0 for 5 on December room requests--bad luck, bad requests, arrival times, or something else?

[SteveAZee]

DVC runs at or near 100% all the time, so someone has to end up with less desirable rooms.

I think there's some hope given different people have different needs or wants, or don't really care at all. Some want bottom floor due to not wanting to climb stairs (thinking OKW and the like) while others want the top floor to avoid the tromping of feet overhead. Some want quiet, others want the hustle and bustle of activity near them.

For the most part, it's like trying to get the center row, middle seat of a show at Disney... it's been designed so that all the seats have a pretty good show.

That said, there are some real clunker seats as there are clunker room locations. I'm not sure of the benefit of being at in the northernmost rooms of the Beach Club Villas... except being close to one's car perhaps?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

think there's some hope given different people have different needs or wants, or don't really care at all

Depends on resort. I am convinced everyone who books Poly LV requests third floor. Which means everyone has a roughly 33% shot.of feeling fulfilled.

 

[Sammie]

Actually, that is a lot of specific requests. I never make room requests, and never location on that floor. I ask simply for Upper floor. As someone else said, they probably looked at them, saw how high occupancy was and just say, No way.

 

[Sandisw]

Depends on resort. I am convinced everyone who books Poly LV requests third floor. Which means everyone has a roughly 33% shot.of feeling fulfilled.

Exactly and pretty much upper floor for many places is a standard request as well.

Once a lot of people are requesting the same thing, it goes back to the same luck of the draw if they didn’t allow them.

 

[zavandor]

I don't get the comments about how busy December is which means it's more difficult to get requests. DVC is busy year around, occupancy is near 100% every day. Early December gets booked at 11 months, but even in September most resorts are booked solid.

 

[vacay77]

The only time I’ve ended up with my room request was my first Welcome Home visit. Since then it has been…..the first floor

 

[LadybugsMum]

Going to Hilton Head in a few days and received the check in email about a week ago. Hahaha silly email, I said to myself, you don’t fool me. I delete you!

Call HHI directly 5-6 days ahead of your trip for requests. I did that and just requested a couple of buildings and not specific rooms. I got the building I wanted near the pool but not overlooking the pool. This method get recommended in the HHI thread in the Resorts forum and it works a good amount of the time. The direct line is 843-341-4150.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Usually we get some parts of our room request, if not all. I was very pleasantly surprised on my last stay, when I gave the most specific requests-naming about 15 rooms that I wanted one of. When I got there, and I had indeed gotten one of my requested rooms. The one request we've made many times, but have never gotten was an elevator building at OKW.

 

[Chuck S]

It all depends upon the resort and what is available when the room assigners get to your reservation. I gotten requests about 60% of the time at OKW, i got the exact opposite of what I've requested at Kidani.

It isn't like a criuise ship that empties everyone out and starts from scratch every cruise, and that pre-assigns cabins.

Also you traveled at an extremely busy time for DVC resorts, Thanksgiving to New Years is always packed at DVC, even though the parks may be less busy in Early December, it is one of the busiest times for DVC.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Call HHI directly 5-6 days ahead of your trip for requests. I did that and just requested a couple of buildings and not specific rooms. I got the building I wanted near the pool but not overlooking the pool. This method get recommended in the HHI thread in the Resorts forum and it works a good amount of the time. The direct line is 843-341-4150.

Thanks for the info. We love HHI, but my husband is not a “fun” guy and absolutely hates being in one of those rooms overlooking the pool.

 

[TisBit]

I would think the room requests would be almost impossible to really do effectively. I could imagine as others have said that the computer does most of the assignments and hopefully the "selectable" requests in the system are taken into account. But I just imagine as a CM, I look at a room request for someone the computer assigned to a room on the first floor and they probably just look to see if there are any open unassigned rooms higher up. If not, they move on. I can't see someone trying to deal with cascading impacts of changing rooms and having to look at all the requests.

I have worked at a hotel in the past and usually if someone complained about their room they would just swap guests that haven't checked in yet. The last to check in got what was left. I can only imagine with the number of properties/rooms onsite to try to do this across the entire property is a losing battle.

 

[keishashadow]

They have an alternative, larger layout and my friends have randomly gotten these rooms in the past, which is why they knew to request them.

We’ve gotten either the first floor or the top floor ones I’m not fond of there & next door.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

We will be staying at Poly in August in a LV for ten days. Of course, I requested third floor and then second floor (so basically not first floor.) From my understanding, Moorea is the only building with LV. I would not be super thrilled with first floor LV due to the additional points cost over SV to not have a great view of the castle and fireworks and our kids having the ability to open the sliding door and walk out (our oldest son did that recently during a Wisconsin trip.) If the only availability during our stay is first floor LV, is it possible to request an upper level SV in Moorea or a different building and then keep the points difference between SV and LV? I used a CM chat for the room request.

