How to Enter a Guest Room at Your Bed and Breakfast

"Ahhhh! Get OUT!"

By Nathan Gawlik
Nathan Gawlik's experience includes being a General Manager of a Hampton Inn and other front line roles such as a Banquet Captain, Front Desk Agent, Housekeeper, Catering Event Manager, and Director of Sales.

How to Enter a Guest Room at Your Bed and Breakfast

"Ahhhh! Get OUT!"

By Nathan Gawlik

Who wants to hear this from one of their customers? If you're an innkeeper or hotel manager, you likely have before. I don't know how many times I've broken my own rule to always knock. I pay the price for it nearly every time.

Always Knock

Always assume that the room is occupied. Be sure to implement this in your training for staff members. After onboarding a new employee, I would often give them a tour of the facility, showing them a cross-section of different guest rooms along the way.

Approaching the first guest room, I would make the expectation clear that I would be showing them how to enter this guest room but they would be expected to follow proper procedure for entering all the following rooms.

First, I would point out the need to always look for a DND (Do Not Disturb) sign on the door. If there is a sign, we don't knock or attempt to enter the guest room. If I was training a front desk agent, I would be sure to reiterate the importance of removing the DND for guests that call down and request service. Phrasing like, "Of course, I'll have those pillows delivered. Please ensure your do not disturb sign isn't displayed outside your door."

Second, I would knock on the guest room door and announce myself before waiting for a response. I often provided what department I was in, being sure to speak clearly and loudly the words "guest services!" or "management!" Then wait for a response. The waiting is an important step that is often overlooked. Be sure to wait for a few seconds before entering the room.

Third, I then knock and announce myself as I enter the guest room with the intention to not startle anyone. Remember, this guest's room is their home away from home; don't enter without permission.

Examples

During the entire month of June we had a guest stay at our property. This gentleman never wanted stayover service. He had his DND displayed during his entire trip and would merely ask for fresh towels every few days. At the time I worked for a Hilton hotel.

After a few days I got suspicious as to why the guest wouldn't let us enter his room, so I asked to accompany him up to his room one afternoon.

I informed the guest that it was Hilton's policy that a member of hotel management inspects all guest rooms that refuse service. While the guest was a little surprised he didn't have a concern with my inquiry.

He explained on the way up to his room that his job was to manage several firework stands in the area. As part of his job, this guest kept a detailed record for each stand organized in piles of paper laid out on the floor of his guest room.

It was rather remarkable really. As I entered the guest room I was reminded of the film A Beautiful Mind starring Russel Crowe. True to his word, the guest must have had 25 stacks of papers throughout the entire room. Some were piled up on the spare bed he wasn't sleeping on, some were on the floor and some were even on the counter in the bathroom. While I only tip-toed a few feet into the room, the guest explained, "you can see why I don't want housekeeping to come in. I don't want any of my paperwork messed up."

Changes at Large Hotels

Ever since the Las Vegas shooting in October of 2017, many hotels have implemented a policy that dictates management's right to enter a guest room. Many hotels inform their guests of this policy by leaving a note each time they encounter a do not disturb sign.

Hilton's message to their guests reads, "We understand and respect your need for privacy. The hotel reserves the right to visually inspect all guest rooms every 24 hours to ensure the well-being of our guests and confirm the condition of the room."

Walt Disney World Resorts Hotels even decided to replace their Do Not Disturb signs with "Room Occupied" signs.

Avoiding Liability

Assume you are being recorded when you are in a guest room. Google it, there are videos of housekeepers going through guests' personal belongings. Cameras are so small and can be mounted anywhere.

This is part of the reason why I inform our housekeepers to leave the door open for stay overs and place the cart in front of the open door. There are several benefits to this method, not least of which is allowing the guest to know that a staff member is in their room. It's always awkward when a guest walks into their room with you in it. This also gives the housekeeper easy access to their supplies and makes them think twice about snooping around. Plus, the housekeeper can also help other guests they encounter that might pass their cart and have a question.

On that note, if there is anything of high value or potentially dangerous, instruct your staff to leave immediately. The liability is too great. For our property, we wouldn't provide service if there were guns or pets present in the room. If a gun was found in the room, the housekeeper would grab her cleaning supplies and leave immediately, leaving a note behind explaining why the room wasn't serviced. Likewise, we don't know if an animal is dangerous or a flight risk. If there was an animal in the room, that room didn't receive service until the animal was removed or the owner was present. We have some example guest-facing signs among our resources.

Summary

Training on how to properly enter a guest room should start on day one for employees. It is extremely important to relay guest privacy concerns to staff. All team members should have a firm understanding of property policies regarding who should be present when entering a guest room, if the door should remain open while in the room, and how to appropriately enter the room.

Make it clear to your staff that staff key cards should be turned in at the end of their shift and never leave the property. These keys should be audited by your night manager to ensure they are present. Likewise, employees should be aware that door locks can be interrogated to get a record of who entered the room at what time if personal belongings go missing. We provide greater detail on this in our Lost and Found article.

Sources