Quirk Hotel Richmond, a Destination by Hyatt Hotel

The main reason for my disappointment and my overall reluctance to recommend this hotel is for security reasons. Like most hotels that are commonly frequented by non-staying guest( for their restaurants), you are required to present a room key to gain access to hotel room floors. This is for the safety and privacy of the staying guest. So most elevators will allow non-staying guesting to access the lobby and the restaurant floor only, and you would need a room key to access anything else. I was staying on the top floor of the hotel and in order to access the residential area of the hotel I needed a room key. Great, this is good. HOWEVER, I decided to take the stairs from the first floor to my room so I could get my steps in for the day, and found that taking the stairs gives you DIRECT ACCESS TO THE RESIDENTIAL AREA WITHOUT REQUIRING A ROOM KEY TO GAIN ENTRY. I did not need to use my room key at all except to open my room door. And as I'm sure you can see from the pictures of the hotel, the stairway is located front center in the lobby, so anyone who took them could walk straight up to the penthouse suites. I'm not sure if this is a common thing or not as I dont often take stairs at a hotel, however I found this extremely unsettling. For this to be a relatively popular hotel, it is concerning to know that anyone could access my floor at any given time, especially in today's day and age. The stairs are located in a place of plain visibility in the center of the lobby ( you can see them in pictures), so in theory, you could monitor whether or not people taking them are a guest or not, however there is no such person standing in place. Moreover, during busy spells at a hotel, whether by having lots of bookings,or during restaurant hours when the hotel is more populated, it would be easy for someone to go unnoticed. To be frank, I did have a few other complaints but they pale in comparison.