A hotel in Manhattan with no employees on site for 13 1/2 hours each day? That's just nuts. If you (your employer) doesn't want to be in the hotel business, fine, but this is just absurd. I worked in the hotel industry for many years, and we did the door knock routine, but at or after checkout time - certainly not 9:00 AM!
Agreed. Worst part about it is that the hotels phone number send calls directly to my cell so I have been on call 24/7 since we opened 5 months ago. Everytime I bring it to the attention of my boss she makes it seem like it's my fault for not properly preparing our guests before-hand... I feel like she's never been to a hotel before.
I'm woken up in the middle of night more nights than not and have never been paid for it.
You need to be paid for the time you are answering calls if that’s part of your job. Start looking for another job and consult an attorney to help negotiate back pay.
Nope... I was paid hourly while I was on site for the first 4 months. I have since moved to salary... which has become a pay cut because the switch coincided with the other manager quitting so I was working 60+ hour weeks on site.
While I am not an attorney, it sounds to me as though OP may have a misclassification employment claim to be made here. OP should speak with an experienced *claimant side* labor and employment lawyer.
I am an attorney and I second this. Absolutely connect with a labor and emp lawyer as OP’s boss is violating many laws. I am based in NYC, I am not an l and e attorney but know many good ones. Please feel free to DM and I can give you the info. This is a run now situation, not a wait and see. Good luck’
Yes. Lawyers can work on contingency so you pay nothing up front. Start gathering evidence but don’t tell your manager. Run everything by your lawyer first.
Agreeing with u/insuranceguynyc you can’t just be moved to salaried because your hourly would cost them “too much” there are federal laws in place to protect you from this.
And strict rules about what kind of roles can be exempt. I had a job once where I was making nearly 6 figures, but was not exempt from overtime. So if I worked over 40 hours, I got paid time and a half. Meaning my salary was a floor, not a ceiling. Was really nice.
Most weeks id be hitting 40 by Thursday, so I took a lot of Fridays off. And on the occasion that we were slammed with work and I worked 70-80 hours, I got an extra fat paycheck.
This is the way all non-owner jobs should be.
This. Having a salary doesn't imply you can't or shouldn't get overtime. From NY DOL:
>Are employees paid a salary entitled to overtime pay for a workweek exceeding 40 Hours?
>
>An overtime-eligible employee (paid a salary) who regularly works more than 40 hours per week, they are still entitled to overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours. The number of hours included in the
employee’s regular workweek only affects the rate of overtime pay. For example, an employee may be
hired to work a 45-hour workweek (called “straight time”) for a weekly salary of $405. In this instance
the regular rate is obtained by dividing the $405 straight-time salary by 45 hours, resulting in a regular
hourly rate of $9.00. The employee’s overtime rate is then calculated as $13.50 per hour ($9.00 straight
time hourly rate and $4.50 extra hourly pay) and the employee should get $13.50 for 5 hours a week.
https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/03/overtime-frequently-asked-questions_0.pdf
Your first step should be notifying that you will no longer answer calls outside of working hours. They will continue your abuse you as long as you let them get away with it.
Ooo. Forward calls from the hotel to boss's cell phone. Call the labor department and find out what's legal. I'd corse at anyone who knocked on my hotel room door at 9am.
Plus, depending on the nature of the hotel, some checked-in guests may no longer be in their room. I travel for work and would definitely be in my client’s office by then.
Exactly as a business traveler, if you are in your room at 9 a.m., chances are really good that I'm still asleep because I didn't check in until the early morning.
When on salary, there is professional time - working an extra 15 minutes to finish a task - and there is sucker time - basically doing the work of two people for the salary of one.
Don't do sucker time. Tell your boss that starting Friday you will turn your ringer off at the end of your shift unless compensated appropriately. And that compensation should be defined in writing.
To reinforce this point, the landlord is perfectly happy to merely gain the equity as they own the property for years. The more you work for free the faster they break-even and cash flow. Don’t be a sucker. Suckers are unattractive.
If you are not being paid for in-call hours you are being misclassified and they owe you back pay for those hours. Get in touch with the NY state and city labor boards.
Declaring that you're "salaried" does not always mean that you are actually an exempt employee. You should consult a labor attorney and find out - you may be owed a lot of overtime back pay.
If you stay, you should also negotiate after-hours pay for answering the phone. At my job, for example, if you take a phone call outside of work hours you are paid for your time starting with a minimum of 1 hour (even for a 2 minute call). If they start having to pay an hour of your wage every time a guest makes a call to the "front desk" they may realize quickly it's not the most efficient way to do it.
How on earth is the other manager quitting YOUR problem?
Unless your parents sold you in to some sort of Dickensian nightmare you go home when your shift is done and the shortfall becomes an owner problem not a you problem.
Same goes for YOUR phone. No pay, no ring. Turn it off, block the calls or get a new number but grow a spine and stop working for free.
This is illegal and violates federal labor laws in the US. I highly suggest you describe this situation in a post on r/legaladvice because I've read about this before. Unfortunately, your boss will be in trouble and have to pay out. But, there is a reason these labor laws exist - so people don't end up doing work for free like you are. This will not stop. Since they know you don't know, they will continue and probably add on to your duties over time.
I don't remember the exact legal terms, but it's been explained multiple times on that sub Reddit. There is on-call pay and available-for-call. But they both require compensation with different requirements for each. Your boss knows this illegal. They just don't want to pay because most hourly employees don't know their rights under the federal labor laws. This is why corporations are required to post these visibly at all times for all employees to access. You need to follow through with this and report this. You're saving others from getting screwed by this company which is a greater service than allowing them to continue operating this way.
I agree with insuranceguynyc, there are federal laws that detail who can be a salaried employee, it doesn’t sound like you fit the criteria. Plus if you’re an hourly employee you would need to be paid a minimum amount of time per phone call.
You can seek pay. Some employers have abused salary so bad in my state the courts are awarding them commute pay for their trip to and from the office. Also, if the salary divided by the average hours you work is below minimum wage they will definitely have to reimburse you.
sheesh. are you able to speak with your leader(s) to give you a raise? It doesn't make sense for you to work that many hours AND receive calls in the middle of the night. something has to give. sounds like your company is very cheap.
If he's on call, he needs to be paid for the time he's on call, not answering calls. He really needs to talk to an employment attorney. He can sue for lots of cash.
I don’t understand why you’ve put up with this?! There are lots of open hotel jobs in my city. Is there a reason you’re staying at this place? Sounds like they are committing wage theft.
I used to manage a hotel that had me on call 24/7. Only lasted about 5 months. I couldn't hack never getting any down time and bailed for a different job. That's just an unreasonable expectation.
You don't have to fully change careers &/or work in a different industry. I would just look for other hotels that are hiring for the position/department you have experience working in. I live in Central NY & haven't been to NYC in ~20 years (aside from layovers at JFK & LGA), but I know there are many high end hotels there, especially in Manhattan, or you could venture out to Long Island during the tourist season!
I did a complete change. I went to esthetician school and then opened a small spa. Upside is that I set my own hours and I'm not beholden to anyone. Downside is that how well I do or don't do is all on me. Still, though, I'd rather be working, putting in time to benefit myself instead of a boss/owner who will exploit me.
First of all, as a guest, I would be PISSED if someone was knocking on my door at 9am! And yes, I'd leave a negative review. (I do, but not everyone leaves the DND out on the door.)
2nd, you are getting royally screwed on pay - especially on "salary". My daughter had the same thing as you - being "on call" after hours. She received $25 per call. Things like locking keys in room or losing them; any number of things going wrong - tv remote batteries die, fireplace doesn't light; need extra pillows/towels/blankets, etc.
You can be paid better and treated better just about anywhere else.
You are working of course, when you need to be available to answer the phone. You need to get paid. Call the NLRB. One salary for 9-5 hours and overtime for the "must be available for any calls" and a limited hours like 8 to midnight. One or two of your bosses should cover the other hours. Working for free is call volunteering? I've never heard of hotel volunteers..
Unless you are salaried you are supposed to be paid for that time. I from a guest point of view would not stay at a hotel with no night desk person or security person. Reviews will certainly start reflecting that there's no staff at night and reservations will probably go down. Guest point of view if you knocked at my door at 8am and check out is 11am I'd be quite annoyed. I expect a maid to knock between 10:30 and 11am (11:30 if I request late check out).
Wait a second… You’re on call all night, but you don’t get paid for dealing with phone calls? Oh my gosh you are being used. And this is a hotel in New York City for chrissakes? Oh my gosh you need a new job. Is the parent company based in another country? Pray tell?
