If you’ve stopped by the Golden Pine motel and found the “Note from the Janitor” at reception with a key resting on top, you’re not imagining things: the nearby room labeled for Mr. Smith is locked, and for many players the key on the counter can’t be picked up. The result is a small but irritating progression dead-end in a location that also houses a separate collectible.

Golden Pine motel janitor note location and the locked room

The setup is straightforward. In the motel’s reception area, a handwritten “Note from the Janitor” mentions keys left at reception and even refers to two sets. A single keyring sits on the counter beside the note. Just down the hall, Mr. Smith’s room is sealed tight and requires that key.

Under normal circumstances, you walk up to the key, get an interaction prompt, and unlock the door. On many playthroughs, that prompt never appears, leaving the key as a prop and the door permanently shut.

Is the Golden Pine motel key bugged?

Based on in-game behavior across multiple saves, this appears to be a pickup/interact state bug tied to the motel reception prop. The common symptoms:

  • You can highlight, read, and interact with other motel items, but the key has no interaction prompt.
  • Reloading the area, dying and respawning, or hard-restarting the game does not consistently restore the prompt.
  • Completing side quests or main story beats doesn’t flip the state; players with 100% side quest completion still report the key as non-interactive.
  • Some players do encounter a working prompt in their save and can unlock the room normally, which points to an inconsistent state rather than a deliberate gate.

There’s no reliable in-game toggle, puzzle, or prerequisite that resolves the issue on affected saves. When the key doesn’t offer a prompt, it stays that way.

What’s inside Mr. Smith’s locked room

Players who managed to enter the room—either legitimately in unaffected saves or by forcing a collision glitch from below—describe a small stash consistent with early-game loot rooms. Expect everyday clutter plus consumables and a minor equipment perk. The notable pickup is a blueprint named “Volatile Trophy,” described in-game as granting +2% damage to melee weapons when applied. There’s also a short note referencing an urgent matter about an apartment on North Street.

It’s not a story-critical cache, but the blueprint is a nice early bump for melee-focused builds.

What you can try now (and what likely won’t help)

There isn’t a consistent, legitimate fix at the moment. The following have been widely attempted on bugged saves without dependable success:

  • Reloading the area, fast traveling away and back, or quitting to menu and reloading the save.
  • Triggering day/night transitions, sleeping, or dying/respawning nearby.
  • Clearing side quests first or advancing the main story to “unlock” the interaction.

Players have used collision exploits to clip into the room from below. That can work, but it’s unreliable, risks getting stuck, and can teleport you away from the motel. If you care about a clean save or consistent progression, it’s better to skip the glitch and return after a patch.

Practical next steps:

  • Leave the motel and continue your run; the room doesn’t block main story progression.
  • Revisit the motel after future updates; interaction bugs of this type are typically corrected in patches.
  • If you track your completion, make a simple note to swing back to Golden Pine later so you don’t forget the blueprint.

Is this tied to a side quest or hidden prerequisite?

No. Completing nearby side content or larger questlines does not reliably enable the key prompt on affected saves. The issue presents as a straight interaction bug rather than a quest gate, and it can occur even after you’ve cleared side quests in the region.

For now, treat the Golden Pine motel door as a known snag. It locks off a modest cache—most notably the Volatile Trophy blueprint—but it doesn’t derail the campaign. Keep playing, mark the spot, and plan a quick detour back once a patch lands so you can grab the blueprint the intended way.