How Guaranteed is a Guarantee

[rigsby25]

Because my husband's sister is confined to a wheelchair, I made a reservation in August for a handicapped access grand villa at Old Key West. I received a "guaranteed" handicapped access reservation. We are leaving Saturday morning. When I walked in my husband told me some guy named "Bob" from member services called, and they don't have a handicapped access available. How can they do this??? There are 12 people meeting here and Old Key West is our home resort. How can something be "guaranteed" since August, and 3 days away be unavailable? What does guaranteed mean? And our reservation is for a studio the first night, a grand villa for 5 nights, and a studio for the last night. I e-mailed them 3 days ago to confirm. They want to move us to Saratoga Springs by a quiet pool. I am so angry. I don't want this to spoil our vacation, but it is very hard for me to handle. I don't want Saratoga Springs. Of course, he called 10 minutes before closing and there is nothing I can do until tomorrow. What can I do if anything? Please someone help me to understand. Has any one every gotten a "guarantee" for HA and then found out it wasn't available at the last minute?

 

[clkelley]

I know DVC member services is different from regular CRO, but on our trip in January instead of speaking to Special Services directly, the regular CRO agent told me they no longer transfer guests to Special Services and put me on hold while they spoke with Special Services. Well, when we got to All-Star Music, there were no accessible rooms available. This was a short trip, so it was not a real big deal for us. But hubby does prefer the walk-in shower rooms so he doesn't have to lift his bad knees over the tub.

Next time we need an accessible room, I'll insist on speaking with Special Services myself.

As far as your situation, they may have had an accessible unit blocked out for you, but at the last minute a guest needed to stay longer, or that particular unit requires some repairs, or that building needs some repairs. You just never know.

 

[SueM in MN]

My understanding is that when you make a reservation for a wheelchair accessible room, before taking your reservation, they check to make sure one is available for that time period. A room is blocked off at the time of your reservation and that particular room is reserved for you. So, it is guaranteed.

My guess since it is only 3 days before your arrival, is that something happened to make the GV that was blocked for you not useable. There are only 2 handicapped accessible GV at OKW, so if something happened to one of them and the other was already guaranteed for someone else, they don't have a place they can put you. (One is in building 63 and the other one is unit 4815.)
The wheelchair/handicapped accessible ones have roll in showers, roll under sinks and grab bars in the masterbath and a roll in sink in the kitchen. The rest of the unit is the same as all the other GVs. If she needs a roll in shower, you are out of luck at OKW.

I believe there is only one other GV in building 63 (but Doc probably knows for sure). If she doesn't need the roll in shower, it might be possible for them to agree to block that one for you (but, that's a long shot, since it might already be occupied and they won't move someone to accomidate you). You can access the GV in building 48 and the ones in building 63 without going up a flight of stairs, but all the others begin on the second floor.

SSR has elevators in every building, so if all you need is to be able to get into the GV, you could use a non-handicapped one there.