$500 a night and no running water. Updated with news on page 5

[Sherry E]

You know, we Californians have to pay higher rates for water if we use over our allotment. One of the water saving methods that's suggested and widely practiced (at least in my neighborhood) is not flushing the toilet every single time it's used. Of course it depends on the type of waste. Liquid waste can wait. It's not gross. You just shut the lid and don't worry about it. Many of us also collect our extra shower water (when the shower is heating up) in a bucket and use it to flush the toilet.

I have to respectfully disagree with you on the "gross" factor! Maybe it's subjective. As someone who has lived in California my whole life, and has had to go through water-saving measures in a previous drought many, many years ago, I practiced the non-flushing of the toilet all the time. We had to do it... and it was gross because we were not flushing a toilet being used by more than one person. I live by myself now, and it's still gross having to do that -- but I do it because I am being good about saving water. Honestly, not being able to flush with a room full of people all using the bathroom too is gross. Even just for a few hours.

 

[AustinTink]

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Disneyland guest services. They are sending us a check in the mail for the equivalent of half a night's rate. While researching the case, he found that a note was put in our account originally to credit us this amount, but was never followed through by the hotel staff. He said the ball was dropped on their side, but he is making sure it goes through now.

So, all's well that ends well. We will be back next summer and I will make sure to check each day for any scheduled outages of any sort.

 

[Sherry E]

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Disneyland guest services. They are sending us a check in the mail for the equivalent of half a night's rate. While researching the case, he found that a note was put in our account originally to credit us this amount, but was never followed through by the hotel staff. He said the ball was dropped on their side, but he is making sure it goes through now.

So, all's well that ends well. We will be back next summer and I will make sure to check each day for any scheduled outages of any sort.

Yes, definitely check each day. You can't even count on a notice under the door or a phone call from the front desk.

That's awesome news! I'm so glad they came through and made it right for you. And I'm glad that it was discovered that they were supposed to have credited you in the first place and didn't. Maybe this will influence how they handle such matters in the future.

 

[wdwfan]

I'll be at the Grand Californian in just a few days. I'll be sure to check for any notes in our room. Hopefully there won't be any maintenance going on while we're there.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Disneyland guest services. They are sending us a check in the mail for the equivalent of half a night's rate. While researching the case, he found that a note was put in our account originally to credit us this amount, but was never followed through by the hotel staff. He said the ball was dropped on their side, but he is making sure it goes through now.

So, all's well that ends well. We will be back next summer and I will make sure to check each day for any scheduled outages of any sort.

So glad to hear that guest services came through for you!

 

[brocklesnar69]

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Disneyland guest services. They are sending us a check in the mail for the equivalent of half a night's rate. While researching the case, he found that a note was put in our account originally to credit us this amount, but was never followed through by the hotel staff. He said the ball was dropped on their side, but he is making sure it goes through now.

So, all's well that ends well. We will be back next summer and I will make sure to check each day for any scheduled outages of any sort.

Good to hear, but the 'letter under the door' thing sounds so dated. Perhaps in the future they will switch over to just phoning the room and leaving a message. Perhaps they could have Mickey do it. "No water from 1am-4am. Ha-ha."

 

[BostonJP]

Good to hear, but the 'letter under the door' thing sounds so dated. Perhaps in the future they will switch over to just phoning the room and leaving a message. Perhaps they could have Mickey do it. "No water from 1am-4am. Ha-ha."

Or text messages. Even airlines with a reputation for abysmal customer service offer text message alerts.

 

[mom2rtk]

Or text messages. Even airlines with a reputation for abysmal customer service offer text message alerts.

Don't they text when your room is ready? No reason they couldn't be doing it for things like this as well..... unless they just don't want to.

 

[Malcon10t]

Good to hear, but the 'letter under the door' thing sounds so dated. Perhaps in the future they will switch over to just phoning the room and leaving a message. Perhaps they could have Mickey do it. "No water from 1am-4am. Ha-ha."

