Author Topic: Fun pranks to do in hotels  (Read 14762 times)

z09

  • Guest
Fun pranks to do in hotels
« on: May 23, 2006, 09:14:46 PM »
Last weekend I found myself staying in a rather large hotel/casino in Nevada.  They have room service there, where you can pick up the phone and order something, then they use two-way radios to tell the staff what to bring and to what room.  I happened to bring my scanner on the trip and managed to find their frequency.  I soon heard

"Room 401 needs two ashtreys room 401 needs two ashereys." 

My friend and I then decided to call the hotel and asked to be transfered to room 401.  They asked what name it was under and I replied Davis.  She transfered me, proving that she is an absoulute idiot.  Then when a lady picked up:

Her: Hello
Me: Hi this is Marvin I'm calling from the front desk?
Her: yeah
Me: I just wanted to let you know we won't be bringing your ashtreys to your room.
Her: Really?
Me: Yeah, we don't support death here.
Her: WHAT!
Me: Yeah, so if you have any death sticks through them out the window right now!
Her: Were in a smoking room! 
Me: Doesn't matter your going to die soon if you keep it up.
Her: Let me talk to your supervisor
Me: Sure, hold on cancer.
Friend: Hello this is Dave the supervisor.
Her: Yeah one of your employees just said you wouldn't be bringing up our ashtreys?
Friend: Yes, what the hell did you want to talk to me for if you already had that established?
Her: CLICK

Then my friend took over and we repeated this to many rooms.  It all ended when they actually began to look the names up on the rooms and wouldn't transfer us.  This is just an idea to do when you are board.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2006, 09:16:52 PM by z09 »

Offline Colonel Panic

  • PLA Corporate Drone
  • *****
  • Posts: 427
  • 1337 13V3L: +29/-40
  • I lost my phone! Guess that makes me a phoneloser!
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2006, 07:57:15 AM »
Well if you're staying in a hotel, you can get free services from them if you know what to say.

It goes along with the whole 'service industry' thing. The employees and managers of large hotel companies (think Hilton, Sheraton, Hyatt, etc.) are trained to behave like their organization exists solely to keep the guests comfortable and happy, at the risk of immediate profit. You can see how this can be turned to your advantage. I  have a friend who travels a lot, and she has given me these pointers for getting the most out of your stay in any large corporate hotel. This is what you are paying for when you stay at one of these upscale establishments, so don't feel bad about milking it for all it's worth.

Whenever some minor thing goes wrong with your room or its amenities, always remember: if you make a fuss, the management will instantly don their "kid gloves" and do anything in their power to pacify or placate you. It's not unheard-of for a well-spoken complaint about a stopped-up toilet to result in a complete room upgrade. Be sure to look over the entire room upon arriving there, and examine every aspect, every piece of furniture, every appliance for signs of any defect or problem which can be exploited to this end.

Many hotels use card-keys. These employ encoded information on a magnetic strip and whenever card-keys are made a new code is usually automatically generated, so all cards for the same door have to be made at the same time. You can exploit this to your advantage, by erasing youir card-key with a magnet, then complaining that it won't work. They will make you another one, and you can use it for awhile then erase it again and go complain again. Eventually, they'll just assume there's something wrong with the card reader mechanism and move you to another room, but with a little finesse you can exploit this to finagle an upgrade.

If your room is located at the end of a hall near the stairwell, next to an ice machine, or near a service station, you can complain that the noise of the staff activity or the ice machine kept you up all night and never again will you be patronizing one of this hotel comapny's establishments. Often they will comp you a night or two just to shut you up.

Warning: don't expect these stunts to work at a hotel that is hosting a hacker convention though; I'm sure that during these events the staff is placed on red-alert for scams, excessive complaining, social-engineering and other feats of con-artistry!

Offline rbcp

  • Head Custodian
  • Administrator
  • Ninja Phone Loser
  • *****
  • Posts: 5259
  • 1337 13V3L: +454/-81
  • I'm not stupid! I'm not stupid! Hematology!
    • Homepage
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2006, 08:21:00 AM »
RijilV and I did the thing with the police scanner at Rubicon once.  We heard the front desk radio to somebody to bring some more towels to a certain room.  So we called that room and told them it'd be an extra $15 per towel.  The lady argued with me, saying she'd been staying at our hotel for years and had never been treated like this.

Then some guy needed his toilet fixed.  So we called that guy's room and said that he would need to pay $100 for us to install a new toilet.  We said that we knew he was responsible for breaking it.  He argued and we threatened to kick him out of the hotel.

The great part was that RijilV later told me about the Rubicon staff getting yelled at by the hotel for the calls.

CountyKid

  • Guest
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2006, 08:34:31 AM »
The Madison Wisconsin Motel 6 (608-241-8101) is one of my favorite places to call. The front desk evening lady is this older, friendly northern woman. I usually call up and accuse her of being a racist. Hilarity usually ensues.

Offline Colonel Panic

  • PLA Corporate Drone
  • *****
  • Posts: 427
  • 1337 13V3L: +29/-40
  • I lost my phone! Guess that makes me a phoneloser!
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2006, 08:35:39 AM »
I recently stayed at a Hyatt-Regency hotel during a convention, and they had all these snacks placed in a special little metal tray mounted into the top of the the dresser very conspicuous, high-traffic position near the door. The tray contaned bags of chips, candy bars, bottled water, pringles, etc.

