Here at AKV-Kidani - check in problem :(

[Mlissa88]

Ok...so after 14 hours of driving with a two and a half year old child, I was a bit tired and my nerves were a bit frayed already when I approached the check in desk at Kidani this evening.

I was looking forward to the vacation I'd planned and counted down to every day...watching the website, checking my reservation, making the dining reservations...owners locker....you guys know.what I mean...the usual stuff..

Imagine my surprise when the front desk person told me that I didn't have a reservation at Kidani and that according to members services, I changed my reservation to Sartoga Springs. I swear my mouth dropped open and I said - you're kidding right? She said no and that members services is showing that I cancelled and asked to move to Saratoga Springs. Well folks, I know Saratoga Springs is lovely but my little guy wants zebras and giraffes so I told her that unless they moved some animals over to S.Springs, I can assure her that I most certainly DID NOT move my reservation.

So...after questioning my membership, it's current standing, whether I'm the member or I'm renting, and about 50 other huh? type questions, a 20 minute wait and lots of hushed trips to the back of the office, the front desk person finally came out and said they could get us in the savannah 1 bedroom as I had reserved. She could not explain how the error occurred and I suspect her supervisor thought I was lying because she remarked in a very snarky way that I should be VERY HAPPY that they could do this for me and that I'd be out of luck if it was spring break.

Seriously? So members services screws up and I'm supposed to thank my lucky stars that it's not spring break?

Sorry...just needed to vent. I'm a bit fired up and my husband told me to let it go...but boy that ticks me off. Why the heck would someone have cancelled it? Did they just need a room so they threw us somewhere else and figured we wouldn't care...?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Contact MS in the morning and ask them to straighten this out.

 

[Mlissa88]

Contact MS in the morning and ask them to straighten this out.

Right before I posted this I fired off an email to the DVC member satisfaction team. I'm not overreacting am I? I was thankful that I had printed out my original paperwork and had it with me.

On the bright side though, the resort is lovely...it's the first time I've stayed here and my son saw two giraffes while we were waiting for our "already finsihed" room to be completed.

Funny thing is that while my drama was occurring, a man walked up next to me to tell the front desk that the room that the front desk just assigned to his family was already occupied. I guess they took all their luggage up, used the key, walked through the door and found another family sitting down to dinner at the kitchen table. It took the front desk about 5 minutes to find him a new room (hopefully unoccupied) and I think I was there about 15 more minutes after he left....still waiting.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I was hoping you had your original confirmation. You need to ask MS to research this error and find out how it got changed.

Regarding the other guest's problem. I think that exact same thing was reported by another member recently that happened to them a few days or so ago.

 

[deedeetoo]

I always worry about this type of thing.

I used to travel a lot for work and this has happened to me twice in my work life. Once I showed up and they claimed I had no reservation. Luckily the hotel was not full and I was able to get a room anyway. Then my credit card was charged twice - once for the room I stayed in, and once for the no-show on the reservation. Another time, I arrived in Houston to find out that while I was on the airplane, someone (?) had cancelled my reservation and they had already given away my room. This time the hotel was full so they ended up finding a room at another hotel in the chain that was a few miles away.

I know my stories don't help your problem, but I just want to let you know that stuff happens and really you ended up OK. I agree with pp on checking MS in the morning to make sure everything is straight with them.

 

[Mom B]

I'm glad you were able to get your room after all! Although your situation sounded worse than ours, we also had problems checking in for our January trip.

We arrived at Old Key West only to be told that the entire computer reservation system was down and they couldn't assign us to our room at all. WE waited for half an hour, checked back, and were told it would be at least an hour or more before things were fixed. But fortunately a cast member took our name and checked in the office; apparently they'd run a printout before the system went down and they could identify which room was to be ours. They were able to find out that the room had been cleaned and was ready, and they issued a temporary key so that we could take our gear and put it away before heading to the parks. Then they delivered our 'real' room keys to the room later. We weren't able to using our dining plan that day, either, but they told us to keep receipts and get the amounts credited back later (we ended up not doing that, as we ended up not being too hungry and didn't spend much anyway).

My point is, I hope this is only a matter of getting the bugs out and isn't an indicator of new and possibly ongoing problems with the computer reservation system.

