given someone else's room@checkin???!!

[dianeschlicht]

It's my understanding that the checks you describe only occur upon arrival. When you step up to the front desk, the cash / points price of a reservation is due and payable at that time. It's not like the dollars or points continue to accumulate as the trip progresses. The points are effectively removed from your account when the reservation is secured (unless a timely cancellation occurs), and the credit card is charged cash rates upon arrival.

I see what you're saying in that tighter integration would seem to be called for, but I've yet to see any evidence to support the existence of such checks and balances.

When mistakes do occur, most would seem to work themselves out. The guests who the computer believes have departed have no intention of leaving. Therefore you end up with these "new guest walks into occupied room" situations, and the front desk gets involved to fix the problem. There's the potential for embarassment and outrage from the guests involved, but little financial exposure to Disney. That's probably why the system hasn't been re-written to truly solve the problem.

Your assessment is exactly what I think is happening in these instances also. I doubt that the front desk is very often aware of someone not vacating a room unless the housekeepers report it. So many of the housekeepers don't speak English enough to know how to do that, so it goes unreported, and the "self extender" just stays on and the front desk looks like they have egg on their face.

 

[lizanne]

I understand why people are saying to use the security lock, but this isn't always possible.

In our case sometimes my adult children are with us, sometimes other family members or friends. We don't always travel together all day and if someone returns to the room to get a shower, or take a nap, you can't use the security lock because someone else may come back to the room when you can't let them in.

Now that I think about it, I remember when my DH and I were leaving last year it was about 8:00 AM. He called the front desk to let them know the room would be empty in case housekeeping wanted to come in and clean. He was told it didn't matter to the front desk. Housekeeping wouldn't come until after 11:00 and they would let the front desk know the room was empty.

 

[tjkraz]

He called the front desk to let them know the room would be empty in case housekeeping wanted to come in and clean. He was told it didn't matter to the front desk. Housekeeping wouldn't come until after 11:00 and they would let the front desk know the room was empty.

To make matters worse, calls to the "front desk" are actually routed to an off-site call center. They can sometimes help with routine issues, but communications between this call center and other resort services are often non-existent.

I've heard people say that they call the housekeeping line marked on the phone and tell them they are leaving. I'm not sure that's any more effective than the "front desk" call. Is the person answering the "housekeeping" line really going to communicate our departure to the ladies waiting to service the room?

Personally, I leave the "DND" sign on the door until we are ready to leave, and then remove it. If we pass a housekeeping CM while packing the car, I'll let her know the room number and that we'll be gone shortly.

 

[DVC-Don]

I have had people try to get into our room at midnight, saying they were given that room by the front desk. It turned out the Cm has transposed numbers.

I'm niving this to the Mouse board, as this isn't really DVC Operations.

Yep, this happened to us at OKW a few years ago after 9 PM. I called the front desk and they said I must be mistaken. I then asked to have security sent, but they never showed up. We would not let them in and sent the "new" guests back down the stairs with all their bags and groceries. They had opened the door but, the bar prevented them from getting inside. The guy got his hand inside and was trying to unhook the bar, but got his hand stuck and starting screaming.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Yep, this happened to us at OKW a few years ago after 9 PM. I called the front desk and they said I must be mistaken. I then asked to have security sent, but they never showed up. We would not let them in and sent the "new" guests back down the stairs with all their bags and groceries. They had opened the door but, the bar prevented them from getting inside. The guy got his hand inside and was trying to unhook the bar, but got his hand stuck and starting screaming.

LOL! Well I am glad to hear that those security bars do work on the room doors!

We have never had guests try to enter our room while occupied by us, but this past August at the Sheraton Universal in L.A. we checked into our room, looked good, all clean, bed made etc. While DH was in the bathroom I started to unpack. "Sweetie..have you unpacked your clothes yet?" "Why no Sweetie, we just got here.." "Well, then we are in someone else's room - the drawers and closet are all full of someone's clothes already!"!!!! YIKES!!!

We called the front desk who immediately sent Housekeeping up to gather up all the clothing into bags and remove it from our room. They assured us that nobody would be trying to enter our room, but I confess I was listening quite a bit that first night, lol.

 

[kimberh]

This is Scary, I can't tell you how many times we have entered our room to drop everything off and head out the door to eat or go to a park. I mean even my purse. I will never do that again! On regular park days, I always put my wallet into the safe, but on day 1 I am so excited to get started!
When we are in the room I always have the security latch on. We have been walked in on once too many times.

