Not sure what to do - if anything

i stayed (alone) in a re d ro of in n ... don't be mad, the only b&b in the area was full even though it is seriously overpriced for what she offers. nice lady, but ...
anyway, i'm always a little edgy staying in hotels alone. i was given a room way down the hall and around a corner from the elevator but with a stairwell just off to the side. creepy. but i shook it off.
around midnight, almost asleep, someone tried to get in my room. pushing a card into the reader, jiggling the door handle. and then knocking. knocking? i got up and looked out the peep hole to see a woman with a rolling suitcase standing there. i said through the door, 'you're at the wrong room' she looked at the card in her hand and walked away.
i tried to shrug it off but was un-nerved as i climbed back into bed.
then it happened AGAIN!
again, looked through the peep hole .. different person standing on the other side with a suitcase. i said again, through the door and with as deep a voice as i could muster, ' wrong room!'
then i turned on the lights, turned on the tv and tried to reach someone at the front desk. no answer. no answer? i thought there was 24 hour front desk.
i wondered if someone had invited people up and had told them the wrong room number, but that wouldn't explain the one with the card she was trying to use, would it? do those cards ever work on the wrong room? feeling pretty ignorant about them, but can that happen? i've often left a place, taking my expired card with me.
long story short ... i fell asleep after a while but woke from a terrifying nightmare about being mugged. my own fears coming through, i know. but i'm still unsettled by it.
when i checked out i went to the desk to tell them i did not use their safe so please remove that charge from my bill. this is a new trick --- they put it on your bill and you have to stop at the desk and tell them to take it off in the morning. i wonder how many people just leave and the charge goes through - $2 or so for every 100 or so people in every one of their hotels every night. what a scam. i think some cruise lines do this.
i also said someone had tried to get in my room very late ... twice .. and that i called the desk and no one answered the phone. the girl just shrugged. i wondered if she slept in the office as this was the same girl who was there when i checked in.
so... am i making something out of nothing?
and if i am to complain, who to complain to? write a letter to corporate maybe?
it's getting so the more i stay alone in hotels, the more i don't want to.
if someone staying at your b&b tries to get into the wrong room, it's not your fault ... and i'm trying to think that way. but i felt very vulnerable and i don't think i'll be staying there again.
i hope this post makes sense ...

It makes total sense that you would be afraid. When it happened the first time, did you call the front desk? I hope you did. That would have alerted the desk the room was occupied. For it to happen again is terrible.
Having worked night audit I can attest to the fact that there are times the desk is vacant (bathroom or other duties required by management who think night shift can do other things). I also once gave out a key at 3 AM for a room that was on the board as unoccupied (of the 203 rooms perhaps 20 were occupied). the guest returned to the desk about 5 minutes later to tell me that room was occupied. Have no idea who was in the room or how it became marked unoccupied.
Your fears are and were justified. I would write a letter to the CEO of that chain AND to the GM of that particular inn. If I heard nothing within 2 weeks, I would post it on TA stating who I wrote to and heard absolutely nothing. In today's world, these are REAL fears.

we had this in a large hotel with 3 identicle floors - guests had already checked in but were drunk and were trying to get into "their room" on the wrong floor - terrified the older lady and elderly mum who were in that room.

Sure, write to corporate. If nothing else, you will feel better.
When we were on vacation this year we were given the key to an occupied room. Clothes everywhere when I opened the door! The key card is supposed to expire and they should be swiping a new one every time. Doesn't mean they don't swipe the wrong room in.
Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'
Saw the same desk clerk going into that room later on. Who knows.
Make sure to use whatever safety locks they have. Drag a chair over to the door. Put out the do not disturb sign. Leave the tv on if you can sleep like that.

You will get a letter asking for a review from your stay, be sure to mention it.
Sorry this happened SS. I have been places where this has happened. One of the oldest tricks in the book to rob you is "Oh this isn't my room?" So I have to ask if you were in a city. Pretty typical.
I would call them today. That is what I would do. Purely due to the no one answering the call aspect. The other they will blow off, say it happens they can't control people. But the other is safety. And they do have cameras in the hallways. They can probably take a look. Maybe they have had a rash of burglaries, this may help them.

Totally unacceptable. I would have insisted on talking to management in the morning. And if management made themselves unavailable (it happened once), I would have posted a review online (easy enough to remove later) to get managements attention. If they have a 24 hour desk, then it needs to be present when you call. And in a finer hotel, they certainly would have offered something, since your sleep was disturbed.
As for cruises, I have NEVER had an unexpected charge put on. Just the normal tipping.

Madeleine said:

Sure, write to corporate. If nothing else, you will feel better.
When we were on vacation this year we were given the key to an occupied room. Clothes everywhere when I opened the door! The key card is supposed to expire and they should be swiping a new one every time. Doesn't mean they don't swipe the wrong room in.
Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'
Saw the same desk clerk going into that room later on. Who knows.
Make sure to use whatever safety locks they have. Drag a chair over to the door. Put out the do not disturb sign. Leave the tv on if you can sleep like that..

