Are the Disney Hotels Under a Microscope on the DIS?

[Eyesnur]

With all of the complaints that are a constant here on the DIS I was wondering how many hotels do you think could stand up to the constant stream of public critique that the WDW hotels do?

With sites like the DIS that offer such annonymity and are full of like minded people looking for the best bargains, best room view, best treatment it seems to me that even if Disney EXCEEDS guest expectations to the same degree that other hotels only SATISFY guests they will still fall vctim to the small percetage of guests that have complaints, be they legitimate or not.

Given what I've laid out and taking NOTHING away from those with legitimate complaints, I wonder is the perception of the WDW Resorts here on the DIS really fair or accurate? What do you think?

 

[DisOrBust]

Yes they are put under the microscope because they choose to be. WDW advertises WDW renowned quality and 24 hour majic while staying at their resorts and charge prices accordingly. Their room rates are basically doubled off property rates for this "majic and quality". To stay competitive they best be providing it.

 

[bat4less]

AGREED

we have recently stayed at the HIFS and it matched up well with their pricing- i wouldnt want to stay there again, although the kids loved it- but for 70 ducks what would you expect- we've also stayed at the GAYLORD PROPERTIES recently and it lived up to their pricing also- which was much more in line with wdw- well above 200 for conc serv- but it was a legit resort with all the amenities and the experienced staff and well trained employees. they made mistakes but corrected them immediately- much more like what we run into in the ' real ' world of resorts and conc services- unlike wdw conc

if wdw continues to charge the amount they do- which they will and even more very soon- then their quality of trained people has go up with that increase.

 

[Wenlitz]

I dont think its to much to expect a clean room with clean bedding. Disney or anywhere else. I dont like paying $200.00 a nite for a dirty room and the sheets not changed in 9 nites. When you read the discription of the rooms in the Disney guide book it never says unclean rooms, bad housekeeping or take it or leave it. Just my opinion

 

[DisneyFan79]

I will have to agree with Wenlitz. I personally am not gonna pay 150-400 dollars a night for a room that is not been kept clean. For the money, the rooms aren't that spectacluar to begin with. You pay for service and you pay for the place you are. Disney is not cheap to begin with, but I think a lot of the corporate side has fallen short of the main idea here. Walt wanted a place where "EVERYONE" could go. As far as complaints, I feel as though I pay enough money to get the most out of my vacation. A lot of people only travel here once every few years and save that long just to take their families. I would hate to be one of them and have my trip ruined due to some of the things I have heard on here. Disney is supposed to be a higher standard. They are the ones that set this standard. Now it is expected of them.

 

[Wenlitz]

WELL SAID DISNEYFAN79

 

[Eyesnur]

I think you guys are projecting a little here. I wholeheartedly agree that unclean rooms at any Hotel are unacceptable and I AM NOT trying to absolve Disney Hotel from these legitimate transgressions...

What I'm wondering though is do other hotels really do better? How would we know? Few places have 20 Resorts and even fewer have websites dedicated to every tiny little aspect of the company. Sure we here an occasional report of other stays but nothing like the multitude of reports we get centralized on these specifc Resorts.

DisorBust pointed out that the microscope is on Disney because they choose it to be but really do they? How can they possibly deal with the onslaught of information thrown back at them by well informed guests who read these sites (and the numbers grow daily).

So while I appreciate every comment so far...They have all been good, remembr that I'm not trying to excuse poor innkeeping rather trying to discuss the unusual situation of WDW innkeeping.

 

[Eeyore1954]

I believe there are two reasons why it appears Disney is under a microscope here.

1. This board is focused on all things Disney.
2. It's well established that people have a tendency to post complaints more than they post compliments. That's just human nature.

So you are going to hear about the disappointments, the horror stories, the complaints here more than you will read about happy stays. To get a balanced view, I'd suggest reading some of the Trip Reports or Just Say Thanks boards. That will tend to balance out the complaints.

 

[ZachnElli]

There are other boards for other places. I know I visited boards before we went to Hawaii last year and they talked about different hotels just like they do on here. Some got picked apart, some got raves. Even on some of the discount websites for travel, there are places for people to review everything, and I for one read them. I don't think that Disney is under more of a microscope, it might be that this is all you know for travel boards, but there are others! Gasp! LOL!

 

[cinder1]

If your question is whether or not other hotels/resorts live up to the standard set for WDW, I'd say yes, depending on what you pay. My DH and I have stayed in hotels/motels/bed and breakfasts/resorts running from budget to 5 star. Now of course you get more amenities and more service if you pay more, but I only remember 1 motel that was grossly not clean. Of the nice places we have stayed (on par with WDW moderates and deluxes), we have never had a problem with a clean room or with services.

