Housekeeping “Hassles” at Disney World
We’ve previously addressed Walt Disney World housekeeper shortages in What’s Up with Mousekeeping? That prompted a lot of questions about security checks and other policies. This takes a deeper dive into concerns about hassles and horror stories guests have had in resort rooms.
Unsurprisingly, there are also many fans who are skeptical of these claims, sharing that they’ve done many Walt Disney World resort stays over the years, and have never experienced anything like what’s described here. Others suggest putting up the “Do Not Disturb” sign as a simple way to resolve the problem. As always, it’s silly to assume that just because something has never happened to you, it is not occurring for anyone.
Generally speaking, you will not encounter the issues here if you don’t regularly take midday breaks or have housekeeping service your room. If you’re in the parks from 9 am to 7 pm, you won’t experience this issue. If you have your room cleaned, you also won’t experience it.
If you check either (not both) of those boxes, there’s a ~95% chance you’ll never experience the bulk of the issues discussed here, and have nothing to worry about. In other words, encountering these problems isn’t random, and there’s a reason why some guests have these issues every stay and others never experience them ever.
For “evidence” of the existence of these issues for some guests, see this viral reddit thread, which shares a horror story about what’s pretty much the worst-case scenario with room inspections. The chorus of top comments there offer their own experiences.
In fact, if you read through the comments here, you’ll find similar stories. Another common complaint is early morning departure day door knocks, waking them up prior to their 11 am checkout time. Over the last few years, readers have reported issues with this as frequently as the room inspections.
All of this sounds familiar. Here’s another more recent reddit thread, which shares more of the same. If you’re still not convinced, check out the reader comments below. Plenty more “evidence,” should you require it.
We thought it’d be worth revisiting this topic as of 2026 to see how things are going. We’ll start with departure day early wake-ups, and follow that up with room inspections…
Early Morning Departure Day Door Knocks
Over the years, we have experienced the ~9 am knocking on our departure day. This has happened despite having the “Room Occupied” sign on our door. (Although they’re often characterized as “Do Not Disturb” signs, that’s no longer what Disney uses–for reasons discussed in the room inspections section below.)
Each time this has occurred, it has been quickly and easily resolved by one of us politely letting the housekeeper know when we planned on leaving. In every single circumstance, they were overly apologetic.
We’re happy to report that this has not happened to us once in the last two years. Of course, we are a sample size of one, so we’d be well-advised to point to our own sentiment at the top of this post that it’s silly to assume that something not happening to us means it’s not happening to anyone.
With that said, we do dozens of hotel stays each year, most of which are split stays or single-night, so we have a lot more departures days than the average fans. We also do a couple of things to reduce the likelihood of this happening.
The first is waking up early. When I hear stories of housekeeping waking up guests at 9 am with knocks, that’s a foreign concept to me. I’ve already been up for several hours by 9 am. When I get up, I immediately open the curtains at Value and Moderate Resorts, so housekeeping can see into the room. If they see people inside, this presumably reduces the likelihood that they’ll knock on the door to see if you’ve left.
Additionally or alternatively, you can use the swing bar lock or latch if you don’t want people seeing into your room. This obviously will not stop the checkout day knocks from waking you up, but it will prevent someone from entering the room while you’re in the shower, for instance. Given that I often travel solo and there’s no one to answer the door when I’m in the shower, I always take this step.
It’s a good practice to use the latch whenever you’re inside the room, and this will also prevent security from barging in during midday inspections. Many of the horror stories on social media and the comments below involve precisely this scenario, and the easiest way to avoid that is the privacy latch. Disney will still “need” to send someone for a security inspection, but they’ll likely call your room to schedule it as a result.
The best practice of all is more guests using the new-ish “Express Room Checkout” feature in the My Disney Experience app. If you have a credit card on file—or you have a zero-dollar balance—it’s easy to check out of your room, with no need to stop by the Front Desk.
We’ve reliably received push notifications via the app prompting us to checkout, and more people using this feature means housekeeping should have better insight into which rooms are empty without knocking. They can then prioritize those rooms for cleaning, and leave the others until later in the morning.
