Chilling Reason Disney is Eliminating ‘Do Not Disturb’ Door Hangers is a Sign of the Times

Recently the Walt Disney World resort chain began to phase out those familiar “do not disturb” hotel door hangers that seem to have been around since forever. But the chilling reason this is being done seems to be a sign of the times in which we live.

According to reports, Disney has phased out the signs at its main hotels, The Polynesian, The Grand Floridian, The Contemporary and The Bay Lake Resort. It its place the hotelier has substituted a “room occupied” door hanger, AOL reported.

The new signs tell hotel staff that there is someone still in the room but does not stop staff from entering the room, as the “do not disturb” signs tended to do.

The reason for the switch, though, comes on the heels of the deadly shooting at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. Mass killer Stephen Paddock had left a “do not disturb” sign outside his hotel room door in an attempt to prevent hotel staff from entering and discovering his arsenal of guns and ammo and his preparations for mass murder.

Disney isn’t the first to eliminate the old courtesy signs. Several hotels in Las Vegas also dumped the “do not disturb” door hangers. Others have changed procedures to allow staff to ignore the signs if they feel the signs have been hanging on doors for too long.

Though Disney didn’t publicly comment on the policy, the change in the hotel industry seems to be a direct response to the Vegas murders, AOL said.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.