As for not being able to see opinions of other places, that is changing with the interet. My DH seems to be able to find opinions and reviews of almost anything!!

 

[Wenlitz]

The reason were are complaining about Disney is because these are the Disney boards.
We LOVE Disney and I am starting to plan our next trip. Over all I am amazed how clean the parks are and the restrooms. I do think for the most part they do an above average job.
I know if someone had said were sorry we'll take care of this right away and had done so I would be complimenting them all over the place.

 

[Eyesnur]

I agree that there are other websites with pertinent info on just about every place you could want to go, but still in my experience they are not visited, updated and such with such fervor and exuberence as the Disney sites. Heck lots of us visit these sites just to chat with no visit even in site.

It is a good point that the ability to 'even the score' exists on the DIS as well, but it seems to me that lots of personal bias, disappoitmnt and complaints get passed along here and given time can start to look legitimate to a newbie. Does this seem unreasonble to you guys?

 

[vbfamily]

I know Disney does have @ 20 resorts which I think would make it easier to do it right. Each one has its own management, etc. so I treat them as seperate hotels.

I know others don't have entire chat boards devoted just to them and are not under a microscope. I have stayed in plenty of hotels that know how to make someone happy. Disney does goof sometimes and it seems to be more frequent lately. They just need to remember "the customer is always right"-and even if they are wrong-Disney should do anything they can to make things right.

I'm sure there will always be people who will have bad experiences no matter how good things are but things haven't been that good lately at some Disney hotels.

I often compare Disney to the Sheraton we stay at in Clearwater Beach-the customer service at the Sheraton Sand Key is absolutely wonderful-anything goes wrong and it is handled immediately without anyone sighing or rolling their eyes-which has happened more than once at Disney.

I don't think Disney's situation is very unique-each resort has the opportunity to shine or just be and there are certain ones who know how to do it right and there are ones that continually have problems.

If an independant hotel continually had problems like some of the Disney hotels do it would probably go out of business or change owners. The Disney hotels won't do this because people just keep coming-they want to stay on sight and aren't very likely to check out of the hotel due to a bad experience because they don't want to ruin their dream vacation to Disney World.

If we check into a hotel in Clearwater or Sarasota, etc. and don't like it, we check out and try something else. This is less likely on site at Disney World-because people have planned for weeks or years and come from near and far.

 

[Eyesnur]

Very good VBfamily...But I want to know that with the advent of the net and all of these Disney sites just how can Disney placate everyone when you know darn well many, many people will be looking for complaints ust to get comped (sad as this is). Certainly I agree an unclean room stuation doesn't even fall into this catagory (this should NEVER happen) but wouldn't it be impossible for Disney to ferret out the 'grubbers' from the legit? I personally think this is one of their big issues right now.

 

[bennie]

I've recently read trip reports where the poster has been accepting of a 45 minute wait for checkin and another has been accepting of mold in a bathroom. I travel extensively and would never tolerate either situation. I wonder if some of the posters here just don't have a lot of travel experience and therefore do not have high expectations.
We pay a premium to stay on-site at WDW and we don't necessarily get the best room for the buck.
The value for your money comes from the transportation, the really neat pools and the landscaping etc. But the rooms themselves are lacking in amenities. Moderates have no closets yet we are lucky if we can get them for $120/night. A Fairfield Inn may not have a closet either but I'm not paying more $75/night. So if I'm getting less room to begin with I want it to be clean at least.

Try checking out Fodors.com if you want to see the microscope examining other hotels.

 

[Epcotgal8]

Originally posted by ZachnElli
There are other boards for other places. I know I visited boards before we went to Hawaii last year and they talked about different hotels just like they do on here. Some got picked apart, some got raves. Even on some of the discount websites for travel, there are places for people to review everything, and I for one read them. I don't think that Disney is under more of a microscope, it might be that this is all you know for travel boards, but there are others! Gasp! LOL!

