I am getting really grossed out by the lack of cleanliness in DVC units

[mickeysgal]

I agree with the original poster...I have seen a lot more hair in the bathrooms upon check in. A damp rag/mop would take care of that...so makes you wonder what they do????

Thats what prompted my original question. We too have seen hair on the floor of the bathroom during several of our last visits. It wasn't a one time thing. I wonder if they just sweep or vacumn the floors rather than actually mop and disinfect them. Again, what is the definition of "clean" when they prepare these units?

 

[sigillaria]

I've been an owner for 14 years
Have been to OKW-HH-VWL-SSR

NEVER have I had a dirty room. A couple of burned out bulbs is all.

 

[kathleena]

Wow, I am really surprised to hear you say this, esp. the last sentence. As an owner, your opinion is just as important as anybody elses, but still shocking nonetheless

As shocking as someone going into apoplexy over the possibility of no towel animals at DVC?

Bwaahahahahahahaha

 

[kathleena]

I'm wondering if MY expectation is different than what ACTUALLy happens.

To me, precisely the issue. Not you personally MickeysGal, just the general gap in expectations.

 

[chrissyk]

Thats what prompted my original question. We too have seen hair on the floor of the bathroom during several of our last visits. It wasn't a one time thing. I wonder if they just sweep or vacumn the floors rather than actually mop and disinfect them. Again, what is the definition of "clean" when they prepare these units?

OK, so at least it's not just me who is seeing this time and time again on recent visits. I'm sorry, but hair in the bathroom grosses me out, especially when it's not mine!! There is no way that they swept, vacuumed, or mopped the last few units that we've stayed in. There was THAT much hair. I could go on, but I'm grossing myself out. I'm definitely doing a check of the sheets from now on at least...I didn't think to check them out in the last dirty unit. I wonder if they'd even been changed

 

[winjos]

We stayed at OKW in September and had a room that wasn't quite up to par either. There were a number of leftover items from the guest before us, rolled up used blanket on the closet floor, a light wipe down (except the top of the frig ), and the floors vacuumed, but not washed real well. There were maintenance issues as well (one thing: a totally missing light bulb above one of the queen beds --- how safe is that???). We called housekeeping and the manager came up with a housekeeper and maintenance came up the next day.

My question is what is the procedure to release the room to the front desk? I think there are two problems: The rooms are not double checked (a once around by another housekeeper) and that even though housekeeping may see some obvious maintenance problems (light out, hole in the wall, door stopper in wall pulls out, etc.), they are not reporting them. Thus the responsibility falls on the guest.

When we checked in, we had the choice of 3 other rooms. So, it was a slower time, and the room was still dirty.

Every room we've had has had dirty carpets (socks and feet are black after walking around). UGH.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

It sounds like the main problem is quality control, and letters should be sent off to who ever is in charge of housekeeping at all the resorts and then to the head!! But, as owners, we should not have to bring our own cleaning supplies to re-clean the rooms (I think they have counseling for those that are compelled to do so - justkidding to each their own).

But the owners that are compelled to leave the room they way they found it should not do that. I read on these boards that there are members that wash the sheets and towels, and clean the room so upon checkout the room looks like it was done. Well that could (not saying it is), be one of the problems, the washers in the rooms are not as hot as the commercial ones they use. I could be way off base here, but there is definately a flaw in the system and it should be addressed at the time of the issue and then again re-addressed after you get home by a formal letter.

 

[Morganpics]

We stayed off site 3 years ago in a family member's condo. They had specific instructions as to what we were to do when leaving. Perhaps there could be something left in each room or given as part of the packet when checking in.

mickeysgal & dianeschlicht - we, too, strip the bed and pile the bedding on the floor, clean out the fridge, tie up all the trash. Just seems like common sense to me.

We stayed at OKW (home resort) last June and had no problems. Everything was satisfactory. We are going again in 8 days and hope it is the same. Taking a picky family member with us (will be her first visit).

