AKV Club Level overbooked

[honeymo78]

Has this happened to anyone else? I know people have been moved due to construction and notified in advance.

When we arrived on 9/24 we learned that we did not have a studio on the club level floor, but a savanna view in the 3rd pod on the 5th floor, but still had lounge access. Savanna view was okay but we had really planned on being on the 6th floor right by the lounge and elevators. Bit of a disappointment for my mom who was really looking forward to shorter walks back to the room. AKL and MS assured us this rarely (never) happens but I wonder if any of you have had this experience.

 

[DebbieB]

Has this happened to anyone else? I know people have been moved due to construction and notified in advance.

When we arrived on 9/24 we learned that we did not have a studio on the club level floor, but a savanna view in the 3rd pod on the 5th floor, but still had lounge access. Savanna view was okay but we had really planned on being on the 6th floor right by the lounge and elevators. Bit of a disappointment for my mom who was really looking forward to shorter walks back to the room. AKL and MS assured us this rarely (never) happens but I wonder if any of you have had this experience.

Did they say it was overbooked? Or could it have been a maintenance issue? Say for example, a pipe breaks in the room, they are going to have to move people out of that room.

 

[honeymo78]

Absolutely not a maintenance issue. All rooms on the club floor were in service and occupied. AKL just told us it was due to other guests but a follow-up with member satisfaction revealed that a computer malfunction showed more DVC rooms in inventory than there were actually available. I guess we just "lucked" out and were the one of (the only?) people who ended up displaced. We even asked if we could move back to the 6th floor at some point during our 7 night stay but of course, all the rooms were booked solid and they would have had to move someone else to get us back on the 6th floor.

 

[CarolMN]

Sorry that happened to you.

On the bright side, I'm told the views from the club level rooms aren't all that great. You probably have a much nicer view on the 3rd floor - at least I hope so.

 

[honeymo78]

The view was okay - we had actually enjoyed the pool view we had the last time stayed club level. We found being on the 5th floor was fine to see the animals that came close but many of the giraffes and zebras liked to hang out farther back toward the trees and we couldn't see them because of how high up we were.

 

[thebigman65]

To my mind they should have given you the points difference back and offered you the lounge access for the screw up. You should call and ask or send an email to member satisfaction

 

[DebbieB]

To my mind they should have given you the points difference back and offered you the lounge access for the screw up. You should call and ask or send an email to member satisfaction

I agree, you didn't get the room you paid for. They seemed to be refunding points or giving cash as compensation for the segmenting dining snafus, they should give it to you also.

 

[Rob S.]

That happened to me. I arrived on 9/27 and was told that MS overbooked. I was assigned a room on the 5th floor a long way away from the lounge. I asked for some type of compensation. I had to wait for the manager but I was offered either a refund in the difference in points (16), or a cash refund of $625 ($125 per night).
I took the $625 and now hope to be "downgraded" again next time.
I still had access to the lounge.

 

[honeymo78]

That happened to me. I arrived on 9/27 and was told that MS overbooked. I was assigned a room on the 5th floor a long way away from the lounge. I asked for some type of compensation. I had to wait for the manager but I was offered either a refund in the difference in points (16), or a cash refund of $625 ($125 per night).
I took the $625 and now hope to be "downgraded" again next time.
I still had access to the lounge.

Rob - sorry you had the same thing happen but your experience confirms that there was a real overbooking issue.

We took the cash difference as well and kept our lounge access then followed up with member satisfaction once we got home. Part of what made us upset was the original responses from the AKL staff. First they presented it as we had been upgraded to a savanna view room with lounge access. When I pushed back about having booked a room on the 6th floor, a manager gave us the "due to other guest issues" line. Even with member satisfaction we got the wrong story from a front line employee and only after asking a manager there to investigate did we finally learn what had happened. In the end we were pleased with how member satisfaction resolved the issue.

On the other hand, I doubt we will be booking club level again soon as we really don't want to risk this happening again and since there are so few rooms on that floor, there really isn't anywhere else to put us.

