According to MouseMisers Disney is now assigning rooms at time of booking

[sjs314]

Has anyone heard or read anything official about Disney now assigning rooms at the time of booking?

The following was posted on MouseMisers facebook page yesterday

Walt Disney World has made a change to their room and package reservation systems. All resort rooms are now assigned automatically by the system at the time of booking. Guests can make generic requests at the time of booking (close to lobby, close to bus stop, etc.), but not specific location requests. You can add a specific request t...o the reservation, but they will not be seen until check in.

http://www.facebook.com/mousemisers

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) It is about time.
2) It will surely cut down on the amount of picky room requests.
3) And complaints.

4) This has been a thorn to WDW for a very long time.
5) People pay for a room category.
6) As long as the room meets that category (and there lots of new ones), it should be accepted.
7) After all, an individual room should not be a vacation deal breaker.
8) Few other hotels allow such room requests, and now Disney is finally following suit.
. . . it causes a lot of complaints and guest whining
. . . it requires one heck of a lot of extra manpower at ressie time, assignment and check-in time
. . . it creates open room nights trying fit all the requests

EDIT: Of course, CM's at the desk will try to accommodate last minute requests - when possible. I think this is the best change in the ressie system ever made. It will also cut out the faxing of requests to the resorts, since computers can't read. Of course, it might mean the ROOMS assigners now have a different type of job, and maybe some re-assignments (but we will know soon enough).

 

[mountain man]

So if your room is already assigned at booking is there any way you can find out what room your are in before you get there?

 

[Michael623]

Am I the only one who has never actually made a room request in 30+ trips? As long as I get what I pay for (room category) I'm satisfied.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

So if your room is already assigned at booking is there any way you can find out what room your are in before you get there?

1) No.
2) For two big reasons
. . . the room might be changed for several logistical reasons
. . . they don't want guests to call and complain about the room number

 

[mcd2745]

1) It is about time.
2) It will surely cut down on the amount of picky room requests.
3) And complaints.

4) This has been a thorn to WDW for a very long time.
5) People pay for a room category.
6) As long as the room meets that category (and there lots of new ones), it should be accepted.
7) After all, an individual room should not be a vacation deal breaker.
8) Few other hotels allow such room requests, and now Disney is finally following suit.
. . . it causes a lot of complaints and guest whining
. . . it requires one heck of a lot of extra manpower at ressie time, assignment and check-in time
. . . it creates open room nights trying fit all the requests

EDIT: Of course, CM's at the desk will try to accommodate last minute requests - when possible. I think this is the best change in the ressie system ever made. It will also cut out the faxing of requests to the resorts, since computers can't read. Of course, it might mean the ROOMS assigners now have a different type of job, and maybe some re-assignments (but we will know soon enough).

I understand the points you are making...but if this is what they are truly doing, it should be like cruises where you get to pick your room from what is available. If you picked it, then you really have nothing to complain about.

 

[DC7800]

it should be like cruises where you get to pick your room from what is available

There are major differences between hotel and cruise ship reservations. A hotel has people arriving and departing every day, with some reservation holders being no-shows or checking out early, so those rooms may then be sold to someone else. Potentially, if guests selected rooms (as opposed to what is probably a tentative assignment under the new policy), you could end up with a situation where the hotel isn't full but doesn't have the same room available for more than one night. That can't happen on a ship, when everyone boards and departs at the same time.

Other hotel guests may wish to extend their stays, with the problem arising that they would have to change rooms if another party had their existing room already reserved for the next night.

 

[sjs314]

Am I the only one who has never actually made a room request in 30+ trips? As long as I get what I pay for (room category) I'm satisfied.

I have never made a request either, I did for my trip this past Nov. which I ended up having to cancel but this was only because I joined the DIS and found out you could. Even so it was only for a particular trail in AKL which was not too picky I don't think.

My current reservation I asked for a particular floor but if I do not get it I will live

 

[soontobehoyt]

This makes sense, I know there have been several times this year where res systems have been down for upgrading. Seems like a good idea to me, as long as there is flexibility upon check-in.

