Let's discuss housekeeping

[Patrickprincess]

I know that the Poly is your favorite! And, per your sig, it looks like you stayed there in 2007, so apparently the whole bad review thing has been going on for quite some time. But I do know there have been many more good reviews and that 97% of the reviewers on All Ears recommend staying there...so it can't be all bad.

I just want to say this i've stayed in both non disney and disney hotels and i have found the disney hotels to be cleaner. They take much better care than non disney hotels. I stayed at a non disney hotel during a disneyland stay. This hotel was CRAP! The door lock broke and the toielt backed up and over flowed. The staff were creppy and the food court food was offten cold. I would come back late afternoon around three and many times the room hadn't been made up. I have never had that happen at a disney hotel. There are many picky guests at any hotel. For myself if the beds are made and the carpet is vacumed and the bathroom has been clean then i'm happy. I have yeat to have a dirty room at disney

 

[mickeynut1]

I know that the Poly is your favorite! And, per your sig, it looks like you stayed there in 2007, so apparently the whole bad review thing has been going on for quite some time. But I do know there have been many more good reviews and that 97% of the reviewers on All Ears recommend staying there...so it can't be all bad.

Yes, we do love the Poly......the relaxing tropical atmosphere is hard to beat for us . I've only read reviews on this board and haven't even thought of going over to All Ears. I'll have to venture over there and take a look. But you're right.....the Poly can't be (and isn't, IMO) all bad . You will have a great stay, I'm sure .

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Last summer, I took a chance booking a quick one night stay - not in FL- using priceline. Then I read reviews of the plce, and got really scared.

THEN I looked up reviews of places I know- like Disney and the Swan. Places I KNOW for a fact are great. Guess what, there were lots of negative reviews. I kept my priceline reservation and the hotel was fine.

Recently I read in the travel section of my local newspaper WHY you can't trust negative reviews. Sometimes the folks who post them are the competition. They try to ding another resort to raise their own status. There are also folks who intentionally post negative stuff on some sites in an attempt to extort money (like house rental sites). Evne though the house was fine, they post a negative review just to get some money back. With a rental house- one negative review means the place goes empty half the summer season = big losses for the owners.

I'm not saying there's no such thing as a bad stay at a nice resort. Not all our WDW visits have been perfect. But you also can't trust everything you read.

Oh - and Disney just posted great gains in the most recent quarter. Despite John Carter. Revenue from parks and resorts were up!!!

 

[michsig]

I don't think I remember having any issues with the cleanliness of the rooms during any of my stays

 

[karic19]

I think a lot of people go to Disney (especially the values) with ridiculous expectations. Problems can and do occur EVERYWHERE. Not just Disney. Do I expect a clean room? Yes. But I also realize that one person is cleaning a ton of rooms that people treat like dumpsters. If I dont change my sheets daily at home, why would mousekeeping do it there? It really is not cost efficient. If this were the requirement, how much more $ do you think the rooms would cost. Also, I think many "complainers" are just looked for a freebie somewhere. Just my opinion.

I have stayed at AKL and opened the fridge to find it moldy and gross. I called mousekeeping and a half hour later a gentleman had swapped out the old fridge and I had a brand new one. I did not have to complain to the manager, I did not have to post it on the website, write a letter after the fact. I got the problem fixed and I moved on to a wonderful trip.

 

[ForAandA]

I have had the pleasure of staying at 6 resorts throughout the years. I have not had any mousekeeping issues at all. Actually, the opposite. In January 2009 we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. DD#1 was having some serious allergy issues, and was undergoing testing. I requested a very thorough clean out daily, which was done. Came in one morning while they were cleaning up and they were steam cleaning the carpets .

Fast forward to June 2009, back at WL for a quick 4 days getaway with DH. They must of had the allergin information on file from our last trip. When we went to check in, front desk told us it would be a slight delay for our room because of deep cleaning agian .

I thanked them so much for thinking of us, even though DD wasn't with us .

Sometimes its the little things.

 

[sydneysmom]

We stayed at the GF and had an outstanding experience with housekeeping.... each day our room was spotless. there was absolutely not one thing I could tell you was wrong... BUT.... I also wasn't looking for tiny things to pick at either. I wasn't looking at each wall corner to make sure the paper wasn't peeling or if there was a speck of rust on something... or this and that. We were there to have fun. But all the basics were just perfectly fine and our room was always clean and spotless.

