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!
Under Eisner, Disney was a top Hotelier! Iger and D’Amaro destroyed that reputation. Everyone likes to blame what happened in Las Vegas for the hyped up security. The hotel wasn’t the cause, it was the 15,000 seat concert venue under the windows of the hotel that was the cause. Treating a guest like a potential criminal isn’t hospitality.
Walking into someone’s room unannounced without knocking with a placard on the knob is just UNACCEPTABLE! This is nothing but a privacy and room invasion. They have had problems with CM’s stealing from guests. They caught a CM stealing cash at OKW a few years ago. We have all been taught to knock before entering a closed door. Why is Disney not capable of training the CM’s to knock?
Disney is getting paid big bucks for these hotel rooms. There is no reason they can’t provide the proper hospitality afforded any hotel guests. We don’t live in a police state where the police can just walk into your home or apartment without a warrant signed by a Judge spelling out specific items they are searching for. At Disney, they can send untrained people that look through your luggage for weapons or drugs (or cash that some steal) then take that information to the police. I guess the Bill of Rights doesn’t exist on the 43 square miles of Disney Property.
We were at AOA (Cars suite) last week. Housekeeping knocked shortly before 9:00 on checkout day, wanting to turn over the room. I told them we would not be checking out until right at 11:00, but they came back a little after 10:00 and knocked again. They weren’t rude, per se, but they definitely weren’t apologetic and came off as a bit irritated that we were still in the room at 10:00. But it was a Saturday, so I’m sure it was a busy turnover day.
Agree with Disney not being outstanding at basic hotel stuff. There are more guest friendly ways to handle all of this, and their price points warrant that care.
The morning knocks on checkout day – that is an issue I have seen in so many other hotels too, even very high end. Its like zero effort is made for housekeeping to know who is checking out and when. With Marriott brands I have a high status and often get late checkout to work in the room for longer. Inevitably my calls get interrupted by a knock on the door and someone quickly entering if I don’t jump up and stop them right away.
I think that one is an industry-wide problem and there’s no good excuse for it in 2025.
we’re DVC, so we have the daily security check and garbage collection.
The two worst incidents for us were both at BLT (one of our home resorts).
The first, my adult daughter and i were in the room.
She was in the bathroom showering (we were in a studio).
Housekeeping knocked, i said don’t come in.
They came in.
And if you know the BLT studio bathroom, it has a barndoor that provides very little privacy.
My daughter, who was naked in there, was mortified.
But that wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened the second time.
The second time, we weren’t in the room.
Again, to remind you that for DVC, the security check is combined with garbage collection.
I was very careful to make sure everything was put away, so that nothing could be mistaken for garbage, even though they should only be emptying the trashcan, nothing else.
We returned from the park and were shocked to discover that my daughter’s glass breathing device was missing.
It had been drying on the counter of the little kitchenette of the studio room.
It’s a glass bottle but doesn’t resemble a regular glass bottle in any way (it’s square and looks like it’s from a chemistry set).
In any case, something that is clearly drying on the counter should not be thrown away.
This was a major disaster for us as my daughter needs it every day.
We called housekeeping and immediately escalated to the manager of housekeeping.
He was shocked.
He checked with the staff and sure enough they had taken the bottle and thrown it away (at least they had the brains to remember and admitted doing it).
Disaster for us to be sure.
He and we immediately began researching on if we could find an emergency replacement.
The answer was no.
My daughter and i managed to jerry rig a replacement using a regular soda bottle.
It wasn’t perfect, but it got her through the vacation.
Fortunately, the rest of the apparatus hadn’t been thrown away or we wouldn’t have even managed that much
The manager did reimburse us the $600 it was going to cost us to replace it once we got home.
of course, since then we make sure to put it away in a drawer even if it’s still wet.
That’s awful! They should have compensated you further, not just paid for what they threw away. What about your time and anxiety resulting in unnecessary stress. This is appalling.
At a hotel in NYC many years ago, I was taking a bath since I have arthritis and needed to soak my bones. My husband had to run out for something, so the inside latch was not used in case he came back while I was soaking. My room, even though obviously occupied, was assigned to someone else and the bellman never knocked–just came in with the other guests. I didn’t have the door completely closed so I gave everyone a show. I was young and stupid then, because, I was so embarrassed, I never went to hotel manager and complained. I would now. Another time I was traveling for work, and the bellman took me to an occupied room–luckily the occupants were out. Is it that difficult to mark rooms occupied?
Housekeeping was HORRIBLE! After a week at Disney my grandson got sick the day before we were supposed to leave. I bought a Covid test which was positive. Since it was too late to start the long drive home we were going to just spend the afternoon in the room and leave as scheduled the next morning. Housekeeping refused to leave us alone, and even after being told he was sick with Covid, she started physically pushing her way in. We did report it.
