Make sure your doors are locked!

[maxiesmom]

You've obviously never had to clean rooms at a hotel or resort. Your 6 yo only has to make sure one door is locked, and if it takes an extra 15 or 20 seconds to do so, no big deal. The housekeeping staff at any hotel have 10-20 rooms to clean, within a specified time period, and sometimes particular rooms need more time than normally required.

Housekeeping is a very difficult job, more difficult than most people realize.

Now, I'm not saying that leaving doors open is acceptable. What I am saying is (1) it happens every so often at every hotel, not just at Disney; and (2) the housekeepers are only human, terribly overworked especially during times of cost-cutting, terribly underpaid especially during times of cost-cutting, not the best educated among us.

They make mistakes.

Mistakes which should be corrected, but please, guys, show a little patience with a generally hard-working group. After all, if they had wanted to steal from you, they could have much more easily.

The thing is, the more you do something, the more you do it without thinking. I would think checking that the door was closed and locked would become automatic.

And even if they do make a mistake and forget to lock a door, it should not happen so often or be so common place that telling a guest to write a note every day about locking the door should be the fix. Saying that to a guest shows that it happens quite a bit. And that is unacceptable.

 

[aubriee]

You've obviously never had to clean rooms at a hotel or resort. Your 6 yo only has to make sure one door is locked, and if it takes an extra 15 or 20 seconds to do so, no big deal. The housekeeping staff at any hotel have 10-20 rooms to clean, within a specified time period, and sometimes particular rooms need more time than normally required.

Housekeeping is a very difficult job, more difficult than most people realize.

Now, I'm not saying that leaving doors open is acceptable. What I am saying is (1) it happens every so often at every hotel, not just at Disney; and (2) the housekeepers are only human, terribly overworked especially during times of cost-cutting, terribly underpaid especially during times of cost-cutting, not the best educated among us.

They make mistakes.

Mistakes which should be corrected, but please, guys, show a little patience with a generally hard-working group. After all, if they had wanted to steal from you, they could have much more easily.

Not sure how others leave their rooms, but I am a very neat person. The trip when my door was propped open at CBR I was traveling solo. I seldom ever have anything to put in the trashcans in the room, am not a wriggler and have a tendency to sleep on the very edge of a bed, so have only 1/2 of one bed to make up. I keep everything lined up neatly on the vanity with most toiletries hanging up in my toiletry bag in the closet. In addition I always roll up my towel and washcloth every morning in the bath mat and place them in the sink with the mousekeeping evelope sitting on top, so they're easily seen. The only thing the housekeeper has to do in my room is replace a towel, washcloth, and bathmat and make 1/2 of one bed. There was no reason to prop that door open with a trash can. She should have been out of there in 3-5 minutes.

 

[Booyakasha]

Yes housekeeping should have closed the door, they made a mistake, life goes on. Put anything of value in the safe, problem solved. I leave a hotel room not caring if half the world trapses through they will find nothing but clothes. If they want those they can have them. All of this worry and panic is a bit off base IMO.

B.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

I see the point that it was a very rare mistake on the part of the housekeeper, although that doesn't make it any less troubling. However, I have more of a problem with being told to leave a note asking them to make sure that the door is closed when they leave, this should be a given. If we have to leave notes requesting for the door to be closed when done, where does it end? Do we also need to leave notes asking for the towels in the floor to be taken out and replaced with new ones, for the empty shampoo to also be replaced, for the trash can to be emptied....you get my point. I just think it was out of line for management to give you this solution as opposed to dealing with the problem directly.

 

[centurythree]

You've obviously never had to clean rooms at a hotel or resort. Your 6 yo only has to make sure one door is locked, and if it takes an extra 15 or 20 seconds to do so, no big deal. The housekeeping staff at any hotel have 10-20 rooms to clean, within a specified time period, and sometimes particular rooms need more time than normally required.

Housekeeping is a very difficult job, more difficult than most people realize.

Now, I'm not saying that leaving doors open is acceptable. What I am saying is (1) it happens every so often at every hotel, not just at Disney; and (2) the housekeepers are only human, terribly overworked especially during times of cost-cutting, terribly underpaid especially during times of cost-cutting, not the best educated among us.

