Motel 6 has stopped handing complete guest lists over to local police in some locations, its parent company, G6 Hospitality, has told the Daily Dot.
Of course, that means that the budget motel chain, one of the largest and most iconic in the U.S., did engage in that practice.
And it did so very recently: The news broke Tuesday, when Warwick, R.I., mayor Scott Avedisian told reporters that local police had arrested four people at a single Motel 6 location thanks to that hotel’s habit of sending cops its complete guest list each day. Officers routinely scanned the lists for names that matched with outstanding warrants, according to the Providence Journal, which reported that five area Motel 6 locations participate in that program.
G6’s Director of Public Relations, Raiza Rehkoff, confirmed Tuesday to the Daily Dot that indeed, the practice was live, but didn’t respond when asked exactly how widespread it was. But sometime over the next two days, the company changed its policy. Thursday, the company updated its statement, saying instead that “after further discussions with local authorities, it was decided that Motel 6 will no longer provide guest information to the local police.”
Rehkoff added that the Warwick location actually warned guests that their names would be given to local police, and that “this fact was clearly posted in the lobby of the hotel.”
This seems to contradict a previous claim by G6’s Vice President of Safety and Security, Victor Glover, who had told the Journal that informing guests that their whereabouts were given to the police was “not a normal process of our check-in.”
Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III