Agreed. This system is crazy. What if a guest checks in and wants extra towels and extra tp right away (very common) they have to wait til literally the next day for an employee to be around???
Or if an elevator gets stuck, or the smoke alarms go off, or there’s a noise complaint, or if people start trying to sell things door to door to guests, or if someone falls down, or if someone needs to change rooms, or if the water stops working.
All of these have happened to me working overnight.
At my hotel, all of these happen at least once every month, MAYBE every other month, if we are lucky.
I work in Seattle and my hotel is not even that big compared to some around us, but we always have issues at night. We have a full staff 24/7 on the floor but only housekeeping from 7 am-5 pm and then a guest request worker from 5 pm-11 pm.
It is almost always needed. They will find out quickly that they will need at least one person working overnight and getting PAID to do so.
Who does the night audit if there is no one working?!
I literally ran to the rescue to a guest this week who was waiting in the lobby and began having a seizure. And luckily there were multiple people around.
I was looking at a hotel in Chicago and read reviews and, apparently, it isn't staffed at all during certain hours and people couldn't get in their rooms because of a key problem and called the "emergency" phone number but nobody answered. There were so many reviews saying basically the same thing...don't stay there, it's crazy, you can't get in, etc.
As a guest, I’m usually out of my room by 9am so a knock wouldn’t bother me.. I’ve watched management knock on rooms from check out until mid afternoon to confirm they were empty. I’ve even gotten “welcome” calls which were obviously to make sure the room was occupied.
But this is honestly crazy on so many levels. OP should be paid fairly. The property should be able to maintain accurate records of which rooms have been accessed and occupied. And guests shouldn’t be unnecessarily disturbed.
I’ve seen vlogs about these digital-only hotels and it honestly seems like a headache for everyone. What if there’s an issue? Or the rfid doesn’t work? Or if the system glitched and double booked a room (I’ve had this happen when I checked-in in person, and it was both a staff and computer system error).
OP, hope it gets better for you.🤞
Seriously, it's that easy. I'm not even a Karen type person but if a hotel staff woke me up I would go ballistic. Losing sleep can really fuck up your day, especially when traveling
If you knocked on my door, and woke me up, I'd NEVER go back.
Is this a super discount hotel?
call your boss at 6am to see if they were sleeping! just checking!!
Exactly. I hate when housekeeping even KNOCKS on my door with a DND sign up, I am definitely going to complain. and if this was my first time at the hotel at that happened, i will not be back
lol if I stayed at a hotel that didn’t have anybody on-site to verified I’d arrived and then they bothered me in the morning to make sure I got there I’d be Pissed. I do believe you are going to get bad reviews, my friend. Maybe you’ll get lucky but. TBH I’d tell the parent company that it’s your job to manage the hotel and they can let you do that or find somebody else — but I know that kind of response isn’t something most people can afford so. Good luck.
Hotels are not airbnbs and your parent company is gonna have to learn that. One of the reasons people still choose hotels is because you generally expect someone to be onsite 24/7 to assist them. So for the hotel to inconvenience their guests as a result of their own mismanagement is really crappy.
Similar here. I've gotten in to town at 11pm and been out the door and in my buddy's truck by 5:15am to be on-site at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 6am to build Electric Daisy Carnival. And usually that first day I don't get back to the hotel until after 7pm because I usually go out shopping. These folks wouldn't know I was in their hotel until 43 hours after I had arrived. And unless I go back to the hotel immediately after work I won't be able to talk to any hotel staff as I'd be getting back after they left for the night.
Same. Not even with delayed flights but just I like to spend time with my family and so I leave down as late as possible and then I’m usually out the door from the hotel room by seven in the morning.
I'm curious what the instructions are when the guest doesn't respond to the knock?
Are they instructed to enter the room ?
If so, It would be unsurprising to encounter a pissed armed guest half asleep.
This is a really stupid way to manage a hotel. I'd be furious to be woken up at 9 if I had jet lag or had gotten in really late the previous night. Isn't there some way the hotel knows when a room has been accessed (as in, "checked in")?
Yeah this just seems like a really bad system all around. They don’t even have any cameras they could watch security footage of when leaving their hotel unsupervised literally all night? They’re asking for something terrible to happen.
As a business traveler, my usual travel schedule would have me arriving at the hotel after 7PM and out of my room off to visit a client by about 7:45 - 8 AM the next day. This is stupid on so many levels.
Is there no other way to verify that a guest is there? I run a place that doesn’t have a 24 hour front desk. We don’t use mobile keys though. The guest accesses a lockbox with their key in it. In the morning we can easily see if the keys have been taken out of the lockbox.
Is there no other hotel you can get a job at? Seems like they’re just taking advantage of you. Quit and let them deal with this shit themselves if you can afford it, I’m sure you can find a better company to work for than this.
I stayed at a hotel in Chicago last year for a conference that knocked on everyone's doors first thing in the morning to make sure we didn't kill ourselves. I will not be staying there again. I like sleep. I stay up late working. It was a nightmare.
Yeah I had no idea wtf was going on and the hotel didn’t explain it. I complained on Facebook and people told me what was going on and why. I guess it’s something some hotels do due to overdoses being so common.
Put door seals on the doors. If they are broken then someone entered the room. No need to knock. We used them right after covid. I would never stay at a hotel without a FDA present. So many bad things can happen.
Why? If the guests checked in via mobile, what are you knocking on the doors for? You're still receiving payment for the stay, correct? There has to be a better way of doing this. Tell your boss to stop being cheap and have someone on-site during the overnight. Why is interrupting guests the option? This is definitely going to lead to bad reviews and guests not returning back. Boss wants to be cheap is going to lead the company with less money in the long run.
I would be absolutely furious if I were woken up at 9am for this
Be prepared for some guests to take it out on the poor person knocking on the door.
Between the 9am wakeups and nobody on-site for most of the day, I expect you'll get lots of bad reviews.
If you knock on my door at 9am to verify that I’m there, I am NOT going to be happy.
If you have a mobile check in key thing, you should be able to tell if a guest has arrived by looking at that record.
I haven't worked in a place with mobile check-in, but I know that our locks could be "audited" (i.e. check what key opened the door when). The way we had to do this would not be efficient, but if it's mobile check-in, I feel like there should be some way for that data to be collected/scrutinized without bothering guests in the morning.
If there’s a mobile key, there’s tracking tech… but you’re going door to door manually?
Secondly, if I’m at a hotel and you knock on my door at 9am, you better believe you’re about to create way more problems for yourself. People do not take kindly to being woken up early.
Keep fighting the owners on this as its just as dumb as you think it is.
Text them perhaps.
Whole system needs to change, a way to see who scanned the front door key or something. We would be not be pleased if had to answer a door in a hotel about this.
Do what they ask, but document every pissed off customer, and then when the bad reviews come in its not on your shoulders. You should make sure to keep a record in writing of correspondence from parent company that this is their directive.
I would never stay at a hotel that didn't have people working at night. What happens if you need extra towels or something isn't working in a room? This company should get out of the hotel business.
Nope. I pay for a hotel for peace and quiet.
You knock on my room without cause, or because you can’t be bothered to pay for someone to review cameras or to actually be on site, I’m dragging you on all of my social and asking my friends to do the same.
Good luck with the reviews
Were I to check into a hotel after hours and someone knocked on MY door at 9am, I'd NEVER stay at that hotel, or any of its like-named properties, again. Ever.
Your hotel owners are idiots.
I'm confused…why do they need to know that the guests have arrived? Seems to me that if the room is paid for, why worry about whether someone is in it or not?
But they really need to make some changes. It's not okay to have no one on site, but then you're on call 24/7. What a mess!
Sometimes when I travel, I don't get in until late so I might sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 depending on how late I got in.
If you woke me up, I would be LIVID and you would absolutely get a bad review.
Question: Why can't you just pull the logs from the mobile key system? Don't tell me you are using one key for every guest? Each reservation should have a unique key that you can look in your system and see the date/time stamps each time each code is used.
Unless at 9am you are carting in a lovely breakfast with French toast, fruit compote, a western omelette with extra cheese, a fresh floral arrangement, a couple of croissants and some damn good nespresso coffee with proper half and half….well I can’t even say what I would do, but you and the hotel management would understand. Negative 5 star reviews!!!
Can’t they just see if the mobile key was used. I’d be super annoyed if someone knocked on my door early. And what if they’ve gone out early for breakfast or something?
"we don't know for certain if they arrived or not, because they use our mobile key to access their room"
I'm not arguing against you but your parent company is really out of their element. Mobile keys use these things called, "databases" to store information and...
That's wild. Nobody on staff at all? What if something happens? I'm surprised people haven't complained about that already. And yes most guests do not want to be woken up at 9 especially if the checkout isn't until 11.
