Anyone else disappointed by AKV Concierge?

[MMS1439]

We are new owners at AKV and have a 2BR Concierge at AKV booked Dec 30-Jan2. What a nice surprise when we received a call from a AK Concierge in mid-June introducing themselves. While I had not sorted out what reservations we wanted at that time, I e-mailed our requests for some dining reservations a few day later on June 22 and received an acknowledgment of my e-mail. (These requests were before the 180 day window.)

When I had not received any call or e-mail regarding our reservations by the end of July I called and e-mailed AKV concierge to inquire about our dining reservations. Well they totally dropped the ball! They said our requests got lost in a separate DVC reservations system and further a paper backup was lost. One of our key dining reservations we wanted on NYE was no longer available and we were out of luck.

What a disappointing concierge experience this is. Has this happened to anyone else. It definitely feels like their concierge's are 2nd tier. We frequently vacation in Four Seasons and rely on concierge's to assist us in our vacation planning and have not experienced this sort of disappointment. I guess I am quite frustrated because I could have easily made the reservations myself!

Also to follow up I called Member Services about this issue and they said they would escalate my complaint. Also the concierge who dropped the ball said he wanted to forward my dated e-mail on to his superiors, because he complained about the DVC request system. Well it's now almost 2 weeks later and I have not heard a response from anyone.

Any suggestions on how to escalate? or other alternatives? I guess I am further disappointed by the total lack of response.

Thanks!
MMS

 

[KristineN]

wow!! how awful!! I will be waiting to hear how this all resolves itself for you. I was planning on using my developers points at an AKL Concierge stay.

Good luck..I really hope it works out!!!!!

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Hmmm... we've never used concierge... so I can't say really... We just rely on ourselves to make our plans come about...

 

[njmeisje]

We've stayed Poly concierge (not DVC) and made all our own reservations....fearing this very thing.

I hope they can help you.

 

[Inkmahm]

I've stayed concierge before at AKL and I made my own ADRs. I'd do that no matter where I was staying because I don't trust anyone to do it other than me.

Hope they at least get you into where you wanted to be on NYE.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I do feel bad for you, however, I feel it's a bit unfair to judge based on one bad experience.

Just my opinion...

MG

 

[kgc07]

We used the GF's IPO office and thought things went well, until we arrived at the GF. We had reservations that were supposed to be canceled still showing and reservations that were supposed to be made not showing. In the end, all of our reservations were straightened out. Sorry to hear you had a much wanted/needed reservation canceled. Keep trying to get your reservation. Someone might cancel.

 

[lisareniff]

It sounds like they have a few kinks to work out of the system to integrate AKV and AKL concierge. I sorry you had to exerience some of the kinks, but glad you took the time to express your displeasure to AKL IPO.

We had a great experience staying at AKL concerge with some high demand PS's that they were able to switch closer to the date. Perhaps they will have some luck with yours as well.

 

[LindaBabe]

We stayed there twice - no three times when it was a hotel concierge and found it to be the best of the ones I had used (Poly, YC & AK). We were thrilled with the service we got from them. They still call us on our anniversary - what? 4 years after our last stay!

 

[Inkmahm]

I wanted to add that when I've stayed concierge at AKL, it's been so that we can do the sunrise safari. I had no problem at all getting that arranged through them. This next trip we are doing both the afternoon and sunrise safaris- no problem setting them up.

As for ADRs though, I do my own. AKL did give me a printout of all the ADRs made when we arrived, but it was inaccurate. It was missing several. Not sure where they pulled the info from but I ignored it and used my own spreadsheet with all my ADR #'s, etc.