Disney employees should DEFFINETLY be knocking and waiting a bit for a response before coming in HOWEVER guest really really need to ACTAULLY read the stuff they are given. this is mentioned in a minimum of 4 places:
1) the properties rules on the website
2) your booking confirmation email
3) online check in
4) the door sign/room occupied sign
Every single person having a bad experience in this area needs to contact guest communications via email and make them aware. It is not going to self correct. This has to come from the top.
We’ve only had the “checkout” issue happen a couple of times. Before we moved to Florida, we were typically on the road heading home around 9-10 in the morning. If we got “the knock” we would simply state that we were in the process of packing the car and they could come back in 30-60 min. which they appreciated.
I’ve never found the security inspections to be a problem. I’m not sure I understand what all of the concern is about them. If people wouldn’t do stupid stuff and bring things that aren’t allowed in the rooms they wouldn’t be necessary.
I think that every guest needs to start packing those big heavy rubber wedge door stoppers to secure their room while they’re in it. Because even if Disney can bypass the security stoppers on the doors, they can’t easily bypass something like that, especially not the more elaborate ones that are literally designed to tension themselves against the floor to prevent any means of entry short of a battering ram.
And then once Disney realizes that someone that truly had malicious intent could easily barricade themself in the room in the same way, they could do away with these pointless and intrusive invasions once and for all.
Great point!
This may not even work. Typically room doors are sealed at the bottom, especially those with outdoor facing doors, in order for the room to maintain its temperature. More importantly….they’re just going to come back ….likely when you’re there.
Does Disney treat standard hotel rooms differently than resort hotel rooms for Disney Vacation Club members? I have been a DVC member for some time and have never personally experienced a room check when staying in a DVC resort room.
Nope. If anything, I’d say the room inspections are more likely at DVC resorts due to the reduced housekeeping.
You’ve just been lucky or, more likely, others have been unlucky. Despite all these horror stories, it’s worth underscoring that this won’t happen during the majority of stays or ever for the majority of guests. As noted, we haven’t had any issues whatsoever in the last year-plus, and that’s despite over a dozen stays during that time.
The Reddit post linked to at the beginning of this article is about a guest staying in a DVC room. So these checks definitely still happen there.
Well…..if they’re doing their job right and you’re not in the room, it’s unlikely that you’d know.
My husband has a TBI and finds the parks massively overstimulating so he needs afternoon naps. Last trip (in December) he was sound asleep and I was in the shower when they entered our room. He’s a heavy sleeper and wouldn’t hear if they knocked, so he was awoken by a stranger in the room. The first thing I was aware of it was hearing voices while I was still dripping from the shower as the cast member tried to enter the bathroom and my husband (rather loudly) asked WTF he was doing. It was a seriously disturbing situation.
For my part, I have no problem with it having security checks from time to time. In fact, what I would like would be to inform that I do not want the cleaning done daily. This is mainly why I put up the “room occupied” sign. I would like the return of gift cards, or at least the possibility of having them indicated in My Disney Experiences. Or another “no cleaning” sign.
With today’s technology, there could be sensors on each door to know if there is movement, to reduce security checks.
This. Motion sensors and door entry sensors in each room are cheap and I expect that most people wouldn’t object to them from a privacy perspective (considering the thermostats already have motion sensors). Have the sensor history available to CMs on an iPad, so that they can see if a room is likely occupied or not.
While I get they have the schedule (as Tom showed in one of his pictures) but they should also think in terms of the total length of a stay. During a recent stay at SSR we had to stop them from doing a full servicing of our room the day before we checked out. To be clear my motives were purely altruistic. I did not want them wasting their time servicing my room when they would simply have to do it again the next day in preparation for the next guests.
True story:
This security check business is a bunch of crap. I know a couple on a personal level who had the DND sign on the door as well the doors locked at AKV. Unfortunately, they did not use the security latch. They were having an intimate moment. Not only did “housekeeping” ignore the signs and refuse to knock, but they barged in on them and had the audacity to stand there and talk to them, asking them if they needed any towels or soap. The husband called for mgmt and they were like “oh we are sorry that happened. We will address it.” That was not an acceptable response. He went down to the front desk and asked for the highest manager he could speak to. They were mostly unconcerned. They apologized, but they faulted him for not using the latch on the door. He then got on his laptop and wrote Disney. They called him (sometime after he got home), offered him and his wife some tickets, a gift card and I think his points back on his DVC and agreed that it was not handled properly.
The last part of your story is the key.
Cast Members at the resorts, unfortunately, are limited in guest recovery options and often will try to avoid accepting responsibility for whatever reason. You are much more likely to get a satisfying response in emailing guest services after the trip.
With that said, I’d always recommend going to the front desk, asking for a manager, and seeing what happens. You may get a satisfactory guest recovery response, but even if not, it’s a detail to include in the email to guest services.
And what is that guest services email address? Thanks
But wait, it gets better!
Disney is auto-checking people out on checkout day, PRIOR TO CHECKOUT TIME, invading their room and throwing away their stuff. I wish I was making this up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/1iw0a2f/hotel_checkout_catastrophe/
Wow.
