Daily Archives: January 2, 2012

Hospitality Industry Guest Security Risks: Denver Hotel's "Room Key System" Malfunctions Locking Guests Out Of Rooms For Three Hours

“Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve, the hotel experienced a malfunction of the electronic room lock system. Once we became aware of the situation, we contacted the manufacturer of the system who provided technical support…”

Due to the inconvenience, the hotel gave guests refunds for the room.

Guests at the 628-room Denver Tech Center Marriott were locked out of their rooms when the clock struck midnight New Years. A room key malfunction kept guests out of their rooms from midnight until about 3 a.m.

Crowds of people packed into the lobby hoping to get key cards that worked. Others went to sleep in hallways. Hotel guests say it got pretty wild. “It was like a madhouse in there. It was crazy. I thought riots were going to start,” said Kyle Novak.

Denver Police say an officer called for assistance around 12:40 after a large disturbance in the parking lot. There were numerous reports of assaults and property damage.

In response to the incident Jennifer Atkins, the hotel’s general manager released the following statement.

 “We are sorry for the inconvenience this caused and are providing the night’s lodging free of charge to all registered guests. We will continue to work closely with the manufacturer of the lock system to better understand what may have caused the malfunction and will do what we can to prevent a similar malfunction from happening in the future.”

For more:  http://www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-nye-guests-locked-out-of-denver-marriott-201211,0,7988711.story

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