 

[NMW]

I understand the points you are making...but if this is what they are truly doing, it should be like cruises where you get to pick your room from what is available. If you picked it, then you really have nothing to complain about.

I don't see how a hotel could do this. On a cruise ship everyone boards and exits on the exact same day. Just like picking your seats on a flight.

In a hotel, people come and go all the time and check-in and out on all different days. We have checked in on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, etc.

 

[skiingfast]

I don't see how a hotel could do this. On a cruise ship everyone boards and exits on the exact same day. Just like picking your seats on a flight.

In a hotel, people come and go all the time and check-in and out on all different days. We have checked in on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, etc.

The arguement that it requires everyone to come at the same time like a cruise ship is poor.

It just basic inventory management. Everybody knows something about this. When you come home from the store you can make a gallon of milk fit. It doesn't matter that a bunch of food was in the fridge, or how many groceries you have. The milk will fit.

Next time you need milk you can check where in the fridge it will fit before going to the store.

It's not hard.

 

[mcd2745]

I don't see how a hotel could do this. On a cruise ship everyone boards and exits on the exact same day. Just like picking your seats on a flight.

In a hotel, people come and go all the time and check-in and out on all different days. We have checked in on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, etc.

It's obviously not as simple as on a cruise (or seats on a flight), but it certainly can be done.

 

[DC7800]

The arguement that it requires everyone to come at the same time like a cruise ship is poor.

It just basic inventory management. Everybody knows something about this. When you come home from the store you can make a gallon of milk fit. It doesn't matter that a bunch of food was in the fridge, or how many groceries you have. The milk will fit.

Next time you need milk you can check where in the fridge it will fit before going to the store.

It's not hard.

Actually, it is a good argument. To use your example, in order to make the milk fit, if you have plenty of room its not a problem - plenty of empty shelf space to sit the milk (or many empty blocks of rooms to locate new guests in your hotel). You can just take your pick.

The problem arises when space starts to get scarce in the fridge, and you have to shuffle other items around to make one single space large enough to hold a gallon of milk. Perhaps you have enough total empty space to fit the milk, but that consists of three or four smaller plots where you have emptied several cans of Pepsi. No single space exists big enough for milk. Sunday's leftover meatloaf probably won't complain when you have to move it to a different spot multiple times throughout its "stay" in your fridge, but hotel guests are likely to feel different when they book a 7-night stay, but have to change rooms after the third and fifth nights because there is not a single room anywhere in the hotel with seven consecutive nights available.

Lets say you have just two rooms in your hotel, with room #1 booked from the 1st to 5th of the month and room #2 booked from the 5th to 12th, for which the guests have rigidly preselected their rooms. At no point is more than one room occupied, but someone who comes along later to book a week's stay from, for instance, the 2nd to 9th, will find no room available. Now the solution should be obvious - assign the party in room 2 to room 1 and accommodate the new (third) guest.

Certainly you can make tentative assignments at the time of booking, but these have to be flexible enough to permit multiple and possibly frequent changes up to check-in. If you permit the guest to definitively choose their room, you lose this necessary flexibility. Control over room inventory must remain with the hotel staff, not the individual guest (this in no way precludes taking requests) who has no knowledge or interest in the "bigger picture".

 

[mrsR123]

Excellent post, DC7800. It is a more complicated task than one might think. I will be curious to hear the fate of the people who currently assign rooms at the three week, or couple days, out point.

 

[skiingfast]

Actually, it is a good argument. To use your example, in order to make the milk fit, if you have plenty of room its not a problem - plenty of empty shelf space to sit the milk (or many empty blocks of rooms to locate new guests in your hotel). You can just take your pick.

