One time I was in Ocean City, MD and that is a notorious party zone during “senior week.” My friends and I were about 24 and long out of high school and not there to party at all, just to maybe drink a few and hit the sack afterwards. We were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyways, I rented the room and my friends who were with me rented another, well, they came over to hang out before bed and it was a total of 6 people in the room. The hotel manager showed up about a half hour later demanding to come in my room. I declined stating that I had a few friends over and were being quiet and getting ready for bed. He pushed me aside and burst into the room, looked in the bathroom and found nothing, then he went out onto the deck and saw I didn’t in fact have a huge party, but saw that I was telling the truth. He apologized and explained he’s had many rooms destroyed in the past few years because of partyers and then he left.
Did he have a right to do this? Since I paid for the night, what are my rights in this situation? I would think this is no different than renting an apartment and the landlord just bursting in there.
I have only a partial answer, which is that it’s going to vary from state to state, and that in my state (CA), it looks like what he did is not illegal.
That’s in the definition’s section, and implies that the proprietor of a hotel does retain the right to access the room. This is in contrast to a landlord, who grants exclusive use to the tenant.
I don’t know how to look up Maryland law, and I’m not a lawyer, so my interpretation of the bit of California law I looked up may be wildly inaccurate.
I have worked in resturaunts and hotels my whole life and the laws I worked with Illinois, Florida and Maryland are similiar. A hotel manager may enter the guest room to provide services as housekeeping.
Otherwise it is just like an apartment, I have worked the desk and I would have NEVER done that. In cases where we suspect a party we call the police and security escorts the police up to the room. The police would most likely hit you with a fire law. By law in the states I worked at there must be one bed for each person. Or in the case of a double bed you can have 4 people in the room. (2 people in each bed).
What usually happens is once the cops come they ask us if we want to press charges for disturbing the peace. We then say if they volunteer to leave and give up the room we won’t, otherwise we do and the people are arrested. Of course this almost never happens as people aren’t stupid.
One time I had the FBI and DEA “raid” the hotel and they told me to give me the front desk records. Of course they had guns so I said fine. They arrested the people but at the trial the judge said “Nope, you have to have a supeonea(sp?) the records” So most of the case was thrown out.
I would say the manager handled it poorly, but I’d make a fuss to the FRANCHISER of the hotel, if there is one. If it’s big like a Sheraton you probably could get a gift certificate for a free room somewhere.
But I know from experience, whenevery you think there is trouble you call the cops and let THEM do the work.
One other thing I’d like to add, if the hotel manager was smarter and didn’t want to involve the cops he should’ve knocked and said there was a burst pipe in the wall and it’s flooding the room next store and they need to get in to look at YOUR sink, to make sure the flood isn’t from your room. In addition to housekeeping they have the right to make “emergency repairs” to the room.
ChiMagnet, thank you kind, sir. That’s what I thought. I mean, you rented it for the night, that place is your home, people can’t just burst into your home. That’s how I’ve always felt about it. The guy really felt like an ass afterwards, though. Screw him, though.
A little off-topic, but a lot of hotels I’ve stayed at the doors actually have a latch/bolt that you can connect which makes it impossible to fully open the door from the outside without breaking the door down.
I don’t know the rule about hotel managers, but if the police want to search your hotel room, they need either a warrant or a probable cause determination. From Katz v. United States (389 U.S. 347):
The fact that the Supreme Court lumped hotel rooms in with one’s home or office suggests strongly that one has an expectation of privacy there.
I’m thinking there was another Supreme Court case directly on-point, but it’s late and I’m too tired to remember it right now.
(Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. I should be one by this time next year, though.)
But at 9:00 at night and having absolutely no reason to suspect someone is going to burst into your room and accuse you of tearing things up and partying, why latch it?
