Two friends have slammed a Dundee hotel amid claims a “creepy guy” entered their room in the middle of the night after staff mistakenly told him their room number.
Terri-Anne Mackay, 29, and Karina Meldrum, 25, from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire were staying the night in Sleeperz Hotel in Dundee on Wednesday October 14 with their two and four-year-old daughters.
However Terri-Anne dropped her room keycard and it was picked up by a complete stranger, who was able to get the women’s room number details from the reception and crept inside their room in the middle of the night.
Terri-Anne said she is desperate to get some answers about what occurred and said she felt the staff at Sleeperz Hotel had blamed her for the incident.
She said: “With all the new coronavirus restrictions we just stayed in the hotel – I am a smoker so I was going up and down to smoke but the others didn’t leave the room.
“I must have dropped my keycard because Karina woke me up in the middle of the night to say someone had just been in our room.
“It turns out the man had found my keycard and decided to go and find my room, which is really creepy.
“Anyone who had been watching me would think I was on my own.
“He went to the reception desk at 5.30am and was told my room number.
“When she woke up and saw him in the room Karina held her breath and didn’t move, and it wasn’t until she heard the noise of the door she let herself breathe again.”
In the morning the two women, who are students at North East Scotland College in Aberdeen, told the receptionist on duty about what had happened in the middle of the night and were eventually given a refund – however they said they feel they had been blamed by hotel staff for what had happened.
Terri-Anne added: “This could have turned out so differently.
“This was not an accident, he went out of his way to gain access to my room.
“But I was told it was my own fault for losing the keycard and that I should be careful who I give my name out to, but I didn’t do that.
“We kept being told we were overreacting and trying to pass the blame.
“We didn’t sleep the second night because we are two young women with young children, anything could have happened because this man was in our room in the middle of the night.
“There is a lock inside the door and once that’s locked no card can gain access.
“But before this I never thought of having to use that because I’ve never felt unsafe before.
“We have no idea how long he was in our room for or if I was being watched.
“It was a really bad experience, we don’t know if this guy goes around hotels doing this.
“I have stayed in hotels all my life but Karina hasn’t and she was so shocked someone could do that, and now she doesn’t feel comfortable going to a hotel again.”
Manny Baber, general manager at Sleeperz Hotel Dundee, said an investigation into what happened is now being carried out.
He said: “Sleeperz Hotel takes all complaints regarding the safety and security of our guest extremely seriously.
“An internal investigation is under way following a guest complaint that a member of the public gained access to their hotel room.
“The guest had lost her keycard outside the hotel and a man used it to gain entry to Sleeperz Hotel Dundee.
“Hotel staff encouraged Ms Mackay to report this incident to the police.
“Ms Mackay accepted the offer of a full refund for her two night stay and a change of room.
“This occurred on Ms Mackay’s first night in our hotel, she then chose to stay with Sleeperz Hotel Dundee for a second night.”
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