Hotel group apologises to shaken guest after midnight scare in Cape Town

A leading hotel group has apologised to a startled guest who woke as a "strange man" entered her room just before midnight in Cape Town, saying it was a "genuine error".

"I got woken up by a strange man walking into my hotel room. The noise from the door was loud enough to wake me up," the woman said in a post on X at 12am on Monday.

"He is a staff member and has a universal key card. I started shouting at him as soon as he was in my line of sight. I am so scared," she wrote.

She had been staying at the Protea Hotel by Marriott Cape Town Waterfront Breakwater Lodge. The man said he was checking on the room's occupation status.

Marriott Hotels told TimesLIVE they had since apologised profusely.

“We understand the shock this must have caused to our guest," said a company spokesperson.

"As soon as we were made aware of what happened, we gave her our deepest apologies, and we are now working to move her to alternative accommodation for her reassurance. 

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests is always our priority. While this genuine error was made as a result of our IT systems being down overnight, we will review our processes to make sure this does not happen again.”

TimesLIVE