Our experience on departure mornings has been downright positive in the last year-plus. The launch of this Express Room Checkout feature and its utilization by guests is probably the biggest explanation for that.
There have even been times when we’ve been running behind on checkout day and didn’t leave our rooms until shortly after 11 am. In those scenarios, not only did housekeepers not rush us out of the room, but they weren’t even lingering around in the hallways nearby. We probably could’ve stayed until closer to noon without issue. (To be clear, we’re not endorsing an informal late checkout as a strategy!)
The big reason we’re not endorsing this is because that it creates even more of a potential burden from already overburden housekeeping Cast Members. There’s a reason they are (or were) doing the early morning knocks, and it was out of necessity–not to agitate or anger guests. (It’s always a good idea to think about the why of something before being upset about it.)
Suffice to say, it was not the Cast Members doing the knocking who were/are the problem. It’s Disney not sufficiently staffing the position. Housekeepers all work one shift, from 8 am to 4:30 pm. They are assigned to clean a set number of rooms depending upon the resort tier, ranging from 16-18 rooms on average.
Checkout time is 11 am, which is halfway through that shift, so simply waiting for all rooms to empty with the day’s departures is not a viable approach. Although many guests leave earlier and do the Express Room Checkout, there are likely times when that’s still not enough guest rooms to clean before 11 am.
The “Room Occupied” sign is a signal, but even empty rooms can still have this up, making it an inconclusive one. Presumably, this is one unintended consequence of Disney’s Magical Express ending and why there was an uptick of these incidences. In any case, housekeepers are expected to have all of their rooms cleaned by 4:30 pm, regardless.
In an illuminating Twitter thread, Ben Wszalek, former WDW Housekeeping Manager shared that this is one of the only jobs at Walt Disney World that requires no English language knowledge whatsoever. A majority of housekeepers are from Puerto Rico or Haiti, many are older, and some have minimal formal education.
Wszalek put it best with this tweet: “Hskp are some of the most joyous, loyal, hard working people you’ll ever meet. Hskp offers great hours, decent pay, Disney benefits, and requires little education/experience. But it’s also an extremely demanding job. You probably couldn’t do it.”
To anyone who has interacted with housekeepers, most of this is likely obvious. As someone who drinks too much coffee, I’m often looking for their carts in the morning/midday/afternoon and asking if I can have more K-cups. Our conversations aren’t exactly long, but they are always exceedingly friendly and chipper. Same goes when we exchange morning pleasantries.
As Wszalek also points out, all of this can be a recipe for “messy interactions.” While we have never–not once–had anything but positive experiences with housekeepers, I do not doubt that this happens. You combine a language barrier with guests who might not exactly be pleasant about being woken up early and feel like they’re being pushed out of a room they paid $500+ per night for…it’s easy to envision scenarios where that ends poorly.
Regardless of the specifics of these interactions between guests and housekeepers, that misframes the issue. Whatever the problem and potential solution, the fault lies with Walt Disney World’s protocol and procedures. And as we’ve also said before, the frontline Cast Member with whom you’re interacting is not the one who implemented the policies with which you take issue, nor are they the ones pocketing the nightly room rate.
The housekeeper didn’t make the decision that resulted in them knocking on the door of occupied rooms at ~9 am. It’s fair to say they don’t enjoy confrontation with guests or waking people up early…they’re just trying to do their job. The root cause is management, which establishes standards, even unworkable ones, and fails to come up with creative solutions when it’s clear that there are issues.
Beyond Express Checkout, another solution to this issue is bringing back the “Service Your Way” gift card for declining housekeeping that began in ~2017 when the housekeeper shortage first cropped up.
That was discontinued when the hotels reopened post-COVID. That decision made sense at the time; occupancy was low and rooms didn’t need to be turned over the same day as departure. That is no longer the case, so this incentive should be brought back. It could also be offered for using the Express Checkout feature, giving Cast Members better visibility into which rooms are empty.
This would reduce utilization of housekeeping and improve guest satisfaction for some of the company’s costliest products. It’s a very small price to pay in the grand scheme of things, especially if it improves satisfaction or likelihood to return/recommend metrics.
