Check Out Day Hang Up Phone Calls at BW

[DizMare]

Hi, Gang. We were back home at the BW Aug 4-11 and had a great time. One fly in the ointment - the 8:23 a.m. hangup phone call on our check out day.

We had done enight the night before, getting everyone finally asleep by 3 a.m. Needless to say, that phone call jolted eveyone awake and made for irritable parents and cranky kids for a good part of our last day.

Another hangup call came about 9:45. My extremely irate dh called Housekeeping and requested that they either stop calling our room and hanging up, or speak to us when we answer. The person who answered the phone replied that we "could not prove it was them."

Which, of course, is true. But it seems an unlikely coincidence that these hangups would occur on check out morning EVERYTIME we stay at BW, and that others would share the same complaint on this discussion board. No other department at the BW has a vested interest in knowing the status of a room.

When we returned, I wrote a letter of complaint to the BW Manager. This evening, I received a call from AJ, Head of Housekeeping at the BW.

AJ said that the phone calls were not Housekeeping policy and that in her 12 years of Housekeeping management, she had never heard of such a thing. She said that before 8:30 the Housekeepers are all in their meeting room having breakfast and discussing their schedules for the day. She asked that the next time we come to stay, that we contact the operator and ask that our line be monitored so that they could trace the origin of these calls. She said she would be bringing up this subject in her staff meeting and her discussions with managers at other resorts.

She sounded interested in solving the problem, altho I'm not 100% sure she believed she has a problem. We won't be back to BW (or WDW for that matter) for a good, long while (boo-hoo) so I won't be able to test out their phone monitoring suggestion. But, perhaps some of you DVCers can do it.

At any rate, just to be sure, take your phone off the hook before you go to bed on your last night.

[Candace]

I have gotten these calls at BW and also at OKW. I did not get one in July at OKW, however, don't know why. We do not get up early while at WDW, and I always have the "Privacy" sign on the door handle outside. It seems pretty suspicious that the calls *only* come on check-out day, doesn't it? I can't believe that no one knows about this policy. We were in a Grand Villa in July, and we checked out on a Friday. Maybe no one was checking in since the weekend points are too high, so they didn't have to get us out in such a hurry. I think lots of us need to complain!

[DebbieB]

This happened to me on check-out morning at OKW in May last year and BWV in December (twice - 8:00 and 8:30). Both places the privacy sign was out. I sent an e-mail to member services complaining about it and they sent back an apology. It did not happen at OKW this past May, but I was online that morning so they could have got a busy signal. Other members have reported this happening, it only happens on check-out morning, who else would it be? When the bellman came to pickup our luggage at BWV around 9:00, 2 or 3 housekeepers stopped him asking what room he was coming from. Seemed real anxious... They should have some kind of system where you call housekeeping when you are ready to leave to let them know, also the bellman put the "housekeeping" side of the privacy sign on the door when we left.

[ripleysmom]

While we shouldn't need to be doing this, maybe the solution is to just unplug the phones before going to bed the night before checkout.

It should be interesting to see if we get a phone call the morning we have to checkout.....

[MarkW]

We had the same problem when we check out of BWV last December. I contacted the front desk to see if they knew who it may have been but of course they didn't. I wrote a letter to management regarding this and a more disgusting experience we had at check in. A manager called to discuss the matters with me and regarding the phone call said he would bring it up in a meeting. I'm surprised they don't have something in place at this point to monitor where the call originated since it seem really suspicious that it only seems to happen on checkout day. That would indicate to a logical person that someone who has access to hotel records would be responsible.

[jennybobenny]

We too rec'd the mysterious phone calls on check out day while on our trip last November. We were awake and feverishly trying to cram 100lbs of stuff into 2 suitcases so the calls didn't bother us at the time. We also had our door opened a few times to (I assume) check on our progress. We literally left the room at 10:59am so I'm sure they were anxious to get in.

Since then we've been very careful to use the inside bolt on the door, even during the middle of the day. On a positive note, we stayed at the Boardwalk this past June and didn't have any strange calls or door openings. :)

[vernon]

I had this also on my last trip at BWV( 3 calls first one at 8.15) PLUS the maid knocked on the door at 9.00 and then pretended it wasn't her. I complained to the front desk and housekeeping left a note to the maid explaining why she wasn't getting a tip.

