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TIFU By Leaving My Key In My Hotel Accommodation

I am currently in Greece, and I booked a hotel in Athens between 17 and 19 March. It has a private restroom, one queen bed, one single bed, Wi-Fi, and air conditioning/a heating system. It only costed me $74 for two nights, and I am in the very centre of Monastiraki, which meant noise would certainly be an issue as some restaurants decide to blast loud music.

My hotel includes three keys and a card used to gain electricity. Whenever I exit the hotel, I always bring my keys with me so I wouldn't get locked out, and I probably entered and exited the hotel room 4 times (twice on Monday, to leave my luggage and to check on the concert noise at 23:30 and twice on Tuesday, to visit the Acropolis/Agora and to visit the Archeological Museum after a brief nap).

However, today, I checked out of the Athenian hotels. I woke up at 7:20, and checked through the whole room before checking out. Even though I got everything out of the hotel room, I forgot to take out my hotel keys from the electricity card, and hence, I was locked out.

I had to contact the hotel through text messages via Booking.com as my phone is not equipped for international calls. Due to the fact TextNow won't let me pay for international credits to call any locksmith, I got so infuriated and hotel tenants nearly called the police on me for having a tantrum. Due to the the text now app was installed on my Android (S24U) and not my iPhone, I had to pay via Google Play, but because I filed a charge back after some fraudulent payment came from Google, I couldn't pay for credits using Google. That meant I had to use PayPal, but I couldn't login to PayPal because the PayPal account needed to be the exact same as my Gmail. That made me increasingly stuck, until the hotel offered me to pay 50 EUR to them in exchange of them finding a locksmith.

I paid 50 EUR via the Greek venmo. But first off, I had to get a verification authentication code from Bank of America. Unforthnately, BOfA doesnt support 2FA OTP via VOIP or Whatsapp, which meant I have to have access to an American phone number. That meant I had to pay $6.25 for one day's access to Mint's international pass for a single text message because American banks are inflexible and stifling in terms of innovation. If Mint kept their UPROAM plans where you add credits, then it would facilitate international travel, but now, they are charging a minimum of $6.25 for one day's worth of 1GB, 180 texts, and 60 minutes, which is a waste of money as I already have a Schengen SIM card.

I ended up paying, and then I left the hotel and gave the hotel a decent review due to the price, cleanliness, and comfort, and attributed the "low points" to user error.

Fun fact: many Greek toilets are quite bad. The only thing I did was I peed and I never threw any toilet paper. Yet, the toilet clogged. Greek toilets advise you to not throw paper into the toilets and instead, throw it in the trash. I never experienced this in other EU countries I have visited, even the poorer European and non European countries such as Türkiye, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzigovina, North Macedonia, Thailand, or Vietnam.

TL;DR: I made a huge mistake of leaving the key at the door and regretted it. I paid 50 EUR for a "stupid mistake" by being too impulsive.

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