Room Inspections
We’ve also received a lot of questions about the “Room Occupied” signs and room inspections at Walt Disney World resorts. This is actually nothing new. This policy started back in December 2017, and was first rolled out at the Polynesian Village Resort, Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Contemporary Resort, and Bay Lake Tower.
At the time, the company declined to comment on why it swapped “Do Not Disturb” with “Room Occupied” signs at that handful of hotels. Walt Disney World only indicated that they made the decision for a variety of factors, including safety, security and the guest experience.
Since then, the policy has been extended to every room at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. Despite having similar inspections, the international resorts still use the industry standard “Do Not Disturb” signs. (Below is the one from Disneyland Hotel in Paris; you can see the notice of security inspections in smaller print.)
Walt Disney World has never officially acknowledged the reason for this change–even if it’s obvious based on the timing. The tighter security measures came a couple of months after the Las Vegas shooting from the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel tower.
Shortly after that, Hilton Hotels also changed its security policy. That chain now recommends that staffers alert a security or duty manager after 24 hours of consecutive Do Not Disturb sign usage. Wynn Resorts made a similar policy change, as did many others on the Vegas strip and in other high-rise locations that now require “welfare checks” after a certain amount of time.
Disney’s Room Occupied hanger states: “Disney Resort hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room, even when this sign is displayed, for maintenance, safety, security or any other purpose.” When the change was announced, the policy was that a hotel staffer must knock and identify themselves before entering if the “Room Occupied” sign is out. Arriving guests are/were supposed to be notified about the new right-to-entry guidelines, per the company.
Whenever the topic of these room inspections come up, Walt Disney World guests inevitably say that this happened despite them having the “Room Occupied” signs up. In reality, they have it backwards: the room inspections are occurring because they have those signs up!
Room inspections occur in the event that housekeeping reports being unable to service a room for a set amount of time. To the best of my knowledge/recollection, this is two days. It’s not always consistent, and as with anything, an element of human error is possible. Meaning that maybe you didn’t have the sign up, but a housekeeper marked that you did.
It also doesn’t help that most Walt Disney World resorts no longer have daily housekeeping. If you’re staying at a Value or Moderate Resort, even brief use of the “Room Occupied” sign might result in a room inspection. At a Disney Vacation Club resort, you may find that the safety checks are literally unavoidable.
Regardless, the easiest way to avoid triggering a room inspection is by not using the “Room Occupied” sign–or by using it sparingly. If you have small children who will want to take midday naps, this can be tricky. You might be inclined to put up the sign to ensure that your room isn’t being cleaned when you return to it. But on the other hand, you also should want to avoid having a room inspection interrupt naptime.
Back when the “Room Occupied” sign change was made and the random security inspections began, it was a hot and controversial topic among Walt Disney World fans. Some contended that safety should be the top priority, trumping privacy and all else. Others argued that the inspections were intrusive, occurred at inopportune times, and were often not handled in a tactful way by security.
This is just a brief summary of some of the many varied arguments for and against security checks. The debates spanned hundreds of pages on Walt Disney World forums, eliciting many impassioned responses. This is hardly a comprehensive recap of the pros & cons, but I’m not particularly keen on relitigating all of that.
What I will say is that I can see both sides of this. Security is paramount, but an unsupported cry of “security” cannot simply shut down all further conversation or counterpoints. It’s okay to have healthy skepticism, especially given how much of America’s post-9/11 history is dotted with security theater masquerading as actual safety measures.
There’s also the unfortunate reality that many corporate policies amount to legal liability CYA more than anything else. Implementing such policies at ground level rooms in the bayou at Port Orleans Riverside within steps of the parking lot does not strike me as narrowly tailored to accomplish any meaningful safety objectives. That’s not the same as a theme park view room in Bay Lake Tower.
Beyond the security policy on its face, there’s the human implementation. We have been subject to these security checks more times than I can count at Walt Disney World. Without fail, they almost always seem to coincide with midday breaks or afternoon naps.
