What’s Up with Housekeeping at Disney World Resorts?
Whenever Walt Disney World resort cutbacks come up, readers complain or ask about scaled back or missing hotel housekeeping. Specifically, whether it’s returned to normal, if there’s daily cleaning, and what can be expected of mousekeeping. This answers with official policies, our experiences, what readers have shared, and more.
As you might recall, Walt Disney World instituted a range of health safety protocol back when the resorts started to reopen. Disney released operational changes and policies for its resorts, reflecting all of this. One thing that covered was resort cleaning, which would be both enhanced or scaled back, depending upon the circumstances.
A lot of attention was paid to surfaces throughout the parks, resorts, and even guest rooms. Prior to arrival, rooms were cleaned comprehensively, with deep-cleaning to surfaces and floors. During stays, only light housekeeping was performed occasionally. Obviously, a lot has changed since then–both in terms of Walt Disney World’s official policies, which are largely back to normal, and what guests experience from Mousekeeping.
With that said, here are the current housekeeping policies at Walt Disney World:
- Deluxe Resorts – Daily full housekeeping service.
- Deluxe Villas – Guests paying cash rates to stay at Deluxe Villas (DVC Resorts) will receive daily full housekeeping service.
- The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort (DVC Resort) – Unlike other Deluxe Villas, cash guests at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness will receive housekeeping service every other day unless you are using Disney Vacation Club Member Points or a DVC Member discount.
- Moderate Resorts – Full housekeeping service every other day.
- Value Resorts – Full housekeeping service every other day.
- Disney Vacation Club Resorts – Guests staying at DVC resorts on points will receive trash and towel service on the fourth day. If staying more than 8 nights, full housekeeping service is offered on the fourth day followed by trash & towel service on the eighth day. Disney Vacation Club Members and their guests may purchase additional housekeeping service by visiting the front desk or contacting housekeeping via their in-room phone.
Full housekeeping service includes: making the bed, replacing towels and amenities, cleaning the bathroom, emptying the trash and recycling, and tidying the room by dusting, wiping counters, and vacuuming (as necessary).
There are a few of additional options and policies pertaining to Walt Disney World housekeeping services:
- If you wish to decline housekeeping service at any time during your stay, you can opt out by speaking with a Cast Member in person or by placing the “Room Occupied” sign on your door. Please note that the opt out feature is no longer available during the online check-in process.
- If there is more than one room on your reservation and you choose to decline service, your selection will apply to all rooms on the reservation.
- If you require additional housekeeping amenities or have specific housekeeping requests, please visit the Front Desk or contact Housekeeping via your in-room phone.
- Walt Disney World reserves the right to enter any room at a Disney Resort hotel for maintenance, safety, security or any other purpose, even if the Room Occupied sign is displayed on the room door. (More on this below.)
Although Mousekeeping has largely returned to normal (at least officially), it comes against the backdrop of Walt Disney World continuing to deal with housekeeper shortages as of late 2025. These are likely to be a problem for a while–perhaps forever–and this impacts the actual guest experience with housekeeping at Walt Disney World (more on that in a bit).
We stay at Walt Disney World at least once per month, and have done over a dozen multi-night stays in the last ~8 months at Walt Disney World. In the last 2+ years since housekeeping returned to normal, we’ve logged more stays than I can count–probably around 40. (It’s not nearly that many trips–we do a lot of split stays.)
Accordingly, we have a ton of recent firsthand experience with Mousekeeping during our stays at Walt Disney World. The biggest thing we’ve noticed is far more consistency with cleaning in the last couple of years. Prior to that, I would’ve described housekeeping as hit or miss at Walt Disney World.
On the Deluxe Resort end of the spectrum, we’ve done stays at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Grand Floridian, Contemporary Resort, BoardWalk Inn, and Yacht Club–all provided daily housekeeping consistent with what’s described above. (Note that these stays were on the hotel side of each resort–totally different ballgame on the DVC sides.)
We’ve also done stays at every single Value Resort and Moderate Resort during that time. We’ve done All Star Sports, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach each multiple times. At these resorts, service has consistently been every other day, as advertised.
I’ve also done many stays at Coronado Springs and Gran Destino Tower during that time, and would note that it generally offers near-Deluxe service. (This is no surprise–although not official, Disney aims to exceed expectations at Gran Destino because it caters to different clientele.)
As for what the service has entailed, it also has mostly been as advertised. Making beds, taking out trash, replenishing supplies like towels and coffee. There has been some tidying up of our stuff, but I would call it less comprehensive than many real-world hotels.
