anonymousquestioner

Last Thursday night I was staying a single night at a 4-star hotel (major global brand) in a large US city. Not necessarily Hilton. It was quite luxurious, a really nice hotel in a nice part of the city.

I had just hung up my towel after a shower, I'm standing in the middle of the room completely naked, and another guest opens the door suddenly (he had been checked in improperly, and the front desk had given him an access card to my room). I'm shocked and I freeze. I suppose I was deciding whether to fight or hide. This man spends about 30 seconds holding the door open with his foot, glaring at me and repeating "What the hell are you doing in my room?" in-between narrating what he is seeing while pointing his camera phone at me. After about 10 seconds of shock, I literally say "Can you please close the door and leave— I am fully naked." The man keeps narrating the scene with his camera phone aimed at me, and so I repeat my request once again, verbatim, this time as I back up and squat behind the bed to hide while keeping track of him visually. Shortly after this second request, the man closes the door. I assume this man was surprised and reflexively fired up his phone (already in his hand when he opened the door, but originally lowered) to document the experience. Even still, I think his behaviour was unusual.

I complained to the front desk over the phone, left the room ASAP to settle my nerves at the rooftop bar for an hour or so, and came back to find my access card was no longer working. I was worried someone else was in my room looting my luggage, so I went down to the crowded lobby and had to explain what had happened to the staff (who were visibly struggling to contain their laughter along with all the other guests overhearing my story and frantic requests to get back into my room to protect my luggage). Other than the [understandable and awkward but nonetheless embarrassing] laughter, they were quite polite. They issued me a new key and apologised. I requested a new room and they said they would try to arrange this.

I left the hotel immediately, feeling uncomfortable being there. It was about 7pm at this point. I stayed away as long as possible, wandering from restaurant to restaurant, diner to diner and finally camped at a bar until closing, ultimately returning to the hotel at 3am. I explained the situation to the night staff again, and they offered me a new room as requested. The deadbolt in this new room was non-functioning, so I asked for another room. The next new room had a malfunctioning deadbolt, too, but the maintenance team resolved that issue such that even though it was malfunctioning, it seemed to be locking okay. By this time, it was after 5am. I did not sleep, and checked out at noon.

As I was checking out, I had to describe the issue again in a crowded lobby, where the general manager arrived to speak with me. The GM has apologised profusely both in person and via email. He was very polite and empathetic. At various stages of my interactions with the hotel staff, I was offered a $50 voucher for their restaurants/bars, then another $100 voucher, then another $50 voucher. I was also offered a global membership to some hotel club and credits for a free night at any of their venues. I didn't use the vouchers and told the GM that I couldn't even think about whether I wanted to accept his offer of hotel credits, because I was entirely fixated on minimising the risk that any intimate footage which may have been captured or streamed would be disseminated more broadly. I'm still regularly Googling relevant keywords to check if there is footage of me going viral or uploaded to some voyeurism porn site.

I have asked the GM to secure written confirmation from the guest firstly that they understand I did not consent to any intimate footage being captured/streamed, and that I do not consent to any such footage being retained or disseminated at any time in the future; and secondly that they understand specifically that disseminating any such footage without my explicit consent would entail serious state and federal offences under law. The GM has indicated that this request was made in an email sent on Friday morning, but the guest has not responded. It is now Monday evening.

Nothing described here is in dispute, the details have all been documented in back and forth emails with the GM, including that the guest himself confirmed to hotel staff that he was filming me for an extended time— the only element of uncertainty is what the guest did with this media, and whether he has or will retain and/or disseminate it.

My questions: Am I acting reasonably here? What other actions should I be taking?

Thank you!

P.S. Earlier today I made a similar post on TripAdvisor, and several unkind comments came back suggesting this is a voyeuristic fiction. I assure everyone reading now that it is not. I am genuinely seeking advice from communities experienced in dealing with hotels.

Canarsie

Welcome to FlyerTalk, anonymousquestioner!As this discussion was originally posted in the Hilton | Hilton Honors forum and the hotel in which the incident occurred was “Not necessarily Hilton”, the new home for this discussion is now the TravelBuzz forum.

Regards,

Canarsie
Co-Moderator, Hilton | Hilton Honors forum

david55

I am a guy so I can't comment on how I would have felt...but my guess is the first thing I would have done after he closed the door was dial 911 and get the police involved. The filming guest would have been approached by the police that night and you wouldn't be waiting days for a conclusion. ( if you get one at all) I do know I would not have gone out drinking until 3AM....but stuck around and gotten the matter resolved.

anonymousquestioner

Not a bad idea, I have been considering contacting the local PD if the hotel is not forthcoming. Wasn't out drinking until 3am, just didn't want to be back in the hotel.

disalex

Stop posting on social media and get a good lawyer immediately. They can try to get a court order so the video can’t be distributed. They can go after the hotel. The more you post the more you complicate your case

estnet

Totally agree, along with grabbing the towel I had just put down and maybe yelling at the man "get out!". Immediate call to hotel security, GM and police. Good chance phone could have been confiscated by pd and they could delete and see if any uploading had happened. Anyone who stands there and videos while narrating????
I've been given the key to an occupied room as soon as started to open the door, saw someone was inside, closed door, returned to front desk!
None of the behavior you've described is normal! and a very odd first post...........

