Here at CR and had a problem at checkin! Pics added pg. 5

[fla4fun]

Just wanted to comment on this as well: There is a lot going on behind the scenes... the CM at the desk checking you in is pulling up the available inventory and only seeing what is clean and vacant. It very well might be that there was not anything available in the location that they were asking for. If they call the back office or go back and talk to the room assigner they may have something that the check in CM is unaware of. The room assigner might have a room off the market for some reason or another, there could be a room that is dirty that they can ask housekeeping to clean, the room might already be assigned to someone else and the room assigner needs to rework the requests...there are many reasons why the front line CM might tell you that it is not available and then it miraculously appears. They are not lying to you, they are not trying to be shady or mean...they are supposed to offer the room change the following day in this situation as the first option, which is what you stated that they did. Asking the room assigner to check for rooms that might be held for what ever reason is not something that they normally do (as those room usually are not available for a specific reason).

Considering that the OP commented on the lack of cleanliness (i.e., the Fruit Loops in the middle of the floor) this leads me to believe that this room wasn't considered to be ready for occupancy yet, and probably wasn't showing as ready in the front desk computers. I have found the few times we needed our room right away (when there weren't any ready yet) those were the times there would be a bag of trash left in the middle of the floor, or the room wouldn't be vacuumed yet. Usually a quick call will take care of the issue.

My sister has worked in the hotel industry for many years. Hotels overbook just like airlines. Most of the time, it works out OK, but there are times when EVERYONE shows up, and then some people have to go elsewhere (another reason why I don't check in late at night). I'm not surprised that GF would be an option, as that would be considered to be an upgrade for most people, but I'm surprised they would offer AKL, not only because it's a step down the deluxe ladder, but also because of all the construction issues. Granted, CR is going through it's own growing pains right now, but if I was going to have to change my resort, I would want to change to one of equal or higher price/value, and one without any inconveniences, such as construction.

 

[Desnik]

From your description, it sounds like you didn't give her the confirmation paperwork immediately when you checked in. It is the confirmation that lets them know you have a reservation! If a person came to the front desk and gave ID but not their confirmation papers, I'd naturally assume they were a walk-up. It sounds like as soon as you gave her the confirmation papers, there was no longer a problem, which makes perfect sense if the whole problem was that they thought you were a walk up.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding

When we walked up to the check in desk we gave our name that the ressie was under, and our ID. We said we had a ressie and I had the confirmation paper work on the counter in front of her. She acted like she had the ressie in front of her on the screen. She double checked our address which I assume was in front of her on the screen. After the whole phone call to whoever, no room issue she said she was going to talk to a manager she took the papers with her that I had on the counter. I pointed out to her where it showed I had booked this resort with a tower MK view room.

I completely understand what you all are saying and I know this stuff has to happen sometimes. What I don't understand is why it happened to me since I booked such a specific room and no switch, except maybe a MK view at the POLY would've compared. If I had booked a garden wing room and didn't really care about being at any particular resort then I would've gone over to the GF. Definately not the AKL because like I said to the CM the room they offered there was a downgrade and I paid $445 a night for this room.

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

I completely understand what you all are saying and I know this stuff has to happen sometimes. What I don't understand is why it happened to me since I booked such a specific room and no switch, except maybe a MK view at the POLY would've compared. If I had booked a garden wing room and didn't really care about being at any particular resort then I would've gone over to the GF. Definately not the AKL because like I said to the CM the room they offered there was a downgrade and I paid $445 a night for this room.

I understand what you are saying and it does make sense... but when they are in an oversold situation they are looking for the shortest reservations, The least amount of nights to "walk to a different property. In your case you said you were booked for two nights, that is why they picked you. They don't want to send someone that is booked for a week. Also since you say she verified your address and everything seemed to be right in front of her, I am certain you were flagged as a walk.

As for the options, they take what they can get. When the hotel is oversold, the room assigner/operation support CM's hold rooms all over the place, whoever has them they hold, but they can only walk "down" in extreme circumstances, meaning from CS you would not be offered Port Orleans. The Deluxe resorts will walk to other deluxe resorts or the Grand, it may seem like a downgrade (and I would agree especially since AKL is under construction), but deluxe to deluxe is how they look at it. I have seen some great walks, like All Stars to Old Key West one bedroom villas and I have seen some bad walks, like Beach Club to the Treehouses (wow I just dated myself there...but yes I did have to walk someone at 1am from BC to the defunct Treehouses).