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'

Click to expand...

That sort of thing really annoys me, I mean what sort of place are you running if you don't have processes in place to handle this situation.

More on the funny side than terrifying...on our wedding night 2 separate hotel employees knocked on the door. One to deliver the drinks we ordered. (I asked what drinks they were but they weren't anything we liked, so I told them they had the wrong room.) The second time was because someone called in a possible fire in the room. (We collapsed laughing about that one and just decided it was DH's brothers having us on.)
Then again...My parents have had 'hotel employees' open the door to their room while they were in it. The intruders left immediately, but now my parents always hang out the do not disturb sign and turn on the TV as soon as they get to the room and leave them on when they go out for dinner.

Highlands John said:

Madeleine said:

Sure, write to corporate. If nothing else, you will feel better.
When we were on vacation this year we were given the key to an occupied room. Clothes everywhere when I opened the door! The key card is supposed to expire and they should be swiping a new one every time. Doesn't mean they don't swipe the wrong room in.
Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'
Saw the same desk clerk going into that room later on. Who knows.
Make sure to use whatever safety locks they have. Drag a chair over to the door. Put out the do not disturb sign. Leave the tv on if you can sleep like that..

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'

Click to expand...

That sort of thing really annoys me, I mean what sort of place are you running if you don't have processes in place to handle this situation.
.

Click to expand...

what sort of place are you running where you don't know which rooms are occupied and which aren't?
with a Property Management system they are lit up in different colours for occupied, allocated ie someone is due to come in and vacant - aint rocket science.

Madeleine said:

More on the funny side than terrifying...on our wedding night 2 separate hotel employees knocked on the door. One to deliver the drinks we ordered. (I asked what drinks they were but they weren't anything we liked, so I told them they had the wrong room.) The second time was because someone called in a possible fire in the room. (We collapsed laughing about that one and just decided it was DH's brothers having us on.)
Then again...My parents have had 'hotel employees' open the door to their room while they were in it. The intruders left immediately, but now my parents always hang out the do not disturb sign and turn on the TV as soon as they get to the room and leave them on when they go out for dinner..

Click to expand...

We were in a hotel earlier this year and the cleaner walked into our room to turn it around at 8am, while we were still in bed. Check-out was 11am.

Joey Camb said:

Highlands John said:

Madeleine said:

Sure, write to corporate. If nothing else, you will feel better.
When we were on vacation this year we were given the key to an occupied room. Clothes everywhere when I opened the door! The key card is supposed to expire and they should be swiping a new one every time. Doesn't mean they don't swipe the wrong room in.
Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'
Saw the same desk clerk going into that room later on. Who knows.
Make sure to use whatever safety locks they have. Drag a chair over to the door. Put out the do not disturb sign. Leave the tv on if you can sleep like that..

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

Went back to the front desk. Same shrug. 'First shift didn't tell us what rooms were occupied.'

Click to expand...

That sort of thing really annoys me, I mean what sort of place are you running if you don't have processes in place to handle this situation.
.

Click to expand...

what sort of place are you running where you don't know which rooms are occupied and which aren't?
with a Property Management system they are lit up in different colours for occupied, allocated ie someone is due to come in and vacant - aint rocket science.
.

Click to expand...

Mine was over 20 years ago before computers ran everything. A green cardboard in the slot said available and a white tab from the registration card with guest name typed or written in was occupied. How they do it today, I have no idea.

well, i called and asked to speak with the manager of the hotel about a concern i had with my stay. still waiting for a call back.
i am drafting a letter and will leave out the bit about the safe because that is a totally separate issue. by the way, it was carnival cruise lines that had a safe in the room and you had to ask for a refund if you didn't use the safe.
reading reviews of this hotel location, i scoffed when i saw that someone saw prostitutes in the hotel because i never saw them and have stayed there maybe 5 times. now i'm wondering if that is what this is about. guests coming in so very late ... trying to get into the wrong room ... did i mention they were both females at the door? my brain might be inventing scenarios but i'm wondering now.
either that or it was an attempt to steal things.
my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?
i won't let it go.

seashanty said:

well, i called and asked to speak with the manager of the hotel about a concern i had with my stay. still waiting for a call back.
i am drafting a letter and will leave out the bit about the safe because that is a totally separate issue. by the way, it was carnival cruise lines that had a safe in the room and you had to ask for a refund if you didn't use the safe.
reading reviews of this hotel location, i scoffed when i saw that someone saw prostitutes in the hotel because i never saw them and have stayed there maybe 5 times. now i'm wondering if that is what this is about. guests coming in so very late ... trying to get into the wrong room ... did i mention they were both females at the door? my brain might be inventing scenarios but i'm wondering now.
either that or it was an attempt to steal things.
my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?
i won't let it go..

Click to expand...

seashanty said:

my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?

Click to expand...

