suitcasejockey

This MUST be addressed immediately.

I have had so many problems at so many Starwood properties with housekeeping. It just happened to me again today at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit in Bangkok. It happened to me twice in the Westin LAX last week. It happens to me all the time now, moreso than last year.

IF YOU PUT UP THE DO NOT DISTURB SIGN IT MEANS DO NOT DISTURB.

There is no possible excuse for them to key your room or to call you to find out when you want your room cleaned.

I run on a minimum of three time zones per month. My personal schedule trumps EVERYTHING the hotel can say. I am the customer and if I choose to sleep in a bed I am paying for - they should NEVER second guess me. I pay a LOT of money to many hotels. While I have friends that move more hotel nights than I do, I generally dwarf most frequent hotel guests in raw room nights. And there is no offender worse than Starwood's housekeepers in ruining a stay.

I'd recommend reminding ALL starwood hotel employees across the board that the ONLY reason they are in business is so their customers can sleep. If you wake them up, they have no reason to stay in your hotel.

stevekoe

This is not just brand specific to Starwood. I am at the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront hotel this week, and I had the same thing happpen to me on Monday. I had my "DND" sign on the door, and about 3 pm, I get a call from hoousekeeping wanting to know if I wanted "service." All the lewd jokes aside, I was pretty forthright in that I thought that Do Not Disturb meant just that, but the woman barely spoke broken english, so I am inclined to think that it fell on deaf ears. I will make mention of this, which was surely not the only thing I didn't like here, when I check out.

Stevekoe

bigjim

I understand the gripes here and I don't think that it is just a Starwood issue. What I have done in the past is call housekeeping and schedule a time for them to clean in advance.

A lot of folks forget to remove the DND when they leave their rooms - but then the guest complains that housekeeping didn't clean their room. And, of course, they don't fess up and admit to leaving the DND sign out.

Try being proactive - it's worked for me, but YMMV.

777 global mile hound

You raise some great points and concerns.
I plan to bring these concerns over to the SPG Advisory Board today.
They make great sense to think about possible ways for Starwood hotels to be proactive in solving these kinds of issues in advance.
If we the guests can communicate with the hotels and housekeeping before or during our stays I think we will all be a lot happier with our relationships.
Mind you most employees who service rooms don't always see things from our or the guest perspective.
Some are very hard working folks who are under great pressure to clean a certain amount of rooms in a very limited period of time or by the end of their shift.

FYI My suggestion is to get the housekeeping manager on the phone at the start of your stay and tell them when you prefer to have your room serviced and to leave you to your privacy otherwise. This may solve some of the problem short term

This looks like a great topic to tackle and get some feedback on
I have taken notes from your comments here.Thanks for the post.

suitcasejockey

Hey, what was the outcome of this meeting?

Sincerely,
STILL tired from these idiots.

777 global mile hound

Not really a meeting at all.
I'm not that valued/worthy just a written report/post/group of comments including others that gets eventually reviewed and considered for future policy review and or change.

There are times throughout the year we hear direct feedback from corporate in a report on concerns,issues and policy we comment on.
Occasionally the suggestions or topics are not considered priority to take time away from other pressing issues,concerns of the day.

I thought there could come a time where we might run out of topics but not unlike Flyertalk there seems to be a never ending list to tackle.And just like FT no one can all agree
Change itself can take some time..........And patience is the thing I am still learning how to deal with in every area of my life.
Especially being one of those individuals that likes results yesterday.

One airline project I have been on since last summer had only one chance for formal review of my report and I missed the meeting here in NYC being on an International journey this month.
Am wondering if it will ever get seen before the one year mark.
I can say that Starwood is much better at regularly reviewing the comments and concerns.
And that is a volunteer or what I like to call a learning or charity(no pay) project.
Starwood is still is a company that listens closely to the voice of the customer.It is my hope that will never change.

My only suggestion here in a friendly way here is to please with all due respect refrain from calling anyone idiots in or out of Starwood .
When respect and change is sought it is not the appropriate verbiage to choose when seeking the kind of support from your comments.
It can loose the effectiveness of your otherwise helpful efforts in trying to vent ones frustration or valid concerns which you indeed have.

It also makes Flyertalk look more professional,respectful of others IMO
I would choose to use humor or other words that still get the message across and make your comments look more powerful, meaningful appropriate.
Much of what we say here on FT is seen by airline and hotel companies around the world besides the most important group the FT community itself.
Thanks again for your post and support of FT. Cheers

Mister Nice

Was recently at a non- SPG hotel in Sydney - early arrival in SYD and I put the DND on the door - When I got up from my rest, the phone message light was on and there was a message from Housekeeping telling me that i f I wanted service that day to call and ask for it. Very simple - no phone calls or knocks !

777 global mile hound

That is the correct class act professional way to handle the situation or by leaving a typed note under the door with a number to call to arrange the appropriate time best suiting the needs of the guest.