These items are rigged with an electronic sensor that detects if they are removed, or even disturbed, then it automatically places a charge on your hotel bill for the cost of the items displaced. The cost of these snacks is outrageously high, even compared to room-service charges. The charge for small bag of Doritos was like $3.50. Pringles were $4.50 and the bottled water cost $7.00. We added up the total cost for all the items in the tray and it was well over $40!

The thing is, if you came back to your room drunk, late at night you could easily bump into the dresser and upset the items, resulting in unexpected charges to your room bill.

So of course we went around to our friends' rooms and deliberately messed up all the items on their snack tray. We weren't too mean about it.. in all but one case, we told them we had done it and to be ready to argue with the front desk staff about getting the charges removed from their bill.

Offline ghostman

  • Damn Screeners...
  • Lieutenant Cactus
  • *****
  • Posts: 279
  • 1337 13V3L: +20/-11
  • Hi? Need a squid sandwich, next five, ten minutes.
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2006, 01:12:32 PM »
Assholes charging $3.50 for travel-size Doritos should be smacked in the back of the head using an upward motion... so they can look down at all the unopened Doritos on the floor that you knocked off the cart but DIDN'T EAT.

So I guess they take away all the vending machines, eh?  What a stupid fucking idea.  People in service-based jobs are always trying to justify their shit saying it's "convenience."  Believe me, I know; I bullshit fior a living.

Offline Posessedpyro

  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • 1337 13V3L: +0/-1
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2006, 02:04:25 PM »
haha yeah we have had some fun there countykid.

Offline Colonel Panic

  • PLA Corporate Drone
  • *****
  • Posts: 427
  • 1337 13V3L: +29/-40
  • I lost my phone! Guess that makes me a phoneloser!
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2006, 08:36:17 AM »
Oh yes... I forgot to mention a VERY helpful little piece of info for when staying at a "nice" hotel:

If you tell the desk clerk at check-in that you are diabetic and NEED a refrigerator to store your insulin in, they will almost always provide you with a fridge FREE of CHARGE. This is very convenient if you are planning on having a room party.

My friend often uses this ruse when travelling. She stays in hotels all over the country, and she claims it has always worked. I tried it once last year and it worked for me as well.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2006, 08:37:56 AM by Colonel Panic »

Offline scitamenic

  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 13
  • 1337 13V3L: +2/-1
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2006, 08:57:26 PM »
nice, i never though of using a scanner to hear workers, then calling the room. this is brilliant. im actually going to las vegas in a month, ill have to try some stuff. (im thinking about getting the yeasu vx7). also, couldint you just dial the room # straight form your room instead of going to the front desk first. usually when i got to hotels the phone has like "for room to room press 9 then some other numbers then the room number"

Offline ryanfido

  • I smoke rocks.
  • Lieutenant Cactus
  • *****
  • Posts: 261
  • 1337 13V3L: +16/-60
  • You think you know? You have no brain.
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2006, 11:40:58 PM »
or, just ask for room 212,

the rest is history

Offline rbcp

  • Head Custodian
  • Administrator
  • Ninja Phone Loser
  • *****
  • Posts: 5259
  • 1337 13V3L: +454/-81
  • I'm not stupid! I'm not stupid! Hematology!
    • Homepage
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #10 on: June 15, 2006, 07:02:03 AM »
also, couldint you just dial the room # straight form your room instead of going to the front desk first. usually when i got to hotels the phone has like "for room to room press 9 then some other numbers then the room number"

You could, but then it wouldn't be too hard for the hotel to figure out who's doing the pranks.

Offline Illuminati

  • PLA Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 106
  • 1337 13V3L: +2/-31
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2006, 12:30:40 PM »
haha, thats great, you guys should really be recording these.

Offline ryanfido

  • I smoke rocks.
  • Lieutenant Cactus
  • *****
  • Posts: 261
  • 1337 13V3L: +16/-60
  • You think you know? You have no brain.
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2006, 05:09:03 PM »
haha, thats great, you guys should really be recording these.


no, we couldnt do that.. then someone would start a site dedicated to it, and we've all seen where that can lead.

CountyKid

  • Guest
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2006, 05:46:24 PM »
Welcome to summer 2005....

kelsokid18

  • Guest
Re: Fun pranks to do in hotels
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2006, 07:10:14 PM »
I recently stayed at a Hyatt-Regency hotel during a convention, and they had all these snacks placed in a special little metal tray mounted into the top of the the dresser very conspicuous, high-traffic position near the door. The tray contaned bags of chips, candy bars, bottled water, pringles, etc.

These items are rigged with an electronic sensor that detects if they are removed, or even disturbed, then it automatically places a charge on your hotel bill for the cost of the items displaced. The cost of these snacks is outrageously high, even compared to room-service charges. The charge for small bag of Doritos was like $3.50. Pringles were $4.50 and the bottled water cost $7.00. We added up the total cost for all the items in the tray and it was well over $40!

The thing is, if you came back to your room drunk, late at night you could easily bump into the dresser and upset the items, resulting in unexpected charges to your room bill.

So of course we went around to our friends' rooms and deliberately messed up all the items on their snack tray. We weren't too mean about it.. in all but one case, we told them we had done it and to be ready to argue with the front desk staff about getting the charges removed from their bill.

Why does this sound...and smell like bullshit?