Hotel Handing Out Wheel Locks to Guests
Time for a little Wednesday story time!
I checked into a Hampton Inn on Monday evening for a business trip to Canada. The property seemed pretty normal, maybe a little more dated than usual but otherwise seemed decent. It’s located off of a major highway in a commercial district next to a BMW dealership.
The next morning, I went out to the parking lot and noticed a handful of the cars in the lot had wheel locks on their tires. I automatically assumed they were for parking enforcement and went about my day.
When I returned to the hotel later that evening, I noticed some new cars had turned up and they also had wheel locks on their wheels.
I did a quick search for Google reviews and found a staggering number of people claiming their cars were stolen from the hotel parking lot. Over 20+ 1 star reviews stating their cars were stolen over the past 2 years. The most recent report of a stolen vehicle from that lot was just last week!
It turns out, the hotel staff actually hand out the wheel locks for guests to use to prevent theft. I’ve never heard of this and I’m baffled.
Needless to say, last night was my last night at that location. I’ve moved to a much nicer Homewood.
TLDR: Hotel staff gives out wheel locks to guests due to the frequency of car theft at the location.