Thursday, 4 January 2018

Mickey Mouse decision: Disney Hotels decides its guests no longer deserve privacy

Goodbye to privacy at Disney Hotels - some of the resort group's hotels are getting rid of "Do Not Disturb" signs so that staffers can check up on the rooms at any time.

Never mind if you are having sex, fast asleep, or in the middle of watching a movie, Disney says the "safety" of other guests is more important than your privacy. 


"The Disney Resort hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room, even when this sign is displayed, for maintenance, safety, security or any other purpose," read the new signs.

Walt Disney World has swapped "Do Not Disturb" signs with "Room Occupied" signs at some of its hotels in Orlando, Florida. Disney is also allowing housekeeping and maintenance staff to enter the rooms on a daily basis.They will knock and announce their presence before entering, according to the company.

Hilton Hotels and Resorts has also changed its policy. The hotel chain said the new policy recommends that staffers alert a security or duty manager after 24 hours of consecutive Do Not Disturb sign usage. Which seems fair and reasonable.

The changes follow a massacre at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas last year. Gunman Stephen Paddock rented a room on the 32nd floor and turned it into a sniper's nest with an arsenal of rifles. He shot into a concert on the ground below, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds in the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Paddock did not leave his room for several days.

I would argue that guests pay for the privacy to do whatever they want (legally) in their hotel room.

Who wants to come out of the shower to find a housekeeper tidying up your room? And what housekeeper wants to enter a room to find a guest naked?


Even worse will be how this could impact on solo female travellers. 

It seems not to have occurred to these nincompoops that a better way of avoiding massacres would be to ban all guests from bringing guns into hotels. 

Although that, of course, would contravene some rules drawn up hundreds of years ago by white, racist slave owners.   

I go to a resort to relax, not to be interrupted whenever hotel staff feel like it. This is a major travel fail. 

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