 

[mark&sue]

I so totally agree with Desnik. She has paid in advance a lot of money and have been confirmed that she will have a room at that particular resort and paid extra for that particular view. If it was a "might have" she may have decided not to go there at all. If you are on honeymoon and book and pay for a honeymoon suite that is what you would expect to get.

I understand that I cannot guarantee what block I get at Saratoga Springs (currently!) but if I pay for something specific and get written confirmation that is what I expect.

If you are saying that is not the case. I will worry now even more now everytime I book and pay for anything in the future. Wow because I worry enough as it is!!

Desnik so hope you have the best break ever. I have read your previous posts and know you deserve to have such a special time.

Thinking of you 4,000 miles away but I will be really hoping you have such a great time. Don't forget to let us know how your trip goes.


Susan

 

[G8r4evr]

Well, to me it sounds that they could have a room when told NO originally. The CM said, I'm sorry, we are booked, you can move to ....., that is a lie. I'm sure it is not the CM at the computer, but someone somwhere is not being honost. (for reasons unknown to us customers)

Exactly. If they said "We are running low on the room that you booked" that would make more sense.

As far as being oversold, I really have no sympathy. Hotels charge you a late cancellation fee, they can charge you for your full stay when you are forced to leave early (which recently happened to us) and then they still overbook? When a guest reserves a particular room type and received a CONFIRMATION from the hotel, they should get that room type/view or be offered an upgrade. From the OP, it did not sound like she was offered an upgrade to make the move...

 

[LoriZH]

Glad you're having a romantic time

We had the same problem with the mousekeeping so make sure you get on top of that because they more guests complain the more apt they're to do something about it. The bus service was our dealbreaker for going back so feel free to complain about that too so that it will improve and I can come back to my favorite resort

I would bet that one of the other couple's were the walk up and they just made an error that's all. I didnt' show my paperwork either when I walked up and they couldn't find my reservation at first because it was under my maiden name but that's a story for another thread, . I did dig out my confirmation and they found it no problem. They were very accomodating to us too, no wait, I loved that! I felt the monorail shake the hotel too, lol thought I was losing it at first! God, I miss that place now, bus and all!!! lol

 

[TJA]

I wonder if you had the same CM as we did a couple weeks ago. A young woman, dark straight long hair, didn't catch her name. In my opinion, how a CM handles a situation is worth more than the actual outcome. In your case, she should've handled it more like "would you have any interest in staying at GF" to gage how you feel about the situation.....then lead into they have erroneously overbooked and are looking for someone who would be interested in changing resorts. In my case, we ran into a slight issue with our toddler twins on check-out morning and asked the CM for an extra half hour and she abrubtly said "no ma'am" and that was it. In my opinion, she should have kindly said she'd ask a manager. I ended up asking the manager on my own and he said it was no problem to stay in our room the extra half hour, by the way.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[bavaria]

Well in the defense of the guest if they have a confirmed reservation for a specifc room and have the confirmation with them and they are told it's not available, or the whole Resort is sold out as in the case of the OP I would also be mad and demand that I get the room I reserved.

The point is that sometimes you can 'demand' all that you want, the room doesn't exist. In this case the OP was fortunate that the room she wanted was indeed available, and it worked out for her.

A hotel cannot construct a room which does not exist - sometimes things happen. A room could be flooded and thus out of service, or other maintenance issues occur.

Since I am taking Hospitality & Toursim Adminstration in College this has been a topic we have talked about in some of my Hotel managment classes and the Hotel does their best to accomodate the guests.

There are also Cast Members posting on this thread who are confirming what can and most likely did occur. The hotel does indeed do their best to accommodate guests, but sometimes they truly cannot do so.

As far as being oversold, I really have no sympathy. Hotels charge you a late cancellation fee, they can charge you for your full stay when you are forced to leave early (which recently happened to us) and then they still overbook? When a guest reserves a particular room type and received a CONFIRMATION from the hotel, they should get that room type/view or be offered an upgrade. From the OP, it did not sound like she was offered an upgrade to make the move...

