Has anyone had house keeping unlock their Dead Bolt to check the room to be cleaned while you were still in it?

[71 Truck]

My wife and I were at the Poly for one night. We were staying in the DVC building, we are members.
This morning while we were still in the room we had this happen.

My wife was in the shower and I was in the restroom ( DVC rooms have a split bathroom, shower sink/bathtub toilet) when I heard housekeeping knocking.
Being unable to answer I just let them knock knowing I checked that the dead bolt was on from last night.
All of a sudden I heard the door open and the top latch kept the door from opening all the way, then I heard the housekeeper say "I'm sorry I will come back later".

I did not think housekeeping had the authority or the ability to override the dead bolt. I thought that was only reserved for management and security to check on guest that were not checked out or were not responding to repeated attempts to contact the guest in the room, and this happened at 9am this morning so it was not even close to check out time.

So has anyone else had this happen to them.

 

[KittyKitty]

Yes. They check each room daily. This came from when there was the shooter in Vegas who housed his guns etc. in his hotel room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

 

[Marthasor]

Yes, it has happened to a lot of people. Housekeeping is notorious for coming into people's rooms prior to check-out time on check-out day.

 

[jo-jo]

Yes. They check each room daily. This came from when there was the shooter in Vegas who housed his guns etc. in his hotel room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

But OP is asking about overriding the deadbolt. I guess he thought if they knocked a few times, then tried the door, it wouldn't open with the deadbolt on.

We didn't have this situation, but housekeeping kept knocking, my DH who moves slowly started getting up, about 15 secs later, another knock. DH calls coming, Few secs later another knock. DH gets to door and she asks, just need to know if you need anything. I would think three times knocking in under a min is a bit much.

 

[71 Truck]

Yes. They check each room daily. This came from when there was the shooter in Vegas who housed his guns etc. in his hotel room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

This is something new?
My wife and I have stayed at Disney dozens of times since the shooting in Las Vegas and have never had a housekeeper try to enter our room while we were still in it with the deadbolt on. It was only 9am so we had two hours till checkout to get ready to leave the resort. I know they are sometimes in a hurry to get rooms cleaned but I think this happening this early in the morning is a little much.

 

[71 Truck]

But OP is asking about overriding the deadbolt. I guess he thought if they knocked a few times, then tried the door, it wouldn't open with the deadbolt on.

We didn't have this situation, but housekeeping kept knocking, my DH who moves slowly started getting up, about 15 secs later, another knock. DH calls coming, Few secs later another knock. DH gets to door and she asks, just need to know if you need anything. I would think three times knocking in under a min is a bit much.

Yes that is correct housekeeping overriding the dead bolt.

 

[mom2rtk]

Theoretically they shouldn't need to do a room check if you only have 2 hours left until checkout. Mostly this is about nudging people out of their rooms so they can turn them over sooner. Lots of reports of this online lately.

 

[lanejudy]

I did not think housekeeping had the authority or the ability to override the dead bolt. I thought that was only reserved for management and security

You say the "deadbolt" -- but that is just the regular lock on the door, right? Or is this an additional lock? Maybe I'm having a brain-fart but I only recall the one regular lock (which is a deadbolt), and then the privacy "bar." Housekeeping has always had ability to unlock a room if they believe it to be unoccupied. If nobody answered when she knocked, the housekeeper assumed the room was unoccupied.

 

[71 Truck]

You say the "deadbolt" -- but that is just the regular lock on the door, right? Or is this an additional lock? Maybe I'm having a brain-fart but I only recall the one regular lock (which is a deadbolt), and then the privacy "bar." Housekeeping has always had ability to unlock a room if they believe it to be unoccupied. If nobody answered when she knocked, the housekeeper assumed the room was unoccupied.

Housekeeping had or has a master key card to open the door from the outside just like the guest however the house keeping key will open all the guest room doors in the resort.
They are or were in the past assigned this key at the beginning of the shift so management can track what rooms they have been in if needed for some reason.
This key would not open the dead bolt the guest can set from the inside of the room in the past.

At one time the only way to bypass the dead bolt was to have a house keeping manager go to the front desk and request some one meet them at the room with this special key.
This key was inserted into a lock similar to what you would have on your own home front door.
This unlocked the dead bolt.

It used to take a real good reason for them to do this.

 

[KimMcGowan]

Not to be contrary but it was checkout day. Many people have left their room by 9. When nobody answered they may have thought the room was already cleared. This could, of course, be prevented if Disney had TV checkout like most major hotels. However, I recently read that they are allowing digital checkout from MDE at a few select resorts.

 

[Matty B13]

I like to bring posted notes and leave a message on the door if we are napping with the time we will be heading out for the evening, and on check out day I'll leave the time we are going to be leaving.