I agree. Admittedly I don't visit other travel forums nearly as often as those devoted to WDW since WDW is our favorite vacation destination but I have on occasion. You will find similar discussions and critiques of hotels as you will here. Is Disney happy that their guests are so well informed now because of the internet and forums like these? Probably yes and no. I'm sure they would rather have a room booked at a non-discounted rate instead of us knowing about and asking for various discounts. And I'm sure if a manager from WDW reads forums (and I bet they do) that they might be disheartened if "their" hotel or restaurant is getting bad reviews. BUT for every bad review of a place there are plenty of good ones to compensate. If a place continually gets bad reviews then maybe there *are* problems that they should address. On the other hand look at all the FREE publicity WDW gets on the forums! I know reading the forums always makes me want to start planning our next Disney trip! And we all know that a more informed vacationer is going to enjoy their experience more. All my friends and family know how much we enjoy WDW so they'll sometimes tell me, "so and so who works with me went to Disney World and they had an awful time and said they's never go back." This always intrigues me so I always ask what went wrong. It usually turns out something like they went on the week of 4th of July and didn't expect it to be so hot and crowded, didn't know about early entry mornings, didn't know they could make p.s. arrangements ahead of time and were ticked they couldn't just walk up to CRT and get in, had no idea of what rides and attractions were where and had to stop, look at a guide map every 5 minutes, didn't know about Fast pass, stayed offsite 5 miles away and were irked they had to deal with traffic...you get the point. So now they come away with negative feelings toward WDW and won't go back when they probably would have a whole different opinion if they had found these boards and were better prepared for their trip. One more point and then I'll stop since I know I am getting long winded. Even though I'm sure WDW would prefer to book a non-discounted room I'm pretty sure they'd rather book a discounted one vs. none at all. My son's friend's mom was talking to me one day after school and she said she had gone to her travel agent and had this ridiculously high quote on their WDW trip and that they couldn't afford it so they had decided not to go. I told her about these and other forums, how to check for discounts, etc. and they ended up going in Dec. and had a wonderful time for a whole LOT less money than she'd been originally quoted. Disney might have lost a few $$ on the discounted room but we all know that they make up for it elsewhere - tickets, food, souvenirs... Ok end of rant now. Sorry so long!!

 

[Eeyore1954]

Epcotgal8 -- excellent points! An informed guest is usually better than an uninformed one, but some information, especially from boards like this, tends to raise expectations or add new ones that the resort may not or cannot meet.

Example: someone reports that they mentioned their DD or DS birthday on the reservation and the resort puts a balloon or cake or autographed photo of Mickey or Minnie, etc. in the room for their arrival. Wow - what great Disney magic for them.

Problem is other people read that, mention their DD or DS birthday on reservation, arrive, check-in, go to room and no cake, no balloon, no photo, nothing. Are they disappointed? Yes, because they expected the exact same magic someone else got.

This can be applied to things like arranging plush toys, leaving towel animals, special treatment at restaurants for b'days, anniversaries, engagements, getting discounts, etc. People are more informed and with that information expectation for Disney to deliver more and more "magic" increases.

Information is good to a certain degree, but there are those people who read something and think this is the Disney standard, when in fact it was just a bit of "magic" (special treatment) given to someone. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish that on here.

 

[>>^..^<<]

I agree that the disney hotels are under a microscope... but I also feel they are looked at through 'rose coloured glasses' sometimes - we overlook problems - because we love staying onsite so much.

There are great offsite hotels too - but it's just not the same to me - I want to have the whole Disney experience.

>>^..^<<

 

[eeyore0062]

No, I don't think many resort hotels are would stand up any better under the scrutiny that those on this board put on the WDW resorts.

Some of the complaints are justified, but some are just plain picky!

 

[bridgettesmom]

I honestly believe that the positive and negatives reviews are a tool to help everyone (a newbie or a veteran) plan a better vacation.You know what to or what not to expect...your expectations stay real.If a couple got an anniversary cake and balloons and another couple went and no one even acknowledge their anniversary and you are planning an anniversary trip you know that can go either way.If you get the cake and the balloons great,if you don't get anything you already know it happens too. We have never gotten tower animals and I have never been upset because of this.I honestly look foward to our next stay to see if the next time we will get them.As far as people complaining to getting comp's,I have to say that they don't need to read about it on this board.We travel often and we have seen it everywhere and I have yet to see a board dedicated completely to Hilton,Loews,Marriott,Fairmont,Four Seasons,etc.

I have also read about complains in this board that I consider ridiculous ( I won't go into details),but, you have to understand that some people will complaint no matter what.Some people will look and look until they find something wrong,but,that is just their nature.When I look at these I just laugh and don't pay them much attention.

To sum it up,when I first came into to these boards I learned a lot about the good and the bad.On our last trip, even though we had been to DW over 20 times, I saw everything thru different eyes and we were able to enjoy our vacation better thanks to all the information that I got from these boards.