Blackrock Revisited - An Update

[DebbieB]

Just a short -- and possibly stupid -- question:

DVC used to allow new room assignments for those who were unhappy with where they were placed, charging something like $25 for this service (which they once supplied gratis...). Have they stopped doing this altogether?

If you want to move after you have been in the room, they charge the cleaning fee. It's $25 for a studio, $30 1 bedroom, $40 2 bedroom, $60 GV.

My experience at BWV since room ready started also was that our room was
pre-assigned.

 

[Machta]

So here's a silly question related to this thread. If you made only one request; i.e., nonsmoking, are you more likely to get a room more quickly? We've just be come members, and for us the biggest priority other than NS is to get the room when we arrive about noon. What's the best strategy to do that?

Thanks to all in advance--what a wonderful board this is!

 

[MiaSRN62]

but also stated that the current policy was based on guest comments over a period of time and that there have been few negative comments about the current system.

Doc,
Thanks for taking the time to post the update. Lynn stated the new "room ready" policy was put in place due to negative guests comments and applies to all DVC and all WDW resorts ? First of all, I wonder if they grouped these complaints all together or looked specifically at DVC vs WDW guests comments. Wonder what percent of the negative comments were from Members ? For all we know, the bulk of the complaints could have been from guest staying in WDW resorts ? Or did she specify DVC Members complained ?
I don't feel Members shouldn't be lumped all together with the general public. We've invested alot into our DVC's and I just don't see how the rules can apply to everyone in general. In particular, if a Member who makes a couple requests at 10-11 months out and gets none of them met is just poor policy & customer service imho. With this new room ready policy, a renter at a DVC resort can get priority room assignment over long-term Members (or Members of any length). Not right if ya ask me.
I will make certain I fill out any guest comment cards in the future and let my feelings on the subject be known. I would also like to write a letter to the appropriate persons/depts. And as far as praising CM's---I have written letters and addressed this as well over the years. Most recently was 8/02 when a couple CM's at OKW were extremely kind and attentive to my mil who was not feeling well upon check-in after a long drive there. They really went above and beyond. Just hope this isn't a thing of the past.

 

[MiaSRN62]

and for us the biggest priority other than NS is to get the room when we arrive about noon. What's the best strategy to do that?

I suspect this is why the "room ready" policy was put in place ? If the resorts put more importance on the guest who want to get into their rooms earlier (who knows ? Maybe they had just made their ressies 60 day prior ?), vs those of us that make our requests 11 months out and are unable to check-in until later, then I just don't see it as fair. We, otoh, would prefer to wait until 4 pm if we knew our requests would be met.
Nothing against your comment Machta---I just see that Members and guests who want to get into the room at noon as those that are possibly bumping the requests of Members who reserved almost a year earlier. Maybe I'm wrong on this ?

Welcome to the boards Machta

 

[Machta]

I suspect this is why the "room ready" policy was put in place ? If the resorts put more importance on the guest who want to get into their rooms earlier (who knows ? Maybe they had just made their ressies 60 day prior ?), vs those of us that make our requests 11 months out and are unable to check-in until later, then I just don't see it as fair. We, otoh, would prefer to wait until 4 pm if we knew our requests would be met.
Nothing against your comment Machta---I just see that Members and guests who want to get into the room at noon as those that are possibly bumping the requests of Members who reserved almost a year earlier. Maybe I'm wrong on this ?

Welcome to the boards Machta

Thanks for the welcome--and I couldn't agree more that it isn't fair. From what you all have said, though, the system isn't fair--and, perhaps selfishly, I was trying to figure out how to work it to my best advantage. No offense meant--I agree that it would sure be better for them to change the system.

 

[MiaSRN62]

and, perhaps selfishly, I was trying to figure out how to work it to my best advantage. No offense meant-

I don't think there's any hard and fast rule for getting into a room around noon. But according to this policy, if there is a clean room fitting your requests, you'll get it. But then I'm reading experiences of others who checked in early and had to wait for a room anyway. CarolMn and jbthi have reported not being able to get into their room despite checking in early (and based on multiple experiences) ? So I really feel the resorts are doing what works best for them (as someone earlier pointed out).

I agree with Doc when he said what is the point in having a room assigner ? What is really the point of making requests at all at this point ? Because if someone checks in an hour earlier than me, and has similar requests (regardless of when they booked), they'll be given that room anyway. I guess Machta, just check-in as soon as possible. I'm planning on doing this when we arrive at OKW this August.

 

[SoCalKDG]

So here's a silly question related to this thread. If you made only one request; i.e., nonsmoking, are you more likely to get a room more quickly? We've just be come members, and for us the biggest priority other than NS is to get the room when we arrive about noon. What's the best strategy to do that?

Thanks to all in advance--what a wonderful board this is!