They make mistakes.

Mistakes which should be corrected, but please, guys, show a little patience with a generally hard-working group. After all, if they had wanted to steal from you, they could have much more easily.

I also saw at least one person saying that they request no housekeeping service for the duration of their stay because they don't want strangers in their room.

You may want to keep in mind that most hotel companies have policies that if you are staying more than around 3-4 days, that housekeeping *must* enter your room to check on things. In other words, even if you think no one has been in your room it's almost certain that staff members have taken a glance around when you're not there.

 

[vickalamode]

I'll be honest, when I was a mousekeeper during the college program I accidentally left someone's door opened once (the latch keeping the door from locking like...). Luckily I realized it because my manager told me I didn't record that room as "finished" and I had to go back and key it in on the phone...well when I went back to the room I realized I left the door open! I felt absolutely horrible that I forgot to lock the door (I remembered that when I was outside the room another guest was distracting me and I must have forgotten to shut the door).

I am almost certain that nothing bad happened (luckily!) since I never got disciplined because of a guest complaint, but I felt so bad that something could have happened and it could have been my fault. I know it sucks that it happened, but please try to remember that just because they work at Disney, your mousekeeper is still only human and obviously didn't intentionally leave your door open.

 

[Bell30012]

This is not limited to VALUE level resorts. I had a family member staying at GF and this happened to him while they were eating breakfast. He was very upset because his laptop, camera and other stuff were sitting out.

 

[skipperkim]

So if you write a note to Mousekeeping reminding them to lock the door, who is going to read it to them since most of them don't speak English. Reading English is far more hard than speaking English, so it wouldn't matter if you wrote the Mousekeeper a note since she couldn't read it.

Sounds like their normal routine for complaints is to hand out FP's. I had an awful room over at CSR my last trip and that's what I got. Guess what, you really can't use them for the good rides at DHS so it was pointless. Trust me, I did inform them daily of the issues in the room but no one listened.

 

[fall08CP]

I think it's interesting that everyone is so quick to jump on housekeeping. There are departments other than housekeeping that can and do enter your room during your stay... Front desk, engineering, occasionally bell services or security.. There also is some responsibility on guests every single time you leave your room to double check. Door problems always have and always will be an issue at Disney AND non Disney resorts.

 

[lucas]

Several years ago, the same thing happened to us at PORFQ. We would return from a long day at the parks and you only had to push on the door to open it. It happened a couple days in a row and each day we complained. Finally they sent someone to repair the door to fix the problem.

 

[Tiak]

I've never had anything like that happen to me and I understand your frustration at the lack of concern you got from the staff. But, accidents happen and it was obviously an unintentional accident by the housekeeper that cleaned your room.
Having said that, leaving a note to the housekeeper to make sure the door is closed seems to be a tad condescending to me. It's common sense in my opinion.

 

[rosiep]

1) I know Disney is not perfect.
2) But, in this case, I am sure it was an innocent error.
3) A Maid leaves the room with armfuls of "stuff".
4) Sometimes the door does not fully close.
5) Since the doors usually do, it is easy to assume the door was latched.
6) I would just chalk it up and move on.

Several years ago, the same thing happened to us at PORFQ. We would return from a long day at the parks and you only had to push on the door to open it. It happened a couple days in a row and each day we complained. Finally they sent someone to repair the door to fix the problem.

I understand an honest mistake...however, management should take this issue seriously. I travel alone with my daughter often and would not be pleased if management shrugged it off. The second quoted post belies something more than an accidental mishap. I would have been livid.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I hang the Do not Disturb sign.
but.. they knock anyway, to make sure you don't want to be disturbed!
I know they want you to sign something saying so, but sometimes I really don't want to be disturbed.

YES! We have the DO NOT DISTURB sign out. Our daughter wanted to nap and she was asleep and the man with a vacuum came and knocked and asked if he could vacuum.

??????????????????????????????????? (what part of do not disturb do you not understand?)

I said no. My daughter is sleeping. He tried to convince me..."it will only take a minute!"

NO!

I am still mad about that one.

