Hotel employee has a MAJOR lapse of judgement

[LexiaFira]

to the point that someone was sexually assaulted.

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wait, so without asking for any PROOF, the front desk employee just HANDS a room key to this drunken man. WTF!?
not one moment did it occur hey i should check to make sure its true. yeah apparently not.

[HYHYBT]

Something seems off somehow in this story. I just can't quite put my finger on it.

[Ginger Tea]

I read alot of the comments saying once they saw the lawyers name, they automatically dismissed the case.

Also no report of the guy being arrested and charged were prominant posts too.

[Andara Bledin]

There are a lot of events that go unreported by the media.

My question would be whether a police report was filed at the time, which should be mentioned in the court documents.

^-.-^

[Anthony K. S.]

Who is to blame?

Whether or not it did happen the way they claim it did, I have no idea.

But I don't really have any difficulty believing that it could have happened.

Some years back, ABC News did an investigation on hotel security, and their findings were not encouraging.

As an experiment, a female ABC staff member checked into a hotel, pretending to be just a regular guest.

Later, a male staff member, wearing a jogging suit, went up to the front desk and claimed that he was out jogging and forgot his room key. He gave the employees the room number that the female staff member was in, saying it was his.

The employees simply gave him a key to the room, making no effort at all to verify that he was who he said he was. He went up to the room where the female staffer was, and entered it. Nobody challenged him.

Test Failed.

At another hotel, the ABC team walked in through a side entrance, into an empty hallway, and began filming. They operated with a huge camera crew for quite a while, and no hotel employees came out to ask what they were doing, if the employees were even aware that they were there.

At yet another hotel, an ABC staff member actually found a discarded room key on a counter. They took the key, waited a few days, and then quietly asked a hotel employee to take them to the room in question.

The ABC reporters wanted to see if the hotel had changed the locks on the room. They hadn't. The key still worked.

Which meant that either (1) the hotel never realized that there was a room key unaccounted for, or (2) they knew, but never bothered to change the locks anyway.

So, unfortunately, I find it plausible that it really happened the way this woman says it did.


That said ... I strongly suspect that this is just yet another example, albeit a particularly grim one, of what happens when Corporate offices give in to Sucky Customers.

When a hotel employee simply gives a room key to somebody without questioning their story ... Does anybody here seriously believe that it just happens that way as a matter of normal course?

No, I believe that this happened because of hotel guests who got locked out of their rooms, asked for room keys, and then got pissed off that the employees dared to question them or expected them to provide proof.

It's similar to when customers get angry because retail stores expect I.D. for unsigned credit cards or the like, or refuse to accept the credit cards for lack of I.D.

The guests complain, and either the spineless management gives in to them, or the even more spineless Corporate offices do.

Before long, the employees give up trying to enforce security precautions because they know that they'll just get overruled. But, of course, when something like this happens, everybody immediately blames the employee.

No.

For this, you can blame Sucky Customers and spineless Corporate offices.

[wraiths_crono]

So we can in essence blame managers that got tired of being yelled at by people that 'did not want to be hassled' by guests being asked to prove whom they were, told their reps to just hand out keys, now they will pay for this action. Hopefully the truth of all events will come out on this one.

[smileyeagle1021]

At yet another hotel, an ABC staff member actually found a discarded room key on a counter. They took the key, waited a few days, and then quietly asked a hotel employee to take them to the room in question.

The ABC reporters wanted to see if the hotel had changed the locks on the room. They hadn't. The key still worked.

this one bothers me the most, because it is the one that is easiest to overcome. You don't have to change the locks, just have a key that is programmed to expire after a certain amount of time (the afternoon of the scheduled check out) and that would solve the problem of someone using an old key. Alternatively, most locks can be programmed by the key (when you insert the key on the first day of your stay the lock recognizes the new key code and when it expires and will not accept any old codes... it will accept new codes, allowing for you to replace a lost key, but once the new code is accepted, your old one no longer works).
It is a nearly fool proof system, and is not expensive to implement if you already are planning on using electronic keys

[bara]

Anthony makes a damn good point. People get damned tired of being cussed at and then written up or in some fashion told off by their bosses for enforcing policies.
If it happened the way the lady said then she has a lawsuit.

[Andara Bledin]

While I don't argue that it sucks to be in that position, potentially endangering the life of some random individual is not the way to react.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

Setting aside the specific examples given: is there a foolproof system which both lets *all* genuine guests who have checked in but lost their key or left it in the room have a replacement *and* never allows anyone into the room who ought not be there?

If you only stepped out for ice or something, you probably don't have any ID on you. Some people manage not even to have their clothes, or so I've always heard, so no wallet is probably the norm. (Especially since, with key cards, it's probably *in* your wallet.)

Asking you to verify your home address or something like that might be a good step in that case, but that's hardly foolproof: sometimes the last person you'd want admitted to your room is a relative or 'friend.' And, especially after a shift change or on a busy day, that the person at the desk doesn't recognize you means very little.

Naturally, in the case they say they *are* you, it would make little sense to call you for permission. The most they could do would be to verify that you weren't in the room. Of course, if you *were* in the room, that would be a sure sign something fishy was going on, but your absence means nothing either way.

Just mostly-idle thoughts. Certainly *some* measure of care needs to be made, though.

[bara]

While I don't argue that it sucks to be in that position, potentially endangering the life of some random individual is not the way to react.

^-.-^

Totally agreed.

[siead_lietrathua]

If you only stepped out for ice or something, you probably don't have any ID on you. Some people manage not even to have their clothes, or so I've always heard, so no wallet is probably the norm. (Especially since, with key cards, it's probably *in* your wallet.)

i've had that happen in the states once. went tot he desk and they had someone escort me to the room and let me in, and i had to get my wallet and show them my id right there. i didnt mind it and they were nice about it too.
although this is a long time ago, so it may be diffrent now with reduced staffing issues.

[LexiaFira]

this one bothers me the most, because it is the one that is easiest to overcome. You don't have to change the locks, just have a key that is programmed to expire after a certain amount of time (the afternoon of the scheduled check out) and that would solve the problem of someone using an old key. Alternatively, most locks can be programmed by the key (when you insert the key on the first day of your stay the lock recognizes the new key code and when it expires and will not accept any old codes... it will accept new codes, allowing for you to replace a lost key, but once the new code is accepted, your old one no longer works).
It is a nearly fool proof system, and is not expensive to implement if you already are planning on using electronic keys

unless, there are still some old school hotels that still use actual metal keys.... >.> but i doubt those are around. but then again i wouldn't know

[alogram]

I worked in hotels for about 10 years, in four different hotels, and we NEVER just gave someone a key. If they left their ID in the room, we would have to go with them to the room to verify identity. If someone said they were the husband, wife, etc. we had to call the room and speak to the person whose had signed in.

So, what this hotel did was completely and totally wrong BUT I have NEVER understood people who don't use deadbolts, chain locks, etc. That completely baffles me.

(I am not saying that this woman deserved what happened AT ALL.)

[HYHYBT]

I can certainly see not using the deadbolt and chain if there's more than one person using the room and you're in and out a good bit; but then, that makes this problem less likely anyway.

Of course, you can't use those extra locks when you're not in there. And while there aren't many places to hide in a hotel room...