It's been a while since I visited Mr. Patel's place on Hillcroft just north of 59, so this may or may not be news, but I figured I'd share. Last week I visited the place for the first time in over six months, and the conversation I had with the young manager as I was checking in was... weird.
First he asked me if I've been there before. I immediately started laughing: a man from India is asking me a question that I usually hear from a Korean woman. And without thinking I said "Yes, but it's been a while", and started laughing even harder. Just when I was half expecting that he'd ask who I saw last time I visited, he swept my ID, looked up on his computer and said: "ah, you've been here in 2009". What, they keep the records??? WTF????. Then, he said "we changed our policy, we now ask both guests to show their IDs". You what? He repeated himself, and I walked back to my car to rely the news to my soon-to-be Palace Inn roomate.
Of course she didn't have an ID on her, but instead of panicking I suggested we try our luck and have her tell Mr Patel some BS excuse for not having an ID and giving him a made up name. It worked: he typed up whatever porn star name she gave him, and we got the keys for one hour. Btw, it's $25 per hour now... I remember when it was $25 for two hours and $20 for one.
Anyway, I wanted to ask the audince: for how long has this been going on? Since when both guests need to give IDs in ANY hotel, in this city, in this state, in this country??? Is this just the PI on Hillcroft, or did the po-po made all hourly motels start doing the same?