When I checked into the hotel in Pittsburgh about 9:00 pm, I went up and got into bed right away. My room on the 6th floor (at the discounted conference rate) was a bit small, but fine. It had a locked door to allow connection to the next room.

A few hours later I was awoken by the sounds of enthusiastic sex coming through said doorway. Good on ‘em, I thought, groggily. There was a lull, and I dozed off. But then it started again. And kept going.

Still somewhat jet-lagged, I was neither awake nor asleep for a while. But the noise continued. I decided the neighbors must have been making a movie. There was more than one male voice, saying all manner of things, and her various vocalizations were just too over the top.

Finally about 3:00 am I went to the front desk to complain. The security guard came up and spoke to someone in the room, and there was another lull. But it didn’t last.

I had a pair of foam earplugs, luckily, and put them in and got some sleep. I woke up at 9:00. She was till going strong.

So down to the desk I went. By now I was convinced that this was a prostitute in the room… and I guess part of what men pay for is that the sex should be noisy!

I went on to my meetings, and later in the day I was able to move to another room. I traded my 6th-floor view of an air conditioner for a 23rd-floor view as shown above, so that was a plus. And no connecting door. My new neighbors had some people over that night (Saturday before a football game) but after that were fine.

It’s tricky to know what to do about that situation, and I left it in the hotel manager’s hands. A girl’s gotta make a living, after all, and that’s one way to do it. But with all the stories of human trafficking you hear, it could have been much more sinister than some blokes getting a little something on the side.