A Miami hotel is facing backlash over a viral video that claims the front desk was staffed by an outsourced worker to welcome new guests during the check-in process.
In the video, a guest who booked a stay at a La Quinta by Wyndham was welcomed by a tall screen displaying a virtual front-desk employee — who allegedly was in India.
“Do you need one room key or two room key?” the worker can be heard asking in the video, which has more than 2 million views since being posted on Saturday.
The guest replies: “Two, just in case I lose one.”
The hotel customer then signs a form on the screen using their finger.
The interaction led social media users to slam the hotel chain for outsourcing jobs to overseas workers.
“More American jobs outsourced overseas. At some point this should just become illegal. If you make money in America, you should hire Americans,” one user wrote in a post on X.
Another sniped: “What hotel, so I can be sure to avoid it?”
Some frustrated users even called on President Trump to target the practice by slapping tariffs on US-based companies that outsource jobs to overseas staffers.
A spokesperson for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which owns La Quinta Inn, told The Post that it just learned about the matter and is actively investigating the situation.
“This is a franchised location, meaning the hotel is independently owned and operated, and as such, we don’t control staffing. That said, this franchisee’s use of this equipment is not brand approved nor is it being marketed to other franchisees,” a spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
“Further, our brand standards require hotels to have a team member physically stationed at the front desk at all times.”
The chain has several La Quinta locations in the Miami area.
It’s unclear how widespread the practice of outsourced virtual front-desk employees is at La Quinta hotels and other chains.
Wyndham does offer mobile check-in for some guests, according to its website.
A video posted to YouTube in February appears to show the same large tablet screen being used by an outsourced worker in a Wyndham hotel in Bonita Springs, Fla.
“I checked into a hotel by talking to a man on a screen in the entryway. I scanned my ID, swiped my credit card, and the machine provided me a key,” the user who posted the video wrote in the caption.
Another social media user said they had a similar experience with a virtual front-desk employee at a hotel in Dublin.
“Honestly, it was a lot quicker than dealing with front desk staff, and it prints out your keycard,” the hotel guest wrote in a post online.
Meanwhile, a hotel in Amsterdam allegedly used a fully automated check-in process, where guests fill out a form on an iPad, take a key card from a pile and tap it on a reader to activate it, according to another user on X.
“There’s really no reason for these jobs at all in today’s age,” they added.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
