The Hosts and Hostesses in Walt Disney World’s Housekeeping department play an important but largely hidden role in making your stay at Disney resorts a comfortable and happy one. You may give little thought to the part they play – but some of the little tricks and neat touches that they employ can help elevate a good vacation to a great one.
Amy Ziese worked as a Housekeeping Cast Member at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort from May 2005 to January 2006 as part of Disney’s College Program. The Wilderness Lodge was her home resort, but she was frequently deployed for a week or two at a time to the other resorts when extra staffing was needed in those locations.
Amy was kind enough to speak with Theme Park Tourist about her experiences during that time – and you can read her thoughts below.
Landing the role
Amy heard about the College Program through a cousin who applied, but later decided not to attend. “I attended a recruiting seminar at Indiana University Indianapolis, which was heavily advertising on campus.”
Her interview for the role immediately followed the recruiting seminar: “We were interviewed two at a time. Since I was applying for the College Program and not a traditional job, many questions pertained to the lifestyle of CPs. We were asked if we thought we would be able to adjust to life so far from home, how we got along with strangers, and if we would be comfortable sharing an apartment with several other roommates.”
“At the time of the interview, we didn’t know what role we would be offered. I requested housekeeping and was later offered the role that I wanted. However, many applicants to the College Program were not offered the roles that they requested. When the acceptance letter comes for College Program, you’re only offered one job and you must accept or decline the entire program under the understanding that you agree to work in that position. You don’t find out what your location will be until you’ve arrived for your program.”
Training to be a Housekeeper
Amy’s training for her new role was a mix of generic Disney training and Housekeeping-specific courses.
“The initial training for the role of housekeeper began with Traditions, which every Cast Member goes through. After that I attended a day-long class at Disney University that covered housekeeping procedures resort-wide. A few special classrooms are set up with hotel beds and bathrooms for trainees to practice on. After this, I went on to the specific training provided at my resort. This included several days of working with a trainer and helping her clean her rooms, while also learning the layout of the resort.”
“I was later trained in additional housekeeping duties such as cleaning the lobby, which is a separate job that one or two housekeepers are assigned to for the day. I was also trained as a runner, which meant that I delivered mini fridges and other amenities to guest rooms upon request throughout the day. (Since that time, all resort rooms have been updated to include mini fridges so runners now have a much easier job and infinitely smaller items to deliver.)”
“When I was deployed to other resorts, I would receive training for a day or less on the specific procedures in that resort.”
Day-to-day duties
As a Housekeeper, Amy was assigned several rooms to clean each day. “Each room was either a check out which had to be turned over completely, or occupied so I only had to straighten up. Every day, the beds were made, bathrooms cleaned, and carpets vacuumed. In check outs, we obviously changed the sheets and towels, dusted, cleaned the coffee maker, changed the cups, and did a more thorough cleaning of the room. From time to time a check out was assigned a deep cleaning where the bedspreads were changed and the additional tasks performed. If a room was unoccupied for several days, we might also be assigned to clean up that room, which would just include a quick dusting and vacuuming to keep it looking fresh.”
“When I was assigned to the lobby, I would follow a set rotation around the lobby area throughout the day to keep things neat. I cleaned up the bathrooms, kept the toilet paper and paper towels stocked, and emptied trash cans. The rotation also included a once daily cleaning of Artist’s Point in the morning and the Cub’s Den kids’ area.”
The workload
“At the lodge we had to clean 17 or 18 rooms a day. At Fort Wilderness we had 10 cabins, each one with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. At the Grand Floridian we had 10 rooms. The number was fewer there because we were expected to change all the sheets on all the beds every day. The rooms were also marginally bigger.”
“Most hotel rooms should take 15 minutes for an occupied room and 30 minutes for a check out. Cabins took about 20 minutes for an occupied cabin to 45 minutes for a check out. You had the same number of rooms assigned to you regardless of whether they were occupied of check outs because they’re assigned by section. If you got lucky and had all occupied rooms, though, you were expected to check and see if someone else needed help when you were finished. Likewise if you had an unmanageable number of check outs, you could call the housekeeping base and let them know to send help if anyone was available.”