Hotels, airlines, and rental car companies all overbook as there is a certain 'no show' factor involved. If they DIDN'T overbook, not all rooms/seats/cars would be filled, and the hotels/airlines/car rental agencies would need to increase prices in order to offset the empty rooms/seats/cars. At WDW, the 'no show' factor is somewhat easier to calculate due to a strict deposit/cancellation policy, but there are still 'no shows' (flight delays, emergencies, or people who simply forgot to cancel)

I agree that the CM did not word things correctly - as several of us have pointed out, a well handled relocate can be a win for both the hotel and the guest. While in this case the OP would most likely not have moved (and I understand that she had planned a particular type of trip), had a guest been offered a room at another deluxe resort with some kind of upgrade to a view or a suite, they may have been willing to take the offer.

I once asked a CM at CBR if they were oversold and volunteered to move to any other moderate to help them out. In that case, I had no emotional attachment to the resort. In this case, the OP DID, and she chose not to move. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that decision, but that may not always be the case - in other situations the hotel may be so oversold that there truly IS no room for the guest

And as a side note, I can assure you that most front line CMs absolutely hate having to offer a relocate to a guest. They anticipate that the worst will happen and are thus nervous or tentative, which only makes the situation worse for all parties involved. I suspect that this CM was very nervous about having to make the offer to the guest, and luckily the OP handled it with grace. (Thereby most likely making it easier for the CM in future!)

 

[Artoo]

Good for you, I'm so glad you stuck to your guns and got the room that YOU reserved! Hope you and your husband have a very magical time!

 

[Luv2Roam]

I am VERY glad the OP got the room she wanted. I can understand as I booked MK view just last Febnruary (one night) just for the view.
It does sound like the room was not quite ready for occupancy.
Having had a filthy WDW resort room (not at CR) now I know I would immediately call for housekeeping.
On the other hand if they had offered to take me to GF I would be asking about the room and perks!
We have had a great MK view at the GF this past Spring, with concierge. And the concierge was a free upgrade.
I would just ask what are ya gonna do for me?

Hope you have a magical stay!

 

[CPer'sMom]

On the other hand if they had offered to take me to GF I would be asking about the room and perks!
We have had a great MK view at the GF this past Spring, with concierge. And the concierge was a free upgrade.
I would just ask what are ya gonna do for me?

Exactly!! While I realize that the OP specifically wanted the CR, I probably would have asked what type of room they would "walk" me to at the GF If you are willing to be moved there's usually a very good chance you'll be getting a great room for your trouble.

 

[JerseyMamaBear]

CDSTapisRouge: How often do they walk people who stay 4 nights and how often from all stars? keeping my fingers crossed!!

OP; enjoy your trip and PLEASE send us some nice pictures of your room and view. we would love to see what you booked

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

CDSTapisRouge: How often do they walk people who stay 4 nights and how often from all stars? keeping my fingers crossed!!

Walking is not something that comes up everyday. I would say that out of 365 days we probably walked maybe 10 days (and that might even be on the high end). There is a lot of attrition, which is what they are looking for when they oversell, which evens things out. People that check out early, switch resorts, cancel at the last minute, miss their flights, etc. etc. All Stars are kinda tricky too because they will walk to the other All Stars or Pop before they go outside. If everything is booked at all of those then they will try for Moderates, I think I only had one time were we got All Star walks (I worked Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge and Old Key West) most of ours came from other deluxe resorts. The thing with Walks too is that each resort has a different way of handleing them. We would try and offer the walk before having to force it and the counts had to be even before 10pm so that the graveyard crew was not left oversold. However if you take a resort like Coronado, they live and breathe the attrition game. Being that they are a convention resort and a lot of convention rooms default it would not be strange to see them still oversold 5 or 10 with 30 due in at 10pm because out of that 30 still expected to arrive they are banking on 15 no shows... where at WL by 10pm 95% of the time everyone is already checked in and/or there are only 3 or 4 left to arrive so things would need to be taken care of earlier in the day!

The thing with the longer stays is that they will sometimes only move you for one night and then you will have to go back the next day or pay the difference of the other hotel. That doesn't happen often, as they do try and find the short, one or two night reservations.

