Anyone ever been "walked: from a Disney hotel property?

[gabeoak]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever been "walked" from a Disney hotel property. Walked is a term used when you show up for a reserved room and the hotel has no rooms left.
I am a frequent business traveler and this has happened to me a fair amount over the years. As such, I've learned to spot some signs of possible overbooking.
I'm bringing my 7yo daughter to Disneyland for her visit starting Oct 8. This is shaping up to be a busy Columbus Day weekend. We have a reservation for a premium DTD view at the GCH ; but now the GCH is "sold out" of all rooms Friday the 7th and Sat. the 8th. Rooms again open up starting the 9th.

This seems like a potential issue in terms of both availability and room choice.
We arrive late in the day on the 8th(10pm) so I definitely have my eye on this situation.

All hotels overbook. They all have policies to deal with this. Once I had a premium view room booked in NYC and when I got to the the hotel, they had no premium rooms. Their solution was to give me a lesser room at the same price. Their terms and conditions allowed for this.

I'm hoping for the best at Disneyland.

 

[mydisneymoney]

Someone with more knowledge about GCH may be able to confirm this but I believe you can call in the morning of your arrival and pre register. This will help insure you get your room.

Anyone agree that is is the case at GCH.

I sure wouldn't pay the same price for a lesser room. You pay $100s to $1,000s difference in a standard room rate to a premium room rate and even more with concierge level.

 

[the donut]

All hotels overbook. They all have policies to deal with this. Once I had a premium view room booked in NYC and when I got to the the hotel, they had no premium rooms. Their solution was to give me a lesser room at the same price. Their terms and conditions allowed for this.

I hope that hotel did something to make that right. I assume they lost your business otherwise.

The GCH is a pretty giant hotel with 745 rooms according to the fact sheet. There are frequent stories of upgrades, especially for first time or far away visitors. I've always assumed that could be due to overbooking certain categories. Are the other Disney hotels fully booked? I remember that when parts of the DLH became unavailable due to construction, they rebooked guests into the GCH. Most were happy to make the switch. If it happened in your case, I would hope that they would offer concierge or a suite due to your room category.

You can call and check in on the day of arrival over the phone, though I'm not sure how much that helps.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I'm putting my faith in them. if they overbook I'd bet money (hardearned money even!) that they'd make it all as right for you as possible. I'd be shocked if they overbooked and you were out a room (a pricey one at that) and they didn't kiss your feet. I'd be willing to bet that if they had to move you to a cheaper room, they'd not only refund you what you spent on the better room, but probably give you a huge break as well. Not to mention, offering you a great room at one of their other properties. I'd seriously be shocked if something along these lines weren't done for you.

ETA: I am NOT a Disney can do no wrong person..this is coming completely from knowing that they DO focus on Customer Service like crazy.

 

[LisaT91403]

I called the GCH a day before my arrival this trip, and they already had the rooms assigned. They would not tell me the exact room numbers, but I knew which hallway I was in (e.g. x100's) but not which floor. She did say that this is all subject to change, but she was just using that as a disclaimer. So, you might want to call the day before, and see if your room has been assigned, etc.

As someone else said, you can also call the morning of arrival to pre-register.

I realize that all hotels over-book, and that stuff happens...but I have found the customer service at the GCH to be truly excellent. They do not want to spoil the magic and have you disappointed.

Have fun!

 

[Malcon10t]

Most of the Disneyland hotels do not overbook, simply because when you book, they charge your first night to your card and it isn't refundable if you cancel less than 48 hours. (I haven't stayed with any other chain that charges when you book, except when you get a discount for that.)

I haven't heard of being walked from a DLR hotel, while I have heard of being walked from Hilton and Marriott. When we were walked from Hilton, they moved us to a Marriott into a suite. It was nice!

 

[gabeoak]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I'll have to check on that pre-registration one of you mentioned. That sounds like a good idea.

When I have been walked on my professional non-disney stays, it is hot or miss whether they kiss your feet. Often times, they just refer to the hotel policy and stick to that. Even at hotels where I have status, I am sometimes walked to another brand. Usually this happens in scenarios like the confluence I see for columbus day. We are arriving in the *middle* and late in the day of a room crunch. I have no idea how many premium DTD view rooms there are. Sidenote: when I booked the premium DTD the only rooms available were premium DTD and standard at +100. Yes. That's right. The standard rooms were shoing a +100 per night upcharge. That struck me as strange and leads me to believe the hotel is FULL capacity.

 

[LisaT91403]

If you are really concerned about it, why not call the GCH front desk (not the general reservations number) now and talk to them about what happens if they are over-sold. Maybe they can tell you the policy, and it will put your mind at ease.

