I stayed at the Viceroy DC in Logan Circle last week. I received a lovely suite upgrade – I really like the mid-century modern decor elements.
The bathrooms are large, beds comfortable, and my only room design complaint is that the corner of the bed protrudes out beyond the mattress. I always bang my shins on these bedframes whenever a hotel does this.
The staff at this hotel is exceptionally friendly. The biggest frustration with the stay wasn’t the property’s fault at all. One morning there was banging on my hotel room door at 4:30 a.m. A naked woman was demanding into my room!
I got up and went to the door and saw her through the peep hole. And I figured there were only 2 possibilities.
- She was trying to escape a bad situation and needed help.
- She was very very drunk and trying to get into the wrong room.
It was number 2. I offered her a robe (she wouldn’t take it) and wasn’t interested in help. So I went back into the room.
But…. she then proceeded to pull the fire alarm. And everyone piled out front of the hotel.
And that brings me to my second, but related, complaint. The hotel only starts to make coffee available at 6:30 a.m. We were all back inside quickly. It’s not as though I was heading back to bed at that point. A nearby Starbucks is open but the property has a decent coffee shop in the lobby. 6:30 a.m. is too late to start coffee (breakfast doesn’t begin until 7).
I’ve had the fire alarm go off during the night at the Park Hyatt DC and at the Seabird Resort in Oceanside, California. This is the sort of thing that isn’t the hotel’s fault but a hotel should still bend over backwards to offer hospitality when basic elements of a stay like a sleep or a shower get interrupted. I think coffee would have been nice.
You forgot the key safety detail: Was she cute?
@ Gary — OMG, thanks for laugh.
Definitely need more details about the naked woman and not about coffee. . Did she find her love bunny outside during the fire alarm drill? Was she still naked? lol. Why are you talking about coffee?
Kind of vindicating to know I’m not the only one who wrecks their shins on those
I completely get your frustration… I’d be in exactly the same frame of mind.
The hotel probably didn’t have the required staff to deal with making coffee at that point; anyone who WAS around would be roped into dealing with the emergency alarm, getting guests back to their rooms (wonder how many left their keys behind in the panic?), and handling the problematic guest (and police?) for a good hour or two.
I doubt there would be F&B staff on hand to make coffees etc.
Its worth considering 3. This is a setup to get you to open the door so her boyfriend just out of site can rob you. Maybe not under these exact circumstances but for others who have a cute and/or naked and/or distressed women knock on their door in the middle of the night.
I had a hotel in Beijing send a prostitute to my room unprompted. I thought she was housekeeping until she started undressing. I pushed her out of the room and checked out so fast.
The lesson learned was to not open the door for unknown women.
Was she fully naked? I might have invited her in, depending on her looks. Did they arrest her?
I don’t understand why hotels can’t train the night manager or night auditor to make coffee and have coffee dispenser pots (whatever you call them) in the lobby at 4 am, especially in big cities or by airports since there are guests who are leaving very early for a morning flight or arrived the night before from a different time zone and are jetlagged.
I also think 7 am is late for a downtown 4-star city hotel. I’d expect breakfast from at 6 or 6:30 am on weekdays in a big city or at an airport.
@David: If a restaurant opens at 7 am, I’d imagine there is at least some kitchen staff at the hotel by 6 am to prep.
Crass and shameful.
A woman like this is in distress and needed your help. Yet, you exploited her vulnerability and used the circumstances to bait your misogynistic incel readers goading you onto perverse carnal fantasies.
It is also thoroughly inappropriate to post that photo of two women in bathrobes with their faces in plain view.
@Unintimidated – There is NO expectation of privacy in public in the United States. Gary has no obligation to hide their faces, nor is showing them inappropriate. Try again.
Maybe the best way to handle it, after making sure she was alone, would have been to invite her into your room and let her sleep it off, with her getting the bed and you getting the sofa (sarcasm). As it was, she pulled the alarm after being turned away. Maybe that was her way of getting back into her room without being judged. How did you know she pulled the alarm?
Maybe naked housekeeping in Beijing is a thing. It wasn’t the one time I stayed in a hotel there but maybe I didn’t stay long enough.
Glad I don’t like coffee. That keeps things simpler. Recently had someone (with clothes) do something similar at my apartment door. She fell asleep on the carpet in the hall and eventually staggered back to her unit. Sad.