Guest experiences with daily room checks

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Just back from 5 days at POR. We had housekeeping daily. When in room we used the bolt and extra latch and put out the room occupied sign. At night I put an extra note on the door that said still sleeping please come back later. Never bothered by housekeeping or security checks. Typical schedule was in room til 10 or 10:30 AM... back and forth from pool all day, then out at parks for rest of evening by 5pm.
 
6 nights at AKL Jambo. We left the sign on the door whenever we were in the room. We never left the room before 1:30pm each day. First day around 2ish housekeeping happened to be outside so I just asked them to swap towels and gave them the trash. Must have counted as a check or if they did a true check it was while we were out. Second day I called when we left told them we would not be out long and asked if they could do the room soon. Came back a few hours later and it was done. Did this each day with no problems and no extra checks. One day we were still in room and got a phone call saying we still had the sign out, did we want service. I told them no and they said they would need to do a security check. I said in that case they could have housekeeping just replace towels. We left for about a half hour shortly after the call. When we came back they had been nice enough to do the whole groom anyway. We have late check out tomorrow,so if we have issues with that I will post again.
 
Just got back from a five night AKL Jambo DVC stay. We used the room occupied sign and bolt and latch whenever we were in the room. This was a no parks trip so we were in the room a lot. First two days the trash was emptied while we were out in the afternoon. The weird thing was we got a pile of new towels and toiletries on our first full day. The third day we got a phone call about 3:30 asking when they could stop by to do a room check. I asked them to come as soon as possible. They came about an hour later, knocked, asked if we were ok, then left. No room check, no trash emptied. The fourth day the trash was emptied while we were out. This should have been our "trash and towel" day but the towels were not done. Maybe because we still had a pile of towels from the first day? The morning of check out we had a 9:20 reservation at Boma for breakfast. As we left, housekeeping ran us down and asked when we'd be checking out. I said between 10:30 and 11:00. At 10:58 they were knocking on the door. We were just headed out so no problem there.
 
Just got back from CBR. During our first full day there we went back to the room for an afternoon nap and hung the new occupied sign outside our door as well as used the latch and lock. We awoke to loud repeated knocking/pounding on our door and shouted we would be there in just a minute. By the time someone got to the door, no one was there. It is a huge inconvenience and stressful for someone to take their CPAP equipment off while abruptly being woken up at at an unknown time with the treat of a strange man entering your room if you don't move quickly enough. We opted not to have housekeeping the entire time. No one went back to sleep after that since our adrenaline was so high and we had to change our touring plans after that to sleep in or come back early to avoid naps and all that stress.

Oddly enough, I never once saw security while staying at Fort Wilderness and that place definitely needs security making rounds at night (my neighbors felt the need to fall asleep to heavy metal music for the entire night yet could not be inconvenienced to use headphones).
 


Still at Pop Century. Been here 10 days. Room check did show up the first day and second. The first time, we were in the room and I didn't have the occupied sign out. I was on the phone when I heard the knock. Then the woman opened the door and I signaled her to come in. I continued to talk on the phone. She walked in the bathroom, then left. Never took the trash either.
The second day, room check (or somebody) left us a pack of luggage tags. Didn't take trash either.
Since then, haven't seen head or tail of room check for the last 8 days. I never bother with the occupied sign. I did get $150 for opting out of housekeeping. The money came in very handy because one day, I forgot to put shoes on my 2 year old and had to buy him a pair in magic kingdom. They had only one pair of crocs sandals that were his size, and they cost $53!
 
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Just back from a split stay at SSR and CCV. I wouldn't have even known they were doing room checks if I hadn't read about it here. We left every morning and came back in the afternoon at different times everyday. At SSR the trash was always emptied when we got back, and we had trash and towel service as usual on the 4th day. The only knock we had was from housekeeping at about 9 AM when we were packing up to switch resorts, and it was so light that I wouldn't have heard it if I hadn't been standing by the door. I told her we would be leaving shortly, and she just smiled and left. At CCV they never even emptied the trash until our trash and towel day. They may have done room checks while we were gone, but I never saw any evidence of it. We did use the latch most of the time, but rarely thought to put out the room occupied sign.
 