The bosses
A team of housekeeping managers oversaw the housekeepers. Every morning Amy would have a meeting with the managers on duty that day where they would brief the staff on any special instructions for the day and hand out our room assignments. “The announcements themselves took about five minutes but they were all repeated in Spanish and Haitian too so it was about a 15 minute meeting. A single head of housekeeping oversaw the managers, though I only met her once and didn’t have regular interaction with anyone but the daily housekeeping managers. There’s also a manager who oversees the entire resort and he made an effort to drop in and chat with us every few months.”
The special touches
Amy and her fellow Housekeeping Cast Members were encouraged to leave special touches for guests when cleaning occupied rooms. “Many housekeepers learned how to create a variety of towel animals. Some even brought in their own pipe cleaners and eye stickers to dress up the animals that they would leave.”
“We would also do things like set up stuffed animals to look like they were watching television, with the remote in the animal’s hand, or sit them around in a circle reading a book together. Leaving these surprises for the kids was a lot of fun and the absolute best part was when you were lucky enough to walk by as they were coming back into their room so you could hear the kids’ reactions as they saw the little surprises.”
Part of the training for role involved learning how to create the towel animals: “A few towel animals were standard and taught to everyone, like making a Mickey Head (three circles with one big towel and two hand towels). Most of the animals were things that individual housekeepers would come up with and share among themselves. My trainer taught me a few, and I would seek out other housekeepers who were good at it to learn what they were working on. Butterflies, ducks, and dogs were pretty easy for anyone. Some housekeepers got very elaborate though and would make things that required a lot of rubber bands and pipe cleaners. If you walk around resorts like the All Star that have outside windows, you can often see towel animals sitting in the windowsill that housekeepers have made for the guests.”
The rules
“There were set guidelines for cleaning each room which included very specific guidelines for how to fold the towels and lay out the toiletries. In some locations we had to include a specific towel animal in the room for check-ins.”
The downsides
Amy enjoyed her time in Housekeeping, but it wasn’t without its problems. “Many guests would leave their rooms in really abhorrent conditions with trash on the floor and a huge mess around the room. It was often difficult to clean rooms like this because you’re not supposed to touch the guests’ belongings, but you can’t easily vacuum or make beds when things are left really messy.”
“The Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness also had bunk beds which were really difficult to make. At the Grand Floridian the sheets were changed every single day and each bed had three sheets instead of two, as in most hotels. This made the rooms much harder to clean quickly.”
Tipping the balance
Tipping can be a sensitive subject, and Amy found that guests’ habits varied wildly. “Some guests wouldn’t leave any tip at all and others were very generous, leaving $20 or $50 at the end of their stay. Since some people tip daily and others only tip when they leave it’s hard to know how many people really left something because you don’t always have the same rooms every day.”
“Housekeepers usually consider it good manners to leave at least a couple dollars for every day of the stay. The more you’re paying for your room, the larger the tip should be. So if you leave a whole cabin with four beds to make and an entire kitchen of dishes to do, at least $5 a day is appropriate. It’s better for the housekeeper if you tip daily because otherwise you might have one person who does a great job for the first four days of your stay, but a completely different housekeeper who ends up with the room when you leave. Whoever cleans the room the day the tip is there is the person who gets it.”
“Guests should leave tips on the pillow or with a note on a table. Most hotels have a little card the housekeeper leaves with her name on it, and you can leave your tips under that too. We can’t take loose change from a table, or any money left somewhere like a dresser unless it’s clear that it’s meant to be a tip. I had a few guests who would leave drawings from the kids or short notes of thanks when they left, along with their tip, and I’ve kept those notes to this day. It didn’t happen often, but guests like that can really make your day.”
Attack of the birds
One memory stands out in Amy’s mind: “The very first room that I had to clean alone after I finished training was almost enough to make me give up on the job. When I opened the door, the room was full of birds. The guests had left the door to the balcony open and food all over the room when they checked out. I didn’t know what to do so I closed the door and left the room for later. Fortunately when I came back the birds were gone so I only had the mess to contend with.”
Thanks to Amy for sharing her memories with us. If you’d like to learn more about Cast Members’ roles and experiences at Walt Disney World, sign up now to be notified when Creating the Magic: Life as a Disney Cast Member is released.
