Westin Lagunamar-Beware of the Maids

Stayed at Westin Lagunamar April 12-19. Here's the facts you draw your own conclusions. Left at 7:30am Tues Apr 15th for an all day trip to Xel-Ha, returned at 7pm. Upon return all of my cash that was in a drawer near the bed was gone. Reported to security, they went thru all of our things(without wearing gloves) and could not fin the cash. Let me also add that nothing else was missing or displaced. Security went thru the lock register and confirmed that the door was locked when we left and the only person that went into the unit was the maid to clean the place. They interviewed her but couldn't prove anything, she cried a bunch of crocodile tears. There were also some inconsistencies in her story. The head of security treated us more like criminals than owners and the general manager didn't show his face.

Common sense says that you NEVER leave unsecured cash in your accommodations... You paid for an expensive lesson.

Does Lagunamar have safes?

DeniseM said:

Does Lagunamar have safes?

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Yes, usually in the closet

Lee

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So there was a safe, an you didn't use it??? That's on you...

Dargan1275 said:

Stayed at Westin Lagunamar April 12-19. Here's the facts you draw your own conclusions. Left at 7:30am Tues Apr 15th for an all day trip to Xel-Ha, returned at 7pm. Upon return all of my cash that was in a drawer near the bed was gone. Reported to security, they went thru all of our things(without wearing gloves) and could not fin the cash. Let me also add that nothing else was missing or displaced. Security went thru the lock register and confirmed that the door was locked when we left and the only person that went into the unit was the maid to clean the place. They interviewed her but couldn't prove anything, she cried a bunch of crocodile tears. There were also some inconsistencies in her story. The head of security treated us more like criminals than owners and the general manager didn't show his face.

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Ditto to Denise, you should always exercise common sense while travelling - ie. locking up cash, passports and other expensive items in the safe. Stolen cash could have been the least of your problems - good thing they didn't steal your passports. Whether you are in Mexico, France, Australia or even Chicago, always exercise caution. This is NOT unique to Lagunamar.

Yes they do have safes and you are correct Denise, but that morning we were a little rushed and I didn't lock it up like I usually do, but in a sense I left it in a drawer in a locked room so it should have been secured. It could have been taken from a safe by a maintenance man just like it was taken from a drawer in a locked room by a maid. Fortunately after a lot of negotiating and complaining we got our cash back from the reosrt, I think it was pretty obvious where it went.

To my knowledge, I don't think just any maintenance man can open the locked safes. Others may know about this....but thieves always look in the most obvious places....

If you leave cash in the room, in an unlocked place, EXPECT it to go missing in any hotel or resort.

cubigbird said:

To my knowledge, I don't think just any maintenance man can open the locked safes. Others may know about this....but thieves always look in the most obvious places....

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There is a second pin number that is longer than 4 digits that will unlock the safe. Head of security should be the only one that knows it.

Necessary for people that leave them locked when they leave or forget yo empty them.

Everything else has been said by others. Either this was lots of cash and should have been secured or less and open to this. In QR everyone takes credit cards so not sure why bundles of cash anyway.

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Seems to me that the OP should have been more surprised to find on returning, that everything was in place than to find cash money missing.

It's unfortunate. They lost a day of vacation putzing around with this, and more than likely the housekeeper lost her job. Both could have been avoided by locking up the valuables. How long would that take, half a minute or less?

Passepartout said:

Seems to me that the OP should have been more surprised to find on returning, that everything was in place than to find cash money missing.

It's unfortunate. They lost a day of vacation putzing around with this, and more than likely the housekeeper lost her job. Both could have been avoided by locking up the valuables. How long would that take, half a minute or less?

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In that case if the Maid did take the cash, and if she was fired then she got due justice. Most petty criminals just don't have common sense. Take a few bills and be done with it, don't take all of the cash!

billymach4 said:

In that case if the Maid did take the cash, and if she was fired then she got due justice. Most petty criminals just don't have common sense. Take a few bills and be done with it, don't take all of the cash!

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For a Mexican housekeeper, making very little- finding a stash of cash may have been just too big a temptation. We can never know. She may have had unusual circumstances, a sick child, or trying to help out aging parents. Whatever it was, we don't condone it, but we also should take some responsibility for not providing temptation.

I'll bet that you lock your car- or at least take your keys out of the ignition when you park it. When you go to a ball game, you don't leave a six-pack of beer sitting on your seat and go to the john. That's a sign that you feel that not providing the temptation is at least partly your responsibility.

The maid is not 100% at fault here.

Ive posted this before, but will do so again, often you only hear bad stories, but all is not wrong with the world.

April 2012 I was at the Marriott Aruba Ocean Club. Upon a rush check out I realized I had forgotten my gold mason ring (very expensive and worth even more sentimental value) in the safe. I was unable to call the resort until the next day. I spoke with housekeeping management, and they said the maids check the safe upon checkout and nothing was turned in. I asked them to check again, she said another guest was occupying the room but they would go in and check and get back to me. I figured it was long gone.(100% my fault of course)

Later that day I received a call, they said the owner was using the safe but they opened it and checked and found the ring under the carpet in the safe. She said she didnt want to use regular mail "because it looked expensive" so they fedex'd it.