I can’t speak with authority to vacuuming or the cleaning of surfaces because we’re typically not doing things that would necessitate either or make it apparent when that had occurred–especially when I’m traveling alone. Although we have a toddler, she’s not really the crumb-y kind (yet?).
There have been a couple of times when it’s been clear that surfaces have been cleaned, but I’m not really sure one way or the other beyond that. (Hopefully readers can share their experiences.)
In addition to Coronado Springs, I also want to draw specific attention to All Star Sports, where both housekeeping and the guest experience have been especially (shockingly) good. During one of many stays there, a manager of the resort stopped me to inquire about the newly remodeled room and how things were going, generally.
She indicated that feedback on the new rooms at All Star Sports has been universally positive. Guest satisfaction is up and Cast Members prefer the new rooms, too. (One motivation behind many of the room updates has been making them easier and more efficient to clean.)
A lot of readers have shared their experiences with housekeeping during their stays at Walt Disney World, and those anecdotes are mixed. Some have reported that things are essentially back to normal.
Others indicated that housekeeping barely set foot in their room, except for the infamous safety/security checks. These people stated that not even the every other day services were occurring. Many also have shared that they didn’t receive any Mousekeeping at all without calling the front desk.
The middle ground of reader feedback more or less reflects the official policy–that housekeeping took out the trash and changed the towels, but not much else.
Our perception is that cleaning actually is more comprehensive in the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts (in addition to occuring daily), and faster and superficial in the lower tier-resorts. If you have experience with Walt Disney World Mousekeeping in the last two years, please share it in the comments.
Shortly after the original publication of this post, we also shared Housekeeping “Hassles” at Walt Disney World. Ironically, we have not experienced any of this issues in our stays since. That could simply be luck on our part–that does play a big role (just read the comments to that post with some regulars never having experienced the problems, and others having them with regularity).
There have been recent changes and more departure day issues (thanks to a new-ish My Disney Experience app feature for checking out), so it’s worth being aware of that new wrinkle to the housekeeping. Again, we have not had those problems firsthand and it does seem to us that the app feature has been fixed. (Knock on wood.)
Speaking of recent changes, another is that the ‘Hey Disney!’ Amazon Alexa device is now found in all hotel rooms at Walt Disney World Resort. This smart device can be used to make specific room requests, such as more pillows, towels, or coffee.
We’ve used it successfully for the purpose of such requests, which honestly felt like living in the future. Just asking a device for more coffee and having it delivered by a human shortly thereafter. When it works, it’s magic. When it works being the operative words.
We’ve also made a request that resulted in nothing happening. Perhaps we would’ve had similar (bad) luck when calling, but we now only use it if there’s no urgency on the request and we’re fine with trying again later. YMMV.
We’ve done many third-party hotel stays in the United States and internationally in the last few years. Our perception is that things are likewise improving at real world hotels.
Across the board, our experiences in Anaheim have been consistent with Walt Disney World resorts. However, Anaheim is also a unique market–with a lot of parallels to Central Florida–so I’d stop short of generalizing our experiences in Southern California to the whole industry as a whole. (Las Vegas is probably also a similar story, but I’m not sure about other domestic destinations.)
In Anaheim, it’s been common for housekeeping to be every other day or only “upon request,” especially at budget and family-friendly hotels. At many of these hotels, we’ve noticed garbage outside other guest rooms in the hallways, and even that sometimes sits there for hours.
It’s also more common for hotel chains to give the option to decline housekeeping across-the-board upon check-in, which some chains used to offer as an incentive. Notably, Marriott eliminated its “Make A Green Choice” program, which gave Bonvoy members the option to receive 500 points for each day they declined housekeeping.
We were big fans of this, and always took advantage. We’re not trying to single out that brand as some sort of anti-Marriott agenda; they’re not the only chained brand hotel to quietly do away with its incentives for declining housekeeping. My guess is that hoteliers realized they could get away with cutting that bonus under the guise of health safety and just never brought it back.
Similarly, Walt Disney World had been offering gift cards as part of the “Service Your Way” program for those who declined housekeeping at select resorts. This did not return when the resorts reopened, presumably removed with the same underlying motivations as other hotel operators.
Disney’s “Service Your Way” offer started a few years ago. It was one of the rare perks that got better as time went on, as Disney increased the dollar amount to entice more guests to decline housekeeping. We also always took advantage of this, and there were some occasions–like when booked in tandem with Free Dining–where it felt like one of those “there’s gotta be a catch?!” things. Disney was practically paying us to stay there.
