[throwaway2037]

  > cause tens of thousands of dollars of damage

This is surely overstated. I am sure firefighters are trained to do the least amount of damage when forcing a hotel door open. I guess a handheld electric saw could do the trick in less than one minute.

[lotsofpulp]

Any non ancient hotel will have metal fire doors that cost near a thousand themselves, plus the metal framing and whatnot.

The cops or firefighters are not going to spend time cutting, they are going to bust it open with a battering ram which will ruin everything, requiring reframing, new door, new thresholds, new frames, new locks ($2k), and maybe flooring too.

And then add in opportunity cost from not being able to rent the room during repair, which would take weeks due to those materials not being available at Home Depot.

I would budget at least $10k, and I bet it would not exceed $20k, but either way, using a battering ram on a hotel door is very costly.

[jki275]

I can guarantee you avoiding damage to the door is nowhere near any list of things any firefighter gives a flying fuck about.

[rubidium]

Um, no they’re trained to get in as fast as possible. Life >> cost of any door.