In December 2017, I did a lot of traveling. Anaheim, Charlotte, and Santa Fe. One common theme I found was the new security systems in place in the wake of October 2017’s Las Vegas Shooter situation. Now, in many hotels staff are required to enter hotel rooms once a day, regardless of the guest’s wishes.
It started at the Hilton Anaheim. I had spent the day before at Disneyland, and so was gone all day. That day I was going to be working from my hotel room for most of the day, before heading off to a client meeting. I took a shower and when housekeeping came knocking I shouted I was in the shower. I figured that would be that, and resigned myself to an unmade bed. But then when I was getting dressed…more knocking. “I’m getting dressed!” I shouted, and off they went. Finally, a 3rd time the knocking happened. This time I was on a work conference call. I said I was working, but housekeeping insisted to clean the room. “Its fine, you can stay!” Awkwardly, I had a conference call with my boss while three women cleaned my room around me.
It was odd, and I didn’t understand why. When it happened a 2nd time the following day, I started to understand. They were making the housekeeping staff keep an eye on the guests. No more guests holed up. They needed to check the room once every day to make sure there wasn’t anything concerning going on.
My suspicions were confirmed again in Charlotte. I had asked for late checkout (way late, like 3PM). So there was no need to clean the room until I had left. But I noticed that housekeeping had come into my room and moved things around. Nothing was cleaned, but the room was obviously checked. Closets and dresser drawers were opened and moved.
Then in Santa Fe, they at least made excuses when checking the room while I was there. It was Christmas time, so they brought us awkward Christmas cookies in bed. Another day a Christmas Ornament. A feign to check supplies. At this point, I wasn’t weirded out anymore.
By this point the news was starting to share that many hotels were putting this type of policy in place. In some hotels” Do Not Disturb” signs disappeared. It will be a good policy, and likely will mean people are less likely to trash their hotel rooms when they know they’ll be checked up on every day.
— HilaryLovesFireworks (@Fireworks_Fairy) December 23, 2017
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