Of course, there was a catch and none of these hoteliers were offering points or cashback for their purported reasons of environmentality or customizable service. Its motivations were purely economic, just like a lot of recent changes that offer coincidental environmental or other benefits.
While I cannot speak to Marriott or chains in other markets around the country, Walt Disney World’s motivation was staffing shortages. Even from 2017 through early 2020, the company was having tremendous difficulties hiring and retaining housekeepers. College Program participants were offered incentives to change roles, there were multiple job fairs, hiring bonuses, and wage increases–but the shortages persisted.
As you’re undoubtedly aware if you’re read this blog at all, staffing shortages for many roles have only gotten worse, and housekeepers are one specific role that is always advertised for job fairs and hiring bonuses.
There are currently open positions on Disney Careers for full-time and part-time housekeepers with a starting rate of $23 per hour. This is actually higher than many frontline Cast Members in non-tipped positions (although some guests elect to tip housekeepers, it’s classified as a non-tipped position).
When it comes to the role expectations of housekeepers, the job listing indicates that they’re expected to clean 14-22 rooms per shift. (Anecdotally, we’ve heard that it’s usually at the higher end of the range–at least during higher occupancy times.)
They also “clean and sanitize Guest rooms by cleaning floors, making beds, emptying trash and recyclables, electronics, telephones, windows, mirrors, glass, dusting all surfaces, clean and disinfect bathrooms by scrubbing basins, bathtubs, shower walls and doors, toilets, and tile floors with proper chemicals.”
The reasons for the aforementioned labor shortages are multifaceted. I won’t pretend to understand all of the nuances of the labor market for housekeepers in Central Florida, but I’d hazard a guess that there are few key factors at play.
They have been further exacerbated by the United States having an aging population, and many baby boomers have left the labor force entirely in the last several years. All of this makes the housekeeper shortage one that higher wages alone cannot resolve. However, there are a couple of significant issues that often get overlooked.
First, legal immigration to the United States has slowed down considerably. This alone leaves the country with a shortfall of over 2 million workers. This is of particular relevance for housekeeping roles, as they were disproportionately filled by immigrants. Legal immigration returning to previous levels would likely have the biggest impact on addressing the housekeeper shortage, but that seems unlikely to occur.
Second, development around Central Florida has exploded during that same span of time. I’m not going to crunch the numbers on how many hotel rooms have been added to the Orlando market during that time, but it’s easily tens of thousands.
Hotels aren’t the only thing that has been built. Residential construction has also exploded, with huge swaths of undeveloped land now filled by seas of subdivisions.
With more homes comes more demand for maids and residential home cleaners. In my cursory research, it appears those positions pay more than Disney. I’m also going to go out on a limb and guess they’re lower stress.
Ultimately, all of this is why I’m skeptical that housekeeping will ever return 100% to its pre-COVID normal. Not just at Walt Disney World, but for the U.S. hotel industry as a whole.
One expectation is that the degree of service will vary with occupancy and load levels. Guests who travel during the off-season or stay at unpopular hotels are probably more likely to encounter regular and comprehensive cleaning.
It’s also possible that housekeeping upon request becomes the industry standard going forward. However, the days of consistent and unsolicited housekeeping–or an economic incentive for declining it–are probably gone for good.
Finally, it’s possible that Walt Disney World will institute more changes, and Mousekeeping service becomes a way of segmenting among the various tiers of resorts even more. Which is to say that in the future it might not be offered period at Value Resorts and only lightly at Moderate Resorts. We’d expect daily service to continue being the standard at Deluxe Resorts and other luxury hotels.
This would be a way of addressing housekeeper shortages and also guest demand for daily room cleaning. Probably not a popular way among guests, but one that could make sense to the company if these shortages persist and costs keep rising. Wages have already increased significantly for housekeepers in the last few years, and even so, Walt Disney World still has trouble filling those open positions. So although things have returned to normal with housekeeping, it seems appropriate to append “for now” to that.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What have been your recent experiences with housekeeping at Walt Disney World–and beyond? Think housekeeping reductions are another cost-cutting measure by Walt Disney World, or agree that there are externalities that’ll make it difficult to restore housekeeping? 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!
