Odd occurence at a hotel...opinions?

[redbearde]

So I'm traveling again this week. Last week in southern PA I stopped at a hotel which was so wonderful that the safety catch had been broken off at the base. I mention this to set up my rather surprising experience of Monday night.

My wife and I get to the hotel in Norther PA late...on about 11 or midnight. I have a TN permit that's good in PA, so I am carrying (concealed of course). I check in, get the room key, my wife gets the 2 year old, and we have arm loads of crap...

We get to the door, I unlock it, and as I open it a voice from inside howls, "HEY!" The occupant was understandably surprised.

I back up a bit holding up both arms saying, "whoa I'm sorry...the guy apparently gave me your room, man...I'm sorry for barging in..." He calmed down immediately. He closed his door, and I went back to the front desk...more than a little irritated.

But it got me to thinking about if it had been me in there. I'm currently in a hotel room now, again with my wife and kid, and my pistol is in reach. If someone opens my door......well....okay, I have everything bolted and latched, but the other night I bolted everything and propped a chair in the way...but someone with a keycard *could* have waltzed on in.

And I would have pulled my gun and been about a half mm from firing.

So as I sit here in another hotel room (North VA now), I'm wondering how often such a misunderstanding would happen. ..and how likely is it that I'd blow someone away merely for barging into my room (or home) when his only mistake was misinformation...which in my case barging into room 219 would have been no fault of mine.

I like to think I'd use reasonable discretion even under such stress. And of course I bolt all latches (which Mr 219 didn't for some reason - I bet he will now). But I read from others here such things as, "my neighbor's idiot drunk son entered my house by mistake" and in TN trespassing in someone's home, even unarmed, is considered an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the resident. Having been the mistaken guy now, it's got me somewhat rattled.

...so...less than the likelihood of being struck by lightning?

And aside from closing and locking doors and bolting safety rods and latches, what's to be done?

 

[Trebor]

Pack a simple rubber door stop in your luggage. Seriously. When your in the room, stick the door stop under the door, and no one can come in.

Just remember that it will slow you down in the event of a fire.

 

[FieroCDSP]

Check your target before firing? Really, you can't go through life worrying about every detail. If the desk jockey gave you an occupied room, you try to enter, and you're shot dead without confrontation, there are several things that happen with you now out of the picture.

1:Investigation: at which point if you're someplace without decent castle doctrine laws, the guy who opened up without question is in trouble. If the state has sensible laws, then he can't be blamed, even if it was careless.

Regardless of whether the shooter is charged, that leads to
2:lawsuits: The hotel chain would be responsible if, as in this case, you were given the card to an occupied room. This would be negligence that resulted in your death, which does little to reassure you, but your family would be taken care of.

As far as your own armed status, you now know what could happen, so while I'm not saying you should wait for someone to announce their intentions clearly with a brass band, you should acertain whether they are armed or not, if possible, and use appropriate force.
Whether shooting a guy who has the wrong door is a clean shoot or not in the eyes of the law is important, you don't have to look the law in the eyes every morning when you get up.

 

[Cosmoline]

I did a ton of traveling for a job from the late 90's through about 2002. I was given keycards to the wrong OCCUPIED room at least twice that I remember. One time I walked in and saw someone else's luggage! The other time they were in there and had latched the chain. The clerks are usually worthless even at nice hotels, and the electronic system seems to be open to a great deal of error. With keys on pegs it's a lot harder to screw up.

As general practice, I make a point of physically blocking the door when I'm in the room. This is to keep out wrong room people, rude cleaning staff or criminals. Nobody comes in when I'm in there, period. I was going to get a door wedge to keep with me, but changed jobs before getting around to it. Now I thankfully almost never have to leave town.

As far as response, if it's an unauthorized entry keeping your firearm ready is SOP whether in your hotel room or otherwise. If you block the door it keeps wrong roomers from ever even seeing you, since they will stop when they hear you yell. If they ignore you and the obstacle and start kicking, you've got real trouble.

 

[David Hineline]

Yes just use the deadbolt or door flip

I have walked in on others no one walks in on me cause it's secured from the inside.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

And I would have pulled my gun and been about a half mm from firing.

I would suggest that you not be so quick to pull the trigger. An unauthorized stranger walking into your room uninvited could just be some regular Joe who's room got mixed up. In your case, it was. And you were the uninvited stranger. What if they guy who was already in the rooms was a CCWer and had drawn and possible fired on you?


The other suggestions about locking and securing the to door are great. As is your decision to carry a weapon. But being half a mm from firing on another person just because you're startled is not a good reason. You're responsible for every bullet you fire, no matter what. I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I would hate for some regular Joe to leave his wife a widow and his child fatherless because an otherwise responsible civilized CCW holder had too quick of a reaction in a should-have-been-harmless case of mistaken rooms.



That goes for anyone and any case of "possible intruder". Whatever happened to "be sure of your target and what's behind it" ? That isn't just for range time. Be sure of your target. Even in the middle of the night when it could be a criminal. Be sure of your target.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I remember reading an article by Massad Ayoob about this happening to him with the roles reversed.
An hotel guest got the wrong key and came in. Massad grabbed his 45 off the night stand and rolled off the bed to confront the guy. No one was hurt except the guys shorts

I always use the safety latch after a fellow salesman's hotel experience. The hotel maintenance man had his room confused with a woman he had seen in the bar the night before. The next morning when the salesman was in the shower, the maintenance man snuck in to sneak a peek. The salesman was just starting to lather up when he heard a noise and looked out the curtain. A wrestling match ensued and the maintenance man lost.....the salesman proceeded to get a few good hits in to subdue the guy and called the front office. The salesman carried but his gun was in his suitcase and not accessible at the time.

