Multiple police reports and reviews from the last year cite several thefts at a hotel in Atlanta owned by Marriott, raising questions about the level of security on the premises.
Those incidents gained fresh attention after a woman posted a viral video on TikTok describing how her hotel room was burglarized last month.
Katia Jones told Fox 5 Atlanta she was in the city to visit family and friends and file her taxes. She stayed at the Courtyard Atlanta Buckhead.
According to a police report obtained by Atlanta Black Star, she left the room on March 2 at 6 p.m. and returned four hours later to find her room ransacked. She told police someone stole one of her suitcases and multiple items, including clothes, jewelry, and shoes. In her video on TikTok, she said that her birth certificate, social security card, and notary stamps weren’t taken, but the thieves removed them from her bags.
Police spoke with another guest named Laurye Mercer who stayed at the hotel the same night as Jones. She told police she left her room around the same time as Jones and returned to find her door open and her purse and a necklace missing. The report stated there was no forced entry on either door and that hotel management was checking surveillance videos and door entry logs.
Jones posted a screenshot of an email from the hotel general manager explaining that the logs showed her door was left open after she left her room.
“What they’re trying to do is say that I left my hotel room door open,” Jones said in the video. “First of all, I did not leave that room door open, not at all. I even put a ‘Do Not Disturb’ door hanger on the door because there wasn’t a need for anybody to come in.”
Jones suspected that hotel staff might be involved, saying that she and Mercer’s burglaries were not coincidental.
“The only way to get in that room is with a key, and someone went in that room and took my stuff,” she told Fox 5.
Multiple guests left Google reviews last month stating their rooms were also burglarized. Some also believe that hotel staff might have had a hand in the thefts.
“Okay I was here a few nights ago. Idk what yall got going on. But how the heck did $1,000 go missing & my grandmother’s necklace??? My door was SHUT! AND I LEFT OUT WITH MY COMPANY!!!! AINT NO WAY, NEVER TF AGAIN 👎🏽,” one reviewer wrote on Google.
“Staff will go in your room while you are away and steal your stuff. Then tell you that you left the door open so they are not liable,” another Google review states. “You ask for video footage and the completely ignore your request!! For your own safety do not stay here!!”
“Staff will go in your room and take your belongings. They are watching your every move and go in your room when you are not there. Don’t stay here,” another person wrote.
Since April 2023, three thefts were reported to Atlanta police, including the crime Jones reported.
One guest who stayed at the hotel last August told police that after he checked in and put his belongings in his room, he left for an event. He returned late that night to find his $6,500 gold chain, a $9,000 gold watch, a $4,200 Cartier watch, and $3,600 in cash missing.
When he alerted hotel staff, one staff member told him he was assigned to the wrong room and that housekeeping brought his belongings downstairs to the lobby while he was gone. His jewelry and cash were missing at that time. There were no surveillance cameras in the hallway to his room.
In November 2023, another guest reported that his GMC truck was stolen from the hotel’s front parking lot after he left it with the valet.
Fox 5 reported that another guest in March 2023 reported to police that his headphones, a company WiFi box, and reading glasses were stolen from his room.
Jones said she contacted Marriott’s corporate directors who told her they launched an investigation. The Courtyard Atlanta Buckhead general manager declined to comment on Jones’ theft complaint to Atlanta Black Star.
