Somebody has just walked into our hotel room at 4am

[Batmam]

Me and DP were fast asleep in a (large, chain) hotel and a woman with a suitcase has just let herself in with a key - don’t know who was more shocked her or us! We didn’t have any clothes on but were under the sheets thank god. I was sleeping so deeply it took me a second to realise what was going on. Never had this happen before in my life, and after everything that happened with Premier Inn I thought hotels would be even more diligent about security.

Phoned reception and she was more concerned with getting our details than actually apologising. It wasn’t a mistake with the key, the woman was told that this was her room. I’ve never worked in a hotel, but how could this happen? We checked in in person last night and signed for the room. Already paid when booking unfortunately. Surely the system should have known this room was occupied?

We’ve bolted the door now and it obviously won’t happen again tonight, but I doubt I’ll be able to go back to sleep now...

• [Correction at OP's request - the security incident mentioned was at a Travelodge hotel, not a Premier Inn]

I've stayed in hundreds, maybe even thousands of hotel rooms in the past and this has happened to me precisely once.

It was a cleaner I think. I woke up, yelled at them and they hastily retreated and closed the door. I was pretty mad.

All major chain hotels including Premier Inn have a mechanism on the inner door to secure the door once in the room.

It is absolutely not an over reaction to be upset with a stranger entering your hotel room.
All those snide comments are unfair and i believe goady to the op.
I've had it happen to me twice quite a while ago on 2 separate occasions i didn't complain or even tell the duty manager but i'm older and wiser now and i would absolutely complain if it ever happened to me again.
It could be any body with any intention and when you are asleep or sleepy and not at your most alert you are vulnerable.

Yes, but most hotel rooms have a deadlock to use at night to stop this.

I stayed at a Premier inn earlier this year. My elderly cousin was meeting me and the hotel staff refused to tell her if I was at the hotel or not due to the travel lodge incident. Good to see them taking it seriously. (She didn't want to ring me in case I was still driving before anyone asks 🤣)

Well done you! I think you’re right to consider escalation, it could happen again to someone on their own. I hope you have a nice treat lined up at some point to make up for this a bit!

@witnesses

inteeeesting to see your insights

I guess human error can always happen

the awful things that have happened i prem in involved a predator deliberately trying to gain access and was granted it

on this occasion; it was an innocent woman who had entered in good faith

fhe probability of dangerous predator trying their luck and being granted access by mistake must be miniscule and with that in mind, we should keep calm but lock the doors

I always use a doorstop too but that knob is the bolt.

Aah, I see, thanks. I do turn it, but it's not as reassuring as seeing a traditional bolt or a chain!

Plesse read my posts properly. I did not accuse the OP of being hysterical. I wrote that similar posts on the same subject have appeared here before and are always smattered with a few hysterical replies. Which is the case on this thread.

Again, read what people write properly as you have misrepresented what I wrote.

I understand why you do it but you shouldn't have to.
People shouldn't have to resort to jamming chairs and make shift barricades to feel safe.

I don't think that the risk of this is miniscule actually. There are just far too many devious predatory men out there who are a risk to women and will take advantage of an circumstance when a woman is vulnerable. Sorry to say, as a woman my life experience tells me that these men are the No 1 risk factor to me. I don't think it is acceptable to tolerate these incidents or dismiss them as 'just one of those things that happens from time to time'.

Although human error can always happen, when the stakes are high (as I think they are here) there should be systems in place that compensate for the human error factor and reduce the risk to near zero. That's why we can get on a plane and know that we are almost certain to be safe due to the protocols in place, despite the number of people involved in the flight in some capacity (pilots, ground staff, ATC) any one of whom may make serious errors.

If you live your life based on the absolutely tiny chances of things happening, you will be scared of everything. People need to risk assess based on statistics and not their often terribly misguided fears.

Eh?? That will have calmed her but initially, before she figured out what happened, that would have been terrifying. Obviously.

What a weird question

Also anyone else appearing in the room whilst you've been asleep would be a wtf moment regardless.

Those systems are expensive, the hotel I worked in used one for a while, but ultimately reverted back because although it happened, it wasn't a daily or even monthly occurrence (I think I've known it happen 3 or 4 times in 20 years on and off in hotels) and they couldn't justify the cost.

And before anyone starts that was a decision way above my head, not something I had any input into or could change and made my job harder because they reverted back to an inferior system, it doesn't mean I agreed with the decision or supported it.

Humans make mistakes and systems glitch, it's a fact of life, the mistakes and glitches are more likely when resources are restricted, to save money. Unfortunately that's also a fact of life.

Get a grip

Exactly. Asking 'why is it scary?' For goodness sake!

