Marriot Question: Fee per Room Occupant

[mykal.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have any general information on what the Marriott might additionally charge for occupants numbering over 4? Is there a general per person fee or does that sort of stuff just get lumped in with other charges?

Comments

[va-ronin.livejournal.com]

They told me last year that max occupancy is 5 - we had 6, but I told them 5, and was not charged a penny extra.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Usually past 4 they're just checking to make sure you're not exceeding the room's fire capacity. I'd be rather delicate when you're asking, just in case they decide to check in on how many people are sleeping in your room (and you've crammed in 12).

[creeplistvox.livejournal.com]

We've never had less than 8, and as many as 15 in our room and never paid an extra dime. I don't want to sound like I'm encouraging anyone to "break the rules", but it's not like the hotels don't know. Or can I assume you'll be abiding by the rule that says you can not take ANY outside food or drinks into your room as well?

[cuppaco.livejournal.com]

Re: Maximum Occupancy

I've been told directly by a Marriott hotel manager that they will be cracking down on room overcrowding and checking rooms to see if they are over maximum occupancy this year.

[mirana.livejournal.com]

LULZ. How, exactly? Not like most people will be in rooms for a head-count anyway. Otherwise, how are they to tell occupants from "my buddies from the next hotel over." Seems like something they'd say to scare people and not actually be able to do anything about.

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Actually, in other situations (not at D*C specifically), I have had Hotel Security tell me politely but firmly that everyone who is not assigned to this room needs to leave it, right now. And failure to comply does lead to Mr. Police Officer and his friend, Madame Handcuffs.

Fun side note: in Spain, the word for handcuffs is "las esposas".

[mirana.livejournal.com]

Haha, so they just go downstairs for a bit and then come back up later.

I don't even do over-crowding of rooms (I like to be able to walk to the bathroom at night without tripping over my friends), but I just don't see room occupancy being enforced. It's too common place in cons by way too many people, and then there's the overall party/getting together spirit of the thing that causes people to congregate in rooms en masse. There's not enough security for that.

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Eh.

As I may've said elsewhere, other people's honor and sense of ethics (or lack thereof) are their business, not mine. So long as they're not claiming to be honorable people while they use the "everybody ELSE is doing it, therefore it should be disqualified as 'wrong' when I do it too!" justification -- and so long as no one is being harmed by it -- I would have to put effort into caring any less.
(I do count extra work and unpaid overtime and loss of employment due to unfair use as all shoplifting-level harm, of course, but anybody who's civil about it won't cause those problems anyhow.)

And, hey, if you're right, no trouble for anybody; while if I'm right, after the con's over we'll have a fun time here on the community reminding some posters of Dragon*Con Convention Policies (http://www.dragoncon.org/policies.php) 7 and (maybe) 12. Possibly with illustrations!

[mirana.livejournal.com]

I'm talking about feasibility of enforcement here and nothing else.

I'm....not quite sure where you're going in your point(s?) but I figure we've each said all of what we needed to on the subject. ;)

Whoops!

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Oh! You're totally right, sorry. I got blathering and lost track of what I'd meant to say.

Two hotel security types show up. One keeps everybody's attention. The second quietly takes non-flash photos with one of those cameras designed to look like a pen. They don't have to be great photos, just passable enough to roughly identify persons. After the first conversation, and they leave your room, they go look at the photos in the security office and note which faces belonged in the room.
Next time they make a surprise visit, usually prompted by having observed a crapload of people entering Room #### while hotel staff were doing something else on a nearby floor, hotel security takes a quick look at those photos again before walking up to the door in question. The presence of more than #Official_Capacity bodies again is taken as a deliberate violation, and the hotel enacts its reserved right to end the reservation instantly. Easy peasy.

Bonus points are awarded if the fire marshal is the one who sent 'em up for the second visit!

Re: Whoops!

[missrogue.livejournal.com]

Though with wigs/costumes and guests visiting rooms... this still might be a difficult task to do without getting lawsuit from some innocent people kicked out of rooms for having visitors.

Re: Whoops!

[rozhena-ashford.livejournal.com]

Note: not all who are staying in the room are on the reservation. Say you have 4 people staying in the room and only one name on the reservation. What then?

Re: Whoops!

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

The first time they show up, the Security guy doing all the talking (and attention-drawing) will ask "whose room is this?" or maybe "whose name is on this room?" and then ask THAT person something along the lines of "which of these people are part of your reservation?" or "who are the people that belong in this room with you?".