 

[FOTM_Ring_Bearer]

We've been one of those people getting someone else's room. We had arrived at the Dixie Landings really late. We hauled our stuff to the room and tried to unlock the door. Someone inside said something. So, we hauled our kids and stuff back to the car and went back to registration. I would have thought they would have fixed this problem by now.

On another note, this last trip dd and I had just gotten in our room (BWV) at around 11am. Housekeeping called and wanted to know if we were extending our stay. I told her we had just checked in. The room had been cleaned. It was just weird. Why didn't they know the room was cleaned and the other people were gone.

 

[sjdisneywedding]

LOL! Well I am glad to hear that those security bars do work on the room doors!

We have never had guests try to enter our room while occupied by us, but this past August at the Sheraton Universal in L.A. we checked into our room, looked good, all clean, bed made etc. While DH was in the bathroom I started to unpack. "Sweetie..have you unpacked your clothes yet?" "Why no Sweetie, we just got here.." "Well, then we are in someone else's room - the drawers and closet are all full of someone's clothes already!"!!!! YIKES!!!

We called the front desk who immediately sent Housekeeping up to gather up all the clothing into bags and remove it from our room. They assured us that nobody would be trying to enter our room, but I confess I was listening quite a bit that first night, lol.

lol, boy after reading these posts I would be listening too.

 

[sjdisneywedding]

I understand why people are saying to use the security lock, but this isn't always possible.

In our case sometimes my adult children are with us, sometimes other family members or friends. We don't always travel together all day and if someone returns to the room to get a shower, or take a nap, you can't use the security lock because someone else may come back to the room when you can't let them in.

Now that I think about it, I remember when my DH and I were leaving last year it was about 8:00 AM. He called the front desk to let them know the room would be empty in case housekeeping wanted to come in and clean. He was told it didn't matter to the front desk. Housekeeping wouldn't come until after 11:00 and they would let the front desk know the room was empty.

yeah its tough when you have situations like that, you wont be able to always cover every instance, but its still good to be aware. at least be able recognize to make sure its on at night, or if everyone is in for the day, or if 2 people are going back then one will be able to open the door

personally I would rather be woken up from a nap to open the door for my family, rather than be woken up by some stranger standing in my room
or rather hop out of the shower to open it for my family rather than have a stranger walk in my room while Im in the middle of my shower

 

[goofy4tink]

hugh? are you saying that the housekeeping determines which rooms are vacant by pushing a button?

I would certainly hope not! I would hope the main computers that the front desk uses would contain the info on check in check out dates for each room

maybe thats the problem

I've had it happen to me....walked into a room, only to find it strewn with clothes and toys. Evidently the current guest had decided to stay an extra night...not sure how the housekeeping staff managed to show it up as clean and vacant though.
But....the system is a pretty good one. How else would the main computers at the front desk know when the room/villa is clean and vacant? I guess they could 'assume' that the guest had really left the villa and than housekeeping had been in there and was finished. But, in all reality, they have to wait to get the word from housekeeping. Now, if they could get a few more housekeepers per resort, it might go a bit faster.

And, we always keep the security lock on when we are in the room. My dd has questioned the need, but when I told her that someone could make a mistake and give our room to some other guest and that person could just walk into our room while she was walking around in her towel...yep, she got the picture!!

 

[sjdisneywedding]

I've had it happen to me....walked into a room, only to find it strewn with clothes and toys. Evidently the current guest had decided to stay an extra night...not sure how the housekeeping staff managed to show it up as clean and vacant though.
But....the system is a pretty good one. How else would the main computers at the front desk know when the room/villa is clean and vacant? I guess they could 'assume' that the guest had really left the villa and than housekeeping had been in there and was finished. But, in all reality, they have to wait to get the word from housekeeping. Now, if they could get a few more housekeepers per resort, it might go a bit faster.

[\QUOTE]

nevermind on that post, it was referencing something other than what you are describing. I get the whole push the button to indicate a room is clean and either vacant or occupied and that would be important to note on check out day only.

what I didnt/dont get/buy/accept is that the button is pushed on other cleaning days and that could effectively cause a non checked out room to be checked into by the front desk

the front desk should have some other db or flags within it so that it would never matter if housekeeping pushed a button a million times for a non check out room for that day.