I will be telling the front desk, housekeeping AND leaving a note for the maid BEFORE checkout day that if I get harrassed again there won't be a tip next time either.

I see no problem with a call at 9.30-10.00 and a polite request " can you please give an indication as to what time you'll leave the room" as IMHO if check out is 11.00 you're not going ( or shouldn't) to be sleeping much more than 15-20 minutes anyway. Ringing and putting the phone down, particularly at 8.00 is plain not on.

Don't let housekeeping tell you they don't do this. They do and they know it goes on. If it's a management policy then it needs to be changed, if it's a few individuals it needs to be stopped. NOt paying tips to housekeeping would be one good way to discourage it. JMHO .

[Lissete]

In the past we have always gotten the mysterious early morning phone call. When we started taking the phone off the hook, we started getting knocks on the door.

We always pack the night before, we do this in order to get a little more time to rest in the morning. There is no reason for them to be waking us up when we have paid a lot of money (or points) and expect a good nights rest. They don't even do this at a Days Inn!! Check- in is at 4PM. 9 out of 10 times I do not get my room until 4PM. Check out is at 11:00. I know that, I will be out by then. Don't wake us up.

On our most recent trip in July, we did not get neither a call or a knock. Then again I had the phone off the hook and a note on the door saying that we would be out by 11AM. There was a lot of door slamming though. Housekeeping was fixing up the room next to ours and kept slamming the door. Maybe that's the new tactic.:confused:

[SnowWitch]

We haven't experienced the mysterious phone calls yet but on our last trip in June at the BW we were awoke by a maid beating on the door at 8:00 am. It was just myself and kids, it was our last day in the parks and we were driving back to Ga that night after e night, I had hoped to sleep in really late but housekeeping took care of that for me. Next time I will hang the do not disturb sign!

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I have learned that the "do not disturb" sign works wonders, also, should someone not see it, the bar on the door works well ( I use it all the time).
You can also ask the operator or front desk to block all calls to the room on check out day. The only think you will see is a blinking red light.
Slamming doors is not unique to the housekeeping staff, the doors slam all the time, they are heavy and seem to have a mind of their own. :) I have been woken up more times that I can count by slamming doors. Mostly by guests.
I do totally agree that housekeeping is a bit more aggresive than necessary and it is a total annoyance.
We should keep on writing to the powers that be about this annoyance. I know they have a job to do, but, there is a fine line between harrassing the members and doing their job.

[Granny]

I had not heard of the hang up calls and door knocking in the early morning. It seems obvious that it is planned by management...at least the custodial management but probably higher up the DVC management chain since complaints have been registered and the practice continues.

I guess management figures this is the easiest, cheapest way to get the maids into the rooms early so they can get as many rooms cleaned as quickly as possible. This allows the arriving members a better chance of an early room available for check in (something a few posters have noted with happiness).

It also allows DVC management to keep the maid staff lower since they don't have to unleash more maids at 11:00 am to get rooms ready by 4:00 pm. The more rooms they can clean before 11:00 means the less staff they will require. Also, they probably have a full staff of maids arriving every morning, so this might be their idea of improving productivity and not having idle maids waiting for check outs. And lastly, they might figure that this practice moves up the average check out time because they do wake people who otherwise might sleep longer. What kind of "member" satisfaction attitude does this address?

In all, it seems like a really poor attempt at productivity improvement. The check out notification methods expressed earlier in this thread would not cost much to implement and would really enhance the check out morning experience.

[JudithM]

On our last stay at OKW last May we did get one of these phone calls. My husband asked who it was. I explained to him what folks on the board have said.

A few years ago there was a way to dial a number just before you left which let housekeeping know you were leaving. I wonder what happened to that system.

[Muushka]

I have a solution to THEIR problem of getting us out early!

Give us a GOOD discount on our AP if we promise to be out by 10!

