Typically, ‘do not disturb’ signs are useful in allowing hotel guests to enjoy their privacy or the sleep-ins they’re not used to at home.
But now, Walt Disney World has banned the signs from its four hotels in Florida in the US, Orlando Sentinel reports. The resorts affected include: Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Tower.
The reason for the change is chilling. It comes in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting in October, in which a gunman rained bullets onto a music festival from a 32nd-floor hotel window.
The attack left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured. And, in its aftermath, police discovered the gunman’s hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino rigged with cameras, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and multiple firearms.
“Stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere, just in suitcases all neatly stacked against pillars, around the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout,” police officer Dave Newton, who responded to the emergency, told CBS News shortly after the attack.
“All kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked like almost a gun store.”
How was it possible, that a hotel room in a well-known casino on a popular Vegas strip, could be transformed in three days into something so sinister?
The ‘do not disturb’ sign, of course.
The gunman left the innocent sign hanging on his door for the duration of his stay (he took his own life as police stormed the suite during the attack) and hotel staff did not think to wonder why.
Now, with Disney’s move – which has also been adopted by a number of hotels in Vegas since the shooting, New York Post reports – the ‘do not disturb’ sign is no longer an option.
Instead, guests can display a ‘room occupied’ sign if they prefer to be left alone, however every hotel room will be serviced by staff at least once a day – ‘room occupied’ sign, or not.
Staff must knock and identify themselves before entering an “occupied” room, Orlando Sentinel reports. But they are permitted to enter regardless.
LISTEN: Why are US gun laws unchanging, despite massacre after massacre? Post continues below.
Though Disney did not specifically mention the Las Vegas shooting in a statement about the changes – instead citing “safety, security and the guest experience” – it’s a positive move in an area that currently has no regulation.
Typically, hotel staff will check on rooms with a ‘do not disturb’ sign after three days, the American Hotel and Lodging Association told the Las Vegas Review Journal in October, but there is no industry standard that mandates this.
Disney’s policy tightens security and makes it clear to guests: This is the way it’s done.
It’s a scary, though sadly necessary measure, to help keep people safe.
Top Comments
I work in hotels. The three day rule is standard in Australia, too. The biggest problem I've seen is housekeepers discovering guests who have committed suicide in their rooms three days after the act.
Ugh, so instead of much needed gun control, the general public again loses privacy! I get why, however, this was a one off whereas mass shootings are constantly on the rise. I am not sure where the number is at currently in the US! Elsewhere in the world mass shootings are no where near the level at the US barring war torn countries...
There is no need to disturb newly weds, families on a much needed vacay, people just wanting to peace out and not be disturbed for a couple of days because one line gunman used it to his advantage. Instead, tighten the gun laws that thousands have taken advantage of over the years to kill their domestically abused spouses, accidentally killed children/adults, succeeded in suites, murdered others, committed robbery, home invasion and other invasive crimes and mass shootings. But no, that won’t happen due to the NRA being so entrenched in the political system of the US it would take a complete political make over for this to even be looked at. There is too much money in guns and too many rednecks and other gun toting people that say, you will never take my gun away! We don’t want to, we just want to make rules so not every John, Dick and Harry who has a boner for a gun but not the right training or mental health or REASON can get one. It will help ease the senseless deaths.
Sorry for the rant, it’s obviously been building up. I am not American but live in Canada so close by. I hear it so often of deaths by gun.