Just Back from BWV-Nightmare at Checkin

[Talkingwoody]

Some background:
4 adults just back from a 4 day trip to Food and Wine festival. We were first timers and loved it. My wife and I are DVC owners and my brother and his wife are thinking about buying. This was a great trip. We are pretty laid back and are not looking for something for nothing or compensation. All we ask is to get what is standard expectations.
Long trip starting at 3AM for an early flight. We arrived at BWV at 9AM. Checked in, no rooms available yet, understood. We were told to call at 1PM, still no rooms, OK, no problem. Called at 4PM, still no rooms and a nasty operator saying that DVC has until 5PM to check us in. Back to BWV front desk at 5PM, no rooms available because housekeeping has not cleaned our assigned room or the 8-10 others that people were waiting for. I don't push the front desk staff too hard but asked for the manager. Bottom line, we are tired and want to get some rest before we head to Mickeys not so Scary Halloween. After discussion, manager says he will give us $50 credit on our bill and finally offers a room in the hotel side until the rooms are availble by 6PM. He would slip the key under the door. 7PM, no key and I have to go to the front desk again. After searching for a 15 minutes, the manager comes out and says he just checked the room and its ready. I thank him, go to the room and there is dirty linens on the sofa but overall the room is ready.
Again, all I ask is that DVC provide what we paid good money for. I would rather DVC and hotel management manage the situation and have the staff available to meet thier commitments rather than be compensated for the incovenience. There were others at the front desk complaining about DVC in general and whatever situations they had.
This was our first time a BWV. Never had a problem at BCV or SS. Is this a one off. Is it something to complain about or would you just drop it.
Like I said, we had a great time and everything else went well after that but with all the experience Disney has, I would think this should not happen often but from reading the boards and listening to some of the nightmare stories at the front desk, it seems it does.
Maybe I was tired and impatient, your thoughts. Just happy I didn't have the kids with me during this experience.
Thanks

 

[BWV Dreamin]

From what I've read on other threads, most all of the resorts have had some issues with housekeeping. The only resorts that I've seen the fewest complaints about have been BCV, VWL, and SSR. SSR supposedly took over the great CM's from OKW, and BCV/VWL are very small units, so they may not have the volume to clean. I go with the expectations that it will not be perfect, and if I have to do a little dusting or vacuuming, then I will. Since I am a real neat freak, I will always disinfect the bathrooms whether or not they look like they need it. Keep everything into persepective...its not going to be like your real home. Then if you get one thats in tip top shape, you will be pleasantly surprised!! As for the late check in, that has been an ongoing issue.

 

[jekjones1558]

We have stayed at BWV many times and never had this happen. However, there seems to be a pattern across the board of mousekeeping services becoming increasingly unpredictable at DVC. I am glad that the manager (was it D.J.?) offered you some small compensation and a temporary room, but this should not have happened in the first place. Others will post their opinions. IMHO you would be doing all of us a favor if you would write a letter expressing your concerns with the mousekeeping situation. I wonder how many of these problems have to be reported before Jim Lewis starts to spend some time addressing them rather than doing PR for new resorts.

 

[MichelleB]

It's up to you whether it's a "complain situation" but I have to say that I'm tired of not being able to check-in on time. If it's an issue then they need to hire more staff. Not everyone spends their first day in a park and arriving to find out that a room isn't ready for hours after check-in is ridiculous.

 

[Anthony1971]

We never had a problem--we do tend to go in the off season but even prime for DVC in Dec. we did not have a problem. I think the manager was nice in giving you the credit as mots reports seem to get no compensation but DVC is not obligated to do so in any way. If you wnat to prsue this you want to write a nice letter but to the point.. Things happen and in some cases it is not the fault of DVC a lot of times guests take it upon themselves to check out late... But still the responsability of the hotel to enforce the rules. I would say they did accomadate you although not the best feeling as it is always better to have your room.

 

[Talkingwoody]

Thanks for the replies so far. They are pretty much on target with what I was thinking. If I decide that I would like to put this info into a complaint to Disney, where do I send it?
As for the front desk staff and manager. I can imagine the position that they are put in on a daily basis. I beleive they handled the situation well. It was just a situation that none of us wanted to be in, especially me. I would rather not put the managers name in this thread just in case it is taken the wrong way. If I do escalate to Disney, I will actually mention his name and tell them that he represented Disney in a vey positive light but Disney is not making his job easy.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

but I have to say that I'm tired of not being able to check-in on time.

ITA

If you they are only going to let me use my room for a third of the day then they should only be allowed to charge me a third of the points!

 

[BCV2003]

We had a similar, but not as bad, situation in December but it was at BCV. We didn't get into the room until 5 or 6. We kept my sisters kids up thinking we could get in at 4:00 and they could take a nap. Well, they ended up taking naps in the BC lobby! There was nothing else we could have done.

It is very frustrating at the time but i can say that is the first time that it happened to me. I have been fortunate enough that on most visits my room has been ready when I checked in so was able to overlook the one bad check-in.

 

[CarolAnnC]

With check in as "After 4:00 pm" I find rooms are ready later and later.

A couple of times when our rooms were not ready till 5:00 pm or so, we were told that is not out of line and not considered "late". Oh well, I just keep hoping to get that "early" check in whenever possible.

It's tough if you are checking in on travel day and are exhausted, too.

