The most widely deployed of these systems is made by Honeywell under the INNCOM brand. If you’ve stayed at a Hyatt, Sheraton, Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock, DoubleTree, InterContinental, or about a thousand other properties in the last decade, there is a very good chance you’ve woken up in an overheated room because of one of these thermostats. Honeywell has reported the system is installed in over one million hotel rooms worldwide.
Here’s what the hotel doesn’t advertise: there is a built-in override.
VIP Mode: The Hidden Setting Hotels Use for Important Guests
INNCOM’s own product documentation describes it. It’s called Limited Energy Management mode, or LEM mode, and it’s also commonly referred to as VIP mode. According to the official manual, it’s “a special mode that can be enabled when an important or discriminating guest is checked into a room.” In VIP mode, the thermostat allows a much wider temperature range, ignores the motion sensor, and keeps running regardless of whether the system thinks anyone is in the room.
The hotel can enable it from the front desk for any guest. You can also enable it yourself at the thermostat in about three seconds.