They’re usually perfectly pleasant and brief, but about 1 of 10 times, that’s not the case. (Within the last year or so, we’ve had a few Cast Members politely inform us that they can’t inspect the room while it’s occupied, which is fine by us. We’ve given them a time we’d be out of the room and, presumably, they returned then.)
More than anything else, my quibbles with this policy are its ham-fistedness and inconsistency. To my recollection, we’ve never been advised of the policy at check-in. It often occurs during the middle of the day. The approaches vary widely, as does the demeanor of those doing the checks. (I don’t doubt guests are frequently rude to these Cast Members, but we have never been, and a little graciousness when demanding access to our room would be appreciated.)
In hundreds of hotel stays since October 2017, we’ve never had an issue with this anywhere but Walt Disney World. The checks have occurred in other real world hotels, but they’ve never been even a remote hassle. When it comes to both of the issues in this post and so many other things, it’s fair to ask: why is this not a widespread issue with hotels outside of Walt Disney World?
Ultimately, that’s where we land with both of these topics, as well as many other resort policies and protocol at Walt Disney World. For a company with such a massive room inventory and a reputation for guest service, Disney is surprisingly bad hotelier. There is minimal attention to detail from a hospitality perspective, as the focus is typically on efficiency above all else.
I love a lot of things about Walt Disney World, but do not view it as one of the world’s great operators of hotels. When you pay the big bucks for a resort at Walt Disney World, it’s for theme, location, transportation, and perks–not luxuriousness. Even the Deluxe Resorts cannot compete with similarly-situated real world hotels in that regard.
Hopefully this helped you understand how a couple of these housekeeping policies work, and ways you can attempt to avoid running into the worst of the issues. Again, it’s not the fault of the frontline Cast Members who are simply following the orders of their leaders–it’s a top-down problem. Management sees impressive occupancy numbers and knows that they don’t need to do better, even if there are obvious and remediable points of friction for guests.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts about the “Room Occupied” signs, security checks, and ~9 am departure day door knocks? Think Walt Disney World could come up with better and more guest-friendly solutions to all of this, or are the complainers overreacting? What have been your recent experiences with housekeeping or security in hotels at Walt Disney World–and beyond? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Last month, my husband and I had a Dvc stay at the Boardwalk. On our check out day, we got up very early to pack and have an early breakfast, fully intending to go back up to the room for an hour or so before we had to leave. Our mistake was bringing our luggage down to the car instead of leaving it in the room. When we got back to our room (that we purposely hadn’t checked out of yet and it was well before 11:00), there were two ladies from housekeeping already turning the room over. They were very apologetic and we were nice to them, as we know it wasn’t their fault. I probably should have gone to the front desk to complain, but knew in the state I was in that I would struggle to be nice, so I instead sent an email to Dvc guest services. We lost about 3 hours of time in the room that was rightfully ours, and their response was a one line that basically said sorry this happened. Lesson learned, I guess. We won’t be removing our luggage until we’re actually ready to leave. On the bright side, we did get to meet Josh D’Amaro while we waited in the lobby, so that was fun!
I would have used the room anyway. You hadn’t checked out, you were within the timeframe. If they had to redo the room again, so be it. Not your fault so you shouldn’t have been penalized. You are the paying guests so you shouldn’t be inconvenienced. If you stayed 3 hours past check-out time, believe me, Disney would have charged you for another day. They wouldn’t be so understanding.
We frequently visit deluxe Disney hotels with young midday-napping children. I’ve found that by for the best way to avoid any issues is to ring housekeeping before we leave the room in the morning and request an early housekeeping service. This is never guaranteed but almost always is accommodated, likely due to exactly the reasons you state, Tom (needing to service some pre 11am.) We come back at midday to a freshly serviced and security checked room and are then left alone – bliss!
If the room has been serviced that day, why would a security check be necessary? Staff has already been in the room and obviously saw nothing suspicious. I travel quite a bit (but haven’t been to Disney in some years) and have never had Housekeeping knock on check-out day. This seems to be a Disney thing from my experience.
I’ve had it happen repeatedly at non-Disney hotels, despite having a sign on the door. The whole industry is having staffing issues and this is one of the results.
