What in the heck is a room check?

I would agree it was most likely not thievery intended. Just a non caring housekeeper.

1. We can assume the employee would not have entered if alerted that the room was currently occupied.
2. We can assume the housekeeping staff keeps a record of which rooms were serviced each day.

The missing piece of information is whether your friend's room was serviced by housekeeping earlier that day. If not, then the hotel's interest seems reasonable.

It also seems reasonable that the hotel would choose visual inspection as a means of verifying the status of rooms and guests, rather than trying to implement a more technological solution.

I'm 6' 200lbs and mean, and even so, I almost always throw the lock whenever I will be in the room for more than a few minutes. Your friend should take a lesson.

I think sometimes after the room has been cleaned, a "Boss - Houskeeper" follows up,
basically (with a clipboard) checking that everything has been done and done correctly.

If the room was cleaned late in the day, say 4:00 pm, then this could be the inspection part,
which usually would take place soon after.

.................. just a thought.


Rick

I believe the issue of her not putting on the deadbolt has been covered. It was left unlocked as the OP was going to be letting herself in with a key.
The girl staying in the room just got there and maybe she had to poop.
lol
Most women go to the bathroom when they get back in their room. If they know they are heading back to it, they will not stop at a public restroom 9 out of 10 times.
Seriously, if anyone was going up to their room and knew minutes later a friend was coming in nobody would put the deadbolt on.

I have experienced "room check" several times, but it has always involved a knock on the door.

With thousands of rooms at a single property, the procedure is necessary. The mistake was not knocking and announcing before entering. (And, yes, one should always lock that door.)

I guess we're never in the room when these room checks occur. Or, maybe they see the locked bolt and move along to the next room.

Kind of a light trip report for 8 days. Did you do anything else, Julie G.? Did you find your 'coin dropper' slots?

Snide, housekeeping is probably sniffing your boxers while you are carousing about town.

It seems to me that if she was looking to steal anything, she would have definitely knocked on the door.

No, the OP stated clearly the friend was lying on the bed, resting.