I'm currently at Port Orleans, French Quarter. It's day one, and at about 8:40pm, there was a loud insistent knock at the door.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was in the bath. So now I have to get out, get dressed, and answer the door. Knock number two came while I was getting out. I went to the door and looked through the peephole and could see a man in what seemed to be pants and a dress shirt. It was dark enough out that it wasn't a clear view.

I called that I would be there in a minute, I don't know if he didn't hear me or did and realized he had the wrong room, because when I finally was ready to answer the door, there wasn't a soul in sight.

So I went down to the front desk to see if it was indeed a room check. They checked and came to the conclusion no one had been sent there at that time.

I had assumed that perhaps because it was the first day and there wasn't a chance for housekeeping to come in, someone came abnormally late, and I wanted to see if this was a common occurrence, since I wasn't too thrilled that now I was wet, my pajamas were wet, and the floor was wet.

They said typically the room checks don't happen that late. I asked if the cast member is always in uniform. They said either in uniform or business casual. My issue, that's what this mysterious man was in.

I wish they were more clear about what to expect. In any case, if I ever see anyone outside that isn't clearly a cast member, I'm leaving the latch on when I open the door so I can get a better gauge on the situation without opening my room to a stranger. (Actually, even if it is a cast member, that's probably a smart step one.) I believe in this case it was probably someone who simply got confused, but it would be easy enough for someone to take advantage of the confusion to their own purposes.

The front desk did offer to call security, but I don't think it was necessary in this instance. It was just a good reminder for me not to assume anything.
 


I spent 10 days at all star movies in August with my 9 year old daughter. Every morning we left for the parks and every afternoon came back for a nap with the dnd sign on..we were disturbed almost every day. They wouldnt even give you time to get to the door and would just walk in. I found it unbelievably rude. Even when they could see my daughter sleeping they would barge in and wake her up. It really ruined our trip because then she would be tired and we couldnt stay out late. They treat you like you are in jail. Never experienced this at any other hotel.
 
While I had said I wouldn't be onsite again, Expedia had a super low price on Caribbean pop up while I was about to make my offsite ressie for the weekend. As I have previously posted a review of a negative experience, I thought it fair to post a slightly better one. We were at Caribbean for 2 nights. Out of the room for most of the day so no knocking/intrusions while we were there. Occupied sign, with deadbolt and latch engaged at all times when we were in the room. On check out day, housekeeping was just getting to the area when we were leaving about 9:30am, so no knocking on check out day either. Our area did not seem to be an early morning service spot, so while we weren't early risers, we were probably out of the room before anyone was in the area to disturb us and didn't come back to nap until late afternoon.

While in theory this is a good review, because of previous experience, I had already told hubby emphatically that I refused to respond to a door knock if it should happen. The knowledge that it could happen definitely lessened my enjoyment of the stay.
 
Spent 6 nights at Poly last week. We were in DVC, but paid cash so we still had daily mousekeeping. One morning, they knocked lightly and my husband let them know we'd be out within a half hour for them to clean. Only other time we had someone knock was check-out day, again mouskeeping asking if we'd be out by 11am. Even though we were back many afternoons for the baby to nap, we did not get disturbed.
 
After a terribly intrusive stay at Saratoga Springs in January, we had the exact opposite during our most recent stay at Jambo House.

We didn't have one knock on our door. No one woke me up during my nap.

No one stood outside of our door waiting for us to pack up.

Like I said, the opposite of what we experienced at Saratoga.
 
We just got back from a 7 night stay at Saratoga Springs(paid cash). We came back to our room between 1pm and 2pm every day. 4 of the 7 days our room was not cleaned when we got back. On the non cleaned days they would call and tell us someone would have to check our room. They only came pounding on our door 1 day of our 7 night trip. The biggest issue is every day we were there we never really knew if someone was going to come knocking and disturb us. We just could not completely relax and be comfortable in our room.
 
14 nights at WL with housekeeping. Never had any security checks during our stay. I was quite concerned because I read some people were getting security checks even with having housekeeping.
For me, I don’t think it’s worth opting out of housekeeping with the hassle of getting random inconvenient security checks.
 
I've had two experiences with this policy since it went into effect (6 nights at Pop in January 2018, 4 nights at Polynesian in August 2018). For both trips, someone from Mousekeeping would knock on our door around 10am each morning and ask if we needed anything (i.e. towels), and sometimes they would come in to empty the trash bins. Each CM that came to our room was courteous, and would offer to come back later if we were still getting ready.
 