 

[ttfn2u2pooh]

Well I do have, kind of, first hand knowledge of this happening at GCH. We arrived Sept 19th around 3:30pm to the hotel. We had a PAID reservation for a concierge premium park view room. After going through the concierge registration we started walking off to the hotel room we were given. I had studied the map of GCH here on DIS and I started to feel that we were not walking in the right direction to have a park view room.

I went back to the concierge desk, told them that I didn't feel it was right. It wasn't. Their system showed we had a standard room view. Luckily, I had all of the paperwork that Disney Travel sent to us that stated we had a premium view room.

After about 20 minutes of her being on the phone to someone she hung up and admitted that the hotel had over-booked the rooms and there were no premium rooms available. Now, this did not mean that there were no other rooms in the hotel, just not on the 6th floor with a park view.

I was a little surprised when she said that they had overbooked the hotel on this level. I hate this about hotels and airlines alike. I don't think it should be allowed or if it is, it should be on a level to where the first one's who booked get the best of whatever, not those who arrive first. Anyway, we were offered the choice of two options, a room with a monorail view on the 6th floor for the first night and then a move to a premium view room for the remainder of the nights. Or, a park view room on the 5th floor overlooking the sun wheel section of DCA.

We opted for the monorail view on the 6th floor with a change the following day. Mainly because we were planning on utilizing the concierge lounge as much as we could and being that far away on a different floor seemed more of a pain that it was worth.

The first room's view was horrible. It was basically in a corner, with a view of some trees and a glance of the monorail as it zoomed by but the main view was that of the 5th floor rooftop. I would have been beyond myself mad to be given that room after paying that much. Horrible. But, it was just for one night so we let it be and had a couple of laughs about it.

The next day we had them store our luggage then at 11:30am I received a voicemail message from some manager saying that our new room was available. It was a room with a view of the pools with GGR and ToT in the distance. My daughter loved over looking the pool and watching the people so it worked out perfectly. Also know, that if you're given a pool view room and you leave the slider door to the balcony open, the "ambience" music around the pool starts at 6:00am. We woke up wondering what in the world the noise was. Was it a neighbors tv, an alarm clock, nope... "ambience".

We were compensated with a credit back to the credit card for the first nights room and we were also given 4 FP's to use anywhere, anytime (with the exception of WOC) and a delivered plate of chocolate chip cookies and milk.

A major pain in the backside but it wasn't something I was going to let ruin our DLR vacation. I would find it hard seeing GCH being completely booked for all rooms without some being tucked away and left open for emergencies. But I have first hand experience when the level and views are already given away prior to your arrival. Very frustrating.

 

[gabeoak]

Ahhh ttfn2u2pooh... your scenario sounds like the one I envision might happen for us. First though: I'm glad everything worked out for y'all in the end. But what a pain to switch rooms. It is encouraging to hear that GCH did try to make amends with the FPs and cookies and such.
We don't have concierge. Just a premium DTD view. Whatever that means. All I can find on the threads are DTD view photos. I have no idea what the difference is between a PREMIUM DTD and just a DTD view. So honestly, I won't have a clue if I am being led to the wrong room. At least you had done your map homework and knew right away something was up.

Your description sounds like what I think may happen. There can only be so man PREMIUM dtd views. So if we arrive and they are already taken, we may be out of luck just like you. I don't know that we would get quite the treatment you got since you were concierge level. But it's good to know that they did make their efforts.

I'll have my 7yo daughter as well as my mother with me. If it seems like I am over-planning-- well-- I'm just trying to make this a magical experience for them both. My mom has dreamed about this trip since the day my daughter was born. Literally. Seconds after holding her she promised to do this trip! ha ha

 

[specialks]

I might recommend posting the question about what the premium DTD view room is on the Grand Cali Superthread. There are some really knowledgable people (some could draw a map of that hotel in their sleep!), who follow it and might have an answer for you. There is lots of info on that thread (I finally finished all 160+ pages), which I read to get ready for our late Oct trip.

 

[gabeoak]

specialks: thanks for the encouragement to post to the superthread. I am new here and have been working my way through the thread. But I've been afraid of posting my question about PREMIUM dtd vs just a DTD view for fear of it having already been covered. I have tried all various searches and cant find a specific reference to PREMIUM. I just don't wanna get pounced on for being a newbie who can't search! :0)

 

[starry_solo]

They won't mind your post. They seem to have all rooms covered. If worst comes to worse and the DVC villas aren't booked up, they might upgrade you to a villa

 

[ArchOwl]

They won't mind your post. They seem to have all rooms covered. If worst comes to worse and the DVC villas aren't booked up, they might upgrade you to a villa

Or maybe a suite! You can always dream, right?

