Rude awakening on check-out day

[Megsie1000]

This happened to us this past October. We were staying at the Contempory, 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.

We are doing EMH on July 3rd at MK until 2am the night before we leave. I am wondering if I need to put a sign on the door. Our flights do not leave until 3pm, which means we do not have to vacate the room until 11 am and we made plans for that morning to be a sleeping in morning! I will be extremely irritated if people start knocking on the door at 8am.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Housekeeping should not be knocking until after the guest checks out or check out time has passed.

Disney resorts have between 630 and 2,880 rooms. That means they are turning over, on average, 90 to 400 rooms daily (never mind the time Pop "lost" my luggage on a day they had over 1,000 rooms to clean! ). You may never have seen the passionate posts from people whose rooms aren't ready by 2:59:59.

This article https://www.womansday.com/life/trav...-your-hotel-housekeeper-wont-tell-you-111481/ is from a site I trust. It's interesting overall, but the two pertinent bullet points are:
"2. There's a lot more to preparing for a new guest than making the bed and stocking clean towels.
Have you ever arrived at your hotel early and huffed and puffed because your room wasn't ready? There's a good reason for that: Preparing a hotel room for a new guest can take twice as long as cleaning a room for a guest who is staying over. "For a new arrival you have to go through the full inspection list, which may have around 100 check points," says Lara Weiss, Managing Director of K Hotels. "There are so many things that must be attended to that you wouldn't think of, including making sure the proper TV Guide is there, checking for stains on the amenity cards and ensuring the bed linens are completely wrinkle free.""
and
"4. We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to.
On average, housekeepers clean 13 to 15 rooms a day, but it can be as high as 30 at some hotels. And they're expected to clean them all in one eight-hour shift. So, even if you do put your "Do Not Disturb" sign out, sometimes they still have to knock. "If you're due to check out that day, the housekeepers must clean your room first [so it's ready for new guests]," explains Weiss. "They have to find out if you've left yet in order to stay on schedule." Instead of being annoyed at that rap on the door, try to remember that the person on the other side is just doing his or her job. "
But #3 is very interesting as well.

 

[kagmypts]

Disney resorts have between 630 and 2,880 rooms. That means they are turning over, on average, 90 to 400 rooms daily (never mind the time Pop "lost" my luggage on a day they had over 1,000 rooms to clean! ). You may never have seen the passionate posts from people whose rooms aren't ready by 2:59:59.

This article https://www.womansday.com/life/trav...-your-hotel-housekeeper-wont-tell-you-111481/ is from a site I trust. It's interesting overall, but the two pertinent bullet points are:
"2. There's a lot more to preparing for a new guest than making the bed and stocking clean towels.
Have you ever arrived at your hotel early and huffed and puffed because your room wasn't ready? There's a good reason for that: Preparing a hotel room for a new guest can take twice as long as cleaning a room for a guest who is staying over. "For a new arrival you have to go through the full inspection list, which may have around 100 check points," says Lara Weiss, Managing Director of K Hotels. "There are so many things that must be attended to that you wouldn't think of, including making sure the proper TV Guide is there, checking for stains on the amenity cards and ensuring the bed linens are completely wrinkle free.""
and
"4. We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to.
On average, housekeepers clean 13 to 15 rooms a day, but it can be as high as 30 at some hotels. And they're expected to clean them all in one eight-hour shift. So, even if you do put your "Do Not Disturb" sign out, sometimes they still have to knock. "If you're due to check out that day, the housekeepers must clean your room first [so it's ready for new guests]," explains Weiss. "They have to find out if you've left yet in order to stay on schedule." Instead of being annoyed at that rap on the door, try to remember that the person on the other side is just doing his or her job. "
But #3 is very interesting as well.

Honestly, I do not care about excuses. I frankly find #4 insulting. If the only way that a hotel can turn over their rooms in time is by waking up guests, then they need to hire more housekeepers. Hotels have a checkout time. The room is mine until that time. We did not check out of our room until checkout time, and on checkout day, housekeeping cannot clean the room until it is vacated. Knocking on doors before the room is vacated is simply inconsiderate and unprofessional. It's amateur hour. All it did was turn us off to staying on property. If Disney deluxe hotels want to be taken seriously, they need to act like other high end hotels in the area.