I wish I would have known about the “room occupied” sign triggering more visits before our last trip. We are the type that clean the room before housekeeping comes in, so on shorter trips we just put the sign up. Our 2 night stay at POFQ generated 2 “security visits” in the middle of the afternoon. Both times waking us up. This continued daily after we moved to Boulder Ridge. Maybe my little family of 3 just seems particularly sketchy, ha! Our mid-day wake up calls didn’t stop until I asked at the front desk if they could check our room in the early evening when we’d be at the park. It never occurred to me that the sign was generating the intrusions!
Tom-
Thank you for the clarification that having the “Room Occupied” sign out for consecutive days is what triggers the security check. We travel with a dog that stays in the room, so the sign is always out. Every time we visit, we get a security check. 🙂 However, we receive a phone call in order to set a time when we will be in the room to restrain the dog (Chihuahua) while they inspect. Every encounter has been respectful and on our schedule.
My husband and I were at Port Orleans 2 weeks ago and came down with norovirus during our stay. All plans were obviously cancelled and we stayed in our room for an entire day and a half. We had the Room Occupied sign on the door but at some point someone kept knocking. I opened the door a crack and told them we were sick and they left. I am sure my appearance alone (I looked like death warmed over) was enough to keep them out. Honestly not sure if it was housekeeping or a security check, I was too sick to care. As a side note, my husband did mask up at some point and ventured out to get us Gatorade. There was a very kind lady working that gave him a huge supply of saltines and plain bread for us once he explained the situation.
Every time we stay at Disney at least since 2021 we get early housekeeping knock on check out day even with the sign on the door. We’ve even have had them repeatedly knock every 20 to 30 minutes BEFORE 11am check out time. It’s very annoying and I’ve never experienced this at any other hotel I’ve ever stayed at that isn’t Disney. Room checks haven’t really been a problem, we put the sign up when we are in the room and we are almost always out during the day and we remove the sign before we head out. They come in while we are gone. I LOVE Disney and there are hotels I like for theming and obviously perks and convenience but I 100% agree that Disney is not a great hotelier. There is so much they could do to improve and it boggles the mind that it isn’t being done.
We, my daughter and I went on a trip in January and stayed at All Star Sports. We hung the “room occupied” sign and left for the day. When we returned at night, I noticed the curtains were open. We strolled past our room and went to the front desk and asked for someone to assist us with entering our room. I was overreacting but I also wanted a sense of security entering my room as 2 females traveling alone. They were more than accommodating and had explained that maintenance had to change the filter next to the window and probably left it open out of habit. It was nice having the guest member walk us back to our room and make sure we were situated before leaving.
My husband and I stayed at AKL in late January to visit the arts festival after he had a sports tournament nearby. Freezing cold wx! One morning was in high 20s! So, we spent a couple of mornings with late starts. We had am knocks, but appreciated getting extra coffee from the sweet cast member. One evening, we were off to Cirque du Soleil and Disney Springs, so took a late afternoon rest break at hotel. At 4 pm the security folks knocked for an inspection. The inspection was fast, just a walk through without making any eye contact or interaction. I appreciate the way staff conduct themselves. The only down side to inspections I can imagine is that if kids are napping before heading off to fireworks etc, an inspection could disrupt naps and lead to cranky little ones later on. I never once had a bad interaction with a single cast member. Nothing’s harder than customer service and Disney demands the very best from staff. So appreciated.
“Nothing’s harder than customer service and Disney demands the very best from staff.”
Completely agree with the first half of that sentence. I routinely say that every American should be “required” to work in a service industry as it would disabuse a lot of the entitlement in our society (etc).
I don’t think the second half is always accurate. My experiences have been largely positive, as have yours, but there are enough horror stories suggesting otherwise that I’m inclined to believe these security checks aren’t always as smooth. Hard to believe rude/entitled guests are always to blame for that.
A family member had a “room check” walk in on them while they were sleeping…not good. I know these happen for various reasons, however, if WDW thinks so many unsafe things are happening in their hotels like drugs, weapons, violence, trafficking, destruction, etc. it sounds like there is a deeper problem. I have also been told that “Do Not Disturb” on the door is not a deterrent.
