KCNC

The general manager of a Denver hotel says the hotel is working with manufacturers to determine why New Year's guests were locked out of their rooms when the clock struck midnight and their room keys stopped working.

The 628-room Denver Tech Center Marriott says a room key malfunction kept guests out of their rooms from midnight until about 3 a.m. Hotel general manager Jennifer Atkins says it wasn't immediately known whether the malfunction was related to the year change.

Denver police called to the scene to deal with angry guests said no one was seriously hurt.

According to Denver CBS affiliate KCNC, witnesses reported seeing some disgruntled guests use inappropriate measures to attempt to get in their room.

"We were locked out, we couldn’t get in,” guest Leila Martin said. “People broke through the ceilings. There was drywall all over the place in the hallways. There were girls crying in the hallways.”

“We tried to get into our room and could not,” said Claude Moody, who spent several hours locked out of his room. “But one of our friends had a guest in the room next to him climb out the balcony on the atrium side and scale over to the other side, go in the room and open the door to let them in, so we hung out there for a while.”

Others said they just tried to make the best of the situation, and have a good time.

“Everybody had had a few drinks at that point, so everyone just kind of had fun in the hallways,” guest Dado Krnautivoch said.

Atkins says there were no confirmed reports of key card problems at other Marriotts and guests affected by the lockout were given free lodging.