Not too long ago, I posted about my plan to take advantage of a great way to earn a boatload of Club Carlson points by booking a 3-night stay to satisfy several stackable promotions (FYI, the points have posted, and I’ve earned just shy for 60K points).
Long story short, I decided to book my stay at a Radisson property that was close to my parents’ Â house and literally a half of a mile down the road from the hospital I plan to deliver baby #2 at (no, I still didn’t have the baby yet).
After having dinner with my parents, I checked in and had the room to myself for a whole night (thanks Mom for taking care of the baby so I could get a solid night of sleep for once!). The next morning, I packed my stuff and spent the rest of the nights with my family.
What I found odd, was a phone call I received from the hotel the following day that went like this:
“Hi Angelina, this is xxxx from the Radisson hotel. I’m just calling to check up on you and find out where you’ve been since housekeeping said the room looked vacant”.
“I have the room for 3 nights; I’ve never received a call like this from a hotel asking about my whereabouts”, I replied.
Granted she probably was just being “courteous” and “nice”, but is it really anyone’s business what I do during the day? If I’m paying you for 3 nights, I can enter and leave my room as I please.
What’s even more concerning is that I am a woman traveling alone. I’ve had a bad experience in the past where someone called my room and disguised themselves as a front-desk employee in the middle of the night to ask if I was alone.
Since that experience, I am very cautious of how I share where I am staying, and in today’s world, anyone can mask a call to make it look like it’s coming from a hotel. With that being said, I was honestly pretty disturbed that the hotel called to “check in on me”, and I think I have a valid reason to feel the way I do.
Just curious, what are your thoughts? Does anyone else have a similar experience to share?
The other angle to consider is that they were genuinely concerned for your safety. They have a registered guest who basically “disappeared…” That’s one other possibility.
Though it may be innocent, I think that phone call is extremely creepy – especially since you said you are a woman traveling alone. I’m very wary about people knowing my whereabouts. As a matter of fact, I never post where I am on my own blog even if it is relevant. And my Facebook location is a complete lie.
Though it may be an extreme, I’d rather be safe than sorry. So glad, the phone call you got proved to be a harmless one.
I agree with A.S.. If I was running a hotel and a woman staying along disappeared, I would be worried about her. As long as all they want to know is that you’re okay and not where you were or where you are currently, I don’t understand why you think it is disturbing.
It’s one thing to ask if you have vacated the room (for possible emergency issues or even just to make sure that you are okay). I don’t think that, in and of itself, it is totally out-of-line to check.
To ask “where you have been” is, though, entirely inappropriate.
I think it is great! They were concerned that something may have happened to you.
I have often wondered if this happens, having been a woman traveling alone on business for years, I want to feel secure, but this may go beyond.
Two of my daughters have worked in the hospitality industry. One cleaned rooms in college and she told me that sometimes they would go in to rooms to clean and it would be untouched – but they never called the guest to confirm.
She and her sister both worked as adminstrative assistants to Rooms, Restaurant and Operations managers for major hotel chains. And neither has ever heard of this happening. I would make a call or send an email to the corporate customer service and ask if this is a regular practice. I’m thinking that the hotel may be hyper-vigilant, but it seems like it is an invasion of your privacy.
So – a pregnant woman is missing, and the only folks who would know that followed up to confirm all was OK. I think that warrants a thank you card, personally.
Get used to it. You cannot expect housekeeping to stay silent about a guest who seems to have disappeared.
I had the exact same thing happen to me: checked in, then stayed at Mom’s house. Sure enough, eventually the front desk rang my cell phone asking “have you left?”
This is pretty common behavior. Again, you cannot and should not expect a hotel to keep silent when a guest appears to have gone missing. Imagine the legal consequences if something nefarious happened to a guest.
I work in a hotel, there are many reasons from the front desk to check on the welfare of a guest, the next person in shift is told by housekeeping you have not been in the room and the staff person did not personally check you in, they are probably checking to make sure you didn’t check out early and the person on the shift previously didn’t put it in the system, it’s easier to fix it in the system before you are due out rather than afterward, or the hotel might have genuinely concerned for your welfare, or it could be policy of the hotel. Although I do agree, asking where you have been in not the correct turn of phrase to go about that.
Did you not use the DND sign? That’s the first thing I do on a mattress run. That way housekeeping has no business entering the room. Problem solved.
DND signs are not always followed. I have stayed at hotels for extended stays while working night shift. After making arrangements with the front desk for housekeeping to clean the room first thing in the morning, I have still returned to hotel with a note on the door saying they have noticed the DND sign out and entered the room to check on guest welfare. I was briefly annoyed, but realized that they are checking to make sure the guest is ok.
That would be an awkward call to make, as well, which may explain, though not excuse, the overly intrusive wording. I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt that they’re trying to be helpful, not creepy.
But I’m absolutely with some of the commenters above: if I managed a hotel and a guest went missing (man or woman – unfortunate things can happen to all genders), I’m probably going to inquire. If something HAD happened to you, and it took an additional 24 hours to discover it (or maybe never), you can be sure the hotel would be second-guessed for being so negligent.
@FreeTravelGuys – that by itself may not work. Many hotels will do a welfare check on a room that has constantly had a DND sign out for more than a day or so.
I sometimes leave the DND for days. If I am staying for 3 days, I rarely require house-keeping and even when I go out, It indicates I don’t want any hotel staff in the room. They should mind their own business.
Have a similar experience with a club Carlson I’ve been maximizing stays at for this same promotion. Property frequently notices my bags are not in the room and before i know it they check me out of the room and I get credit for one room only. Perhaps it’s a club Carlson thing as the general manager I spoke to actually feels that If the customer is not staying there then they will check them out and shouldn’t get credit for the stay regardless how many nights I’ve booked or even prepaid. She was surprised to find out that as a frequent traveler and mattress runner I’ve never had this experience at any other hotel I’ve stayed. I also find this tracking of where I am and what I’m doing creepy as hell even as a male, and am glad that you wrote this post as this was something that really ercked me when I started taking advantage of this promotion and this happened to me…
I think the hotel should mind it’s own business. It has never happened to me. As long as there is no excessive noise, no smoke and no screaming, mind your own business.
I guess it’s ok to do a welfare check, but if the hotel gets too intrusive, I would just tell them that I was fine, and needed the room as a backup in case I needed it. I would say, “Thanks for asking”, but not volunteer any further info.
Hi I work at a hotel and I can tell you exactly why they called. It is actually to see if you checked-out early. Many times guest will book 2 nights thinking they booked one and just leave the room early so they get charged for the second night even though they didn’t stay and it was an error in booking. We call because if you checked out early we have to check you out in the system, since you aren’t physically on property.
Even though you booked 3 nights, you checked out of the property early at didn’t communicate that, so that arose concern for the operations team.
I was reading this blog for a completely different reason, but I just had to share this as someone who works in the industry.