Isn’t that how the setup works for any relatively large company? I admittedly haven’t worked in many, but that’s usually the case for corporate computers at least.
I think the idea there is that the whole Class B private range starts at 172.16.0.x so it's unlikely, that any hotel you're at would be using 172.16.42.x because it's so far irom the start of that range unless it's a chain that needs to keep its ranges separate between sites for VPN or documentation reasons.
Basically, seeing 172.16.42.x doesn't inherently mean something's wrong, and I'm sure people using the pineapple for nefarious reasons would be smart enough to change its default LAN, but if you see it, maybe be more cautious.
Also if you bring one onto a real network to pwn it you're probably deliberately not replacing it's DHCP server so you don't break static IP assignments (but you might fake the routes so traffic goes through you anyway with ARP spoofing, etc)