Not the hotel room, but the hotel.

We learned years ago to not judge the room by the lobby. We checked in to a beautful hotel in Geneva based on the fabulous lobby. We got off the elevator on the 3rd floor and felt like we were in the Twilight Zone! It was another world!

They put all the money into decorating the lobby. It was late, so we stayed the night and left in the morning. I now check the room before I check into any unknown hotel in Europe.

Can go one better on being given the key to someone else's room.

In a hotel in London (near Covent Garden -I';ve blocked out the name) we were given a room, checked in and went out for the day (with minor unpacking). When we got back to out room the shower was running. I sent my beau in and sure enough - some other guy had moved into our room - just threw our luggage/clothes in the corner and was happily taking a shower in "his" room. We whipped down to the desk - but they had no more rooms - and it took a major todo to get them to oust the new guest (we won in the end only because we had prepaid through AmEx) and then reclean/make up the room.

The next morning the desk clerk asked what time we were leaving (we had paid for 5 nights) and when we said we weren't the manager tried to convince us we had to - since they were overbooked. At that point we called AmEx - and they found us another hotel (nicer place, a better room, same price). Amazing how inept some of these places are.

nytraveler, well there you go - your "guy" was taking a shower, mine was only sleepping. LOL. Guess you didn't check to see if your "guy" was handsome, right? :d

And crefloors, I will take a handsome fellow sleeping in the bed anytime over a banana spider climbing up the wall - Eeeeek!!!!

Won't even think about dead bodies, dirty underwear etc.

Actually after reading all the postings I realize that a good looking man sleeping in the bed is a PLUS not a MINUS. :-p

I'm so glad nobody posted a razor blade story here.

Some years ago in a hotel in Amsterdam, we learned the room keys were basically, er, interchangeable. Going up stairs we miscounted floors and used our key to get into "our" room. Well, we easily got in, but it wasn't our room! Fortunately, we found only someone else's stuff when we entered; the someone else was out at the time.

The Holiday Inn EUR Parc Medici outside Rome is a very modern, international style hotel.

We checked in, got the electronic room key and took the elevator up to the room.

Opened the door. Room was dark, but the TV was on - showing the information menu.

Clicked the light switch - nothing. Tried all of the switches and the lamps - nothing.

Picked up the phone - nothing. Only the TV worked.

Went to the door to go down to the desk and noticed a little box with writing on it on the wall next to the hinged side of the door.

Lit my cigarette lighter to see what the writing was.

"Insert Room Key Here"

I did. The lights went on.

ira, it took me a few minutes to break that code myself. ((a)) ((b))

We arrived at our room in a large NYC hotel to find the door off the hinges and leaning against the wall in the hallway. No explantion from the front desk; a new room, different floor, was hastily assigned. Bit disconcerting though.

gemelli - they were likely moving furniture and needed the extra clearance.

This is about a condo rental, not a hotel room, but my friend's parents rented a condo on the beach one weekend. Upon arrival they stocked the fridge with sandwich supplies. The next morning they made the bed after getting up (as condos sometimes have no maid service) then headed out for the beach.

They spent the afternoon at the beach and upon thier return they saw that someone had made sandwiches from the stuff in the fridge and there was evidence of a "quickie" in the bed.

I left out a very important detail--the bed was unmade when they returned, that's how they found that evidence of shenanigans....

Found a $10,000 diamond ring in my hotel room in Las Vegas. No joke! Check your rooms, people, there's good stuff out there, too.

Wendy

PS Before I "hear" it from you goody-two shoes (of which I am firmly one of you!)...
Yes, we did tell the hotel that we had found a piece of jewelry in the room and left our name and number for someone to contact us if they could ID it. (My brother-in-law used to work in an upscale hotel in San Diegoand he said that pretty much if you turn stuff over to the hotel staff you are just giving 'whatever' you found away.) After a year and no phone calls I figured that baby was MINE!

waffle18: as long as you can justify your reasoning I guess...

>...we did tell the hotel that we had found a piece of jewelry in the room and left our name and number for someone to contact us if they could ID it.<

What's wrong with that?

Waffle18, I'm not judging your decision, but I am curious about something. Did you consider taking it to the police?

I think it's too much to assume that the hotel will be the middle man.

Example: the hotel could lose the phone # or if it's a sizeable hotel, some of the staff may know what's going on but others won't. So if the people who lost the ring call, it's entirely possible they'll have the misfortune of dealing with someone who has no clue about the situation.

Doesn't it leave a bad taste in anyone else's mouth that they took possession of something not belonging to them from someone else's property?

Heck I paid for an ad in the paper when I found somebody's cat--I would do at least that for a $10,000 ring.

P_M: I thought the same thing.

my my... so quick to judge....

if one of you left/lost something of value in a hotel room, who would you call, the hotel or the police? how many of you would look in the lost and found section (is there such a thing?) of the local newspaper?

uuhhhh, I would absolutely do all of those things you said..wouldn't you if you lost something valuable?

guess i'm more cynical than you, lucy.. the hotel is the only place i'd call.

sorry for hijacking the thread...

back to the stories.