Walk Ins after midnight

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Baygirl

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OK...The season is upon us. This is the second time in a month our bell has rang at the ungodly hours of 130AM and 400AM with someone looking for rooms. Hearing the guest bell ring in the middle of the night is like having the phone ring in the middle of the night. Usually not good news. So I get dressed thinking it's a guest who is having an emergency......Low and behold it's some PITA's actually thinking someone is up at that hour and anxiously waiting to see if anyone is going to stop by and check people in. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.........Needless to say I tell them I have no rooms at this time of the night..oh they say, you're full, I tell them NO I just don't check people in at this hour of the night!!! Oh we're sorry, they say, were you sleeping?? I tell them I was until the doorbell rang. Well OK I don't say the last part but I really want to...then I go back to bed and now my heart has been beating so fast it's taking a while to calm down and try to go back to sleep.
Our place is in the country so we don't lock our front door. Never have had any issues, except for these late walk ins. Usually this time of year I take the bell off the desk and put a note up that no rooms are available..These last few times I've forgotten and have paid for it. We have another bell in our library that guests can ring up to our living area if they need to get a hold of us.
Thanks for listening..........I'm tired today and maybe a little cranky! ;) How do you handle late walk ins?? Do you get any??
 
We've never had any that late. I think 10 was the latest. MOST people get the 'Halloween effect'- lights out, go away!
 
You are out in the country and still get walk ins??? I would LOCK MY DOORS...I don't care where you are...at least when you go to bed. Put a sign on your door.
CLOSED! We take no guests after 10 PM. Do not ring the Doorbell!!!!
 
I have not had the knock at the door (most people do not find our doorbell (it is on the front door inside of the storm door) thank goodness because that would disturb ALL my guests) walk-ins. I have had the phone ring at 11 p.m. and midnight and recently took a reservation at 1 a.m. when the guests forgot the time diff, - for a two night for 2 rooms, it was worth getting out of bed. It is rare that a call at that time does not turn into revenue. I have a honking loan payment and am in Podunk. I answer and I get dressed again if I have gotten ready for bed.
 
a) Lock your door. If you need to give guests keys, do so or get an electronic keypad lock. b) make up a no vacancy sign and put it OVER your doorbell when you go to bed. I do this on holiday weekends. If the phone rings at 1:00 I ignore it - you can turn the ringer off if you need to.
 
You are out in the country and still get walk ins??? I would LOCK MY DOORS...I don't care where you are...at least when you go to bed. Put a sign on your door.
CLOSED! We take no guests after 10 PM. Do not ring the Doorbell!!!!.
We lock the doors to our living area, but not the front door. We've been doing this for 6 yrs and knock on wood have not ever had an issue. Guests can lock their doors when they are inside their room and can have keys to the room if they wish. Most people opt not to have a key and actually say they like the fact that they don't need keys. In that case I'm not going to start locking the door....if it isn't broken why fix it. I just need to get a sign that says something to the affect that you wrote above.....WE do not take walk ins after a certain time. Although I wonder if people will still try to get a room later. I close the doors to the open rooms in the evening so they can't tell what room is vacant or taken.
 
Sorry we lock our door at night. Maybe not until 10 or 11 pm, but we lock it. We are in a small college town and six miles out. But we just had for example one rich college student murder another one. Granted, it was a domestic thing, but we also had a student go missing and end up dead in a field waaaay out in the middle of nowhere.
It is not safe anywhere not to lock up at night. I don't care where you live. That's like the people who don't lock their cars.
RIki
 
Our front door is always locked and guests have keys. While I don't worry about bad people, I do worry about salespeople and potential walkins coming in without my knowledge. I would much rather answer the locked front door than have someone wandering around in the house without my knowledge...I hate being suprised like that.
That being said, people would walk right in without knocking or ringing if we let them. First, they try the knob, then they peer in through the window, then they ring the bell...in that order.
 
You feel like telling them "GET A ROOM!" Oops, I mean, "GET A ROOM! someplace...else..." :) Hang in there. We get a few in those wee hours usually from a bar. Yeah righto, get lost! Don't disturb all the guests here.
 
Baygirl!! We lock the doors to our living area, but not the front door.
I bet you might start now...this is why we have all these rules, some dufus comes along at 130am and now we have them.
Brings a new meaning to "Walk ins"
cry_smile.gif
 
You are out in the country and still get walk ins??? I would LOCK MY DOORS...I don't care where you are...at least when you go to bed. Put a sign on your door.
CLOSED! We take no guests after 10 PM. Do not ring the Doorbell!!!!.
We lock the doors to our living area, but not the front door. We've been doing this for 6 yrs and knock on wood have not ever had an issue. Guests can lock their doors when they are inside their room and can have keys to the room if they wish. Most people opt not to have a key and actually say they like the fact that they don't need keys. In that case I'm not going to start locking the door....if it isn't broken why fix it. I just need to get a sign that says something to the affect that you wrote above.....WE do not take walk ins after a certain time. Although I wonder if people will still try to get a room later. I close the doors to the open rooms in the evening so they can't tell what room is vacant or taken.
.
Thinking about it...I wouldn't put a time I would just put a sign NO VACANCY....
NO one should be able to open your front door and walk in after you have gone to bed. I don't care where you are!!! Just because some of your guests say they like it...someone else may be upset by it. I certainly would.
 
