Hello,

I had a stay at the W Hotel in New Orleans on Poydras Street and had
an unnerving experience. I'm not aware if this actual chain of hotels
promote the "exhibitionist & voyeur" type environment on the side of
the "trendy", "modern", "hip" thing they have going on or if it's just
this particular hotel. I've always been curious as to why they always
say "Welcome to Wonderland"? Could it be because they offer a way to
pay to peep at the guests in their rooms? Well let me tell you what
happened to me to see if you can research any similar stories or
should I say horror stories from this hotel. My friends and I made a
trip to this hotel recently and I recently came up with the feeling
that they knew something about the type of "peep at the guests" type
service they offer without ever letting me know of this and still to
this day will not admit it. One of these friends was living in New
Orleans not too long ago for awile so maybe this had something to do
with it? Could it be that my friends were friends of a manager of the
hotel that does this sort of thing for certain people only? Or is
there a secret code word or way to get this service? In the actual
hotel room when I'd be alone in it and my friends would be gone, I'd
constantly hear doors close to our room open and close as if people
were going in and out of these rooms constantly -- as if they were not
actual occupiable hotel rooms but the rooms behind the actual hotel
rooms to which you could look through peek holes or air conditioner
vents and spy. At one point in particular an air conditioner vent
about 3 foot tall by about 2 feet wide along the way (which I thought
looked out of place when we first got in the room) would be slightly
more opened than it was originally, just out of nowhere! And if that's
not enough you could hear voices and people whispering behind the
vent. Also in the bathroom there was a very prominent hole near the
top left side of the shower adjacent to the shower head. It protruded
as if it was intentional and very out of place...every time I would go
to the bathroom I could hear a ladder or some kind of thing slide over
and then hear voices near the hole. As if there were peeping toms in
these special places located all over the room. I'm sure these are not
the only places the peep holes are located. I have a feeling they are
everywhere...the public bathrooms, elevators...they even have cabanas
outside near the rooftop pool that couples would go in, shut the
curtains and I'm assuming have a good time. There were TVs in these
cabanas too and I have a feeling probably hidden cameras projecting
what goes on in these cabanas somwhere like the exercise room. What I
would really like to know is if there is any experiences on the web or
on complaint forums of similar instances of people feeling like their
privacy is being invaded by this hotel? Isn't this illegal and if
there isn't too many special cases like this, do you think it would be
worth it to sue? And one last thing... I checked out of the hotel
early -- mainly because I felt my friends were the ones who had paid
or somehow obtained this service to watch me (their supposed friend)
in all his glory (in the shower, on the john, etc.) without my
permission but with the permission of this hotel. Any insight, links,
information will be greatly appreciated.

---

Clarification of Question by hypertrophy-ga on 06 Sep 2004 02:13 PDT

Just an update: I called this same hotel today pretending to want a
reservation and told them I would like the "extra special services"
added to my reservation and that I had been there before and "had it".
The guy in reservations told me this exactly, "You can set that up
here in the hotel sir." Could this really mean it's available to
anyone who knows about it?

---

Clarification of Question by hypertrophy-ga on 10 Sep 2004 03:23 PDT

I raised my bid to the highest possible, can someone please try to
find something about this specific hotel or incidents on
forums/blogs/travel complaints about some kind of peepholes, peek
shows, or something on the invasion of privacy at the W hotels. There
has to be something...maybe even on voyeur/exhibitionist
topics/forums? Please comment if you are working on it or know
something.

Dear Hypertrophy, 

First of all, before I address the legality and the alleged voyeurism,
let me repeat the disclaimer on the bottom of this page "Answers and
comments provided on Google Answers are general information, and are
not intended to substitute for informed professional [...] legal [...]
advice".

Violating your right for privacy, voyeurism is unconstitutional and
against the law. In particular, anyone who records you or captures you
in video without your expressed consent is violating laws of the State
of Louisiana. If you suspect that such a crime had been committed
against you, your first resort should have been the police. However,
because of the complexity of the case (and difficulty to prove it),
you should be advised:

- First, to be certain that it was not just an eerie feeling that
you're being watched, but that you have been in fact watched; you
could ascertain that by hiring a private investigator that?d go
through the story. This might be expensive and time consuming, because
(for example) it might mean that someone should become an employee of
the hotel in order to know the truth for sure. Your phone call might
be helpful. But then again, as a former employee in the business, I
could tell you that "extra special services" you referred to could be
anything from having a prostitute organised by the hotel (more common
than what people might think); throwing a party there; spa or other
health treatments; VIP cards to special events; etc.

