What in the heck is a room check?

I just got home from an 8 day stay at Planet Hollywood last night. During my stay something weird happened to my friend who was staying in a different room. She was lying in bed resting a bit and a housekeeper walked right in. No knock, no yelling out housekeeping. She quietly opened the door and walked into the room and announced, "room check", turned around and walked out before my friend could say anything. We ran into her in the hall moments later and asked her why she came in. She said it was to check to see if anyone was in the room. We asked her why she didn't just check to see if the room was rented and she said she doesn't have access to the information and that they clean the rooms in the morning and then check in the afternoon to see if anyone was using them. My friend paid the going rate for the room. She received no incentives for staying there so why would they have any reason to check to see if the room was occupied right in the middle of a four night rental? What if she had been naked or in some other embarrassing situation? Why do they do this?

so this was in the middle of the night? This has never happened to to me, but I do use all of the locks. If there isn't a deadbolt, there is usually one of those things near the top of the door that you flip over so no one can get in even with a key.

Anyway, if it were me, I would have been calling the front desk immediately to ask if this was standard procedure. Because I wonder if the housekeeper had come in and there was no one in the room, if she would have been looking for something to steal

It wasn't in the middle of the night. It was about 5pm. We were thinking the same thing about her maybe planning on stealing something but my friend is a very light packer and had anything of value in the safe. She wasn't using all the locks because we had just run up to our room to grab something and we were going to be right down to her room (I had a key). I wish now that we had contacted the front desk but we were in a hurry to beat the nightly lightning so we could ride the zipline before it closed.

I've never heard of such a thing.

I have never had a room check. We have talked about people having multiple comped rooms for a trip, where they check in, but don't stay in the room. Maybe it has something to do with that?

I don't like the people who come in and check to see if you drank any of their $10 per bottle water, or the honor bar checkers.

Never had this happen.

Sounds bogus for sure.

Contact PH and report it. Give the date and time, room #/floor, etc., any detail you can recall.

E-mail AND send a letter to the GM.

Include in your information that the more you thought about it, you suspect it was a possible attempt at theft from your room.

Doesn't matter what your friend had of value. You don't need to even bring that up.

Always, always put the deadbolt on when you are in the room, no matter how little.
This way, no one can just walk in, even with a key card.

Sure sounds like some potential thievery for sure.

I stayed at a suite in the Mirage a couple years ago. About an hour after checkin the maid walked into my suite and asked me if The room was ok and if I needed anything. She didn't knock. I wasn't offended or anything but I did think it was a little intrusive. never thought about it much until now.

im genuinely surprised the majority of you have never heard of this. i have had it happen at least a dozen times, including one time when i was stepping out of the shower.

i dont think anyone was trying to rob me. they dont knock and wait for you to answer and then do "room check" if you do. they knock while yelling "room check" and barge in all in the same second.

i called the front desk to complain, not because of potential thievery, but because its very intrusive. they were apologetic but told me its policy to check certain rooms to see if they are occupied.

as far as the bolt goes, if you are napping when this happens, you then have to get up to rebolt the door. the door does not open with the bolt, but it does knock the bolt back about an inch and it doesnt re-bolt automatically. complete pain in the ass.