Yes. Since you will take any room except smoking, you have a much larger selection of rooms to choose from(far or close to elevator, top or bottom floor, near or far from buses, etc).

I'm a west coaster and never get to Orlando sooner than 8 PM, and we always fly on Saturday, so we always stay offsite or at Pop/All American for the first night(don't want to waste weekend points, and want to check in early). All you need is one pair of clothes in your travel bag, and toiletries and your all set.

 

[JimMIA]

I disagree with the thought that if you speak up at DVC, you might get on a "bad" list. I might not always agree with how DVC comes up with their decisions for change (room ready, pool slide at OKW, etc.), but I have never felt that a CM would put me on a "bad" list because I expressed my thoughts on an issue.

I'd love to agree with you, but I remember a rather extensive thread started by a CM a couple of months ago saying exactly that there were "bad" lists of "difficult" DVC members.

*****
On a slightly different tack, am I the only one who wonders why they use "room ready" for everybody (if in fact they do)? It seems to me that a normal DVC perk would be that you get your requests -- assuming, of course, that they were limited to a reasonable number of reasonable requests. Especially if you are booking in the eleven-month window at your home resort! Why should cash customers get the same treatment at DVC resorts as owners?

I'm sure DVC could do specific room assignments for owners who book 7+ months out at their home resort. They might very well have to limit the types of requests they honor under that system, and it might be that some of the things we request now would have to fall into the "we'll do the best we can for you at checkin" category. But they could handle the basics - smoking or non, handicap or non, and some preference of view or location.

Frankly, the current system probably benefits me, because I just have a short drive up from Miami. I can be there by Noon anytime, and I can be there by 10 AM if I want to leave early. But if the current system is penalizing people who fly in, or is causing members to stay off-site on their arrival night, it's a lousy system.

[Incidentally, I wouldn't even consider staying at one of the value Disney resorts on my arrival night. If I'm staying elsewhere because I can't get a decent room at Disney, I'll be darned if they are gonna get my bucks for that night away from "Home!" In fact, I'd stay somewhere else and write them a letter telling them their policies cost them a room night's rental.]

 

[mark&sue]

As we fly from UK we too can never get to WDW early. After reading this thread we have now decided that we will book a cheap package from the UK and stay in a hotel near to Universal for the first weekend and visit Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens for the first three or four days and then just leave our room and head over to DVC and make sure we get a bath tub (A lot of British women prefer to pamper themselves in bathtubs!!!!). Hanging around the resort if one is not ready.

This has been very helpful and it could conserve points!!! We could even manage an exchange for a week in europe in the same year as our annual trip to WDW with the points we save.

Many thanks Doc for this most useful information.




Susan

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I'm a west coaster and never get to Orlando sooner than 8 PM, and we always fly on Saturday, so we always stay offsite or at Pop/All American for the first night(don't want to waste weekend points, and want to check in early). All you need is one pair of clothes in your travel bag, and toiletries and your all set.

This applies to our situation as well. Last time we were on a red-eye because I was trying for an early check-in. We will never do this again as we walked around like zombies...desperate to find somewhere to sleep! Next time we will stay at the airport on the first night. Get up bright and early, pick-up rental car, drive by and wave at everyone waiting for Magical Express, and check-in early enough to have at least one of our requests met. That's Plan "A", now for Plan "B"...

 

[Daitcher]

She insisted that "room ready" is the policy in force at all DVC resorts and, in fact, at all WDW resorts.



Doc and others,

Just wanted to state that this is not the case. I just returned (May 1st - May 6th) from the Beach Club Villas. Much to my frustration they were using the room assignment system. We attempted to check in at noon and didn't get in until 4:30. Even at 4:30 I had to "push" a little. I had a conversation with the CM about room ready and room assignment. She stated they are using room assignment to better honor requests. Guess what, I got neither of my requests anyway. Room ready is, to me, the best system. The early bird gets the worm theory you talked about really doesn't apply when using this system. It is more of a lucky timing thing. You can only get a choice of what is ready when you check in. If a room that meets your requests isn't cleaned and in the system, then you can't get it. Your only option would be to try and get lucky later on. They can't give anyone checking in early anything but a room that is ready. Other rooms aren't even listed in the system yet. I share your frustrations I really do. The biggest frustration for me is the different things you hear from different people. They should all get on the same page. Room ready and eliminating all requests other than NS and HA would stream line everything. People would then not be unhappy about getting a specific request. They would be thrilled if it worked in there advantage though. Also families like us with young children who need naps could at least get into a room. Thanks for the post and I hope you are enjoying your trip.


DAVE

 

[Daitcher]

good point on the loss of revenue. why would Disney want anyone staying off site the first night? another problem easily avoided by updating the reservation system to allow requests.