 

[71 Truck]

Not to be contrary but it was checkout day. Many people have left their room by 9. When nobody answered they may have thought the room was already cleared. This could, of course, be prevented if Disney had TV checkout like most major hotels. However, I recently read that they are allowing digital checkout from MDE at a few select resorts.

In the past all housekeeping has to do is use their key card to touch the door sensor the same as guest to open the door. If the light turned red that meant the dead bolt was on and they just moved on to another room.
In this case they knocked and I was unable to answer the door. It appeared they bypassed the dead bolt with a special key to open the door.

I can understand that some guest will be out of the room before check out time however if that is the case the dead bolt would not be on.
With all that said in the past we have put out the occupied room door sigh however this room did not have one.

As far as I am concerned if it is check out day you have till 11am to vacate the room. If the dead bolt is on they should not be bypassing the dead bolt till at a minimum till after checkout and not with out a manger doing it. The person at the door never announced they were a manager the person at the door only announced they were housekeeping.

This was the first time we have ever had this happen in the over 30 years we have been visiting Disney and we visit 5 to 6 times a year.

 

[heynowirv]

Not to be contrary but it was checkout day. Many people have left their room by 9. When nobody answered they may have thought the room was already cleared. This could, of course, be prevented if Disney had TV checkout like most major hotels. However, I recently read that they are allowing digital checkout from MDE at a few select resorts.

I would think with a deadbolt on it was obvious they hadn't left yet. Check out is by 11:00.

 

[KittyKitty]

I like to bring posted notes and leave a message on the door if we are napping with the time we will be heading out for the evening, and on check out day I'll leave the time we are going to be leaving.

I don't know if I would leave a note for all to see.

 

[suemom2kay]

In most modern hotel rooms, the deadbolt engages automatically and you turning the latch does absolutely nothing. The card key will open the door regardless of deadbolt engagement. There is no special “override.”

 

[Simba's Mom]

Frankly this makes me very nervous. It could lead to some major embarrassment, what with couples on their honeymoon or anniversary. I didn't know that, if the privacy bar was engaged, housekeeping might still be able to get into the room without the assistance of engineering.
I did have housekeeping walk in on me once, but nothing special was on the door. I'd fallen asleep watching TV during the day, vaguely heard knocking, but didn't think it was my room. When housekeeping walked in and saw me, they were so apologetic and, scurried out, saying they'd come back later. I just can't imagine if there'd been any "activity" going on.

 

[js]

When we stayed at BRVs in January, I always kept the Do Not Disturb sign on our door, whether inside or if we left for park/dinner, etc.

Each day, someone from Housekeeping would call my cell and ask if it was okay to go in the room. When I said I was out, they asked what a good time for them would be to come back.

This happened every single day and by Thursday, I just took the sign off when we went out so I wouldn't get any more calls and they just came in when we were out.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Frankly this makes me very nervous. It could lead to some major embarrassment, what with couples on their honeymoon or anniversary. I didn't know that, if the privacy bar was engaged, housekeeping might still be able to get into the room without the assistance of engineering.
I did have housekeeping walk in on me once, but nothing special was on the door. I'd fallen asleep watching TV during the day, vaguely heard knocking, but didn't think it was my room. When housekeeping walked in and saw me, they were so apologetic and, scurried out, saying they'd come back later. I just can't imagine if there'd been any "activity" going on.

Just flip the manual safety lock/latch at the top. We also use that when in the room.

We've had both aggressive "security/trash check" CMs. One made us all leave the room! And over eager checkout day cleaning crews knocking. Keep the safety latch engaged and they will be forced to at least speak with you.

 

[71 Truck]

In most modern hotel rooms, the deadbolt engages automatically and you turning the latch does absolutely nothing. The card key will open the door regardless of deadbolt engagement. There is no special “override.”

When you turn the dead bolt while looking in between the door and the door jam you can see the bolt engage the door jam. This is how I knew the bolt was locked the night before.
There is a physical key that was used to unlock the dead bolt. The key over rides the door lock and the dead bolt.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Frankly this makes me very nervous. It could lead to some major embarrassment, what with couples on their honeymoon or anniversary. I didn't know that, if the privacy bar was engaged, housekeeping might still be able to get into the room without the assistance of engineering.
I did have housekeeping walk in on me once, but nothing special was on the door. I'd fallen asleep watching TV during the day, vaguely heard knocking, but didn't think it was my room. When housekeeping walked in and saw me, they were so apologetic and, scurried out, saying they'd come back later. I just can't imagine if there'd been any "activity" going on.

Wait.... we are only supposed to act like that on our honeymoon or anniversary?