 

[JerseyMamaBear]

CDSTapisRouge thanks for the info...

 

[star2500]

I had to post to this thread. We have reservations at the Contemporary next month. All I can say is this...if they don't have my room you all will hear me from the disboards . Seriously...planning a trip, spending tons of money, regardless if it is one night or ten, and to be told when you are checking in we don't have your room. Unless they offered me a suite or something way better than what I had booked ...like maybe Cinderella's Castle suite lol...seriously it would have to be something better...I would be highly pissed.

I get what all the CM's are saying and it happens in all hotels...it still stinks royally. Especially the kind of money we all spend there. I just can't fathom it.

I had to reply...my insides were turning as I read this thread.

I'm glad it worked out for you and you are having a great trip.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Just wanted to comment on this as well: There is a lot going on behind the scenes... the CM at the desk checking you in is pulling up the available inventory and only seeing what is clean and vacant. It very well might be that there was not anything available in the location that they were asking for. If they call the back office or go back and talk to the room assigner they may have something that the check in CM is unaware of. The room assigner might have a room off the market for some reason or another, there could be a room that is dirty that they can ask housekeeping to clean, the room might already be assigned to someone else and the room assigner needs to rework the requests...there are many reasons why the front line CM might tell you that it is not available and then it miraculously appears. They are not lying to you, they are not trying to be shady or mean...they are supposed to offer the room change the following day in this situation as the first option, which is what you stated that they did. Asking the room assigner to check for rooms that might be held for what ever reason is not something that they normally do (as those room usually are not available for a specific reason).

After reading what you just said, maybe you can try to answer this for me. Last December when my parents and I checked in on the Atrium Club floor the Cast Member who helped us said our room would be on the Bay Lake side, however she said at the time it was being cleaned and would be ready in 10-15 minutes and this was just before 4:00 PM, which is after the 3:00 PM check-in time. We said ok no problem and we would wait in the lounge. Anyway I go to make a phone call to one of my friends and I am walking on the Bay Lake side, so no one has to hear my conversation and I noticed there were no housekeeping carts which I found to be very odd since the room was being cleaned. My Dad goes and asks the Cast Member and now she claims something is being fixed in the room, so we have to wait a bit longer. Well at that time we were not happy because it had been 30 minutes of us waiting for our room and in that time I never saw anything to indicate someone was up there fixing something. Then another Cast Member who we remembered from our previous stays on the Atrium Club comes up to my parents and I, with 3 room keys for a Magic Kingdom view room and apologizes about our wait. In my mind I am thinking where was this room before because when we checked in we had asked if the Magic Kingdom side was available and we were told no it was not. I also want to say we never out right complained about our room not being ready, we just wanted a straight answer since we were told two different reasons and we would have been happy with the Bay Lake view. Personally I thought the 1st Cast Member could have been a lot nicer to us because she saw on the computer all our stays on the Atrium Club, so I thought that was no way to treat returning guests. I also think if we got a Cast Member who remembered us at check-in things would have been different and they would have done more to get us our room a lot faster.

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

CR resort fan 4 life: Without having been there I can only speculate based on the information that you gave. From reading it, it sounds to me like the room might have been in PIK status which means that it is "clean" but needs to be checked before letting anyone check in. This happens if someone is checked in to the room and room changes right away, or if there was something that housekeeping was doing to the room. It could also have been that the carpets were deep cleaned that day, when that happens the room has a release time, before it is released it has to be physically checked. In either of those cases they would tell you the room is not ready or housekeeping is working on it and you would not see housekeeping carts and/or commotion in the area because the status of the room doesn't warrant it.

As far as the MK view question... It is possible that the room they gave you was assigned to someone else and that when it was determined that the Bay Lake room was not going to be ready in the amount of time they had estimated, they took the MK view room to give to you since you were already there and waitiing and gave the Bay Lake room to the people that were originally assigned the MK view as they had not checked in yet.

Again it is speculation as I was not there, but PIK rooms are common, time release for carpet cleaning is very common and switching rooms out with someone that has not checked in yet is the norm!

