WDW is eliminating “do not disturb” signs from their resorts and people are losing their minds...

From what I have read, the only difference now is if you leave your “room occupied” sign up 24/7, housekeeping is going to pop their head in the room at least once every 24 hours. However when you read many of the online comments, people make it seem like Disney security is going to come barreling in daily like the gastapo.

I don’t have a problem with this new policy.

Actually most branded hotels have a policy that if the DND is in place for more than 24 hours, a welfare check can be conducted. So DND isn't technically DND.

I would imagine you already sign something at most hotels saying that they have a right to enter your room at any time regardless of the presence of a "do not disturb" sign.

Seriously, some of the online comments regarding this are hysterical. Do people actually think that the Disney SWAT team is going to bust into a room at 6am when everyone is sleeping? Give me a break.

This is all about if you plan on keeping the sign on 24/7, or if you decline housekeeping, all that Disney wants to do is peak in the room once a day to make sure all is fine. I don’t think that is unreasonable.

And no, if you are taking a shower, or breastfeeding your child, or getting it on with your significant other, Disney isn’t going to storm the room.

Seriously, some of the online comments regarding this are beyond rationale.

Disney hates poor people's privacy.

So I asked the boss lady about this (my wife, the hotel queen) and she suspects this policy change stems from the Las Vegas shooting.

There was tons of criticism that this guy was able to hole up in his room with an arsenal and no one noticed. There's been tons of talk about hotels changing policies to keep better track of what is happening in their rooms.

As it stands, her standard procedure (and what she understands to be relatively standard in the industry - at least in any remotely decent property) is that a DND room will still get a quick cleaning once every 72 hours. (fresh towels, bedding change, etc.) Plus, it gives you a chance to make sure things are ok in the room - it's not trashed/destroyed, no one dead, no meth lab set up, etc.

So whether it's because of incidents like Las Vegas or just a general rise in people ****ing up their rooms or whatever, Disney has decided that they want to take a peek at least once a day to make sure everything is on the up and up. It's barely a policy change because any hotel worth its weight in salt should be peeking in on rooms to some degree anyway.

Earlier this year, we were at Port Orleans Riverside, and I generally DND and don't have housekeeping in every day because it requires putting valuables away, and being out of the room by the time they show up - and I'm on vacation, so I choose to be lazy. I do try and have them come in every other day or so, but she always checked on us and gave us fresh towels and toiletries. I honestly don't think this will change things too much, aside from the wording on the sign.

Jeff said:
Disney hates poor people's privacy.

Actually this would mean that Disney hates rich people's privacy. Since poor people can't afford Disney in the first place this wouldn't impact them. In fact this is a victory for the poor as Disney is "sticking it to the man!"

I was in an Extended Stay for a week when I moved to Orlando, and I had the DND up the whole week because I had the cats with me. Which I didn't pay extra for. This is when I learned that in Florida, your toilet will turn pink in five days if you don't clean it.

I learned that when I moved down here at 22 and got my first apartment on my own after college. As long as you were relatively "clean" you could get away with a full bathroom scrub down once or twice a month up north. And in college, I'm pretty sure we only did it at the end of the semester to avoid the cleaning charge. Not here.

Also, I think this is my favorite comment I have read on the issue so far on the Disney fan sites:

"Do you want service? No, that's why the sign is on door. I fell back asleep and again in a few hours I received yet another call from the same maid asking if I wanted service. I again gave her a piece of my mind, explaining that I was ill and her interruptions were not helping me feel better.......Ended up with a good credit for free stay next time, though I did have to fight for it"

Translated: Guest is ill and stays in the room for the day and puts the sign up. Housekeeping calls the room to just double check that the guest doesn't need anything. Guest is so offended at the level of service tehy goes to the front desk and bitch enough to receive a free stay, and words it in a way on an internet forum that implies the goal of the bitching was to get something for free simply because the hotel dared to make sure the guest was ok.

'Merica.

That's why people suck. As often as I complain about the inability of many companies to get basic service right, they go well beyond and they're given grief for it. Giving them a credit of any kind is crap. The customer is not always right.

That was one of the things that frustrated me most about my time working at Walt Disney World. So often the solution to poor guest behavior was to reward it with freebies. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of situations where a company goofs and some sort of recovery is in order in the way of freebies or credits. But at Disney, the solution was always to just give stuff away, and the guests knew it and absolutely took advantage.

Jeff said:

The customer is not always right.

Can we get that quote made into bumper stickers, billboards and wallpaper? This is why I wasn't going to survive in the hotel business for long. At CP I had some real nasty guests. Some of them, vile and nasty when it came to the way they treated our rooms, my staff, each other, etc. I had a guy once who screamed at my front desk staff about something stupid...then sent his wife down to scream even more, eventually sending a couple of my folks to tears. They told me what was said to them.

I called the guest up and before he could open his mouth I told him that I was not going to tolerate any of the language he used on my people and that if he wasn't careful I'd be arriving at his door with a bell cart and I'd be happy to help him pack up and leave. The bosses didn't take too kindly to that and it was then that I realized I wasn't cut out for that line of work.

Some guests cost you more than they are worth.

Good for you for sticking up for your crew. That’s what wound up being my demise in the restaurant business. Like Ben Affleck said in Mallrats, “The customer is usually an a$$hole.”

No, he didn't say "usually" - he said "always".

I agree 100% with the "customer isn't always right" thought. I actually stood up at a customer service seminar in a group of about 200 of my industry peers and said the same thing. After the initial gasp from the crowd and some explanation that customers should not be allowed to "run amok", they all agreed, and unbeknownst to me, I had played right into the speakers hand.

I'm glad Disney is doing this. I understand the "got to lock up my valuables" thing can be annoying, but what happened in Vegas was a lot worse. If this means that I have to somehow get off the bed to tell a maid "no thank you", even if I'm buck naked, I think it's a small price to pay to help insure safety at the property.

Just my $.02.

Meanwhile, Niles continues to write almost nothing useful about anything. Dude has made a career out of linkbait titles and hyperbole.

Jeff said:

Meanwhile, Niles continues to write almost nothing useful about anything.

Or nothing you didn't read here three days ago, at least.

The article:
"Blame what happened in Las Vegas earlier this year. Disney — like many hoteliers in popular, high-profile tourist destinations — wants to ensure that it is not harboring anyone collecting an arsenal in his room. Or someone engaged in human trafficking, running a drug den, or spending the weekend at Bernie's, if you will."

Gonch:
"...this policy change stems from the Las Vegas shooting. There was tons of criticism that this guy was able to hole up in his room with an arsenal and no one noticed. Plus, it gives you a chance to make sure things are ok in the room - it's not trashed/destroyed, no one dead, no meth lab set up, etc."

wahoo skipper said:

...eventually sending a couple of my folks to tears. They told me what was said to them.

I called the guest up and before he could open his mouth I told him that I was not going to tolerate any of the language he used on my people and that if he wasn't careful I'd be arriving at his door with a bell cart and I'd be happy to help him pack up and leave.

LOL! Definitely not cut out for the hospitality industry. I tell my wife all the time that there's no way I could do what she does. Her thing is always that it's not personal. Doesn't matter who is standing there - the guest would have acted the same way.

The thing though, is that it's not up to you and the staff to take that kind of treatment, it's up to you and the staff to diffuse it. Your story is a perfect example - staff getting upset and crying and calling the guest with threats is the opposite of diffusing, it's throwing fuel on the fire.

(and you know that, I'm just posting a follow-up thought)

I think most people don't appreciate what goes into hospitality - especially hotels - as far as how many hats you have to wear and master.