Good morning everyone, greetings from the Alaska Airlines Lounge in SeaTac airport (no Centurion Studio on this trip). I had a great time meeting blog readers at the FTU Advanced Seattle travel conference and look forward to seeing you again soon at the upcoming FTU Advanced Minneapolis, Chicago Seminars, or a TWG meetup.
For the recent FTU Advanced Seattle, I stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton Seattle Airport South. The hotel has your typical key card wall slot to turn on the electricity and heat/AC for the room. Fun fact: pretty much any plastic card will work in the wall slot, including credit cards, debit cards, other hotel key cards, and my Priority Pass card. I read about this trick online a few years ago and heard a few stories that housekeeping will sometimes take the card from the wall slot after cleaning your room. That’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.
I normally leave the do not disturb (I’m-sleeping-like-a-baby-type sign on the door) whenever I leave the room, but I forgot to hang it up when I left my room yesterday. I partially do it for the environmental savings and partially for the free points some hotels give you for declining housekeeping. I also do not like strangers in my room when I’m not there.
Long story short, my Priority Pass card was taken from the key card wall slot after cleaning was completed. In hindsight, I’m glad I used that card rather than one of my primary credit cards, because the Priority Pass card can be easily replaced and I have my pass saved in my Apple Wallet. If you do this trick, use a card you wouldn’t mind being taken (do not use one of your primary credit or debit cards). I talked to the front desk agent when I was leaving the hotel and asked about their policy of taking third party cards from the key card slot. He told me that housekeeping usually take the card from the key card wall slot regardless of which card is there, even if it is the hotel’s own room key.
Have you ever had your card removed from the key card wall slot? Have you ever gotten your card back? Please let me know your experience in the comments. Have a great day everyone.
I’m perplexed as to why you would not just get another room key to place in the slot?
That’s a fair question. Let’s just assume the hotel ran out of extra room keys… but in reality, I have one hotel key and my travel companion has the other hotel key.
I always go for bonus points for no cleaning anyway so… ;-)
PS great too see you this weekend!
Great seeing you as well, great presentations – I really enjoyed the “how to avoid shutdown presentation” :)
A business card will work too and they’e far more expendable
Even a cheap TWG paper business card from Vista Print will work?
Grant,
I also place a key in the slot, especially when it keeps the a/c on.
Who besides SPG does the “green bonus” thing for no housekeeping?
I’ve stayed at several SPG properties lately, so I can’t think of any other hotel chains that offer a bonus for no housekeeping.
Marriott has started offering it, but it’s only 500 points per night at participating properties (so 1/3 the value of SPG’s program)
Some Hiltons do it. The Hilton in Vancouver-Richmond gave $5 food credit or $10 in the restaurant each day housekeeping was declined; we declined it for five nights.
Stupid for leaving a non disposable card in the slot. Probably made the whole ordeal up in order to have something to write about.
Live and learn, I guess. Thanks for reading Mark, I’m a big fan of Vista Print, btw. Safe travels my friend.
I disagree, though I would have used something else in hindsight after realizing any card would work. I stayed in the same hotel this weekend and it slipped my mind the same way. My roommate and I each had a key, so it wasn’t that big a deal that we lost a room key (can easily burn another one).
I would think the typical guest at the hotel wouldn’t think anymore of it and would have left a key unless they found something else in the room that could be inserted in the slot. It wouldn’t make sense to have the housekeeper remove the cards while there are clearly occupants in the room.
Sorry, Grant. That sucks, but glad you have a backup on your phone! You could call PP and request a new card. :)
Thank you Shirley. I hope you had fun at FTU Advanced Seattle. Safe travels ✈
My hotel, the Swissotel in Chicago, offers $10 F&B credit every day you opt out of stayover service, but then a mandatory clean on every 4th day.
That’s a good tradeoff. I’m not sure how much it costs the hotel to clean each room. I’m guessing suites and larger club rooms cost more to clean than smaller hotel rooms. If it makes sense financially, I’m sure more hotels would prefer that guests skip housecleaning.
You decline housekeeping partially for the environmental aspects but leave the key card in the slot, thereby running lights, HVAC, etc. while you’re not there?
I don’t normally want to leave the key in the slot when I’m absent but when I do I just ask for an extra room key card – even if there are 2 of us I’ve not ever had an issue getting a 3rd just in case one is lost. Or I typically have some random key card that was inadvertently left in my bag from somewhere else, I’ll just use that.
Haha, you pointed out the irony of my caring for the environment and keeping the heat/AC on. To be fair, I wrote this post around 5am, but I should have been more aware of my comment. I guess I care more about the points and privacy than the environment. Thanks for reading and keeping me honest. Have a great day Eric.
I was Grant’s roommate on this trip…
The card only controls the lights, not the HVAC, and all of the lights were turned off manually when we left the room. Leaving a different key in the slot was just a matter of convenience.
I would say that the fact we set the room temp at 65, turned off all the lights when we left, and recycled all of our paper/plastic trash goes to show that we were concerned about the environment. ;-)
This reads exactly like someone else 3 or 4 years ago
I’m living a big deja vu. I didn’t think it would happen to me :(
We had the problems to use our own hotel key for turn on the light. Last time, my friend was taking shower and I went out so I took the key off and I hear he was screaming !!! Therefore, next time we used something else or the key card from other hotel.
Hehe, that would be bad if you didn’t hear him yell and left the hotel room.
Come on Grant! Surely you must have thousands of Visa gift cards lying around ;)
Actually, I wonder if a folded piece of standard hotel stationary wouldn’t do the trick.
Gary
I’m sure it would work. If anyone has tried, please let me know.
Pingback: 5500 Free Miles From 2 Airline Frequent Flyer Programs and Good Airline Food in Coach - View from the Wing
So… You don’t have housekeeping for “environmental” reasons, but you leave the AC/power on all day. Nice.
#fakenews #globalwarmingmustnotbereal
How did you gain access to Alaska lounge ? They have been denying access to PP for about 3 weeks now.
I just walked in, showed them my Priority Pass barcode saved to my Apple Wallet, she scanned the code and I was in. She didn’t say anything to me about Priority Pass.
I always take a couple of sheets from the notepad by the bedside and fold it to the size of the keycard – works fine and you don’t have to worry about leaving it there.
Good tip. I can try my hand at origami next time :)