Do you checkout when you leave? Increasing room turn efficiency

[Tarheel Tink]

We also call housekeeping as we leave the room and then remove the Do Not Disturb sign.

 

[rascalmom]

No.

DH has to drag me out of the room kicking and screaming at 10:59:30 for each stay.

We almost always get a knock on our door at around 8am on check out day.

During our stay at OKW last year, we called bell services at around 10am - moments later the mousekeeper knocked on our door. She asked if she could go ahead & get started while we were waiting for our luggage to be picked up. We said yes, and then she proceeded to come in and heat food up in the microwave for her lunch while we were still there.

 

[wehavesix]

No. We check our room charges the night before so we have time to clear up any problems. But we are usually gone before 7:00am on check out day because we have a long drive home. The hallways are pretty deserted that early so we don't even see a housekeeper to tell.

 

[disneynutz]

No.

DH has to drag me out of the room kicking and screaming at 10:59:30 for each stay.

We almost always get a knock on our door at around 8am on check out day.

During our stay at OKW last year, we called bell services at around 10am - moments later the mousekeeper knocked on our door. She asked if she could go ahead & get started while we were waiting for our luggage to be picked up. We said yes, and then she proceeded to come in and heat food up in the microwave for her lunch while we were still there.

We have walked in on Mousekeepers and Maintenance before. They can move fast when they want to, they ran past us like the place was on fire.

Bill

 

[permavac]

If Disney wanted to improve the efficiency they could add "Checked Out" on the reverse side of the DND sign and they could instruct and teach guests to call when checking out and they could have Bell Services call Housekeeping when they come and get your luggage when you check out.

Apparently it isn't something that they feel needs improving.

Bill

I agree with this. More than likely, they don't have enough housekeeping staff to handle all the rooms that are available to begin with. If there were many housekeepers standing around twiddling their thumbs before 11 then we may have heard from DVC about this already. All that said, I personally don't want the checked out "flag" on the opposite side of DND. We always keep our DND card on (in every hotel/cruise room we stay in) and we invariably get some moron who thinks it is funny to turn the card around on us. I would rather have a separate card for "checked out".

I just realized that I generally don't see housekeepers in the hall close enough to my room to tell when I check out (or if there is a cart next to us, there is no housekeeper around). I will start calling housekeeping instead of the front desk though - maybe that will help.

Terri

 

[crisi]

If Disney wanted to improve the efficiency they could add "Checked Out" on the reverse side of the DND sign and they could instruct and teach guests to call when checking out and they could have Bell Services call Housekeeping when they come and get your luggage when you check out.

Apparently it isn't something that they feel needs improving.

Bill

We take Magical Express. Disney has a record of when we are out the door and calling might add five minutes to the amount of time housekeeping knows - but they probably wouldn't get it to a housekeeper in that time anyway. If Disney wants to know when I'm out of the room, the answer is "five minutes before you told me I needed to be downstairs."

If they can't figure out how to use the passenger lists for ME to optimize room turnover, frankly, they don't deserve my business. -

 

[disneymomjcs]

We usually are up and out of our room early and check our luggage with Bell Services on the last day to make it to a park and maybe back for a swim. We have never called housekeeping. Many times they are right there either knocking to see if we are out or just in the hallway. Maybe bell services reports luggage pickup or they have a text alert to let them know.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Our flights are usually in the afternoon, so we're usually leaving the room shortly before 11am. If we leave earlier, I'll make a point to mention that we're out of room xxx to a maid. I've never checked out with the front desk, though. To be honest, I'd be skeptical that the front desk would do anything with the information anyway.

 

[dduck]

Probably the easiest way to let housekeeping know you have left the room is to open the drapes on the way out the door. It also helps to stop the early morning door knocking as they have empty rooms to start the day with.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We take Magical Express. Disney has a record of when we are out the door and calling might add five minutes to the amount of time housekeeping knows - but they probably wouldn't get it to a housekeeper in that time anyway. If Disney wants to know when I'm out of the room, the answer is "five minutes before you told me I needed to be downstairs."

If they can't figure out how to use the passenger lists for ME to optimize room turnover, frankly, they don't deserve my business. -

I don't think calling the front desk is the thing to do. I call housekeeping directly and let them know. They usually thank me too.

 

[LSchrow]

on that very sad day, we let bellservices know that we are checking out when we call for the luggage pick-up.

bell services has told us, more than once, that there is no need for a second call to HK

 

[phtktz3]

We take Magical Express. Disney has a record of when we are out the door and calling might add five minutes to the amount of time housekeeping knows - but they probably wouldn't get it to a housekeeper in that time anyway. If Disney wants to know when I'm out of the room, the answer is "five minutes before you told me I needed to be downstairs."

If they can't figure out how to use the passenger lists for ME to optimize room turnover, frankly, they don't deserve my business. -

Wow...I don't agree with this at all. I use DME too but most of the time I book my flight for late in the day or early evening so my DME time isn't until hours after the 11am check out time. So if DME says I should be ready for pick up at 4:30 pm how is that going to help housekeeping know what time I vacated the room in the morning?
It only takes a moment to call and let someone know the room is vacant so I just don't see what the big deal is and Disney certanily wouldn't lose my business over it!!

