I’ve stayed at the Grand Hyatt DFW many times. It’s one of the very best airport hotels, and great elite recognition. Other great ones include the Grand Hyatt SFO, Westin Denver airport and Westin Detroit airport. People also love the Intercontinental at Minneapolis but I’ve never stayed there.
And maybe I’m grateful I’ve never stayed at the Intercontinental Minneapolis St. Paul airport? One guest reports they were given a key to someone else’s room at check-in, and walked in at 1:30 a.m. as the occupants were having sex.
Rude person at front desk gave me a key to an occupied room where a couple was having sex.
…First, the woman at the front desk gave me a hard time before sending the shuttle to get me at the airport. “Do you see the Intercontinental sign?” It was dark and the sign is mostly black so I didn’t see it. But I assured her I was at the hotel shuttle area. She refused to send the shuttle until I found the sign and by then my wheelchair driver had left with my bag. So I hobbled to find him; luckily I did.
I finally arrived around midnight. …The woman at the reception desk at first could not find my reservation, then claimed it was for 2 nights rather than one. I showed her my confirmation email to straighten that out.
Then after some more time, she gave me a key for room #430. I reached the room, opened the door, propped the door open, flipped on the light, and saw that there was a couple having sex in one of the beds. I shrieked, quickly turned off the light, closed the door and made my way back to the front desk.
After a long wait I was finally given a key to a new room (505). I requested a free breakfast and was given a chit. It was almost 1:30 am when I reached my room after leaving Italy the previous day and having an 8 hour layover in Newark. …The hotel gave me 10K points…
A totally separate reason that I don’t put the Intercontinental Minneapolis St. Paul airport in league with the Grand Hyatt SFO, Grand Hyatt DFW, or Westin Denver is that while it is walkable from Terminal 1 airside (near gate C25) that only works if you don’t check bags. From baggage claim or from terminal 2 you’re probably taking a shuttle. And this guest’s narrative explains that it can waste the crucial minutes of late night sleep you’re choosing an airport hotel for in the first place.
But the crux of the issue here is granting a guest access to someone else’s room, and I have several reactions to what appears to have happened here.
- It seems odd to ask for breakfast as compensation for walking in on other guests having sex in your assigned room. I guess it made them hungry? And the reaction to the incident from the front desk… grumbling over breakfast after that screw up? As for 10,000 points, that’s about $50 in future hotel stay credit.
- This was actually worse for the people who were having sex. It was their room first. The hotel assigned someone else to their room and gave them the key. That’s a huge violation. (But you should always use second locks and latches where provided, especially late at night and.. before sex?)
- These failures seem especially common at limited-service hotels where solo staff are left at the desk and procedures may be more lax. I don’t see it nearly as often at an Intercontinental with a decent reputation.
That said, I once walked into a Ritz-Carlton room where the bed wasn’t made and there was a used condom in it. That was a pretty major housekeeping fail, like they didn’t actually clean the room at all or someone used it for that purpose after it was signed off on after housekeeping did the turn.
The most common failure mode at a hotel isn’t security, it’s cleanliness. Just this week my wife and daughter stayed at an IHG property where things looked clean enough at first but they found a piece of beef jerky in the bed. The sheets clearly hadn’t been changed. Gross. This happens more than most hoteliers admit.
But security is the absolute basic. Don’t fail to use the tools at your own disposal, because hotels do hand out keys to the wrong room and wrong guest. And you might be getting dressed, or getting other things.
Geez Louise! This guy saw “some action” and expects to be compensated?
When I was 18 I would have paid to see live people having sex, regardless of how old they are or level of attractiveness.
Entitled people nowadays!
That InterContinental at MSP is still awesome, though. Actually connected to the terminal. Reasonable rates. Relatively new, modern, etc. AND you get a free peep show? C’mon. 10/10. (Oh, and their restaurant, La Voya, has got some rockin’ griddled pancakes!)
The guest is fortunate that the hotel didn’t jack up the resort fee for providing the free show.
Since you mentioned that Ritz-Carlton incident…
I’ve had so many housekeeping walk-ins when I had a late check-out that I wonder if they ever turn a room well before the guests actually leave (i.e. they clean the room around 10-11 on a 4 PM checkout) and don’t come back…
There is unfortunate case law regarding this in MN so that is probably why the hotel feels they call lowball – https://www.startribune.com/jury-rules-hotel-not-at-fault-for-giving-key-to-stranger-who-filmed-guests-in-bed-posted-online/601320105
I assumed the 10K points offer was for the people already in the room. Come on, is he arguing he was traumatized? Seriously? Really, it comes down to having a reportedly rude front desk person and having to walk to your room and then back to the lobby. Sheesh, if I got 10K bonus points every time I’ve checked in, walked to my room, and had to go back to the lobby (e.g., bad key, room uncleaned, already occupied), I could live off of hotel points.
@ the property dinner is included if the couple has a climax during your private show entrance
otherwise it’s 10,000 points and at no point are you permitted to join them
A basic safety rule in any hotel is to lock the door with the deadbolt and engage the safety latch at all times.
People who don’t do that are just plain idiots.
One time. It happened to me. Most awkward thing ever.
However… I did not flip on the lights or anything of the sort. I find this story interesting because unless it was a massive suite, it was very easy to tell that as soon as I opened the door that there was movement and then panic in the room.
I simply closed it and got the hell out of there very quickly.
And then got an upgraded room.
Jon
HOT.
Always out the deadbolt on when in room, especially when sleeping or having sex. Seems like a little negligence on their part – maybe to hot to trot to take time and close deadbolt
@Matt — For a ‘hawt’ x-rated peep-show, please consider Delta Hotels… (@L737, I’m still not sure that’s *the* Matt, but I’ll keep going with it, just in case…)
Non-US rmthe YYC Delta Bonvoy – has been amazing for late arrivals – 100M walk from bag claim and 100M walk to car Rental center.
Points vs Cash have gotten 3.5cpp.
Last visit upgraded to corner suite.
I always pack a dual.Led flashlight (UV/Normal).
Body fluids will glow. Haven’t come across a room at check-in th as t showed dirty sheets (since purchase).
The flashlight in general is handy to travel with 6″ x 1.5″, l it has 3 or 4.5V rechargeable battery – the white LED iis super bright (and it does get warm i think it pumps out 5k•7k lumens.
Le Meridian Barcelona gave my room to a couple and they were so quick to ‘hit it” they got busy without noticing there were personal items in the room. It was worth a suite for the rest of my stay, a bottle of bubbly and a free full dinner for two in the restaurant with a personal apology by a manager.
Why is it that idiots continue to check into hotels and not use the deadbolt when they enter the room?
Based on the reaction in the comments I had to double check if they recevied 10,000 points or paid 10,000 points for the experience!
@1990 — *Salute* Now we need a hotel sink incident post so we can say please consider Delta Faucets
I had this a couple of weeks ago, HIX Newport/Middletown, checked in around 4pm and was given a key to a room that was very definitely an occupied one. Kids and parents stuff all over the place – To all those saying deadbolt – that’s fine but what happens when you leave the room, your stuff is there and a guest gets assigned to it.
Reception were apologetic, blamed housekeeping for saying the room was clean and vacant and just assigned me another one.
10,000 points and breakfast.? I would want a free night.
wow. Am I the only one that left this article wondering when the MSP Intercontinental adopted the 18th century French Versailles aesthetic?
You’d have to have a real Marie Antoinette fetish to have sex in this bed.
It is possible to skip this shuttle. Take the tram to the ground transportation center and then walk to the hotel from the Silver garage. There’s a sidewalk.