[TwirlerGirl]

This is an on going problem, I've seen a few threads on this in the last 3 years. It
happen to us last November at OKW. We had one hang-up call about 8:30 AM while we were loading the car followed by maid service about 5 minutes later. My DH spoke to the maid and told her we would be out in appox. an hour. We had a second call about 30 minutes later. This upset my DH. They in turn had no tip for the day.

We had tipped on towel day $6 for 5 adults and had plan to leave a $10 tip on leaving. The rooms were left in very good order, trash already removed, dishes done, beds strip, towels all placed in the entry way ready to be done. A basket of goodies left for their enjoyment (unopening lg bag of Chips, pretzels, cookies and candy). My sister had purchased way to many goodies for our 5 day stay, so we had decided to leave the unopenned items for the maid.

I had wondered if it happened on a busy check-in / cleaning day. We were leaving on a Wednesday after Thankgiving and had been told that the resort was booked solid until the 1st of the year. I would assume the maid service has an assign number of rooms they must complete each day with in certain time frame. I know this is no excuse but can see them trying to hurry people along so they can complete their job in a timely manner. Now I think I should have left a tip and just ignored their intursion.

Sandy B.

[Denine]

We must be very lucky. We have not experienced the phone calls or knocks on the door. We do leave the privacy sign up and dead bolt and chain the door when we are in the room.
We have never left later than 11 AM.
If check-out is 11 AM, then they should not be bothering anyone until then. We always leave the maid service sign on the door when we leave. It has been a very long time since we have gotten our room before 4 PM. As it is, OKW and the ohter DVC resorts have a later check-in time than the other hotels, at least the last time I checked.
This practice should be stoppped.

[JillU-DVC]

We had this happen to us on our first trip to OKW; after reading these boards about the problem, I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door the night before (actually, whenever I'm in the room, I put the do not disturb sign up), AND I unplugged the phones in the room.

So if they tried to call, they didn't wake us up! I agree that the slamming doors us not always the housekeeping staff; our biggest problem at OKW is with the neighbors not being aware of a slamming door. I always make sure that out door DOESN'T slam as we leave, esp if it's early in the morning.

Of course, if that's my biggest problem with DVC, I'd say I'm doing pretty well!!

[JonHM]

problem to deal with, because the solution to not tip the housekeeping staff may be misguided. If this were not a widespread problem, I would think that it was individuals on the housekeeping staff (the ones who do or don't get tipped, and who probably make *very* little in base salary). If the problem originated with them, then the solution not to tip them would be both justified and appropriate.

However, the problem seems so widespread that it seems *very* likely that pressure is being brought to bear on these housekeepers to resort to these kinds of tactics in order to achieve the 'goals' that have been set out for them. If THAT is the case, we are punishing the wrong people by not leaving a tip.

This sounds like something that needs to be addressed directly to Member Services, and NOT to the management of the housekeeping staff. It sounds like said management COULD be part of the problem. And their saying that they have never told housekeeping staff to use such tactics just sounds like a politician maintaining plausible deniability.

Everyone who has had a problem with this should contact member services and let them know about it - whether or not you have contacted someone ELSE about it in the past.

members@disneyvacationclub.com

don't forget to include your member number.

[10drum]

I have not read all the replies, but it seems if you don't answer the phone and housekeeping shows up at your door shortly there after, it would be a pretty good guess as too who called.

[Deb & Bill]

Just a point - it's our money they spend on housekeeping. Not theirs. The fewer staff they have to pay, the lower our dues.

[vernon]

I'd have thought a sensible tactic for housekeeping would be to leave a message on your voice mail the night before checkout asking for you to call on departure or to leave a "please make up room" sign on your door when you walk out. A lot of people leave early in the morning so there is a lot of work that could be done before 11.00. Add a note in your welcome pack pointing out that if people want the chance to check in early it needs housekeeping to be given every opportunity to clean the rooms if/when people check out early.

I the maid knocks on my door, tries to engage me in conversation but when she realises I'm annoyed tries the old "non haeblo English " line I think I know who has at least some responsibility for me being disturbed.

IMHO the wages the pay the housekeeping are SO LOW any increase in staff below doubling the number of cleaners is going to have a minimal effect. on dues.

