We need to fix hotel housekeeping. Let's brainstorm.

[Kellerfox]

My wife had to work housekeeping for 3 months after college as a part of a hotel management program with her new corporation (she spent 3 months in major service areas learning the ropes).

She observed one of two universal housekeeping problems at every hotel she worked at that leads to your/our problem RainMan:

1. At hotels with good housekeeping staff levels, they are paid for the hours scheduled regardless and get to go home early if they finish their list of rooms early without losing hours/pay. If you're scheduled 8am-2pm but finish at 11am... You just effectively doubled your hourly pay since you get paid for 6 hours while only doing 3 hours of work. That was far more valuable to them then going slow and getting an hour or two of over time. In her experience, these individuals either had children and wanted to get home quicker to take care of them OR used the regularity of finishing early to commit to a second job in the afternoon whose officially scheduled hours may overlap with the housekeeping job. This was achievable because they pretty consistently could get done early by rushing us out of our rooms.

2. Equally common, hotels are understaffed with housekeeping. This is especially true with the current labor shortage. At those properties, you might only have 2 housekeepers to clean 60-80 rooms during a busy turnover day. To clean a room properly (vacuum, sheets, trash can, deep clean bathroom, etc.), it takes 15-20 minutes. If you have 30-40 rooms, that works out to 10-14 hours of work on a 6-8 hour shift... And that doesn't even include the additional time after turning rooms to run the washing machine for sheets and towels (depends on the size of the property, some outsource that) and restock your cleaning supplies. They do get paid over time, but working 20-30 hours of physical labor over time every week is a great way to get burnt out. These properties are very high turnover. When understaffed, starting as early as 6-7am cleaning rooms is the only way these ladies can get done in time to pick up their children from school or eat dinner with their families. Thus, they can be pretty aggressive in trying to clean the rooms on their list. The problem is most hotels don't have sophisticated inventory/live occupancy tracking in rooms available to housekeepers. They get a printed list at the start of the day of which rooms are expected to check out and need cleaned, but unlike the front desk, they don't have technology that lets them know when someone has actually checked out. At some properties, the housekeeping manager will jump in and help out (acting as additional staff), at others they sit on their ass and manage... Happy to collect over time pay themselves for playing candy crush on their phone all day.

So in summary: I don't know what the fix is.ore staffing is good. Too much staffing is bad. Technology would help. The door hangers described in OP are probably the easiest and cheapest fix.

[Chief Roundup]

Have you tried notifying the front desk that you will be in the room and taking care of business until check out and that please notify housekeeping as to not disturb you?
Maybe an option is for the person to notify housekeeping directly that they need privacy until a certain time.
A universal solution would be a lock on the door that is similar to those in the bathroom that shows that you are still in the room or that the room is empty.
Also, are you staying at lower or mid level hotels? That might also be a part of the problem.

[Hoover]

I put that little "do not disturb" sign on the door. Like for the entire duration of my stay.

I seriously do not have this issue.

[EPodolak]

Originally Posted by Hoover

I put that little "do not disturb" sign on the door. Like for the entire duration of my stay.

I seriously do not have this issue.

That's what I used to do.

Had enough of hotels, now I stay in a bnb every chance I can.

[TrebMaxx]

Originally Posted by Hoover

I put that little "do not disturb" sign on the door. Like for the entire duration of my stay.

I seriously do not have this issue.

That's what I do. Never had a problem.

[cdcox]

The only thing needed to fix this problem is good training and management. I suspect it doesn't happen at all in well managed hotels. I could forgive one knock, but after that it is clear that they just don't care about you, and they don't care if you know it. I would avoid staying at that chain for a long time, perhaps coupled with a nasty review on their web site.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by cdcox

The only thing needed to fix this problem is good training and management. I suspect it doesn't happen at all in well managed hotels. I could forgive one knock, but after that it is clear that they just don't care about you, and they don't care if you know it. I would avoid staying at that chain for a long time, perhaps coupled with a nasty review on their web site.

It is hard to get much out of minimum wage level workers. Those jobs are dime-a-dozen with no background checks, drug screening.

[scho63]

Maybe a personal
DO NOT DISTURB - checking out at XX:XX

[bevischief]

Crime scene tape.

[Flying High D]

When the housemaids knocked, I thought that was code for get the helicopter show going.

[srvy]

I just call the front desk if no DND door hanger. They get the message to the staff. If you make your own post-it note you better be fluent in a lot of languages.

Also, that inside door secure security lock works unless they kick it open. You're probably ****ed as you have been mistaken as the hit. A double-tap is about to occur.

[ChiefBlueCFC]

I, too, have noticed more and more hotels do not have the "Do Not Distrurb" door hanging signs any more. I'm not sure why, but I have had to call the front desk of the last 3 hotels to request one and some had them in a storage closet.

I would think the staff would be able to see who is checking out that day, and who hasn't checked out yet. Obviously, they wouldn't be able to see that in real time, but simple communication between the staff would go miles.

Some people - like you - aren't checking out super early - like me - and I would think that the first time they knocked on the door and you told them to come back later, that would mean comeback after checkout time.

[BWillie]

Hotels don't work for me very well. I don't sleep at normal times. I usually sleep from 5am to Noon so the check out at 11 thing is pretty difficult. I've had great success with Air BnB's even if they are sharing a room. Check in is usually quicker, and they are lenient with check out if you talk or ask them about it.

[Bearcat]

I like the LED light thing, but my first thought was a web form or SMS or app (I generally don't download an app for every single hotel or service).... they should ask questions at reservation or check in about needing your room cleaned, towels, etc, and then you can always update it later. And then an iPad or phone for each housekeeper.

And I assume they would have a pretty routine schedule per floor, so communicate that as well.

[eDave]

They aren't buying their room cleaners iPads.