For reference, we have stayed in hundreds of hotels all over the world, and Disney is the only place we have experienced an early morning knock on checkout day.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Disney resorts have between 630 and 2,880 rooms. That means they are turning over, on average, 90 to 400 rooms daily (never mind the time Pop "lost" my luggage on a day they had over 1,000 rooms to clean! ). You may never have seen the passionate posts from people whose rooms aren't ready by 2:59:59.

This article https://www.womansday.com/life/trav...-your-hotel-housekeeper-wont-tell-you-111481/ is from a site I trust. It's interesting overall, but the two pertinent bullet points are:
"2. There's a lot more to preparing for a new guest than making the bed and stocking clean towels.
Have you ever arrived at your hotel early and huffed and puffed because your room wasn't ready? There's a good reason for that: Preparing a hotel room for a new guest can take twice as long as cleaning a room for a guest who is staying over. "For a new arrival you have to go through the full inspection list, which may have around 100 check points," says Lara Weiss, Managing Director of K Hotels. "There are so many things that must be attended to that you wouldn't think of, including making sure the proper TV Guide is there, checking for stains on the amenity cards and ensuring the bed linens are completely wrinkle free.""
and
"4. We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to.
On average, housekeepers clean 13 to 15 rooms a day, but it can be as high as 30 at some hotels. And they're expected to clean them all in one eight-hour shift. So, even if you do put your "Do Not Disturb" sign out, sometimes they still have to knock. "If you're due to check out that day, the housekeepers must clean your room first [so it's ready for new guests]," explains Weiss. "They have to find out if you've left yet in order to stay on schedule." Instead of being annoyed at that rap on the door, try to remember that the person on the other side is just doing his or her job. "
But #3 is very interesting as well.

I fully understand that housekeepers work hard and it's often a thankless job. That doesn't eliminate the fact that people have paid to stay in a room until check out. I have no doubt that it might sometimes be difficult to get rooms turned over in time, but that's on the hotel to manage things better, whether that be hiring more housekeeping to match the demand, initiating no early check in policies, changing check in/out times, or whatever else. Obviously, I wouldn't like check in/out times to change as likely prices wouldn't decrease to match that and we'd be paying the same and getting less in return, and would prefer they handle the situation in other ways. Placing the problem on housekeeping and essentially forcing them out of necessity to bug guests on check out day is unacceptable. With check out at 11, it should never be expected that a certain percentage of rooms will be vacated and able to be cleaned before then. If they are, great, but if not, you shouldn't go disturbing them. I'm really taking issues with what was said under number 4 of "We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to." No, you don't.

As has been stated, it shouldn't be hard to figure out when a guest has checked out, or to institute a better digital system to do that. It's one thing if there's an error in the system showing someone checked out when they didn't, so housekeeping thinks the room has been vacated, though really, that should be a rare occurrence. It's another thing entirely to indicate, as that article seemed to, that housekeepers know they are likely waking people up, but they HAVE to in order to see if the room is still occupied when it's before the time that the room is expected to be vacated.

 

[kaytieeldr]

then they need to hire more housekeepers.

Take it up with the hotels, not the housekeepers.

You find #4 insulting? Okay. I find it (along with the other nine points, interesting and informational. I thought #10 was especially sympathy-inducing. I don't know a lot of people willing to clean up messed like the ones described. It may not be easy for hotels to hire more housekeepers, considering the pool of potential employers combined with having to operate on a budget and be profitable.

I've had Housekeeping knock early in WDW, Washington DC, and Las Vegas.

 

[kaytieeldr]

changing check in/out times,

While I was searching for that information, I found some that indicated it takes 15-20 minutes to clean a continuing-guest room, and between 30 and 60 minutes to clean a turnover room. Generously, figure an average of 35* minutes per room. Average 14** rooms per housekeeper. Eight hours without lunch or breaks.

I'm really taking issues with what was said under number 4 of "We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to." No, you don't.

I believe the article where it says housekeepers don't want to wake up guests. Do we know that management isn't assigning the specific room order, the the housekeepers are choosing which rooms to start with?

It's another thing entirely to indicate, as that article seemed to, that housekeepers know they are likely waking people up,

I don't read it like that at all.

* one result indicated 15-20 minutes per room, twice as long for rooms being turned over; the other indicated 45-60 minutes including recheck
** based on the 13-15 but as many as 30 rooms each in the Woman's Day article.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Honestly, I do not care about excuses

I'm reading it as explanations, not excuses.