I don't think anyone has a problem with being asked what time they are likely to leave IF IT IS DONE POLITELY and in an as efficient and unobtrusive manner as is possible. The current tactic is devisive, sneaky and annoying.

[DVCajun]

Good grief! I haven't experienced this yet (at least I don't remember it if I have) but if it happened repeatedly on the same morning I would be one ticked off DVCer!!! I am taking this to heart, however, and making sure I tell the front desk that we don't want calls and also leaving a "do not disturb" sign on our door.

Jon, I don't know that I agree with you about the management instructions. I believe the housekeeping staff is probably instructed to keep a close eye on the rooms scheduled to change hands that day and they are taking the "easy" route by calling to see if you're still there. Sounds like one of those lazy solutions to me. I think the note to housekeeping the day before checkout might work, but I would personally be wary of ticking off the housekeeper while she's alone in our room.

Yikes!!

[mikesmom]

At Vero, they leave you a note that asks you to call as you leave. A very nice solution, I think.

That being said, in three trips total to BWV we have never been called or had a knock on the door on check out day. And traveling with teenagers, we generally checkout at about 10:58 AM. LOL.

[pentex]

We got two of those calls on the day of our departure at BWV. I never even put two and two together until I read these boards. It never happened to us at OKW, where is where we stay all the time.

I feel I shouldn't have to leave my phone off the hook for privacy. What if there was an emergency at home and someone had to call me?

That is just plain rude and they should NOT be doing it. If checkout time is 11:00, they could call at 11:00 but not before.

[JonHM]

Your reaction was the same as my initial reaction when I read the first post or two on this thread. But after reading more and more posts, my point was that the problem seems SO widespread, that saying that it's coincidence that ALL these different housekeepers, at different resorts, have employed the *exact* same tactics just started to seem like something of a stretch.

But in any case, *wherever* the fault lies, with housekeeping or with housekeeping management, I still think that contacting member services about it would be the best way to proceed. They would contact whoever should be responsible for it (housekeeping management) and would eventually recognize a pattern of a continued problem if they continued receiving such complaints even after they had repeatedly passed on such complaints to management.

By the way, I wasn't saying that I was SURE where the fault lay, just that it *could* lay with a supervisor up the chain from the housekeeping person who loses the tip. If that were the case, then the loss of tip would be hurting the completely wrong person. But I *certainly* wasn't saying that I was sure that it wasn't the fault of the housekeepers themselves. I don't think any of us could answer that for sure.

[Figaro30]

I can't believe that so many people has had this happen to them. Our first trip is in November and I will be sure to mention when we check in that if anybody bothers us on the day of checkout, ie., housekeeping, mysterious hangs up....that I will be sure to complain and housekeeping WON'T be getting a tip for the two rooms we'll be using those 8 days!!! This is really irritating to think that they do this. If they want us out of the room early then they should give some incentive to doing that. Perhaps a free breakfast on the day of checkout not to be used after 10:00pm. That would get me out of bed early on our last day!

[Lesley]

The free breakfast idea is an interesting one, but many people would then go to breakfast early before checking out and then head back to the room to pack!

On our next trip we'll be changing rooms twice, so I'll see what happens on out first 2 check out days...regardless of what happens I will definitely use the Do Not Disturb sign (actually we always keep it out) and request no calls on out last morning because we have a long drive ahead of us and will need the rest!

Why don't they start the DVC housekeepers at 10am rather than 8? Seems to me that would give them plenty of time to do the rooms that have been vacated early without disturbing those who don't leave until 11. They could also ask you at check in your approximate time of check out and pass that info along to housekeeping. I can see where a "please call housekeeping when you leave" request might not work because many guests would forget to do it.

[Minnietta]

We were at OKW in July and housekeeping knocked on our door at 8:30am to ask when we were leaving. We were already up but I would have been really irritated had we not been! Same thing happened in Dec when we were there. I was disappointed in the condition of the room compared to the room we had had in Dec......had to be next in line to be refurbished! Also, on our confirmation letter they had typed in when our Trash & Towel day was....it was the wrong day. I did the housekeeping and laundered the towels on the day they came so there was nothing for them to do and then they refused to come on the next day, which was the day my confirmation letter said. Oh well......we still had a great time!! :)

[Figaro30]

As far as the breakfast thing.....they could give you the coupon for the free breakfast (for 2 people mind you) if and when you check out early!! That would assure that nobody would eat and then go back up to take a nap!!!