Hope the rest of your stay goes more smoothly than the first part!

 

[Mlissa88]

I always worry about this type of thing.

I used to travel a lot for work and this has happened to me twice in my work life. Once I showed up and they claimed I had no reservation. Luckily the hotel was not full and I was able to get a room anyway. Then my credit card was charged twice - once for the room I stayed in, and once for the no-show on the reservation. Another time, I arrived in Houston to find out that while I was on the airplane, someone (?) had cancelled my reservation and they had already given away my room. This time the hotel was full so they ended up finding a room at another hotel in the chain that was a few miles away.

I know my stories don't help your problem, but I just want to let you know that stuff happens and really you ended up OK. I agree with pp on checking MS in the morning to make sure everything is straight with them.

Oh my! That's frustrating Yes...I know these things happen. I guess I just figured it happened to folks who didn't double/triple/quadruple check things like I do.... LOL... but yes...we're fine, we're here...and all is well

 

[Mlissa88]

I'm glad you were able to get your room after all! Although your situation sounded worse than ours, we also had problems checking in for our January trip.

We arrived at Old Key West only to be told that the entire computer reservation system was down and they couldn't assign us to our room at all. WE waited for half an hour, checked back, and were told it would be at least an hour or more before things were fixed. But fortunately a cast member took our name and checked in the office; apparently they'd run a printout before the system went down and they could identify which room was to be ours. They were able to find out that the room had been cleaned and was ready, and they issued a temporary key so that we could take our gear and put it away before heading to the parks. Then they delivered our 'real' room keys to the room later. We weren't able to using our dining plan that day, either, but they told us to keep receipts and get the amounts credited back later (we ended up not doing that, as we ended up not being too hungry and didn't spend much anyway).

My point is, I hope this is only a matter of getting the bugs out and isn't an indicator of new and possibly ongoing problems with the computer reservation system.

Hope the rest of your stay goes more smoothly than the first part!

Oh I don't know...I think your situation sounds like it was a hassle too with the computers down, it must have been chaos trying to check in manually... I guess we both pulled the check in short straw this year LOL...

Yes. Hopefully the bugs will get worked out and it will be a good new system. Like Deb & Bill said though, I really want to find out from members services who changed it and why. That's a pretty big mistake.

 

[DebbieB]

Did you check your account on the member website? Looks like SSR would be less points so there had to be some points returned somewhere if the change was made.

 

[dzorn]

I would check the members site and look at your activity statement to check and make sure points are not screwed up before you talk with MS.

Denise in MI

 

[Kuzco]

I'm not overreacting am I?

No, I don't think you are, and you are doing the right thing by following up with MS. This is clearly DVC's error, and they should be made aware of it so they can make sure it (hopefully) doesn't happen in the future.

I think I'm usually pretty easy going when it comes to bad customer service experiences, but if I had been in your shoes, I would have been pretty flustered too. I'm glad it all worked out, though!

 

[kristenrice]

I had a situation at Kidani last April with the room assignments. We were traveling with my parents (and limited points!) over spring break/Easter weekend. I had booked us into 2 studios at Jambo house for our first two nights. Then, we moved into a 2BR at Kidani for the next three nights. When I made the Kidani reservation, the CM took all of my info and confirmed the reservation. I then asked her if she could put in a request for a lock-off 2BR. We are a close family, but we wanted to keep a little bit of privacy so the lock-off was like booking our usual 1BR and guaranteeing my parents a studio next door. The CM told me that the dedicated 2BR is the default and that a lock-off is a GUARANTEED category, not a request. She "cancelled" my first 2BR and re-booked us into a "2-Bedroom L/O" as it said on our confirmation.

I was less than pleased to show up in our room (our first stay at Kidani, I might add) and find that we'd received a dedicated 2BR....handicap accessible to boot! Ughh!! I went to the front desk with my confirmation in hand, clearly showing that I'd reserved a lock-off. There were a lot of reasons why we chose a lock-off in the first place and so the dedicated was not acceptable, especially when I was told it was a GUARANTEED category. After several back office conversations, I was told that there is no other rooms available, but they'd have one for us the next day. I accepted that option, but I was less than thrilled that we'd have to move (again) AND be without a room from 11AM until whenever they had our new room ready. This *really* messed things up because my friend was in Orlando that week and we were planning on her bringing over her kids to surprise my kids. Now, we wouldn't even have a room! (Unfortunately, she called that morning and one of her kids got sick and they couldn't come).