Additionally, I just reviewed our reservation on the Disney website. My room request shows request number one as Moorea and the second request is blank. The only second request option is Ground Floor. So I left it blank. Does the CM entering and granting/rejecting room requests see something different than the requests I see on the website?

 

[sndral]

We will be staying at Poly in August in a LV for ten days. Of course, I requested third floor and then second floor (so basically not first floor.) From my understanding, Moorea is the only building with LV. I would not be super thrilled with first floor LV due to the additional points cost over SV to not have a great view of the castle and fireworks and our kids having the ability to open the sliding door and walk out (our oldest son did that recently during a Wisconsin trip.) If the only availability during our stay is first floor LV, is it possible to request an upper level SV in Moorea or a different building and then keep the points difference between SV and LV? I used a CM chat for the room request.

Additionally, I just reviewed our reservation on the Disney website. My room request shows request number one as Moorea and the second request is blank. The only second request option is Ground Floor. So I left it blank. Does the CM entering and granting/rejecting room requests see something different than the requests I see on the website?

When I ‘spend’ the points on a better view category I expect more than when I opt for standard view & I’m disappointed if I end up in a ‘lesser’ view, so these days I usually just save my points & avoid disappointment & book the lower view category.
I wouldn’t want the front desk messing w/ my DVC points, technically if they move you & return your points those freed points should go into holding.
The best way to verify that your requests are noted is to call MS & ask what’s noted IMO.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

When I ‘spend’ the points on a better view category I expect more than when I opt for standard view & I’m disappointed if I end up in a ‘lesser’ view, so these days I usually just save my points & avoid disappointment & book the lower view category.
I wouldn’t want the front desk messing w/ my DVC points, technically if they move you & return your points those freed points should go into holding.
The best way to verify that your requests are noted is to call MS & ask what’s noted IMO.

I just confirmed with a CM that our building is Moorea, first request third floor, second request second floor. And by the sounds of things, there's still a 1/3 chance we end up with a studio on the first floor. I'm going to check with my wife to see if she would be more disappointed with first floor LV or having an upper floor SV.

 

[RoseGold]

The only one I've ever gotten filled is an accessible room, when I didn't actually book that category, andI was grateful for it.

But it seems most people don't want these rooms, so shrug.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Here’s the part I don’t get… almost every single time you request something and don’t get it, if you complain they magically have a room to switch you to. Usually the requested room. So why don’t they just fill the request? Or maybe they really just don’t even look at them and it’s pure luck when you do get them

 

[Sandisw]

We will be staying at Poly in August in a LV for ten days. Of course, I requested third floor and then second floor (so basically not first floor.) From my understanding, Moorea is the only building with LV. I would not be super thrilled with first floor LV due to the additional points cost over SV to not have a great view of the castle and fireworks and our kids having the ability to open the sliding door and walk out (our oldest son did that recently during a Wisconsin trip.) If the only availability during our stay is first floor LV, is it possible to request an upper level SV in Moorea or a different building and then keep the points difference between SV and LV? I used a CM chat for the room request.

Additionally, I just reviewed our reservation on the Disney website. My room request shows request number one as Moorea and the second request is blank. The only second request option is Ground Floor. So I left it blank. Does the CM entering and granting/rejecting room requests see something different than the requests I see on the website?

You cannot change the room category to SV if you don’t like the LV room assigned, unless there is a SV room open…and any points returned, if they did, would be in holding status.

Even if you were willing to have a SV rooms for the same points , they won’t do it without availability because they’d need to move someone else who booked SV and they may not want a LV room.

The online system requests are not great and if you chose something there, it will override what you asked MS to note on your reservation.

Requesting higher floor for LV is pretty much what everyone does, so IMO, it sort of make it a request that can’t be honored for the majority of people asking for it,

 

[crisi]

I'm part of the "seldom gotten requests" crowd. I've had some nice rooms - and some not so nice rooms, but I've only had one request met - that was for two rooms close together for my sister's cancer recovery trip.

 

[crisi]

Here’s the part I don’t get… almost every single time you request something and don’t get it, if you complain they magically have a room to switch you to. Usually the requested room. So why don’t they just fill the request? Or maybe they really just don’t even look at them and it’s pure luck when you do get them

Or they've filled it - for someone else who hasn't gotten their assignment yet - and then they give it to you because you are in front of the whining about it - and they hope the person they took it from won't whine about it later.