Decline in levels of service and cleanliness

[Mouseaholic!!!]

"Also how many requests did you make at each of the hotels you stayed in Europe? "


I'm sorry.....I believe you may have misunderstood his posting.

Room requests have absolutely nothing to do with adequate cleaning staff preparing rooms in a timely fashion....clean rooms are clean rooms. A room request does not impact the cleaning staff at all.

I still stay ff the Marriott World Center outside WDW can do it so well....so can the much smaller BC/YC....etc.

Lots of big hotels have convention facilities....they manage with lots of requests from guests and still check us in early.

As I posted before......EVERY hotel expects many of it's guests to arrive early. It's not rocket science it's the hotel industry standard.

 

[jimmymac]

I was referring to your earlier comment that "most guests booking a hotel/motel do not have the same number of requests during their travels as they might have when booking a WDW resort" because of all the info now available on the internet. Hotels in Europe (and elsewhere) also have the same variety of information about their own rooms available on their websites. So one may request a room facing the Piazetta San Marco, smoking, with a private bath and a balcony. I did request such a room. I told the hotel I would be arriving around 1PM. I arrived at 10:15 AM and was in my room within 15 minutes. 4 star service. In Paris, I requested a room with a private bath overlooking the Tuileries. Check-in time was 1 PM. I arrived at 9:30 AM. I was in my room in 10 minutes. 4 star service. When I went to DL last week, I arrived 3 hours early. I was in the room within 15 minutes. When I arrived at BC last December, I had made all my requests very clear. When I arrived at the hotel at 1:30, they did have a room available. I had asked for a room with a full balcony, high floor, facing Epcot. I was shown to a room with no balcony, facing the parking lot and the construction work being done on the YC roof. Trekking all the way back to desk, I made my unhappiness know. They had a room ready for me which met my requests. 3 hours later ("Why don't you visit the Boardwalk while you wait?"). 1 star service. 4 examples of showing up at a 4 star early, 3 room requests met. Only WDW failed to meet expectations. When I went out to get dinner later, CMs were still cleaning rooms. At 6PM. Staff cuts were responsible for my wait at WDW, not a difficult request. I do enjoy my travels immensely. I just wish the service at WDW was as efficient as it used to be

 

[G8RFAN]

Hey, any mousekeepers on this board? I'd love to hear from the horses mouth as to why Disney isn't getting the job done. Not excusing anyone, but part of the problem with labor contracts is that we as consumers have no idea why simple solutions aren't such simple solutions regarding service. As an employer, many times you are handcuffed with how much flexible hours and part time staff you can bring in with a labor contract. There are many things that are negotiated at the table that could impact service that remain confidential. Should Disney maintain an open checkbook, as a "happy employee is a good employee"? Do mousekeepers want to clean more rooms per employee for the tips? Or would they rather have less hours and less rooms but higher base salary? Or does Disney want to keep more part-time mousekeepers without full benefits? These are all valid labor issues that many franchise operators don't have contracted labor restrictions to deal with.

 

[minnie61650]

"Also how many requests did you make at each of the hotels you stayed in Europe? "


I'm sorry.....I believe you may have misunderstood his posting.

Room requests have absolutely nothing to do with adequate cleaning staff preparing rooms in a timely fashion....clean rooms are clean rooms. A room request does not impact the cleaning staff at all.

I still stay ff the Marriott World Center outside WDW can do it so well....so can the much smaller BC/YC....etc.

Lots of big hotels have convention facilities....they manage with lots of requests from guests and still check us in early.

As I posted before......EVERY hotel expects many of it's guests to arrive early. It's not rocket science it's the hotel industry standard.

So if only 5 rooms meet my requests and only 1 of those rooms will be vacant that morning that room should be ready when I check in at 11:00 AM?

Sorry, my room is very rarely ready when I check in... in Vegas, in Tunica, in Chicago, in LA, in Myrtle Beach, in Cincinnati, in Traverse City, in Naples, in Denver, in Hawaii etc. I often have to wait for my room to be "readied" for me.
In fact my room is often ready as soon as I check in at WDW but not at the other hotels. If my room is not ready at WDW my waits are typically a lot shorter at WDW than at the other hotels I have stayed in.


Do you want to know why?
Because there are a very limited number of rooms that meet my needs.
I need a handicapped accessible room that has a roll in shower.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[EUROPACL]

So I assume you'd be familiar with these facts.
Unless of course the Holiday Inn had 100% room-readiness, the likes of which you would undoubtedly be accustomed to. In which case let's hope Disney sends some people over to the Sunspree to figure out what their secret is asap!