We stayed 17 days at FOR the first two weeks of Dec 2021. Housekeeping was ATROCIOUS. Yes, I received a phone call the first 6 days from the housekeeping manager to check on us, but NOTHING was done correctly. We returned to our room nightly with our garbage/trash bagged up and left outside our door. On the days we demanded (believe me, all a request did was get me a phone call to see how things could be fixed, but apparently the message never got from the caller to the people that mattered) linen changes, the dirty linen and used towels were left immediately outside our room in plastic bags. The day we arrived, there was a dirty q-tip on the sidewalk . . . We finally picked it up ourselves on the third day. It was almost like they were trying to wait us out. We requested 5 clean sets of towels left on the racks in the restroom daily. They just left them in a bag right inside the door ~ at one point we had over 24 towels in our room. With three adult women staying in a room, can you imagine how much “stuff” we had? We certainly didn’t need large bags of towels added to our mix. We were really disappointed. It was a nightly ordeal having to call housekeeping – not a relaxing way to end a great day at our happy place. We were at one point given the cell # of the housekeeping manager. When we tried to call him that evening, the number didn’t work. It really left a sour taste in our mouths.
We stayed at the All-Star Movies Resort at the end of September for 5 nights, and they didn’t even come in to take out trash the entire week. Our room was very clean when we arrived, and we’ve always been okay reusing towels for a few days as needed, but I wasn’t thrilled with having trash accumulating in our room.
That “security check” is a bunch of bull. What an invasion of privacy. They never emptied trash and we had to get towels at the pool because we couldn’t find anyone from housekeeping most of the time. But they loved to come strolling through your room while you’re trying to rest!
We stayed at AoA in March – they were excellent about giving us fresh towels when we requested them. The only negative was the bags of trash outside the rooms. Otherwise, it wasn’t too bad. I think the worst housekeeping we’ve seen was pre-closure when we stayed at the Yacht Club in Dec. 2019. There were dirty dishes from room service in the hallways everywhere throughout the resort. Some of them were there when we arrived and were not picked up the entire time we stayed (6 days). We will be staying at Beach Club in June, so we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the heads up on the security checks – I did not know about them!
We stayed in a 2 bedroom lock off villa at Kidani village 12/10-17 using my DVC Points. We got trash removal and fresh towels once on our 4th day. We were four adults so our bill was pretty clean; food put away, dishes done nightly, etc. but it was obvious that nothing else had been done. In the past, the beds were made In the Disney way, with towel animals and often the floors vacuumed and mopped. For us, it wasn’t a huge deal that this wasn’t done. I didn’t even realize mouse keeping had been in our room until I took a shower that night and realized my towel wasn’t on the hook. As a DVC member, I don’t expect housekeeping but there is an obvious change from pre Covid stays.
This is why I no longer stay at a Disney resort. We live in Florida and the hotels we have stayed at have had housekeeping all during the pandemic without asking for it and some hotels twice a day along with turndown service. I will never pay the money to stay at a Disney hotel when I can stay at a great hotel with all the perks included. Disney is doing a poor job with this.
We stayed at Disney’s French Quarter right after Thanksgiving and I was shocked at how little housekeeping we received. Not making the beds is a huge bummer. Unfortunately my daughter spilled an entire cup of hot cocoa on her bed, soaking clear through to the mattress cover. All housekeeping did was bring us new bedding, but the housekeeper said she wasn’t allowed to put it on our beds. She was apologetic, but SO FRUSTRATING. We had to strip the bed and make it ourselves. Even when I called the front desk all they offered was to drop off more blankets. They did take out the trash and provide fresh towels every other day, but no sweeping or vacuuming (we could tell as those beignets make quite a mess when you eat them).
I made an online reservation yesterday (Jan 6) for Yacht Club at the end of the month. I was asked if I wanted housekeeping every other day or no housekeeping services. Since our stay is only 3 nights, I opted for no housekeeping. It was the same at the Dolphin in December. And it was the same service at a beach hotel in November. Disney prices and services are really not that different from other tourist hotspots.
First of all, who is paying you to say immigration is DoWN????Not true. The number of illegals admitted during the Biden administration is higher than it has been in decades.
As far as cleaning, i have stayed at a couple of upscale hotels and ALL are playing this game of reduced housekeeping. A friend an i needed to ask for more toilet paper twice!!! Nobody wants to pay Disney hotel prices and return to wet towels and an unmade bed. They got away with it due to the covid hysteria. This is like a cold now. If they keep it up they will lose business fast. Primo prices for no amenities?? I dont think so.
We are DVC members but our most recent stay was a week in August at POP Century. We did not have cleaning service at all. We were interrupted twice that week for security checks (our kids were napping but they were always fine with coming back later) but our trash was never cleared. We had three garbage cans in our room that were full to max on checkout day. We had to snag some clean towels from a housekeeping cart at the building next door because we never got them after calling down for them.
Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays our family was fortunate to gave two room at Club level at Wilderness Lodge.
Both rooms were ready by early afternoon-both were clean and stocked with towels, plastic cups, coffee pods etc.
we opted foe every other day for cleaning-but housekeeping was in (both rooms) every day to refresh towels, soaps , coffee pods.