Reading these posts has me a little surprised with the lack of understanding here. Room Ready means a guest can only get the rooms that are ready when they check in. That is all that is in the system at that time. This feeling that "if I arrive later I'm screwed" is wrong. The best room in the house might not be ready until 4:00. The person checking in at 4:15 might get it while the 10:00 a.m arrival gets the left over from the previous day. There is no perfect system guys, but room ready makes the most sense. I'll bet if we started a poll, most guests would rather get into a room than wait all day for a chance of getting there requests. I just waited from 12:00 to 4:30 to get into a room at BCV and guess what I got neither of my 2 requests. BCV by the way is NOT USING ROOM READY. My room was assigned and I had to wait. They wouldn't give me anyhting any sooner. Remeber nothing is perfect. Guests getting into rooms arely is the best system IMO and that means room ready. Please, someone who knows how to start a poll, please do so.


DAVE

 

[Simba's Mom]

Yes, we just returned from BCV too and found "room ready" probably wasn't in force. But it was to our advantage-we checked in at 7:45pm and found all our requests met, and there were even flowers waiting in our room for us, so our room was definitely preassigned just for us! This especially puzzled(and pleased) me because last time I checked in to BCV, at 10:45 am last year, I was given a choice of available rooms, none which met all my requests (surprisingly I'd requested courtyard view and all that was available was Epcot view-aw, shucks!). And when I checked in to BWV a few months ago at around 1:00 pm, I had to wait for my assigned room, unfortunately a HA room, which I'd told the front desk I didn't want.

 

[Dumbo]

Doc,

I don't blame you for being upset. I would be also. How could a villa be vacant for 3 days then become room ready at 9:20 P.M. that night. Do they mean to tell me that all those people checking into OKW have been turning down that villa for 3 days?

Doc, I'm beginning to think that this policy may be localized to OKW. I would seriously do some research at the other onsite DVC resorts to try and get a feel of their particular policys.

Enjoy the rest of your vacation.

Dumbo

 

[jarestel]

There is no perfect system guys, but room ready makes the most sense. DAVE

Dave, why is it a burden to have to wait until the specified check in time of 4:00 pm to get a room? That's the official check in time and that's the time we should expect to check in. Granted, sometimes it's nice when we can get in a little earlier, but that's gravy and I don't think anybody should arrive at noon time expecting to get immediate access to a room. And if DVC used a pre-assigned room system, there would be no need to show up at the crack of dawn at the resort anyway.

I think the theme of this thread is home resort owners booking within the home resort booking window and still not getting anything remotely resembling what they requested. There is no perfect system ( room ready is an example of a very imperfect system, IMO ) but DVC can surely do better than this. Even if they went to pre-assigned rooms for home resort owners booking within the advantage period and "room-ready" for all others, this would be a vast improvement over the current system. Regardless of how you choose to look at it, the fact remains that members who arrive while there are still a number of un-assigned rooms have the possibility of choosing between several different rooms that are "ready" at the time they happen to arrive, while those arriving later in the day have markedly fewer options.

A workable pre-assigned room system does need to take into account the booking windows, which it evidently doesn't now. If it did, I think most of us would be pleased with the results even if we weren't able to access our pre-assigned rooms until the stated check in time of 4:00 PM. No more coming in a day early and staying off-property just to get a shot at a room meeting our needs, and no more worrying about arriving later in the day when all of the "higher demand" rooms have been scarfed up.

By the way, I'd take that bet that most members just want to get into "any room" as soon as possible. I think it's very important to most of us to get some requests, N/S, N/HA, no guys named Dave on either side, etc... >)

 

[DebbieB]

Reading these posts has me a little surprised with the lack of understanding here. Room Ready means a guest can only get the rooms that are ready when they check in. That is all that is in the system at that time. This feeling that "if I arrive later I'm screwed" is wrong. The best room in the house might not be ready until 4:00. The person checking in at 4:15 might get it while the 10:00 a.m arrival gets the left over from the previous day. There is no perfect system guys, but room ready makes the most sense. I'll bet if we started a poll, most guests would rather get into a room than wait all day for a chance of getting there requests. I just waited from 12:00 to 4:30 to get into a room at BCV and guess what I got neither of my 2 requests. BCV by the way is NOT USING ROOM READY. My room was assigned and I had to wait. They wouldn't give me anyhting any sooner. Remeber nothing is perfect. Guests getting into rooms arely is the best system IMO and that means room ready. Please, someone who knows how to start a poll, please do so.

DAVE

When room ready first started, I talked to Jackie Leuders who was the member satisfaction manager at the time. The way you explained it was the way she explained it, that you would not be assigned to a room that is not ready yet by offering to wait for it. You had to take a room that was ready or return later to check what was available. In reality, I can't imagine that this is how they are doing it. You would have some people going back and forth to the front desk all day to see what was open. From reports that people have posted, I think they are assigning rooms at check-in that are not clean yet, the guest just has to wait until later to get the room #.

