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I almost always charge everything to my room when I stay at hotels. It earns me the property’s loyalty points and I still pay with whatever points-earning credit card I want.
A social media post got me thinking about privacy in hotel restaurants and bars — and I’m curious to get your take on the matter.
Rule Number One?
User “johnnyh763” posted this on social media platform Threads:
Sitting alone at a hotel bar sipping on a beer, watching football and waiting for some wings. Chatting with the bartender. Women comes in and sits a couple seats down from me. Orders a burger or something. Bartender, “what’s your room number for the charge?” across the bar. She proceeds to get up, walk over to him to whisper the number. I get it, lady. choosethebear I understand. When he asked me, I had no reservations about shouting it out.
(“Choosethebear,” I learned, is a term that basically means this: if a woman were given a choice between being left alone with a bear or a man, she’d choose the bear because men are so dangerous and all.)
User “writtenviscera” responded,
The bartender was breaking the number one rule to start with. i travel solo constantly. i am also in the hotel business.
i will never say my room number out loud. i will write it down.
Additionally, when hotel employees are [s#!tty] with me about it, i will remind them that it is 100% against brand standards to ever have a room number said out loud.
You should not divulge yours either, as people can overhear and then make room charges against your room number. That also happens.
(I can think of other employee rules that take precedence over bartenders asking for room numbers to charge meals. But this is a family show. 🙂 )
I try not to broadcast my last name and room number when I make room charges in hotel restaurants, bars, gift shops, etc. It’s not that I worry about someone following me back to my room. (I’m no prize!) But my concern is I don’t want others hearing my information and then charging stuff to my account. (“But I don’t drink champagne or eat caviar! How did I order $5,000 of it last night?”)
As I’ve written before, this is one of the reasons I take pictures of my key card envelope. I simply show the employees that picture and quietly say my name. (Another option: use the Notes or similar app on your phone and jot down the information there.)
But this is the first time I ever heard “it is 100% against brand standards to ever have a room number said out loud.” I know front desk employees don’t announce room numbers for safety reasons. Is it really a thing that guests can’t be asked to speak their room numbers when making charges?
(And also, I hope “johnnyh763” was being facetious when he said he “shout(ed)” his room number and last name. Like, tell us you’re a clueless alpha without telling us you’re a clueless alpha.)
What do you think about this situation? What’s your practice when asked for your room number and last name when making charges to your hotel room?
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It never used to happen. Increasingly, it happens all the time. Probably a combination of more hotels being franchised, more hotels using temporary labor, and bars-restaurants being contracted out to third parties that aren’t part of the hotel.
Rodney Dangerfield: “I Know How To Make A Girl Say, ‘Yes.’
I Ask Her, ‘Am I Bothering You?'”
Heh heh! My gosh, that man was so funny.
I briefly worked for a producer who was filming a documentary about Rodney. (I don’t know if it ever came out.) We went to Rodney’s house one afternoon, hung out, and watched him write a couple of jokes. For a kid who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, it was magic. Unforgettable.
Until now, I’ve looked around, make sure nobody was nearby and said it quietly. I think I’m gonna do what you do from now on, Chris; write it down and show it to the hotel employee.
My most bizarre room key experience, to date, occurred at a terminal hotel in Asia years ago when I had taken a voluntary bump for a big payoff and the airline put me up at the hotel. I was given a card key with my name and the room number printed on it!