We were very pleased. They were very responsive and respectful of our schedules as well.
We were very pleased with housekeeping as well as all services and staff.
We will certainly not stay on property again. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and had no service for the first 4 days at all. I had to repeatedly request that the trash be emptied and that the coffee be replenished. Only on night 4 did they replenish the towels which was silly since we were checking out the next day. They never cleaned and the floor was a mess. I appreciate the discussion of the reasons why in the blog, but if they are going to provide Motel 6 service they should charge Motel 6 rates.
Most resorts are not doing turndown service anymore so if you want your beds freshly changed daily, or any day of your stay, request it with the front desk. Otherwise you will just receive the typical, every other day light cleaning service listed on the website. Many people who complain about not receiving any service during the duration of their stay leave the room occupied sign on their door- housekeepers are not allowed to enter the rooms with that sign only those who have to do visual safety inspections of the rooms that you mentioned. Hope this helps 🙂
We have learned long ago, that we need to clean the room when we arrive. It is unfortunate, but we have seen at a different hotel, not Disney. Throw the pillows on the floor to make the bed and then put pillows on the bed. UCK. I would also not be surprised if they go from cleaning the toilet to making the bed etc. I know I have asked housekeeping at Disney for towels, while they are cleaning another room and they have never changed gloves to hand me my towels etc. We actually prefer that our rooms not be bothered so we tend to just ask housekeeping for our basic needs. The only way to make sure your room is clean, is to take a clorox wipe to some of the surfaces, you will be sometimes shocked to see what you get on them from a supposedly “clean” room.
They may think they have a monopoly which they may
But when u charge people more then they should for the services they r doing
People somewere n sometime will WAKE UP
THEY r a woke company n that will catch up with them maybe sooner than later
It is a shame because it was GREAT NOT SO MUCH LATELY
IF IAM Paying 100+ dollars i dont think i should have to pay for fastpass or what ever they call it is a RIPOFF
My family of five stayed the first week of December 2021 at the Art of Animation, Nemo suites. We hung our do not disturb sign every other day on our door. The days that the sign was not there we got complete cleaning of our rooms, floor moped, clean towels, trash removed, in room tidied up. I had heard that housekeeping persons may not be the same everyday. I had left a tip envelope, with some goodies from my hometown each day that I knew housekeeping would be coming. I really appreciate how well our rooms were cleaned and serviced. Maybe we were just a few of the lucky ones! I’ll be returning in July at a different resort in Disney World. We’ll see how it goes then!
We did a 8 night stay at the Riviera in a two bedroom as a cash stay in early December . Our beds were never made a single time but the trash and towels and sinks were done every other day. Honestly I could live with reusing a towel but I want a fresh bed after a long day at the parks. I find that the worst part. We did a 3 night stay at Grand Californian in August and our room was full serviced daily and we got turn down service. Not sure if all CL rooms are getting cleaning daily but for the extra price they should be.
We stayed at GF villas for a week in September of this year and Copper Creek villas for 5 days in December. We did not feel like the room was particularly clean on arrival (dust/dirt on the floor, objects left by previous guests). Housekeeping consisted of towels and trash- there was definitely no vacuuming involved as we have a 3 year old and there were crumbs under the table which weren’t vacuumed (did my best to keep it clean myself). Most disappointing was that I called to have the king bed changed at Copper Creek as my son had gotten in bed with us in the middle of the night and let’s just say there was a little accident despite a nighttime pull up. We were left with some sheets on the kitchen table. I had to “steal” some extra linens from one of the housekeeping carts just so we didn’t freeze at night. All this being said, I do feel for the housekeeping staff and certainly don’t blame them. Additionally, it’s shocking to be that people don’t tip! Even for towels and trash we always leave money. I think the disappointing thing is PAYING MORE and GETTING LESS–popularly called SHRINKFLATION.
We walked into our room and housekeeping was washing the kitchen floor.When she finished she proceeded to clean the kitchen counter tops with the. Same rag. We sanitize everything now when we arrive!
I just stayed at French Quarter and then I switched over to Saratoga Springs last week. The people at French Quarter on the day of my check out kept trying to get in early that day before I had even reached check out time (very irritating). Before that, halfway through my stay, housekeeping did ask if I needed anything which was useful, and provided more soap and towels. But at Saratoga Springs nobody helped… me nobody replaced my coffee pods or towels. I had no coffee or sugar in my room in a Deluxe resort. You would think at a Deluxe Resort they would do more, but they did nothing.