DH and I are just super thankful that our original guests (his parents) didn't end up joining us and we took my mom and brother instead. FIL has mobility issues and we had thought that the 6th floor right by the lounge and elevators would be perfect for him since he wouldn't spend time with us in the parks. He could grab a snack and hang out in the lounge or take a quick ride down to the lobby to people watch. We would have been forced to rent a scooter for him to make his way around the hotel and get to the lounge if he was with us in the new location.

 

[supersuperwendy]

Did you get your daily mousekeeping and turndown service?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Our first CL stay found us with club access but a studio with savannah view on the 5th floor. We never gave it another thought. We did get turn down service and else everything CL involves.

 

[LindaBabe]

Back in the days before dvc, when you had to pay cash for rooms with club level access, most of them were savanna views, down on the 5th floor. It'certainly NOT as convenient.

 

[honeymo78]

Did you get your daily mousekeeping and turndown service?

We did. Basically our reservation looked like a cash guest. They cancelled the DVC reservation and manually adjusted our vacation points.

 

[disneygrandma]

This is the first I've read about this, and it worries me. We were thinking of trying to book CL for part of our next AKV stay. We stayed CL 2 yrs ago, and really liked it. I knew going in that we wouldn't have great views, so that wasn't an issue. We liked being so close to the elevator, and being able to just walk outside our room and grab something to eat or drink. I even remarked to my husband how I would hate to be staying for cash in the regular CL rooms & have to travel so far to get to the lounge.

The last time we stayed there was for our son's birthday, and this time will be for my husband's. If we can't be on the 6th fl, I would rather our entire stay be savannah view at Kidani. I would hate to worry 11 mos about whether or not we had a true DVC CL room.

Of course, CL may not even be available when I call. I know the odds are against it.

 

[Jillpie]

Just curious from anyone in the know, could the OP have requested to be moved to another resort with club level availability? (BC, YC, GF etc) I realize they were able to use the lounge, but I'd rather have a room close to the lounge, than to be on a whole different floor. Just wondering.

 

[Tigger1]

When
I was at AKL Concierge this summer.I learned that many floors had Concierge guest for paying guest and DVC. In the past I thought it was just 4th floor cash guest and 6th floor DVC. I wonder if cash guest might be demanding 6th floor and then DVC guest are put on other floors. I imagine that when DVC came to AKL it upset a lot of cash guest that they were used to 6th floor lounge steps from the door.


I would gladly take a 5th floor if I was told at reservation time that 6 th floor was booked with DVC but I could still get concierge on 5th floor. More Concierge rooms would be great.

 

[disneynutz]

AKL was happy to give the 6th floor rooms to DVC because the views from the rooms are some of the worst in the resort.

Bill

 

[disneygrandma]

I, for one, would not gladly take 5th fl for AKV CL. I agree though that we should be told at time of booking.....and not when we check in. The convenience of everything being right outside our door is what we liked. If MS is now booking CL on both floors, they should be separate booking categories so everyone knows what they're getting.

 

[twinmom108]

In 2008 when I made our 2009 ressie at 11 months out for AKV concierge they told me the room would either be on the 5th or 6th floor. I put in a special request for the 6th floor which is what we got when we checked in. I've just always thought that Jambo House always uses floors 5 & 6 for booking DVC concierge units. Is that not the case?

 

[disneygrandma]

So, I called MS this morning & booked AKV CL for part of our next stay. Normally, I would be over the moon that we were able to get a 2 bdrm lockoff there. (I told the rest of the family not to count on it.) However, after what I've read here on this thread, I feel the same uneasiness that I had before calling MS this morning to book. After my resv was confirmed, I asked her about the possibility of being on a different fl, and mentioned what I had read here on the DIS. She told me that she hadn't heard about it before, and offered to call AK Lodge to find out, but I said we'll just wait on that. So, does anyone have the contact info for AKV CL? I would rather ask them myself, and then follow up again with MS about this.

On a side note, I can see our resv in the points activity section on the member website, but it's not showing up in the vacation details section. Is that something else that I need to be concerned about?

I'll be following this thread closely. Wow, 11 mos is a long-g-g time to wait to find out if we have the 6th fl or not.