"Terry J. Wood" <TJW@vms.cis.pitt.edu> (06/21/91)
On a recent vacation, I made the mistake of getting room 411 in a hotel. I also made the mistake of being the one to sleep next to the telephone. Around 3 AM the phone rings: Me: "Yea, uh, what, uh, HELLO?" Some woman: "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!!!" Me: "That's nice. Goodbye" Ok, she didn't really say "Help. I've fallen and I can't get up", but she did say something similar. I also received several calls from other guests in the hotel asking for directory assistance. I guess that in some cities the number "411" connects you to directory assistance. However, dialing it inside the hotel connects you to room 411. Needless to say, I got a different room the next night.
Jack.Winslade@uunet.uu.net> (06/23/91)
In a message of <21 Jun 91 15:17:00>, Terry J. Wood writes: > On a recent vacation, I made the mistake of getting room 411 in a hotel. > I also made the mistake of being the one to sleep next to the telephone. > Around 3 AM the phone rings: { anecdote deleted } A year ago, perhaps as long as two, I recalled my experience working in a hotel in the 1970's and the ordeal of removing room 411 and renumbering the odd rooms of the '400' building ... 409 413 415 ... etc. for just this reason. If I remember correctly, my article was poo-poo'ed (I will not say by whom <grin>). I forget the exact rebuttal, but it was along the line that what I had recalled was very unlikely to happen in the real world. I am glad to see that someone else confirmed this. The problem of room 411 has been known to hotel managers for several decades. I am surprised the problem still exists, since I am sure the manager of the hotel in which you stayed has received many complaints. As an aside for those wondering, yes, we had a room 611, but no complaints that I know of. No, we did not have a room 911, our highest was 858 or something like that. Dialing 9 gave the usual off-property CO dial tone. Good Day! JSW [Moderator's Note: Some hotels get around this problem by requiring a digit *before* the room number. One here in Chicago says dial 9 for local calls, dial 8 for long distance calls, dial 7 followed by the three or four digit room number (if first digit after the seven is 3 or greater then expect two more digits and if first digit after the seven is 1 or 2 then expect three more digits), and dial 1 through 6 for special functions such as room service, front desk, valet, etc. Dial 0 for emergencies, do not disturb requests, etc. PAT]
"Lyle A. McGeoch" <lyle@dimacs.rutgers.edu> (06/24/91)
I had a similar experience. One summer I spent a summer living at Manhattanville College, which had an old-fashioned phone system in some of its dorms. If someone wanted to call you from off-campus, they would call some central number. The operator would make a light flash in your room, and you would call 661 (perhaps from the hall phone) to get connected to your caller. Well, I lived in one of the dorms with real phones, and as luck would have it my number was 611. We quickly learned that we had to take our phone off the hook before the 11 pm rush of calls started. Which made it hard for anyone to call us. Lyle McGeoch Amherst College
Larry DeMar <larry@chinet.chi.il.us> (06/26/91)
In article <telecom11.474.3@eecs.nwu.edu> TJW@vms.cis.pitt.edu (Terry J. Wood) writes: > On a recent vacation, I made the mistake of getting room 411 in a hotel. > I also made the mistake of being the one to sleep next to the telephone. > I guess that in some cities the number "411" connects you to directory > assistance. However, dialing it inside the hotel connects you to room > 411. Needless to say, I got a different room the next night. This situation is not unique to hotels. A friend of mine had extension 411 on the PBX at work. He got plenty of "directory" calls. After awhile (and before getting his extension changed) he would just give out numbers to people that asked (needless to say, he didn't have a phone book :). Email: chinet!larry@gargoyle.uchicago.edu