Rude awakening on check-out day

[GBBTomorrow]

Hi! We just left Boardwalk and were very frustrated by all the walk-ins by cast members. More than once, our door opened and someone walked in while people were sleeping. On one occasion, one of us was changing clothes! The units are large, and if you're asleep in the bedroom, you don't hear the little tap they give on the door. They came right in anyway, even though the "room occupied" sign was out. The biggest frustration was that on our check-out day, with the "room occupied" sign out, we had housekeeping enter our room at 8:30 AM and then seem a little irritated when we said we were not leaving until 11:00. Is this happening to other people too? I find it to be unacceptable.

I received an apology, but I'm curious if this is getting to be standard procedure. On our Trash and Towel day nobody even came until after 4:00, so why are they in such a rush to get in my room so early in the morning on check-out day? We had an absolutely wonderful vacation otherwise, but found this to be frustrating.

 

[Meglen]

They want to clean the room asap and get new guests in.

 

[AngiTN]

Did your door not have the bar to put across? It would not stop the knock but would stop them from walking in

We have had several stays on the Inn side, they did knock on the door once or twice (not often), but it wasn't ever early. We answered the door, told them we weren't quite ready to go and they returned later. I don't believe they ever knocked when we had the sign out but we don't normally use the sign. They couldn't walk in because we had the bar on. I've stayed in the Villa's once but it's been a few years and I can't recall if they had the bars to flip or not.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

Did your door not have the bar to put across? It would not stop the knock but would stop them from walking in

We did not have the lock-bar closed because one member of our party had gone out to run and would not have been able to get back in. Regardless of the lock, 8:30 is WAY too early to be knocking on someone's door.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

I think I maybe remember once or twice this happened to us (they knocked while we were sleeping early in the morning). It was long before the new policy.

Unacceptable and worth a call to housekeeping the first time. Worth a trip to front desk if happens again.

I can see how the language of the sign could cause issues now. At this point they might have to guess if the room is actually occupied vs whether someone accidentally left the sign out when departing the room. And they feel they need to get in to do whatever check they need to do before moving on to the next room.

Because of this, any protocol thereafter has the potential to disturb guests. If someone doesn't get to the door for whatever reason they could be walked in on. If they call because the knock didn't yield an answer, the phone could wake you up, or you could just be unable to answer that as well.

Use the door bar. Call to clarify. Complain if necessary. But don't complain about potential occurrences; complain about actual occurrences.

I've only been once since the new policy has been rolled out. We didn't have any issues. We had one odd interaction, but it wasn't nearly enough to lodge a complaint.

 

[MomOTwins]

Sounds like it is worth it to you to tell the front desk the night before your plans i.e., that you plan to use the room until 11. Realistically, if they waited until 11am for before even starting turning around any of the rooms, there is no way they could have all the rooms available by 3pm for check in, and there are so many guests who leave much sooner on a departure day for a morning at the parks or an early flight that it would be wasteful for them not to start checking rooms in the morning. 8am or later does not seem unreasonably early for me, but this is one of those things that can be easily solved by asking.

 

[Lynne M]

This isn’t new, or a result of the room check policy. It’s been a regular complaint on the DVC boards for years, and yes, it happened to guests who had the Do Not Disturb sign up.

 

[Maxie86]

I agree this is nothing new, has always happened in non DVC rooms as well. We are early risers though so have not had them wake us up. It is extremely annoying to have someone knock on your door every half hour to see if you left yet. It is a very easy problem to solve. All they have to do is allow you to check out on your phone or TV if you don't have a smart phone. I have never had this happen in a non Disney hotel. Years ago before smart phones we checked out on the TV and since smart phones have checked out on the phone. That way they know the room is empty and don't have to spend time annoying people to see if they left yet. Everyone wins...

 

[sndral]

Yes, it’s happened to me - more than once - in DVC villas. I know they want to get in to clean the villa and that the 1 br.s we normally stay in take longer to clean. However, we fly cross country and arrange our flights so we leave in the afternoon just so we can have a good night’s sleep before traveling and jumping 3 time zones, thus I do not appreciate the 8 am housekeeping knock on the door. It’s inexcusable really, our departure time isn’t a secret - DME has scheduled our pick up time, the villa is mine until 11 am, if that doesn’t work for housekeeping’s schedule perhaps they should schedule differently.

 

[OKW Lover]

We learned long ago to be sure the DND (or now the Room Occupied) hang tag on the door before turning in for the last night of our stay. Works great!!!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Hi! We just left Boardwalk and were very frustrated by all the walk-ins by cast members. More than once, our door opened and someone walked in while people were sleeping. On one occasion, one of us was changing clothes! The units are large, and if you're asleep in the bedroom, you don't hear the little tap they give on the door. They came right in anyway, even though the "room occupied" sign was out. The biggest frustration was that on our check-out day, with the "room occupied" sign out, we had housekeeping enter our room at 8:30 AM and then seem a little irritated when we said we were not leaving until 11:00. Is this happening to other people too? I find it to be unacceptable.

