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Wrong room number has 5-star hotel guest remanded, employee hospitalised
View(s):A mix-up at a 5-star hotel in Colombo on Wednesday, resulted in a hotel employee being hospitalised and an American guest spending a night at the Welikada Remand Prison.
Samuel Jerome Dealey, 40, head of Washington-based Monument Communications, was in Sri Lanka for meetings with clients. He was asleep in his room at the hotel when, close to midnight, steward Tisira Sunanda knocked on his door.
According to the complaint steward Sunanda (45), attached to the hotel’s mini bar section, lodged with the Kollupitiya police, he had been instructed to verify whether anything had been consumed from the mini bar, as the guest in that room was checking out.
“I was told by my superior to call over at room 677 to collect the mini bar bill,” he told the Sunday Times. He tapped and, receiving no response, opened the door.
“When I realised that the guest was in the room, I closed the door and checked with the reception about the status of the room,” he said. “I was told that the guest had come downstairs to pay the bill.”
Mr Sunanda opened the door for the second time and was allegedly assaulted by the guest. He was admitted to the National Hospital, Colombo, but discharged on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, Mr Dealey was arrested on Thursday morning and spent the night at the Welikada Remand Prison. The next day, he was produced before the Fort Magistrate and granted Rs 100,000 surety bail.
The incident was recorded on the hotel’s CCTV. Mr Dealey is staying in another 5-star hotel in Colombo, till October 23, when the case will be taken up again. He said the whole thing seemed to have been a misunderstanding and faulted the hotel for having reacted poorly.
Mr Dealey confirmed yesterday that his room number was 677. He said he had gone to bed around 9 pm and was woken up around midnight by the door opening. He said he saw light coming into the room from outside and had been frightened. “I was deathly quiet in bed, freaking out,” he said. When the door opened a second time, he called out and asked who it was.
Nobody responded, he said, and the door closed again. This time, he jumped out of bed, opened the door and confronted the employee, as he had not been behaving as a normal worker would. “Usually you knock very loudly, wait for someone to respond, knock again,” he said. “If you open the door, you turn on the lights or say ‘excuse me’ or somehow draw attention to your presence.”
Mr Dealy said he thought that the employee had been a thief. “I asked him who he was and what he was doing in my room,” he narrated. “There was an unintelligible reply.” He had told steward Sunanda to wait till he got dressed, so they could sort it out downstairs.
“He started backing away,” Mr Dealy said. “I wasn’t having that. I thought he will pull a runner, so I grabbed him by the lapels to detain him and shoved him against the wall. He fell down. I did not hit him. I had his name tag with me. I put on my trousers and marched him down to the front desk where I asked for hotel security.”
Hotel security spoke to both parties and said there had been “a horrible confusion.” “I said if it’s an honest mistake, it’s an honest mistake,” Mr Dealey claimed. “I offered the employee my hand, shook his hand and went up to bed.”
He had thought the matter settled when, the next day, around four or five hotel security came up to his room with the police. He was told he had to go to the police station and soon realised he was being arrested.
“I don’t fault this guy (the employee), but the hotel management exercised very poor judgment,” Mr Dealy said. “I think they are not doing their staff any favours by not training them.”