I normally just verbally ask staff, "can you just write my room number down and not say the floor out loud." I don't want random people who happen to be around the front desk counter at the same time knowing what room I'm in... come on.
There are ways. Company I used to work for would routine bulk block rooms in certain situations. Once we showed up we would either go to the front desk and only have to give our name and company name and we'd be handed a key with a room number. Sometimes as we checked in at the ops center for the situation there would be a stack of keys with nothing but room numbers and you just got whatever was next on the stack.
My favorite attack on hotel security is much simpler: the front desk will willingly print you a key for any room.
Hold out your keycard and ask for a duplicate. Do they take your card and swipe it? No. They ask for your room number, type it into the magstripe machine, and print you a key for whatever room number you just gave.
No electronics, skill, or even malicious intent necessary (you just "forgot" your actual room number). Look and act like you belong, and make a run-of-the-mill request. Discovered this by accident when I was ~12 and wanted to go to the pool by myself. Never actually tried to get a card for another room, but never had the desk actually verify my rights to the room when requesting an extra keycard either.
No, I notice, because I find it a bit jarring. When I was a kid, they'd tell you your room number. Now they write it down and slide the paper at me, and I notice that.
I returned to my room in a hotel I stayed at frequently while housekeeping were still in there. I chatted to the staff got an extra towel and more tea and only when they left realised I was in the room one floor below mine, that I'd stayed in the week before. Housekeeping don't know who the guests are if you walk into the room confidently they won't say anything at all.
I honestly can't think of many times where I actually told my name to the front desk anyway. Usually I have a printout of the reservation or hand them my passport since they need it anyway. It is easier for the front desk to type what they see than try to type what you say or spell out loud, especially in foreign countries that don't necessarily have experience with your name.
a company I used to work for would sometimes have to bulk book rooms with little notice for certain types of response operations. Sometimes we'd get a room key with a number when we checked into the ops center, sometimes we were simply told what hotel we were at, and all we had to do was give a company name and our name. Sometimes they'd ask to see our company badge but that was about it.
Interesting, but it's not as if hotels in general have been high security installations.
Very easy experiment: Just go to the front desk an thell them that you sadly seem to have lost your room card. 90% of the time they will just ask for your room number without requiring any kind of proof that it's actually your room.
Yeah, that was our hostel in NYC. I asked about that, and they kind of looked at me funny, as if I was paranoid or something. If figured the best way would be to semi-jokingly show her my ID regardless and be friendly and chatty in the hopes she'd remember my face with the room number.
In hindsight I might have tried asking for a different room number's key to see if she was paying attention and then quickly correct myself "No, just kidding, my room's 208 not 210. I just wanted to see if you'd give people any room key they ask for". Maybe that would've made them see the issue.
Instead, I took the easy route and made sure to never leave my netbook, passport, tickets, etc in the room (all the rest was replaceable and we were travelling light).
I would have probably done differently if I wasn't in a foreign country on a different continent and still getting used to the cultural uncanny valley of NYC being "almost, but not quite like Europe", so I opted for the safe choice of not being a bother to these obviously hard-working people.
Are you sure we can't just keep the systems that ask for room number and last name with no rate limiting that just bills the occupant of that room when they check out? I'm a big fan of those. /s
> But do normal people really need to write their name down on pieces of paper and pass them across the desk with a wink to avoid their name being said out loud?
Every time I check into a hotel, I have my ID and credit card ready to hand to the clerk. They are going to ask for it anyway. I don’t bother with them asking for my name and spelling it wrong when looking up the reservation.
Or there's those hotels where you have to leave the keys at the front desk. Each time you come back you say your room number and they give you the key.
First thing I do when I check into a hotel is find the Do Not Disturb sign and hang it on the outside doorknob. It stays there until I check out. Even then, it does not stop cleaning staff from trying.
Put a "do not disturb" sign on your door, every hotel room has one.
I too don't like it when room service touches my stuff (it is a mess, but it is my mess!) - putting a DND sign on the doorknob and not removing it for the whole stay fixed that problem for me.
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