You are out in the country and still get walk ins??? I would LOCK MY DOORS...I don't care where you are...at least when you go to bed. Put a sign on your door.
CLOSED! We take no guests after 10 PM. Do not ring the Doorbell!!!!.
We lock the doors to our living area, but not the front door. We've been doing this for 6 yrs and knock on wood have not ever had an issue. Guests can lock their doors when they are inside their room and can have keys to the room if they wish. Most people opt not to have a key and actually say they like the fact that they don't need keys. In that case I'm not going to start locking the door....if it isn't broken why fix it. I just need to get a sign that says something to the affect that you wrote above.....WE do not take walk ins after a certain time. Although I wonder if people will still try to get a room later. I close the doors to the open rooms in the evening so they can't tell what room is vacant or taken.
.
You may need to consider that it IS broken. You have strangers milling around in your house and may have had more who just left without disturbing you.
We had an inn here that always had their doors unlocked and they found strangers with luggage going thru the house looking for open rooms. The reason they found them was because they made a lot of noise. Innkeepers were ensconced in their space and only came to check about the loudness. THEY didn't change their modus operandi, but I did. I started locking my doors and eventually went to push button lock. If I get a raised eyebrow about it, I explain I don't like finding strangers wandering around when I have an armful of laundry (and I pantomime throwing the laundry everywhere). It gets a laugh and makes my point but doesn't make the guests think it's 'dangerous' here.
I know that it seems to take away from the casual nature and relaxed amosphere to have a lock on the front door, but do consider it, these past few nights might just be 'the warning'.
But, if you really don't want to go that route, set yourself a reminder by your bedside to put out the sign and remove the bell.
 
We lock our doors or at least try to as some times the guests leave the back door open (must change the lock to one that locks when it shuts) We have a ring for assistance bell and a ring for attention phone but I have found people who didn't see either sat in the lounge before today when I have come back down stairs from helping the chamber maid. It drives me mad when people let other people in as well as they have no clue who they are! the only way I can know they are there is if they ring the bell or phone so if you see what I mean I need them outside and ringing the bell!!
 
No vacancy sign, even if it's a small one on the front door itself.
And if you're ever caught again after hours, no you do not have any rooms available. Telling them you have rooms but aren't letting them in is a losing battle. Don't go there.
No rooms available.
And get some kind of sign to that effect.
 
Also I would make the point that my next door neighbour doesn't lock any of her doors (I would make the point that it is unmanned during the night) and the guests do not like it. The fact that it is not secure and people come and go in the night is mentioned frequently in her trip adviser reviews.
 
HELP ME! The title of this thread has that Patsy Cline song replaying in my head all day...
Walkin' After Midnight
I go out walkin'
After midnight

Out in the moonlight
Just like we used to do
I'm always walkin'
After midnight
searching for you
I walk for miles
Along the highway
Well that's just my way of saying I love you
I'm always walkin'
After midnight
Searching for you
I stopped to see a weeping willow
Cryin' on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be
I go out walkin'
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere walkin'
After midnight
Searching for me
I stopped to see a weeping willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be
I'm out walkin'
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere walkin'
After midnight
Searching for me
 
HELP ME! The title of this thread has that Patsy Cline song replaying in my head all day...
Walkin' After Midnight
I go out walkin'
After midnight

Out in the moonlight
Just like we used to do
I'm always walkin'
After midnight
searching for you
I walk for miles
Along the highway
Well that's just my way of saying I love you
I'm always walkin'
After midnight
Searching for you
I stopped to see a weeping willow
Cryin' on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be
I go out walkin'
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere walkin'
After midnight
Searching for me
I stopped to see a weeping willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be
I'm out walkin'
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere walkin'
After midnight
Searching for me
.
Oh great. Now it's in my head, too.
 
We lock our doors or at least try to as some times the guests leave the back door open (must change the lock to one that locks when it shuts) We have a ring for assistance bell and a ring for attention phone but I have found people who didn't see either sat in the lounge before today when I have come back down stairs from helping the chamber maid. It drives me mad when people let other people in as well as they have no clue who they are! the only way I can know they are there is if they ring the bell or phone so if you see what I mean I need them outside and ringing the bell!!.
We used to have that when the door was unlocked. Early arrivers/walk-ins just sitting there at 11 AM while we're cleaning. And if the door opened immediately, they never saw the sign for the bell. Even now, I will see guests coming and I'm almost at the door and they're cranking on the doorknob saying, 'The door's locked, what do we do now?' even tho the 'ring doorbell' sign is, for the most part, right in front of their eyes as they're trying to peer into the house. They have to look OVER the sign to see inside. And the sign points right to the bell.
It was the early arrivers, the folks who could not seem to get the door locked at night and the weirdos that convinced me to have the door locked all the time.
I really, really hate opening the door from my space into the inn and running full tilt into a stranger who is looking for the owner. My dog has gone into 'protective' mode a couple of times...hair up, deep growl and in lunge position. (And she's a sweetheart, but don't scare her 'mommy'!
 
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