Anyone work in a Premier Inn?

[fizzypop100]

Our teen slept heavily and wasn't responding to us knocking loudly on his hotel room door and calling his phone. The receptionist had a look but couldn't open it with her key card because he had locked the door from the inside.
She said the only way to open it was the police. Surely there is a way to open the door in these circumstances, without damaging the door ?
(Next time I'm booking a connecting room)

Where did I say it was the responsibility of hotel staff to use nuanced thinking? I was talking about YOU. I was pointing out that it's probably not wise to generalise about the maturity or otherwise of 18 year olds. In their state as newly fledged adults. Maybe best not to leave them in a hotel room while you fly home just to teach them a life lesson.

Also, what on earth does anyone's wage have to do with it?

You as in you general ...

Someone mentioned up thread and I think it's worth highlighting there a multiple occasions (all of which I experienced) where letting someone in another person's hotel room is a bad idea -

Domestic abuse - this can be parents as well as partners
Teenagers being used for drug trafficking
Exes hunting down exes
Prostitues using the room and unwelcome clients attempting to return (these often check in together, so would be easy to act as a boyfriend!)
Drug dealers posing as family to get to those owing money

And so many more. I know this will sound mental to most people, but the rules are strict for very very good reasons. Staff cannot open adult hotel rooms and enter them because someone outside wants them to.

If the rooms don't lock internally staff still aren't allowed to open them, unless in an emergency. An emergency would be, after check out time, no answer to repeated calls and knocks at the door. Then staff either enter, as per policy of the hotel, or they call the police if they physically can't open the door. Then they hope against hope the person inside is simply asleep and not overdosed.

@Funnywonder so we agree. It's for the parents to figure out the nuances of their 18 year olds. The point of the wages is you can't expect a minimum wage employee to apply nuance. Not that they're not capable, they're just not compensated for the fallout from those decisions.

The most sensible explanation on the thread.

Why on earth are you bringing "men" into it?

When DD was around 16 she would sleep so soundly that I was genuinely worried she'd one day be killed in a house fire - there is a smoke alarm within inches of her (then) bedroom door and when it once malfunctioned and went off for at least 5 minutes, she never even stirred.

She would also regularly sleep through her alarm even though it was so loud it would wake everyone else in the house.

Your situation may have been urgent but it wasn't an emergency. An emergency would justify a 999 call and police or fire service could break door down. If staff have access to a key which could over-ride a door locked on the inside then security for all hotel guests is compromised. Now that you know how deeply your DS sleeps you can have a backup plan.

I said men because the post is about a man 🤦‍♀️

True

You should have kept his keycard!

I have 2 sensible teens but they love sleeping in. So when we stay at a hotel (yes breaking booking gets as they're both under 18) we book 2 rooms with one adult be child in each. But we request rooms next to each other and H & I stay in one and the children stay in the other. I keep the keycard for their room so I can go in when I want. But basically to wake them up in the morning!!

Sorry lots of spelling errors but I hope you get the gist

Sorry OP you need to get used to the idea he is an adult legally. If you were away with a friend and she did not answer the door to you, the hotel staff would have no right to let you in to her room.
I know you had great intentions, but staff do not know that. So they have to stick to the law.

Yes but you are doing this with good intentions. Not everyone will be and it shouldn’t be the responsibility of a hotel staff member to make that call

Easier for the safety of all guests to have a policy to not enter. Your son missing a flight does not constitute a situation urgent enough to break very good intentioned policies

And if someone is deeply engrossed in very quiet sex, therfore not answering, staff should be able to enter the room? (Scenario that eextteme unlikely but not impossible I guess).

People book hotels with fake names- you say you're his mother....

If the worst case scenario has happened in a hotel, I think it's fair it should be for trained police officers to discover, not someone's mother or a potentially 19 year old receptionist.

I stayed in a hotel where rooms could be opened. How I found out? There was an armed robbery. Two guys first robbed reception to then demand to be let into all rooms. In the middle of the night. Not sure what they would have done hadn’t they been able to be let in, but it probably would have made enough noise for someone to alert the police earlier. So yes, give me a hotel where nobody can get into my room any day.

I book hotel rooms routinely as a solo female traveller and I would absolutely not stay anywhere where any member of staff could get in my room. The internal lock provides me with a huge sense of peace of mind and I would absolutely never stay anywhere where this could be overridden. If there's a true emergency the police will break down the door. Otherwise your room should be your own. I would argue an adult (18) has the right to oversleep without having his room being broken into. You being his mother doesn't give you the right to physically and violently break into another adults room - not even because you suspect they're in danger, but because you don't approve of the time they might get up! Outrageous. Put him in a cot bed in your room if you want to treat him like a baby. Mad

Why are you asking OP? Do you intend to complain to Premier Inn?
What have you discussed with ds to avoid this / deal with his heavy sleeping in the future?

I worked in a few hotels over the years. All had a master key that opened every room in the hotel. It was kept in the safe. But this was back in the days of actual keys. Also each room had two keys so of only one key was required the other was hung up in a locked cabinet behind reception.

So had he, like an adult, paid his own expenses for the holiday he was about to miss the start of and delay everyone? While I agree the solution was for OP to have kept his room card or for someone else to have been in the room with him, rather than employees being able to enter it, it's ridiculous to expect the OP to merrily shrug her shoulders and go off the holiday without him saying, 'Oh well he's an adult.'

Poor lad just wanted a lie in while away.

He could have had a girl in with him or anything and then have his mum, uncle and however many staff members barge in.

Yep, poor lad just wanted to lie in and miss his flight and the family holiday.

The door was locked internally. The keycard is a red herring here. Having it would make zero difference. The whole thread is about the fact that the doors cannot be unlocked with the keycards when the lock is turned inside.

But this is when you tell your teen that they shouldn't deadlock it. If people want a solution to this then there needs to be a bit of compromise as this isn't an emergency situation. And what is up with kids now that they go into such a deep sleep and are still that way in the morning? I'm guessing they're staying up too late on their phones/games so they're sleep-deprived and falling into the deepest of sleep when it should be wake-up time.

@saraclara ooooh didn't see that bit

Cleaners will have a master key for when they do the sheets in a morning.