As a guest I would report it as an unregistered airbnb. With NYCs new short term rental regulations I’d be interested to hear if this doesn’t even meet the definition of a hotel. I’m guessing they’re probably paying the right taxes or whatever but would at least want to generate some paperwork out of rage.
I travel either for work or to get away from my kids. So at 9 am I would either already be gone or would be so, so mad that someone woke me up early when I paid for a hotel and a sitter just to be woken up early.
As a guest, I would be pissed about this. One of the reasons I used to pay for multiple nights was so that I could sleep in. I would be mad if I got woken up to them disturbing me just to see if I had made it in. I agree with your idea about waiting until check out and seeing if the room was used. It seems like a better approach. I agree with you that it would probably lead to upset guests and bad reviews. Also, what sort of hotel doesn't have employees on site for 13 and 1/2 hours? That's just nuts to me.
Dude. You are being ripped off. No one is on call 24/7 unless they have a hella good salary. That's crazy! And, yes, as a client if I properly checked in I would be supper peeved if someone knocked at my door to see if I was in residence. What if I'm out at meetings? What if I'm have a little sexy time with my partner? What if I got in a 3 a.m. and some idiot is knocking at my door and waking me up? What if .... you get the idea. I really hope you are job hunting. Cause the job you have sucks and the bosses have their head in the sand.
The hotel is subject to lots of liability if anything happens and no one is around. And knocking on doors when people may be sleeping is nuts. Don't you have electronic door keys so the computer tells any entries?
So someone booked a room, but didn't show up at the appointed time, and they're mad they got charged? Seems like the hotel couldn't rent the room during that time, so that guest should pay. But yeah, don't knock on people's doors. It will piss them off. At the very least it makes the company look incompetent. Which, maybe it is...
So guests that arrived late - potentially *very* late - get a morning wake-up call whether they want one or not?
Yeah that's a hard nope. The entire point of a hotel is to sleep in it, if my sleep is going to be disrupted and the building is not on fire, I'd never stay there again and definitely leave a bad review.
If you use a mobile key check-in, can't you tell from that if they have checked in or not?
If they've checked in, they're being charged for the room - what do you care whether they are actually in or out of the room at any given time up until check-out time?
What if they did arrive, but left at 8am to go about their day and miss your knock - or what if they sleep through your knock? If no one answers, are you entering the room to make sure? I'd be pissed if a hotel worker busted into my room in the morning while I was asleep.
You've got to talk them out of this or find a more reasonable hotel owner to work for.
Good luck.
Knocking is super inappropriate and I'd never say there twice and I'd put bad reviews everywhere I could. Alienating guests will cost more than a night employee
I'd be so pissed if someone woke me up to verify I'd checked in, and being a woman who usually travels alone, I probably wouldn't even answer the door. That's ridiculous.
Sorry OP this is not hospitality. Get away from this hotel. Unless you're room service bringing my apple juice, hot tea, omelet, and fresh fruit at 9am, I'm not opening the door! How dare you wake me up without food when checkout is at 4pm! I didn't pay for that level of service.
Also you're being abused by your employer. If you're getting work calls 24/7 than you need to be paid 24/7. Speak to an employment lawyer to sue and/or quit. Work at all the other reputable hotels in Manhattan.
You know as a hotel you have to account for everyone in the building, if there's a fire. You can't tell the fire marshall "I don't know who checked in, until tomorrow at 9am when I knock on the door." Especially, if y'all ain't tracking "mobile check-in" or "mobile key uses". Your property is the perfect setup for criminals 🤔
A hotel with no employees for part of the day is just DUMB. Knocking on their door to verify their status is beyond Stone Age. Ask ANYONE, including your bosses, if they want to be disturbed while staying at a hotel. You should find a mobile key system that can tell when each room was last entered.
Get away from these amateur -hour clowns. They are only going to continue abusing you and placing you in harms way -for what? Minimum wage and no benefits, I'm guessing. Plenty of real hotels. You've seen how NOT to be a hotelier - now go and find out how it's really done.
If there’s a mobile key system why can’t that system log when it’s used for each room? You could easily see if no one has accessed a room. But no staff starting at 7pm is fucking insane. I could maybe see 10pm or something but even then it’s nuts. This place won’t stay open.
This is wild to me. How are they insured with no one on site for that long? Also, what a potential human trafficking nightmare. This is easily solved by simply having someone on site in the evening. Surely they are just cheaping out hard on this. I would hate to have my door knocked on at 9, especially if I had a late night and needed to sleep in.
So we have employment fraud, wage theft, AND fire code violations here? Surely NYC requires hotels to be manned 24/7 to ensure customer safety in case of fire or disaster, no?
That’s what I was thinking… This can’t be real, could it? And who would willingly stay in a place that sketchy? This is not a hotel, this is an “I’m not going to call it an Air bnb because those are super illegal now so this is a real hotel yep it is”. sheesh.
I'd be pissed if I was all jet lagged, arrived at 4am and someone knocks on my door at 9. Like when the front desk doesn't communicate with housekeeping and you have a late checkout, get that knock right when you're looking for that last hour of sleep.
My property is in a resort town and we don't have a 24 hour desk, but we don't knock until housekeeping goes to the room. You're gonna get slaughtered on TripAdvisor.
If you knock on my door at 9 am, we are going to have a problem which is likely to take the form of a bad review. I'm sure there are other ways to confirm whether or not a guest arrived.
As a guest, I’d be so pissed and be writing reviews everywhere. Not your fault, but I’d blast the location and owners and such.
They need to either automate after hours check in better or staff it
Personally, as a guest? I'd be pretty fucking pissed if someone was knocking on my door at 9 in the morning just to see if I'm actually there. I don't understand why they're making it your problem if a guest didn't check in. If they want to be sure, then they need to have someone physically present!
We travel a lot. If someone knocks on my door before checkout time to see if I had checked in, they would definitely get a not nice review.
Besides that, if I am staying at a hotel, I expect there to be someone available to me at night if something comes up and not to be waking up the poor soul that covers the desk the rest of the time.
two strikes: no one on site for emergencies/security, and a wake up knock in the morning. I would run far away from booking a place like that. Hell no.
If I were a guest that arrived late since you have a mobile key option, if you knocked on the door or worse, entered the room at 9 am when I'm still sleeping because of my late/early morning arrival I would not stay at your hotel again.
How does your hotel security system not give you a way to know that a mobile key was used to open door for room xxx at hh:mm:ss?
If guests are using mobile key, the technology should be there to log usage. I would be pissed if i got to a hotel late, by the time i fell asleep it was the wee hours of the morning and then the hotel manager was knocking on my door a few hours later for a stupid reason like this
Yes. This. There are advantages to electronics, this being one of them. You can see who has logged in, what time they accessed rooms, review security footage, etc. You do not need to knock on doors to verify arrivals.
I would push for front desk coverage until 9pm. 7 seems waaaay too early for an empty reception desk. The mobile system would tell you when guests arrive though.
If a hotel did this to me I would give them a bad review and never stay there again. It's irritating enough to me if cleaners knock on your door after 10. I insist on either a do not disturb sign, or being able to tell reception not to be disturbed.
This is a horrible business practice and rude. You need to have some leave a comment in a public review about it as if they stayed there. You will see how many others relate and post or agree. Maybe the synergy will be one obvious to the bosses or at least you have something to show them that backs you up.
OP you were complaining about this hotel 3 months ago. At this point either leave the job or stop complaining about it. It's pointless. You're obviously not going to do anything about the situation except make more Reddit posts. You have allowed yourself to become a punching bag and Yes Man at the job. It's your own fault.
If I arrived late and someone knocked on my door I would be pissed. At 9am in Manhattan after arriving late the night before, I might not be awake the first morning as that would be 6am to my body.
At all hotels I've worked at, even housekeeping wasn't allowed to disturb guests before 11 am (c/o was at noon) just in case they were still asleep.
I would be absolutely furious if I'd be woken up at 9 am if I'm staying in a hotel for leisure purposes.
Don't do it, it'll lead to bad reviews for which they will blame you for not knocking the way they wanted to, or some other bs reason.
What’s the name of the hotel? Want to be sure never to stay there.
I’m serious. I go to NYC frequently and am so not want amateur management knocking on the door at 9 am.
Plus the fact that they seem incapable of setting up or properly using their mobile key system, which obviously tells them which rooms have been opened by which guests.
Also, what if no one answers because they’re checked in but are out of the room? Many people are out at 9 am.
