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Imagine that you need to stay at a hotel for work. To save money, you make a reservation through an OTA such as hotels.com. And when you arrive at the hotel, the front desk associate scans your ID and tells you that you’re on the “Do Not Rent” list. Yet, you’ve never stayed at that hotel chain before.

Is it possible to be banned from a hotel you’ve never stayed at?

Sure is! And that’s exactly what happened to a user on Reddit, @ChefDavy, not long ago.

Possible causes

Of course, each guest’s situation will be different. But there are a few possibilities as to why a hotel could ban you, even if you’ve never stayed there before.

Problems at another hotel

We’ve discussed how you may end up on the “Do Not Rent” list for car rental companies. The same goes for hotels.

If you’ve had problems at another hotel – you caused damage, were caught stealing, are a chronic complainer, the list could go on and on – that could be enough to have your name on the “Do Not Rent” list at another hotel. And that “other” hotel could be:

• One with the same name (if you caused enough problems at one Hampton Inn – say, you set your room on fire – you may be blackballed from all Hampton Inns)
• One under the same umbrella (you may have totally trashed your room at a Holiday Inn Express during an all-night bender in college 5 years ago, but that hotel brand is under the IHG umbrella. So you may also have problems renting a room at other hotels under the IHG umbrella, such as Avid Hotels, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza hotels, etc.)
• One that’s in the same city (you think hotels don’t talk to each other? They can and do. If a guest threatened the front desk staff at one hotel, they may “warn” other hotels in town)
• Back in 2008, NBC News reported on hotels’ abilities to buy “memberships” that allow them acces to nationwide databases of guests who have caused problems.

Same name

In the airline industry, some people may always get the dreaded SSSS on their boarding pass. There are several reasons why this happens (here’s how to potentially stop that from happening) but one of them is having the same name as someone on the federal “Do Not Fly” list.

The same goes for hotels. YOU may not have ever stayed at that particular Fairfield Inn & Suites before. But if someone with the same name as you was caught smoking in their room every night of their stay at that hotel, THEY might be banned. And since you have the same name as them…

They’re lying

Some people who work the front desk of a hotel can be just as questionable as the people who may be on a “Do Not Rent” list. If the hotel is overbooked, for example, the person at the front desk may not want to deal with an irate customer. So instead of saying they don’t have a room for you, they say they can’t rent to you. This also saves them the time and effort of having to “walk” you to a different hotel, since, according to their story, it’s your fault, not theirs.

What can you do?

Obviously, if you’ve done something that would directly cause you to be on a hotel (or a hotel chain’s or umbrella’s) “Do Not Rent” list, there’s not a whole lot you can do. You FAFOed (effed around and found out) and if you’re lucky the ban won’t be for forever. But…

• If the ban is just for the one hotel and you don’t particularly care (it’s a town you don’t visit often, there are other hotels in town and they let you rent a room, it’s not under an “umbrella”, you don’t plan on staying there again, etc.), you can do nothing.
• If you think the ban is for unfair reasons (i.e. you have the same name as “that guy” who skipped out without paying), you can try to appeal to the hotel management/corporate).
• If you were banned for legit reasons but it’s been years and you’ve changed your ways, you could also try appealing. Good luck!

The rest of @ChefDavy’s story

@ChefDavy’s story had a few other twists and turns – he had never stayed with the chain before, had never been banned or even charged incidentals at any other hotel. He even took the step of calling corporate and they said they saw no record of him staying with them or being on any sort of list.

@ChefDavy took his situation in stride, and he found another hotel and paid a slightly higher rate for the last-minute booking.

His original reservation was at Extended Stay America, and he said he had no interest in staying there again; he was just concerned about the implications of being banned. @ChefDavy never did find out why he couldn’t stay at his original hotel of choice.

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