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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is not standard in a hotel?

184 replies

sniffle12 · 14/02/2017 08:44

Staying in quite a nice hotel and housekeeping have knocked on once at 8am and once at 8.20am even though I said not yet thank you the first time. AIBU to think that's a bit intense? What if I'd been asleep still or in the shower, would they just have walked in on me?

I would always put my do not disturb card on if I was intending to sleep in, but I presumed that before 9am was pretty safe as people are still getting up, getting ready for work, etc?

Will just put do not disturb on tomorrow but wanted opinions!

OP posts:
Deidre21 · 15/02/2017 17:54

YABU as you didn't put the Do not Disturb sign outside the door.
All cleaning staff are very respectful of seeing that, at least in all good they'd be.

Jaxhog · 15/02/2017 18:04

DND all the way. I've been knocked up at 7am onwards! Ridiculous, but I guess housekeeping like to get going early.

I now put the DND on the night before. Sometimes 'jokers' enjoy knocking them off though (unless I sellotape them to the door handle)

daisychain01 · 15/02/2017 18:10

housekeeping staff don't communicate with reception and haven't a clue about whether or not someone has checked out

I don't agree, not with the Premier Inn where I stay. As guests check out, reception have a list they mark off checkouts ongoing. The housekeeping staff regularly check which rooms are vacant, and work through those rooms ongoing.

Checkout is 12noon prompt ( after that the key card is automatically disabled) then the housekeeping have 2 hours to complete the later rooms, ready for first check ins at 2pm onwards.

DND card is definitely the way forward.

thewindisscaringme · 15/02/2017 18:19

I work in housekeeping at a five star hotel and no fucking way would we be banging on people's doors at 8am! Checkout time is when we start although we do stay overs when we know for sure the customer is in the dining room eating breakfast

greeneyedlulu · 15/02/2017 18:55

Wow! First world issues eh?

EnormousTiger · 15/02/2017 18:59

I always put the DND sign on before I go to sleep and I lock the door from the inside. I take it off when I go down to breakfast. Seems to work

scottishdiem · 15/02/2017 19:24

I thought this is what the DND was for. I always put the DND disturb in my room when I am staying as I dont like the staff coming in and see no point in having my bed made and fresh towels out when they have only been used once.

Cleaning schedules will be different in each hotel. 8am can be fairly late depending on where the hotel is and the clients it catering for. This is why breakfasts start so early (6 or 6.30 in many places I've stayed).

mummyof3kids · 15/02/2017 19:31

Yanbu but when I managed hotels for a major chain the housekeeping staff started work at 6:30 so even though it seems early to you they would probably have been working for a couple of hours already. As pp have said room cleaning turnaround is very tight so it is helpful to put dnd sign on door. This enables them to quickly move on to next room. They should however check themselves which rooms have vacated from returned keys/cards and do those rooms 1st. My head housekeeper used to carry wallow talkie so reception could inform when rooms left, they also asked guests staying over if they wanted room refreshed whilst eating breakfast. If there is a feedback card fill it in so they can learn and improve. If not, inform reception so they can pass message on.

Viviennemary · 15/02/2017 19:57

I'd say that was far to earlier to be knocking on bedroom doors. Even if there is no dnd sign up. I don't usually bother with them and haven't been wakened before around 9.30 at the very earliest. Put a comment on trip advisor. The hotel was out of order IMHO.

Blueink · 15/02/2017 20:33

Sorry you were disturbed twice, but I don't consider 8am unsocial or especially early in my experience of staying in hotels. There is (usually) written information in the room about the times room service operates as (like breakfast times) it varies and often starts before 8am. Put the DND sign up the night before and any time you don't want to be disturbed in the room. There are times I may be in the room but not mind - people have different expectations and preferences. I prefer housekeeping to come during breakfast so the room is done for the day (although some hotels also have an evening 'turn down' service too). So YABU to complain if you weren't bothered enough to check the night before what time housekeeping start and use the DND sign provided. What's too early for one is not early enough for another.

neweymcnewname · 15/02/2017 20:50

We stayed in a hotel once ( Jersey, and very much a holiday hotel) where they went into the room while we were at breakfast to do housekeeping, which was fine, but they wouldn't let us come in and get our stuff to go out until they finished, which delayed us (we never had a lie in, it would have been about 8.30 we finished breakfast)..
On the third day, fed up of the delay, we put up the DND sign when we went to breakfast - we got back and were getting our things to go out when there was a knock at the door. It was the manager - the cleaner had complained to him about the sign, and he'd come to tell us off for putting it out!
They really didn't seem to understand the idea that we were paying guests!

Oneiroi · 15/02/2017 20:52

Put a comment on trip advisor. The hotel was out of order IMHO.

I feel so sorry for the hotel staff with guests making such crazy complaints. It could be added to this list:

www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/news/20-astonishing-holiday-complaints-thomas-cook-abta

Portland573 · 15/02/2017 21:28

For me, if you don't want knocking up, sling sign out the night before.

bertiesgal · 15/02/2017 22:03

Well, let me tell you a story.....

6 months post DTs, DH and I booked the swankiest hotel in the centre of Glasgow.