I received an apology, but I'm curious if this is getting to be standard procedure. On our Trash and Towel day nobody even came until after 4:00, so why are they in such a rush to get in my room so early in the morning on check-out day? We had an absolutely wonderful vacation otherwise, but found this to be frustrating.

This has never happened to us even with the new room check policy, we've had 4 stays since this was put in place. This is why I always keep the door bar on my room locked even if we're only in the room for a few minutes, but even still, would be annoying if they tried to barge in all the time.

 

[mickeynut1]

I just got back from a 5 day stay on the inn side and on our check out day housekeeping knocked on our door around 8 am. I opened the door and kindly told her we were getting ready, but would most likely not be out of the room until close to 11 am. She smiled and said thank you and that was it. But no one ever just walked in unannounced.

 

[AngiTN]

I was not aware this was so common, and for so long, on the DVC side. I understand the time it takes to clean those rooms but geeze. Sure doesn't encourage me to want to buy in to them. Not when I have no need for the space. I'll take the smaller rooms on the regular resort rooms and the more traditional cleanings, thank you. I know some have had varying degree of interruptions even there but we have not had anything bothersome, keeping to regular cleanings.

Sure does mean that you use that dang cross bar, no matter who is out of the room. They'll just have to call you to get in, if you can't hear their knock. Sure is better than the alternative!

 

[ArwenMarie]

This has always happened to us when we stay in a DVC villa on checkout day. We just laugh about it now because all you can do is laugh sometimes

 

[dansdad]

Hi! We just left Boardwalk and were very frustrated by all the walk-ins by cast members. More than once, our door opened and someone walked in while people were sleeping. On one occasion, one of us was changing clothes! The units are large, and if you're asleep in the bedroom, you don't hear the little tap they give on the door. They came right in anyway, even though the "room occupied" sign was out. The biggest frustration was that on our check-out day, with the "room occupied" sign out, we had housekeeping enter our room at 8:30 AM and then seem a little irritated when we said we were not leaving until 11:00. Is this happening to other people too?

Yes. We have found WDW resorts to be the most aggressive on check out day than anywhere else we've ever stayed. They make it known they're done with us and are ready for some new $$. And we've been experiencing this long before the security checks started. Though they always just knocked before but the knocking would start around 8AM even with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. And yes, I'd get an attitude if we weren't almost ready to leave.

Now that I think about it, this actually had an affect on when we left. We started either staying an extra night and catching an early flight or booking a late flight and vacating the room early enough for rope drop, hitting the parks all day.

 

[Roxyfire]

There's really no good way of doing this. People complain if they can't get their room when they arrive. Realistically speaking they should have the staff on hand day to day to handle room turnovers but things can happen.

Normally we leave the room by 8 am to do breakfast and catch our flight home. This time we stayed in the room until 9:30 am since the flight was not until 5 (which is fairly late for us). That morning of check out, we received a knock about 8:30am. I told her when we would be leaving and to check back then. I did expect this to happen since I know they want to turn those rooms over. Especially so for DVC rooms that do not get a full cleaning on day 4. They do knock pretty quietly and I didn't realize it was for our door until the second knock. I was watching television while my son was sleeping, thankfully he was not woken up!

 

[maxiesmom]

We learned long ago to be sure the DND (or now the Room Occupied) hang tag on the door before turning in for the last night of our stay. Works great!!!

The Room Occupied sign does not mean they won't knock or try to enter your room. It only alerts the CM that the room is occupied.

I know it is frustrating, but after the first walk in you should have put the bar across the door. Actually it has been the subject of much discussion that if one person leaves the room then you have to be alert to when they need back in.

 

[SouloTravlr]

We learned long ago to be sure the DND (or now the Room Occupied) hang tag on the door before turning in for the last night of our stay. Works great!!!

OP had the room occupied sign on the door. They walked in anyway.

 

[maxiesmom]

OP had the room occupied sign on the door. They walked in anyway.

Because the sign states they have the right to enter, even when the sign is displayed.

 

[kagmypts]

This happened to us this past October. We were staying at the Contemporary, and Magic Kingdom had EMH the previous night until 1:00 A.M. We were not in bed until after 2:00. At just after 8:00, a mere six hours later, housekeeping knocked on the door. It scared the crap out of all us, and needless to say, we did not get back to sleep. I am of the opinion that there is no excuse for early knocks on checkout day. Every resort knows when a guest checks out, and housekeeping should be able to access that same information. Housekeeping should not be knocking until after the guest checks out or check out time has passed. It is so inconsiderate. It is one of the reasons we have recently avoided staying on property.