How Easily Can a Fugitive Hide In a Hotel?

Factual Questions
1

So, let’s say a nicely-dressed man walks into a massive hi-rise hotel in the middle of a big city. He is wanted by police and wants to hide for a week.

  1. Would he need ID to check in? Even if he wanted to pay cash?

Let’s also say that there is a week-long convention going on with hundreds of out-of-town delegates and exhibitors staying in the hotel. He tries to pass himself off as a party to the convention and assimilate right into the crowd.

  1. Could he claim that his ID was stolen and he’s working on getting a replacement, then ask to check in without ID?

In short, is there an easy way for a fugitive to hide in a hotel? If the hotel is getting paid, is it still usually vigilant about recording the legal name of its guests?

Any thoughts would be helpful. Research is for a little piece of fiction I’m trying to put together. No, seriously.

Thanks,
G

2

Most nice hotels require some sort of credit card to prevent you from running up a room service bill and not paying. However, they may not actually run the credit until you check out. At the end of the week, though, the police probably could see the credit card.

Low-end motels would just take the cash.

As for ID, I don’t think there’s any requirement for it to rent a room.

3

After 9-11 for a while, many places demanded ID. I suppose if you don’t like it you could take your business elsewhere.

Most hotels, like car rentals, demand a credit card so they have some way to recover room service and other charges. It’s simpler than demanding a $200 up-front cash deposit and then having to refund it.

And of course, trying to check into some upscale hotel without any credit card will attract notice nowadays. If the police ask, I’m sure the desk person will mention "Oh, and Mr. Jones in room 1002 did not have any ID with him. there will be so few without ID that you’ll stand out.

Better to get a credit card under an assumed name if you can. That’s a whole different question. If as Fred Jones, I apply for a credit card in the name of Sam Smith and make the payments regularly, who would find out about it? Eventually transfer the bill to a PO box or nowadays, sign up for electronic bills?

4

I worked in hotels, for most of my life, and all require ID. I’ve never worked in one that didn’t require a driver’s license for cash. Some require it for everything.

Mainly we used it as a check to keep young people from renting a room to throw a party.

If you pay by credit card most of the places don’t check ID. The merchant agreement for your credit cards, forbids you from using ID as a condition of using the card. In other words your Visa IS your ID.

However you can get around this by demanding the use of ID as a conditon of getting the room, as opposed to using the Visa card. As you see in the end it amounts to the same thing.

You would need ID even if you were part of a group. We used to have direct billing and people abuse this totally. We used to have the CSX railroad crews stay with us at one place I worked. They were direct billed.

Well a bunch of crew members decided to all come up to Chicago and watch a Cubs game and have a weekend of it. So they came in and signed in as direct bill.

All was fine for a week till I direct billed the 20 rooms. Boy did that dispatcher scream bloody murder. How they ever thought they were gonna get away with this, I don’t know. They must’ve realized sooner or later the hotel would check. After that our GM required EVERY direct bill not only show ID but to put up a credit card in case the company refused to pay.

We didn’t check airline crews when they checked in. This was another hotel, but airlines are very strict at who is who. We have to fax a nightly manifest of who was there and what time they arrived and such.

For instance, the crew would hand a slip to me, then they’d sign and I’d date and time stamp it and after the day closed, I’d fax it to United or American or whatever airline it was.

So it’d be impossible for you to sneak in with a crew 'cause they would want you to check. Many times I would get a call from United or Delta or whoever and they’d ask me to find out why so and so from the crew never signed in. (Sometimes they had family in the area and wanted to stay with them. Or more likely they had a girl/boyfriend they were staying with).

I’d say, “How should I Know?” And then I’d have to connect them with someone from the crew.

5

Has said hotel ornate stone ledges and such on the outside? The fugitive could Cary Grant his way between rooms, using snappy patter to social-engineer various guests into hiding/feeding/loaning money to/sleeping with him.

6

Thanks very much for your helpful replies.
-G

7

Me too? :wink:

8

What, no “need answer fast!”?

9

Slight case of cross-posting there, Doug, but thanks for the suggestion. Love Cary Grant— you’re thinking of the hospital scene in North By Northwest, perhaps?

10

Are you sure about this? Almost half the retail establishments where I use a credit card these days are asking to confirm my ID with my drivers license if they don’t know me.

You’re saying I could just tell them"no" and still buy the merchandise?

11

They may still refuse to sell you stuff, but they would probably be in violation of their agreement which says that your signature is all the confirmation that they need. For purchases of alcohol, cigarettes, or something that legitimately requires an ID this doesn’t hold, but for everything else it should.