Now, I've also read that they don't vacuum everyday, but we tend to use baby powder, so that was on the rug / bathroom floor sometimes. Everyday it was gone, so I know they had to have vaccuumed. Our mousekeeper was the sweetest lady too...we'd see her each afternoon.

Linens were changed everyday. There was a fresh basket of linens outside our door each morning and when we'd come back, there were bundles of linens waiting to get picked up. The sinks were spotless, coffee pots spotless and trash was always empty.

 

[disneymomjcs]

We have stayed at Disney many times. We have had a few times that the rooms were substandard.

Once at AKL Jambo Studio. Even thought we had an allergy clean the dust in the room was so thick you could of written in it. Many calls and no one showed. I went down to get cleaning products and they finally sent someone.

The worst was last August at OKW Studio bldg 14. OMG I kept wondering where the dust was coming from in the bathroom on our towels, no less. The vent over the toilet had dust hanging out and a dead spider. Also the light fixture over the shower was full of bugs. Tons of them. They looked like crickets or something as the light was not clear but a white plastic. I took a picture on my phone and showed the manager on duty. I was sick. Housekeeping cleaned everything in the room (again)and replaced all the linens and towels. But it is just neglect as it must of been like that for a while. That many bugs don't accumulate over a day, week or month. Disgusting. I liked the grounds and the resort itself but not the dirty room.

Also a day later I found the previous people who stayed here had left their paperwork with all their personal information in the night table. I took it to the front desk.

My husband wants to stay here this August. I think I will send the pictures with what happened to DVC. Let them know we are trying the resort again and hope this was an isolated incident. We will see!popcorn: opcorn: opcorn::

 

[Kidgoingon40]

I posted this on another thread a while ago, but I thought it fit here...

We almost always stay at the GF, but tell you the truth, there was a small thing that kinda grossed me out a little bit when we stayed there last summer. We got in late our first night (around 10 pm - it was one of those days where everything went wrong and we ended up leaving way later than planned for our 9 hour drive). I went to use the bathroom as soon as we checked into the room, and I noticed something in the trash can (not a big deal) which I thought was odd since the room was supposed to be clean and ready for check in. I then noticed it was a feminine pad wrapper (I couldn't tell if it was empty or not if you know what I mean, but i sure wasn't going to investigate any further!! lol). Okay, so not the grossest thing ever, but not really what I want to see in my $400+ a night room. It appeared to be the only thing in the can which I thought was weird. I don't know if that had been the only thing in the trash and the housekeeping didn't see it and thought the can was empty or if someone had used the bathroom after it had been cleaned for some reason...I don't know, I was just kinda disturbed by it. But the room did appear to have been cleaned, but then I kinda worried it hadn't been (I am a worry wart). We usually don't complain about things in a hotel, but my hubby did call the lobby and mention it just because of what it was (like i said not the grossest thing in the world to find in a hotel room trash can, but if it had just been a tissue or something i probably wouldn't have thought much about it). The cast member he talked to was really surprised and said that was a pretty gross thing to find in your room and sent up two housekeepers to give the bathroom a wipe down to make sure it was clean (which wasn't necessary and we did really appreciate it) and they also removed that trash bag and put a new one in. The housekeeping head for the floor came by to apologize. So, like I said, not huge deal and they handled it really well. I guess I was just kinda disappointed it happened at all since that hotel is so expensive

 

[Carrie in AZ]

It really makes me question why I am spending the money for often expressed mediocrity.

For me, spending more money means I will be staying at a resort with what I perceive as a more convenient location (monorail, closer to parks, etc.) and a more full service resort with sit-down restaurants, room service, larger rooms......

I expect cleanliness at all levels. Some of things I've read about on these boards would absolutely not be acceptable to me at any level. The crumbs on top of the refrigerator at POR and dirty mirro? I could live with that. The crumbs on the floor at the head of my bed at the Poly? Could live with that also. Do I think any of those crumbs should have been there? Nope, I don't, and wished the rooms would have been spotless, but they weren't.

I think it is just a matter of how bad is bad and what can you live with. I could not and would not live with those "handprints" on the wall. Lord help whoever is working that day if I ever encounter anything like that.....oh man....

Having said all of that, I feel like the mousekeepers are hard workers, and I don't think their job is easy at all. To help them out and give them a break on their workload, we almost never have them service our room. I meet them in the hall and do a towel trade and we are good to go.