All belongings removed from room
 

I've just returned from what should have been a very pleasant two night stay at a Starwood property in Europe (as seems to be the tradition, I'll omit the hotel name at the moment until SPG Customer Care/the hotel have understood what happened).

On the middle day, I returned to my room to discover all my belongings (including those in the in-room safe) had been taken from my room. Reception couldn't believe this could have happened (the room was still allocated to me on the system), but after a few minutes, returned with the contents of the safe. A few minutes later, a housekeeper appeared with another member of the reception team and my suitcase; into which all my clothing had been packed. Fortunately nothing had gone missing.

I spoke to the GM this morning who seemed genuinely shocked at what had happened and promised a full review.

So, whilst I'm waiting for the results of the investigation, I was wondering whether this has happened to any other FTers? It is not something I remember reading about in recent years.

P.S. I did put out the MAGC card, but that was obviously ignored (I guess a minor issue compared to what happened)

I would make a huge fuss even if nothing is missing. They violated your privacy and handled your personal belongings without permission.

Even if there was a mistake about your departure date, it seems extraordinary that ordinary employees rather than management would do this. Housekeepers shouldn't be able to get into a locked in room safe, nor should it ever be opened without either the guest or a manager present.

You may have misread the OP's statement. There is nothing in it which suggests that Housekeepers got into the room safe or that it was unlocked without a manager present. It may well have been but the OP does not state that.

It was reception that returned the contents of the safe. Now, why reception had access to it without a manager is another question.

Let's assume for a moment that someone checks out and leaves the safe locked. I would assume that management would be called to supervise the opening of the safe and would remove any property left in it and store it in the hotel's main safe. I would also assume that management would then be the ones responsible for restoring the property to the owner.

I hope that it was a manager who went with the tech person to open the safe at the request of housekeeping.

I have no idea at the moment who opened the safe, but that is something I discussed with the GM this morning. I know hotels tend to have very strict policies on safes, and my guess is these were not followed. But we'll see once the investigation is over.

I also clearly stated the issue of invasion of privacy in both my email to Customer Care and my discussion with the GM.

OP by any chance were you not on site for 24 hrs? In many locales a hotel must ascertain that the occupants of a room are alive and well. That needs to be done even if theres a D/N/D sign hung on the door. FD will ring the room, no answer someone is sent to knock on the room, still no answer then they will attempt to enter the room.If they cant enter it due to it being locked from within they will break the door down. If they can enter using a pass key and see everything is in perfect shape and no signs of anyone having been in the room I can see where they will pack everything up and remove everything from the safe even if I have a res for another 3 nights.

Ive been in these shoes a few times, some times being woken up by the knocking on the door.Of cause later on when I complained I was informed that the law of that Country was they had to make sure I wasnt dead in my room and the only way to prevent from being distrubed going forward was to make sure I stop by the FD sometime before 24 hrs passes and let them know Im alive and kicking. This happened both in Asia and Europe

So if the OP was in such a Country and didnt show face within 24 hrs and the room looked like no one has been in there, then packing it all up isnt a problem in my book. Now had the OP let the FD know they were going away and didnt want the room to be touched is something different, but then again things do depend on what the law in that locale is

Good theory, but I was only out of the room for 2 hours...

No theory, you didnt say anything but that you came back on the middle day to find everything was removed. Had you said I left the hotel for 2 hrs came back and everything was removed I wouldnt have had to ask you what I did.

I'll get the popcorn :D

Personally, I would be furious at the staff handling my personal belongings and packing them without my authorization.
In thousands of hotel nights, I have never had anything like this occur unless it was hotel butlers unpacking or packing at my direct request. I'm curious: was this a property with butler service?

I had this happen at IC Singapore a few years ago. Had RA late checkout and when I returned to the room at 3.30pm, all my stuff was gone and the room was ready for another guest ... strangely, my keycard still worked (per the agreed 4pm checkout time). Like in the OP's case, nothing was missing, but having a stranger pack up all your stuff feels very violating. Of course this being the IC Singapore, no explanation or real apology ever came forth.

Wow, I hope you get a good explanation for this, OP.

My wild guess is that some other guest requested that his/her belongings be packed up and moved our of the room (such as if the guest suddenly had to leave the hotel and the city due to an emergency???) and that you or your room were somehow mistaken for that guest and room in the process. But I admit that's a pretty wild guess.

If this theory is correct, it still indicates that the hotel wasn't very careful or respectful of the OP's belongings. A simple check of name and room number of the quickly departing guest would have quickly shown the error. Additional care would have been to double check the name on the luggage tag against the name of the guest requesting the emergency packing.

I didn't post this in my W review and I gave the property benefit of the doubt because they have been so pleasure to us this past weekend. But yes, I asked for late check-out (4 p.m.) and we were planning to spend the whole day at the zoo. But I don't feel too well and decided to stay in (rest of family went), and the house keeper knocked on the door and CAME IN (without even waiting for answer, it was literally knocked and entered), and when she saw me she said, "sorry, you stayed?" I said yes, late checked-out, and she said, "ok, sorry".

Then, around 2 p.m., again, knocked and entered, same person, again, "sorry"

I wonder what's going on here.....

Could the housekeeper have been casing the room to decide what to steal and when?

You should have reported this after each incident. A housekeeper should never knock on a door with a do not disturb sign. If there's some question of whether the person has checked out or not, then the housekeeper should contact the front desk for clarification.

Over the years I have had a number of hotel safes malfunction and in every case it was a manager who came with the magic tool to open the safe. They appear to watch that tool carefully.