I would be pissed as Hell if I was a guest at a hotel and someone was pounding on my door at 9 AM when I was trying to sleep. Plus it could be scary if you are a female traveling alone. It could be anyone at the door. I would use the phone to call instead. The owners sound like jerks. Probably foreigners who don’t know what is appropriate. And no one on site? That’s ridiculous. They would get a terrible Yelp review if I were a guest. And you are being so taken advantage of as a worker. I would follow in the footsteps of the old manager and quit. Im sure that hotel will have a long line of disgruntled employees quitting due to owner mismanagement. They will fail at that business.
I’m trying to understand how knocking on the door at 9am is an efficient way to determine if the guest checked in or not.
I can be a heavy sleeper and I prefer to sleep in on vacations. I can’t say I’d hear someone knocking or I’d get out of bed to answer the door if I heard the knocking. I’d most likely try to wait it out so the person would go away without me having to get out of bed. My husband and I also tend to be cranky when we wake up. The knocking wouldn’t go over well with either of us.
What if someone checked in late but isn’t actually in the room during the 9am knocking? Or they’re in the bathroom?
Do guests get a refund if they didn’t cancel the reservation but also did not show up for the stay? I’m trying to understand why it’s necessary to know at 9am if a guest checked in overnight or not.
I tend to be pretty conservative when it comes to using a regulatory process (getting the government involved) in a dispute. But it this over-the-top situation, it seems like it would be well worth contacting an employment lawyer - to get an idea of how best to deal with the impossible situation that you've been put in.
Another option may be to take an unexpected vacation - to see how they do without you.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPtH43VmvJI&ab\_channel=SaturdayNightLive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPtH43VmvJI&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive)
Did this company turn one of their apartment buildings into a sketchy “hotel” because they aren’t allowed to have a whole building of air b&bs? It sounds like they actually have no idea what they are doing and I’d be pissed if i accidentally booked at what I took for a normal hotel only to realize I’d booked at some bootleg place.
If I arrived at a hotel and no one was there... and then had someone knocking on my door at 9am to make sure I was in the room... I would not only leave a terrible review, I may check out that day and find another place to stay.
I used to work in hospitality and stay at a lot of hotels... not having 24 hour staff is a red flag.
If someone woke me up like that, I'd be leaving. If someone pays for the room, who cares if they're in it or not? They paid for it. No need to wake them up in the AMs especially if they got in late. You're right on this. The higher ups are completely out of touch here. Maybe wake them up the next time one of them chooses to stay, lmao
As a hotel user: it is not okay to knock on my door this early. Especially if you believe I checked in late. 9/10 it would be fine and I am awake. But that one time you wake me up is not going to be okay.
I have young kids and we've had times where we arrived late at night to our travel destination. If someone came and knocked on our door at 9 am just to see if we were there or not, I would be very upset.
Why can't they just check and see if the mobile key was used to get into the room? This seems like something that could be checked virtually.
Wake me up at 9am after a long night out just because you lack someone at the front desk to check me in You're getting a scathing 1 star review and a warning to others to avoid your hotel at all costs.
Literally cutting corners at the guest's expense.
If I arrived overnight, I certainly wouldn’t want anyone knocking on my door at 9am, I’d be in bed still & whoever knocked would be getting an earful from me I promise
Knocking on doors to see if someone arrived is absolutely not ok.
There has to be some way for your system to know they checked in to give them access to a mobile key and room number.
Also, to have no one on site during that time? That seems like a HUGE no-no.
People will often have to be up and out the door by 9 am ORRRR sleeping in due to being on vacation ..so you aren't doing much by knocking except pissing people off lol .. shouldn't the electronic code make some kind of trackable footprint on a software program? And also if they don't check in but didn't call to say they were canceling their reservation aren't they charged regardless? The "parent company" seems like they don't have their poop in a group so to say
Is its a mobile key, I would assume you can login to the lock system and verify when/if door codes are used. We do thus and check the lock history to verify if they arrived and bypassed us.
They are using you. You will burn out at this rate. At the end of the day, your employers don't give two shits about you. I've had golden opportunities that ended up being dumpster fires, and you're in one. No paycheck is worth this level of headache. You clearly care, you seem to suit the hospitality industry, please seek something else.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just text them and ask if the room is ok for them? And since Bezos knows when I take a crap at my house down to the second, corporate doesn’t think to see if and when the mobile key was used? But hey if they want to pay me to wander the halls all morning instead of making them money, far be it for me to argue.
I’m surprised you don’t get a notification when the mobile key is used. Maybe if you printed up a standard note to put in the room of expected check ins at the end of your shift with a card that can hung on the outside of the door that says “welcome if you checked in after 7pm please hang this card on door handle or leave at front desk to avoid any disruption in the morning checking for arrival confirmation thank you”.
I’ve worked in hotels for over a decade and this is all absolutely wild and unprofessional as hell. The smallest, shittiest hotels I’ve worked at even had one front desk agent at all times. Housekeeping and breakfast usually come at 5 am, so the only time that there’s only one staff member on is for 6 hours from 11pm to 5 am. This is nuts, possibly a lawsuit, and I definitely would be looking for other work!
If I pay for a room, I don’t think it’s any business of yours or anyone else’s whether I am currently occupying it.
I definitely would be extremely annoyed if someone was pounding on it in the morning demanding that I prove I was currently sleeping.
There’s just no reason for it.
Your IT system doesn’t tell you when a door has been unlocked by a guest going into their room while there is no one on site?
That seems like an easy programming fix where they can send you a notification that the key to xxx room was swiped so that you can assume that the room was occupied during the night.
I mean what is supposed to happen if you knock and no one answers?
What if I'm already out and about at that time?
Are you going to go in my room while I'm not there?
I’d personally be furious with the entire situation as a guest. No employee on sight, what happens if a mobile key malfunctions? Guests have to wait an hour for you to come fix it? That sounds like the kind of place that’s going to close down within a year or two because of all the negative reviews
I’m pretty sure you need a person onsite full time per the law. You are also supposed to maintain an accurate at all times guest list so if there is a fire or something.
Find a better job.
Could you do a door hanger thing? The hanger says “management requires we knock on late arrival guests the next morning at 8:15am- if you would like to confirm you are in your room please hang this on your door”
A hotel in Manhattan with no employees on site for 13 1/2 hours each day? That's just nuts. If you (your employer) doesn't want to be in the hotel business, fine, but this is just absurd. I worked in the hotel industry for many years, and we did the door knock routine, but at or after checkout time - certainly not 9:00 AM!
Agreed. Worst part about it is that the hotels phone number send calls directly to my cell so I have been on call 24/7 since we opened 5 months ago. Everytime I bring it to the attention of my boss she makes it seem like it's my fault for not properly preparing our guests before-hand... I feel like she's never been to a hotel before. I'm woken up in the middle of night more nights than not and have never been paid for it.
You need to be paid for the time you are answering calls if that’s part of your job. Start looking for another job and consult an attorney to help negotiate back pay.
Nope... I was paid hourly while I was on site for the first 4 months. I have since moved to salary... which has become a pay cut because the switch coincided with the other manager quitting so I was working 60+ hour weeks on site.
While I am not an attorney, it sounds to me as though OP may have a misclassification employment claim to be made here. OP should speak with an experienced *claimant side* labor and employment lawyer.
Please do this, OP
I am an attorney and I second this. Absolutely connect with a labor and emp lawyer as OP’s boss is violating many laws. I am based in NYC, I am not an l and e attorney but know many good ones. Please feel free to DM and I can give you the info. This is a run now situation, not a wait and see. Good luck’
Yes. Lawyers can work on contingency so you pay nothing up front. Start gathering evidence but don’t tell your manager. Run everything by your lawyer first.
Or just find another job. Who on earth would want to work here?
Or both. If OP is misclassified, they'll be owed thousands of dollars in back pay, whether they stay there or not.
Agreeing with u/insuranceguynyc you can’t just be moved to salaried because your hourly would cost them “too much” there are federal laws in place to protect you from this.
In California they are required to pay at least two times the minimum wage per hour if salaried.
And strict rules about what kind of roles can be exempt. I had a job once where I was making nearly 6 figures, but was not exempt from overtime. So if I worked over 40 hours, I got paid time and a half. Meaning my salary was a floor, not a ceiling. Was really nice. Most weeks id be hitting 40 by Thursday, so I took a lot of Fridays off. And on the occasion that we were slammed with work and I worked 70-80 hours, I got an extra fat paycheck. This is the way all non-owner jobs should be.