 

[Minnesota!]

1) I know Disney is not perfect.
2) But, in this case, I am sure it was an innocent error.
3) A Maid leaves the room with armfuls of "stuff".
4) Sometimes the door does not fully close.
5) Since the doors usually do, it is easy to assume the door was latched.
6) I would just chalk it up and move on.

Yes housekeeping should have closed the door, they made a mistake, life goes on. Put anything of value in the safe, problem solved. I leave a hotel room not caring if half the world trapses through they will find nothing but clothes. If they want those they can have them. All of this worry and panic is a bit off base IMO.

B.

If you lock your stuff in the safe, there is nothing to be concerned about.

Everyone makes mistakes. Roll with it.

 

[maxiesmom]

If you lock your stuff in the safe, there is nothing to be concerned about.

Everyone makes mistakes. Roll with it.

I lock up my stuff, and I still think housekeeping needs to be sure the room is locked up before they leave.

Mistakes can and do happen. It is the attitude of the resort that is what I find so unacceptable. You should never be told you have to leave a note in order for your room to be locked up by housekeeping. That just shouldn't happen.

 

[Sweettears]

I kindly disagree. Making sure that a guests room is closed shouldn't be something that is assumed-it's a safety issue, and you make sure it's closed before leaving. It should only take them three seconds or so to push on the door (with a foot if they have that much stuff in their hand) to make sure it's closed, maybe give a small push on the handle.

I'm with Rusty. Why does everyone assume that the world (and WDW) is full of crooks lurking and waiting for opportunities to steal? I travel quite often and have never had any problems with someone stealing from my room.

Also all hotel doors open in and couldn't be closed with a kick or push.

 

[walkdmc]

I don't think anyone is panicking......<<blink>>

There is an event occurring on a regular basis that puts guests' safety and property at risk. There is a human, employed by a company, who keeps creating said event. Tell them to do their job correctly which includes closing the door (all the way, until you hear that little click sound) behind them.

And what a weak point that I don't clean hotel rooms and thus could never understand the complexity of assuring a hotel room door is locked behind me, OMG...do I laugh or be glad I don't know anyone personally who would make such a foolish statement?

I better bow out now before it gets worse. Seriously, I love Disney too but they need to come up with a solution for this issue that doesn't involve guests writing notes.

 

[beebumble]

Thanks to all of you for understanding. I did physically go down to the front desk to report this. That is where I was told it was mousekeeping and yes I do see how hard they work and I did tip them daily with their note to close and lock the door.(which I was told to do because the night time manager assumed that was my job)AND Yes I was told that many do not speak English, however they are told to bring notes to their manager if they did not understand it.
I was not saying anything was missing it was just an eery feeling to think someone was in your room.
To those of you who said move on WOW! I was simply reminding people to be aware NOT to slam someone from making a mistake, maybe if it happened to you then you might understand what the rest of us are saying.
Again thanks to others understanding.
Have a magical day

 

[Tigger's ally]

Not sure how others leave their rooms, but I am a very neat person. The trip when my door was propped open at CBR I was traveling solo. I seldom ever have anything to put in the trashcans in the room, am not a wriggler and have a tendency to sleep on the very edge of a bed, so have only 1/2 of one bed to make up. I keep everything lined up neatly on the vanity with most toiletries hanging up in my toiletry bag in the closet. In addition I always roll up my towel and washcloth every morning in the bath mat and place them in the sink with the mousekeeping evelope sitting on top, so they're easily seen. The only thing the housekeeper has to do in my room is replace a towel, washcloth, and bathmat and make 1/2 of one bed. There was no reason to prop that door open with a trash can. She should have been out of there in 3-5 minutes.

no offense, but next time your at Disney, let it go....wriggle a little

 

[Baltazar]

next time we go I'll have to push on hundreds of doors in hopes that one will be open.

spend hours pushing on doors in hopes on getting free bottled water or woman's underwear.

perhaps a bounty of refillable mugs or Disney knick-knaks.

Yes I am making lite of this and I'm sure my wife would throw a major hissy fit if it happened to us but I don't think it's a huge problem.

Sorry if I offended anyone, I like being silly.