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Ooooooooooooo Yeah maybe there's a GOLD lining in them giving away your room

I am an overplanner too..so I get it. I hope your stress and worry is for NOTHING!!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Many issues can lead to not having a room type available, including a guest extending their stay or a maintenance issue in a room. Disney generally goes out of their way to make it right.

OP, I think "premium" view refers to a higher floor.

 

[tzeitel]

I have never been walked but I have walked ppl when I worked in rooms control over at the Beach Club in WDW Tons of ppl, it was not our favorite times....except when we had better rooms available than what a guest had booked.

Never had a problem with premium rooms being overbooked - if that happens it must be a maintenance issue or a group of last-minute VIPs (which annoyed us to no end ).

 

[DizMe]

I know this isn't what you asked, but just had to say that this summer I checked into a hotel in Hawaii (Fairmont Orchid) where I was supposed to have a deluxe oceanfront room. They informed me at check-in that all of the oceanfront rooms were booked, but before I could feel too dismayed they told me that we'd been upgraded to an oceanfront suite!! It was HUGE and wow, I was so impressed.

I have had glitches from time to time with my Disney rooms, but they have always made it up to me in other ways, either with an upgrade, meal vouchers, FPs, or combination. My sister and I booked a standard 2Q room at DLH, and when we went up to it we found that it was the TINIEST room I've ever seen and had only a double bed. The room couldn't have held any other furniture, that's how small it was. We went back down to the reservation desk and the CM disappeared into the back, only to return with keys to a DTD view suite!! It was amazing. We really weren't asking for or expecting anything more than a 2Q standard room.

 

[snesguy]

I've only stayed a couple of times at GCH. I had no problems with the room assignments there.

I have stayed many times at DLH, pretty much always in premium view rooms. I've never had a problem being "walked" as you put it, but I have had one instance where they tried to put us in a standard double room because they were out of premium double rooms. Also, if I request a theme park view the odds are I won't get it without asking to speak with a manager and possibly spending one night in a room with a different view. I usually arrive in the evening. Maybe in the morning check-in would be easier?

In the one instance where they wanted to send us to a standard double room instead of the premium room that I had booked, I asked to speak with a manager and had an almost surreal experience (for the DLH) where she actually fixed the room assignment problem without me having to argue about it further. She listened to my story, typed furiously at the computer for a few minutes (I've never seen a faster typist, and I've seen a lot), then told me she had resolved the issue, asked me if there was anything else she could assist me with, and turned me back over to the regular staff to complete the check-in process. I asked the CM how the manager had found us a room when supposedly there were none available and she told me that the manager had switched rooms with another party. It seemed kind of weird to me since they had never offered to do this before. Then, we got to our room and it was AMAZING! The best premium view room I've ever stayed in at the DLH! It didn't make sense to me at first why they had taken such good care of me when they usually don't, but then I realized that I had recently booked a weeklong vacation at WDW Polynesian Resort, club room, for Easter week. My suspicion is that they saw my expensive WDW trip in the computer and went out of their way to assist me. Or, maybe I just got the best manager ever?

So I would say, arrive early if you can, ask to speak with a manager if you don't get what you paid for, and as a last resort book an expensive WDTC vacation for a future date before you arrive.

I will say that I love the DLH and even though sometimes (many times) I have a little trouble at check-in, I keep coming back because it's worth it.

 

[gabeoak]

So many interesting stories and more interesting results.

What tzeitel said confirms that Disney hotels are run no different than other brands in terms of capacity and bookings. I can only imagine, tzeitel, how hard it must be to be on the frontlines in those situations. As you said, it was always easier when you had a "better" room to offer as compensation.
But during the busiest times this is not always possible.

As for the previous poster's recommendation to arrive as early as possible-- I wish that we could. But our flight gets in to LAX at 5 on a Saturday. By time we get the car, eat, and battle traffic... it will be later in the day. I'm hopeful that everything will work out as planned. It likely will. But in my experience, the booking pattern I see for our arrival indicates a possibility of issues. And unfortunately for tzeitel's doppelganger when we check in, there aren't many levels "better" than premium DTD view. Sure-- concierge... but even those are sold out... The irony would be to be put in a lesser room, even though I was told at time of booking that those were all sold out.

I know, I know this is all... "what if"... but it does sound like it happens.
And tzeitel-- I promise I'm a nice guy to those on the front lines when this happens. It's not their fault.