Hotel checkin to ask about requests…

[Dave006]

... when someone doesn't like the room they have been assigned, for whatever reason, and they go to the front desk to ask for a different/better room, where is this supply of different/better rooms coming from?

It may be a room that was not booked or a room from a guest that made no requests. Yes more than 50% of Guests make no requests. They just want an available room as soon as they walk in the door. They want to enjoy the parks and pools and don't plan to spend all day in their room looking at the a relaxing and positive vibe of their feng shui resort room.

s the complainer being given a room that was previously assigned to and intended for someone else who hasn't yet arrived?

Yes but not from a guest that has made requests on their reservation. The Front desk CM often has to check with the magical back office to approve a room change. And as a reminder, requests are just that and 1 or more requests may not be honored. Easy requests are the most frequently matched. Upper floor, near the elevator(s), and near pool or transportation options.

The funniest requests are often concerning a sunny balcony in August when the "real" feel temperature is often above 103 degrees.

What happens if the complainer already entered the original room?

They are often stuck with the room for first night or 2 and then offered a move to a room that may better match their specific requests.

It bothers me to think that if I arrive late multiple families may have already been inside my room checking to see if it met their satisfaction and then I arrive and get the rejected room.

You don't need to worry about that as you rush to your Disney resort. But if you feel better just make a request for a room that has not been rejected by multiple previous guests. I am just joking at this point if it is not obvious by now...

Dave

 

[Robber Baron]

We usually go to the resort early in the morning to check in, 8 am to 10am.

Even if the room isn't ready they will tell us the general area and whether or not our requests are met. If they have something available that doesn't exactly meet what we wanted they will give us the option of taking that.

Ex: We stayed Grand Destino Tower for one night and then we had 4 rooms reserved for the next 5 nites with a request to be near each other. At 7 am we went to desk to check out and check in to the new reservation. The 4 rooms they had blocked out for us were all next to each other, but, none of them were ready now. They had one room ready 1 floor down and around the corner now, and, we decided to take that and went in immediately.

They say all the rooms are allocated in advance. When I worked in hotels in college I know rooms will be switched out and rearranged throughout the day to satisfy the guest who is in front of you at the moment who is unhappy with their room. I know someone will soon post that their brother in laws cousins dry cleaner worked front desk at Poly in the 80's and say this never happens at Disney, but, I will not believe it.

I'm showing up to check in as early as I can.

 

[Mle8308]

We usually go to the resort early in the morning to check in, 8 am to 10am.

Even if the room isn't ready they will tell us the general area and whether or not our requests are met. If they have something available that doesn't exactly meet what we wanted they will give us the option of taking that.

Ex: We stayed Grand Destino Tower for one night and then we had 4 rooms reserved for the next 5 nites with a request to be near each other. At 7 am we went to desk to check out and check in to the new reservation. The 4 rooms they had blocked out for us were all next to each other, but, none of them were ready now. They had one room ready 1 floor down and around the corner now, and, we decided to take that and went in immediately.

They say all the rooms are allocated in advance. When I worked in hotels in college I know rooms will be switched out and rearranged throughout the day to satisfy the guest who is in front of you at the moment who is unhappy with their room. I know someone will soon post that their brother in laws cousins dry cleaner worked front desk at Poly in the 80's and say this never happens at Disney, but, I will not believe it.

I'm showing up to check in as early as I can.

Many years ago I was a room assigner at Disney (CBR back when it was 2112 rooms). And yes, that is pretty much how it worked. We would look at incoming reservations 5 days out and start blocking rooms based on requests (we would run an arrivals report for the date and then look at reservations with requests). If it was just for a first floor room, we might block something or might not, due to the number of rooms we had. Or we might block it but add a comment for the FD person that the room could be changed to meet the request with no approval from the "magic back office" needed. If it were a connecting room request, we would block and add an override so a FD person could not move the room themselves, it had to be done by those magic back office people. Often applied to other requests, too. We did frequently switch rooms around based on the guest in front of you, as long as it didn't interfere with another person's request. Two people may have requested first floor, one with a request to be close to a bus stop and the other just first floor. We might swap out the requests and give the complaining guest the room close to the bus stop if the other first floor request was just for the first floor. Hope that makes sense! If we were sold out, happened a lot back then, it was a constant game of Tetris, filling "holes" between requested rooms with current arrivals, all sorts of things! It was challenging but I loved doing it. Back then, we did not assign a room to every reservation, the FD Cast used auto room select at check in. If a guest was not assigned a room, the system would know what inspected rooms in that category were ready and it would allow the CM to choose one. If you were nice at check in, you got the better room (location wise). If not so pleasant, your room might be near the elevators, ice machine, or in the furthest section away from everything, as long as the category matched. All rooms had to be used - so someone has to stay in them on a full night! But yes, by arriving earlier in the day, there are more rooms that have not been checked into, so more to work with. Doesn't always mean someone else is denied their request to fill it for the person in front of you. You have to remember, most people don't have as much knowledge of the resorts and room requests as posters here and on other Disney focused boards, so many have no idea what to ask for. Sorry for such a long winded post!