You won't hear back from the manager if the front desk even bothers to tell them. The front desk doesn't care because they have no way to fix the problem; they hear it all the time and mgmt doesn't care; they've never been told how to treat a customer.
We checked into a hotel in PA once. It was convenient for us and they accepted pets. There were a dozen kids screaming in the lobby, running around, jumping in the pool, etc. I said to DH, 'Our room is right next to theirs.'
Sure enough, after a long wait to check in (we were the only guests waiting to check in), we get to the room and there are 3 rooms with doors open and all those kids running between them. Plus, we were given a smoking room. I almost died when I opened the door.
I called the front desk. No one answered. This is in the middle of the afternoon. Called back. No answer. I went down there and there was NO ONE around. In the middle of the afternoon! 15 minutes later I was not only angry, I was not going to be pleasant to whomever eventually showed up.
Guy told me he was the ONLY person working in a 100 room hotel. He was running towels and things to rooms that the housekeepers forgot to clean.
We stayed at that hotel probably 4 times (up and back to NC), but only because they took the dog. That wasn't the only time we had problems. And, they had roaches. Ewwww! Big chain hotel. One person working the whole place. Absurd.

seashanty said:

well, i called and asked to speak with the manager of the hotel about a concern i had with my stay. still waiting for a call back.
i am drafting a letter and will leave out the bit about the safe because that is a totally separate issue. by the way, it was carnival cruise lines that had a safe in the room and you had to ask for a refund if you didn't use the safe.
reading reviews of this hotel location, i scoffed when i saw that someone saw prostitutes in the hotel because i never saw them and have stayed there maybe 5 times. now i'm wondering if that is what this is about. guests coming in so very late ... trying to get into the wrong room ... did i mention they were both females at the door? my brain might be inventing scenarios but i'm wondering now.
either that or it was an attempt to steal things.
my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?
i won't let it go..

Click to expand...

seashanty said:

well, i called and asked to speak with the manager of the hotel about a concern i had with my stay. still waiting for a call back.
i am drafting a letter and will leave out the bit about the safe because that is a totally separate issue. by the way, it was carnival cruise lines that had a safe in the room and you had to ask for a refund if you didn't use the safe.
reading reviews of this hotel location, i scoffed when i saw that someone saw prostitutes in the hotel because i never saw them and have stayed there maybe 5 times. now i'm wondering if that is what this is about. guests coming in so very late ... trying to get into the wrong room ... did i mention they were both females at the door? my brain might be inventing scenarios but i'm wondering now.
either that or it was an attempt to steal things.
my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?
i won't let it go.

Click to expand...

We took a Car n ival cruise 25 years ago on our honeymoon. Before the snorkling trip, I stopped by the desk to drop by wedding ring in the safe. They handed me a key and asked for a $20 deposit to ensure I brought back the key. I said, "I just gave you my wedding ring and you are worried I won't come back????"
they are a nickle and dime operation.

Madeleine said:

seashanty said:

well, i called and asked to speak with the manager of the hotel about a concern i had with my stay. still waiting for a call back.
i am drafting a letter and will leave out the bit about the safe because that is a totally separate issue. by the way, it was carnival cruise lines that had a safe in the room and you had to ask for a refund if you didn't use the safe.
reading reviews of this hotel location, i scoffed when i saw that someone saw prostitutes in the hotel because i never saw them and have stayed there maybe 5 times. now i'm wondering if that is what this is about. guests coming in so very late ... trying to get into the wrong room ... did i mention they were both females at the door? my brain might be inventing scenarios but i'm wondering now.
either that or it was an attempt to steal things.
my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?
i won't let it go..

Click to expand...

seashanty said:

my question is ... why was the front desk unresponsive?

Click to expand...

You won't hear back from the manager if the front desk even bothers to tell them. The front desk doesn't care because they have no way to fix the problem; they hear it all the time and mgmt doesn't care; they've never been told how to treat a customer.
We checked into a hotel in PA once. It was convenient for us and they accepted pets. There were a dozen kids screaming in the lobby, running around, jumping in the pool, etc. I said to DH, 'Our room is right next to theirs.'
Sure enough, after a long wait to check in (we were the only guests waiting to check in), we get to the room and there are 3 rooms with doors open and all those kids running between them. Plus, we were given a smoking room. I almost died when I opened the door.
I called the front desk. No one answered. This is in the middle of the afternoon. Called back. No answer. I went down there and there was NO ONE around. In the middle of the afternoon! 15 minutes later I was not only angry, I was not going to be pleasant to whomever eventually showed up.
Guy told me he was the ONLY person working in a 100 room hotel. He was running towels and things to rooms that the housekeepers forgot to clean.
We stayed at that hotel probably 4 times (up and back to NC), but only because they took the dog. That wasn't the only time we had problems. And, they had roaches. Ewwww! Big chain hotel. One person working the whole place. Absurd.
.

Click to expand...

Big chain hotel. One person working the whole place. Absurd.
THAT is how they make the big profit.