History Main / RoomDisservice

* ''Film/{{Commando}}''. Matrix has just killed Sully and is searching his room when BadAss villain Cooke arrives outside. Cindy answers the door with her shirt open and a coy smile, claiming she's "Room service" (implying she's an escort). Cooke is suspicious and makes her stand back from the door, but still misses Matrix hiding behind it.

* During a DiscoveryChannel documentary on ([[TheThemeParkVersion actual]]) {{ninja}}, some individuals where asked to act as bodyguards and "protect" a target (prevent his cap from being taken off) and were told that the attacker would strike like a ninja of antiquity would. He disguises as a set maintenance personnel to get through the bodyguards. [[spoiler: Though at first they're reluctant to let him in, but he succeeds in the end]].
* In ''ILoveLucy'', Lucy does this several times on their trip to Hollywood to get close to celebrities.

Also see DeadlyDelivery, SickbedSlaying, RansackedRoom, JanitorImpersonationInfiltration, InnOfNoReturn. Not to be confused with FanDisservice

* Played with in an episode of ''{{NCIS}}'' where Tony and Ziva are required to go undercover as [[UndercoverAsLovers married assassins]]. Since they're being watched by the villains, their own agents surreptitiously drop off necessary surveillance equipment in the guise of room service.

* The ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' episode "Double Vision" did this three times. One was Nene, pretending to be a drinks stewardess to watch a boomer designer; then Linna posing as the laundry girl; and finally Reika/Vision who impersonated a call girl in order to poison him so that she and her allies could ambush the ambulance later to kidnap him.

* Rather incompetently carried out by Rocco in ''TheBoondockSaints'': someone else got there first, he hid his gun in the most obvious place on the cart, he brought a six-shot .38 revolver because his bosses didn't tell him there were ''nine'' guys instead of the two he'd been told about (though you'd think he'd be smart enough to bring extra ammunition), and he didn't even bother to tie his hair back to make himself look respectably like a room service attendant. Not to mention, his name tag says Jaffar, and Rocco doesn't look remotely Middle Eastern.

** In the original French movie ''Series/LaFemmeNikita'' it's just a bug.

* ''LayerCake'' has a darkly amusing scene in which the protagonist has arranged a hotel room to have a sexual encounter with his love interest. Right before things "start off" he gets a knock on the door from room service, who turn out to be employees of the MagnificentBastard of the film, who proceed to stuff him into a bag and kidnap him.
* Done on the spur of the moment in ''NottingHill'' to cover up an affair. The hero explains his lack of uniform by saying he'd already changed to go home, then decided to take one last call.

* Lampshaded, attempted, and subverted in ''Film/{{Lethal Weapon}}'' 2 in rapid succession, wherein Riggs and Murtaugh give Leo Getz hell about answering the door, an apparent room service cart comes in and the waiter tries to go for Leo but is stopped via ''DestinationDefenestration''

* In ''VideoGame/FatalFury 2: The New Battle'', Joe Higashi uses this approach to try and ambush Krauser, who has beat the living hell out of his best friend Terry Bogard [[HeroicBSOD and left him a psychological wreck.]] [[GenreSavvy Krauser]] of course recognizes him.

* Played with in ''Film/{{Assassins}}''. When room service calls at the room that Rath and Electra are staying in, he points his gun at the closed door, [[GenreSavvy obviously well aware of this tactic]], but Electra confirms that she did actually order room service.

* Inversion: In an episode of ''KolchakTheNightStalker'', Carl Kolchak is waiting nerve-wracked in his hotel room with a cross in one hand and a sharp oak stake in the other to jump the vampiress call-girl he's been hunting for days as she comes through the door (which has a cross drawn on its inside in lipstick!). It turns out that the pimp substituted another girl at the last minute, and HilarityEnsues.

* In ''KillBill vol. 2'', a flower delivery woman comes to The Bride's hotel room. When The Bride goes to open the door, the florist shoots through the door, revealing herself to be an enemy assassin.

A classic ploy of {{Heroes}} and {{Villains}} alike for getting close to their opponents is to pose as hotel room service. Naturally, this works best if their target actually ordered some; people tend to get suspicious otherwise (though surprisingly not always, in Medialand).

* ''ThreeDaysOfTheCondor''. The CIA analyst office where the protagonist works has its own security -- CCTV cameras, locked doors, a guard -- even the receptionist carries a gun, though it's later revealed it's for her own protection against rapists. The killers get inside by sending in a man dressed as a postman, and as the place gets regular deliveries of books this doesn't seem strange. [[spoiler:The postman killer tries the same trick on the protagonist later on, but this time he's ready.]]

