Guest experiences with daily room checks

[PrincessV]

Just back from 4 nights at POP with my teen son, and declined housekeeping. On day 2, we left the MK and returned to our room around 3pm. My son was overheated and I was running the Star Wars races and wanted some rest time, so we opted to hang out in our AC'd room, play cards and watch TV. While we were playing cards, a CM knocked for a security check and I opened the door from where I was sitting on the bed. She was pleasant but kept looking at my son and asking if he was "okay" in a way that made me think she was trying to figure out why a teenager would be inside a resort room on a sunny afternoon in WDW. Like @HopperFan , I'm convinced at least one reason for the security checks is to catch human trafficking, and yeah - I definitely felt like I was being assessed! Which is fairly entertaining, as WDW can easily see in its records we've been visiting since my son was born and have had APs for 20+ years. The CM never entered the room, though - only talked with us from the open doorway. The other days, we had the Room Occupied sign up until we left the room in the afternoon and never had a knock or call while we were in it. I assume someone came by while we were out.

 

[disme13]

4 nights at POR, 04/05-04/09. I could tell that room checks were done each day when I was at the parks, as they would always turn on a light that I left off. On my first day, I opened my door and CM was standing right there. So just assuming he was going to knock. It was kind of awkward because he wasn't too forthcoming about the purpose of his visit. He asked me if I had any maintenance issues or anyone else in the room, I invited him to come in and check, but he said he needed to use his own key. So I just left to go to the parks and I could see him exiting my room as I walked away, so was def a quick check. All in all not too intrusive for me as I was out of my room during the day.

 

[MedicMathes]

5 night stay POR last summer End of May. The gentleman knocked on the door and stated that he was there to fix the maintenance issue. When he was advised there was no issue he stated that someone must've called and he needed to check the light switch. He did not introduce himself, there was no identification or anything. After I advised that there was no issue he left. I called the front desk and told them what was going on, just to be safe. They did some investigation and found that he was, in fact, trying to do a room check. If he would've just stated his reason, I would've gladly let him in. We did end up getting some FP for our party for the inconvenience, which was nice, but definitely not warranted.

 

[BrownDalmatian]

We stayed in the cabins at Ft. Wilderness last year, but I wasn't aware of this thread so I'm posting now.

We did have a "security check" once but he just popped his head in and quickly left. We had our 2 dogs with us, locked in the bedroom of the cabin, but I think the guy was nervous.

I called down to the desk DAILY to ask them to schedule the checks with us, and I told them it was because we have dogs and can't have someone coming in unannounced without us there. This did make for a less-than-relaxing stay as I was worried about it whenever we left the cabin. We kept the dogs locked up in the bedroom and I had a "baby monitor" app running on an extra phone in the room, so I could continue to check on them while we were out.

We are not a fan of this new policy at all.

 

[Miffy]

Up until today I had no experiences at all with the room-check phenomenon, and I've been at WDW staying onsite several times since this was initiated. In fact, I've posted elsewhere, and maybe even on this thread, that if one's room is serviced by housekeeping, that the entire room-check thing is not an issue at all.

But here's what happened today:

We're staying at AKL. We left the room around 9 a.m. this morning and returned around 3 p.m. The room hadn't been serviced, even though yesterday when we got back to the room much earlier, the room had been made up. Okay, fine. Not a big deal.

Shortly after we got in, housekeeping came by. We didn't want to have the room made up since we wanted to rest, so we asked if we could trade in our towels and have the garbage removed. This was easily accomplished by a very nice housekeeper, who, in fact, gave us enough clean towels for the next month.

Fast-forward to 10 minutes ago. The phone in our room rings, and the person on the other end informs me that there's someone outside our door who wants to gain access--we have the Room Occupied sign out--because our room wasn't serviced. But it was serviced, I say. We traded in our towels and the housekeeper removed the trash. The person on the phone tells me that the room is marked as "service refused," and apparently there's nothing I can say that will change anything. So I'm forced to let the person looming outside the door in.

Fortunately for us--I'm here with my sister--neither of us was asleep when the phone rang and we weren't horribly inconvenienced by the visit, which consisted of a housekeeper-seeming woman coming into the room, looking around, then leaving.

But, you know what? The entire experience left a very bad taste. It was like we were being accused of some kind of nefarious, possibly criminal, activity, and we had to be checked up on. I am not amused. At all.

 

[roxiepenguin]

I just returned from a trip to POR from 1/25-29/18 and wanted to share our experiences. ...