If it were the room I'm staying in, we'd point at Dearly Beloved for answer to the first question, and he'd point at me and wookieegunner for answer to the second question; our names aren't listed on the paperwork. We'd probably also immediately volunteer -- volunteer possibly being pronounced "blurt" -- that these other folks here are helping us with a costume repair while we eat our supper, or whatever the reason is that we have temporary visitors. WG and I have room keys, which supports our "belonging" status; Security Dudes, if unhappy with our noise level or state of nudity or Zodiac sign or whatever, may tell us that if we want to visit with this many people at once, we need to do it in one of the lobbies or lounges or something.

I hope they don't. I think the two times we're likely to have several people over are Thursday night, for Awesome Henna Commission appointment, and Sunday night, for watching the Masquerade while eating supper. Henna won't run super-late, but the Masquerade always does.

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Good to know!

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Brass tacks:

It is a violation of fire safety law, and of the agreement you sign when you rent a hotel room, to have more occupants than the maximum occupancy listed on the door. In the Marriott rooms with a single king bed, that's four; it's generally equal to the number of room keys they're willing to issue you.

The Lawful Good thing to do would be to rent a number of rooms with occupancies that add up to the total group staying together. If you "get caught", the hotel may ask you to rent an additional room for those additional people. Or get rid of the additional people. Or get out entirely.

That said, I'm at best Neutral Good, if I can be said to have an honor alignment at all; I don't think poorly of my friend who puts six adult humans in a room meant for four, and he doesn't pay an additional cost. He's also very good about making sure they tip Housekeeping well if they use Housekeeping at all, and he leaves the room pretty clean, with everything off the bed and out of the way so the maid can do her job. Consider the price of additional occupants to be "making damn sure we give the hotel staff no reason to Officially Take Note of our rules violation, or to regret having turned a blind eye in our direction."

This is not legal advice, do not try this unless you're a good bullshitter!

[everyinchofme.livejournal.com]

As a former hotel employee, and my Father who's been in the hotel industry for over 20 years now, I will impart this wisdom upon you.

The hotel can only bill you for what they can PROVE took place. You can have 20 people in your room (as scary as that maybe), but unless there's 20 people there, SLEEPING, when housekeeping shows up, then there's no proof.

I also tend to find that most people don't sleep at the same time as others. So there could be 10 people in there at 6am, and 5 at Noon, and maybe another 5 at 10pm.

The general rule though is that you can only get room keys for the people you admit to having in your room. (There's also usually max set for each type of room.)

Re: This is not legal advice, do not try this unless you're a good bullshitter!

[cuppaco.livejournal.com]

I don't know how they are going to do enforcement. But my guess would be that the guests who request several more keys than allowed occupants for the room might have a random staff visit. Or housekeeping advised to report if they find more than [max. occupancy] persons in a room. I know a few years ago, the tip was to "lose" a few of your key cards to get your extra needed keys, but I think the hotels gotten wise to that.

But people run on different schedules at Con, so if you have 3 people who are diurnal and 3 nocturnal, although you have more than 4 people technically staying in the room, no more than 4 will probably be there at once.

Re: This is not legal advice, do not try this unless you're a good bullshitter!

[everyinchofme.livejournal.com]

Housekeeping will probably be told to be on the look-out for what is obvious 'over-occupancy'. And, again, they have to physically find people *staying* in the room above the allowable limit of 4.

As far as "losing keys", that doesn't really work as most hotels can kick a lost key 'out of the system' if it's reported as lost. This is done for safety purposes as front desk occasionally writes the room number on keys.

[dramatikpanther.livejournal.com]

I for one am having at least 5 in my room and at most 6, but I'm not sure how many keys I'd need or should ask for. I'm probably just going with 4, since two of us will be together a lot of the time anyway.
And since someone earlier mentioned outside food/drink, I wanted to ask:
What is the best covert way to get lots of beer into a hotel room? One of my roomies works for AB in St Louis, and he's bringing a lot of beer cases with him. Last year one of the bellhops told us we could just bring it in, so he helped us load it on a cart. Then we get stopped by management and it gets held from us until check out. This year we'd like to have it with us in the room. We were thinking just taking the cans/bottles and wrapping them up in a couple of suitcases. Is that the best way or might there be another? :)

[keirandyl.livejournal.com]

We don't have housekeeping in our rooms while we are at con if we don't want them to see something.

[dramatikpanther.livejournal.com]

Definitely plan on using that "do not disturb" sign :D

[rozhena-ashford.livejournal.com]

I've seen people take microwaves and various size coolers (guilty of the latter, myself) and no one working at the hotel(I presume on the owner of the microwave) said anything.

Basically they can't say anything if you keep it in your room.

This is just a suggestion ^_~

[everyinchofme.livejournal.com]

The best way to sneak anything by is to scope out the run from front desk to the elevator. (Nobody usually gets caught once on the elevator.)

