Disney housekeepers have a fairly straightforward job keeping your room fresh, clean, and well-maintained so you have a comfortable retreat at the end of each day. As with any role at Disney, those in housekeeping do go above and beyond and strive to sprinkle a little extra pixie dust on your stay. Communication isn’t always easy with a Cast Member that you may not see in person. Here are a few things your housekeeper probably wishes she could tell you, and some tips for responding appropriately to the rules.
1. We can’t pick up your clutter
Image: Anaa Yoo, Flickr (license)
Housekeepers often find themselves in a sticky spot. They want to get your room looking as clean as possible, but they don’t want to overstep the careful boundaries in place regarding your privacy and personal property. It’s always unsettling to find an item misplaced, and your housekeepers certainly don’t want to be the ones to confuse your system for stashing items around the room, however haphazard it may be.
In general, housekeepers won’t touch any personal items that you leave around the room. Though you might like it if your laundry were neatly folded, papers sorted into organized piles, and toiletries carefully arranged around the bathroom, it’s too tricky of a job. Where one guest might love having their items set up just so on the dresser, another could feel that their privacy was violated by the fact that the housekeeper picked up their personal things.
If you leave the floor littered with belongings, it makes it difficult for the housekeeper to vacuum properly. A vanity covered in your personal soaps and lotions can’t easily be wiped down, though your housekeeper will certainly try.
If you want open areas vacuumed thoroughly and flat surfaces wiped down and cleaned, the best way to make sure it happens is to clear off your items. Confine laundry to a single pile, keep your papers, laptop, and other gadgets off the unmade bed, and push your makeup and hair accessories off to one side. The more open space your housekeeper can reach, the cleaner your room will be.
2. Subtle tips will stay where they are
Image: Molly DG, Flickr (license)
Tipping your housekeeper is a wonderful practice, and many guests are savvy to the finer points of proper tipping. However, there are many instances where a guest may intend to leave a tip, but find that it remains untouched the next day.
Taking a housekeeping tip is another tough spot for housekeepers because of the serious repercussions if someone were to mistake money for a tip that was not intended that way. If there’s any question at all as to whether or not something is meant as a tip, you can be sure your housekeeper will err on the side of safety and leave it alone.
If you do want to leave a tip, here are some smart strategies for communicating clearly with your housekeeper:
- Leave the money square in the center of a pillow
- Include a small note with the tip. A brief “Thank you!” is more than adequate
- Wait until the end of your stay and leave a generous tip for your entire stay on the day you check out. Any loose change or bills left on a dresser or desk at this point is generally considered a tip.
If you really want to go above and beyond, you can join the ranks of the guests who bring along a small stash of envelopes for their tips. There have been many wonderful guests who took the time to decorate these envelopes with stickers or crayons, or even tuck a drawing or thank you note inside. While this is by no means necessary, it’s a special touch of appreciation that your housekeeper will probably hold on to for a long time (over 10 years later, I still have mine).
3. Sheets aren’t always changed daily
Image: Nerissa’s Ring, Flickr (license)
At the Grand Floridian, you’ll see an individual basket outside each guest’s door in the morning holding sheets and towels for the day ahead. At other resorts, however, you’ll find your housekeepers making their way through the halls with sheets and towels loaded onto a cart. This is because rooms don’t always get fresh sheets on a daily basis.
If your housekeeper sees an obvious stain on a sheet, you will get a fresh set. However, sheets that look clean are usually made unless you’ve been in a room long enough for a scheduled change of sheets.
If you’d like fresh sheets on your bed, there’s a simple foolproof way to get them. Simply strip the sheets from the bed and leave them on the floor. This is a universal sign that you’d like new sheets, and your housekeeper will know at once to replace your bedding.
4. We start our day early, but you don’t have to
Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)
Housekeepers have a full schedule of rooms to clean, so they’ll start knocking on doors early. One of the challenges of the job is trying to figure out which rooms are still occupied by sleeping guests and which are empty and ready for prompt service. If you want to sleep in, enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the room, or simply have an undisturbed morning, always leave the Do Not Disturb sign on your door. This is an easy way to communicate with your housekeeper and make sure you’re not woken early with an unwelcome knock.
5. You can save energy with towel placement
Image: arctic_whirlwind, Flickr (license)
Towels, like sheets, aren’t necessarily changed daily. Towels that are still folded and clearly unused will always go untouched. Thanks to Disney’s energy saving efforts, you’ll also find that you can keep your towels from one day to the next simply by hanging them up.
It’s important to understand this system, because you might feel slighted if you expected clean towels and found your damp one still in place simply because you have a habit of keeping your laundry off the ground. The standard policy is only to swap out the towels that are left on the floor. As unsightly as this may seem, it’s the best way to let your housekeeper know what you want. Toss your dirty towels on the floor if you want fresh ones, and hang them up if you want to join Disney’s eco-friendly efforts to reduce water and power usage that’s spent on daily laundry.
Though your housekeepers often go unseen themselves, their efforts should not. Work with your housekeeper to make your room as easy to clean as possible, and you’ll enjoy all the perks of stellar service with a touch of Disney magic mixed in.