I told him multiple times that I was not questioning the policy itself or the need for it, that I just wanted to know some practical information for my stay, since I was traveling alone with a child. For example, since I was a single adult, I asked him it was okay to let a CM open a door with his “key” instead of me opening the door? He became very angry and kept berating me about the misuse of the word “key.” "You do know we don't use actual keys, don't you?!" One strange thing was he kept mentioning how the world was different, but he made it a point to say it was not a security measure, he repeatedly pointed to maintenance issues. He also told me it was “in my best interest” to answer if they knock, but couldn’t really provide a lot of specifics to my questions about how it works, like if Mousekeeping doesn’t make it to my room, will security definitely come daily, or only if there’s an issue, maintenance or security concern or otherwise - because at this point I was fairly confused. (ETA - I also asked if I could ask them to come back later). I am no pushover and I’m actually embarrassed to say, but I was almost in tears by the end of the exchange, which sounds really lame coming from a middle-aged woman, but I think it was in part because it was so unexpected and I left feeling like I had done something wrong (I’m actually almost embarrassed to post this, as I never really had a “problem” with the implementation of the policy itself). ...

Over the course of the last year, we stayed for probably close to 25 days on 2 separate trips. I remember Mousekeeping knocking a few times while we were in the room at AoA during our April stay but they said they'd come back later.

I quoted the above reply because our experience in December was different. We did a split stay between POR and AoA. POR offered us the Mousekeeping decline which we said no to; AoA did not offer.

We were in our room at AoA early afternoon and heard a knock. (I think this was even our first day at that resort.) Before we were at the door, the CM was already letting himself in. (It's a king bed LM room so it's not like it was walking from the bedroom of a family suite to the door.) My DH approached and the CM, somewhat flustered, said he was from maintenance and was there to replace the filter on the HVAC unit. (He didn't have a filter with him, and he specifically said he was there to change it, not check it.)

We said okay and he left. He came back with a filter and then seemed to fumble quite a bit removing the panel and changing the filter. And, once done, he even made the comment that the one in there had looked fine.

I definitely got a got a security vibe from him and zero maintenance vibe. 'Whoops, they're still in the room and I need an excuse to be in there' was the feeling I got. I'm guessing no one is buying the "just here to empty the trash" routine.

 

[marikujawa]

We were at SSR from April 28 to May 6 and, once again, no one ever disturbed us when the sign was up. There was a letter on the bed stating that a Disney employee would be coming in each day to conduct a room inspection and, as part of that, would empty the trash. No circumspection, no excuses, no pretenses - just information. The letter invited guests to call to schedule a convenient time if they wish. I'm not a fan of this policy, but they are being upfront about it, and not every knock at the door is related to this policy. Even at Disney, it's not possible to control all aspects of your vacation down to the timing of every single knock on the door.

 

[Butterflywings]

We just returned from 7 nights at POP and did not experience any room checks, so I am assuming they happened while we were out at the parks or hanging by the pool.

 

[cvo]

Haven’t checked forum in a while and was unaware of the new policy. Wife and I stayed on points at SSR for 10 days end of March into April this year. We left room occupied card on door every day. On the 5th or 6th day housekeeping called my cell while we were out and left message stating room needed to be inspected. I called back and said I’d rather be there for it. I called when we got back at the room and requested inspection, they said someone would be there right away. Waited half hour and called back, was told same thing again. Another half hour and another phone call and I was annoyed and advised I wanted to go out to eat. 10 minutes later a CM knocked at the door and asked how vacation was. I told her I was a little annoyed, my only reason for coming back to room was for inspection, and that I had plans to go out. She asked how the room was and I said it needs a refurbishment for sure, pointed out that the trim on the slider was causing patio door to bind, hinges on closet door were barely hanging on, and the HVAC closet was not secured shut. She apologized for the inconvenience and the delay of the inspection and asked if we were planning on dining somewhere in the Springs for the night. I said yes and she stated that she would like to credit our account $250 for dinner for the room issues and delay. I was good with that. That was the only room inspection that occurred as far as I know.

 

[LadyCatie]

Today is our last day of vacation

We did 11 nights at POP and 4 nights at SSR. We declined housekeeping at POP and rented DVC points at SSR. We experienced 4 room checks while in the room at POP. They would come in, announce they were there to check the room for security and maintainable, and just casually look around the room. In and out in a minute. One guy opened all the drawers to check them, which felt a little invasive, but whatever. They were nice and open about what they were doing. While at SSR, we had someone come 2 out of the 4 days to see if we had any trash. She’d grab the trash under the sink and leave without doing anything else. No checks.

