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?

Yes I think the hotel have messed up badly, you do say how many people are staying when you book. I'm generally a Premier Inn fan, never had an issue with them and stayed with them frequently but they need to review their systems and staff training and refund the OPs money.

I stay alone but almost always get given 2 keys across most hotel chains.

I am so sorry that this has happened to you. Premier Inn's response is appalling, but not surprising.

We've had loads of issues with PI in recent years. Most recent involving a power outage in our room in the middle of the night, a loud bang of a fuse blew and woke us up. The night manager couldn't have cared less that we needed to use our torch to use the toilet, had no circulating air, nothing. They gave us a handout with the link to file a complaint with the Good Night Guarantee people and only received a simple "Thank you for your feedback" response from above. Premier Inn knows their prices can't be beat so they don't have to try. People will still keep booking there.

Presumably those keys are handed to you on arrival? I've been asked, when staying with DH or with DH and DC how many keys we need.

Haven't had someone turn up at the desk and say they need a key to our room.

Definitely complain and take it to the top, if necessary go on Twitter and other SM channels.

Pre-lockdown, about 2017/18, my boss who was staying in Paris, had a man come into her hotel room. I'd made the booking for her and it must've been a mistake by the hotel as she had the correct room and her name was an unusual name so no chance of a mistake. I do think that sometimes hotels do make mistakes and really they should be pulled up 100% on this. Suppose a woman or man is attacked sexually or otherwise? It's no excuse to just say that a key/swipe card was used by mistake or he/she had the same name as you.

Well they're going to lose a lot more in poor publicity, so they've handled it badly.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

You mentioned that you always use the doorjammer DoorJammer | Portable Door Security and Lockdown Devices (door-jammer.co.uk)
and I was wondering what would happen if you took ill and couldn't unblock it?

With deadbolts (the double lock you use when inside the room) the hotel master key can override it, but no one else's key can - is that right?

I'm off to an EU city soon on my own and while I have done this kind of trip before, I never felt nervous but honestly I am a bit NOW!!

The absolute minimum I'd have expected the reception to offer at the time would be a full refund, under their "Good Night Guarantee" policy. Good Night Guarantee| Sleep | Premier Inn

They're supposed to offer a refund "for each night that you do not have a great night's sleep at a Premier Inn". It doesn't cover "circumstances that are beyond our reasonable control as hoteliers" but this is the exact opposite of that: the issue you encountered was the direct result of their employee's actions.

The T&Cs say you should claim within 7 days, but I'd argue you did inform them of the issue and seek some form of compensation. Why didn't they offer the refund?

Obviously a refund would only go so far in this instance, and a careful review of their procedures to avoid this happening again would also be a reasonable expectation.

On a related note, I stayed in a PI recently with my family. We only received one key card at check-in, and I asked reception for another later in the evening. They asked to see a bank card with my name on it, and checked it against the room booking. Presumably they wouldn't have handed the key over if the names hadn't matched, which seems a reasonable minimum level of security to expect.

Oh my goodness!

Yes, I would escalate this. That is awful.

He probably did see what room you had when you were both in the lift - something similar happened to me when I was staying at a hotel in London and the sleazeball then tried to visit my room at 4am (luckily it was locked).

It’s absolutely appalling on the part of the hotel - I would escalate, request a full refund and assurance in writing that they will review their procedures to ensure that this never happens again.

Oh calm down. It's just a mistake, probably due to the way their computer software works. You would sack an employee for making a mistake on the computer at another job. They should make sure there aren't software or training issues, is all.

This is an excellent point. Giving a refund will catch the attention of management and they'll want to prevent it happening again.

Having 2 keys handed to you at the time of check in is in no way comparable to having 1 handed to you at check in and a second later being given to a random man without your knowledge.

This is shocking. Absolutely take it to the top. The Press might be interested as well. As for the refund, they should have refunded the entire stay, after all isn't it a boast of Premier Inn that if you don't get a good night's sleep for whatever reason you can claim a refund?

pleeeease (not just this poster) read all the OP’s posts. She has escalated to the CEO.

This is one of the most worrying posts on the thread. What is the point of reviews if they can pick and choose the ones they publish?

I agree. My point was that even when i book for just me they make 2 keys.

Yes. Absolutely escalate it to the highest level you can. Loudly and repetitively - women are not safe at their hotels if their security is so negligent and lax

This is interesting because in every PI I've stayed in (not that many, maybe 5 or 6) they always hand over the key card with the number on it. They don't ever say the number out loud, although they do say the floor number.

You then need a key card to get to the room/make the lift go to the floor you want.

I don't think they should ever give out a second key card to a late arrival. We all have mobile phones now, so you can phone the first person when you arrive and they can come down to reception and say "this is my plus one, can we have a second card please".

It would avoid this sort of issue.

It sounds really scary OP, I hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

I almost never stay at PI because I can beat their prices elsewhere.

Got an acknowledgment to the email sent to MD and CEO, passed 'onto the Executive Team to review,' apparently.

Can imagine that made you feel very unsafe and affected your sleep. I emailed CEO after similar experience and when no response came posted on social media. The media team then got in touch with the offer of a full refund. But really, what I wanted was recognition that they urgently needed to review their security processes and also needed to train their staff to prevent this ever happening again. Let us know what kind of response you receive @jennylamb1 your update will influence my decision on whether to stay in PI in future.

@jennylamb1

I have on several occasions solo female travelled..

The hotels around Dublin have me wishing for Premier Inns. Or decent 4* hotels in London which cost the same. Just stayed in a €200 a night place - I've been in better Premier Inns for £60 a night. Also the reviews indicate that guests had been given keys to the wrong, and occupied, rooms at night - same issue as on this thread. So it's definitely not a problem restricted to Premier Inns. (Only stayed there as it was a team event and everyone was staying in the same place).