Loren Pechtel

Not normal but not necessarily voyeuristic, either--it could be documenting that he didn't assault you. I'd certainly be leery if I found a naked woman in what was supposedly my hotel room.

planesquid

Yeah, if I went round half-expecting to find naked women in my hotel room because I'm the kind of person who gets targetted by overseas intelligence agencies for blackmail I'd certainly be leery enough to document it for my own defense, but as a normal person opening the door to an obviously already occupied room, the first thing I'd do is close it right away, maybe with a shouted "sorry" and hot-foot it down to reception to have some politely angry words.

Doppy

I've been given keys to other people's rooms when checking in to hotels a few times, and inevitably there's a half naked person in there.

Whenever I'm in a hotel room I use every available lock on the door at all times to prevent exactly this scenario.

anonymousquestioner

I'm not American, was travelling for work, and feeling really shocked and disturbed. People don't always make perfect choices, especially when they are stressed. I just wanted to be away from the room, and then away from the hotel, as fast as possible. In retrospect, taking the issue out of the Hotel's control by calling the police right away might have gotten a better result in terms of securing any local data remaining on the man's phone. I guess I'll try to remember that next time this bizarre, once-or-less-in-a-lifetime thing happens.Oh, and the towel was on a hook right by the door, within arms reach of the intruder. Oh, ond the bed was freshly made (I had checked in about 45 minutes earlier) so there weren't any loose sheets to grab. Oh, and THERE WAS SUDDENLY SOME MAN IN MY ROOM FILMING ME STARK NAKED. As I mentioned in my original post, I eventually retreated backward and crouched behind the bed. Best thing I could think of in a bad situation.

azepine00

unfortunate timing of erroneous room assignment to some blogger or just a random person documenting (and hopefully not streaming) hotel arrival.. i've seen some opening hotel doors with camera in hand...

ok i am approaching the room.. i am opening the door... i see umm errr a naked person in my room...

if the unsuspecting person believed he entered his room perhaps the first reaction was not to get out with "i am so sorry" but rather question why a naked person was in his room and continue recording...

nk15

I have to say I sympathize, what a weird situation and a cluster....It is hard to respond ideally in the moment, maybe you should have tried to cover your face and run to the bathroom immediately, and then call the police, but it is easier said after the fact and it is hard to think ideally in the moment. I agree calling a layer to explore your options may be best, however unpleasant or expensive might this all be...

nk15

Do you think your face was showing? How far or dark was it? That would make a lot of difference in terms of stress...But I guess it is hard to tell....

YuropFlyer

The hotel clearly made a mistake. Had this happening to me, too (with opposite sexes) BUT no filming.

The (assumed) filming is what makes it worse, I suppose. And where the hotel doesn't really hold much power over.

I was also pretty much irritated when this happened to me (Guest entering the room, just as I'm leaving the bathroom after shower) but I took some immediate action as in visiting the counter. Where the other guest also (still) was. So it was resolved there and then. In your situation, that would probably also have given you the chance to confront that person about the (possible) video he took, and that you want to check his phone about it. A reasonable person would have understood it, and let you - with them watching of course - check his recent video/pictures.

By waiting, you literally gave this guy the chance to upload/spread the - possible - footage of yourself without any hurry, able to clean up the phone completely, etc.

BUT - and here is the BIG but - this guy stumbled upon you. FAT chance he was just as shocked as you were. And that - should - he have made a video - just deleted it. He wasn't trying to film someone changing behind a window without a curtain, he walked into the room assuming nothing.

The hotel (still) should know who actually walked into your room, and considering a privacy breach did happen, at least do you a favour and contact the person in your name, explaining that you're worried about it. Good chance he'll get back to you, explain that he didn't film (or if he did, deleted it already once it became clear it was a problem of the hotel messing up) - and give you some piece of mind.

In any case, delaying to "clean up" what happened from your side certainly didn't helped, as you must have noticed yourself already.

Changing the room several times AFTER what happened was probably even more counterproductive, since it created much more of a mess, giving the hotel probably a hard time to keep track of it, too.

tl;dr: Get in touch with the hotel, get them to drop a message to the person "sharing" the room with you about the situation/possible filming.

nk15

Unless he was some kind of stupid blogger who wanted to upload the video for views to their site...But, any normal person should have the common sense and understand that they should not upload such video, and that they are also exposed to legal risks...And you could find who they are and sue them. However, there are some idiots out there...