A Disney Housekeepers point of view (videos)

[jcjen519]

I feel for anyone who does that type of job. They are not paid a living wage and they work hard. We are neat people and tip well. Still...I found the videos to be annoying.

I always appreciate when people share stuff so that's not directed at op. Just my two cents

 

[RyanFH]

I feel for anyone who does that type of job. They are not paid a living wage and they work hard. We are neat people and tip well. Still...I found the videos to be annoying.

I always appreciate when people share stuff so that's not directed at op. Just my two cents

Awesome that you are a clean person and tip well. Thank you for that. Please do not feel sorry for those who actually have a job and enjoy it. I work as a room attendant and I make a very good wage.....more than my friends who are retail management! Mortgage is paid. I drive a very new SUV. I travel every year to parts of the world most people only dream about. My best friend is a doctor who is struggling to get by on ridiculous work schedule and pay off student debt. She envies me!

I take a lot of pride in transforming a room from disaster to spectacular and the tips I receive show it.

 

[RyanFH]

Found some videos on YouTube from a Disney housekeeper. She did it during her college program and gives some good info on her experience and some tips on being a good resort guest. I found her videos entertaining and you should check them out.

Here are a few of her videos:

Thanks for posting these. I can tell she enjoys her job and takes pride in what she does. Unfortunately, a large percentage of travellers have no idea how to be respectful when using other people's property. I see people frequently post memes on Facebook saying "ignore the mess.....I'm busy raising a family". Yes it's important to spend time with your children as time is fleeting but you have to teach them to care for a home/vehicle as well. If the parents do not, who will? Kids must be taught to flush. Put garbage in trash bin. Put clothes in hamper. This isn't rocket science people!!

 

[PlainJane]

I'm a complete germaphobe, so I would not be able to be a housekeeper. I can definitely appreciate the difficulty of her job, but also understand why some really enjoy it (I have a friend who is obsessed with things being clean, and she cleans houses for a living). I don't think it's being bratty for her to have an expectation that people don't just leave trash lying around on the floor. Sometimes I'll leave something on a surface until later, like a table, but why would you just throw something on the ground? I leave the room in a normal state for housekeeping. I don't make the bed or clean, but I also don't leave a mess. We tend to stay DVC and I do run the dishes when we are checking out. Sometimes, I will also collect all of the dirty towels and place them into the tub (which I hope is helpful, that's the intention). I never thought about the dark room thing, I close the drapes for privacy and tend to turn off the lights to conserve energy, I'll consider keeping a lamp on in the future.

 

[RyanFH]

I'm a complete germaphobe, so I would not be able to be a housekeeper. I can definitely appreciate the difficulty of her job, but also understand why some really enjoy it (I have a friend who is obsessed with things being clean, and she cleans houses for a living). I don't think it's being bratty for her to have an expectation that people don't just leave trash lying around on the floor. Sometimes I'll leave something on a surface until later, like a table, but why would you just throw something on the ground? I leave the room in a normal state for housekeeping. I don't make the bed or clean, but I also don't leave a mess. We tend to stay DVC and I do run the dishes when we are checking out. Sometimes, I will also collect all of the dirty towels and place them into the tub (which I hope is helpful, that's the intention). I never thought about the dark room thing, I close the drapes for privacy and tend to turn off the lights to conserve energy, I'll consider keeping a lamp on in the future.

I do the same as you! Towels in the bathtub, I make sure all garbage is in the bin and I run the dishes through the dishwasher. I also leave a note for the attendant if there were any stains on the bed linens so they can be pretreated. I don't want the attendant to have to worry about my things so I tuck things into drawers. On a recent visit, one of the kids had the "Disney flu" (Norovirus) so the bathroom was a contamination zone. I asked the attendant to please wear gloves and a mask to clean, otherwise leave supplies and I'd do it myself. (I cleaned the best I could with Clorox wipes)

I enjoy leaving Mousekeeping treat bags with good chocolates and candies plus a monetary tip. I get a nice thank you, extra toiletries and towels. And of course a HUGE smile when they see me in person.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I enjoy leaving Mousekeeping treat bags with good chocolates and candies plus a monetary tip. I get a nice thank you, extra toiletries and towels. And of course a HUGE smile when they see me in person.

Oooh, I never thought about goodies. That could be fun!

 

[RyanFH]

Oooh, I never thought about goodies. That could be fun!

I have friends in various parts of the world and they love when I send them treats not available where they live. So I assumed Mousekeepers would too? They usually go out of their way to leave me a note or say thank you when they see me. If they throw it away or give it away, so be it. Maple sugar candy is quite hard to resist though!!