I asked Jackie the question why do they even take room requests at the time of reservation if they are not pre-assigning rooms. She said it makes the check-in process quicker if the cm sees your requests when they pull up your reservation.

I think DVC underestimates the power of the internet and the fact that they have members who have been around for a long time with long memories. They think they can give responses that members will not realize are not accurate. They should know better that topics like this are widely discussed on the internet.

 

[Doctor P]

It sounds like room ready is not really room ready, but rather "first come, first served." Every room is eventually ready, so applying the experiences we have heard about, it sounds like the implementation is really "first come, first served." That does not seem to be the best system for either the resort or the guest, IMHO.

 

[quentina]

Originally Posted by jbthi
I don't think I believe Lynn Mitchell's story that all resorts have the room ready policy.

We usually stay at BWV. In fact we have 4 times since Nov. We checked in early each time and our room was never ready. In each case they would not tell us our room number but they did tell us what floor we would be on. That sounds like it was preassigned.


I had this same experience this March at BWV. They were able to tell me the floor and the area of the room. My room was correct with what they told me. I checked in at 7am....I had to move from SSR. Personally, thought I would get a better room (thoughts from reading posts), I was told that BWV is pre-assigned. She took out the map and circled the vicinity of the room...It was not ready until 4:30 pm.

Kim

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

Just got back from BWV....unlike Doc, I was told that rooms were pre-assigned.
Doc, everyone, I have a feeling that the CMs often just tell you whichever policy is currently working in favor of the problem at hand. For me, it was that they had pre assigned me this room and only had one other room that would be available for checking in that day....a handicap room. I called the bluff and spolke with a manager and told him that I could handle most anything except lying. I ended up with a great room in the area I had requested and I don't think that there was anyone assigned to rooms on either side of me throughout my entire stay. Granted, this was a Monday check in, and it wasn't at all busy.
If I had showed up at 8pm to check in, I feel sure that they would have said: this is all that is left becasue we are room ready and all the other rooms were taken earlier today.

If we wanted the FAIREST method, it would have to be requests honored by the date of the reservation...if you book 11 monhts in advance, you get first crack at your 'requests'. Of course this is also the hardest one to work with because it does require a CM room assigner and the ability to ferret out what people really are requesting.

If they use room ready and you check in at 11am and the only room ready is smoking when you asked for non---then IMHO you shouldn't be penalized for not taking that room. If you take it, you get an early check in. If you decide to wait because you have to have a 5th floor overlooking luna pool, then you should get to wait if such a room has check out that day.

I think we could all live with most any system...as long as we were told upfront that that was the system and no one pulled a switchie changie on us.

A couple things I noticed: I checked out at about noon (but left the room spotless.) I was at the far end of the long hall at BWV. I spotted one maid and 1 cart the entire lenghth of that hall. I was checking out room numbers/locations for future trips and walked the second and 5th floors that afternoon and saw one more cart and 2 maids. I realize this is DVC and maybe no one was checking out on Thursday, but rooms can't be ready if there are no maids to clean them!

The other thing is that the front desk CMs at BWV have a resort chart with all the rooms color coded and notations made. The CM said she couldn't show it to me but when I said pretty please just a look, she left it (I had to look upside down) out for about 4 seconds. What I gleaned might not be fact, but I think that some of the rooms marked 'standard' are being assigned to 'garden view' On the other my studio...standard view ressie is listed as being PW preferred water view. Last week another Diser had a web cam in their room, a 2 bedroom 2 floors above mine...an dit was standard view (and listed as standard view in the room list I have) .

If I have a point, it is only that I don't think the room assignors or the CMs are always sure what they are giving out or what it is we really want when we say 'standard view overlooking the bus stop'. As for BWV, I've decided that either the standard view or Boardwalk view is fine, but I'm not at all thrilled with the PW rooms overlooking the pools or the courtyard on the boardwalk side(are those rooms over Wyland Gallery boardwalk or PW????
And I sure loved the view from the studio I ended up with...sweet!

I think the job of room assignor would drive me mad in two days! But I would love to teach front desk CMs how to make guests feel great by just showing a littlle more empathy and listening a little harder!

 

[J and R's mom]

I called MS Wednesday to confirm a few requests that I had made for our upcoming stay at SSR. Having read this (and the other) thread, I asked her how reasonable it would be for me to actually expect to get the requests I asked for. I specifically asked her if our arrival time would effect our chances. Her reply was, "No. The rooms are assigned the night before." I said, "Oh, our rooms are assigned the night before we come in?" and she said, "Yes."

From what I've read here, CMs, MS and managers all seem to be saying different things and I'm not sure which of them is more correct.