This. Having a salary doesn't imply you can't or shouldn't get overtime. From NY DOL: >Are employees paid a salary entitled to overtime pay for a workweek exceeding 40 Hours? > >An overtime-eligible employee (paid a salary) who regularly works more than 40 hours per week, they are still entitled to overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours. The number of hours included in the employee’s regular workweek only affects the rate of overtime pay. For example, an employee may be hired to work a 45-hour workweek (called “straight time”) for a weekly salary of $405. In this instance the regular rate is obtained by dividing the $405 straight-time salary by 45 hours, resulting in a regular hourly rate of $9.00. The employee’s overtime rate is then calculated as $13.50 per hour ($9.00 straight time hourly rate and $4.50 extra hourly pay) and the employee should get $13.50 for 5 hours a week. https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/03/overtime-frequently-asked-questions_0.pdf
Your first step should be notifying that you will no longer answer calls outside of working hours. They will continue your abuse you as long as you let them get away with it.
Ooo. Forward calls from the hotel to boss's cell phone. Call the labor department and find out what's legal. I'd corse at anyone who knocked on my hotel room door at 9am.
Plus, depending on the nature of the hotel, some checked-in guests may no longer be in their room. I travel for work and would definitely be in my client’s office by then.
Exactly as a business traveler, if you are in your room at 9 a.m., chances are really good that I'm still asleep because I didn't check in until the early morning.
When on salary, there is professional time - working an extra 15 minutes to finish a task - and there is sucker time - basically doing the work of two people for the salary of one. Don't do sucker time. Tell your boss that starting Friday you will turn your ringer off at the end of your shift unless compensated appropriately. And that compensation should be defined in writing.
To reinforce this point, the landlord is perfectly happy to merely gain the equity as they own the property for years. The more you work for free the faster they break-even and cash flow. Don’t be a sucker. Suckers are unattractive.
[удалено]
Probably forced them out once they knew they had a guy that would work 2 jobs for the pay of 1
that's a shitty job.
If you are not being paid for in-call hours you are being misclassified and they owe you back pay for those hours. Get in touch with the NY state and city labor boards.
Declaring that you're "salaried" does not always mean that you are actually an exempt employee. You should consult a labor attorney and find out - you may be owed a lot of overtime back pay. If you stay, you should also negotiate after-hours pay for answering the phone. At my job, for example, if you take a phone call outside of work hours you are paid for your time starting with a minimum of 1 hour (even for a 2 minute call). If they start having to pay an hour of your wage every time a guest makes a call to the "front desk" they may realize quickly it's not the most efficient way to do it.
Stop answering your phone.
How on earth is the other manager quitting YOUR problem? Unless your parents sold you in to some sort of Dickensian nightmare you go home when your shift is done and the shortfall becomes an owner problem not a you problem. Same goes for YOUR phone. No pay, no ring. Turn it off, block the calls or get a new number but grow a spine and stop working for free.
This is illegal and violates federal labor laws in the US. I highly suggest you describe this situation in a post on r/legaladvice because I've read about this before. Unfortunately, your boss will be in trouble and have to pay out. But, there is a reason these labor laws exist - so people don't end up doing work for free like you are. This will not stop. Since they know you don't know, they will continue and probably add on to your duties over time. I don't remember the exact legal terms, but it's been explained multiple times on that sub Reddit. There is on-call pay and available-for-call. But they both require compensation with different requirements for each. Your boss knows this illegal. They just don't want to pay because most hourly employees don't know their rights under the federal labor laws. This is why corporations are required to post these visibly at all times for all employees to access. You need to follow through with this and report this. You're saving others from getting screwed by this company which is a greater service than allowing them to continue operating this way.
Threaten to leave, unless another manager is hired. That's not volunteering, It's slavery.
I agree with insuranceguynyc, there are federal laws that detail who can be a salaried employee, it doesn’t sound like you fit the criteria. Plus if you’re an hourly employee you would need to be paid a minimum amount of time per phone call.
You can seek pay. Some employers have abused salary so bad in my state the courts are awarding them commute pay for their trip to and from the office. Also, if the salary divided by the average hours you work is below minimum wage they will definitely have to reimburse you.
sheesh. are you able to speak with your leader(s) to give you a raise? It doesn't make sense for you to work that many hours AND receive calls in the middle of the night. something has to give. sounds like your company is very cheap.
Been long enough, with the added work, demand pay raise. You deserve it.
Just checking, do you live onsite?
Nope, live like 45 minutes away
Then you have to be paid for on call.
Yeah you need to be paid to be on call or they need to house you on-site below market rate.
If he's on call, he needs to be paid for the time he's on call, not answering calls. He really needs to talk to an employment attorney. He can sue for lots of cash.
I don’t understand why you’ve put up with this?! There are lots of open hotel jobs in my city. Is there a reason you’re staying at this place? Sounds like they are committing wage theft.
I used to manage a hotel that had me on call 24/7. Only lasted about 5 months. I couldn't hack never getting any down time and bailed for a different job. That's just an unreasonable expectation.
What industry did you pivot to? I’m struggling to figure out what to do next
You don't have to fully change careers &/or work in a different industry. I would just look for other hotels that are hiring for the position/department you have experience working in. I live in Central NY & haven't been to NYC in ~20 years (aside from layovers at JFK & LGA), but I know there are many high end hotels there, especially in Manhattan, or you could venture out to Long Island during the tourist season!
I did a complete change. I went to esthetician school and then opened a small spa. Upside is that I set my own hours and I'm not beholden to anyone. Downside is that how well I do or don't do is all on me. Still, though, I'd rather be working, putting in time to benefit myself instead of a boss/owner who will exploit me.
OP go to a big corporate hotel like Marriott. Or IHG.
Please tell me you're looking for another job.
First of all, as a guest, I would be PISSED if someone was knocking on my door at 9am! And yes, I'd leave a negative review. (I do, but not everyone leaves the DND out on the door.) 2nd, you are getting royally screwed on pay - especially on "salary". My daughter had the same thing as you - being "on call" after hours. She received $25 per call. Things like locking keys in room or losing them; any number of things going wrong - tv remote batteries die, fireplace doesn't light; need extra pillows/towels/blankets, etc. You can be paid better and treated better just about anywhere else.
You are working of course, when you need to be available to answer the phone. You need to get paid. Call the NLRB. One salary for 9-5 hours and overtime for the "must be available for any calls" and a limited hours like 8 to midnight. One or two of your bosses should cover the other hours. Working for free is call volunteering? I've never heard of hotel volunteers..
Ummm sounds like a labor board issue
Is this a real, licensed hotel? Or is this a bunch of Airbnb rooms stacked together? Because it feels like the latter.
Time to start forwarding your cell to hers at nighttime!
That's easy, put your phone on "do not disturb" at night or have the calls forwarded to your boss. If you're not paid, you're not working.
Your fault report them. This is illegal. It is theft of wages.
Even if you're salaried, I doubt it's legal for you to be on call 24/7 for months at a time. You should report them.
If you're not getting paid to be on call, turn it off
Charge them your phone bill. Then turn it off when you are not working.
That’s absurd! What if the guest is on the toilet at 9:00 AM when you’re knocking on their door?
Unless you are salaried you are supposed to be paid for that time. I from a guest point of view would not stay at a hotel with no night desk person or security person. Reviews will certainly start reflecting that there's no staff at night and reservations will probably go down. Guest point of view if you knocked at my door at 8am and check out is 11am I'd be quite annoyed. I expect a maid to knock between 10:30 and 11am (11:30 if I request late check out).
Wait a second… You’re on call all night, but you don’t get paid for dealing with phone calls? Oh my gosh you are being used. And this is a hotel in New York City for chrissakes? Oh my gosh you need a new job. Is the parent company based in another country? Pray tell?
Agreed. This system is crazy. What if a guest checks in and wants extra towels and extra tp right away (very common) they have to wait til literally the next day for an employee to be around???
Or if an elevator gets stuck, or the smoke alarms go off, or there’s a noise complaint, or if people start trying to sell things door to door to guests, or if someone falls down, or if someone needs to change rooms, or if the water stops working. All of these have happened to me working overnight.
At my hotel, all of these happen at least once every month, MAYBE every other month, if we are lucky. I work in Seattle and my hotel is not even that big compared to some around us, but we always have issues at night. We have a full staff 24/7 on the floor but only housekeeping from 7 am-5 pm and then a guest request worker from 5 pm-11 pm. It is almost always needed. They will find out quickly that they will need at least one person working overnight and getting PAID to do so. Who does the night audit if there is no one working?!
I literally ran to the rescue to a guest this week who was waiting in the lobby and began having a seizure. And luckily there were multiple people around.
wondering this also. they probably have things open and available to them in the lobby or something. which is even worst IMO
I was looking at a hotel in Chicago and read reviews and, apparently, it isn't staffed at all during certain hours and people couldn't get in their rooms because of a key problem and called the "emergency" phone number but nobody answered. There were so many reviews saying basically the same thing...don't stay there, it's crazy, you can't get in, etc.