 

[Shughart]

Mousekeeping is paid well! And I don't feel like watching the videos, but I am curious for the reasoning behind opening the curtains and leaving the lights on. Is it because they don't want to walk into a dark room? I never thought of this. We leave the curtains closed so no one can look in and see tablets/laptops, but if that was the case I would leave the lights on for them in the future. Although I don't care much about other aspects of mousekeeping, it is very nice to climb into a freshly made bed each night when we're tired!

 

[RyanFH]

Mousekeeping is paid well! And I don't feel like watching the videos, but I am curious for the reasoning behind opening the curtains and leaving the lights on. Is it because they don't want to walk into a dark room? I never thought of this. We leave the curtains closed so no one can look in and see tablets/laptops, but if that was the case I would leave the lights on for them in the future. Although I don't care much about other aspects of mousekeeping, it is very nice to climb into a freshly made bed each night when we're tired!

He said walking into a pitch black room is intimidating as you never know what you're about to step on or what is waiting for you. Like a dog, cat or some kind of critter that moves. And the occupant maybe deaf so having a light on gives you a chance to see them.

 

[Shughart]

He said walking into a pitch black room is intimidating as you never know what you're about to step on or what is waiting for you. Like a dog, cat or some kind of critter that moves. And the occupant maybe deaf so having a light on gives you a chance to see them.

Makes perfect sense, thank you! I will keep that in mind on our next trip!

 

[Stefanie Rachel]

Hi y'all! Stefie here

It's okay that some of you found them boring, that's fine. They're meant for college students who are doing the CP and are interested or have been assigned to housekeeping. I don't mind if you don't like my videos or me! I think some of you completely missed the point of the videos and my intentions, and that's okay. I do think it's in poor taste to hope my children have medical issues and I only bathe them monthly, but I digress. I've had worse things said to me because of my videos.
To those of you with kind words, thank you! I really loved my job as a housekeeper and I still miss it to this day! Would I do it again? No. But I'm glad I had the experience and I will forever be thankful for the lessons I've learned through the work. I took great pride in cleaning thoroughly and making magical moments for guests to return to. My goal with the videos was to help educate those who will be doing housekeeping as a CP. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

 

[Sabathamk]

I enjoyed watching these videos. I never thought about the lamp or curtains thing. Usually we like to open the blackouts a bit so we have light when waking as I prefer natural light, but usually closed and turned off everything to conserve energy.

As long as I can remember, whenever going to a hotel, I've always done the same things when checking out. All the towels get wrapped into one big one and placed under the sink or in the tub, the opened/used soaps all get trashed, all my garbage is in the garbage and everything is as simple for the housekeeper as I can think to make it. While staying somewhere for multiple nights, if it's only two nights or three, we'll say at the counter at check in that we don't need extra cleaning at all. On our trip to Disney I would lightly make the beds and put all the clothes into the drawers (I had a clean drawer and a dirty drawer for my clothes), we have all our toiletries in a hanging type bag so we could just take all the stuff off the sink and hang it up, and all the towels/swimsuits get hung to dry. My mom did cleaning for a variety of businesses and even some houses when I was growing up, and it is amazing how much help it is to not have 'stuff' on counters or floors or beds when you need to clean them. So, I like to try to do that same thing for when we are on vacation.

I'm sure I miss things some trips, especially lately as we have more kids (actually, last trip we took was with the three kiddos before I had #4, and am now pregnant with #5 so it is looking less likely we will go anywhere anymore), but I think a little extra respect for everyone you meet goes a long way, no matter what you do or don't do to show it. Even just a smile to a CM at Disney. I love the people that work there, they have made both my stays at the parks magical, and I wish the best days for them!

 

[MaggieBags]

I thought these were very interesting! Great job.

 

[Kaytie]

Maple sugar candy is quite hard to resist though!!

Great. Now I want some. The best Amazon can do is tomorrow. Not fair!

She said walking into a pitch black room is intimidating as you never know what you're about to step on or what is waiting for you.

Try being the guest walking into a pitch black room at 2 AM, and the bulb connected to the light switch is burned out. Not Disney - Las Vegas - pre cellphone. Fortunately there were phones and chairs by the elevator, but it did take housekeeping a while to arrive with new bulbs.

I don't mind if you don't like my videos or me!

I like them! Well, the first two. I'm afraid to watch the third one in case you go into detail about the smearing guest

 

[A. Mara Ziwadie]

I always leave notes for the housekeeper/room attendant. I usually need extra towels or something. Sometimes they don't have a lot of extras on their carts, and my requests go unfurnished. That's fine. I'll call for something.

It is true. You are paying for the room. You can leave it how you want to. Should I leave it at that? Not quite. I think it's so very nice of other people on vacation thinking of the person who will attend to their room. I think it shows thankfulness. (It doesn't mean the opposite is not thankful, though.)