Hotel rooms should have internal lock?

[TheNavygravy]

My newly turned 18 year old has just went to Rome with her best friend for a holiday. When they arrived they were greeted by a male Asian receptionist who had very little English or Italian. They checked in and discovered their bathroom was dirty (used soap, towels etc). On highlighting this 5 male cleaners arrived to clean the room. Then they discovered the internal lock to the hotel door doesn’t work (just turns around without engaging the bolt). The receptionist/manager is insisting there is no problem as you can only enter with an electronic key. They don’t feel safe but finding somewhere else will be expensive. They are exhausted and planning to stay at least tonight but my spidey senses aren’t happy. They have seen no female staff and no other guests. Am I unreasonable for thinking all hotel rooms should have working internal locks/deadbolts/chain?

Should I interfere in their first solo trip and bite the bullet with paying over the odds for new last minute accommodation?

But they do speak it.
That's my point.

I think the door lock issue is how doors with electronic key cards are now, have been to two hotels in last year Prague and Germany neither had locks on I side

I can understand your DD being upset by this and you being worried. YANBU.

I also stayed in a hotel in Rome last year which sounds identical to this one, and we were woken at 7.30am by a male staff member barging into our room. Luckily I was with DH, who shouted, and we heard the guy literally run away up the corridor!

We called reception who were unapologetic and told us he was "probably cleaning". No sign of any cleaning supplies or other rooms being cleaned at that early hour, plus he was the first hotel room cleaner ever not to knock and announce himself.

The whole thing felt off and it shook me up a bit. And I'm a middle aged woman who has travelled all over without any problems.

If they don't feel safe with their bags/furniture etc wedged against the door then I'd probably fork out for a different hotel for peace of mind.

Stopped reading at “has just went” and references to ‘Asian’. Ignorant and racist.

What a lovely person you are. I wrote this quickly and in a panic as my daughter was crying on the phone, sorry my grammar wasn’t up to your standards. The Asian part was only in relation to the language barrier, nothing else but you can believe what you want to.

Thanks, it was a real and definitely justified worry. They did not settle and so moved on early.

Most hotels also have an internal lock

Bingo!

Nice bit of deflection there

Bit late to the conversation and I've not read the whole thread, but if no-one else has said it.....always take a door stop with you when going on holiday. Best way of securing a door from inside, kick it under and no-one can get in even if they have a key.

Yes it’s their first time independently travelling, as my daughter just turned 18 a few weeks ago.

I was calm on the phone, told her that it wasn’t a reason to be so upset but then the story about the lack of females and absence of any other guests made me question my decision (to basically tell her she was overreacting). So came on here to ask if I/they were being irrational.

I will definitely avoid booking.com from now on.

Just roll up a towel and put it at the bottom of the door like a draft excluder. Makes the door very hard to open.

👍 If you say so.

Asian people might also be Italian-born and native, y’know. An ethnicity is not a synonym for nationality.

She’s racist but won’t acknowledge it

This is the truth (ex hotel worker, many years).

The electronic key card system can always gain entry to rooms. There is usually also a manual key that can be inserted into the door lock system to override in the event of the key card not working/batteries flat.

The only staff issued with master key cards would be very senior and night managers. Master override keys would be secured in a safe.

Since several people have said they would not stay there and I should move her she was probably right to be concerned. She was obviously phoning for advice but became upset on the phone as it’s her first time away (and they were overtired from travelling through the night).

She is well travelled just not independently and is about to move to London so this year will be a fast growing up experience. She also cries easily, some people wear their heart on their sleeves and there’s nothing wrong with that.

They can’t override the deadbolts or chains though (that many hotels have). She is used to staying in Premier Inns (due to trips to London and for sporting competitions) which all have a physical internal lock. She’s definitely learned not all hotels are the same and to be more prepared.

I’d pay for another room but I also don’t understand why you thought to include the man was Asian.

FFS, it was a quick way of explaining that there was a significant communication issue due to a language barrier. I should have said there was a ‘person’ (so not to be misogynistic) that they could not explain the perceived issue to because despite being in Italy and speaking Italian the person was not Italian so had no Italian and nor did they speak any English - apart from the sentence “no problem.”

Everyday racism IS an issue for me and many others, thx.

Why can’t you just own it instead of digging the hole? Just retract and say “yeah, sorry. I should have just said there was a language barrier” - after all, you yourself have said in protest that “the issue is he didn’t speak Italian or English”. So focus on the issue. Doneso.

What did the reviews say? Not just the score? The written ones?

Maybe you should spend more time tackling the real blatant racism all over social media instead of picking on mothers who were in the moment worried about their child (and quickly bashed out an explanation that might not have been grammatically or politically correct).

I’ve already stated, there were no security concerns raised in the reviews we read.

They checked out early as they weren’t happy and have moved on - to a hotel with an internal lock thankfully.