I've had luck in almost every major city in the USA and a number of places around the world. I have found that many of the hotels that require key access to elevators can be worked around by having the top wait until someone else gets on who is staying there and they can activate the elevator with their card - all the guy has to do then is punch in the floor. Some hotels have executive floors that require key access - I try not to stay on those, but once in a while it happens. If I find myself on one of those, I ask the top to get off on the floor below, find the stairs and walk up - they CANNOT lock the door to any floor from the stairs - it's against fire code.
For the door, I do something that you might find useful - especially if I cannot simply jar the door slightly - some are SO heavy that they won't stay open. If that's the case, or if I'm at a sleazy motel (doors open to the outside), I always have a roll of 2 inch wide gaff tape and some extra old hotel key cards. Cover a couple of the key cards with the gaff tape so that they are completely covered. Then, lay them one at a time on the desk or table and take four strips of gaff tape that are much longer than the key cards and tape each card to two of the strips. Open the door to your room, and place one of the taped up key cards against the area of the door where the cut out holes/slots are for where the deadbolt slides into, etc. and cover them completely. At this point, you may be able to simply close the door, and it will just pull open and push closed easily with no fuss. If so, the door will look closed and locked, but will actually stay unlocked and tops can easily enter the room, dump their loads and then head out.
I've attached some pics to illustrate... in this instance, I've only used one card and taped it to the metal area of the door jam. Other times, I've used a thickness of two cards; and still at other times, I've used both... one on the door jam, and the other taped over the deadbolt and other mechanism on the actual door to hold them back.
The gaff tape is the BEST type of tape to use - it sticks to just about anything, holds really well, and will come off easily without making any marks or leaving any residue. It can be easily ordered off of Amazon.