Great ending to a great trip. To the OP, im glad the resort made it right, sometimes thats the best we can ask for.

Passepartout said:

For a Mexican housekeeper, making very little- finding a stash of cash may have been just too big a temptation. We can never know. She may have had unusual circumstances, a sick child, or trying to help out aging parents. Whatever it was, we don't condone it, but we also should take some responsibility for not providing temptation.

I'll bet that you lock your car- or at least take your keys out of the ignition when you park it. When you go to a ball game, you don't leave a six-pack of beer sitting on your seat and go to the john. That's a sign that you feel that not providing the temptation is at least partly your responsibility.

The maid is not 100% at fault here.

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Really?
I realize this is a tangent but with all due respect I have to disagree. Being pro active and stashing valuables would have been prudent yes but to share fault for them coming up missing in a locked room in a drawer is misguided. A theif made a conscious decision to take (steal) what was not theirs. That decision is solely the responsibility of the thief. What if the victim had retaliated physically on the perpetrator? Would you say they brought that on themselves? People make bad decisions and need to be held accountable. This being said I cant be certain who stole the money either way the fault lies with the thief.

Passepartout said:

For a Mexican housekeeper, making very little- finding a stash of cash may have been just too big a temptation. We can never know. She may have had unusual circumstances, a sick child, or trying to help out aging parents. Whatever it was, we don't condone it, but we also should take some responsibility for not providing temptation.

I'll bet that you lock your car- or at least take your keys out of the ignition when you park it. When you go to a ball game, you don't leave a six-pack of beer sitting on your seat and go to the john. That's a sign that you feel that not providing the temptation is at least partly your responsibility.

The maid is not 100% at fault here.

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If the maid did steal it, shes 100% at fault. Any other rationale is preposterous. Of course we dont even know if she stole it, so she can be 0% at fault.

You can always lecture the potential victim to minimize the danger by being proactive, and thats valid: like locking your doors before you leave your house, or not travelling in a dangerous area at night, but to say once you get victimized you share part of the blame is quite absurd to me. Noone forced the criminal to commit the crime, he did that of his own volition.

You know, some people make the argument when a girl goes out in a short skirt and shows cleavage, she is partly responsible if she gets sexually assaulted. I hope you dont extend your "temptation rationale" to such lengths.

SMHarman said:

There is a second pin number that is longer than 4 digits that will unlock the safe. Head of security should be the only one that knows it.

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When I was at WLR, the safe was similar to the others used at all the SVN properties. I know from experience that any member of the security dept can open the safe with a device, and possibly also a code. They needed to use it for me since the battery died during the day and wouldn't unlock when I needed it.

As for hotel stories, I think there's a lot to be said about stuff going missing. In my experience it's quite rare, but it happens. For instance, a few days ago I stayed at a Westin property and left my iPad power cable by mistake (it was early, the sun barely up and I was heading to the airport...). Stuff happens. But when I called the hotel after my flight and realized I didn't have the cable, I spoke with security who said housekeeping hadn't reported anything and that they would try to ask the guests in the room. Well, it's been a couple of days and I haven't heard anything. The cable and plug are worth ~$60 and while I'm not too worried about it, I find it very difficult to believe that the housekeeping staff didn't find it. It's not like we're talking about a small item.


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alohakevin said:

Really?

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Really. I didn't say the thief did not do wrong. But one has to take some responsibility. I return to my analogy. It's against the law to steal cars. But you lock yours and take the key. If a thief steals it, they are guilty as can be, but it's sure a lot more convenient for you if it doesn't happen.

Everyone here has also been very quick to lay blame on the housekeeper. We are all travelers here. How many times have we seen rooms open, a maid cart in front of the door and either no one in the room, or multiple housekeepers working one room together. Often in hotels it's just one working alone, but in bigger TS units, they often work in teams. Who's the thief?

billymach4 said:

Take a few bills and be done with it, don't take all of the cash!

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Excuse me??? What's wrong is wrong ~ whatever amount!

susieq said:

Excuse me??? What's wrong is wrong ~ whatever amount!

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i believe his point was, crimnals are stupid (and greedy) by taking the whole stash the owner will obviously be aware. Whereas if he took a portion, it may go undetected.

Its the like the valet boy, if he takes a few quarters from everyone's change tray, noone will notice and he's supplemented his hourly wage. But if he take your whole change tray, the jig is up.

I'm surprised that the hotel reimbursed your missing cash. Good for you. However, I agree that it's bad form to leave cash lying around, especially when the people who have access to your room are making substandard wages. If you'd ever leave that resort area to see how the average hotel worker lives, you might be more sympathetic about her "crocodile tears."

BTW, even if the maid was the only one to access your room in your absence, that isn't as damning as you think. When maids clean, they usually leave the door propped open. A thief would just have to wait until she was distracted (in the bathroom or lanai), walk in and help themselves to your cash.