank tray is simply inapt. The grocery store example is closer to home, but enough dissimilarities exist to make it also inapt.

Gotta agree, in general terms, with HotelFlyer and clarkef, and sc flier is on the money.

ContinentalFan

Gutsy move by the OP! I think this is one of those times when the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee kicks in!

I am glad the hotel didn't make a big deal over the thing. I wonder what I would have done in those circumstances. I'd probably start to worry that something had happened--I might even call the police: I've never had an experience like that one!