Are people okay with disrepair?

[Kidanifan08]

We just moved to our second resort of a 2-resort split stay. Our first stay was a 1BR value at Jambo and we just moved into a 1BR at BCV. When we arrived to our room at Jambo, one of the two ceiling lights had 2 burnt out bulbs, a bulb was missing from a lamp in the bedroom, and one of the louvre doors to the laundry closet was loose at the top hinge. I called maintenance, and all 3 problems were addressed within 24 hours. When we arrived to our BCV 1BR, a kitchen cabinet hinge was loose, the toaster was broken, a towel ring was not attached to the wall and a light bulb in the closet was flickering in an annoying fashion. Again, I called maintenance and all 4 simple issues were addressed, this time in less than 8 hours. I find it hard to believe that these things all happened while the previous family was in those rooms. Why don't people just call? It was so easy and it's nice to have a fully functional villa!

 

[bwvBound]

Why? Because sometimes we don't want the work done on our "dime" (that is, interrupting our stay).
Here is my story of one visit where we got to know maintenance too well: https://www.disboards.com/threads/bwv-truly-feels-like-home.3229039/

 

[Kidanifan08]

Why? Because sometimes we don't want the work done on our "dime" (that is, interrupting our stay).
Here is my story of one visit where we got to know maintenance too well: https://www.disboards.com/threads/bwv-truly-feels-like-home.3229039/

Ha...ironic that I had the last post in your referenced thread and yours is the first in mine! Certainly, the scenario that you experienced is in the realm of extreme. But honestly, I suspect people notice minor problems, such as ours during this trip, and just live with it. I feel like that leads to problems accumulating to the point of a major issue. If people simply took a minor maintenance inventory upon arrival and reported the problems, there would be less for each individual to report. I'm sure maintenance would appreciate it. We were in the parks most of the day, so their visit was not an imposition, even when the AKV maintenance person came while we were in the room. Personally, I don't expect housekeeping to find many of these things; they clean. This is a condo with many functions and they can't find every minor repair issue. Now granted, a couple of times I waited until checkout to report something, but it was really minor and did not interfere with our enjoyment of the villa.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Well, for some of us, we just wouldn't notice.

I've never used a toaster other than my own. So as long as the toaster isn't already smoking, I wouldn't care.

Now, flickering lights? I would on top of that like a big dog. I HATE flickering lights.

Same with missing or burnt out lights. When I turn on a light I want it to turn on.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Sometimes we have little issues, or that housekeeping may not notice, like bulbs burnt out, so I leave a note listing all the issues when we leave.

 

[ScubaCat]

I believe housekeeping doesn't change light bulbs; that's done by engineering. And given the fact that housekeeping is incentivised to clean large, often messy and dirty villas quickly, there's not much motivation to report that kind of stuff. It's a structural problem with the system as it is set up....and is yet another one of the issues with prepaying for your room for many years in advance.

 

[Cyberc1978]

We stayed at poly in July and some of the spots over the bed didn't work, I didn't bother to call because I didn't want our stay to be interrupted.

 

[jo-jo]

When you call for repairs, if you are in the room at the time, do you feel you need to tip the person?

About 10 years ago, we were at a resort and the drawers wouldn't work. The track was missing a screw or something, which meant the second draw was leaning on the third drawer. We called maintenance. He was there about an hour. He almost took the whole thing apart. His thinking was, if there is missing screws, I better check the other, so I'm not called back.


We felt like we had to tip him. Didn't want to thinking this should be fixed before we got there, but it felt awkward. So we tipped him.

 

[Westcoastwild]

When you call for repairs, if you are in the room at the time, do you feel you need to tip the person?

About 10 years ago, we were at a resort and the drawers wouldn't work. The track was missing a screw or something, which meant the second draw was leaning on the third drawer. We called maintenance. He was there about an hour. He almost took the whole thing apart. His thinking was, if there is missing screws, I better check the other, so I'm not called back.


We felt like we had to tip him. Didn't want to thinking this should be fixed before we got there, but it felt awkward. So we tipped him.

What? No. I would never tip for that. He's probably paid better than the housekeepers for one thing. For another thing, it's not like he was providing a normal guest service. It would be like tipping a plumber or electrician to me. I don't mind the tipping culture that much but I think if you feel like you have to tip maintenance, it's gotten way out of hand.