Disney doesn’t actually think those things are happening. It’s all a CYA measure to avoid legal liability in the unlikely event that something does happen. Most other chains have taken similar measures post-Vegas, they’re just much better about them than Disney.
The “Room Occupied” sign is definitely not a deterrent. As noted, it is precisely what causes these checks.
I have an incident to recall, but it happened quite a few years back (not sure how many). I was on staycation at a Disney World value hotel (can’t even remember which one) & it was checkout morning & I was still in bed when some male employee didn’t even knock but unlocked the door & started coming in. When he saw I was in there, he quickly left, but I was mystified as to why he wanted to come in as though there would be nobody there. Maybe it was one of those security checks mentioned in the article.
The security checks typically occur after housekeeping is completed (so in the afternoon), because if housekeepers are able to enter a room, there’s no need for a room inspection.
What you experienced sounds different–and uncomfortable.
That’s definitely concerning to me since I sometimes suffer debilitating migraines during vacations and have to stay behind for a few hours to recover and then join everyone later in the day. For what they charge, Disney really needs to do better, but as Tom said, they have no incentive to change… especially with the current upper management relentlessly prioritizing short-term profits over all else.
Tom
I know that Disney is not primarily an hotelier but if you want to be in the business there are minimal rules to respect – I was not aware of these security checks but they do not seem to be driven professionally.
Even if guest do indeed go for theme, perks, I would assume they also want the baseline of service and curtesy.
To be clear, I’m not excusing Disney here under the justification that they’re not primarily a hotelier.
To the contrary, Walt Disney World *is* primarily a hotel business that also operates theme parks. Despite their massive room inventory, decades of experience and high prices, Disney is somehow a *bad* hotelier. Given the circumstances, there is no excusing that.
I stay in hotels for work all the time. I almost always get a knock before 10 if I remain in the room on checkout day. Sometimes, it is much earlier. This is definitely not a Disney-specific phenomenon. I have never experienced a security check and I do sometimes work in hotel rooms all day.
I checked into Animal Kingdom Lodge on 3 December, 2024. During check in, a very nice Cast Member advised me I must agree to daily room inspections. I thought this was odd, but I acknowledged that I complied.
Housekeeping was great during our stay. Our room was cleaned daily and we got towel animals multiple times.
Our checkout day was the following Monday on 10 December. Someone from Housekeeping knocked on our door around 9:00 AM. We had the “Room Occupied” sign out. It wasn’t a big deal because we were already up and packing. But they kept coming back and knocking on the door; well before 11 AM checkout time. At one point, I exited my room to take some pictures and there was a woman from housekeeping standing there. “Are you refusing your room inspection?” she asked me very sternly while pointing her finger at me.
“No, you can inspect the room as soon as we leave in a few minutes,” I politely answered. She seemed to accept this and walked away. I found this whole situation very weird and your article suggests this is happening to other guests as well. Just before 11 AM, we hauled out our luggage and met our town car out front without talking to anyone. I never heard anything from Disney after that.
I believe Disney has motion sensors in the rooms to detect when a room is occupied. They may not be set off when people are sleeping or otherwise not moving. But I think they know when a room is actively occupied. I’m not sure if this is every hotel, but the evidence I personally have comes from Grand Floridian.
I definitely agree that they have some kind of motion sensors in the room. That’s the one thing we disliked about staying there. In the middle of the night the A/C would turn off, and one of us would have to move around to get it to come back on. I’m sure it was a money saving thing for the hotel, but in the middle of a very hot summer it was extremely annoying. It’s one reason why we haven’t been back there lately.
I had a housekeeping gestapo incident in January 2025 at the Disney All Star Movies Resort at 9AM. “No! You must leave immediately!” Except this one wasn’t just a simple knock. It included harassing comments, a raised voice, and threats by the housekeeper who wasn’t wearing a badge, by the way. And none of the other housekeepers could identify who I was talking about, or why an incident this would happen… sure. Someone is going to get this on video, and that’s when management is going to be in a heap of legal trouble.
