Years ago my wife and I were on a big driving trip which took us passing through Chattanooga. We stopped for lunch somewhere downtown, and noticed there was a cool, old hotel across the street from our restaurant.
This gave me an idea.
After we finished lunch I grabbed her hand and told her to follow me. We crossed the street, went into the hotel, and made a beeline for the elevator, as if we were guests, raising no suspicion. My wife had no idea what was up; I told her to trust me.
We took the elevator to some random floor and started walking down the hall. From all my business travel, I knew that in many old hotels, sometimes doors don’t always close all the way when people leave. In newer hotels, the doors are weighted so they will always shut fully. But older hotels? Sometimes not so much.
What I was looking for was a door just barely ajar from someone who was gone and had checked out. Halfway down the hall — bingo: a door not quite entirely shut. We slipped in and it was clear the guest had left for good and the maids hadn’t made up the room yet.