See, I prefer the note under the door. I never check the messages on the phone as we always get the "Thank you for staying at the DLH, we are just checking to make sure all is fine and if you need anything please feel free to contact us..." calls.

 

[mom2rtk]

See, I prefer the note under the door. I never check the messages on the phone as we always get the "Thank you for staying at the DLH, we are just checking to make sure all is fine and if you need anything please feel free to contact us..." calls.

There's no reason they couldn't do both.

 

[AustinTink]

I really like the idea of a text message instead of (our in addition to) other methods. That would have totally saved us (and them) some grief if we had gotten an alert while we were out in the parks that day.

 

[BostonJP]

Don't they text when your room is ready? No reason they couldn't be doing it for things like this as well..... unless they just don't want to.

I'm not sure if they do - at least I don't remember from my last Disney trip.

However I do remember stepping off an airplane in Newark, New Jersey and receiving a text message that my flight home has been canceled. The best way to horribly inconvenience a customer is to not see their face or hear their voice when you do so!

 

[Miss Whimsy]

I think the issue with simply texting is that companies don't like to (or maybe aren't allowed to?) send texts to customers like that without permission, and without confirming the phone number. Every company that has texted me, I think, has asked my permission first or I've checked something on an online form.

The obvious solution to this problem is that they could just make it part of check-in--"if we have any notifications for you, is it OK if we text you?" Then you give permission, they can send out a mass text, and they can slip papers under the door for people who may not text or who said no. (They still exist! My ancient BF, for instance.) (That is a joke. We have a double-digit age difference, so I call him old even though he is really not, he's just older than me.) But text + paper notice seems like a good double-whammy to avoid this situation in future.

I'm glad they gave you some retribution though, OP, and the fact that you were supposed to have already gotten it and didn't indicates that there are a couple of mix-ups in this story that are fixable for future guests.

 

[MommyJKM]

I'm not sure if they do - at least I don't remember from my last Disney trip.

However I do remember stepping off an airplane in Newark, New Jersey and receiving a text message that my flight home has been canceled. The best way to horribly inconvenience a customer is to not see their face or hear their voice when you do so!

They always text us at GCH when our room is available if we check in before it's ready (which is usually the case).
As someone said above, they probably don't have permission to text guests of hotel issues. I also prefer the note under the door.

 

[Malcon10t]

Only time we have had issues have been on race weekend with regards to roads being blocked. They have always left a note on the TV armoire explaining what is happening. Perhaps if you have a Do Not Disturb on your door, they slide it under the door.

I can see where texting would be an issue as I've never had them text me.

 

[cmlara]

I've stayed at GCH once for work, honestly wasn't 500$ a night impressed, wasn't even 200$ a night impressed ( group rate for a convention in the hotel paid by convention host) great decor, standard rooms IMHO.

Only half a night discount? They got off easy....

I would of pulled out this link if I was there (17920.3(a) 4 and 17920.3(a) 5 ) demanding the entire stay be compped because I did not pay to stay in a "substandard building"

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=hsc&group=17001-18000&file=17920-17928

At 500$ a night guest charge, I'm sorry shut down your hotel for a day (don't accept bookings) if you need to shut down a main water line for service, its called the "Hospitality" industry, be hospitable.

As for refunds booked through 3rd parties and booking direct, I tend to try and direct less trouble, but I've gotten refunds in the past (not Disney) where was booked through 3rd party, it usually goes something like "yes we will issue refund, refund gets issued to 3rd party vendor with your reservation number associated to it, 3rd party vendor credits back to your credit card" haven't ever had an issue but there are steps that can go wrong of course so working direct is sometimes easier.

