Checked into an occupied room
 

Not sure if this is the right place to post this thread but I regard checking into an occupied room a serious breach of security.

I stayed at a international chain of hotel during a trip to Malaysia and was checked into an occupied room in the early am (4am). I was utterly shocked and embarrassed upon entering that occupied room as I saw unclothed men in the room (I'm female). How could this have happened? And we are talking about an 5-star establishment. When I went back to the front desk, the staff looked unsurprised. This is a serious security issue, nobody knows what I would encounter behind those doors and imagine if you were the ones in the room. Strangers walking into your room in the middle of the night!

I wrote in to provide my feedback and the hotel offered a free stay. However they had a sloppy followup and even changed the offer when I got back to them at a later time. So unprofessional.

Should I pursue this further?

What you describe is not uncommon. That is in the computer and what gets punched up for room keys are different mechanisms. This incident is why one should always us the door stopper thingy when in the room, especially when sleeping. At least you were not the one asleep as it would have caused a huge stir as a single female.

If the hotel is changing their and downgrading it I would pursue as that is an insult.

PS Welcome to FT.

Agreed. If they had bolted their door, your key should not have worked. It was they that were violated and it was their fault, and you were embarrassed. All was needless but happens.

Here is the lesson: The very first thing when you get in the room bolt the door. When you are sure you are alone and have not run in on someone, latch the security latch. The reason you do not do this first is that if you must leave quickly it can become a hindrance. The dead bolt opens with the door and you can escape quickly. The situation is very, very rare but it does happen.

As for the hotel, they should comp the room, or at the very least dinner, for your embarrassment. Points would be good if you are expensed.

And, Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Thanks. Stumbled upon FT when I was searching online to see if this is a common situation.

Yeah the hotel downgraded the offer from 2 nights in a Junior Suite to 1 night in a deluxe room - had the cheek to offer standard rates for the second night too. It threw me off.

I have been at hotels where this has happened. Walked in on a few people fresh out of the shower or making a move for the bathroom in the buff.

I've had people get my room and vice versa. I learned to always use both inner locks.

Welcome to flyertalk.

If you wander over to the different hotel forums, there's probably a thread or two in each chains about this happening to people. It's not all that common, but if you travel enough it will probably happen to you at some point. I've been on both sides, where I've opened a door that was occupied (though nobody was in the room at the time) and I've had people trying to get into the room I was in but couldn't because the door was locked.

If you are the one in the room, always make sure to use all the locks just in case. Also there is a good chance your room key will not work anymore once they encode it for somebody else, so check before you go out the next day.

I once tried my card in the room exactly one floor above mine. All 10 floors of the hotel were identical, and instead of 8036, I marched up to 9036 and tried my card a time or two before looking up at the number plate. Needless to say, if someone (especially a woman traveling alone) was in the room, that might have scared them.

+1 great advice all the way^

This happened to me at least once... Possibly more than once.

I know it happened once because i entered a room with someone already in it.

It may have happened more often, because people have tried to enter my room on at least a dozen occasions, but my door is ALWAYS bolted when i'm in it.

Number of hotel stays over 30 years? More than 1000 at least

I've read several threads on FT, and on other sites, about "walking in on someone who was naked."

My question is - how much time do you spend naked when in your hotel room?

I dunno about you guys, but when I'm in a hotel room, I'm only naked when I'm about to get into the shower; all other times, I keep at least some casual clothing on, for multiple reasons:

* Never know when there might be an evacuation due to fire or other emergency

* No matter how hard I try, there is always a slim gap in the curtains when staying in an exterior room

* Don't want to sit naked on furniture that other people might have sat on naked

* Don't want to sit naked on furniture that other people might sit on naked in the future

* Never know when someone might knock on the door with nefarious purpose in mind

* Never know when someone might knock on the door with legitimate and harmless purpose in mind

* Erin Andrews

* Never know when I might want to eat some pie, and it's just plain creepy to do so naked (or in underwear)

family night at the hotel
 

I checked into an Embassy Suite near the Denver Airport. The room they gave me a card key to was occupied by a guest who told me his first and last names were the same as my first and last names. We could have been distant cousins - but we were not.
I returned to the front desk, checked in again and received a fresh room assignment.
What are computers good for?