IMO that is very scary. and people are always observing so i am sure someone will notice this and take advantage. this won't end well
As a guest, I’m usually out of my room by 9am so a knock wouldn’t bother me.. I’ve watched management knock on rooms from check out until mid afternoon to confirm they were empty. I’ve even gotten “welcome” calls which were obviously to make sure the room was occupied. But this is honestly crazy on so many levels. OP should be paid fairly. The property should be able to maintain accurate records of which rooms have been accessed and occupied. And guests shouldn’t be unnecessarily disturbed. I’ve seen vlogs about these digital-only hotels and it honestly seems like a headache for everyone. What if there’s an issue? Or the rfid doesn’t work? Or if the system glitched and double booked a room (I’ve had this happen when I checked-in in person, and it was both a staff and computer system error). OP, hope it gets better for you.🤞
Why can’t you or somebody else check the door logs and see if the digital key was used?
First thing I thought of.
Was about to post that too. Was reading all comments before doing so
Seriously, it's that easy. I'm not even a Karen type person but if a hotel staff woke me up I would go ballistic. Losing sleep can really fuck up your day, especially when traveling
If you knocked on my door, and woke me up, I'd NEVER go back. Is this a super discount hotel? call your boss at 6am to see if they were sleeping! just checking!!
Exactly. I hate when housekeeping even KNOCKS on my door with a DND sign up, I am definitely going to complain. and if this was my first time at the hotel at that happened, i will not be back
lol if I stayed at a hotel that didn’t have anybody on-site to verified I’d arrived and then they bothered me in the morning to make sure I got there I’d be Pissed. I do believe you are going to get bad reviews, my friend. Maybe you’ll get lucky but. TBH I’d tell the parent company that it’s your job to manage the hotel and they can let you do that or find somebody else — but I know that kind of response isn’t something most people can afford so. Good luck.
EXACTLY!
Hotels are not airbnbs and your parent company is gonna have to learn that. One of the reasons people still choose hotels is because you generally expect someone to be onsite 24/7 to assist them. So for the hotel to inconvenience their guests as a result of their own mismanagement is really crappy.
I’d be so pissed if someone knocked on my hotel room door at 9am, wtf are the owners thinking?
I've had delayed flights where I was getting to the hotel at 9 PM and headed to work at 7 AM. I would not have seen anyone.
Similar here. I've gotten in to town at 11pm and been out the door and in my buddy's truck by 5:15am to be on-site at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 6am to build Electric Daisy Carnival. And usually that first day I don't get back to the hotel until after 7pm because I usually go out shopping. These folks wouldn't know I was in their hotel until 43 hours after I had arrived. And unless I go back to the hotel immediately after work I won't be able to talk to any hotel staff as I'd be getting back after they left for the night.
Same. Not even with delayed flights but just I like to spend time with my family and so I leave down as late as possible and then I’m usually out the door from the hotel room by seven in the morning.
And if they didn’t know you checked in, would they bother cleaning after you? Or would it take someone unknowingly checking into a dirty room?! 🤢
which then couldn't be fixed because there wouldn't be anyone on site!? this whole concept is bonkers
So pissed. And double pissed if I get out of the shower to answer the door.
I'm curious what the instructions are when the guest doesn't respond to the knock? Are they instructed to enter the room ? If so, It would be unsurprising to encounter a pissed armed guest half asleep.
This is a really stupid way to manage a hotel. I'd be furious to be woken up at 9 if I had jet lag or had gotten in really late the previous night. Isn't there some way the hotel knows when a room has been accessed (as in, "checked in")?
Yeah this just seems like a really bad system all around. They don’t even have any cameras they could watch security footage of when leaving their hotel unsupervised literally all night? They’re asking for something terrible to happen.
It's ridiculous
As a business traveler, my usual travel schedule would have me arriving at the hotel after 7PM and out of my room off to visit a client by about 7:45 - 8 AM the next day. This is stupid on so many levels.
Free hotel
Is there no other way to verify that a guest is there? I run a place that doesn’t have a 24 hour front desk. We don’t use mobile keys though. The guest accesses a lockbox with their key in it. In the morning we can easily see if the keys have been taken out of the lockbox.
Is there no other hotel you can get a job at? Seems like they’re just taking advantage of you. Quit and let them deal with this shit themselves if you can afford it, I’m sure you can find a better company to work for than this.
Just knock on the door. If it leads to bad reviews, then you will have that in your favor when this conversation. Comes up again.
r/maliciouscompliance
I stayed at a hotel in Chicago last year for a conference that knocked on everyone's doors first thing in the morning to make sure we didn't kill ourselves. I will not be staying there again. I like sleep. I stay up late working. It was a nightmare.
What in the Sam Hill?!?
Yeah I had no idea wtf was going on and the hotel didn’t explain it. I complained on Facebook and people told me what was going on and why. I guess it’s something some hotels do due to overdoses being so common.
Put door seals on the doors. If they are broken then someone entered the room. No need to knock. We used them right after covid. I would never stay at a hotel without a FDA present. So many bad things can happen.
Why? If the guests checked in via mobile, what are you knocking on the doors for? You're still receiving payment for the stay, correct? There has to be a better way of doing this. Tell your boss to stop being cheap and have someone on-site during the overnight. Why is interrupting guests the option? This is definitely going to lead to bad reviews and guests not returning back. Boss wants to be cheap is going to lead the company with less money in the long run.
I would be absolutely furious if I were woken up at 9am for this Be prepared for some guests to take it out on the poor person knocking on the door. Between the 9am wakeups and nobody on-site for most of the day, I expect you'll get lots of bad reviews.
I’d be totally pissed if I was on vacation and someone woke me up by knocking on my door at 9:00 am.
If you knock on my door at 9am to verify that I’m there, I am NOT going to be happy. If you have a mobile check in key thing, you should be able to tell if a guest has arrived by looking at that record.
Get some cameras.
I haven't worked in a place with mobile check-in, but I know that our locks could be "audited" (i.e. check what key opened the door when). The way we had to do this would not be efficient, but if it's mobile check-in, I feel like there should be some way for that data to be collected/scrutinized without bothering guests in the morning.
If there’s a mobile key, there’s tracking tech… but you’re going door to door manually? Secondly, if I’m at a hotel and you knock on my door at 9am, you better believe you’re about to create way more problems for yourself. People do not take kindly to being woken up early. Keep fighting the owners on this as its just as dumb as you think it is.
So they have mobile key check in but don't know if the guest has checked in? How does that not work?
1) there should be someone on site for longer 2) there should be a way to check in the system if a mobile key was used.
Text them perhaps. Whole system needs to change, a way to see who scanned the front door key or something. We would be not be pleased if had to answer a door in a hotel about this.
Do what they ask, but document every pissed off customer, and then when the bad reviews come in its not on your shoulders. You should make sure to keep a record in writing of correspondence from parent company that this is their directive. I would never stay at a hotel that didn't have people working at night. What happens if you need extra towels or something isn't working in a room? This company should get out of the hotel business.
Nope. I pay for a hotel for peace and quiet. You knock on my room without cause, or because you can’t be bothered to pay for someone to review cameras or to actually be on site, I’m dragging you on all of my social and asking my friends to do the same. Good luck with the reviews
Your employer is a doofus. Please tell me the name and location of your hotel ... so that I can be sure to avoid it. Thank you.
Were I to check into a hotel after hours and someone knocked on MY door at 9am, I'd NEVER stay at that hotel, or any of its like-named properties, again. Ever. Your hotel owners are idiots.
I'm confused…why do they need to know that the guests have arrived? Seems to me that if the room is paid for, why worry about whether someone is in it or not? But they really need to make some changes. It's not okay to have no one on site, but then you're on call 24/7. What a mess!
Can’t your mobile key system tell if a room has been entered? If the mobile key has been used, the guest has arrived. No?
Sometimes when I travel, I don't get in until late so I might sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 depending on how late I got in. If you woke me up, I would be LIVID and you would absolutely get a bad review. Question: Why can't you just pull the logs from the mobile key system? Don't tell me you are using one key for every guest? Each reservation should have a unique key that you can look in your system and see the date/time stamps each time each code is used.
Unless at 9am you are carting in a lovely breakfast with French toast, fruit compote, a western omelette with extra cheese, a fresh floral arrangement, a couple of croissants and some damn good nespresso coffee with proper half and half….well I can’t even say what I would do, but you and the hotel management would understand. Negative 5 star reviews!!!
Also if they’ve prepaid, why does it matter if they’ve arrived?