 

[twinklebug]

Wow...I don't agree with this at all. I use DME too but most of the time I book my flight for late in the day or early evening so my DME time isn't until hours after the 11am check out time. So if DME says I should be ready for pick up at 4:30 pm how is that going to help housekeeping know what time I vacated the room in the morning?
It only takes a moment to call and let someone know the room is vacant so I just don't see what the big deal is and Disney certanily wouldn't lose my business over it!!

Utilizing the ME schedule to determine room vacancy won't work since the systems are not setup to cross the information over between departments in this manner (and I doubt the cost:benefit ratio would make it worth developing).

There are many methods discussed here, the only one we know for sure helps is to talk directly with the housekeeper as we leave providing she/he can be found. The best suggestion so far, is a door tag that can be put out upon exiting the room indicating the room is vacated and ready to be re-set for new guests.

Since we leave so late (10:30 - 11am) we typically have a housekeeper haunting our doorway anyway.

 

[dvcdisney]

The only time I call housekeeping to let them know we are leaving is when we leave early in the morning. Otherwise, we are there until 10:30am so not much help there. And as others have mentioned, at that time we usually see the housekeeper and in most cases, before we can say anything, they see our luggage and they ask if they are okay to go in and wish us a nice trip home.

I do think it would be nice to have a door tag specifically stating that we have checked out. However, I ABSOLUTELY agree that it should NOT be on the other side of the DND sign. Not everyone was raised properly. I have seen kids and adults turn those signs around in other hotels that offer the option on both sides. A few years ago, we were staying in a hotel where they offered this type of door tag and I saw a grown man walk by and turn one of the tags on his way down the hallway. It was rather disturbing. He didn't look around if anyone saw him or not, he just did it without any regard. Absolutely unbelievable. Like I said, not everyone was raised properly.

 

[Sammie]

We call housekeeping and let them know or tell the housekeepers, as they are always in the hallways.

 

[sammo]

We usually call and let housekeeping know when we are leaving.

A few years ago I ran into a manager type in the BW lobby as I was leaving and she asked if we were checking out, then asked the room number so they could let housekeeping know.

Last week I went to the front desk (again at BW) about 7 am to get a printout of our charges and they asked if we were out of the room. We weren't (husband and daughter still in there - sleeping), but I asked if she wanted me to call housekeeping when we were leaving (to head out to EP). She answered to let the front desk know. I did, and they seemed to appreciate it.

 

[RachaelA]

For the people that said they had mousekeeping knocking on their door at 8am on their checkout day, did you have the DnD sign up? I'm just curious if they still knock or wait since I know tons of people probably forget to take them down when they leave. If I have a sleeping infant, I'm going to be annoyed if they start banging on my door early in the morning. Obviously there isn't anything I could really do, but I'll still be annoyed

 

[SamSam]

We call housekeeping and let them know or tell the housekeepers, as they are always in the hallways.

This is what we do.

 

[crisi]

Utilizing the ME schedule to determine room vacancy won't work since the systems are not setup to cross the information over between departments in this manner (and I doubt the cost:benefit ratio would make it worth developing).

Really?

The day before they slip a note through my door with my pickup time....so all the information is there

All that needs to be done is to have the ME system send an email report to the housekeeping supervisor for each resort that lists "room number" and "pickup time" sorted by pick up time.

I could have done that with any system I've touched since the mid-1980s without even creating a project plan to measure costs - it was always just a "hey, create this report, make it look like this, and send it to these people."

 

[WilsonFlyer]

You know guys, we use to have a system of checking out. It was called "checking out." Go figure.

I actually liked going to the front desk and checking my bill and squaring up. Call me old-fashioned.

Now I get this phone message saying something to the effect of "Thank you for choosing express checkout..." When? I didn't choose squat. I may have signed something at check-in agreeing to it but I never knowingly chose anything called express checkout. "For my efficient departure..." (Again, or something to that effect.). Yea. Right.

This system is solely designed to get me out of the resort without them having to "deal with me" and thereby increasing efficiency at the front desk (Did your dues go down when they implemented express checkout?). Fine. You asked for it? You got it, Toyota! I'm OUTTA HERE.

Nothing from me (unless my bill is wrong). You can take your "express checkout" and your "be gone with you since you're not spending anymore money with us now" attitude and enjoy your increased efficiency and costs savings.

Again, call me old-fashioned but I actually like hearing someone say, "Thanks for coming and we hope you enjoyed your stay with us and we hope you come back soon." when I check-out.

When I leave now, I just leave. I don't tell anybody nor do I ever intend to. Why? For all the reasons outlined above and a bunch more implied by the outline above.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not unappreciative of those of you that do it. More power to you but I just can't bring myself to care anymore. It certainly doesn't seem like they (villa administration) do so why should I? I rarely, if ever, get a room before 3:30-6:00 anyway so what's the incentive. If I could prove it, I'd be willing to bet a cup of Starbuck's coffee to $5 that check-in times wouldn't change one minute even if phoning to say you were leaving was a requirement subject to some kind of fine or something (expressly billed on that CC you left at the front desk).

You asked. I'm sure there are a hundred others on here that feel exactly like I do but they'll never say anything for fear of being flamed. Difference is, I don't care. I talk to a lot of business people in my travels. I am not alone. Maybe in DVC but certainly not in the world at-large.