The next morning, I went down to check in again and had to explain the mistake, again. I got ZERO sympathy from the front desk staff at Kidani. They kept telling me that a 2BR is a 2BR and that is what I have. I called MS and spoke to one of their managers. What a difference! She put me on a 3-way call with the manager at Kidani. They gave us a $200 credit to our room and I received a text within 15 minutes that our correct room was ready.

After the vacation, I sent a message to member satisfaction. I explained to them that there was an issue with the room assignment at AKV. We plan on booking 2BR's in the future when we bring friends along and we probably will not want a dedicated. I wanted to let them know that the room assigners need to know the difference between a request and a guarantee. I also politely asked them to consider returning my points for that night. Two days later, I got a phone call. They returned the 46 points to my account for the night we were in the wrong room! I was stunned! THIS is why I love DVC. When mistakes happen (and they do), they went above and beyond to make it right by me...and they did. Now that we have those points back, we are able to take our first trip to HHI this spring.

I hope the rest of your trip is magical!! Enjoy those giraffes!!

 

[Tiger926]

Did you check your account on the member website? Looks like SSR would be less points so there had to be some points returned somewhere if the change was made.

I would check the members site and look at your activity statement to check and make sure points are not screwed up before you talk with MS.

Denise in MI

So sorry this happened to OP. Glad it seemed to have been straightened out. Didn't we just read about this happening to another member on the boards recently?

I would highly recommend checking all reservations before you leave for vacation. We always check out the website, as we've had glitches with points being assigned elsewhere, etc. and they seemed to have been computer glitches.

Just as when we check in at other non-Disney hotels, we always check our reservations before we go, as that way, things can be straightened out in the comfort of your own home.

If this happened sometime between travel and arrival, then I guess not much could have been done, so I am so glad that they found the rightful room. Although, it's not necessary to give the OP attitude about how lucky she was to get that room. Newsflash, it was her room to begin with!

Hopefully, OP has a trouble free trip from here on out! Tiger

 

[jekjones1558]

OP, my blood was boiling just reading your story.
Please be sure to check that your points are not messed up. Check several times over the next few weeks. This was likely a glitch with the new computer system and it will certainly be possible that your account is not correct.
I know that many members are looking forward to online booking, but I am REALLY nervous about it. Disney's track record on IT issues is lousy. At least phone calls to MS are taped to provide corroboration.

 

[bobbiwoz]

That was a terrible way to begin your vacation. When I checked into Jambo in December, I was told that they could not exchange my HA room for any other because the computers were down and they didn't know which rooms were empty. That made no sense to me. We lived with it, but they did give us more towels to wipe up the shower water that went onto the bathroom floor.

Bobbi

 

[dzorn]

Although, it's not necessary to give the OP attitude about how lucky she was to get that room. Newsflash, it was her room to begin with!

Who was giving OP attitude I just wanted her to confirm her points were not messed up so MS could fix if necessary.

Denise in MI

 

[RumpleMom]

I'm worried about online booking for DVC. I would be happy being to look online for availability, then callling Member Services to do the actual booking.

 

[dianeschlicht]

OP, my blood was boiling just reading your story.
Please be sure to check that your points are not messed up. Check several times over the next few weeks. This was likely a glitch with the new computer system and it will certainly be possible that your account is not correct.
I know that many members are looking forward to online booking, but I am REALLY nervous about it. Disney's track record on IT issues is lousy. At least phone calls to MS are taped to provide corroboration.

I wholeheartedly agree with Jean. You need to check your account frequently in the next few weeks to make sure there are no other surprises.

 

[Cajun28]

Who was giving OP attitude I just wanted her to confirm her points were not messed up so MS could fix if necessary.

Denise in MI

I think Tiger926 was talking about the attitude OP received from the front desk at Kadani, not the posters here. That's how I read it anyway.

 

[RobPickles]

That's why we always check our reservation confirmation when it comes in the mail, as well as having it on us when we check in. If you have the proof in your hand... I am glad they worked it out for you.