Which is just nutty to me feeling like you have to. Honestly a bit creepy too to get a phone call and the person hangs up on you.It's either that or you get a mystery phone call where the person on the other line hangs up on you when you answer. That has happened to me multiple times (admittedly, over 25 years), INCLUDING the my stay last month. Obviously, I forgot to disconnect the phone.
Yes. That's one of the reasons many of us as are upset about it. What makes it worse is that it's modus operandi for DVC Housekeeping and has been happening for at least 20 years, proven by the thread I posted from 2002 complaining of the very same problem.Which is just nutty to me feeling like you have to. Honestly a bit creepy too to get a phone call and the person hangs up on you.
The biggest issue is that you can't maintain a staff when you're offering 5 hour work shifts. The goal of having every room clean by 4pm puts a hard cap on how late the workers can be scheduled. You can't offer workers an 11am - 8pm shift because the DVC resorts cannot have rooms unavailable that late at night.I hadn't considered that and it really does add to the challenge. That being said, Disney knows this in advance and has been at this for decades (cleaning 30-40k hotel rooms), how have they not figured it out yet?
Those are possibilities, but the more cumbersome you make the process, the more prone to user error it will be. If you encourage people to record their departure time in advance, I think there's a very real chance most will use 11am as a default.As a few have said, why not let the tech fix this - They have basically made the app a requirement so the large majority should have it. Send out a push the night before checkout requesting the time you expect to vacate the room. If no response, send again in the early AM. That will allow them to easily set up a staffing and cleaning plan in advance without wasting time knocking and disturbing your customers.
From the customer standpoint it needs to be as simple and quick as possible - click on the push, select a time, submit. If people have navigated all the other stuff in the app during their stay, they can handle that.Those are possibilities, but the more cumbersome you make the process, the more prone to user error it will be. If you encourage people to record their departure time in advance, I think there's a very real chance most will use 11am as a default.
Plus there are limits to what you can do with this information. Even if you know by 8pm that few guests are departing early the next day, I'm not sure that managers can use that data to add additional staff on 12 hours notice.
Maybe. I think any late day departure or split stay carries a high degree of uncertainty.I'm thinking you would get decently accurate info on departure time. For those with morning flights, they know exactly when they need to be heading to the airport, why say 11 if you have to be on the road by 9? For others with afternoon departures, chances are they will be in the room till 11.
None of these are ideas which would have eluded Disney managers. Respectfully, us saying "if they did 'X' things would improve" is sort of a pointless exercise. Chances are housekeeping managers either considered or actually implemented 'X' and have valid reasons for going in another direction.The union contract probably defines when employees need to be notified of coming into work but addendums can always be made. Maybe create a new position that gets paid a bit more and is a floater that can be called in on 8 hours notice, once the numbers are crunched. There have to be some creative ways to eliminate the knock but when you combine inflexible union rules with a large, resistant to change, division of a large company, you get annoyed customers.
To bad you can't *69 the phone call......Yes. That's one of the reasons many of us as are upset about it. What makes it worse is that it's modus operandi for DVC Housekeeping and has been happening for at least 20 years, proven by the thread I posted from 2002 complaining of the very same problem.
Phantom phone calls have never been approved or endorsed by management. They happen because individual employees take matters into their own hands. I'm not defending bad workers, but anyone who has been in a management position knows that workers do things we cannot fully predict or control. Sadly there are always bad apples.Yes. That's one of the reasons many of us as are upset about it. What makes it worse is that it's modus operandi for DVC Housekeeping and has been happening for at least 20 years, proven by the thread I posted from 2002 complaining of the very same problem.
Also noteworthy, the manager reiterated multiple times that housekeeping CMs are not supposed to be ignoring the room occupied sign.From that Twitter thread:
"The day after our Disney Fairytale Wedding in Epcot housekeeping at the Grand was banging on our door with the privacy sign out at 8:15. There isn’t justification for that."
Wow.