The "fact" is that neither a Holiday Inn Sunspree or All-Star Motel 6 has 100% turnover in any one day. The "fact" is people check out early, on-time, and gosh even late...and most Hotels (maybe this is the problem we are talking about a Motel in the case of Disney) know how to handle simple request like having rooms ready at check in time....or even in the wild case of a early check in time, which when living in a beach area hardly ever happened. I know that you feel better about "Disney's All-Star Motel give the guest the bare minimum" by mocking Holiday Inn...but trust me they have more Hotel experince than Disney does. Heck Holiday Inn will even give you directions to another Hotel, I remember many times even calling around for guest to get them rooms at other hotels because they weren't exactly where they thought they would be staying (lack of knowledge of the area) I remember one 4th of July where we opened up the Confernce rooms and allowed people with no rooms or reservations to stay the night in there instead of sending them 2 hours away to find there were no rooms in that town either.


Oh and "before the Internet" when it was still a play thing for Schools, The Military and just a glimmer in Al Gores eyes Hotel guest still had many request. Upgrades, Floors, Check-in times, yes even specific rooms like the nuts around here

 

[EUROPACL]

Do you want to know why?
Because there are a very limited number of rooms that meet my needs.
I need a handicapped accessible room that has a roll in shower.

Just my 2 cents.

The real question is why if you know there are a limited number of rooms at any given place do you continue to demand a early check-in knowing that Hotels have a check in time of 2-3 pm? Its like knowing that breakfast at McDonalds ends at 11 but you go there everyday at 12 demanding a breakfast order.

 

[Another Voice]

Most guests booking a hotel/motel do not have the same number of requests during their travels as they might have when booking a WDW resort.

So Disney gets to lower their standards because we're all nothing but a prancing pack of prima donas?

How silly.

Disney's "reservations" are harder than what Vegas has to deal with? Harder than what a hotel hosting a thousand member convention? Harder than the vacation crowds going to San Diego or elsewhere?

By the gods - that must explain all the screaming tantrums thrown in the lobby! Thankful I only have to deal with actresses and directors, I'm somehow blessed not to be dealing with a family of five from Cleveland!

Once again we get the same bald face excuse: blame the guests. Not only is this so plainly untrue, such a thought verges on the very edge of disrepect to all of us who are paying a large premuim for "Disney Magic".

This is the market that Disney has choosen. They either service it well or they should step aside and let good companies do it for them. Disney used to run excellent hotels. The only thing that has changed is that have chosen to lower their levels of service to increase their profits.

It's now to the point where people no longer wish to overlook the gap between Disney quality and Disney price. You may continue to make-up all kinds of funny little excuses, but people are leaving and taking their money with them. Disney can either deal with the problem or continue its slide downhill.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Ok......

Another Voice.......I'm just going to post as "ditto" from the short blonde in Maryland under each of your posts.

You are right........as usual.

People can make excuses for Disney's declining service....but the harsh reality is...it's simply not what it once was while others continue to offer quality customer service.

Perhaps someday WDW will remember how......when they are ready, they can train at Holiday Inns!!!

 

[minnie61650]

The real question is why if you know there are a limited number of rooms at any given place do you continue to demand a early check-in knowing that Hotels have a check in time of 2-3 pm? Its like knowing that breakfast at McDonalds ends at 11 but you go there everyday at 12 demanding a breakfast order.

I never demand a room when I check in early.
If we arrive early and the room is not ready we store our luggage, put our valuables in the hotel safe and go sightseeing, or maybe we do a little gambling if we are staying at a casino, or maybe we will check the area out to find a nice to place to dine.
Sometimes , I may go golfing with my DH if there is course nearby or we are staying at a golf resort.(I ride along in the cart.)
When we are at WDW we will go to one of the parks.

It is a nice plus if our room is ready when we check in early but in the end all that matters to us is that I get a clean room with a roll in shower.

 

[Fitswimmer]

It's now to the point where people no longer wish to overlook the gap between Disney quality and Disney price. You may continue to make-up all kinds of funny little excuses, but people are leaving and taking their money with them. Disney can either deal with the problem or continue its slide downhill.

If as many people are taking their money and leaving as you indicate-why aren't we seeing that in the crowd numbers? Now, those could be different people and Disney is losing loyalists, but I've been going at least 2x a year for the last 10 years and I certianly haven't seen a drop in the lines.

There's going to have to be a noticeable drop in bookings before Disney makes any changes-they're like any other business, they're going to have to feel it in the pocket. As long as there are people to replace the ones that stop coming, real change just isn't going to come.