The highest point of getting caught is within eye sight of the front desk. Your best bet is to make a diversion (shouldn't be hard at D*C), cover the questionable materials, and walk with a purpose. Anyone in a suit or uniform should be intercepted by a member of your party with a lot of 'concerns' about their stay. (Please note that this should be done only after check-in when all party members have secured keys.)

Honestly the best time to attempt this is on Friday when front desk is SLAMMED and there's virtually no one to see/stop you amidst the throng of con-goers.

My family has smuggled pets and numerable other items into rooms in the past--including people, using this method.

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

Nobody's going to look twice at suitcases...if you line them with crumpled newspaper or a good quilt, stuff will even stay cold in them.

[jeffs-page.livejournal.com]

So, what I'm seeing here is that "if they can't enforce the rules, it's OK to break them"? No. The hotels have rules for a reason. If you don't like or agree to those rules, maybe you should look into staying in a different hotel.

[whiteladyeowyn.livejournal.com]

Well, are you going to tell me that you eat at the hotel restaurants every time you want a meal?

Or do you bring a drink or a snack into your from outside the hotel? The hotel's policies mean you're violating the rules in that way.

[geneticlemon.livejournal.com]

Seriously -- and don't hotels usually have quiet hours at 11 PM? If that's the case, we're all screwed. Rules are meant to be guidelines. I mean, it'd be ridiculous to have 10 people in your room when you only have space for 4 or 5, but that's your business and no one else's.

[cuppaco.livejournal.com]

Yes, rules are rules, however just as there is a difference between lying and telling your wife/girlfriend/significant other she doesn't look fat today (when she actually kinda does) and lying to the IRS about the $50,000 you made at your side job, there is a difference here. Here there is a very distinct difference - the consequences of breaking the rules.

The "outside food and drink" rules are in place for money making reasons. Worst Case Scenario: the Marriott loses a few bucks on a sandwich. You don't starve and in all actuality, the guy making the sandwiches isn't going to lose his job.

The # of guest per room are there for real safety reasons. Worst Case Scenario: People die in a fire/tornado/natural disaster/weird accident because there were too many people in a hotel room or on a particular floor.

[jeffs-page.livejournal.com]

The Marriott actually doesn't have a rule about bringing your own prepared food or non-alcoholic drinks to the hotel. And they tend to look the other way on most alcohol as long as it's not in plain sight. A simple phone call to the hotel (which I just made) will clear this up for you.

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

That's the difference...if the hotel staff can look the other way at it, no harm, no foul, then it's pretty much ok...if you do something stupid enough that they CAN'T look the other way, that's where you're in the wrong. The only reason we can get away with stuff at Dragoncon is that even if we're packing rooms and violating rules and whatnot, we're bringing in a LOT of money, even if it's just buying food and such. Fact is that the hotel staff don't want to tick us off that much, so they're wearing proffessional grade blinkers when Dragoncon is going on.

That said, if you are going to violate rules, then don't throw it in hotel staff's faces. If you're going to haul cases of beer in, at least giftwrap them and say they're a present for your friends or something, and make sure your roomates clean up after themselves so the housekeeping staff doesn't have a huge mess at the end of things. People can be good at ignoring the little things...Just make sure none of them become major things, and it's all good.

[dramatikpanther.livejournal.com]

Exactly! My roomies and I are a pretty quiet bunch at at most we might have a few more people coming up to visit in the room to drink some beers and play Munchkin or something. Not throwing a wild crazy party super late/early that pisses everyone off in the corridor. :)

And since we've decided to take MARTA, we'll definitely have to be packing the beer in extra suitcases!

Thank you.

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

I'd been wondering about this. I'm not the one who usually actually signs for the room, but I read the sign on the inside of the room door every stay, and I really don't ever remember seeing a rule in Atlanta about "no outside food". "No hot plates", sure! They don't want to risk someone's faulty home-repaired equipment shorting out the building, or starting a fire.

In fact, the concierge has even helped me make a pizza order, and given me directions to a nearby drugstore. The Marriott used to have minirefrigerators in every room, and had no objection to cleaning out any resident minibars so we could use that space for our own supplies; last year, they apologized because they'd run out of minifridges before we arrived, and since we didn't need refrigeration for baby food or medications, it would've been obnoxious to ask 'em to cancel one of the other room's hold on a minifridge.

[dwivian]

One of the biggest indicators of 'too many people' is the linen usage. If your guests bring one or two of their own towels to use it can go a long way to avoiding issues.

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

Why, I wouldn't ever leave home without my towel!

[jarissa.livejournal.com]

Naturally: you're a hoopy ...

...

... did you ever notice, there's no feminine equivalent for "frood"? That's not right!

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

I always though the term multi-gender neutral...applies to all genders, of all species, no matter how many of them you are at the time.