[JonHM]

At most hotels, I get housekeeping knocking on my door really really early *every* day that I'm in the room, if I don't put up the do not disturb sign. Not WDW hotels, just hotels in general. BUT I have NEVER had the hang up phone calls that everyone has been talking about, and which I think are the real issue.

[Ralph&Pam]

We had one of these phone calls about 8:30 am on check out day when we were at BWV in mid-July. As others have noted, we knew what was going on from discussions in this forum. I then put out the "Do not disturb" sign, better late than never ;).

In the "old" days of many years ago, a guest had to check out at the front desk and settle the bill. This indicated that the room was (or soon would be) empty. With express check-out being essentially universal (I don't think I've visited a front desk for check out in at least 5 years, probably more) there needs to be some way to notify Housekeeping that the room is now empty and available for cleaning. When we stayed at VB in January and at the Disney Institute in March 2000, our express check out/bill included a number for us to call when we vacated the room. In each case, this was a direct line to Housekeeping who then logged that the room was empty. I didn't mind making this call in return for not being disturbed on our last morning.

One difference at the DVC resorts compared to standard hotel operations is the lack of daily housekeeping services for all guests. In a more conventional hotel operation, there are usually a number of guests who have hung the "Please service room" sign on the door when they have gone out for the day, notifying the housekeepers that the room is available for service. These may keep the staff busy until check-out time, at which point they can address the newly vacated rooms. If someone leaves earlier than the posted check-out time, staff has additional time to get to that room, but they are unlikely to be idle in the meantime because of other guests requesting earlier attention. I know we usually try to remember to hang such a sign when there is one in the hope that out room will have been done by the time we return.

Ralph

[baileybrad]

Hang-up calls by housekeeping on check-out day is wrong. And, obviously, bothering guests on their last morning of their stay is totally improper and in no way be defended....so it appears that the housekeeping management just refuses to believe that it really is happening. The other side of the coin is that the sooner that they get into the room to clean the better "chance" that someone gets to check-in early. A note advising you to simply call housekeeping on your way out the door similar to what is done at Vero would great. I sometimes think that the language disconnect that exists for many members of housekeeping does not help with communicating with the guests about many things, this hassle of soon-to-be departing guests. We have not experienced this at HH.

[KNWVIKING]

In the half dozen or so DVC trips we've made since '98 to OKW,BWV and HH, we have never been given our room prior to 4:00 pm - and we go in the off-season. And every time we've checked in early they state very emphatically that check-in is 4:00pm just to be sure we understand that 4:00 pm is when we get our room...yada,yada,yada. So as far as I'm concerned the room is MINE till 11:00 and I don't appriciate house keeping knocking on my door or ringing my phone. Someone mentioned earlier about having the mystery phone calls traced- whats the point,they are calling from house phones,not phones located in housekeeping.

Bottom line is that they probably don't have enough staff to service all the rooms in the 5 hours between 11:00 and 4:00 so they try to get a head start. Hiring additional staff would increase our dues. I think it is unreasonable for WDW to expect guest to vacate their rooms prior to 11:00 and hang up phone calls very rude and unprofessional but I think guests should inform housekeeping when they do leave.It's in all our best interest.

[A1A1]

For those who received the hang-ups:



Did their tactic work? Did you leave your room any earlier than you were planning to as a result of the hang-up?

[pentex]

For me, the answer is no. I didn't even think it meant anything until I realized it happened to all these other people.

I'm sure it doesn't make anyone leave earlier. It's a stupid and inappropriate practice.

[baileybrad]

We all agree that check-out is 11:00 am and official is 4:00 pm. We have gotten into our rooms at various times. As early as 1:00 pm and as late as 4:15 pm and this covers about 8 trips. So when a room is cleaned might help someone else get in early. But I repeat that bothering guests on the last day is a practise that cannot be defended and is improper in every instance.

