Heh. Thank you for accepting this face-saving lie.
Well, probably, anyway. Most likely it was a matter of one guest changing rooms, and the clerk forgetting to change it in the system. It’s possible that the guest got a card keyed to the wrong room - but that kind of assumes he went to the right room, found the key didn’t work, and then wandered around until he found a room he could get into. Possible - some folks are weird about going to the desk with problems.
We’ve still got the old-fashioned metal keys, but this is one of the very few hotels I’ve worked at/stayed at over the last twenty years that does. Changing over to keycards is on the to-do list, but pretty low on the list; it’s costly, and the hard metal works well enough.
We also do the ‘hang up the towels if you don’t need them washed’. Since we use a linen service, I’m not sure if it makes much difference in our costs - I don’t know how they bill us.
All rooms, by the way, are nonsmoking - I believe that it’s the law in Victoria.
My suspicion is that the driver for this was costcutting, and an excuse was built around that priority. The message left in the room explaining all this suggests it was the other way around. You are given the impresssion that there was a Damascene conversion on the part of the hotel owners to the green way of doing things, and they are bravely asking you to go with them on that heroic journey.
There’s also the guy taking your bags asking if you need a lady for the night. One guy bringing me up the beer I’d ordered in a hotel in Loei province asked, not realizing – not caring? – I had a wife in the bathroom.
But that pales in comparison with hotels in China. They are notorious for continuously ringing up single male guests with offers of “massage” services. I’ve heard of guys finally unplugging the phone just to have some peace. The wife and I were in a hotel in Shanghai once when the phone rang one night, and a very LOUD girl was on the line trying to speak English, and I mean LOUD. Conversation:
She: YOU … WANT … MASSAGE?
Me: Um, no thanks, I think my wife can give me a massage.
She: OH … OKAY … HEHEHE.
Every hotel I stayed in in Tibet, and many in China, had a laminated wood TV/lighting console between the single beds. Even if there was no TV. Even in the Farmer’s Liberation Hotel which was a falling-down pile in the middle of absolutely nowhere between Shigadze and Tingri, with no heating, lighting or sanitation, the toilet for which was a keyhole-shaped slot in a concrete floor in a room across the courtyard that just dropped into the room below. Even that hotel had them.
And even when there was electricity and TV, the console was never connected. I guess it must be a centrally-mandated thing for government hotels, like the 5 clocks in every hotel lobby, none of which ever work.
And the same thing happened to me at a hotel in Guanajuato, except it was my wife and me intruding on a couple in bed. Clothed. With their kids sitting on the other bed. The hotel didn’t blame IT, but it was either an IT (booking) snafu, or someone assigning rooms for cash under the table.
In Islamic countries there is usually an arrow indicating the direction of Mecca. Also there is often a prayer rug and small piece of pottery-like clay which some people use when touching their head to the ground.
It’s so an observant Jew doesn’t press a button on the Sabbath. Pressing the button creates an electrical circuit, which is close enough to a fire to be considered an act of creation, and therefore forbidden on the Sabbath.
Orthodox Jews often also use ovens and lights that flip on and off by themselves, to avoid flipping switches, which violates the ban on working on the Sabbath. They also sometimes get a “Sabbath goy,” a non-Jew who will do that stuff for them.
Nope. Time for bed. ETA: unless life or limb is at risk. If life or limb is at risk, you’re not only allowed, but you MUST break the Sabbath to deal with it.
Or, if you live in Chicago, go outside and find a *goy *to come light them for you.
I actually did help an Orthodox couple once, whose baby was being discharged from the NICU at about 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. They raced like crazy to get everything done in time, but missed a few items in their rush. They got home okay, but their baby’s blanket, pacifier and a bag full of medical supplies were left behind. I drove over to their place with the stuff, and they were so grateful. Then they asked me if I minded plugging in and turning on the baby monitor - first night home from the hospital and they’d panicked when they realized they’d forgotten to set it up before sunset! It wasn’t a lifethreatening emergency, so they couldn’t break Sabbath to do it, but since I showed up, literally, on their doorstep… I was happy to do it, and got some yummy cookies and an extra baby snuggle for my trouble.
I remember spending a weekend in one of the cheapest hotels in town with my girlfriend. The bathtub took an hour to drain, it was a dump. But it did have a very good selection of Buddhist scripture in the drawer next to the Bible and take-out ads.
It was more alien to my mind that they had to buy everything they needed for their baby on the way home. At 4:30 on a Friday. And be home before sunset.
Apparently, Orthodox Jews buy NOTHING for the baby during the pregnancy. It all has to be obtained after the birth. *That *boggled my mind. The living room was stuffed to the gills with ripped open boxes and bags so they could at least clothe and change the babe until Saturday night. They couldn’t cut or rip open the boxes after sunset (that’s an act of destruction, also forbidden), but they could go into an open box to retrieve an item as they needed to.
I should note that this level of orthodoxy is unusual. Not so much that it’s all that uncommon - you’ll find plenty of folks like this in most large American cities - but most Jews are much more relaxed about such things. My mom lives in a high-rise apartment building, and I can assure you she most certainly presses the elevator buttons on Shabbat. She also drives, uses the computer, etc. About the only real observance in my house growing up, other than Friday evening prayers, was that my dad would try not to go in to work on Saturdays. And while I certainly wasn’t around at the time, I would be astonished if the house wasn’t chock-full of baby supplies well before I was born - my parents are planners.
This is getting very digressive from the thread, but you might find it interesting to note that in Bengali Hindu culture, the equivalent of a “baby shower” is really more of like a “last meal” for the mother. She gets all her favourite foods and stuff, well, because, things might not work out so well. And, similarly, no baby-related gifts. Everything is for the mother.
I can kinda see this, given what I presume to be a much higher infant mortality rate than what we have in Western countries…but how does a Jewish couple in America not buy things before the birth?
I have two kids of my own and that is just madness!
And sorry for the hijack, OP. Its an interesting thread on its own merits. I haven’t travelled much (well, for leisure anyway, military service notwithstanding) outside of the USA and am enjoying the vicarious visits to foreign hotel rooms!
It’s not about infant mortality. It’s about the mother not surviving childbirth. Anyway, the origin of the practice. In the community I’m talking about, there is little real fear of mortality.
Once a taboo or a tradition is established, it’s not really a mystery as to how it persists. My family members engaging in this practice aren’t doing it based on any actual risk of mortality.
And while I certainly wasn’t around at the time, I would be astonished if the house wasn’t chock-full of baby supplies well before I was born - my parents are planners.