For all intents and purposes, the room occupied sign = do not disturb. They changed the verbiage because of the apparent need to enter rooms daily for security checks. Housekeeping CMs are supposed to respect the sign until 11am on check-out day.Sadly Disney hasn't bothered to come up with a "real" solution for this, either by their great IT management or just leaving the "do not disturb" signs in the rooms anymore.
Tim, you keep stating this "can't maintain staff with 5 hour work shifts" and purporting there is nothing for them to do from 8-11am if they aren't rousting people out. (ok - last bit my interpretation but it's the essence of what you state). #2 does not mean #1 is a necessity and #2 just isn't true. What does it take though - is better organization and better management. All people don't check out en-mass at 11am and it wouldn't even be that hard to use the tools they have to work in a manner that is also respectful of the guests that are leaving later in the morning.The biggest issue is that you can't maintain a staff when you're offering 5 hour work shifts. The goal of having every room clean by 4pm puts a hard cap on how late the workers can be scheduled. You can't offer workers an 11am - 8pm shift because the DVC resorts cannot have rooms unavailable that late at night.
Most Disney housekeeping shifts start at 8am. From 8-11, they're cleaning rooms that have been vacated early. The problem is the number of rooms vacated early is unpredictable and varies from day to day. If 20% of the departing guests have left by 9am and used the app to check-out, ideally staff are routed to those locations and nobody gets a door knock. If only 2% of guests have left early, you've got your staff looking for things to keep busy, faced with the reality that they have even less time to get the required work done.
I suppose Disney could still increase staffing with the knowledge that they'll be paying workers to be non-productive if there aren't enough early departures. But that's going to impact dues.
I don't think there's a clear-cut solution for reallocating the current labor resources in a better manner. Certainly nothing that we folks on a message board can come up with, which Disney resort managers haven't considered over the years.
Those are possibilities, but the more cumbersome you make the process, the more prone to user error it will be. If you encourage people to record their departure time in advance, I think there's a very real chance most will use 11am as a default.
Plus there are limits to what you can do with this information. Even if you know by 8pm that few guests are departing early the next day, I'm not sure that managers can use that data to add additional staff on 12 hours notice.
But the point isn't perfection, if you get 80% of the check out times close to correct you are 80% better than you have today. As long as you get enough rooms noted as early checkouts to keep people busy for 2.5 hours, you are good to go!Yes they could build in a bunch of features which let you change the departure time, etc. The risk is people set-and-forget. If I'd marked 11am the night before, it's completely off my radar. Instead I marked our departure while riding the elevator up to Topolino's. I think there are trade-offs with any process.
As I noted above, this will get forgotten more often than not because you are more worried about having all your kids and stuff packed up. It's just too easy to forget to be useful. Technology is the more reliable answer.(And remove it when out of the room so housekeeping knows to get in and do their work.)
Agreed but that is what the internet is for, pointless pontificating LOL.None of these are ideas which would have eluded Disney managers. Respectfully, us saying "if they did 'X' things would improve" is sort of a pointless exercise. Chances are housekeeping managers either considered or actually implemented 'X' and have valid reasons for going in another direction.
Actually I've said repeatedly that they shouldn't be ignoring the room sign and rousting people out. And if they are, it deserves to be corrected.Tim, you keep stating this "can't maintain staff with 5 hour work shifts" and purporting there is nothing for them to do from 8-11am if they aren't rousting people out. (ok - last bit my interpretation but it's the essence of what you state).
The new feature in the MDE app is a clear attempt to fix the issue. What we lack is context. Has the frequency of door knocks declined in the last 6 months? It certainly SHOULD have.The real problem? Disney hotels doesn't fix the issue.
We seem to be in agreement here. Personally, I've never had a phone call. The door knocks are minimal and, to the best of my recollection, limited to times when we are moving around and have removed the occupied sign.It hasn't happened often to me but I've gotten the phone calls and a knock or two. My fault is that I haven't taken the time to communicate with the hotel so they are at least hearing some guests are not happy when that occurs. The phone calls were the terribly obnoxious one.