We had the expressing machine and lots of rubbish films on t'telly.

After a lovely night (falling asleep after a glass and a half of prosecco), somebody barged into our room without knocking.

He stopped and stared at my naked bottom for what felt like hours (25 seconds according to DH).

Apparently he was a new start (the employee, not DH)

We complained and we got a "free night"-weirdly we've yet to redeem this as they're always fully booked when we phone (dons tinfoil hat and looks shiftily from side to side)....

Anyway, I think you got off lightly op.

The worst part is that we were so bloody knackered that my naked bum was merely due to being so tired that I'd fallen asleep before I got my pyjamas on Blush

kateandme · 15/02/2017 23:55

we always look for late check in and outs when booking and often they offer an extra little fee to allow it which we always do.as a family that check out time in a morning just aint gonna work lol

BabychamSocialist · 16/02/2017 00:46

8am is standard really. If you don't want to be disturbed, that's what the sign is for. They've got a job to do and depending where you are on their route your time might be 8am or it might be 11am. At the end of the day, just put the frigging sign on the door!

Daisies123 · 16/02/2017 07:38

I was a chambermaid to pay for some of my uni studies and we started work at 8.15. Yes, we'd do first any rooms where we knew the guest had checked out but we'd also then knock on any doors that didn't have DND up. When you had to get 16 rooms done in your shift you really had to get on with it as check in was 2pm.

This was a five star hotel in a tourist area that also attracted a lot of business customers.

Roomster101 · 16/02/2017 09:16

This thread is going around in circles with some people not getting the point which is

  1. why should guests know that house keeping staff start at 8 a.m. in some hotels. It is not common sense to know that they start that early and people who know that only do so because they have worked in hotels and/or stayed in many. If common sense was involved staff would probably start later so that time wasn't wasted knocking on doors and potentially waiting around for rooms to empty.
  2. In hotels where cleaning starts that early why don't hotels organise themselves so that housekeeping staff know who has checked out or who is at breakfast and knock on those doors first. It should be easy with with modern technology and clearly some hotels manage it.
  3. In hotels that can't get it together to work out which rooms are empty without knocking and potentially disturbing guests quite early in the morning, why can't they inform the guests IN WRITING in that they might be disturbed as early as 8 a.m. if they don't put a DND sign on the door.
Roomster101 · 16/02/2017 09:31

There is (usually) written information in the room about the times room service operates as (like breakfast times) it varies and often starts before 8am.

I have stayed in many hotels and have never been given this information.

Bluntness100 · 16/02/2017 09:40

I'm not seeing the issue here. Many people leave their rooms early for the day so why shouldn't housekeeping start early to get people's rooms done? It's not difficult to put the do not disturb sign out. 🙄

Ifailed · 16/02/2017 09:42

Two points:

  1. I agree guests should not know what time housekeepers start work.
  2. 8 am is not particularly early for guests to have left a room if they are staying overnight for work etc. However, if its a leisure stay then it would be quit normal to linger on, possibly even 'til checkout time. In this situation, use of the DND sign makes sense.

To go back to the OPs original point then, having housekeeping knock at 8:00 and 8:20 is not so unreasonable and use of the DND sign is advised by many other posters who have experience of hotel workings.

SabineUndine · 16/02/2017 09:46

I stayed a week in a French hotel where I put the DND on the door and each morning when I emerged at 9.15, ALL the cleaners would be outside sitting on the floor, chatting and waiting for me. That really pissed me off. I was on holiday!

Roomster101 · 16/02/2017 09:54

I'm not seeing the issue here. Many people leave their rooms early for the day so why shouldn't housekeeping start early to get people's rooms done? It's not difficult to put the do not disturb sign out.

The issue is that if the hotel decides that housekeeping should start early they should either make sure that housekeeping only do the rooms of those who have checked out/at breakfast OR they should state in writing that housekeeping will start that early and that guests need to put a DND sign on the door if they don't want to be disturbed. This may seem obvious to those who work/often stay in hotels actually it isn't and it is clear from this thread that many people assume that a DND is not necessary early in the day.

MiddleClassProblem · 16/02/2017 09:59

Thread is not going in circles. It's aibu so more people pop on to say so or not.
Most of us aren't hotel managers so can't apply the points you have made despite agreeing with them. Many hotels do organise with who has checked out. Breakfast sometimes only half the room goes or they just pop down and back up quickly or many guests go at a similar time so you can't do all the breakfast rooms in that time. Knocking is also worth it if someone has gone to the gym/swimming pool, gone out for the day but skipped hotel breakfast etc

Yes it would be helpful if they put about using DND sign for this in the blurb as I think a small few people associate it with what they see in film and telly of being used because you're shagging or something.

JuneBuggy · 16/02/2017 13:27

I had this twice recently at a Holiday Inn at 08:30 and 09:20 on a Sunday morning, check out was 12:00. The first time, my DH got up to tell them no when the maid walked in and may have seen more than she bargained for as DH was walking towards the door... naked. And again when she did exactly the same to our friends in the next room Shock

The second time was a different maid. We didn't have a DND sign to put up and did complain to Reception when we checked out.

Never had this at any other hotel I've stayed at, DND or not.

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