The problem arises when space starts to get scarce in the fridge, and you have to shuffle other items around to make one single space large enough to hold a gallon of milk. Perhaps you have enough total empty space to fit the milk, but that consists of three or four smaller plots where you have emptied several cans of Pepsi. No single space exists big enough for milk. Sunday's leftover meatloaf probably won't complain when you have to move it to a different spot multiple times throughout its "stay" in your fridge, but hotel guests are likely to feel different when they book a 7-night stay, but have to change rooms after the third and fifth nights because there is not a single room anywhere in the hotel with seven consecutive nights available.

Lets say you have just two rooms in your hotel, with room #1 booked from the 1st to 5th of the month and room #2 booked from the 5th to 12th, for which the guests have rigidly preselected their rooms. At no point is more than one room occupied, but someone who comes along later to book a week's stay from, for instance, the 2nd to 9th, will find no room available. Now the solution should be obvious - assign the party in room 2 to room 1 and accommodate the new (third) guest.

Certainly you can make tentative assignments at the time of booking, but these have to be flexible enough to permit multiple and possibly frequent changes up to check-in. If you permit the guest to definitively choose their room, you lose this necessary flexibility. Control over room inventory must remain with the hotel staff, not the individual guest (this in no way precludes taking requests) who has no knowledge or interest in the "bigger picture".

I set out a simple example that is well known. You can argue if you'd like.


Everyone is also familiar with a day planner too. Do you know how that manages time? It's not complicated.

And if you think that a hotel can't book specific rooms, you know little about how computers handle data. I won't explain, because hotel software is currently able to do this.

 

[TisBit]

It is amazing that WDW is having such a problem with this and it is mostly a problem they have created on their own. Hotels have been doing this for years without the problems that WDW has created for itself. All hotels have several booking categories (usually based on size, such as suites, bed set ups or level of service...usually higher levels higher floors of the hotel, etc). You pay for the type of room you want and other than that, when you arrive, you get what you get. You can ask for a higher floor or a first floor, but you are at the will of the front desk clerk and the inventory that is available at the time of check in.

WDW has tried so hard to speed up check in and pre assign room and honor room requests, it has created a monster. Let the front desk assign rooms, they usually over ride the systems anyway (as they should) for the guest standing in front of them. There is always someone that feels they "must" have a certain room or location based on their needs or desires and will attempt to get this using whatever key words they must in order to get it guaranteed in advance. All resorts that are spread out like WDW resorts will have people complaining because they didn't get really close to all the action (even though they didn't pay for that room type) because they can't walk, have this special need, have this special event, etc etc.

WDW needs to stick with their guaranteed room categories, allow people to put on requests if it makes them feel good and just assign rooms...let the front desk sort it out when they check in, you are always going to have someone upset, so don't kill yourself trying too hard...everyone can't get what they want.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Well...

for alot of points already made, eliminating or streamlining the room booking process would eliminate alot of headaches...

But i don't know if this could succeed at WDW for a couple of reasons:

1. As mentioned...things are shifted constantly...that and the fact that WDW hotels are much closer to capacity on a daily basis than your average hotel could ever get close to...
So while we might not see it...some subroutine or person is constantly moving things around...so i don't know if it would be beneficial if there is staffing involved.
2. WDW customers simply expect more than is reasonable for a hotel stay. Part of it is marketing and "aura"...part of it the fact that all wdw hotels are substantially overpriced for what you actually get (values being an exception) and the subliminal tells the paying customer that is damn well SHOULD be perfect...and thirdly....
3. Over half of all customers are repeats...some of them dozens or even hundreds of times....so the word is out. They want it that way...but there are some consequences that go along with how things are run and presented.
4. The "toms river" effect. a nickname i picked up while being screamed at on almost a daily basis in the swamp trenches. Large amounts of customers feel it necessary, probably from either the financial pressure or the fact that they are spoiled and indignant, to make scenes over any detail that feels out of sorts. room locations/ availability is at the top of that list.

