I made a reservation at booking.com for a room in the town where I used to live. I was flying in and would rent a U-Haul to gather up the rest of my stuff in storage and take it to my new place. I haven’t lived there for nearly two years.
When I checked in last night, they asked for my ID. After looking at it they said they would have to cancel my reservation because they don’t rent to locals. I told her that was my old address and to flip my license over.
When I moved, I updated the DMV and they mailed me a sticker to affix to the back of my license with my new address. The hotel staff said they had to go by the address on the front. I showed them my student ID card from out of town. I showed them my health insurance card from out of town. They didn’t care. They even said I had a local area code, not caring that this area code covers 80% of Oregon.
They ultimately never let me check in. I had to hassle a friend from 40 minutes away to come pick me up. He then had to drive me back to town so I could rent the U-Haul.
I didn’t know what to do. What’s the point of the DMV mailing you a sticker if businesses aren’t going to accept it? (although I’ve never had a problem with the sticker before). Why wouldn’t you rent to locals? Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Some hotels won’t rent to locals if they have had bad experiences with people renting for parties and trashing rooms. This practice may not be legal, depending on your location.
Hotels don’t want people doing stuff there that they wouldn’t do in their own homes. Having a “no locals” policy is cover for turning away guests who arrive with a keg or a prostitute, but you’d think managers and desk clerks would have the authority to make exceptions when that’s obviously not the case. I suspect the person you dealt with wasn’t trusted to make decisions on their own discretion.
The rule about locals makes sense, now that you’ve explained it.
I don’t know why they were so particular about my address on the front of my license. They told me they would lose their job if they rented a room to me. I suppose if they really believed that, I never stood a chance.
I bet that the vast majority of locals who (attempt to) rent hotel rooms to cause trouble (i.e., the ones this policy is intended to exclude) aren’t going to be smart enough to (a) make themselves familiar with the policy in advance, and (b) plan to bring (and in some cases, obtain in the first place) photo ID that doesn’t list the home address. So I’d say that the policy is going to exclude almost everyone that it’s supposed to, which is probably good enough for the hotel’s purposes. (And if a few innocent non-locals like @Tabco happen to suffer collateral damage, well, that’s probably a cost of doing business which is offset by what the policy saves them.)
You said you checked in at night - I bet nobody on the night staff had the authority to make an exception. If you’d called a central customer service number, explained your situation, and maybe threatened a negative online review as a last resort, you might have gotten your room.
FWIW, before this thread (and subsequent googling around) I didn’t know about that this sort of thing was pretty common. If I ever need a local hotel room in the future I’ll be sure to ask in advance.
My takeaway from this story is that it’s about the way businesses treat frontline, usually low-wage, employees.
Some poor front-desk employee, when confronted with a situation that is slightly outside the norm, isn’t given the degree of discretion needed to handle the situation in the best way. Which, in this case, would have been to check the OP into the room he/she/they had reserved, showed up for, and presented legal, state-issued, valid ID to claim.
In this case, the OP didn’t flip out and abuse the desk clerk. But someone, frazzled and tired after a long day of work or travel or flying, might have. Over a stupid situation that could have been dealt with by anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
And businesses wonder why people aren’t begging for low-wage shitty retail or restaurant or hospitality jobs the way they used to.
There needs to be someone on duty with the authority to make managerial decisions, because you can’t anticipate and make a rule for every situation (and if you try, then you’ll just end up with your untrusted night staff not remembering all of the rules because there are too many of them).
Of course, just because you need that doesn’t mean you actually have one, because plenty of businesses are run by idiots. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the poor desk schlub you dealt with got fired for not exercising the authority he doesn’t have, because he cost the hotel a customer.
If they’re going to have this policy, couldn’t they at least enforce it at the time the reservation is made, instead of denying a weary traveler a room that he has a reservation for?
I asked about this and they said their website has a notice that they don’t rent to addresses within 30 miles. I didn’t see such a notice but even if I had, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it because as far as I was concerned, I lived hours away and my license had my current address on it. The bank card I made the reservation with had my current address on it.
I did leave a negative review but was careful to focus it on the management and did not name any employees.
Yes, absolutely. It sounds like a junior person was simply “following the rules” without any thought to actual logic or sense. I don’t think a blanket rule to not rent to locals is a good one, unless they’ve had massive problems in the past.
If I were you I would complain long and loud to head office. This person refused your reservation, and had absolutely no reason to do so as you proved sufficiently that you were not a local. Pure idiocy on their part.
The clerk’s reason may be that he/she/they was required to refuse the reservation by corporate policy. I can absolutely see some stupid policy saying that the front desk person must see a current unaltered driver’s license to honor the reservation. And I can absolutely believe that front-line employees are not given a millimeter of wiggle room.
Sure, maybe the clerk was being too rigid. But it’s just as likely (more likely, I think) that the clerk was handcuffed and had no leeway whatsoever.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if this clerk ends up being the one fired if the OP (quite rightly) complains about the corporate policy. Because Quality Inn would love to pin the blame on a low-level employee.
Nah, the people at customer service don’t even have the authority to get a new roll of toilet paper from the storage closet. They’d always defer to the property.
I was reading the Oregon DMV website and from the looks of it, you no longer need to replace your ID when you move (in state). They don’t even issue stickers anymore.
The motel may need to find a new way to check residency.
Even when they were shown evidence, in the form of a new address on a driver’s license that the person was NOT local?
This just means that they were an idiot, and did not understand how official documents work.
ETA: I agree with your that the QI management are the biggest idiots here, and it is possible that the policy has no room for interpretation by a reasonable on-site person.
Is it possible the reaction that might have shifted the clerks position, was for you to start in with, ‘Oh. I understand now. I can assure you…I swear you can drop by my room…I can promise you, I will be all alone, the entire evening!’
Perhaps when you just acquiesced, without protest, they assumed they had indeed thwarted a potential ‘local party‘ situation. Maybe they’re bragging to management right now! HaHaHa!
I’m shaking my head over this “not letting rooms to locals” policy. How common is this?
During the recent heat wave, a Seattle hotel clerk told me they were booked solid because locals without a/c opted to ride out the heat wave there.
Last year there was a fire in an apartment building across the street–no injuries, but the tenants had to stay several nights in local hotels.
A couple I know checked into a hotel when a tree fell on their house during a windstorm, knocking out their power.
I understand not wanting rooms to get trashed, but it seems to me if you refuse locals, they’re not going to recommend you to out-of-towners who need lodging.