The multiple reports in that thread of people being auto-checked out alone is bad (and self-defeating), but the rest of it is just absurd.
I can confirm this. Our room was late when we checked in at AKL this last Wedenesday. Our baby needed a nap on check out day so I called to ask if we could get an hr late check out since our room was over an hr late upon check in. I had to call twice because no one called me back. I decided to nap him and hope for the best, but my husband told me the app had checked us out and than housekeeping showed up to our door.
I have accidentally stumbled across several reddit threads about these WDW security check nightmares, and it’s another thing giving me anxiety about our trip. It seems like pure CYA/security theater (at best maybe acting as a deterrent). It’s unfathomable to me that an employee could just walk into your room at any time…how infuriating (and possibly traumatizing) for people who have left an older child alone in their room briefly, or who had a child napping, or who were trying to take a nap or shower themselves. Not to mention bad apple employees or impersonators could use security checks as cover for inappropriate or illegal behavior. I have never heard of this stuff happening anywhere else, nor have I ever encountered a security or wellness check at any hotel…not even when we’ve stayed in actual Las Vegas Strip hotels post-2017…and we were commonly in our room during the afternoon, plus my husband is a fan of using the DND sign/refusing housekeeping. Seems like a huge violation of guests’ privacy for little good reason. I’m wondering if we need to be proactive about preventing these checks at inopportune times, especially because we’ll be at BLT. But guests shouldn’t even have to think about such things!
“Not to mention bad apple employees or impersonators could use security checks as cover for inappropriate or illegal behavior.”
This is what I’d be worried about if I were Disney with their hamfisted approach. Their CYA policy could be creating a new risk…and new liability.
We have had all of these awful experiences and more,
the last straw was art Boardwalk while
paying over $1k a night. Disney hotels
long ago crossed a line with intrusive, outrageous conduct and we will never be back. No other hotel
chain treats guests in this manner.
Check out the latest Reddit thread where they threw a family’s clothes in their suitcase, items missing, housekeeping them
took it to lost and found and checked them out without their consent while they were are breakfast !!!!
I am a director of rooms at a 400-room full service hotel in a large brand. I have been in positions in front office, rooms, and administration. My position oversees the hotel’s rooms operating departments – front office, housekeeping, and engineering.
I have to agree with other posters that this is a well-written article, and although there are some nuances from being in the hotel world for years that allow me to realize you are not, that’s OK.
Generally, however, I feel that the lack of action by Disney is that they are not good hotel managers to begin with, and also they really have no one to be accountable to except their own leaders.
For some perspective, if a Hilton or Marriott (or Hyatt, etc) property consistently misses its goals – guest service scores, cleanliness scores, loyalty enrollments, brand standard audits (“mystery shops”) the hotel’s management and brand agreement come under pretty high risk of being severed by failing to keep the proper amount of standards (though it wouldn’t seem this way from some hotels that still seem to fall through the cracks). Disney has no one to be held accountable to except themselves. They don’t have to worry about a rebrand, a management company takeover, even guests leaving and not coming back. Disney knows, as we’ve said all these years, that their audience is “captive.” Unless Disney sees consistent occupancy levels in line with the opening of then-Euro Disney, I don’t see them taking any efforts to improve anything. There’s just no ROI for them.
This is an excellent point about accountability with chained-brand hotels, and that being lacking with Disney.
What I’d imagined a lot of people don’t realize is that Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Wyndham, etc. don’t actually own most of the properties bearing their brands. By contrast, Disney owns all of their hotels in whole or part, with the exception of those in Tokyo. Guess where the hotels are best-managed by a very wide margin?
Interesting article. Every year (except last year for family reasons), we travel with our dear friends to WDW. We are all Vacation Club members. We were two; they are four, sometimes five. We use a Deluxe Studio; they, a One-Bedroom. In the summer of 2021, we all stayed for 10 nights, we at Boardwalk and they at Beach Club. We had trash clean-up everyday of the stay. They had no such clean-up for all 10 days. We had the towel-service and the full-service on the days scheduled, without our having to call for it. They had to call for towels twice, which were then delivered, but never had full-service, even after calling Housekeeping and discussing the problem on about day six, but still no service. And not because the “Room Occupied” was left on the door. They complained to a manager and did receive a rather nice credit off their bill at the end, which, I suppose was nice of WDW. Mind you, this happened only once to them. Maybe because they are prone to call multiple times on the day of scheduled service if it isn’t taken care of in a reasonable time.
Unfortunately, I room alone now and sometimes feel I really don’t need any service. Personally, I try to help Housekeeping by using only one trash can (or combining cans if I have used others) and the recycling bucket from my room. And an irony in the story is my Angel Princess never really wanted anyone coming into our room anyway.
Thanks for the information about the security checks; I did not know that. We always do a non-park day during our stay & keep the sign on the door all day as we alternate napping & going to the pool. When we try to refuse housekeeping, someone insists on coming into the room. Now I know why!