Watch what two guys do after discovering a ‘complete hotel key fail’
If this story doesn’t get you to use the deadbolt on the door the next time you stay at a hotel, we don’t know what will.
Two men recently staying overnight at a Rodeway Inn in Gallup, N.M., found something very interesting — and disturbing —about their room key.
Another guest unlocked the door of their room and walked right in shortly after 1:30 a.m. Hotel employees told them the guest had erroneously been given a master key that unlocked every room.
“So we did a little research ourselves to see, well, what if they’re all master keys,” one of the guys says in a video they posted to YouTube.
The video has been watched nearly 4 million times since YouTube user Battle Rattle posted it on Saturday.
In the video they slide the electronic keycard that unlocks their room into the door next door.
Beep. It unlocks.
Then on to the next room.
Beep. It unlocks.
“Where are we at?” the cameraman is heard asking. “The Rodeway Inn in Gallup, New Mexico.”
“Where everybody has a key to everybody’s room,” says his traveling companion.
“Where you’re all welcome,” the cameraman laughs.
The men wrote on YouTube that they stayed at the hotel during a road trip to the Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevadas in California.
Choice Hotels International, which owns the Rodeway Inn chain, wrote on YouTube that the snafu was due to a malfunction.
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” the company wrote. “We have contacted the hotel and determined that there was a malfunction in their key system. They have taken immediate action to address this.”
The immediate action apparently included Choice Hotels terminating the property’s franchise licensing agreement after the incident was investigated, reported MailOnline.
“The operator failed to uphold the high standards we place on guest safety and security, which is unacceptable,” said a company spokeswoman.
“We are contacting guests staying at or scheduled to stay at the property to inform them of the situation, offer our sincere apologies and provide any assistance needed.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2016 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Watch what two guys do after discovering a ‘complete hotel key fail’."