Originally Posted by
Sam P. Goodman
I had an incident at the Westin Mich Ave in Chicago where the housekeeper kept ignoring my DND on checkout day and harassing me to leave (I had 4pm checkout, but even after I notified her of that, she persisted).
Just this past weekend, while at the Sheraton Park Anaheim, I witnessed the phone trick as I was approaching my sister's room (family trip to Disneyland). The housekeeper knocked (ignoring the DND sign). When no reply, she went into the adjacent room and called and said, "You're DND sign is up. When will you be out of your room before 5 so we can make it up?" Kind of defeats the purpose of the sign...
Both of those incidents are INEXCUSABLE. It does not matter whether the property is a * hotel or a ***** hotel. Usually, I have found the problem lies with the front desk and not with housekeeping. I worked as a front desk clerk for years and the front desk is responsible for informing housekeeping of ALL extended checkouts. That doesn't always happen, unfortunately. My suggestion is to put a note on the door if you really do not want to be disturbed that says "Late check out - 4PM. Please do not disturb until then." If you leave the room, call housekeeping directly informing them you are checking out late and do not want anyone to enter until the time you leave.
All of that should not be necessary, but it is added insurance.