 

[kagmypts]

I fully understand that housekeepers work hard and it's often a thankless job. That doesn't eliminate the fact that people have paid to stay in a room until check out. I have no doubt that it might sometimes be difficult to get rooms turned over in time, but that's on the hotel to manage things better, whether that be hiring more housekeeping to match the demand, initiating no early check in policies, changing check in/out times, or whatever else. Obviously, I wouldn't like check in/out times to change as likely prices wouldn't decrease to match that and we'd be paying the same and getting less in return, and would prefer they handle the situation in other ways. Placing the problem on housekeeping and essentially forcing them out of necessity to bug guests on check out day is unacceptable. With check out at 11, it should never be expected that a certain percentage of rooms will be vacated and able to be cleaned before then. If they are, great, but if not, you shouldn't go disturbing them. I'm really taking issues with what was said under number 4 of "We don't want to wake you up by knocking on your door in the morning, but we have to." No, you don't.

As has been stated, it shouldn't be hard to figure out when a guest has checked out, or to institute a better digital system to do that. It's one thing if there's an error in the system showing someone checked out when they didn't, so housekeeping thinks the room has been vacated, though really, that should be a rare occurrence. It's another thing entirely to indicate, as that article seemed to, that housekeepers know they are likely waking people up, but they HAVE to in order to see if the room is still occupied when it's before the time that the room is expected to be vacated.

I could not have said what you said any better, and I agree with everything 100%.

With respect to the part that I put in bold, Disney knows where guests will be eating 180 days in advance and on which particular ride a guest will be riding (within an hour) 60 days in advance. However, it seems that it is unreasonable for housekeeping to know when a guest has checked out. Disney either has or can build the systems to do that. I stand by what I said in my original post on this issue. It is an extremely inconsiderate policy to have housekeepers knock on the door of guests who have yet to vacate a room on check out day.

At the end of the day, staffing issues rest with the management of the hotel. When the staffing issues become readily apparent to guests, the hotel has a problem. Based on the survey results at the beginning of this thread, the problem seems to be systemic. It is not how we choose to end our vacation so we stay elsewhere.

Take it up with the hotels, not the housekeepers.

You find #4 insulting? Okay. I find it (along with the other nine points, interesting and informational. I thought #10 was especially sympathy-inducing. I don't know a lot of people willing to clean up messed like the ones described. It may not be easy for hotels to hire more housekeepers, considering the pool of potential employers combined with having to operate on a budget and be profitable.

I've had Housekeeping knock early in WDW, Washington DC, and Las Vegas.

Who said anything about taking it up with housekeepers or even the hotel for that matter? I simply said that I find the practice inconsiderate, and we have chosen not to return to a Disney-owned property because of it. I did not address it with the housekeeper. In fact, I have a lot of respect for what they are asked to do on a daily basis. However, I did place a lot of emphasis on that interaction in our post-stay customer satisfaction survey. I said that it would make it highly unlikely for us to stay there again, and it is true. Since that stay, we have spent three weeks in Orlando, and none of those nights have been on a Disney-owned property.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

While I was searching for that information, I found some that indicated it takes 15-20 minutes to clean a continuing-guest room, and between 30 and 60 minutes to clean a turnover room. Generously, figure an average of 35* minutes per room. Average 14** rooms per housekeeper. Eight hours without lunch or breaks.

I believe the article where it says housekeepers don't want to wake up guests. Do we know that management isn't assigning the specific room order, the the housekeepers are choosing which rooms to start with?

I don't read it like that at all.

* one result indicated 15-20 minutes per room, twice as long for rooms being turned over; the other indicated 45-60 minutes including recheck
** based on the 13-15 but as many as 30 rooms each in the Woman's Day article.

If it will take 8 hours for a housekeeper to make it through 14 rooms, and there are only 4 or 5 hrs between check out and check in, then perhaps they need to hire more housekeepers and lower the quotas for rooms per shift. It can never be guaranteed that x amount of guests in each housekeeper's section will leave early.

I can agree with you that housekeeping probably doesn't want to wake people up, but they most likely feel like they won't meet their quota in time if they don't. Still, they have a choice on how to act, and if they can't meet their quotas without disturbing guests, they need to take that up with management. It should not be the guests' responsibility to lose out on/be disrupted during time they have paid for.