As for the OP- I really think most people just don't care enough to report stuff like that. I would probably only report the flickering light. The loose hinges and other stuff would just not impact my stay significantly. Or I'd take my pocket knife and tighten it myself lol.

I don't know how Disney does it but burnt out bulbs were part of my job as a housekeeper. Basic ones I changed, more complicated ones I had to report to maintenance. But it can be hard to catch, because unless they're visible, they aren't always very noticeable and I never turned on every single light when I was working.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Our stay in a BCV studio was over the 4th of July this year. It was nigh impossible to open the sliding glass door. We called for repairs. We were in the room when the maintenance worker said the door would need replacement. Another person did verify, and the replacement was done when we were out.

We used the balcony, this was something that needed to be done.

 

[rcchello]

My wife always scans the room for broken missing things and then reports them. If we don't want to be interrupted she lets them know just before we go to a park and it's usually fixed before we come back. She does the same on the Disney Cruise Line with good results.

 

[crisi]

One of the advantages to DVC for a lot of people is that housekeeping isn't in the room. They don't want maintenance there either. Things disappear. So you are making the choice - take the chance your things disappear, take time from your vacation to supervise maintenance, or ignore it. Lightbulbs and closet doors don't rate needing them fixed to me - if they rate needing to be fixed to you, then you make a different choice during your stay. We've had broken towel bars, broken drawers, torn curtains, lightbulbs out (we've been known to move lightbulbs from the fixture we don't use to the one we need). We have things fixed when they impact our vacation - the bathtub that wouldn't stay full.

 

[Westcoastwild]

One of the advantages to DVC for a lot of people is that housekeeping isn't in the room. They don't want maintenance there either. Things disappear. So you are making the choice - take the chance your things disappear, take time from your vacation to supervise maintenance, or ignore it. Lightbulbs and closet doors don't rate needing them fixed to me - if they rate needing to be fixed to you, then you make a different choice during your stay. We've had broken towel bars, broken drawers, torn curtains, lightbulbs out (we've been known to move lightbulbs from the fixture we don't use to the one we need). We have things fixed when they impact our vacation - the bathtub that wouldn't stay full.

I'm not sure if I really understand that. I mean, those people-assuming they are in fact thieves- still have access to your room. They could knock, and if you didn't answer, they could go in and help themselves anyway. You're never guaranteed that staff WON'T come in.

Maybe you mean they'd be less tempted but I think in general staff that steal would steal regardless of temptation.

 

[keishashadow]

We just moved to our second resort of a 2-resort split stay. Our first stay was a 1BR value at Jambo and we just moved into a 1BR at BCV. When we arrived to our room at Jambo, one of the two ceiling lights had 2 burnt out bulbs, a bulb was missing from a lamp in the bedroom, and one of the louvre doors to the laundry closet was loose at the top hinge. I called maintenance, and all 3 problems were addressed within 24 hours. When we arrived to our BCV 1BR, a kitchen cabinet hinge was loose, the toaster was broken, a towel ring was not attached to the wall and a light bulb in the closet was flickering in an annoying fashion. Again, I called maintenance and all 4 simple issues were addressed, this time in less than 8 hours. I find it hard to believe that these things all happened while the previous family was in those rooms. Why don't people just call? It was so easy and it's nice to have a fully functional villa!

Could be they already had a report of the items and it was on their to-do list. Likely scheduled times in staff schedule to address all the issues

 

[crisi]

I'm not sure if I really understand that. I mean, those people-assuming they are in fact thieves- still have access to your room. They could knock, and if you didn't answer, they could go in and help themselves anyway. You're never guaranteed that staff WON'T come in.

Maybe you mean they'd be less tempted but I think in general staff that steal would steal regardless of temptation.

Their card keys register who goes in. So if they don't have a reason to be in your room, and they go in, it gets logged. If they have a reason to be in your room, and something goes missing, its your word against theirs it was ever there. And if they take something like just the numbers off a credit card you left lying in the room, you may have a big problem on your hands that isn't easily traced back to your stay. Some people would rather make theft a little harder than giving someone access.