Sept 13 -20 POFQ. Declined housekeeping. Solo trip. Typical day was leave resort around 10AM, return around 3PM, leave again around 5PM. Never put out the Room Occupied sign.

Twice there a knock on the door; I was napping about 4:30 when there was a knock on the door. I said, "I'm taking a nap." A woman's voice said, "I'll come back later. Sorry." Don't know if she did; I was gone by 5.

Second time I was just getting out of the shower at around 6PM when there was a light tapping on the door. Having read the boards here for a while and curious as to what would happen if I didn't answer I didn't. Sure enough the key went in the door and the dead bolt was turned. The door was pushed and a woman said "Housekeeping" but the latch was in place. She said, "Sorry" and closed the door. I said nothing. No one returned by the time I left the room at 6:45.

Having my nap interrupted wasn't a deal breaker for me and my curiosity about what would happen if the latch was in place and no one answered the knock was satiated.
 
Five nights at Boardwalk end of August into September. We had the 'Room Occupied' sign on our door whenever we were in it, and I had the door latched. One time we came back mid afternoon, and our room had not been cleaned. We darkened the room to take a nap, including the room occupied sign, and the latch. About 3:45 the phone rang, and it was a recorded message (I believe from the hotel manager??) that stated they have been unable to enter our room due to the room occupied sign, the message went on to say that by the time I get the message someone has probably already knocked on the door. The message also detailed the policy, and the reasoning behind it. He also said that we can schedule housekeeping or security check with them for the rest of our stay (this seemed like a hassle as I didn't really know when we'd be in our room). A few minutes later there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I explained we didn't need services for that day, but I understood she needed to come in our room. She did, and emptied the trash, and gave us fresh towels. Other than that our room was cleaned while we were out.
 
End of August SSR 9 night stay. Very intrusive. We tend to be back in our room from Noon to about 3 for a nap. Every day that wasn't cleaning day someone knocked on the door between 1 and 2 to check the room. One day decided to put up the sign and 3 people knocked on the door and informed us of the policy that of we have the sign up they are required to check the room . Never got a good nap that trip. Emailed the SSRanager email from letter hoping to get some clarity on the policy. Was ignored and never responded to.
 
Two months ago, in July, we stayed in rooms 1814 and 1815 in Rarotonga at the Polynesian. It was a spectacular vacation. We went to the parks every morning and returned nearly every afternoon to relax by the pool. We left early for rope drop or a breakfast ADR every day. Our rooms were cleaned every morning while we were out. Nobody else except for Mousekeeping came to our room except for the one day that we requested toilet paper, and obviously, we were expecting that person to come by. We were not disturbed once. After reading all of the nightmarish posts before our trip, I purchased a new bathrobe so that I could cover myself and be decent should a person conducting a security check come by. It never happened, and I never wore my bathrobe at all. No need.

It was a wonderful trip, and happily we were left alone to enjoy it.
 
Just finished 5 nights at BWV with no issues whatsoever. We came and went randomly but made good use of the latch and room occupied sign, removing and replacing it as we came and went. Every day the trash was removed sometime during the day.

Checked into Wilderness Lodge Copper Creek yesterday for another 4 nights. Room occupied sign was out, but latch not in place (my wife wasn’t aware of the new “security” policy). I heard a light rap on the door at 11:3o am. Wife was changing for an afternoon at the pool. As I was getting up to answer the door I said loudly “one moment” (no chance he did not hear me. A man just walked right in and said he was here for the trash.

I was and am spitting mad and am cooling down a bit before I go downstairs to speak to the manager. I told him in no uncertain terms that he nor anyone was to enter my room uninvited nor unannounced again. I don’t give a darn about their imaginary security theater. My security in my room for privacy while my wife is getting changed is much more valuable to me.

This new procedure must be revamped. When did it become acceptable to just barge into a room you know is occupied?
 
Stayed at Pop 4 nights. Asked to opt out of housekeeping, received $30 gift card. First day, housekeeping came in and cleaned. Called and complained (maid threw away some of my stuff that looked like trash but weren't, and changed the way I made the bed the way I wanted it), they said they would look into it. Second day, housekeeping came again when I was gone. Third day, housekeeping came again, so I said we opted out of housekeeping. So she left. Next time I will bring a sign and tape it to the door: "NO HOUSEKEEPING".
 
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