What Happens When You Decline Housekeeping at Walt Disney World?

Last Updated: October 6, 2020

This program has been suspended until further notice

At Walt Disney World, we love the great job the housekeepers do in keeping our room clean and stocked up while we’re away enjoy our days in the Disney parks. Coming back from the parks to a clean room, empty trash, new towels, and a freshly-made bed is wonderful.

Disney housekeepers always do a wonderful job cleaning the rooms and making them look perfect.

Why Would You Want to Decline Housekeeping?

You can decline housekeeping for any reason. Maybe you don’t like people coming into your room, or you like to take a mid-afternoon nap so you don’t want to be disturbed. Or maybe you heard that you can decline housekeeping at Walt Disney World resorts in exchange for an e-gift card. The gift card program is called “Service Your Way” and can be requested when you check in to certain resorts.

What Is “Service Your Way”?

At all of the value and moderate resorts at Walt Disney World, you can opt out of housekeeping to receive a $10 e-gift card per night of your stay, excluding the last night since they’ll have to clean your room when you leave no matter what. While $10 isn’t a lot, over the course of 5-10 nights, you can have an extra $40-$90 to spend on food or merchandise in the parks. And who doesn’t love that?!

Your e-gift card will be emailed to you within 24 hours of declining housekeeping.

Is It A Generic Visa Gift Card?

It is not a generic Visa gift card: it is specifically a Disney gift card. You are emailed a Disney e-gift card that you can use anywhere Disney gift cards are accepted – Disney property, shopdisney.com, or the Disney Store, for example. The gift card doesn’t expire, so you could hold onto it for another time if you wanted to wait to spend it. It can take up to 24 hours to receive it via email, so keep that in mind if you have something specific you’re planning on using your e-gift card for.

What If I Need Something for My Room?

If you find your trash is too full, you can bag it up and place it right outside your door, and cast members will be sure to pick it up. If you need fresh towels or washcloths, you can call housekeeping, and they’ll have someone bring them to you. Almost all of the value and moderate resorts have changed their small bottles of body wash, shampoo, and conditioner to large, refillable bottles, so you shouldn’t run out of those, and they leave extra toilet paper in the bathroom in case you run out.

Do Deluxe Resorts and DVC Resorts Count Too?

You can decline housekeeping in a deluxe resort; however, you will not receive the e-gift card, so it’s best to enjoy the cleaning since you’re paying for it anyway. Disney Vacation Club resorts are not included in this either as the housekeeping schedule is very different for DVC, so no e-gift card applies to those room types either. They do come and change the trash every day which is nice, and as with any room declining housekeeping, you can always call and ask housekeeping for any amenities or toiletries you need.

Will This Keep People from Coming in My Room?

Whether you decline housekeeping or not, you will still have a Disney cast member enter your room each day to make sure everything is okay. They do this as a security precaution, and also to make sure everyone is all right in the room. If you have a specific time you’d like for them to avoid coming in (like the afternoon when the kids are napping), you can always leave a little note on the door or call housekeeping on your in-room phone, and they will do their best to accommodate your request.

Is Declining Housekeeping Worth It?

This truly depends on the group, but it is always amazing how quickly resort rooms can get messy as everyone hurries to get ready in the morning and then sets everything down when they return to their room. If you’re staying more than a week, while the extra money may be nice, you could wind up with a really messy room that makes your Disney trip not as enjoyable every time you return to your room, so it depends on the family in that case. If you’re only staying a few days, yes you get less of an e-gift card, but your room tends to not get as messy as fast.

The more beds you have to fold up each morning, the messier the room can get really quickly.

If you have young teenagers or adults with you, generally rooms stay cleaner longer, so the e-gift card may be a nice extra for everyone to enjoy a Mickey-shaped treat while you’re on vacation. But if you have little ones with you, having housekeeping each day may be a wonderful stress reliever to come back to a clean room after a long hot day in the parks.

Extra Notes

You must be staying in a value or moderate resort at least two nights to qualify to decline housekeeping. Coronado Springs Resort is the only moderate resort that has a club level lounge, but even if you are staying club level there, you can still decline housekeeping for the e-gift card. You must decline housekeeping before the end of the day when you check in, so if you don’t do it when you check in, you can go back to the front desk and decline it before the day is over.

Coronado Springs Resort

As always with any Disney program, this could be discontinued at any time without notice (just something to keep in mind when planning your Disney vacation).