Expectations of Privacy at a Hotel or Resort
Beginning with the three monorail resorts near the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort Hotels will no longer provide guests with “Do Not Disturb” signs to put on their doors. The signs will be replaced with “Room Occupied” signs that will notify cast members that guests are in the rooms. However, these guests will be “disturbed” at some point, as it will now be required that a Disney employee enter their hotel room at least once a day to ensure guest safety.
If you choose to forgo housekeeping on a given day, the Disney nomenclature states that “the hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room for any purposes including, but not limited to, performing maintenance and repairs or checking on the safety and security of guests and property.” Disney states that cast members will give reasonable notice prior to entering by knocking and announcing that they will enter.
Guests at the Grand Floridian, Polynesian, and Contemporary Resorts should find a paper in their rooms today noting the change. These changes are expected to roll out to other Walt Disney World Resort Hotels in the coming weeks.
It's obvious in response to what happened in Las Vegas. The monorail resorts in particular offer a vantage point to both the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic.
Having worked in the industry, it's funny to watch people freak out over this who think they know their "rights." You are renting a room from a hotel. It's their property. You agree to their rules when you stay there. Even before this, no matter how many signs you put on the door, if there was a concern and someone from the property wanted to enter the room, they could. Just because you declined housekeeping and put up a DO NOT DISTURB doesn't mean no one will go into your room. Most hotels have a policy of checking the room after a certain number of days with housekeeping declined. I am certain it's going to be nearly an every day occurrence now.
Theft from a hotel room is the common concern. I understand that. Although I have never experienced it, I can't say it never happens, because it does. That's why there is a safe in the room. Passports, money, medication, and basically anything of value should go into the safe. I usually leave my medication out, but it's not an opioid or other high-value type of medication. This past year when we went to Vegas, we checked out and I forgot my money in the safe. We called the resort and they had security go back and get it and we met them (our flight didn't leave for several hours). Security actually counted the money with me in front of the camera to make sure it was all there. Most resorts are on the up-and-up. They have to be - it's what the industry relies on. I've found it way more likely that people are con artists who want to get the hotel to write them a check on the spot for things that were allegedly stolen.
One person claimed to work in IT in a capacity that required him to be "on call" and have a degree of security. I password protect my computer. It's a pretty easy thing to do that prevents 95% of the population from being able to get into your computer. If someone who works in IT can't figure out how to do that, it's pretty pathetic. Most safes have enough room to fit a small laptop, and you can always get a cable to secure it to something else in the room if it doesn't. Really, it's a red herring.
One person said he would pack up the room every day and put it back in his car. I guess he somehow thinks that's safer from theft? Also, there will be more diligent security if they see someone walking back and forth with 10 bags for their family every day, you best believe that will raise flags.
You are renting a room for a night. I have seen people think that when they shut the door it's their property. It isn't. You are still on a hotel's property. If the staff have a need to enter, they will. With electronic door locks, we can run a key audit and see who has entered the room. Want to know how many times I've had people claim someone entered their room and stole something and they key audit shows no one going into their room but them? Quite a few. If the police come and want to enter your room, they can. Depending on the laws of the state, it can be a pretty easy process. I know in New Hampshire, if an officer asks to see our "guest ledger" we are required by law to give it to him - another way of saying if they ask if someone is registered at the hotel we have to tell them yes or no and what room they are in.
I've said it before, if you are that paranoid of the world, you should just stay home. Not everyone is out to get you, no matter what the media tries to make it look like. In all of the travel I've done over the years, I've never had something go missing from a hotel room. It's not as frequent an occurrence as people make it out to be. More likely it's either a scam or people misplace it themselves.
Very interesting. I have never worked in a hotel, but I’m sure the stories are epic.
ReplyDeleteOh they are. We had people who once said housekeeping stole three bathing suits and a towel and extorted $400 plus a free stay from my GM who didn't like confrontation.
ReplyDeleteI once thought a pair of earrings got stolen at a hotel. Thank God I didn’t complain, because I found them years later.
ReplyDeleteThat's usually what happens, in my experience. If they're kind enough to admit that they found them after we get screamed at that our hotel is "full of thieves" we rarely get an apology.
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