My husband and I have just come back from our vacation today. We were at POFQ from Feb 27 to March 7th. We had never stayed their before. When we arrived to check in, I asked the CM at the desk if housekeeping could be done in the am, between 7:30am to 12:30pm. I explained that my husband and I have medical issues which require us to rest in the afternoon to be able to function later on. The lady assured me that she would put the request in for morning housekeeping. I was very skeptical that would be done at all. However, on day one through five, we arrived in the afternoon around 1pm or so, and always found our room cleaned. Wow, that was so great. That had never happened before.
Well, the next day, we spent longer than we should, and got back about 2pm. The room was not cleaned. I went to the front desk and asked for a room occupied sign, and explained the situation to her. I said we just need to rest til about 4pm, if that could be done. She assured me that housekeeping would bring a room occupied sign right away and to hang it on the door, and NOT to knock or bother us until after 4. When we left later that pm, the sign was on the door as promised. We were not bothered at all.
I mistakenly thought all was well, and was very impressed.
Then the next day we returned at the usual time and the room was not done. We were both in pain and not feeling good at all. So, I called the Operator button on the phone (there is no housekeeping button in the new rooms), and they now answer with, "what can we assist the _______'s with today?" I told the operator that we had just returned, the room was not done, and requested that housekeeping return after 4pm. They assured me they would send the request.
We laid down to rest after putting the sign on the door. Well, at 3pm we got a knock on the door. She knocked several times before I could get out of bed and answer her. I told her that I had requested housekeeping return after 4pm to service the room, as we were resting. The housekeeper told me that "they can't do that, it's not up to them", and was getting rather indignant over a simple issue. I got tired of hearing her, so I said to please come back after 4pm. She was reluctant to do it though. I laid back down trying to get the pain to go away, but had to get up to the bathroom. While I was in there, there was a loud knock on the door. It was about 3:15pm. My husband was finally asleep. But he woke up and answered the door. It was a security man who wanted in. My husband told him to wait for 15 min and he could have the room all he wanted! At that time we were both awake, and still not feeling well. I decided I wasn't going to be ready to let him in in l5 minutes, so we waited til we were going to get supper a little after 4pm. He did not return while we were there.
I got to thinking about this, and I called the friendly phone guy again and told him what happened. He apologized, but at least he knew exactly how we felt about this intrusion. He said why didn't you tell me it was for medical reasons, and I said I did at registration. He did feel bad about that after I explained our situation to him. The next day our room was cleaned in the am.
What I gather by this is this: If you ask a housekeeper to wait for a little while, you will get flagged for security.
If you hang out a room occupied sign, you will get flagged by security.
So, we never hung the sign out again.
I think that some, not all, housekeeping staff might get a little power trip from this, and not use common sense when dealing with the public. We are, afterall, on vacation and it should not matter WHY you want to be in your room, your requests should be considered. It makes more sense to me to do like other hotels that call or check on a room that has had the DND sign up for 24 hours or more. That, to me , makes more sense.
