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Caesars Entertainment will enact a new policy to check hotel rooms every 24 hours, regardless of ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs.
According to The Associated Press, Caesars Entertainment, owner of 47 casinos worldwide, will also potentially give employees safety/panic buttons in the event of a threat.
This change comes just five months following the shooting in October 2017 at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas by Stephen Paddock. As a guest staying in one of the hotel’s suites, he killed 58 people, injured others, and killed himself.
PlayNJ reported that security and staff ignored Paddock in 10 interactions and that he had left his ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign up for several days.
“In light of recent tragic events and to further strengthen security, we intend to check rooms with ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs on the door every 24 hours,” said Noel Stevenson, Caesars spokeswoman, to Press of Atlantic City.
Room check in check by security
The Caesars security team will perform the room checks once the policy rolls out. Originally, Unite Here Local 54 worried about housekeeper safety should they have to perform these checks.
“After pressure from workers, Caesars Entertainment has agreed to rescind the room check policy that would have required housekeepers to enter rooms with Do Not Disturb sign on them,” the union said in a statement.
Union concern comes after the Tropicana fire and the Bally’s sexual assault of a hotel worker.
Room checks aren’t new
Caesars joins a list of other companies who already have these room check policies. That list includes Disney, Hilton, Wynn Resorts, and Boyd Gaming. These entities check the rooms within a range of 12 to 48 hours, even with a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign.
MGM Resorts International, the owner and operator of Mandalay Bay, performs these welfare checks every two days for each room. The company said this in a statement:
“All MGM Resorts properties follow a health and welfare check operating procedure that stipulates a welfare check be performed after two consecutive days where a Do-Not-Disturb sign has been displayed on the door and the guest has not interacted in-person or by phone with housekeeping or other hotel staff over the same period…In addition, our staff reserves the right to enter the room if it is deemed appropriate to conduct a welfare check.”
Part of nationwide discussion concluded
In the immediate aftermath of the Vegas shooting, gambling and hospitality companies were in a difficult spot. They had to consider the best way to provide room checks to guests as a safety measure without inconveniencing them.
There continues to be no “industry standard” for when hotels should try to contact guests. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the typical time frame for routine cleaning in a hotel is three days. For some companies, that cleaning is after 24 hours, said American Hotel & Lodging Association spokeswoman Rosanna Maietta.
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