- Second, after you have some hard proof, contact a lawyer. If you are
right, you are heading for a battle against a large hotel chain. Not
an easy deal for anyone.

Here are some legal resources that might help you: 

House Rpt.108-504 - VIDEO VOYEURISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2003 
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&db_id=cp108&r_n=hr504.108&sel=TOC_2691&> 

Louisiana Law: RS 14:283 Video Voyeurism
<http://www.legis.state.la.us/tsrs/tsrs.asp?lawbody=RS&title=14&section=283>

The National Centre for Victims of Crime 
<www.ncvc.org/> 

Now for the findings, which, I should warn you, are not much, despite
scanning the net and having searched some really despicable dark
corners of the world-wide-web. Some of the sites that were found would
not be linked here, as you are probably aware of Google Answers'
policy not to link to adult or possibly illegal material.

W Hotels themselves, at least in their Montreal branch, proud
themselves of having a "voyeur showers" (in French: " douche
indiscr?te", indiscrete showers,
<http://www.starwood.com/whotels/search/guest_rooms_amenities.html?propertyID=1471>).
I haven't found a definition of these showers, except for something
written in the Guardian "stylish rooms feature "voyeur showers" with
just a curtain for privacy" (SOURCE: The Guardian Online, "C'est chic?
You bet", Saturday August 21, 2004,
<http://travel.guardian.co.uk/cities/story/0,7450,1287602,00.html>).
However, and this is important to mention here, there is no proof that
the hotel spies or peeps on its guests without their consent and
knowledge.

Some site called "spycam" claims to have made pictures in a W Hotel.
However, again, there is no proof that this thing is done with the
knowledge or consent of W Hotel. In fact, there is no real proof that
the picture presented there are not porn pictures, made by
professional porn models/actresses with the intent of  making it look
"amateur" and "peeping tom" style videos. A similar site, called
"Club-Voyeur", claims also to have "Free Files section updated with
B/W Hotel Room Bathroom #2 Escalator Upskirt (mallcam76.mpg), plus
photos "outdoor upskirt contributions." Again, it can't be guaranteed
that this was taken in a W Hotel, that it is "real" (not made by porn
professionals). A bulletin board called "Titty Board" offers a video
titled "Sandy gets laid in the "W" Hotel (lesbo-xxx)". Regarding all
three, it is worth mentioning that similar results would probably
appear if I tried names of other famous hotel chains.

In fact, searches for "W Hotel" (or "hotels") and voyeurism, voyeur,
"hidden camera" and similar themes, come out pretty thin, in
comparison to the general affluence of porn and nudity online. More
specifically, no one, even in those porn and voyeuristic forums,
discusses the option that the hotel would legitimise such an action or
organise it as a "special treat" for some guests. The porn pieces
themselves, as I explained before, would not be enough to prove
anything, as they could be doctored or "fake" (in the sense that they
are not "real" voyeurism).

There are some other people who claim to have had a horrible
experience (though of a different kind) in W New Orleans:
Trip Advisor, W New Orleans
<http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60864-d125161-r2431981-W_New_Orleans-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html>
and also <http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60864-d125161-r1508104-W_New_Orleans-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html>,
as well as <http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60864-d125161-r1387847-W_New_Orleans-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html>.

Another New Orleans story from Trip Advisor you might find interesting
is this: "The engineer came to try to fix them but ended up muttering
something about "problems in the walls", offered me a free breakfast,
and left." (SOURCE: Big Advisor User Reviews,
<http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60864-d125161-r1639350-W_New_Orleans-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html>).

Regarding noise in the room, another user has written "The noise from
the other rooms was also quite audible as the walls were paper thin"
(SOURCE: Trip Advisor,
<http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60864-d125161-r1272429-W_New_Orleans-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html>).
I know you claim for other sources of noise, but this is only to show
you that there were other guests complaining about noise.

I hope this answered your question. In order to research it, I removed
every possible porn blocker from my search engines, and searched for
terms such as "voyeurism", "voyeur", "naked", "nude", "hidden
camera"/s, "peeping", "peeping tom", ""extra special services", etc.

I think  you should talk to a professional -- i.e. your doctor about
the feelings you had. I think you are showing signs of clinical
paranoia.

Were you using any illegal drugs at the time, I.E. speed?