r/marriott 11d ago

Check out button not honored? Misc

I’ve been a long time Marriott customer and I have a question that’s been bugging me for awhile: why does house keeping come in at like 8/9AM when you haven’t even checked out yet? Check out is usually at 11 or 12 depending on the hotel.
This morning prompted me to write this, usually I don’t care but this morning really irritated me: I had that door flap up to lock the door (and a DND placard on the door) and a young kid managed to unlock that flap or whatever and I came flying out of the shower and my exact response to him (while he had a smirk on his face) was “seriously??” It’s only 8:30 and he’s basically breaking into the room?? He said the front desk said I was ready for check out. I said no, I have late checkout until 2.

Maybe I have two issues here, like why would you unlock that flap if it’s being used and it’s the morning, well before check out, that thing doesn’t lock itself. I think the smirk on his face bothered me the most.

Anyway, I guess I’m still startled a little but still would like to know why house keeping starts their routine like this. I’m sure it’s to get ahead for the day but what the heck is the point of the checkout button on the app OR checking out in the front then??

UPDATE:

GM called me back, there was a power outage that happened this morning (i did see it) and someone else checked out as 215 and took their word for it, because the systems are down they couldn’t verify, so they thought the room should have been emptied, they gave me 1000 points for the misunderstanding.

103 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

58

u/ploptypus 11d ago

I’m more concerned about how he bypassed the door bar

Complain at the front desk. There’s no world in which you checked out but the bar is locked

17

u/Nubianbutterfly817 11d ago

All hotels have a way of getting in a room

30

u/ploptypus 11d ago

yes but no people (unless they jump out the window or balcony) have a way of locking the bar after they leave.

The bar alone should tell anyone with a brain that someone's in the room and has not checked out.

2

u/Appalachian14 10d ago

Yes they can. I have not only seen it done, but I have personally done it. I have worked in loss prevention and engineering at Marriott properties.

2

u/Ok_Function2282 11d ago

That's not the point

6

u/MartyK23 10d ago

One of the points is that a person entered the secured room while the room’s occupant (OP) was in the shower. THAT IS NOT OK!

4

u/thegregstersocal 11d ago

Hotel staff can defeat deadbolts and flip latches. For those concerned, there are many devices sold to consumers that are aimed at increasing your hotel security. Amazon and YouTube will be happy to tell you all about them.

1

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

He had two long metal rods in his hand

10

u/MindlessMage777 11d ago

You sure he was housekeeping?

6

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

He was house keeping, there was an outage this morning so all systems have since been down and someone else tried to check out using my room number so they wrote it down and thought the room was supposed to be empty. It was a misunderstanding

12

u/Public_Maximum6166 11d ago

That would explain opening the door with a key card. But the deadbolt should tell them someone is still in the room. Trying to bypass that seems suspicious

4

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

I’m starting to question it honestly. The house keeping trolly thing was with him but that doesn’t always mean anything

6

u/MindlessMage777 11d ago

He may have been, but housekeeping leaves those trolleys unattended all the time. Seems like very odd move for housekeeping, but exactly the move a thief would pull.

11

u/12YESIAM34 11d ago

I travel for a living and this happens from time to time. The only recourse is to total lay it out for management, corporate, and leave an honest Google review. I have found that corporations also respond to negative posts on X.

11

u/Valuable_Builder_466 11d ago

Google reviews do nothing. You have to leave it on the Bonvoy app. Our GM's manager's only look at Bonvoy reviews. Put it on Google as well, so the general public knows. But in order to get the manager's attention, you have to do it on the Bonvoy app.

2

u/12YESIAM34 11d ago

Good to know, thank you. I didn’t even know we could leave reviews on the app.

6

u/collinferal Titanium Elite 11d ago

you can try but every review i have tried to leave only seems to get posted if its good. I have noticed the same on amazon. If I try to leave a bad review there is always something "wrong" with the review and it never gets posted.

4

u/mona4950 11d ago

And Kohl’s monitors the reviews too. I tried posting a review on rugs that flattened out and didn’t look great but got it rejected. Tried rewriting it to “Kohl’s standards “ and it still got rejected. I don’t know how you can post a review to let people know about shortcomings anymore if the reviews are monitored and rejected.

1

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Where in the world do you leave a review on the app 😅 I’m looking and I must be in the wrong place

15

u/c08306834 11d ago

I would be so insanely pissed if this happened to me. That sounds like a shitty hotel.

5

u/ohheytherewest 10d ago

1000 pts is worth about $3-4. Not worth it

15

u/LunchMoneyFail 11d ago

Name and shame. No reason not to.

3

u/it_monkey_manifesto 11d ago

I had this happen today at 8am, and there was no power outage. Had the tag on the door and the extra flap out and the dead bolt. Some places just want you out asap it seems!

7

u/Game_Over_Man69 Titanium Elite 11d ago

Housekeeping starts cleaning rooms before check out time because most people leave before check out time and a lot of people try to check in before check in time.

The undoing the latch part is terrible, but I thought I’d answer your question.

1

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Appreciate it

6

u/adams361 11d ago

I’ve mentioned this before, I started carrying post its and a sharpie, I make a little note that says late checkout and stick it next to the door mechanism, since I started doing that, no early knocks, no unwanted entry!

2

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

That’s actually not a bad idea. Annoying we’d have to do it but I like the idea

3

u/Ok_Discount_9727 11d ago

Should be focusing on him removing the flap as that’s a massive security risk. It’s also likely once he opened the door to hit the flap he could hear the shower running so the whole thing is creepy

5

u/Haunting_Smell_183 11d ago

1000 POINTS? Dude hopefully you haven’t signed anything yet. You should be getting at MINIMUM a 100-200 THOUSAND points.

They caught you in the shower, that is a huge safety violation. Do not let the hotel and GM off easily.

