And so it begins... Mardi Gras suckage

[Moirae]

So the city of New Orleans has fire laws that limit the number of people in any room based on the bed type. Limit is 2 for a queen and king, 4 for a room with two beds, 6 for a room with three. More than that can fit but they must be an infant (under the age of 2). The fines for being caught disobeying this are extremely heavy (in the thousands of dollars range) which make it not worth breaking at any time.

The problem is that many of the big hotels can't really control this due to their size so they let it go. Small hotels like mine, however, are a different matter. We work hard to make sure we know everything that's going on at all times in the building. And more than the legal limit is NOT going to happen. If you are caught, we will throw you out and keep the money.

But some people think they're going to be sneaky and book a room by saying there will only be 2 people when there will be more.

This happened tonight. A man and his wife thought they'd be able to get four adults and 8 children in one room with one queen bed, then blew a gasket when told no. He tried the "this is not legal", "I'm going to bash you on trip advisor", yelling.. and when that didn't work, his wife called and started screaming and calling my husband names over the phone. They even threatened to call the police.

And they tried to tell us that we were just trying gauge them their money and cheat them. What were they trying to do by lying about the number of guests exactly? Apparently nothing. Because if they had tried to book a room with that many people, the website would have refused.

Here's the thing, we don't even have to give money back if people book with us and its within the 30 day cancellation policy. This is a common cancellation policy and exists throughout the city during this time. Guests have to agree to those terms on booking either by phone or online. And there is NOTHING people like this can do about it because by booking the room, they agree to the terms.

The police will look directly at people like this and say there's nothing they can do. I've even once seen a cop outright laugh at a guest trying to pull this crap and say "well you're getting what you deserve then. What you're trying to do is illegal".

Most likely, I'll have more stories to come.

[Shyla]

I'm not really interested in sleeping on a hotel/motel floor. I wonder how they would decide who slept in the bed. Or maybe one sleeps in the bathtub.

[siskaren]

They were seriously going to try to cram 12 people into a room with one bed?

[Moirae]

I'm not really interested in sleeping on a hotel/motel floor. I wonder how they would decide who slept in the bed. Or maybe one sleeps in the bathtub.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't suggest it. In our hotel everything in the room gets cleaned when a guest checks out except the walls and the floors (even the ceiling fans... unless there's something obviously wrong), those get cleaned quarterly (we're nearly sold out every night so it's very difficult to get in more than that, though I try to encourage the housekeepers try). No one in their right mind should ever want to sleep on a hotel floor. I even suggest wearing slippers/shoes at all times.

They were seriously going to try to cram 12 people into a room with one bed?

Oh yes, and I've seen worse actually. I was told once about a room that tried to fit 20 people in it. Granted, that was a suite. But still... wth? Putting that many people in a room is a death trap. What if there's a fire or someone has a heart attack? These people are crazy. And cheap.

[blas]

Not to mention that's just awkward.

I get that hundreds of years ago, families all slept in the same bed, but we don't do that anymore. It's called personal space.

Hell, my idiot parents are going to try to cram 9 people in this 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house for a week this summer.

Guess who is getting her own hotel room? Yeah, I don't even care, I'm not sharing a bathroom with 8 other people. I already have to clean up after my parents every day, which is like cleaning up after toddlers.

[eltf177]

They were seriously going to try to cram 12 people into a room with one bed?

I broke my brain trying to figure out just how they planned on hiding this fact from hotel staff. Eight kids in a room, you _know_ a fight will break out at some point and the screaming's going to attract some attention!

[Moirae]

lol. Yeah, no kidding. Put me, my sister, and all my cousins in a room for a night together and we'd probably have been trying to kill each other by morning when we were kids.

[raudf]

And even when kids aren't trying to kill each other, there is no "quiet" setting on kids. Happy ones squeeeeeeaaaallllll, giggle, laugh, thump, jump.. yeah. 8 kids in one room is gonna make Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras seem quiet.

[Moirae]

I have no idea how they thought they would get away with it. I've seen people ask about it before. Pretty much everyone in New Orleans over Mardi Gras has to wear bracelets with the hotels name on them to allow them to get in to the hotel. There needs to be control of the number of people in the buildings. It's not to inconvenience them, it's to make sure no one ends up dead. At Dragon Con in Atlanta, someone actually died because there were so many people in a given area that they couldn't get to the person who was having a heart attack. We are doing it for their own safety as well as to protect the hotel.

[dalesys]

I've been one of 11 in a 8x10 tent... Very exciting when my 10 y.o. brother had a panic attack in a mummy bag... tap-dancing on all of us like a herpeleptic worm until dad tackled him.

[Racket_Man]

They were seriously going to try to cram 12 people into a room with one bed?

try 20 people in a smallish 2 bedroom apartment. happened at my complex when I lived in the Chicago area.

[Aislin]

I was on Borbon street last spring break for my honeymoon. It was 1/4 as crowded as it is now and people were getting hurt pretty badly then. One girl almost died in the street the first night we were there from falling out a balcony and the third night they took 2 people out of the street with achohol poisoning. I don't even want to go back durning spring break because it was claustrophobic. New Orleans is a grand city that knows a thing or two about crowds. Idiots never learn.

[AccountingDrone]

I love New Orleans, I really do. I spent 6 months living there on a job once, fantastic. That being said, I would never ever go there for Mardi Gras or some other big festival. [perfect time IMHO is mid spring, march or april - I am not into roasting alive ; ) ]

[DGoddessChardonnay]

They were seriously going to try to cram 12 people into a room with one bed?

Sounds about right, not to mention they also sound like they're trying to be uber cheapskates.

Like how they got bit in the butt for pulling such a stunt. Now whether they'll learn anything by it may be a different story though.

[Moirae]

I was on Borbon street last spring break for my honeymoon. It was 1/4 as crowded as it is now and people were getting hurt pretty badly then. One girl almost died in the street the first night we were there from falling out a balcony and the third night they took 2 people out of the street with achohol poisoning. I don't even want to go back durning spring break because it was claustrophobic. New Orleans is a grand city that knows a thing or two about crowds. Idiots never learn.

Holy crap. Hope that girl is ok.

Get alcohol into people, and they turn into idiots. Especially since some of the drinks in this city could be considered dangerous. My husbands friends ex-girlfriend got alcohol poisoning from a single hand grenade. If people mention wanting to try one, I try to warn them about those so they don't end up in the hospital.

Oh and be careful of those daiquiris... New Orleans knows how to make them correctly and on a hot day, they taste almost exactly like a Slurpee. Before I moved here (this was many years ago, I'd say probably around 15), I was in New Orleans in the summer. It was really hot and the daiquiris tasted really good so I drank them way too fast. I had three in about a half hour-45 minutes and was out cold not long after that. I'm just glad I did the bright thing and asked to go back to my boyfriends (he's now my husband) house by that time. I passed out on his couch. Let me add.... NEVER AGAIN. I didn't have a hang over other than being wayyyyy tired the next day but I didn't like the loss of self control that came with it.