Customer Service at WBC

[katallo]

Wow, I am surprised at the negative reviews for WBC regarding customer service. We have noticed a decline in front desk friendliness and response time, but thought we hit a bad day. I guess it is continuing. It's such a nice resort. Hopefully, things will improve with staff, check in procedures and responsiveness. I know people tend to post negative feedback, but there were quite a few all involving customer service.

 

[DCTooTall]

Wow, I am surprised at the negative reviews for WBC regarding customer service. We have noticed a decline in front desk friendliness and response time, but thought we hit a bad day. I guess it is continuing. It's such a nice resort. Hopefully, things will improve with staff, check in procedures and responsiveness. I know people tend to post negative feedback, but there were quite a few all involving customer service.

I haven't seen all the reviews you are mentioning, but I can see several reasons for the complaint.

1. This isn't a hotel. It's a Timeshare resort. They don't have the same ability to "make things right" as a hotel would. People renting a room aren't paying this resort, so it's not like they can credit your stay. The budget for the resort is paid out of maintenance fees, so they don't have the resources to give "bar credits" or such paid for from the nightly room rentals. They can't give upgrades like a regular hotel because it's a timeshare and the way the inventory/points are handled... even paid upgrades. People expecting a Hotel-like experience or customer service are not going to understand the core differences between the time share resort and a hotel.

2. somewhat related.... But as this resort has become more and more popular for the rental crowd, there have been more and more demands put upon the resort staff. Between people requesting room views, or demanding their daily housekeeping visits, or complaining about or expecting hotel-like experiences and services... The demands and stress that the employees have had to deal with have increased dramatically. This not only can cause more delays in responding to issues, But if people constantly are complaining or yelling to you about the same stupid things that are out of your control, It's not surprising if you have a harder time keeping the smile on at all times.

3. And the primary sales at the resort are winding down. I wouldn't be surprised if, along with the money the sales department was spending on subsidizing the bus service, they were also putting money and resources towards other parts of the resort operation. Either way, I could see there being some additional budget tightening as a result which could translate to employee moral or resources.

 

[winterwhite]

I haven't seen all the reviews you are mentioning, but I can see several reasons for the complaint.

1. This isn't a hotel. It's a Timeshare resort. They don't have the same ability to "make things right" as a hotel would.

Not quite true. There is a hotel, as well, which is the standard rooms that do NOT have kitchenettes, etc and are located in the central, taller building.

The 1,2,3br units are the timeshare units. Someone renting points would not have all the hotel service, but someone booking a hotel room through wyndham/expedia/orbitz etc would be getting wyndham hotel service, daily housekeeping, etc as is standard in a hotel.

 

[DCTooTall]

Not quite true. There is a hotel, as well, which is the standard rooms that do NOT have kitchenettes, etc and are located in the central, taller building.

The 1,2,3br units are the timeshare units. Someone renting points would not have all the hotel service, but someone booking a hotel room through wyndham/expedia/orbitz etc would be getting wyndham hotel service, daily housekeeping, etc as is standard in a hotel.

They are two completely separate properties and managed entirely different.

the timeshare resort came first. This is the "Wyndham Bonnet Creek" which everyone here is talking about. It consists of the "Main Building" which composes of the lobby, Sales Center, and Activities desks (as well as some office space and a few guest rooms), As well as the 6 Timeshare towers.

Wyndham Worldwide, Who is the corporate parent of both Wyndham Vacation Ownership and the Wyndham Hotel Group (operators of the various Wyndham chains, Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, etc), Decided to also build a hotel within the overall resort property.

The Wyndham Grande Hotel at Bonnet Creek was then shoe-horned and built into the resort property. This property is operated and budgeted separately from the Timeshare group. I believe that the Grande does contribute a fee towards the maintenance of some of the resort amenities (such as the pool upkeep) in exchange for allowing the hotel guests to take advantage of the pools which the Time Share resort paid to build and maintain for the owners.



The Wyndham Grande was the last building built on the property and is located on the back-side of the property.

The topic here (as is most conversations on the Dis talking about "Wyndham Bonnet Creek) was regarding the timeshare resort. The Hotel is only about 2yrs old at this point (vs. the 2004 opening of the "Fairfield Bonnet Creek" timeshare resort as it was known before Wyndham acquired the Fairfield Timeshare business and renamed it) so most of the conversations around here regarding Wyndham Bonnet Creek predate the hotel's existence.