[A1A1]

This is exactly my point:

The practice of hanging up on departing guests does not cause them to hurry up to check out, it does nothing more thanannoy, anger, and disturb.

Management must be aware of the practice, eventhough they have implied that they did not. This is a regular or accepted practice apparently. How is this allowed to continue? Each of us must report these calls to management in order to get them to stop. It happened to me as well, but like most I didn't do anything about it. I have even had the maids pounding o the door with the do not disturb sign on the door. What is it? What else can we do?

[pentex]

I'm with you A1A1. Like I said, I never put 2 and 2 together until reading on this board. Now, even though it's 9 months later, I am going to send an e-mail over to them telling them what happened and how I feel. You are right that we all have to speak up or nothing will ever be done.

[DebbieB]

Did their tactic work? Did you leave your room any earlier than you were planning to as a result of the hang-up?

I really don't think it's a tactic to get people to leave earlier. I sure never left earlier because of it. They are trying to find out who has left so that they can start working on the rooms. With express check-out, the front desk does not know who has checked out like in other hotels. I think that a simple solution is to leave a note card by the phone saying "as a courtesy, please call x.... when you check out of the room". Leave a VM the night before as a reminder. But don't keep hanging up or knocking on the door in the morning! :mad:

[pentex]

I never thought of it that way, Debbie B, but you may be right. I just assumed the worst, but maybe they are just checking to see where they can clean.

In any case, there still is no reason to hang up on someone! They could just say who they are and why they are calling.....

I don't know, but I just think there is no reason whatsoever for them to call/knock on doors before 11 am.

We never experienced this at OKW and since that's where we stay most often, I hope it doesn't change to this practice.

[Halle]

We have never had the calls at OKW or BWV but we did at All Stars. We checked in at 1:30AM and left the do not disturb sign on the door. My DH, DD and I went to the food court and when we returned to the rooms( 2 adjoining) our sons told us that they had been called and that housekeeping had knocked on the door 2X, within 10Min of our arrival back to the room we had yet another knock on the door!!! Outrageous, now we just use our points even when arrive at a late hour.

[MaryAnnDVC]

Originally posted by pentex
I feel I shouldn't have to leave my phone off the hook for privacy. What if there was an emergency at home and someone had to call me?I agree. I have an elderly mother, and I need to be reachable.

They can easily ask at check-in what time you expect to leave. It's far less of an intrusion than the hang up calls. And besides, I expect all of us to run down to get something to eat for breakfast on checkout day, then return to the room, freshen up, and check out (by 10 AM). If they call while we're at breakfast, that obviously doesn't mean we're gone. And the latch obviously won't be on the door...I don't want ANYONE entering my room when I'm not expecting them, altho I will leave out the Do Not Disturb Sign. (Our first DVC trip is to the BWV in November. :D )

When I stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in June for ONE night, we left at 7 AM the next morning to hit the parks, and I just grabbed our bill, and left. Never read it till I got home, and it had requested a call to the front desk when we were leaving. Oops!
:eek: I felt terrible.

[DizMare]

<Did their tactic work? Did you leave your room any earlier than you were planning to as a result of the hang-up?>

Original poster here!
Nope, in fact, it made us even later. We tried to get back to sleep, couldn't, got up all irritable, things were all at sixes and sevens - you know how it is. Truly unpleasant. Then they called and hung up again, which led to an angry phone discussion with housekeeping....argghhh!

Last May, I was at OKW alone. I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. At about 9, housekeeping knocked. I was in my undies, and got discombobulated for a second when I heard the knock. I was scrambling into my clothes and shouting "just a minute" when the housekeeper let herself in!!
She was embarassed (me too!) and yammered something about being told to "do this room first." So much for the Do Not Disturb sign. (No hangup phone calls, tho.)

Yegads, what to do??

[LindaBabe]

Villa, the Monday morning following the Marathon.

[shemp1]

It happened to us at BWV last week--call at about 8:15 with no one there. Of course it didn't change our plans. We were flying home that day and didn't change our time to leave for the airport.