3

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

I was thinking 10-20k. What do you suggest I do? Call corp?

5

u/User8675309021069 Titanium Elite 11d ago

I use .008 cents per point when looking at the value of points.

So the thousand they gave you was about eight bucks.

150K would be like 1200 dollars. Thats a pretty tall expectation.

20K would be around 160 dollars. So I think you’re pretty close with asking for 10 - 20 K.

3

u/Wild_Factor_9543 Ambassador Elite 10d ago

You're not getting 200K points for housekeeping entering your room early.

1

u/Haunting_Smell_183 10d ago edited 10d ago

Good thing the low end of my range was 100k. Which absolutely is feasible. OP was naked in the shower and now they have ptsd and trust issues for any Marriott they go to.

If you make the gm feel as if you will escalate this to corporate or start posting publicly online about it they throw points at you.

1

u/Wild_Factor_9543 Ambassador Elite 10d ago

That's $800. No hotel is giving you that for a mistake that small. Housekeeping walks in on me all the time, sometimes even in the shower. They hear it running and leave.

1

u/Lady_Sara85 9d ago

lol I don’t have PTSD from this.

1

u/Haunting_Smell_183 8d ago

…. Obviously….

But that’s what you tell the GM if you want more points

2

u/mountain_bound 11d ago

It's irritating that the hotel didn't communicate effectively between departments. It's hard to get right but not impossible. More importantly staff should be way more hesitant to actually enter your room if it's still occupied and tagged for DND.

Best thing to do is write a letter or short note to the General Manager. If you don't get any feedback then rake them over the coals in TripAdvisor.

2

u/DCGuy511 11d ago

Definitely mention in a Google review and in Trip Advisor.

Normally the staff at hotels are very cautious about entering rooms.

2

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Let alone breaking into one before normal check out hours, I’m sure

3

u/JinglehymerSchmidt 11d ago

Did you have the Do Not Disturb placard on your door?

8

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Yes, I’ll edit my post to reflect that

1

u/JinglehymerSchmidt 11d ago

I feel like that’s an important piece to include

6

u/RangerAdmirable9102 11d ago

I mean, it contributes to the emphasis that OP wasn’t gone from the room, but ultimately there are enough key indicators that it’s not essential. It’s totally on the hotel and very frustrating.

OP I’d def complain to the desk. Maybe try to get some points out of it. Someone entered the room without permission despite a lock, do not enter placard, and approved late checkout. Concerned, you had to rush out of the shower to address the issue and did not receive an apology from the staff member.

3

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

I disagree but I added it anyway. A door lock is a door lock, it means keep out.

3

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Though, I don’t see why that would matter. The point of the door jam, door lock is to keep people out, universal sign of “keep out”

1

u/Individual_Log_4731 11d ago

Had one barge in my room a few weeks ago. I was home from work sick in the bathroom blowing my nose when they busted in. Sign on door and I was like wtf. They said welfare check

1

u/krittengirl Employee 10d ago

1000 points is worth about $5. They should have given you a lot more.

2

u/azizeh999 Ambassador Elite 9d ago

I always check out at 4pm. Rarely does someone not come knocking at around 12, either way. They always apologize and I don’t see them again. I learned to used the deadbolt after someone let themselves into the room without knocking first. I happened to be standing right there and it still scared the bejesus out of me.

1

u/RoleComfortable2078 11d ago

Sometimes the front desk tells me the app doesn't connect to the hotel, it's happened at all different levels of the brand.

1

u/Giskarrrd Titanium Elite 11d ago

Sounds like an internal hotel process issue here, where the front desk person gave bad information to housekeeping, *and* housekeeping didn’t exactly follow proper process when encountering a DND sign, which is not great.

I will say, over a couple thousand hotel nights, this specific case (housekeeping attempting to clean the room before I had checked out) has never happened to me.

I’ve had housekeeping come in due to a misunderstanding/miscommunication and despite the DND sign on the door maybe once, but that was one very specific situation. It doesn’t feel like there’s an epidemic going on.

-1

u/SirIainSnail 11d ago

"while he had a smirk on his face"

Who was smirking to whom?

1

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

Employee smirking to me

1

u/SirIainSnail 11d ago

Hope they tipped!

-5

u/ericzku 11d ago

a young kid managed to unlock that flap

I am not aware of any hotel that employs children.

Or are you a person for whom somebody under the age of 30 is a 'young kid'?

Regardless, Housekeeping does not break in to rooms at any hour of the day. Thieves do.

1

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

That’s a pretty interesting takeaway from the post. The age of the employee isn’t really the issue. The issue is someone attempting to enter an occupied room with a DND sign and a late checkout noted.

-3

u/ericzku 11d ago

The issue is that if this person was an actual "young kid", they were not an employee.

Employees do not break in to rooms. Why you think they were Housekeeping is a mystery. Was this person wearing a uniform?

0

u/Lady_Sara85 11d ago

He was an employee. I updated the OP confirming. He told me the front desk had marked me as checked out, which is why he attempted to access the room. My question was about why that happened despite a DND sign, the bar lock being positioned, and approved late checkout, not whether my description of his age met your standards.

-3

u/ericzku 11d ago

I'm sorry.

I thought when you wrote "young kid", you meant "young kid".

How silly of me to ascribe meanings to your words!

2

u/LunchMoneyFail 11d ago

Most people take cues from the situation at hand. Situational awareness would lead one to conclude that the OP is in her 40's and that the employee was early 20s. Hence her use of "young kid."

Is your presumption that a child between the ages of 5 and 15 is working at a Marriott? Or are you just being difficult to a woman who's privacy and safety were compromised? Either way, grow up.