By the way, how is it that you're able to quote multiple sections of my post the way you do? I can't figure out how to break it up like that when I reply to people.

 

[LucyBC80]

I'm the kind of guest they like, up and ready to leave the room as early as possible because I want to enjoy my last day at the parks, I catch a very late flight on my check out day but I'm out of the room no late than 9am.

Last year at Music a housekeeper did knock around 8:40am while we're gathering our bags and she seemed pretty happy we're leaving early. I had to tell her we'd take a few more minutes because she was ready to come in and start to clean right away.

 

[Nakkira]

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.

Don't they keep track of who has check out? They should, and send housekeeping to the rooms they KNOW are empty first.

 

[Best Aunt]

For years, Boardwalk Villas has been notorious for trying to get people up and out early on check-out day. This started long before the "Do Not Disturb" signs were changed out. They used to call the room phone early on check-out day. Since the signs no longer say "do not disturb," I'm not surprised that they just walk in.

I've never understood why there isn't a way to notify housekeeping when you are done with the villa on check-out day. How about a red door tag that they slip under the door on your final night? When you leave, you put it on the door. That way, mousekeeping could start with the rooms they know are empty before they move on to rooms they are not sure about. There are people with early flights who leave very early, but the mousekeepers don't know that they are gone. (I've called housekeeping to let them know I'm leaving, but do they notify the mousekeepers working on the floor? I'm skeptical.)

 

[Jennasis]

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.

This. ALL of this.

For reference, we have stayed in hundreds of hotels all over the world, and Disney is the only place we have experienced an early morning knock on checkout day.

And this happened to us at the Sheraton Vistana (a timeshare just outside the WDW gates) back in 2016. 8am and the housekeeper knocking on the door.


This isn't a "Disney" problem. It is an industry problem. It also isn't a problem due to the new room check policy, as the first time it DIDN'T happen to us since staying DVC was on our trip last month at SSR.

 

[dansdad]

Don't they keep track of who has check out? They should, and send housekeeping to the rooms they KNOW are empty first.

Since guests haven't had to go to the Front Desk and check out for years now, how would they know?

 

[snappy]

If housekeeping management or resort management can’t handle organizing the process of cleaning rooms such that guests aren’t being disturbed early in the am when still in the room, it’s not my problem. Somehow their competitors usually manage the process better, and have even granted us late check out on many trips in Orlando and elsewhere. Those are the hotels I tend to be loyal to and will continue to choose.

Maybe Disney could benefit from some consultation with their competitors. It’s particularly ridiculous since so many guests use magical express. Their departure times are known to Disney. How about including HK management and staff in that loop?

 

[KelNChrisKYDis]

Housekeeping knocked on our door at 9:00 on our departure day; we told them we were not ready, they said they'd come back. They did, about 20 minutes later, lol. My husband was very frustrated because we needed all the time we had available to get packed and ready to go. He told them we were not leaving until 11. They were waiting by our door when we left. (This was a Pop.)

 

[Nakkira]

Since guests haven't had to go to the Front Desk and check out for years now, how would they know?

Good point. I am still stuck in the stone ages. The only time I stayed on site in the last decade was a two night trip last January. I think I did go to the front-desk to check out, but I do recall now that I don't think I HAD to.

 

[snappy]

Travel party, Check in, ADR’s, fast passes, ordering bands, magical express, etc. are all organized in MDE. Helps both Disney and guests plan.
Adding check out to MDE would benefit some guests who don’t leave long before 11 am too. Guess Disney management doesn’t think it would help their bottom line so they don’t bother, even if it would help HK?

 

[Maxie86]

Since guests haven't had to go to the Front Desk and check out for years now, how would they know?

In real world hotels you can check out on your phone. They know when you leave. As snappy suggested it would be easy to add the feature to MDE. I'm sure the housekeepers do not like knocking on doors at 8AM any more than we like being disturbed.

 

[snappy]

FWIW, at the locally managed NON-PROFIT senior living community where my mom lives, management installed an electronic system to notify staff as to whether a resident has opened the front door. It’s used to go check on a resident who hasn’t ventured out.

I would think Disney with its resources could come up with something to flag a room where no one has exited. The inhabitants probably don’t want to be awakened/disturbed bright and early at the start of the housekeeping day, especially during the summer or holidays when they offer and tout evening extra magic hours late into the night.