At the Westin in San Diego I had a housekeeper surprise me with nothing on during my first stay with them.
She ran out of the room and we were both embarrased.
Hopefully she will take the sign more seriously in the future unless she prefers those kind of cheap thrills
I never went back but that was not the main reason.
The hotel is very good to Platinums with regard to upgrades

By the way IMO the Starwood properties in Sydney do represent some of the very best worldwide of the Starwood I have come to appreciate and respect all these years.
I would be fare less price sensetive and more prone to staying only Starwood if Starwood could clone how these hotels perform more often within North America.

In Sydney particular the Sheraton on the Park with their stunning new Executive lounge/views and the Westin Sydney also has a nice Exec lounge are standouts.
Both hotels have a management team and staff that set the standard in and out of the Starwood Hotels and the industry. Don't miss an opportunity to experience both of these properties.

An honorable mention to the W in Sydney too.
The public spaces are brilliant but the first two have won my loyalty.
Torn between where to stay.I like the both of them so much for different reasons.One of the few cities I have to stay in both Starwood properties when I'm there.

At the Westin in Sydney there is an electronic light up sign that seems to be respected by it's staff.
But the culture at both Sydney properties are very service oriented to begin with.
I have been very respected as a guest especially with regard to my privacy at all these properties.
If one trys to press the doorbell it automatically will disengage until the do not disturb sign/light is switched off.

sbtinme

As has been suggested here already, the very very best way to handle odd hours situations is to absolutely call both the FRONT DESK and HOUSEKEEPING directly and as early as possible to alert them to your special needs. Make certain to be clear that a wake up of any sort will be inexcusable and tantamount to waking a guest on "normal" hours at 3:16am!

To suggest that this is an *wood problem seems ludicrous since we can all agree that this happens all over the planet when housekeeping isn't sure if you meant "do not disturb" or if you walked out fast and forgot the sign was on the door.

See it from their perspective, if they don't know any better and opt to honor your request.......then you come back from a long day and are horrified to see that you have no new towels and the room is still a mess....... you're mad and demand that someone come clean this up right now, etc, etc. You get the drift. All too often, folks don't remove that little sign.

It's a catch 22. I love the solution of putting on the msg light to alert guests (silently) that their wish to not be disturbed had been honored. That way it's documented clearly what happened.

777 global mile hound

I don't think that anyone is saying including the OP that it is a Starwood problem exclusively.Except that they do much of their business with Starwood where it is happening.And I understand the frustration having been in there shoes.Sometimes it is clearly the wrong moment !
It is however an individual hotel problem at many a property.

If Starwood can come up with a way to help all the parties communicate better without each guest calling housekeeping ( I agree with you that is the best way at present) there might be something to raising the issue with the proper powers that be.
One can specify bedding and smoking requests.
One might even be able to list housekeeping services in their profile one day. Or get on a list (at check in if the guest might be there for leisure or business) that goes to housekeepers and managers with requests from/for jet lagged frequent customers that need such privacy during their much needed recovery during that stay.
There is merit in looking at the issue policy wise is all I am trying to say Thanks for your feedback all.It's been an interesting topic.
Perhaps more so because many of us are looking at policy and procedures on a regular basis now.

sbtinme

I was just reacting to the title of the OP's post. It says "BRANDWIDE" --- to my mind, that is not the same as industry wide. I infer that the OP did mean to state that the issue was with *wood.

777 global mile hound

Oops Please accept my aplogy

KhalilSheikh

I've been fortunate up to this point, as I've never had housekeeping disregard the doortag. I hope this disruption to your sleep does not happen again soon!

KathyWdrf

Sheesh, hotels are staffed by a cadre of low-paid people, who in many cases don't even earn a living wage. Many are immigrants with a very limited command of either written or spoken English. Yet they are supposed to cater to guests and NEVER EVER EVER make any kind of mistake. And of course, everyone wants the lowest possible rates, while still getting unlimited SPG perks, upgrades, and benefits.

If Starwood is so bad, why not take your business to some other hotel chain that 1) gives better service than Starwood; 2) costs the same or less than Starwood; and 3) offers the same or better loyalty-program benefits than Starwood? It's called disciplining the marketplace. @:-)

suitcasejockey

I have status at Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton. I also stay at Wyndham and am a WBR member. Starwood is the worst at this. Marriott is the best. I am just a much bigger fan of Westins.

The solution is very simple. If there is a sign that says DO NOT DISTURB, then DO NOT DISTURB. Leave a note or a message (I prefer the note). DO NOT DISTURB unless there is a fire, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, or other devastating high risk condition. A chocolate on my pillow does not meet this criteria.

The followup is that this person had set off my entire sleep schedule for the week as a result and did very much damage to my trip. I had to reschedule morning meetings for evenings and missed some clients that I needed to see.

As far as the low paid immigrants and lowest price - At the Westin BKK where the last incident occurred, I doubt they were immigrants into Thailand. And as far as the lowest price goes, I paid roughly THREE TIMES THE PRICE of what another client paid for his room down the street. The other client got an 80 square meter suite - and I got a regular room. He didn't get starpoints - but he did not get woken up either In retrospect, I should have stayed across the street at the Sheraton. It's a little more expensive and the beds are harder than my datacenter floor, but it's a MUCH better hotel. Live and learn.