The last several times I have stayed at a hotel/motel for a duration of more than one day, housekeeping has not come into the room to straighten it and make the bed. It does not seem to matter what hotel chain or their level of service. I attribute this to three causes. First, during the pandemic these chains were super cautious and bragging about their amped up level of cleanliness. It was a way to keep staff safe. Secondly, after the pandemic everyone is having trouble finding employees, and I would imagine it is even harder for low level jobs, such as hotel housekeepers. Lastly, corporate America has found an excuse to give less service and charge more. Have you booked a room lately? The price of hotel rooms has certainly increased. I going to show some self-control for once, and not go on a rant about less service and higher prices.
Most hotel rooms have door hangers that you can place outside — the well-known Do Not Disturb sign. Some chains try to get cute with these placards and use different phrases, sometimes they even achieve this cuteness.
I am sure the door hangers can be used for other purposes(???), but I have generally used my Do Not Disturb sign to signal the cleaning staff that we were still in the room when we were having a lazy morning. I have noticed though, that some folks just put them out immediately upon arrival and seem to leave them there. I assume they really want to guard their privacy.
Since they are not coming back into your room until you check out, I do wonder what is the point of printing and placing these door hangers at this juncture in the lodging space-time continuum. They would save money on the printing, and I would not have the temptation of stealing a “souvenir”.
And so it goes in almost post pandemic America…
When we travel, we do NOT want housekeeping in our room. Period. If we need towels, we ask for them. I don’t want them straightening my bed…I simply have to pull the covers out and remake it anyway since they never do the top sheet right. We don’t want them shifting through our stuff. It feels quite invasive to me to know someone has been in my room.
Therefore, we put the sign out immediately and leave it there. It has nothing to do with whether we are there or not. It’s our way of telling to leave us alone.