The hotel industry is now reviewing 'do not disturb' signs following the Las Vegas massacre. The shooter's sign hung on his room door for days as he stockpiled weapons, but that expectation of privacy is likely to end.
“I think you're going to find that more and more hotels will make a policy that says you can have your 'do not disturb' sign, but please know that it is our policy to enter the guest room once a day just to freshen it up,” says Stephen Barth, professor of hospital law at the University of Houston's Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and founder of HospitalityLawyer.com.
There's currently no industrywide standard for 'do not disturb' signs, but many hotels typically check a room by knocking or calling every three days.
“The challenge though, is what's that magic timeframe for hotels to establish for them to go into a room and what's the process, procedure or protocol when they do enter the room.”
Bomb sniffing dogs are another option, but Barth does not expect to see metal detectors inside hotel lobbies any time soon. However, he believes more hotels also will start using facial recognition software.
“We watched this guy go in and out much more often than a typical guest does,” he says. “Or by the way, we caught him on cameras taking pictures three or four days beforehand, then I think we can address some of these challenges.”