Some friends and I stayed at the Holiday Inn in National city (about 4 miles away from the San Diego Convention Center) for the San Diego Comic-Con 2010. The room and staff were nothing above average, but a Droid Phone was STOLEN from our room on 7/24/10 by what we assume to be an EMPLOYEE of the hotel.
After checking billing, we found that it was being used after the time we noticed it gone, confirming our suspicion of theft.
It's nice that the rooms lock behind the guests, but we felt horribly violated that our phone was stolen.
Furthermore, since the rooms lock behind the guests, one can only assume that it couldn't have been a passerby that just walked in to grab the phone. The only ones who had access to our room were the hotel staff, and yes, we did have housekeeping come in to clean each day.
It took about a week of playing phone tag with the hotel and the parent company (IHG) to finally get a call from the insurance company.
Just a quick note, IHG is super cool. They were really happy to help and understood that I wanted some compensation not just for the phone but at least for part of the room. An experience like that really puts a damper on the whole trip.
I also found that one had better not have an emergency on a Sunday evening, because there is NO MANAGER ON DUTY those nights.
I was contacted by a rather rude insurance representative (Sheri Glosemeyer) by snail mail claiming she had been trying to call (everyone up the way had correct contact info). She said she would discuss reimbursement of the phone but not the room. Before I could explain our feelings of violation, she rudely interrupted me. She said, "I can't imagine how a stolen phone could ruin your whole trip."
I replied, "Well, you must have never had anything stolen from you on a vacation before."
BOTTOM LINE: I will not stay in a hotel where the safety of my personal belongings is in question, nor will I stay in a hotel where their version of "taking care of you" is not entirely in your best interest.