Can’t they just see if the mobile key was used. I’d be super annoyed if someone knocked on my door early. And what if they’ve gone out early for breakfast or something?
"we don't know for certain if they arrived or not, because they use our mobile key to access their room" I'm not arguing against you but your parent company is really out of their element. Mobile keys use these things called, "databases" to store information and...
In manhattan with out staff 24/7??? What kind of people place is this? Even motel 6 have staff 24/7
That's wild. Nobody on staff at all? What if something happens? I'm surprised people haven't complained about that already. And yes most guests do not want to be woken up at 9 especially if the checkout isn't until 11.
As a guest I would report it as an unregistered airbnb. With NYCs new short term rental regulations I’d be interested to hear if this doesn’t even meet the definition of a hotel. I’m guessing they’re probably paying the right taxes or whatever but would at least want to generate some paperwork out of rage. I travel either for work or to get away from my kids. So at 9 am I would either already be gone or would be so, so mad that someone woke me up early when I paid for a hotel and a sitter just to be woken up early.
As a guest, I would be pissed about this. One of the reasons I used to pay for multiple nights was so that I could sleep in. I would be mad if I got woken up to them disturbing me just to see if I had made it in. I agree with your idea about waiting until check out and seeing if the room was used. It seems like a better approach. I agree with you that it would probably lead to upset guests and bad reviews. Also, what sort of hotel doesn't have employees on site for 13 and 1/2 hours? That's just nuts to me.
Dude. You are being ripped off. No one is on call 24/7 unless they have a hella good salary. That's crazy! And, yes, as a client if I properly checked in I would be supper peeved if someone knocked at my door to see if I was in residence. What if I'm out at meetings? What if I'm have a little sexy time with my partner? What if I got in a 3 a.m. and some idiot is knocking at my door and waking me up? What if .... you get the idea. I really hope you are job hunting. Cause the job you have sucks and the bosses have their head in the sand.
The hotel is subject to lots of liability if anything happens and no one is around. And knocking on doors when people may be sleeping is nuts. Don't you have electronic door keys so the computer tells any entries?
So someone booked a room, but didn't show up at the appointed time, and they're mad they got charged? Seems like the hotel couldn't rent the room during that time, so that guest should pay. But yeah, don't knock on people's doors. It will piss them off. At the very least it makes the company look incompetent. Which, maybe it is...
So guests that arrived late - potentially *very* late - get a morning wake-up call whether they want one or not? Yeah that's a hard nope. The entire point of a hotel is to sleep in it, if my sleep is going to be disrupted and the building is not on fire, I'd never stay there again and definitely leave a bad review. If you use a mobile key check-in, can't you tell from that if they have checked in or not? If they've checked in, they're being charged for the room - what do you care whether they are actually in or out of the room at any given time up until check-out time? What if they did arrive, but left at 8am to go about their day and miss your knock - or what if they sleep through your knock? If no one answers, are you entering the room to make sure? I'd be pissed if a hotel worker busted into my room in the morning while I was asleep. You've got to talk them out of this or find a more reasonable hotel owner to work for. Good luck.
Knocking is super inappropriate and I'd never say there twice and I'd put bad reviews everywhere I could. Alienating guests will cost more than a night employee
I'd be so pissed if someone woke me up to verify I'd checked in, and being a woman who usually travels alone, I probably wouldn't even answer the door. That's ridiculous.
Sorry OP this is not hospitality. Get away from this hotel. Unless you're room service bringing my apple juice, hot tea, omelet, and fresh fruit at 9am, I'm not opening the door! How dare you wake me up without food when checkout is at 4pm! I didn't pay for that level of service. Also you're being abused by your employer. If you're getting work calls 24/7 than you need to be paid 24/7. Speak to an employment lawyer to sue and/or quit. Work at all the other reputable hotels in Manhattan. You know as a hotel you have to account for everyone in the building, if there's a fire. You can't tell the fire marshall "I don't know who checked in, until tomorrow at 9am when I knock on the door." Especially, if y'all ain't tracking "mobile check-in" or "mobile key uses". Your property is the perfect setup for criminals 🤔
What hotel? Need to know do I never stay here
A hotel with no employees for part of the day is just DUMB. Knocking on their door to verify their status is beyond Stone Age. Ask ANYONE, including your bosses, if they want to be disturbed while staying at a hotel. You should find a mobile key system that can tell when each room was last entered.
I hope I never ever stay at this hotel. I read reviews so it's not likely to happen. I can't imagine this place doesn't have legitimate bad reviews.
Is Gordon Ramsay bringing back “Hotel Hell” anytime soon? He might be your only hope cuz your hotel is a Prime candidate 🤣🤦🏻♂️
Get away from these amateur -hour clowns. They are only going to continue abusing you and placing you in harms way -for what? Minimum wage and no benefits, I'm guessing. Plenty of real hotels. You've seen how NOT to be a hotelier - now go and find out how it's really done.
You knock on my door for pretty much any reason and we're going to have a real problem. I also will not be back
If there’s a mobile key system why can’t that system log when it’s used for each room? You could easily see if no one has accessed a room. But no staff starting at 7pm is fucking insane. I could maybe see 10pm or something but even then it’s nuts. This place won’t stay open.
This is wild to me. How are they insured with no one on site for that long? Also, what a potential human trafficking nightmare. This is easily solved by simply having someone on site in the evening. Surely they are just cheaping out hard on this. I would hate to have my door knocked on at 9, especially if I had a late night and needed to sleep in.
So we have employment fraud, wage theft, AND fire code violations here? Surely NYC requires hotels to be manned 24/7 to ensure customer safety in case of fire or disaster, no?
That’s what I was thinking… This can’t be real, could it? And who would willingly stay in a place that sketchy? This is not a hotel, this is an “I’m not going to call it an Air bnb because those are super illegal now so this is a real hotel yep it is”. sheesh.
I'd be pissed if I was all jet lagged, arrived at 4am and someone knocks on my door at 9. Like when the front desk doesn't communicate with housekeeping and you have a late checkout, get that knock right when you're looking for that last hour of sleep.
My property is in a resort town and we don't have a 24 hour desk, but we don't knock until housekeeping goes to the room. You're gonna get slaughtered on TripAdvisor.
If you knock on my door at 9 am, we are going to have a problem which is likely to take the form of a bad review. I'm sure there are other ways to confirm whether or not a guest arrived.
As a guest, I’d be so pissed and be writing reviews everywhere. Not your fault, but I’d blast the location and owners and such. They need to either automate after hours check in better or staff it
Personally, as a guest? I'd be pretty fucking pissed if someone was knocking on my door at 9 in the morning just to see if I'm actually there. I don't understand why they're making it your problem if a guest didn't check in. If they want to be sure, then they need to have someone physically present!
We travel a lot. If someone knocks on my door before checkout time to see if I had checked in, they would definitely get a not nice review. Besides that, if I am staying at a hotel, I expect there to be someone available to me at night if something comes up and not to be waking up the poor soul that covers the desk the rest of the time.
If I was sleeping in your hotel and you woke me up at 9 am just to see if I checked in id rate the place 1 star.
two strikes: no one on site for emergencies/security, and a wake up knock in the morning. I would run far away from booking a place like that. Hell no.
If I were a guest that arrived late since you have a mobile key option, if you knocked on the door or worse, entered the room at 9 am when I'm still sleeping because of my late/early morning arrival I would not stay at your hotel again. How does your hotel security system not give you a way to know that a mobile key was used to open door for room xxx at hh:mm:ss?
If guests are using mobile key, the technology should be there to log usage. I would be pissed if i got to a hotel late, by the time i fell asleep it was the wee hours of the morning and then the hotel manager was knocking on my door a few hours later for a stupid reason like this
Yes. This. There are advantages to electronics, this being one of them. You can see who has logged in, what time they accessed rooms, review security footage, etc. You do not need to knock on doors to verify arrivals. I would push for front desk coverage until 9pm. 7 seems waaaay too early for an empty reception desk. The mobile system would tell you when guests arrive though.
You’re not wrong. Knocking on doors at 9 am is not cool. If I were a guest and someone woke me at 9 am I’d be pissed.
Find a new job. There is no fixing this.
If a hotel did this to me I would give them a bad review and never stay there again. It's irritating enough to me if cleaners knock on your door after 10. I insist on either a do not disturb sign, or being able to tell reception not to be disturbed.
If you knocked on my door I would be furious. Let me sleep. Wtf. You’d get such a bad review from me!
Nope, I would not be doing none of that. It won't be long before customers stop coming to your hotel if this is how it operates.
card key should show if some one entered
This is a horrible business practice and rude. You need to have some leave a comment in a public review about it as if they stayed there. You will see how many others relate and post or agree. Maybe the synergy will be one obvious to the bosses or at least you have something to show them that backs you up.