I agree if you get a CM that knows you things will be faster and more accomodating simply because they know you. But in the defense of the other CM she has no idea how many time you have stayed there. There is a notatin that says repeat guest, but it doesn't say how many times you have been there and most CM's filter the check in search by last name and the date so they would not see all the listing of your previous stays (which don't stay in the system very long anyway). Grant if you feel she could have been nicer, then she probably could have and there is no excuse for that!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

CR resort fan 4 life: Without having been there I can only speculate based on the information that you gave. From reading it, it sounds to me like the room might have been in PIK status which means that it is "clean" but needs to be checked before letting anyone check in. This happens if someone is checked in to the room and room changes right away, or if there was something that housekeeping was doing to the room. It could also have been that the carpets were deep cleaned that day, when that happens the room has a release time, before it is released it has to be physically checked. In either of those cases they would tell you the room is not ready or housekeeping is working on it and you would not see housekeeping carts and/or commotion in the area because the status of the room doesn't warrant it.

As far as the MK view question... It is possible that the room they gave you was assigned to someone else and that when it was determined that the Bay Lake room was not going to be ready in the amount of time they had estimated, they took the MK view room to give to you since you were already there and waitiing and gave the Bay Lake room to the people that were originally assigned the MK view as they had not checked in yet.

Again it is speculation as I was not there, but PIK rooms are common, time release for carpet cleaning is very common and switching rooms out with someone that has not checked in yet is the norm!

I agree if you get a CM that knows you things will be faster and more accomodating simply because they know you. But in the defense of the other CM she has no idea how many time you have stayed there. There is a notatin that says repeat guest, but it doesn't say how many times you have been there and most CM's filter the check in search by last name and the date so they would not see all the listing of your previous stays (which don't stay in the system very long anyway). Grant if you feel she could have been nicer, then she probably could have and there is no excuse for that!

Thanks for that information.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I agree if you get a CM that knows you things will be faster and more accomodating simply because they know you. But in the defense of the other CM she has no idea how many time you have stayed there. There is a notatin that says repeat guest, but it doesn't say how many times you have been there and most CM's filter the check in search by last name and the date so they would not see all the listing of your previous stays (which don't stay in the system very long anyway). Grant if you feel she could have been nicer, then she probably could have and there is no excuse for that!

In response to this I thought whenever you check into a WDW Resort you have previously stayed at, the computer screen brings up you're history? On a previous stay at the Contemporary on the Atrium Club at check-in one of the Cast Members working up there mentioned to us that we have had a lot of stays there since May 1998, which is when we started to stay there. So I had thought she would have seen this, which is why I mentioned us being returning guests to the Atrium Club.

 

[deej696]

I was a front office manager at a luxury hotel in Orlando for a while, and the situations that CDSTapisRouge speaks of are very common. We would often go into the day oversold, however I absolutely hated walking guests. As a result, we would offer guests throughout the day the opportunity to relocate, and we would pick up the tab. Most of the time this worked out fine, and we went into the overnight shift even or at worst oversold by 1. Walking guests can be very expensive to the hotel, as in addition to picking up the tab for the one night away, most would be offered additional compensation such as dinner in our restaurant, etc. In my opinion, it was cheaper to have someone willingly relocate at 5pm, than to force it on someone at 2am.

We would also have the same situation that CrResortfan observed, where a room was "being cleaned" and no housekeepers were on the floor. Most of the rooms were cleaned early in the day, however they all have to be inspected by a houseeeping supervisor. In addition, the housekeepers would have to take break around 1pm, so it was not uncommon for there to be no one cleaning rooms between 1 and 2pm, prime check in time on a weekend. Luckily, our hotel only had 250 rooms, so I would often go inspect rooms myself to speed the process along.

Unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens in the hotel business. Short of calling in advance to see if the hotel is overbooked, there really isnt a way for guests to avoid things like this. In my opinion, the CM at the front desk in the situation with the OP was either new or poorly trained and didnt know how to handle it. In addition, I am a firm believer that if a hotel needs to walk a guest, the manager should be the one doing it. I would never have asked one of my desk agents to walk a guest. They werent involved in any of the decisions that led to the hotel being over booked, I was, and therefore it was always me doing the dirty work to clean up the mess. Clearly the managers in this situation found it safer to hide in the back office, and thus the situation was handled poorly...