Man let into my Premier Inn hotel room late at night

[jennylamb1]

Looking for opinions. While staying in a Manchester Central Premier Inn, reception gave a key to my room to a strange man who gained access to my bedroom at 10.30pm at night when I was in bed. As a lone female traveller I was obviously very upset and went down to reception to find out what was happening. Receptionist apologised and said that the man had the same name as me- it wasn't the same name- and even if it was, she shouldn't have given him a key. To make things worse, I ended up in the same lift as him up to my room and he made a somewhat sexually suggestive comment which made me wonder if he was deliberately trying to get into women's rooms. Obviously didn't sleep well after double locking and putting chair up against the door. Complained about it and she offered to credit the breakfasts I'd booked which I accepted at the time. Been waiting 15 days for the refund to go through, which I've already had to chase up and which they reassured would clear within 15 days and which hasn't.
I'm now thinking that I didn't make enough of a fuss over this given the issue of safety for lone women and the additional poor service on top. Should I email the CEO and make a big thing of it?

Absolutely make some bloody noise and fuss and email the CEO. Be loud!!!

Going by the many complaints about the exact same hotel as OP alongside other hotels in the same chain, I'm thinking it's a feature not a bug.

I've only stayed at PI twice and oddly at the central Manchester one there was a party down the hall from me that kept me awake. But to my knowledge no one was given a key to my room. But then I was with someone else, not a lone female.

OP I don't know for sure but I reckon I'd have made a complete stink over this at the time and still be fuming now. It's not even the money, money means nothing when you've been assaulted or worse.

I'd absolutely complain, and go quite high.

I wouldn't actually request a refund as to me that implies that throwing some money at me will make it go away, but I expect that's just me.

Complain to the top and also to Lenny Henry he might have some influence as he does the adverts for Premier Inn-I mean you don’t see that in the adverts do you.
FYI I had to stay in many of these places whilst working away from home in my 30’s and there were so many unsafe moments that I regularly wedged a chair under the door handle.

That sounds really scary. I always put the chain on or whatever way there is to stop this happened as mistakes do happen.

This must be quite a common thing to happen. I booked a Premier Inn in Plymouth & dropped my adult niece off at reception with the luggage while I parked the car. She arrived at the room to find a man in bed. He had booked a late check out and I had booked an early check in. The manager apologised profusely and issued me a credit note for 50% of the cost of the stay.

Absolutely complain. This happened to me and DS who was 8 at the time but we were given the key to someone’s room. This was a Hilton in London. The poor bloke was sleeping/had jetlag and we came bounding over the door. Hilton could not have done more to rectify the situation for us. The premier inn response is extremely poor.

Good to escalate it - not just for the recompense but also to get the issue raised around the chain so that people are more aware in future.

This could have had such a nasty outcome.

My experience of premier inn complaints is that it wasn't quick, chasing needed. Then eventually a long defensive letter refuting the complaint but totally missing the point of it, which was to make changes to stop other future customers experiencing the same avoidable issue. I now avoid them.

It can happen. I have opened a door and seen that the room was occupied (nobody in the room, just their things.)

You do realise that the locking system they use isn’t cheap… you do realise that the even most expensive locking system would open if the reception gave them the key.

This isn’t about the shareholders making money- it’s about some moron reception staff making one hell of a mistake and one that could have been catastrophic for the OP

If you don't get a speedy response put a review on trustpilot (if the company has a page). It's amazing how quickly a response is picked up there because it's public!

This is an appalling and terrifying incident which could have ended very badly.

Take it all the way! This really isn’t good enough.

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We had this happen whilst holidaying once. We were thankfully fully clothed and some people opened the door very confused. They went down and never came back. Later my husband went out for something and when he came back he found all our cards had been disabled since they had been overrriden by the other people’s cards. He went down to reception and they demanded his ID (which was in the room) to give him new ones. They wouldn’t bring them up to us and acted like we were being difficult. I just don’t understand how the system can double check people in to one room. Surely the software these days does not allow it. There has to be a Process that prevents it and can’t be overrriden without a manager checking?

Put in a formal complaint, contact the CEO, make a big deal about things. That is really not okay!

I’ve heard a few stories like this so whenever I’m in a hotel, I turn the lock on the door. It’s scary to think what could have happened to you OP

Can you report to police? We don’t know if this is the guys strategy to rape women and this is the one occasion it didn’t work for him or if he is in the learning process and he’ll perfect his strategy.

I stay at a Premier Inn for work and it doesn't have a chain on the door. I wish they did as that would make me feel much more secure.

Premier inn do not care! We stayed at one of their hotels (Gatwick airport) there was a fire alarm in middle of night. People were jammed on stairways unable to get out of the building. It was so dangerous. I escalated to ceo but they didn’t care. Truly shocking. We also didn’t get a refund despite not getting any sleep as fire sharks aren’t under the guarantee, despite me saying that wasn’t the problem it was being trapped in building. Sorry this happened to you xx

YES GO NUCLEAR!

WTF?!

Put it all on social media and tagged them.

I’m in hotels for half the week for work. Have heard one too many stories like this so I take one of these with me.

DoorJammer Portable Door Lock... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HM7X6TT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Sacked? A bit harsh, maybe she is a single mum dependent on the income. Maybe she is new and had shit training.

Warning and further training, certainly

Hope you get a quick resolution. It's unacceptable.

It's not just limited to hotels, I had this happen at a caravan site. I'd got there just after check in was exhausted so went to bed around 8pm at 10.30 I hear a creaking noise and the caravan started rocking. I was confused so got up to investigate to see a man and woman coming through the door. I asked them to go back to whoever had given them the physical keys and was verbally abused and told to get out. The entitlement of the of the woman was horrendous. Took a while to get them to leave. They'd arrived late not sure how they got the wrong keys. They were in the caravan next to je and fir 4 days if I saw them the woman would snipe at me. She couldn't comprehend it was nothing to do with me. All I got was an apology.

Would have escalated this immediately and would not have felt safe

Training? That receptionist needs to be sacked or given a different job, not fit to be a hotel receptionist really, are they.