 

[MrHoppes]

Or

You could get an inexpensive alarm they have just about anywhere these days and set it whe you go in and don't allow cleaners. Works fine for me when I travel.

 

[Ghost Walker]

Nobody would have been in any danger of being instantly shot; I'm, usually, not that fast on the trigger; but, the pistol would have been in my hand with my trigger finger straight along the top of the guard. At the very least, the guy at the door would have had 1.5 seconds for me to make up my mind about him. (I carry in C-3.)

The problem is my Pit Bulldog would have, probably, taken him out before I could call her off! It would have been the hotel's problem after that. You need to stay in better motels. I traveled for almost 10 years, and never had anything like that happen to me.

Well ... belay that! Once, in Springfield MA, I had two large men looking to collect a debt mistakenly bang on my hotel room door during the wee hours of the morning. Before things turned sour, the lady involved yelled at them that they had the wrong room. I don't know who was luckier, me or them?

 

[NCLivingBrit]

I'm a front desk guy at a hotel (I used to be the weekend night guy) and I know how easy it is to put two guests in the same room (especially if your co-workers don't always pay attention when working the computer).

I suggest the same thing to female guests nervous about travelling alone as I'm gonna say here:

Use your deadbolt and use your manual bolt. The deadbolt (the turn key on most hotel locks) disables the keycard lock completely. Even if you have a valid key, with the deadbolt on it won't open without the master programmer unit to override the deadbolt. Also, that metal "bolt" that latches over the ball mounted to your door is pretty tough, even my 350lbs hitting it hard didn't pop it loose.

That said, I once sent a countrywoman of mine to a full room and she came back downstairs to ask for one with a more athletic and less hairy sleeping naked guy. Unfortunately, we were all out, so she had to make do with just a new room.

 

[roo_ster]

I use all available hardware when in a hotel room. Nowadays, that is a deadbolt & the latch-dealie.

Also, against the door is where I stack my stuff before going to bed. It is usually by the bathroom, so it makes sense & is handy. Even a tacticool ninja "operator" busting the door down is going to have to take time or fall flat on his face & my stuff. That ought to give me time to figure out shoot/no shoot.

 

[thegriz]

Good topic

Your thread is an excellent reminder for all of us. A year ago I was arriving at my hotel around 11:00pm and I was exhausted from a long, problem-filled day of travel and with a lot on my mind. I opened the door to see a single young lady staring at me with really big eyes. I was in condition white big time. For a moment, I just stood there holding my luggage and stared at her while my mind tried to figure out what the heck was going on.

Then I apologized and left. The room was double booked. I'm glad she wasn't armed and trigger happy.

Opening your hotel room should always be done with some level of alertness. I hope to never make that mistake again.

 

[redbearde]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions folks.

...for the record, half a mm from shooting someone is still -not- shooting someone.

 

[STW]

After reading all this I'd be hard pressed to say it was an odd or ever rare occurance. The one time it happened to me I at least got a free basket of fruit for the hassle. I'm not sure what they gave the lady in the shower.

 

[308win]

Not to lecture, just to restate the obvious. Choosing to CCW is not a choice free of ramifications. You have the responsibility to be more in control of your actions, and aware of your surroundings, situation, options, and consequences.

 

[k-frame]

Hang out the Do Not Disturb sign. If someone is given the wrong key then they will probably not try to enter. At worse, they might knock.

And when you leave the room, keep the TV or radio on.

 

[LT1coupe]

I travel weekly on business & I've been issued occupied rooms more times than I remember. I always knock & I always lock the door. The other thing I've noticed is more than 50% of the time in room that open to the outside the windows are not locked.
I keep a rubber wedge in my suitcase also along with a roll of duct tape for windows that don't latch to my satisfaction. The suggestion about the do not disturb sign is also a good idea.

 

[2RCO]

Just like Cosmoline I used to do alot of travelling and yup I've been given the keys to occupied rooms on several occassions. I've also had another person enter my room twice. All as far as I can tell honest but severely annoying mistakes.

 

[dralarms]

I've had the same thing happen to me, I was at a hotel and was relaxing after a very long and hard day when my door pops open with this very large man dragging luggage into my room, he stopped abruptly when met with my S&W 457 compact, I called down to the front desk and raised sam with them, I don't know what they gave him b ut I got a free room for the night. After I saw he was "mistakenly given my room" I relaxed and took my gun off his person and told him they had misbooked the room.

 

[dralarms]

Oh and BTW, when I leave the room even if I'm coming back for another nights stay I ALWAYS take ALL my belongings with me. I would NOT trust them to be there when I returned. Too many rooms given out by mistake.

 

[meef]

....

 

[wheelgunslinger]

I had a similar thing happen. I jumped up and spied the mystery person through the peep and saw a heavy 'round the middle salesman. So, I opened the door for him and said "It's going to be awfully hard for both of us to fit in this bed comfortably."
He apologized profusely, despite having done nothing wrong.
I always use the locks on the doors. Alot.

 

[ilbob]

i cannot imagine anyone not taking the two seconds to put on the safety chain or the door blocking mecanism.

i prefer the hotels with electronic keys. they all have a deadbolt mechanism that can be locked from the inside and can't be opened with a normal key. just flip the deadbolt on and no one can enter.