When you arrive at a hotel or resort property to check in for the night, chances are that you have traveled or worked earlier that day and simply want a restful evening; but do not disturb may not mean do not disturb — especially when hanging the Do Not Disturb sign outside of your door.
How Do Not Disturb May Not Mean Do Not Disturb
In fact, a Do Not Disturb sign may actually inadvertently attract unwanted attention that can ultimately disturb you.
If you do anything which can be considered suspicious by an employee of the hotel or resort property at which you are staying, the Do Not Disturb sign will not help. The best example of this is the mass shooting by Stephen Paddock, who launched rampant consecutive rounds of gunfire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas hotel property just after 10:05 in the evening on the night of Sunday, October 1, 2017. A Do Not Disturb sign hung for several days from the door of the hotel room in which Paddock occupied, which purportedly enabled him to conceal the ammunition which he smuggled into the hotel property.
Some guests have used the Do Not Disturb placard as a way to temporarily convert their hotel rooms into laboratories to manufacture methamphetamine — as well as conduct prostitution, participate in trafficking human beings, and condone other forms of suspicious and illicit activities. Whether the removal of the Do Not Disturb sign actually mitigated illegal and unlawful activities is unknown.
An Overstepping of Boundaries?
Since the attack — in order to supposedly prevent future hotel rooms from becoming arsenals of weapons and preventing another inexplicable mass killing from happening — some lodging companies and independent hotel and resort properties adopted policies to implement what are known as room checks. This generally means that a member of the housekeeping staff or security staff can enter a hotel room every 12 hours to every 48 hours without permission by the guest — whether or not he or she is occupying the room; and despite any indication by the guest not to disturb the room.
“I’m currently at the Radisson Blu in Copenhagen. I typically don’t ever stay in Radisson hotels, but figured I would stay here. I checked into my room and put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and didn’t think anything of it”, FlyerTalk member catbox9 imparted of an experience which occurred earlier this month at approximately 10:30 in the evening. “I am currently in my room and the phone is ringing over and over while I’m trying to work so I ignore it. Not long after there is a never-ending pounding on my door. I have the deadbolt and latch on so I know they can’t enter, but the knocking won’t stop. Finally I open the door and am greeted by 2 men in suits asking if everything is okay. I explain I didn’t ask for them and have a do not disturb sign on my door. They explained that it was policy to check in with guests who have such a sign on the door to inquire why the sign in on the door. I try to tell them to leave but they start to get relatively hostile and we both ended up raising our voices before they finally left.”
Did the two men dressed in suits overstep their boundaries — or is there more to this story?
Recent Deaths of Two Guests From the United States
Given the recent deaths of two guests at the Rancho Pescadero — The Unbound Collection by Hyatt luxury resort property in Baja California in Mexico due to carbon monoxide poisoning, perhaps being aggressive about ensuring that guests are not having any issues or problems during their stay is justified. After all, no employee of a hotel or resort property wants to check in on a room and find at least one dead body.
The official full statement as of Wednesday, June 21, 2023 from Hyatt Corporation pertaining to the incident is as follows:
On behalf of the entire Rancho Pescadero team, we are deeply saddened by this tragedy and committed to caring for all those affected with understanding and compassion. The hotel promptly decided to suspend normal operations. While we wait for authorities to release their findings, together with the hotel’s owners, Hyatt is conducting an extensive independent investigation of the incident, led by a third party. Our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of guests and colleagues and the property will not resume normal operations until our investigation is complete. Local authorities have not yet released the findings of their ongoing investigation, which Hyatt and the hotel’s owners continue to fully cooperate with.
Abby Lutz and John Heathco — who were 28 years old and 41 years old respectively — were from Newport Beach in California and were found unresponsive when paramedics entered their room on the night of Tuesday, June 13, 2023. If a Do Not Disturb sign was hanging from the door of their room and members of the staff heeded it, their bodies could have been in the room for days.
The resort property closed on Sunday, June 18, 2023; and will not reopen until the extensive independent investigation has been completed.
Final Boarding Call
I have once experienced staying in a room at a hotel property where I had the Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the outside of the door for greater than 24 hours, which prompted a telephone call from an employee asking if everything was all right. I replied in the affirmative; and several minutes later, the telephone call had concluded.
If you believe that you are going to have the Do Not Disturb sign hanging for an inordinate amount of time on the outside of the door to your room, you might consider informing an employee at the front desk in advance to mitigate any chance of being disturbed against your wishes.
Otherwise, consider removing the Do Not Disturb sign temporarily before returning it to the outside door handle — especially during the hours when members of the housekeeping staff are the most active, which is typically from the middle of the morning to the middle of the afternoon. After all, housekeeping of a room is not automatically conducted every day anymore at an increasing number of hotel or resort properties when guests stay multiple nights, as guests actually now must ask for this service — so chances are that no one from the housekeeping staff will enter the room anyway.
That the Do Not Disturb sign is not one hundred percent guaranteed to do what it is supposed to do may be one reason why Do Not Disturb signs could be becoming obsolete…
All photographs ©2018 and ©2019 by Brian Cohen.