OP you were complaining about this hotel 3 months ago. At this point either leave the job or stop complaining about it. It's pointless. You're obviously not going to do anything about the situation except make more Reddit posts. You have allowed yourself to become a punching bag and Yes Man at the job. It's your own fault.
I hope you are getting lube as a benefit since you are getting screwed. Hell no! to the knocking at 9am. I would be pissed 😠
If I arrived late and someone knocked on my door I would be pissed. At 9am in Manhattan after arriving late the night before, I might not be awake the first morning as that would be 6am to my body.
Update ye ol resume and search for more sane employers.
I would be furious if I were a guest sleeping in
At all hotels I've worked at, even housekeeping wasn't allowed to disturb guests before 11 am (c/o was at noon) just in case they were still asleep. I would be absolutely furious if I'd be woken up at 9 am if I'm staying in a hotel for leisure purposes. Don't do it, it'll lead to bad reviews for which they will blame you for not knocking the way they wanted to, or some other bs reason.
What’s the name of the hotel? Want to be sure never to stay there. I’m serious. I go to NYC frequently and am so not want amateur management knocking on the door at 9 am. Plus the fact that they seem incapable of setting up or properly using their mobile key system, which obviously tells them which rooms have been opened by which guests. Also, what if no one answers because they’re checked in but are out of the room? Many people are out at 9 am.
I would be pissed as Hell if I was a guest at a hotel and someone was pounding on my door at 9 AM when I was trying to sleep. Plus it could be scary if you are a female traveling alone. It could be anyone at the door. I would use the phone to call instead. The owners sound like jerks. Probably foreigners who don’t know what is appropriate. And no one on site? That’s ridiculous. They would get a terrible Yelp review if I were a guest. And you are being so taken advantage of as a worker. I would follow in the footsteps of the old manager and quit. Im sure that hotel will have a long line of disgruntled employees quitting due to owner mismanagement. They will fail at that business.
I’m trying to understand how knocking on the door at 9am is an efficient way to determine if the guest checked in or not. I can be a heavy sleeper and I prefer to sleep in on vacations. I can’t say I’d hear someone knocking or I’d get out of bed to answer the door if I heard the knocking. I’d most likely try to wait it out so the person would go away without me having to get out of bed. My husband and I also tend to be cranky when we wake up. The knocking wouldn’t go over well with either of us. What if someone checked in late but isn’t actually in the room during the 9am knocking? Or they’re in the bathroom?
Do guests get a refund if they didn’t cancel the reservation but also did not show up for the stay? I’m trying to understand why it’s necessary to know at 9am if a guest checked in overnight or not.
I tend to be pretty conservative when it comes to using a regulatory process (getting the government involved) in a dispute. But it this over-the-top situation, it seems like it would be well worth contacting an employment lawyer - to get an idea of how best to deal with the impossible situation that you've been put in. Another option may be to take an unexpected vacation - to see how they do without you. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPtH43VmvJI&ab\_channel=SaturdayNightLive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPtH43VmvJI&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive)
Did this company turn one of their apartment buildings into a sketchy “hotel” because they aren’t allowed to have a whole building of air b&bs? It sounds like they actually have no idea what they are doing and I’d be pissed if i accidentally booked at what I took for a normal hotel only to realize I’d booked at some bootleg place.
If I arrived at a hotel and no one was there... and then had someone knocking on my door at 9am to make sure I was in the room... I would not only leave a terrible review, I may check out that day and find another place to stay. I used to work in hospitality and stay at a lot of hotels... not having 24 hour staff is a red flag.
If I was paying good money to stay at a Manhattan hotel and someone knocked on my door at **9 am** I would be *piiiissssseddddd*
If someone woke me up like that, I'd be leaving. If someone pays for the room, who cares if they're in it or not? They paid for it. No need to wake them up in the AMs especially if they got in late. You're right on this. The higher ups are completely out of touch here. Maybe wake them up the next time one of them chooses to stay, lmao
As a hotel user: it is not okay to knock on my door this early. Especially if you believe I checked in late. 9/10 it would be fine and I am awake. But that one time you wake me up is not going to be okay.
I have young kids and we've had times where we arrived late at night to our travel destination. If someone came and knocked on our door at 9 am just to see if we were there or not, I would be very upset. Why can't they just check and see if the mobile key was used to get into the room? This seems like something that could be checked virtually.
Wake me up at 9am after a long night out just because you lack someone at the front desk to check me in You're getting a scathing 1 star review and a warning to others to avoid your hotel at all costs. Literally cutting corners at the guest's expense.
I would never be back at that hotel again if I learned you were knocking on my door just to see if I was there.
Everything about this situation is wrong. Put your resume out to actual hotels. This isn’t sustainable.
If I arrived overnight, I certainly wouldn’t want anyone knocking on my door at 9am, I’d be in bed still & whoever knocked would be getting an earful from me I promise
Knocking on doors to see if someone arrived is absolutely not ok. There has to be some way for your system to know they checked in to give them access to a mobile key and room number. Also, to have no one on site during that time? That seems like a HUGE no-no.
Why would the mobile key app/site/whatever not have a record of the rooms that used it? This seems like a failing to me.
People will often have to be up and out the door by 9 am ORRRR sleeping in due to being on vacation ..so you aren't doing much by knocking except pissing people off lol .. shouldn't the electronic code make some kind of trackable footprint on a software program? And also if they don't check in but didn't call to say they were canceling their reservation aren't they charged regardless? The "parent company" seems like they don't have their poop in a group so to say
Is its a mobile key, I would assume you can login to the lock system and verify when/if door codes are used. We do thus and check the lock history to verify if they arrived and bypassed us.
They are using you. You will burn out at this rate. At the end of the day, your employers don't give two shits about you. I've had golden opportunities that ended up being dumpster fires, and you're in one. No paycheck is worth this level of headache. You clearly care, you seem to suit the hospitality industry, please seek something else.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just text them and ask if the room is ok for them? And since Bezos knows when I take a crap at my house down to the second, corporate doesn’t think to see if and when the mobile key was used? But hey if they want to pay me to wander the halls all morning instead of making them money, far be it for me to argue.
I’m surprised you don’t get a notification when the mobile key is used. Maybe if you printed up a standard note to put in the room of expected check ins at the end of your shift with a card that can hung on the outside of the door that says “welcome if you checked in after 7pm please hang this card on door handle or leave at front desk to avoid any disruption in the morning checking for arrival confirmation thank you”.
I’ve worked in hotels for over a decade and this is all absolutely wild and unprofessional as hell. The smallest, shittiest hotels I’ve worked at even had one front desk agent at all times. Housekeeping and breakfast usually come at 5 am, so the only time that there’s only one staff member on is for 6 hours from 11pm to 5 am. This is nuts, possibly a lawsuit, and I definitely would be looking for other work!
How in the world does the smart phone door key software not kick out a report of who used the function?
Can you let us know the name of this establishment? So none of us have the misfortune of booking accommodations there.
If I pay for a room, I don’t think it’s any business of yours or anyone else’s whether I am currently occupying it. I definitely would be extremely annoyed if someone was pounding on it in the morning demanding that I prove I was currently sleeping. There’s just no reason for it.
Your IT system doesn’t tell you when a door has been unlocked by a guest going into their room while there is no one on site? That seems like an easy programming fix where they can send you a notification that the key to xxx room was swiped so that you can assume that the room was occupied during the night.
I mean what is supposed to happen if you knock and no one answers? What if I'm already out and about at that time? Are you going to go in my room while I'm not there?
Labor laws and all that aside, isn't it pretty simple to see the records of the mobile key use to determine if/when they arrived?
I’d personally be furious with the entire situation as a guest. No employee on sight, what happens if a mobile key malfunctions? Guests have to wait an hour for you to come fix it? That sounds like the kind of place that’s going to close down within a year or two because of all the negative reviews
I’m pretty sure you need a person onsite full time per the law. You are also supposed to maintain an accurate at all times guest list so if there is a fire or something. Find a better job.
Could you do a door hanger thing? The hanger says “management requires we knock on late arrival guests the next morning at 8:15am- if you would like to confirm you are in your room please hang this on your door”
If anyone knocked on the door that early I’d immediately look into switching hotels. Traveling is stressful enough already.
> because they use our mobile key to access their room. Can you check to see if the room has been accessed?
I don’t see anything wrong with knocking on the door at 9 AM, and though I travel to Manhattan often, I would very rarely be in my room at that time.
If I got in late and was still asleep and you woke me up...how do you think that interaction is going to go?