Lock your doors, people! I can’t emphasize it enough: When you’re in a hotel room, triple lock that door!
A typical hotel room door automatically locks when you close it, plus you usually have the option of manually engaging a deadbolt and either a security chain or a “U” bar lock, as well. I advise using all three anytime you’re in your room to prevent what I refer to as “accidental” entry — when someone enters your room via a legit key card given to them by a worker at the front desk.
(Note: Triple locking your door won’t prevent someone with nefarious intent who’s trying to break in your room from doing so; thieves have a variety of means and methods for bypassing all three types of locks, but that’s an entirely different situation.)
Neither Steve nor I had even realized there was a possibility of a stranger innocently unlocking our hotel door and walking in until it first happened to us, about ten years ago. Shortly after arriving at our hotel in Portsmouth, Virginia, we decided to relax a while before heading out, so Steve pulled a chaise lounge out of the corner, turned it so that its back faced the room, and stretched out to soak up a view of the Elizabeth River. I, meanwhile, squished a bunch of pillows against the headboard of the bed and sank into them. The silence in the room was broken only by the occasional rustling of paper, as I lazily flipped through a magazine. It was so quiet, in fact, that when a stranger pushed open our door and walked in, wrangling a couple pieces of luggage, the sudden noise seemed all the louder. Of course, it cranked up a few more decibels when I screamed. The commotion caused Steve to pop his head up over the back of the lounge, like a meerkat popping out of a burrow. We were all in motion at once: Meerkat Steve; confused stranger trying desperately to back out of room; deranged, screaming woman springing off bed. The man, who’d been given a key card to our room by a hotel employee at the front desk, was as startled as we were and very apologetic even though he was not at all to blame. When he went back downstairs to the front desk, Steve accompanied him, not because he had to, but I think he just wanted to see what the clerk would have to say. Really, the clerk didn’t say much, other than apologizing to both, and handing the stranger a new key card, at which point, I feel sure, he crossed his fingers, hoping for an unoccupied room.
Obviously this is the kind of experience that sticks with you — and from which you learn. For a long time, we were much more conscientious about triple-locking our doors. Eventually, though, we let down our guard — and in walked Stranger Number Two. We were in Salem, New Hampshire, earlier this summer, when we stopped and picked up a pizza from a local favorite called Balducci’s and took it back to our hotel room to eat while we watched TV. From where we sat on a love seat, the front door was blocked from our view, so we didn’t see the man enter; we just heard him. I hopped up and got to the door just as a twenty-something man was walking in but before the woman behind him had a chance to cross the threshold. For a nanosecond, he and I looked at one another, at a loss for words, before I finally said the first thing that came to mind: “I don’t think you’re supposed to be in this room.”
In response, he held up a key card, at which point I clarified: “Oh, I know it’s not your fault; the desk clerk made a mistake.” Apologizing profusely, the couple turned and headed back down the hall.
I’m proud to say there were no screams this time around. I remained completely nonplussed; after all, this wasn’t my first rodeo.
I’d also like to point out that Steve and I have somewhat of an understanding of what the interlopers must have felt, as he was once in that role himself. Years ago, we were at a hotel in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and weren’t satisfied with the room we’d been assigned, but rather than dragging all our luggage back downstairs, we decided that I’d wait in the room while Steve went downstairs to see about getting us switched to another. The clerk gave him a key card so he could check out the new room to see if it would meet our approval, and when Steve went in, he immediately saw someone’s personal belongings laid out in the room and noticed that the bathroom door was closed. Naturally, he double-timed it out of the room and back down to the front desk. We’ve always wondered if the occupant of that room heard him make his quick entrance and exit.
Shortly after our visit to New Hampshire this summer, I was talking with a friend who manages a hotel, and I shared with him our various experiences over the years, fully expecting him to share my indignation. Instead, with a shrug of the shoulders, he said, and I quote, “It happens.”
It happens?! I know it happens. It’s happened to us twice, three times if you include the time Steve was the intruder. I get that it happens. But isn’t there something we can do to prevent it from happening? Oh, wait a minute. I guess I need to follow my own advice, don’t I? Triple-lock your hotel room door!
Next week: Not a gambler? There’s still plenty to do at Harrah’s Casino in Cherokee!