* The ''BubblegumCrisis'' episode "Double Vision" did this three times. One was Nene, pretending to be a drinks stewardess to watch a boomer designer; then Linna posing as the laundry girl; and finally Reika/Vision who impersonated a call girl in order to poison him so that she and her allies could ambush the ambulance later to kidnap him.
* A random post-credits sequence in ''SchoolRumble'' (not quite Main/TheTag in that it had absolutely nothing to do with the episode) had Akira foil just such a plan. The whole thing is rendered in a faux-3-D art style.
* This trope is used once in ''GunslingerGirl'', where some of the girls dress as room maids of a high-class hotel in order to kill a mark staying there. It works fine, until one of them bumps into actual employee, leading to a ShootTheDog moment. This is quite odd, considering that the girls look far too young to work in such an environment in the first place.
* In FatalFury 2: The New Battle, Joe Higashi uses this approach to try and ambush Krauser, who has beat the living hell out of his best friend Terry Bogard [[HeroicBSOD and left him a psychological wreck.]] [[GenreSavvy Krauser]] of course recognizes him.

** This scene was parodied in AustinPowers. Fails when Oddjob-parody Random Task's shoe-throwing is shown to be a completely ineffective means of fighting.

* ''White Sands'' (1992). The protagonist arrives at his motel to find the room being cleaned by two maids. So he doesn't expect a thing when they later knock on his door...until he finds himself with a gun at his head, whereupon the two search him for listening devices by [[KnifeNut slicing off his clothes with knives]], then they steal his briefcase full of money and leave instructions on where he's to meet the BigBad.
* This is how one of the hitman's assassination attempts goes in ''Bulworth''.

* In the early '70's SaturdayNightLive, a recurring sketch was the Landshark, a huge shark that tried to get into people's apartments by knocking on the door and saying, "Uh, candygram..."

* {{Archer}}, in its typical parody/deconstruction of all things Spy Genre, uses this trope a few times. An early episode of the first season has Archer training Cyril to be a field agent and lays out a hypothetical scenario where its unclear if this is in effect or if the three muscle-bound guys at the door really are hotel employees (Archer's point being that you can solve the problem either way by brandishing your gun at them: killing them if they are assassins or scaring them into not asking for a tip if they are just employees). It is later played straight in the second season when Archer is trying to protect a JailBait german heiress from kidnappers at a ski resort.

** In the original French movie ''LaFemmeNikita'' it's just a bug.

[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice For All'', [[spoiler: the assassin De Killer gets into his target's room disguised as a bellboy delivering tomato juice.]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheFallGuy'' had Colt going after a bounty who will not leave his house for any reason. After talking to the law enforcement official who had been watching the house and finding out the guy has been subsisting on takeout delivery, Colt goes up to the front door, posing as a pizza delivery guy (he just happened to have a pizza box in his truck. Subverted in that the guy loudly yells "I DIDN'T ORDER A PIZZA!" before charging out the house and attacking Colt. Fortunately for him, Colt won the fight because the pizza box contained [[spoiler: a barbell weight]].

* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' Sydney Bristow has done this on at least one occasion.

* [[TwoAndAHalfMen Rose]] did this to Charlie once. Notable as she had to fly in from England to do it.

* Used with spectacular non-success by Weasel on an episode of ''FamilyMatters'' when Eddie, Weasel, and Waldo wanted to meet a pop star.

* During a DiscoveryChannel documentary on ([[TheThemeParkVersion actual]]) {{ninja}}s, some individuals where asked to act as bodyguards and "protect" a target (prevent his cap from being taken off) and were told that the attacker would strike like a ninja of antiquity would. He disguises as a set manteinance personel to get through the bodyguards. [[spoiler: Though at first they're reluctant to let him in, but he succeeds in the end]].

* [[Series/{{Alias}} Sydney Bristow]] has done this on at least one occasion.

* In [[OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]], this trope is employed as part of an attempt to ruin Bank's new casino. They sneak into a prestigious reviewer's room while he's out and do all sorts of nasty things to the room, placing bedbugs in the bed, dirtying things, and feeding noxious gases into the vents.

* Lampshaded in {{Traffic}} when the breakfast service knocks on the door and, when prompted about who they are, respond with "The Mob." Subsequently played straight when [[spoiler:it turns out to be a SarcasticConfession, and the breakfast was poisoned. The real breakfast service shows up moments later, but too late]].

* The film ''Point of No Return'' (aka ''The Assassin'') has a sequence where the protagonist is required to pose as a room service waitress and deliver a trolley with a bomb planted on it to a hotel room.

* Done on the spur of the moment in ''NottingHill'' to cover up an affair. The hero explains his lack of uniform by saying he'd already changed to go home, then decided to take on last call.