Marriott Bonvoy hotel staff forced entry to guest room while someone is in it?
 

A bit of opinion and input is needed, today I just checked into one of the marriott hotel for a two night stay and while i was taking a nap, i heard my room door were being forced opened and entry by two of the staff.

I then was being woken up by the noise as they are trying to open the security latches so I opened up and they were shocked and did not expect there is guest already in the room.

The management admitted their mistaken and the worst part is, the two staff did not bother to rang the room bell to check whether someone else is checked in?

What would you do in this situation? This is a very serious security breaches for a Marriott property!

While I am sure it was a bit startling to you at the time, I think it is a stretch to call it a serious security breach. Staff enter hotel rooms all the time. If your room was on a list as being unoccupied, they probably don't "ring the bell" or knock or anything as they do this A LOT through the day. Though if they encounter the security chain / latch, I would think they would then realize it was occupied and knock, etc.
That is actually the reason I use the chain / latch whenever I am in the room.

Did you by chance have an early check-in?
At a lot of properties, once a room is reported as "cleaned and ready for assignment", a housekeeping supervisor / manager or someone stops into the room to check and ensure the room is ready, all the required service is done, etc.

If management apologized and seemed sincere, not sure there is anything else I would be looking for.

What explanation did you receive?

It would be much worse if they had given a key to another guest thinking the room was unoccupied and the guest had entered the room.

That happened to be once. The property didn't communicate my 4PM late checkout to housekeeping, and they cleaned out all my stuff. While I was waiting in my room for my stuff to be "redelivered," another guest waltzes in. I'm told him sorry, I have this room til 4PM, and to please tell the front desk that you were traumatized by the experience of walking in another guest, and that they should bump you up to a presidential suite.

I have sought and received compensation in points in a couple of similar situations, though I have to say I've never had hotel personnel actually try to physically remove or damage the closing latch. I don't know that it's necessarily a security breach if hotel personnel are doing this under the impression that the room is somehow unoccupied, but it's a lack of common sense and courtesy that impacted your stay

Perhaps I'm missing something. If the hotel staff had to force their way through the security latches, that should suggest to them that the room might be occupied. Also, why would the hotel send two staff members unless they already knew that the security latches were in place. Accordingly, I would have expected them to first call, then knock.

It happens. Usually due to an error or delay in the check in process where the guest doesn’t end up showing as being in that room, and staff are convinced the room is empty. Hotel staff tend to be very set in their beliefs on these sorts of things, haha. Hence the lack of advance calling / knocking and the opening of latches. Obviously should not happen. Should yield an apology and some comp, but usually is simply a dumb error poorly handled, not anything nefarious.

All properties have some type of a two step process. Step one is where the housekeeper finishes cleaning the room and then the room is put in to a vacant pickup or vacant clean status. Then the manager/supervisor/rooms inspector will inspect the room and release it to vacant ready status which is normally when the room will be assigned by a desk agent.

To save time, some properties do a version where after the housekeeper finishes a room, they will leave the room door propped open or on the latch so that the inspecting person knows that room needs to be checked.

FWIW, all locks or deadbolts can be overridden by the reader on the door very easily and once the door is open a crack, the hotel will have a small thin picking device which will allow the security latch to be taken off very easily. The whole process if done right takes less than 20-30 seconds. No damage or forcing in the process. There are reasons for this to occur but it should be a last resort situation after multiple lines of contact have been initiated to the potential occupant of the room.

what did management say about this incidient? If you are not satisifed, i would call Marriott Customer service for a resolution.

Presumably it's 99% unlikely that there is no one in the room if the security latch is engaged. So presumably it was obvious to the staff entering the room that they were entering an occupied room. And yet...

OP, when management admitted the mistake, what did they tell you was the intention of the staff members entering the room?

Staff make mistakes and guests at times do stupid things.

I've seen this one a few times over the years. Housekeeping after they're done, will sometimes mistakenly leave the connecting doors open or unlocked between two connecting rooms. Guest #1 checks in to room A and for whatever reason, decides to move to room B while saying nothing yet, the latch and deadbolt in room A are left engaged.

This sets up one of two scenarios where security/maintenance/the GM/the police may need to access the room in a non-traditional manor. 1. The desk thinks room B is vacant ready and the guest they properly check in to room B will likely be locked out with the deadbolt and security latch engaged in a supposedly unoccupied vacant ready room. 2. Assuming the room switch isn't figured out, the next day, housekeeping can't get into room A to check if it's vacant or if the guest has left because the deadbolt and latch are still engaged which still makes room B actually vacant dirty even though the hotel will think the room is actually vacant ready.

Presume/assume nothing because mix-ups and/or odd situations do happen.

This doesn't always work if the housekeeping is dyslexic or slapdash about logging cleared rooms! I booked a day room at a Doubletree last year as a workspace, checked in, rode the elevator and merrily sailed into the room, turning on the light.............

......... and woke some poor bugger up because housekeeping/inspection totally cocked up the room number that they had actually cleared on the availability list! :eek:

Mortified, I withdrew and returned to Reception whereupon I sought to impress upon the front desk staff that, aside from sorting out a room that was actually free for myself, that they should proactively flag the account of the poor soul whose slumber I had inadvertently disrupted for some compensatory relief in the form of points or some kind of 'freebie', though whether they received anything is unknown.

Hotels usually reserve the right to conduct a duty of care inspection (i.e. a 'corpse check') so if, for example, Security had the wrong information as to which room number was occupied but had seen no key activity in in a concerning while the presence of a security latch or chain on the door likely would not immediately deter them from effecting entry

i'd probably get back to my nap, lol.

Smart man.

David