 

[lilypgirl]

We were there last August for 8 nights at POR and no checks that I was aware of. We declined housekeeping at check in because they offered us a credit. It was me and my 2 children for this trip. They did bring us fresh towels each day and empty trash so maybe the check was done then.

 

[Jennasis]

OKW May 8-12 on DVC points. Trash disappeared daily. Never had a knock on the door or any room check. We were in room several days midday for naps/showers.

 

[BattyMcDoon]

Just got back from 5 days at Pop. No knocks on our door, no trash taken out. They only day they came in was after the first night because everything was made/cleaned. Had the room occupied sign up over night and had no issues with early morning visits. Stayed at the parks all day except for one where I came back and took a mid day nap and was not disturbed.

 

[KBoopaloo]

We were at WDW from May 18 through May 24. Spent the first night at OKW in a studio and then moved over to club level at the Yacht Club. We kept the Room Occupied sign up on the door whenever we were in the room and we returned for a couple of hours every afternoon. The only knocks we ever received in that time period were from the housekeeper coming by for turn down service. This happened twice and we told her it was unnecessary. She did not come in and just left us the chocolates she would have left on the pillow. We did have regular daily housekeeping though.

 

[Kamy04]

We just spent 7 nights at POP. I made it pretty clear we wanted mousekeeping to avoid the room checks, but that didn’t work out. We only had mousekeeping twice! They even asked what time to come and we said 10am. We had four room checks, all during DS5 naps . They were not quiet about knocking even with the room occupied sign out. I was napping, too, (and was woken up) but I don’t think they even came in the room. Just stood in the doorway. So that was pretty silly, definitely not worth waking the five year old up for lol. It was there only bummer of our stay.
I didn’t think it would bother me, but it did. I think especially because I made a point at check in that I was not going to decline mousekeeping because I didn’t want the room checks to interfere with naps. Oh well.

 

[Saxsoon]

20 years and we have never had that issue with any DVC resort.

 

[HopperFan]

We just spent 7 nights at POP. I made it pretty clear we wanted mousekeeping to avoid the room checks, but that didn’t work out. We only had mousekeeping twice! They even asked what time to come and we said 10am. We had four room checks, all during DS5 naps . They were not quiet about knocking even with the room occupied sign out. I was napping, too, (and was woken up) but I don’t think they even came in the room. Just stood in the doorway. So that was pretty silly, definitely not worth waking the five year old up for lol. It was there only bummer of our stay.
I didn’t think it would bother me, but it did. I think especially because I made a point at check in that I was not going to decline mousekeeping because I didn’t want the room checks to interfere with naps. Oh well.

My last onsite stay was January for a week, All Star Sports. It was my first onsite stay in a year even though I go about 6 times a year. I moved offsite after a horrible experience with room checks last January at POP. I was given the offer to decline Mousekeeping. I said no because I did not want to deal with the room checks. I was clear I was giving Disney another chance but if I am treated the same way, this would be our last stay. I am traveling alone with a disabled son and no way I am letting them in if we are there. The response basically "Room Checks can happen whether you get Mousekeeping or not. Having Mousekeeping will not stop the checks." He was a full-time CM and very clear about it. He did call me after I arrived in our room to help me set a block of time they could come in the room that we would be gone. It worked out for us, but I'm sure it was due to his special needs.

I did not doubt him, and based on varied stories ... I don't think opting out changes anything in the "rules" just sometimes the process happens by Mousekeeping and sometimes by others.

 

[Lynne M]

This seems like a good time to remind everyone that this thread is only for reports of your own experiences with the room checks. Any other posts will be removed.

If you want to comment on the policy or ask a question, start a thread on the Resorts board, or post on an existing thread.

 

[LabMouse]

Just came back from a six-night stay at the Dolphin, June 15-21st. As with our stay last year at the Swan, the Dolphin had actual "Please Do Not Disturb" signs for the doors, and we were never bothered while the sign was out. We didn't leave the room before 11 am most days. One day we took as a rest day, and we stayed in the room all day except for lunch and dinner. S/D will be our go-to resorts when we want to stay on-property, for as long as WDW keeps doing the room checks at the official Disney-run resorts.

 

[Fldisneyfamily4321]

Just came back from my last trip ( promised the kids one last trip but done with Disney ) and stayed at all star sports . The second morning we were still sleeping around 7:30 and they just opened the door and walked in , no knock at all . I was on the bed near the door and got up and just shut the door .. there is no need for them to be doing that . I would normally use the door latch but the kids are adults and were out later then I was so didn’t want to latch the door .
I am just glad I’m done with Disney .. it was not a enjoyable trip .. rude people and rude cast members.