Hey Franko,
I saw both your other comment and more detailed email, and I’ve gotta say, this does not sound like a Cast Member–it sounds like someone impersonating one. For what reason…I’m not really sure? Which is what makes it really odd. However, Walt Disney World has had an issue with scammers at the Value Resorts (albeit usually with food delivery fliers–to obtain credit card info).
I have no clue what their end game might’ve been, but I’d strongly recommend contacting Walt Disney World again. Something does not sound right about this.
Thanks,Tom. If she were an “impersonator”, how would she know exactly which rooms were occupied? She went to my room first, in the middle of the row, and then skipped a few and went right for the next occupied room? That’s what leads me to believe she was an employee, maybe at a neighboring resort, but friends with the other housekeepers who put her up to it in order to free up rooms earlier for service.
Housekeeping knocked on our door yesterday around 9am. We were awake and packing so it wasn’t a hassle. We didn’t feel rushed, so I didn’t mind…I assumed that there are many who leave early and don’t check out, so they like to check just in case.
We actually got a knock around 9am while we were in the middle of getting our stuff together to head out (we drive) on November 16, 2023. It did not bother us as we have worked in the service industry before and understand the demands.
I am curious about the “security checks” purpose as well. I visit every month, staying at different resorts sometimes, but mostly I stay at Caribbean Beach or Pop. My visit length always consists of Saturday – Tuesday, I am a solo female traveler, so not really messing up the room, or in need of many towels, so I have always chosen to decline house keeping service with every visit when I do the online check in. In the past year, for my monthly visits, I have typically left on my departure day at daybreak in an effort to miss some traffic driving out of the Orlando area, but a few times I have stayed longer, but always back to my room to pack up well before 11 – so far I have had only 1 visit where Mousekeeping was knocking at 9:30 am & was not so polite in demanding to know when I would be finished / leaving (@ CB spring ’23) & 1 instance where mousekeeping was super sweet / apologic & thought I had left /checked out already as I did drive to AK that am for sunrise but returned around 9:30, so I understood that one (@ the Beach Club late ’22). The security checks though really baffle me & happen to me every single visit, every month, at the worst time – I am a rope dropper, as well as one that shuts the parks down, so often I will come back to the room & take a power nap midday & without fail, every single trip, there has been 1 day of a “security check” occurring as I set my timer & shut my eyes for 45 min nap, and I always have the room occupied hanger on my door, without fail there is a knock. Upon one occasion during this past summer very hot months I had taken a quick shower & was exiting the bathroom right as my front door was being flung open, luckily I had thrown that latch bar, so the door was caught – now again, I am a solo female traveler & I am not a timid or easily scared person, but when a large male is trying to enter my room it can rattle anyone, especially when I was very clearly startled & told him I am good, no housekeeping needed, he continued to keep the door cracked telling me security check was needed, there was an extreme language barrier that made it even more confusing to me & he was insistent on coming in for the “security check”, that was in my opinion extremely unnecessary & should not have occurred. This situation was never a problem pre-covid days for me personally, not that I recall / or remember. While I suppose 1 time being extreme, out of the 9-12 times I visit yearly isnt too terrible, I still don’t understand the purpose of these “security checks” needing to seem occur every time I am in my room for the short 45 mins – 1 hour a day.
This happens to us too! We have little kids and will be up early- room occupied sign off while we are in the park all morning. We come back for an afternoon rest/nap and put the sign back on. Invariably they always come during that time and wake up the napping kiddos. Like why didn’t you come this morning when our sign was off?!
What do they actually do during the “security checks”? I thought security checks could be performed by the housekeeping manager?
We have had such inconsistencies with housekeeping across several resorts. There seems to be an extreme lack of communication. When you call housekeeping from your room, you get a call center. The information gets watered down and not always passed along. Like someone else commented, if we ask for towels and washcloths, we might receive a bunch of towels, but no washcloths, then another housekeeper will come an hour later, and bring us, another batch of towels and washcloth. I do notice a lot of housekeepers speak Spanish, or are from Haiti. So there is the language barrier.