I stay in a lot of hotels. Lots of chains, lots of different brands, in lots of different locations, at lots of different price points. Across all of these differences, there’s one thing that consistently bugs me about hotels…and it’s time to let that gripe out.
Surprisingly, it’s not about how clean the room is. It’s not about the breakfast offered, or the honoring of elite benefits. It’s about housekeeping. Let me explain.
I’m in my room and it’s 8am, on the day I’m checking out, and I receive a knock on the door. “Housekeeping!” Seriously? It’s 8am.
I can literally say that about 2/3rds of my hotel stays result in some type of similar scenario. It almost plays out the exact same way — sometime before the designated hotel check-out time (usually noon, sometimes 11a), there’s a knock at the door from housekeeping wondering if I’m out of the room yet.
I’ve had similar incidents during stays when I have an extended check-out time, though I guess I can understand that one partially, and chalk-it up to a miscommunication between the front desk staff and the housekeeping folks. However, when I’m in my room well before the posted check-out time, I’m not sure why I’m receiving any knocks from housekeeping. While I know they need to clean rooms as fast as possible to make way for more guests, I’ve paid for a room until a certain time, and shouldn’t be bothered before then, or be encouraged to leave by constant knocks at the door. It’s not like I’m overstaying or anything like that — I’ve paid for a room until the posted checkout time, and deserve to have privacy until then. Sometimes, I’ll get in late from a flight where I’m trying to sleep in, only to be awoken by housekeeping at the door.
Mind you, I’ve had this happen with a do not disturb sign on the door, and equally as many times where someone just barges through, not even knocking. It’s a consistent issue across most hotel brands I’ve stayed in, and I just can’t understand it. It’s the biggest pet peeve I have with hotels, and I’ve gotten so used it, I’ve almost stopped complaining, though it really annoys me.
It’s just so annoying…and I finally had to vent.
Have you ever experienced this issue?
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
My Biggest Pet Peeve Blogs Do
Three pop up boxes on my mobile device begging me to subscribe to a newsletter and a slide in that is located right next to the close button for the pop up that creates yet another pop up from SumoMe begging another newsletter sign up. Four times the blog annoys me with a sign up and I haven’t even viewed the headline yet.
Have you ever experienced this issue?
what else would the do not disturb sign be for.
i always put it up when im in the room
I’ve never had this happen when the “Do Not Disturb” sign is up.
I had this happen this morning at the Houston curio. The do not disturb sign was on the door, and I’m staying for two more nights. At 8am I was woken up by housekeeping banging on the door.
Totally agree. Biggest pet peeve By far, closely followed by the vacuuming and loud chatting and walkie-talkies in the hall from 8am to noon. NONE of that noise or activity should be occurring before checkout time. Seriously sucks.
I agree. The vacuuming and loud chit chat should not occur before 9:00 a.m. but housekeepers have a job to do…they need to get rooms ready before check in time so they can’t afford to hold off on vacuuming a room til checkout time which is usually at 11:00-12:00.