And maybe you never leave anything laying about your room that you'd mind if it went missing. I travel with teens who have their own debit cards - and I no longer spend time making sure they are organized. I also don't need the worry of just wondering if I brought that extra charger, or left it at home - or if someone took it.

 

[gillep]

We just moved to our second resort of a 2-resort split stay. Our first stay was a 1BR value at Jambo and we just moved into a 1BR at BCV. When we arrived to our room at Jambo, one of the two ceiling lights had 2 burnt out bulbs, a bulb was missing from a lamp in the bedroom, and one of the louvre doors to the laundry closet was loose at the top hinge. I called maintenance, and all 3 problems were addressed within 24 hours. When we arrived to our BCV 1BR, a kitchen cabinet hinge was loose, the toaster was broken, a towel ring was not attached to the wall and a light bulb in the closet was flickering in an annoying fashion. Again, I called maintenance and all 4 simple issues were addressed, this time in less than 8 hours. I find it hard to believe that these things all happened while the previous family was in those rooms. Why don't people just call? It was so easy and it's nice to have a fully functional villa!

I probably wouldn't even notice many of these things. I don't usually use the kitchens at all, except to put water bottles in the fridge and grab the occasional paper towel, I can't remember the last time I turned on a closet light while traveling, depending on the length of the trip I may never open the laundry closet door...

If I did notice these things, I probably wouldn't feel the need to have any of them addressed during my stay, and would call maintenance before we left, and also let the front desk know.

 

[disneynutz]

This has been one of my pet peeves about DVC, housekeeping and room issues. Our family joke is guessing if there will be any room problems during our next Disney vacation. For a couple of years we were making out pretty good with the front desk giving us room credits, gifts, and free meals.

We also reported the issues to the resort and to MS, after several years it became apparent that their policies on housekeeping and maintenance were part of their plan. They don't really care if the guest has to deal with the issues otherwise they could hold housekeeping accountable and hire room inspectors. I guess it's less expensive to issue room credits. What I don't understand is that DVC owners pay for housekeeping and maintenance, why not just make sure that we are getting what we are paying for?

Housekeeping for most stays does a trash and towel and full clean when we check out. Our housekeeping bill for the points that we own was $1672.00 in 2016, Maintenance was $1044.00. The total for our resorts for the year was $27,626,993.00 for housekeeping and $17,609,067.00 for maintenance.

Bill

 

[Westcoastwild]

Their card keys register who goes in. So if they don't have a reason to be in your room, and they go in, it gets logged. If they have a reason to be in your room, and something goes missing, its your word against theirs it was ever there. And if they take something like just the numbers off a credit card you left lying in the room, you may have a big problem on your hands that isn't easily traced back to your stay. Some people would rather make theft a little harder than giving someone access.

And maybe you never leave anything laying about your room that you'd mind if it went missing. I travel with teens who have their own debit cards - and I no longer spend time making sure they are organized. I also don't need the worry of just wondering if I brought that extra charger, or left it at home - or if someone took it.

They could use someone else's keycard or claim they were there to check something, especially maintenance. By that reasoning, no staff member would ever steal anything from rooms because if they had access they'd be an automatic suspect.

I really don't think anyone is going to steal a charger.

And if your kids are leaving their credit cards lying around in a hotel room, they're probably careless elsewhere. I cannot picture doing that- not as an adult, not as a teen either.

 

[crisi]

That's fine for you. Some people still don't want them in their room when they aren't there so that lightbulbs can be changed. You get to make that decision for you - other people will make a different decision. If the closet door bugs you, call maintenance - I would. If it doesn't bug me, then - by definition - its not my problem.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I believe housekeeping doesn't change light bulbs; that's done by engineering.

Yes, engineering does (or at least they did a few years ago). I remember calling housekeeping about a burnt out light bulb, and just saying "Next time you're here would you please change the light bulb". About 10 minutes later, knock at my door-it was engineering. When I held out my hand to take the light bulb, he said "We don't like the guests to have to change the lightbulbs themselves". We had a good laugh while he changed the light bulb-I used to be an engineer, but my specialty was industrial engineering, not electrical, so I guess that's why I wasn't qualified. And they wonder why DVC charges us so much!