 

[EUROPACL]

I never demand a room when I check in early.
If we arrive early and the room is not ready we store our luggage, put our valuables in the hotel safe and go sightseeing, or maybe we do a little gambling if we are staying at a casino, or maybe we will check the area out to find a nice to place to dine.
Sometimes , I may go golfing with my DH if there is course nearby or we are staying at a golf resort.(I ride along in the cart.)
When we are at WDW we will go to one of the parks.

It is a nice plus if our room is ready when we check in early but in the end all that matters to us is that I get a clean room with a roll in shower.

Ahhh..so you do go other places...great! Now when you go to these other hotels do you expect to have your room by check in time? Do expect the hotel to have enough staff to service the hotel? Do you expect good customer service? Or are these ideas just a wide eyed dream that only a "pilot program" at Disney can and should offer?

 

[EUROPACL]

There's going to have to be a noticeable drop in bookings before Disney makes any changes-they're like any other business, they're going to have to feel it in the pocket. As long as there are people to replace the ones that stop coming, real change just isn't going to come.

You mean like closing whole hotels, rate codes never needed before or free food.

You would be surprised just how crowed a park can look when you close 5 rides, half staff it and cut the hours of the park by 4 hours and lets not even bring up what fastpass has done to the real lines or the EMH.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Ahhh..so you do go other places...great! Now when you go to these other hotels do you expect to have your room by check in time? Do expect the hotel to have enough staff to service the hotel? Do you expect good customer service? Or are these ideas just a wide eyed dream that only a "pilot program" at Disney can and should offer?

....laughing....

touche!

 

[Another Voice]

There's going to have to be a noticeable drop in bookings before Disney makes any changes...

As Mr. Euro pointed out - it's very doubtful Disney is offering free dining programs as way of burning off excess profit.

The Animal Kingdom Lodge has been all but shut down for "construction" at the height of summer - after it was decided to change over entire floors to timeshares. The entire north garden wing of the Contemporary was been leveled. An entire half of the Pop Century resort sits rotting in the sun. Disney sold off everything southeast of Bay Lake to a foreign hotel company; it's leasing another huge tract of land to a bunch of motel operators.

Which of these developments says that Disney's own hotel business is growing nothing but pansies and roses?

It's clear that Disney has seen major problems in its hotel operations. But, sadly, Disney still refuses to solve them. As with most things now at Disney, they appear to be choosing the laziest way out - they're dumping the problem on someone else. If the Grand Floridian isn't attracting the five star crowd - the Disney solution would have been to fix the problem. But instead Disney choose to sell hundreds of acres an Arab sheik so he could build a pamper palace for the rich.

All we’re asking of Disney is to do the things they used to do so well.

 

[raidermatt]

I hadn't been following this thread.

Great service is now a pilot program for Disney? Not something they think they should do, but something they need to test and evaluate to see if they should do it?

No wonder they gave up and sold to Four Seasons.

 

[EUROPACL]

I hadn't been following this thread.

Great service is now a pilot program for Disney? Not something they think they should do, but something they need to test and evaluate to see if they should do it?

No wonder they gave up and sold to Four Seasons.

Its not even "Great Service"...its a adequate service pilot program.

 

[Wick]

Disney's "reservations" are harder than what Vegas has to deal with? Harder than what a hotel hosting a thousand member convention? Harder than the vacation crowds going to San Diego or elsewhere?

How can you hold this contention when in the past you've ridiculed some of the kool-aid drinkers on the Dis for making insane requests, right down to the room number?

What's it gonna be? Either you believe that Disney has got it easy in comparison to other tourist sites (as you mention above) or you despise the true-believers for going crazy over their ressies thus making the whole process increasingly more complex.

 

[Another Voice]

Ask any resort hotel in the country and they will tell you that they get plenty of guests that try to reserve a specific room as well. Disney is not unique - only in how poorly they handle the sutuation. I stayed in one resort hotel, when I checked out I mentioned how great I though the room was. When I booked the hotel again several months later, I recieved a personal e-mail following up on my reservation asking if I wanted the same room again.

If you think that's such a bother that Disney can't handle it - then you have an even lower opinion of Disney's ability than I do.

 

[Wick]

Ask any resort hotel in the country and they will tell you that they get plenty of guests that try to reserve a specific room as well.

Right. So why ridicule the blind-followers of Disney who do the same?

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Wick - we are not.......

Our frustration stems from the fact that Disney SHOULD be able to give the same service an over-worked Holiday Inn (and other busy hotels) can.

There is honestly nothing special about Disney checkin situations vs. other busy hotels....other than the customer service offered.