Make room for workers on your Disney stay
Safety, security cited as reasons for change
SWalt Disney World guests won’t see “Do Not Disturb” signs anymore as “Room Occupied” signs have replaced them at four of the resort’s lodging properties — allow maintenance or housekeeping workers to enter rooms daily.
The change took effect last week at the Disney hotels on the Monorail — Polynesian Village Resort, Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Contemporary Resort and its connected Bay Lake Tower.
A hotel staffer must knock and identify himself or herself before entering if the “Room Occupied” sign is out. Arriving guests are being notified about the new right-to-entry guidelines, the company also said.
If guests take issue with housekeeping or maintenance entering when they are gone, Disney said it will talk to people individually to address concerns.
Disney said it is evaluating whether to update procedures at its other resorts.
The tighter security measures come months after an Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas, where a gunman shot from the 32nd floor of the Manda- lay Bay casino-hotel tower and killed 58 people, wounding hundreds more.
Disney declined to say whether the shooting prompted the change for its policy but said it made the decision for a variety of factors, including safety, security and the guest experience.
Hotels typically require staff to check on rooms that have had a do-not-disturb sign after three days for routine cleaning, American Hotel and Lodging Association officials told the Review-journal.
With some hotels, staff may come in for a courtesy cleaning after only 24 hours; there is no industry standard, according to the association.
Hotels’ top concern is keeping guests safe.
Steven Carvell, a finance professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, told the Review-journal: “They need to ensure, for instance, that a guest isn’t dead or unconscious.”
Another Disney hotel policy change caught attention this year when the company announced it was allowing some rooms in four hotels to become dog-friendly as part of a new pilot program.