I've had this happen several times; one of these was oddest of all: When I entered the room, I found it occupied--I was the 5th person erroneously assigned to that room. When I returned to the front desk, the clerk tried calling the room--but the line was busy.:td:

Yep, matches my routine almost exactly.

One question, don't you out of the shower naked as well?

I had forgotten about Erin Andrews.

What fun is that? ;)

I'm usually wrapped in a towel when I get out.

Nobody who travels a lot should ever forget about Erin Andrews.

I will also add another +1 to the comments here.

As someone who stays 125-150 hotel nights a year. I virtually always have my inside bolt latched when I am inside the room (98%) unless i'm just going running in and going back out, or occassionally stressed to the point it slips my mind. Was going to make the same comment in the Alex Trabek thread - that it would never happen to me because no one can get into my room while I am asleep - short of breaking down the door.

Thusly I've never had someone walk in on me - though I have definitely heard people try the door. I had an experience a few months ago - i went to the door. Slid the key, got the green light, but the door was bolted. Expected someone to yell or something - but nothing. Went back and they said for sure no one is in that room. Somehow the door latch had engaged with no one inside the room. Maybe a heavy slam engaged it? The maintanence guy had to come and pop the latch, and re-set it.

I always take a small piece of tissue and put it in the peep hole - just because of her.

you must have been no fun at all on your honeymoon... ;)

Great advice, thanks! I started a job that requires 100-150 nights in a hotel about a year ago. I haven't walked in on anyone yet, but I have had cleaning crews try to come in at unreasonably early times (7am, still getting ready!). Because of this (and bc I'm a female traveling alone) I always latch the security latch, but it had never occured to me to check out the room first.

As always, FT has taught me something useful!

Long ago, a late arrival on a busy night at the Chi Palmer House Hilton, a very nice, but muchly harassed Honors Check In Desk clerk, apologized profusely, before sending me up to a 1BR suite "involuntary upgrade". I opened the parlor door to find a poker game in progress, more to the players' chagrin than mine....

Back downstairs, rollaboard and briefcase in tow, I was met by great apologies, and a proposal to bump me up the street (with no offer to pay for the night at the substitute caravansarai. I was in a "No Huey, Jose!" mood, and ended up, after summoning the MOD (More apologies!), in a lavish 2BR suite, all alone, except for a fruit bowl.

Pre-occupied rooms? Not as infrequent as you would think in this era of computers. Three times I can recall.

I'm not married, but if I ever get married, the nudity rules would most definitely be reviewed for content.

As a result of it happening to me once and also the posts on FT about it, if I'm in my room, the inner bolt/chain is always on.

You walked in on a guy and then proceeded to have a conversation with him? Interesting.

Some rooms have adjoining interior doors; if this were the case with your room. the person who bolted the interior lock, could have left via the other door.

I bolt the door because of FT!

Is "eating pie" some kind of new-age euphemism? :)

In more than 20 years and more hotel nights I care to think about, I have been in that situation a few times, I can distinctly remember at least two incidents.

In the first (a hotel in Burnaby, BC), I walked in on an elderly couple with my wife in tow. We actually chatted for about 5 minutes before we tracked back to the lobby with plans to do something unpleasant to the front desk clerk responsible.

Second situation, a hotel near LAX, I walked in on a sleeping person (1 am) - and went out very quickly and quietly.

I always bolt and lock my door - and even though I am a sound sleeper I can remember quite a number of times that somebody did try my door. If you stay in a European hotel that still uses real keys, chances are that you use the same key to lock the room from the inside. If so: leave the key in for obvious security reasons, but rotate it 90 degrees from the position in which you can remove it. This will lock out all other keys tried from the outside - for the vast majority of locks.