But i don't discount anything that has been suggested about this. I would only like to add that this is one of those old "destination disney" ideas from years ago...
...the goal is to reduce humans toward further automation...as it has been and continues to be in most situations down there.

you judge whether or not that is a good thing or a bad

 

[lockedoutlogic]

It is amazing that WDW is having such a problem with this and it is mostly a problem they have created on their own. Hotels have been doing this for years without the problems that WDW has created for itself. All hotels have several booking categories (usually based on size, such as suites, bed set ups or level of service...usually higher levels higher floors of the hotel, etc). You pay for the type of room you want and other than that, when you arrive, you get what you get. You can ask for a higher floor or a first floor, but you are at the will of the front desk clerk and the inventory that is available at the time of check in.

WDW has tried so hard to speed up check in and pre assign room and honor room requests, it has created a monster. Let the front desk assign rooms, they usually over ride the systems anyway (as they should) for the guest standing in front of them. There is always someone that feels they "must" have a certain room or location based on their needs or desires and will attempt to get this using whatever key words they must in order to get it guaranteed in advance. All resorts that are spread out like WDW resorts will have people complaining because they didn't get really close to all the action (even though they didn't pay for that room type) because they can't walk, have this special need, have this special event, etc etc.

WDW needs to stick with their guaranteed room categories, allow people to put on requests if it makes them feel good and just assign rooms...let the front desk sort it out when they check in, you are always going to have someone upset, so don't kill yourself trying too hard...everyone can't get what they want.

I agree with your first and second paragraphs completely...cause that is EXACTLY The way things shake out at a WDW hotel

The third is where i disagree...they should not cater to requests because it is not an operational necessity and it actually is a burden because it requires more staffing than it should to get people into a room...
But the dilemna here is that they are thoroughly overpriced and don't provide enough value or consistency in their hotels to take the edge off the hotel guest. If they were to upgrade services and maintain standards...perhaps the room location wouldn't be such a big deal...
but they have choosen to attempt to sell "views" in mammoth sized, cookie cutter concrete fabricated hotel blocks...which means you are playing with fire and you're going to get burned.

Personally...i don't care what is out of my window...but Disney's marketing schemes and operation makes it completely foreseeable that some people go ape over it...even though its childish and nobody with any dignity should.

 

[TisBit]

I agree with your first and second paragraphs completely...cause that is EXACTLY The way things shake out at a WDW hotel

The third is where i disagree...they should not cater to requests because it is not an operational necessity and it actually is a burden because it requires more staffing than it should to get people into a room...
But the dilemna here is that they are thoroughly overpriced and don't provide enough value or consistency in their hotels to take the edge off the hotel guest. If they were to upgrade services and maintain standards...perhaps the room location wouldn't be such a big deal...
but they have choosen to attempt to sell "views" in mammoth sized, cookie cutter concrete fabricated hotel blocks...which means you are playing with fire and you're going to get burned.

Personally...i don't care what is out of my window...but Disney's marketing schemes and operation makes it completely foreseeable that some people go ape over it...even though its childish and nobody with any dignity should.

While yes, Disney hotels are over priced (mostly because they are on site Disney hotels, which could be debated on the pricing) this doesn't mean that they accomodate requests to try to make up for it.

It has become ingrained in the guests that they can demand or somehow come up with a compelling reason they "must" have what they want...and Disney will bend. Again, it is simple, automatic room assignments, if a guest wants to change allow the front desk to switch rooms on a first come first served basis. Not a new concept and a pretty easy approach to the whole situation. I think WDW used to be able to manage this beast, when requests were fewer and further between (maybe a floor request or a common "near" location, which has been changed to a preferred categorey now), but it has since grown into people requesting specific rooms, buildings, views, or even worse a specific floor in a specific building with a specific view that they heard about on the internet....and they need it because their elderly aunt can't stay up past 9:20 pm to watch the fireworks, so this is the only way for them to see illuminations without falling asleep walking out of the park and risking injury.

 

[dpmfloyd]

Am I the only one who has never actually made a room request in 30+ trips? As long as I get what I pay for (room category) I'm satisfied.

i'm with you, granted, i only stay values...

if i were to stay at AKL, i'd like have some requests where staying at pop really doesnt warrant any that would benefit my experience.