I'm a hotel night clerk myself, have been for years. I don't have any problem going up to a room to quiet down rowdy guests, but I know female desk clerks who are hesitant, for safety reasons, to do the same.

For what it's worth, the quietest hotels are those that cater mostly to businessmen, who want quiet so they can sleep. Hotels that cater to tourists and travelers are usually much noisier, as are convention hotels.

I'm so sorry.

The one and only time kids kept me up in a hotel it was a roomful of teen girls next door. Two calls to the front desk didn't do much. It was about 2:30 am when I got to sleep; I had to get up at 6:30 am.

The young ladies were passed out by that time, so I called their room to see if they'd perhaps forgotten to put in a wake-up call. And again, 15 minutes later. And again. If four hours of sleep was good enough for me, I figured it was good enough for them.

Judging from the expletives I heard screamed by the third phone call before 7 in the morning, they didn't agree.

I would expect the front desk of any hotel should be able to send people around to quiet down a noisy room.

If it's still going on, you might record it for your call tomorrow to corporate headquarters, when you ask for a full and complete refund.

Actually, you're far too nice to the night clerk. It was her job to deal with the situation. If she's not up to dealing with a situation (which can happen in any hotel), then she ought to have someone she can call for support.

Get noise cancelling head phones, buy the nastiest porn avalible, crank the volume, put on headphones,

"I would expect the front desk of any hotel should be able to send people around to quiet down a noisy room."

Actually, this is a rather mild example of one of those times when, no, you can't get someone else to do something for you.

A severe example would be one of self-defense.

You wish and wish that someone else could make the problem go away, but no, that's not happening. You're just gonna have to deal with it yourself in these cases.

@Radwaste: Since this was a nice hotel, getting an undisturbed night's sleep is actually part of what Amy was paying them for - so it really is their job.

That said, I agree with you: if the night clerk couldn't or wouldn't deal with it, I would have gotten up, hunted down the parents, and told them what kids ought to be doing in hotel hallways at 11pm - i.e., nothing at all. At least in my case, though, the interaction would likely get me so riled up that sleep would in any case be impossible...

My wife and I had the same problem in a hotel where it sounded like a herd of buffalo was stampeding on the floor above us. The female desk clerk wouldn't do anything when I called. I threw on some clothes and visited with her in person. Told her she could fix it or I'd call the police and report a disturbance; how was her boss going to like police cars in front of his hotel?

Trouble vanished.

I finally went out myself and told them to be quiet. But in a nice hotel, I shouldn't have to do this. The sales manager, whom I talked to this morning, agreed.

I was dead tired and a little brain-foggy from flying, as I tend to get, and I figured they didn't have hotel security or she would have sent them up. Indeed, they do, and the sales manager said they should have been called. He said people get one warning and then the police are called and people are thrown out of the hotel.

I just needed not to have to manage this myself; furthermore, it can be dangerous to go interact on this level with strangers. I needed to sleep so I finally just did it myself, Wicked Witch of the West-style.

Anyway, I'm ultimately thrilled to be here. I'm picking up my puppy and flying back to LA tonight.

Similar thing happened to me when I traveled with #1 when she was an infant. Gang of kids roaming the hotel hallways at 11:30, going to the pool or wherever, but going back and forth. I poked my head out the door and said "Excuse me, I have a baby in here and she needs some sleep. Would you mind keeping it down, please? Thanks." And just as I was closing the door, I heard "Bitch needs to keep her kid home!" Well. I called the front desk, and yes, the woman manning the desk said there wasn't much she could do, would I like to change rooms? With an infant? Ohnothankyou! She said that the noise-makers were there for some high school competition or other, on the same floor as we were. Okay.
Next morning, #1 woke up in a really cranky mood, and wouldn't stop wailing. I walked her right by those kids' rooms on our way out. Three times. Third time, the door opened, girl looked at me and started to say something and I said, "Oh I'm sorry, is she too loud? Bitch didn't get any sleep last night." Her jaw dropped, she said not a word, and closed the door.

Amy, best of luck with your new little puppy! Pictures, please!

" . . . furthermore, it can be dangerous to go interact on this level with strangers."

This, a thousand times this. If the parents (or whatever passes for the adult in charge) don't care how distruptive they are being, then how will they react when you approach them?

One time (and certainly it should have been a more mind-my-own-business situation that Amy's noisy hotel) I saw a kid open and eat some cookies in the grocery store. I went to get the manager and pointed it out to him - the mother turned on me! How dare I accuse her son of stealing! Luckily, the manager wasn't a shrinking violet, he let her have it back.

Now, that was in the day time in a store with other people around - what if the adults in charge of these little rug-rats were far worse? What if these adults didn't care because they were drunk or stoned or whatever out of their minds and turned on Amy with no one around to support her?

No, it is sometimes best to have those who should be in charge of handling the situation actually handle it, or let them know that they need to.

Kevin and Flynne - love those stories!

Last work trip I took, rowdy teenagers in the room above me decided it would be cool to flood their bathroom. Water started coming out of the ceiling in my room everywhere. I had to move my hanging clothes out of the closet and pile them on a chair. The desk clerk offered to move me to another room. So I gathered up and prepared to move. Half an hour later they called and said, sorry, the hotel is full.

Part of my bed got wet and I spent the rest of the night sleeping on one side. The day staff was very apologetic the next morning and they comped my room -- which my employer was happy about, but it did absolutely nothing for me.

Here's one that happened to us a couple of years ago. Hotel in Spain, we're exhausted from jet lag, thin walls. Couple next door is being amorous. Very, very loudly amorous. All night long. Without pausing. We knock on the wall and they quiet down for five minutes, then resume louder than ever. Finally at 4:30 AM I gave up trying to sleep and went to the gym to force myself through a treadmill run. Maybe we should have called the front desk but felt embarrassed to do so. How would you have handled this?

I agree with roadgeek. I would have called downstairs, and if they didn't take care of the problem, I would call them again and say, "Either you take care of this problem or I call the police and have them deal with the disturbance.

My only question, is what the hell little league players were doing awake at 11:00 pm?

Way to parent!

Totally with Amy on this one. She shouldn't have had to do it, but seeing as how she did, she was totally within her rights to be as bitchy as possible.

Patrick has a good idea too.

"the Buddy Holly Deathplane..."

Regional jet?

The clerk was not doing her job.

Having said that, well, she wasn't doing her job. I think it's ok to knock on the door and ask them to quiet down, or to try and find the adults responsible.