Yesterday DH went to bed for an afternoon sleep at 1.30pm, (as he had had a bad sleep the night before,) and he asked me to wake him at 4pm..

He had been in bed for 2.5 hours, and he was in a deep sleep, and a darkened room (blackout curtains.) When I woke him he nearly jumped out of his skin. He was in his own bed, in his own bedroom, in his own house, and it was his WIFE waking him. Imagine how scary that would be if you were in a hotel room, and some random walked in at 4am, and woke you from a deep sleep?

And someone asks why is it scary?' FFS! 🙄

.

I travel a lot for work and have had this the other way round.

Given a keycard for my room and walked into an occupied room. Poor occupant was having a bath! I had to make a hasty apologetic retreat.

This was a Premier Inn and to be fair, reception were very apologetic. I wasn’t paying for the room, so they gave me a free evening meal in the restaurant. I just hope they did something for the poor person who was in the bath!!

I think a few things could help prevent this and all cost money that the budget hotels I worked for wouldn't be interested in spending sadly! (Glad to be out of the industry now).

• Firstly, make it so the keycard system and checking in system are integrated. You check guest in, cards are cut instantly. This wouldn't stop you potentially checking the wrong guest into the wrong room - but it would mean the room showing as occupied would at least be the room that actually was occupied, at least at the point of check in. This wouldn't be foolproof - as people lose their cards, cards stop working, they ask for extra cards etc. It would definitely help though, but errors could still happen after check in, later in the stay.

• No more lone working. The vast majority of budget chain hotels will have one, perhaps 2 people working the desk at any time, also overnight. The busier someone is, the more likely they are to make mistakes. In lone working scenarios you aren't allowed to leave the premises - you aren't allowed a break. It is legal. It's not right. It means you have night staff working alone overnight for eight hours, which just seems like an obvious recipe for making an error.

• Systems whereby a red/green light or OCCUPIED sign appear above the room. This could honestly make such a difference. Once checked in, the sign above the room lights up to show as occupied. I've no doubt this wouldn't be a seamless solution, but I'm sure it could help.

• Internal locks. It's tricky, as having been on the corridor side of the room with people doing drugs etc inside refusing to open up, I can absolutely understand why some budget hotels don't want internal locks. But a chain that could be broken relatively easily with some force would enable access when urgently needed (lots of people go to hotels to commit suicide unfortunately) would be a good red flag if someone tried to open the door of a locked room.

• On top of this the sort of checks that we all think would help, but that lots of people are resistant to. Showing ID when checking in. If you turn up and say your husband will be along shortly - give him the second card when he turns up, the policy being actually - no, you'll need to come back down to greet your husband and confirm with us you want him to have the card. From the angle of the Travelodge attack everyone likes these ideas! But, in my experience, lots of guests will get angry about having to come back down to reception (especially if they have young kids etc) or having to carry ID. Or being told actually, no, we won't let you into the room of somebody else, even if you insist it's your son's room, and he isn't answering his phone etc. it creates inconvenience for guests who aren't doing anything wrong, in the name of safety for all others. I think it's worth it.

I've given this a lot of thought over the recent year with the news of the Travelodge attack (I've worked for many of their branches!) wondering how this could be fixed.

It's not even just about the risk of SA - the cleaner walked into OP's room without knocking, not once but twice. Even if the only 'risk' was walking on a guest naked/having sex, that's embarrassing for all concerned and should not happen.

The more people who have access to a room because proper protocols are not being followed also increase the risk of theft.

It's fine to say everyone should 'risk assess' themselves but that is a personal responsibility - hotel chains and staff have a LEGAL and PROFESSIONAL responsibility too, which is why it's so inappropriate to have a staff member like @GoodGirlFaith blithely saying 'it's just one of those things that happens.' It shouldn't ever (or at least so rarely it's a huge deal and the hotel responds accordingly) 'just happen,' because there should be appropriate protocols and safeguards in place.

Most individuals will base their own risk assessment on the assumption that the hotel has done their own risk assessments properly! in terms of personal responsibility, if I was travelling alone I wouldn't not go at all because I'm too scared of a comparatively low risk - but I absolutely might choose a big chain like RB rather than a cheap guest house precisely because I will assume it is more safe.

I don’t disagree with all of that at all but human nature means that occasionally it does happen. If you can come up with a completely fail safe way of preventing it, you’ll have managed to do something that at the moment is impossible to prevent.

You have conveniently missed the statements I made about how to prevent it happening if you want to by locking the door from the insude. Which also comes with risks!

Of course you shouldn't have to. But I'm realistic enough to know that things aren't going to change overnight, so I take precautions so I can sleep without worry. The world can be a dangerous place whether we like it or not.