The punchline to Gordon Brook-Shepherd’s tale, reported in the Sunday Telegraph, about the Washington hotel whose computer was down so that the clerk couldn’t check in new guests (CI No 680) should have been simply that the clerk was bowled over by the brilliant idea that maids should be despatched to knock on doors and report back which rooms were occupied… but no, when he was conducted to his room a few minutes later, he was greeted by an agitated lady in her nightwear – the maids were no more use than the computer – and when he was finally allocated the penthouse suite, the electronic card key wouldn’t open the door, and the resident electronician had to be summonsed: he arrived armed with a stethoscope and took a full five minutes of prodding and probing before the electronic lock yielded.