 

[MickeyCrazed]

We have been DVC members since 1997 and only had one problem with a dirty room this Jan'05. We got to are room and it had not been cleaned at ALL!! Whoever was in the room before us completely trashed the room. Trash and half eaten food everywhere(floors, counters, sofa, shower) it was unbelievable. The bed linens and sofa pillows all over the floor. The one chair and ottoman on the patio. I just could not believe that people would leave a room that trashed. We call the front desk and they said that housekeeping must have missed the room. Of course housekeeping came right away and said that it was not on their list to clean until tomorrow.

It's funny how things go in cycles on this board. I posted these comments in February 2005:

As a DVC member, I will never again complain or blame Mousekeeping about rooms that are not completely clean or ready on time. My reason???
We just returned from a stay at OKW. Checked in on Sunday 12/13 at 11:00 a.m. The front desk told us our room was ready, so we immediately went there, drug the luggage up the stairs, opened the door and WaLaaaa...
An unclean room was waiting.
Now, at first, I was really upset because I couldn't understand how this mistake happened. Then, as I looked around the room, I became disgusted at the former occupants...
There were dirty dishes in the sink, food all over the countertop and in the fridge, papers scattered about, soap left in the shower and jacuzzi, and the list goes on and on...
It's no wonder Mousekeeping doesn't have the time to clean "properly" according to some guests standards...they spend too much time cleaning up the mess we leave behind.
I know that after that experience, I spent an extra 10 minutes making sure I cleaned up as much as possible before we left OKW. So hopefully, the next tenants checked in to an ultra clean room early...
And for those of you wondering, the front desk did apologize, and assigned us another room which was immediately available.

I can remember feeling like I was being attacked by some of the comments on that thread because I mentioned that maybe we should clean up the villa a little before we leave, thus allow Mousekeeping to have more time for the "nitty gritty" type of cleaning that is necessary after a weeks stay. I still stand firmly behind my original comments, and believe if we all took an extra five minutes to leave the room in a neat order before leaving (I'm not saying we need to leave everything spotless) that maybe we wouldn't have to worry about having hair on the bathroom floor when we check in.
We have to remember that Mousekeeping doesn't have the luxury of cleaning our room every day like the other resorts at WDW. So when they do get in, they have an awful lot of work to do in a very short amount ot time. Let the flames begin...

 

[RLevy29]

It's funny how things go in cycles on this board. I posted these comments in February 2005:

As a DVC member, I will never again complain or blame Mousekeeping about rooms that are not completely clean or ready on time. My reason???
We just returned from a stay at OKW. Checked in on Sunday 12/13 at 11:00 a.m. The front desk told us our room was ready, so we immediately went there, drug the luggage up the stairs, opened the door and WaLaaaa...
An unclean room was waiting.
Now, at first, I was really upset because I couldn't understand how this mistake happened. Then, as I looked around the room, I became disgusted at the former occupants...
There were dirty dishes in the sink, food all over the countertop and in the fridge, papers scattered about, soap left in the shower and jacuzzi, and the list goes on and on...
It's no wonder Mousekeeping doesn't have the time to clean "properly" according to some guests standards...they spend too much time cleaning up the mess we leave behind.
I know that after that experience, I spent an extra 10 minutes making sure I cleaned up as much as possible before we left OKW. So hopefully, the next tenants checked in to an ultra clean room early...
And for those of you wondering, the front desk did apologize, and assigned us another room which was immediately available.

I can remember feeling like I was being attacked by some of the comments on that thread because I mentioned that maybe we should clean up the villa a little before we leave, thus allow Mousekeeping to have more time for the "nitty gritty" type of cleaning that is necessary after a weeks stay. I still stand firmly behind my original comments, and believe if we all took an extra five minutes to leave the room in a neat order before leaving (I'm not saying we need to leave everything spotless) that maybe we wouldn't have to worry about having hair on the bathroom floor when we check in.
We have to remember that Mousekeeping doesn't have the luxury of cleaning our room every day like the other resorts at WDW. So when they do get in, they have an awful lot of work to do in a very short amount ot time. Let the flames begin...

I agree! I don't think you have to clean everything up but I think that if you leave your room reasonable someone may be able to check in earlier because housekeeping doesn't have to spend so much time getting the room ready.