12

It is a violation of the agreement that the retailer has with visa. You could say no and the store will probably refuse to sell to you. You would then complain to visa who will take a complaint from you and do nothing.

13

I have a “friend” that used to be an acquaintance to a fugitive. This guy kept a tight circle of friends whom he would use to cart him around and help sell illicit substances. They were basically a very low level “cartel” type setup with a lost puppy fugitive as a ring leader. They helped him do what he needed to do and he shared the money and illicit substances. He primarily lived in hotels when he couldn’t find a friend’s house or car to crash in.

Firstly, “they” would pick some cheap, piece of crap roadside motel that wouldn’t mind a few spills and dents if things got rowdy, as they sometimes do with felonious folk. Then “my friend” or another friend would go in alone to secure a room, saying he had a guest who was still out in the car and a couple of friends who were going to peacefully and quietly share a couple drinks. It was the old “be extremely honest with a little bit of the truth and they’ll believe anything you throw at them” trick. It worked every time.

He was actually able to employ this strategy with no close calls for about 2 years and only got caught because he decided to steal a truck one day. It is almost surprisingly easy to hide out in hotels if you don’t drive a car, keep a low profile, never give out your last name and have acquaintances to help you out. The only thing you really need ID for is cashing checks, getting loans and driving cars. If you don’t have a need for any of these things, you can lay real low real easy.

14

If the fugitive had a false, ID, he could find a place to rent him a room. They’re out there. I’ve rented motel rooms for cash with only a driver’s license. We’re talking under $50 per night type chains here.

15

In a merchant agreement it clearly states the use of your Visa or MC can not be contingent on you showing your ID. In otherwords if they ID you for Visa and MC they need to ID you for all other forms of payment including cash and they can’t “not sell” you the item because you refuse.

But then again, what can you do if the store refuese to sell to you? Nothing much. You can complain, but nothing will get done. It’s like when merchants impose minimums or add on fees for use of credit cards. That’s not allowed but in reality there is little they can do. All Visa and MC can do is take away their merchant ID number so they can’t process any charges till they comply

I have never seen this happen.

Anyway back to the thread…

I was thinking and probably the best way to do this, assuming you have money, is to find a homeless person and get him to rent the room for you.

Most homeless people have a state ID, (You need it for state aid, like food stamps and such) so they could rent the room. If you pay cash hotels will make you put up a “deposit.” but again, if money isn’t an issue, you give the homeless guy extra to cover it.

Then he rents the room, you give him some bucks and you hide in the room.

Of course then you’d need to have the co-operation of the homeless guy. You could try to fool him but homeless people tend to hang out in the library and read papers, so he’d be likely to find out, if your crime made the paper

16

To be honest, a woman can pretty much always fly under the radar if she wants and is willing to essentially prostitute herself. Get the man to rent the hotel room, in exchange for sex. If it needs to be longer term, find a guy and move in with him and work babysitting for cash paid under the table. If you don’t own a car, don’t pay rent or utilities, and work only for cash it becomes pretty much impossible to trace you financially.

About the only way someone could find me if I opted to do this would be to keep an online search going for me to log into my web based email, and log into EVE online or WOW, or here.

17

That depends on the jurisdiction. Many European countries require you to produce a passport to stay at a hotel, which then registers your stay with the police. If you’re a tourist not staying at a hotel (say, at a friend’s house), you may be expected to register with the police yourself within a certain number of days.

18

This reminds me of an odd experience at a beach resort in Thailand. Hotels there are required by law to inspect passport and visa of foreigners. We arrived without reservations when there were few vacancies, but eventually chanced upon a place with two dozen bungalows on top of a hill. They acted surprised when we showed up (“Been here before? You must like quiet!”) It looked like an ordinary pleasant motel with restaurant and swimming pool, but they never asked for my passport, security deposit, or even my name. There was no reception desk: I just handed the day’s rent to whoever was standing around as we went out each morning. There were other guests, mostly Germans, with management also speaking German.

To return at night, we had to drive a dark road, passing one point where there was always a woman with dogs pretending to wash dishes. (Almost scary, but the place’s very bizarreness somehow made me feel secure!) I’ve thought of setting a fiction in that strange town with its many other strange stories, and would want to work that strange “bungalow resort” in.

19

There is a fairly recent case of a fellow wanted for murder who hid out in a motel for about a month before he was recognized from an America’s Most Wanted episode.

He initially paid two weeks in advance in cash and pretty much stayed in his room.

20

I hope people don’t confuse the credit company agreement with the requirements of the hotel that people have ID’s to rent a room from them. The ID requirements are to be able to rent the room, not to use the card. It’s just like if you buy booze you have to ID yourself to get get the booze regardless of the credit card terms for the card you may or may not use.