 

[Malcon10t]

I would of pulled out this link if I was there (17920.3(a) 4 and 17920.3(a) 5 ) demanding the entire stay be compped because I did not pay to stay in a "substandard building"

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=hsc&group=17001-18000&file=17920-17928

I know you think this says one thing, but in fact, it doesn't. Maintenance is allowed, in most cases 1-5am is a reasonable time to do maintenance, and I think most here would be more upset if they were told 2 days into a 7 day stay "I'm sorry, you have to move because we are shutting down the hotel because we need to do 4 hours of maintenance at 1 am -5am."

I know you don't like the hotel, I don't care for it either.

 

[cmlara]

Was just stating that that it meets definition of "substandard building" for the period of time water was not flowing and that I wouldn't of stood for it as a paying customer.

Its one thing if its a water main busted and you don't have a choice or control (seen that happen a time or two with aging city infrastructure) but its another if its inside your operational demarcation point I'm a believer if its something you can schedule than its issue that operations management can and should work around.

Depending how much water had to be shutoff (wing/level/building) water shutdown can also have issues with the rest of the hotel services as well (Providing restrooms for employees, room service[Don't recall if GCH had 24/7 room service or not], kitchen cleanliness, etc) it can actually very quickly become a significant issue (unclean hands spread illness quickly) You have X people in the hotel (including the front desk workers who will contact items like keyboards, phones, counters, etc in the 'common' areas) who are not washing their hands for a period of time and are still touching surfaces (just lucky enough Y number are asleep but even those who are asleep sometimes get up for a short restroom visit)

 

[tarheelalum]

I've stayed at GCH once for work, honestly wasn't 500$ a night impressed, wasn't even 200$ a night impressed ( group rate for a convention in the hotel paid by convention host) great decor, standard rooms IMHO.

Only half a night discount? They got off easy....

I would of pulled out this link if I was there (17920.3(a) 4 and 17920.3(a) 5 ) demanding the entire stay be compped because I did not pay to stay in a "substandard building"

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=hsc&group=17001-18000&file=17920-17928

At 500$ a night guest charge, I'm sorry shut down your hotel for a day (don't accept bookings) if you need to shut down a main water line for service, its called the "Hospitality" industry, be hospitable.

As for refunds booked through 3rd parties and booking direct, I tend to try and direct less trouble, but I've gotten refunds in the past (not Disney) where was booked through 3rd party, it usually goes something like "yes we will issue refund, refund gets issued to 3rd party vendor with your reservation number associated to it, 3rd party vendor credits back to your credit card" haven't ever had an issue but there are steps that can go wrong of course so working direct is sometimes easier.

The OP seems happy with Disney's response in this matter and that is all that matters. I'm glad for her and I hope her next stay there is much more pleasant. I didn't have to suffer what she endured but if I did, like you, I would have demanded that they comp a free night for a future stay for every night I did not have running water. If they refused to do so, I would have sued them in small claims court and notified every media outlet in the country about it. They would have either given me the nights or got a ton of bad press or both.

From a corporate PR standpoint, its a no brainer. Their actions were inexcusable regardless of whether they were legal or not. I'm also pretty sure a timely notification is required even if such maintenance is lawful under California's health and safety code (which Disney failed to provide to the OP on the night of arrival).

 

[Rubygoose]

We recently stayed at GCH and although we didn't have a problem with water being shut off, we did end up being locked out of our room on the second day of our stay and there were other issued about our AP discount package that weren't showing up on my file. I spent much more time at the reception desk than I really wanted to during our trip, and when we were locked out and had to get new keys printed, I complained "This really isn't where I want to be and what I want to be doing right now!" All the CM said was "It's all taken care of." I took that to mean that the problem was fixed and the room keys would work. Well, it must have been a very subtle way of saying that they were issuing me a credit, because I noticed a $98.28 credit from the Grand on my credit card today. I don't know how they came to this dollar amount, but it's a very pleasant surprise.

As for the text message... we stayed at Caribbean Beach at WDW in March and at GCH in August - both places sent me a text with the room number when the room was ready and both texts were from the same number. They must have a central system for texting room numbers, so it wouldn't make sense to use this system to alert guests to issues in specific hotels.