 

[Coastie]

After reading many of these posts, just how clean are you... as an owner of DVC? Do you treat your DVC home as your own or do you, as many people do, not clean anything... drop food all over the rooms and not pick up... leave dishes... etc... all to mousekeeping....?

I have to wonder just how much of what we are all hearing is produced by a few "dirt devils" with no care or respect for other people's property. My wife and I are sticklers for cleaniness and we do clean the rooms at times with the vacuum and do the dishes. We don't care who was there previously, we wash ALL dishes prior to using them.

 

[HUFF590]

I just want to say we clean up our home, because to me this is our home, we get a welcome home when we arrive dont we? I love DVC and I agree that we should all take 5 min and clean a little. My wife of course is going to take a hour.

 

[JimFitz]

I vacumed everyday during our recent 10 night trip. We have 3 boys under three and they can make a mess very very fast. I just kept vacuming to keep up with the mess.

 

[bavaria]

I too pulled out the vacuum on my last stay! To answer the question 'how clean do I keep the villa' since I live in hotel rooms much of the year, I consider them my 'home'. That means that I rarely have Housekeeping service the room, and take time every day to tidy up and clean up a little. I do that both at DVC and regular resort rooms.

I will admit that the sheets and blankets flummox me - I used a duvet all my life, and a lot of hotels are switching to them. Whenever I sleep in sheets and blankets I make a real mess and have to remake the entire bed daily from the mattress on up (even if Housekeeping is coming in that day to service the room!)

 

[jacalynt]

What you refer to as "mousekeeping" is what we pay our dues for. And I feel that we certainly pay enough money to have the rooms clean WHEN WE GET THERE!! Why should I take my family on vacation and have to start the vacation by cleaning the condo. I would at least expect to have the room in the condition that a typical hotel room would be in. Don't get me wrong - we love staying at our DVC resort, however, the past few times we have been at OKW - the rooms we had we unacceptable. I was embarrassed to have my guests there after telling them what a beautiful place it was. Maybe I've just had bad luck with rooms lately. Going again in November. We are praying that we will have a better experience.

 

[DizWacko]

Because as you can see from these boards, there are many members who consider it "acceptable" to have to clean their villa upon arrival. Heck, maybe they should just get rid of mousekeeping altogether and let us clean the rooms from now on <sarcastic>. Either that, or maybe some of the members who dont think their dues are high enough to include decent housekeeping, maybe they could come to our rooms and tidy them up for us?

Im with you Jacalynt !

 

[JudithM]

What you refer to as "mousekeeping" is what we pay our dues for. And I feel that we certainly pay enough money to have the rooms clean WHEN WE GET THERE!! Why should I take my family on vacation and have to start the vacation by cleaning the condo. I would at least expect to have the room in the condition that a typical hotel room would be in. Don't get me wrong - we love staying at our DVC resort, however, the past few times we have been at OKW - the rooms we had we unacceptable. I was embarrassed to have my guests there after telling them what a beautiful place it was. Maybe I've just had bad luck with rooms lately. Going again in November. We are praying that we will have a better experience.

I agree with your comments/observations. And unfortunately if you have bad luck, then so do I, & I don't like it! I let it slide this past week because of hfe huricane in the beginning of the week, but I do intend to take up my issues with someone above the housekeeping manager. I'm tired of talking to him - talk is cheap, let me see the action!!

 

[mommary]

I just want to let everyone know that I had been reading this thread before I headed down to stay at OKW last week. It was my first time using my DVC membership and I was very nervous as to what I might find after all the negative comments that were posted. Then a hurricane on top of it all!
Well everything was perfect. Check in was a quick and efficient, the room was ready and in wonderful shape. Tubs sparkling and floors not yucky. We even had those towel animals all over the place.
The hurricane held out for our stay and we were able to leave Orlando on schedule. I wanted members to know that OKW is still a great place to stay.

 

[DVCajun]

Because as you can see from these boards, there are many members who consider it "acceptable" to have to clean their villa upon arrival.

I would NEVER consider cleaning the villa upon arrival. I'm on vacation!

That said, I've also never had a problem with the condition of the villa when we got there. It's always been clean. If it wasn't, I'd consider it a fluke and call Mousekeeping to fix the problem.