July 31st, 2007
Do Not Disturb changes are a sign of times
Things are turning around for the hotel Do Not Disturb sign.
There’s always been something a little steamy about the signs that hang on a door handle like nylons on a radiator. You feel empowered by shutting out the rest of the world. A road trip is successful if you can achieve this kind of anonymity.
I also hang one these signs on my apartment door.
The most traditional Do Not Disturb signs feature a fat man in pajamas and a night cap with zzzs floating out of his mouth. There’s the generic stuff about maid service, inviting the tired trick of flipping someone’s sign in the middle of the night. And there’s the electronic lock signs that slide in the lock while the guest is indisposed.
But now many signs point to branding and marketing.
A couple years ago, I stayed at the Marriott in downtown Louisville, Ky. The hotel had a colorful “I’m Hittin’ the Hay” sign to honor the city’s horse racing history. Hotel Allegro, 171 W. Randolph, used to have a sign that says “Composing a classic: Quiet Please.” The hotel’s current sign says: “No Autographs Please, Catching Up on Beauty Rest.”
“The story of the Allegro is ‘Be a Star,’ so we want to relate back to that,” said Ron Vlasic, director of hotel operations for Kimpton Hotels of Chicago. “We try to capitalize on being in the theater district. We’re also pet friendly, so we have a sign that signals there’s an animal in the room. We encourage people to take the signs. They’re only $1.30 a piece. People who have a pet love the animal one (”Grrrr. Caution, you are entering the temporary habitat of a very special creature”) to let neighbors know the dog is in the house.”
During the millennium New Year’s Eve, I stayed at the House of Blues in Chicago. The Do Not Disturb sign was a tribute to Little Richard’s “You Keep Knockin’ But You Can’t Come In.” I stole it.
Popular Chicago soul vocalist Kelly Hogan collects Do Not Disturb signs and even carries them on the road.
“Some hotels don’t have them,” she said last week after getting off the road with Neko Case and their appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” “And musicians, especially if you’re traveling in a van, will get to the hotel at 3 in the morning. When they see you with guitar cases, it’s automatically, ‘We gotta put them by the maid’s closet.’ That’s where we always end up. When we check in as late as 5, we’ll write little love notes with hearts on them that say ‘Day Sleeper.’ Maybe they should make Do Not Disturb signs that you can customize.
“Sometimes I’m compelled to lie on those notes. They don’t respect musicians sleeping in, but what if you said you were a brain surgeon who works the night shift? Neko collects them, too, and she’s more traveled than I am, especially worldwide. She has some great stylized ones.”
There’s an open door for all kinds of Do Not Disturb messages:
- “Sssssh, Downloading Celine Dion.”
- “Looking for Clues.”
- For baseball road trips: “Cub Fan Mourning” and “White Sox Fan Whining.”
- “Sorry. Mountain Dew still kicking in.”
- “Knocking Up.”
- “Let’s Get Lost” (and Chet Baker fell out of a hotel window in Amsterdam).
I used to collect these signs, but they were lost or tossed in one of my moves. I’ve reawakened to their glory. Each of the signs recalls a specific sundown or sunrise. There was the weird vibe of hearing Bob Dylan sing Warren Zevon and Neil Young covers at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas (although the electronic “Jackpot Winner” lock sign I have was from an evening at the Flamingo). I have a sign from a Bukowski tribute weekend with my pal John Hughes at the Hotel Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. And there’s deep blue sign from the the funky Ambassador Hotel in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where during carnival my pal Tom and I always seem to be out of the room at sunrise.
On one of my vintage Do Not Disturb signs, I noticed a phone number for American Hotel Register in Northbrook. I tracked down Al Pasternak, whom the receptionist called “The Sign Man.” American Hotel Register is now in Vernon Hills.
American Hotel Register distributes products for hotels and motels in the United States and the Caribbean. “Signs are the only production part of the company,” said Pasternak, who has been with American Hotel Register for 14 years. “We use plastic on all our signs.”
American Hotel Register is to signs what Rand McNally is to maps. In a recent 12-month period the company sold 76,395 door-knob hanger signs and electronic lock signs. That translates to 1,469 a week.
That’s a lot of zzzs.
Pasternak, 59, does not come up with what to put on the Do Not Disturb sign. “We do whatever the customer wants,” he said. “Ours are generic, ‘Housekeeping in Room’, things like that, but we have done ‘Dog in the Room.’ I see how the whole industry is changing. Everything used to be so prim and proper. It’s like everything else today, you can say just about anything you want.”
Pasternak sent me a plastic door number 420 from a Baymont Hotel. He said 420 was the company’s most requested door number. I didn’t get it. I held the door number upside down and sideways to see if I was missing an optical illusion or something. I called Pasternak. He told me that 4:20 p.m. was the time of day the late Jerry Garcia suggested to kick back and light up. Where have I been? This invites another door sign: “Gone Truckin’ “