 

[dznymom1]

At what point is a room late then? We have been members for 15 years, and our rooms were always ready by 4:00 up until the last couple of years. Somewhere along the line, the wording was changed to 'after 4:00' and since then I have had a number of ocassions where my villa was not ready until 5 or slightly after. But I guess my question is, by after 4:00 does that mean 5? 6? 7? 11? Anything up until midnite? Personally, I think rooms should be ready by 4 with almost no exception.

In the OP's case, I definitely think a letter is in order. I think the manager dropped the ball, even though he tried to smooth things over. Offering you a temp room was a nice gesture, but he still needed to follow through with a villa at 6 which he failed to do, and to then send you to an almost clean room is not acceptable. I am a BWV owner, but these issues keep coming up and I am not happy with management there. Please send a note, and I encourage others to do the same when things do not meet reasonable expectations.

 

[edk35]

From what I've read on other threads, most all of the resorts have had some issues with housekeeping. The only resorts that I've seen the fewest complaints about have been BCV, VWL, and SSR. SSR supposedly took over the great CM's from OKW, and BCV/VWL are very small units, so they may not have the volume to clean. I go with the expectations that it will not be perfect, and if I have to do a little dusting or vacuuming, then I will. Since I am a real neat freak, I will always disinfect the bathrooms whether or not they look like they need it. Keep everything into persepective...its not going to be like your real home. Then if you get one thats in tip top shape, you will be pleasantly surprised!! As for the late check in, that has been an ongoing issue.

I sure as heck didn't pay 30,000 bucks to go on vacation and "do a little dusting or vacumming" when I check into what should be CLEAN ROOM. Heck no...I would have complained til the cows come home. That is totally unacceptable in my opinion. We had a room in Aug. at SSR that was NOT CLEAN AT ALL....I mean THE ONLY THING DONE WAS the towels were clean, garbaged empty and the sheets looked fine. THe place was filthy...house keeping came when I called and she was EMBARRASSED and apologized a zillion times. She cleaned that room from top to bottom and redid the beds in that 2br. I tipped her....but TRULY SHOULDN'T HAVE ....it should have been clean upon check in.

 

[Boardwalker]

Please, please write a letter. Until a problem is well documented, it won't be a priority. If we, as resort owners, don't make our dissatisfaction known, things will slide.

And just for my own selfish benefit, what day of the week was it? I usually check in on Sunday, since that is the night the points drop, and I wonder if everybody else does too. I may consider trying a Monday check in for next October's trip if everybody else travels in on Sunday too. I don't want to wait until after dark to get into a room if I arrive before noon.

Obvious to all of us is that October with the food and wine festival means a full hotel, so it would be ridiculous for extra housekeeping staff not to be in place. And IMHO, late checkout should not be tolerated when the hotel is full either, so we can support the staff that is there.

 

[jbrowna]

So what might be going on here? Is it that Disney has cut down on housekeeping staff, so that they have too many rooms to clean with too few cleaners? Or, in some cases, are the previous tenants not vacating by the 11am checkout time, giving housekeeping less time to get their job done?

I suspect that -- in any given instance -- it could be one or the other, or possibly both, which makes a particular room not available on time. However, if rooms are generally slower to be cleaned, then I think DVC needs to revaluate their housekeeping staffing levels.

As a relative newbie (I've only stayed at OKW, BWV, and BCV), I've only had one instance where I checked in and the room was not immediately available, but it was ready by around 3pm, so I can't say that would be "late". So my own experience doesn't seem to bear out what some have said about "things are getting worse."

 

[drakester]

I agree you need to make the powers at be aware of the problem. We have never had a problem. But I don't want to either.

 

[jakenjess]

We check into OKW this Sunday, so I'm a little anxious about how it will go. It's my parents' first time going with us, and my mom is a clean freak. I've never had a problem with a dirty room or a late check-in, but Murphy's Law . .

Anyway, OP, I'd definitely write a letter. That was completely unacceptable. They really need to get a grip on this issue. It seems like we're hearing more and more about rooms not being clean AND the late check-in. It's even worse when you wait forever for your room and it's still not clean!!

 

[CarolAnnC]

We recently had This Discussion on Self Extenders which many feel to be the problem with rooms not being ready for check in....

 

[epicureangirl]

This thread makes me more likely to avoid a 'split stay', unless I were going to VB or HH. If I were on-site, I could handle being 'homeless' until 4, but if I'm waiting an hour or two or more around dinner time (reservations to keep!), I would not be happy. I hope they get on top of this problem, and get some more mousekeeping!

 

[dgaston]

We checked into BWV on Thursday 9/27 arriving by ME about 10:35 am. We weren't assigned a room according to the CM and there only seemed to be two BW view studios available. We were told to call back around 1pm. I called at 1:30 and was told to call back in half an hour. At 2:30 our room wasn't ready, but the CM asked if she should put a rush on it. I said "yes" and at 3:15 we were in the room which was on the first floor next to the DVC preview center. We didn't have any neighbors until Saturday night. I really had the feeling that BW didn't know where to put us.

I had BW points transferred into our account to make certain we could get the BW view as my DH had never been able to stay in one. I was a little disappointed as I'd requested an upper floor, but now will scale back (or try hard to) any expectations about requests.

 

[edk35]

This thread makes me more likely to avoid a 'split stay', unless I were going to VB or HH. If I were on-site, I could handle being 'homeless' until 4, but if I'm waiting an hour or two or more around dinner time (reservations to keep!), I would not be happy. I hope they get on top of this problem, and get some more mousekeeping!

Exactly. Our first DVC stay was this past Aug...we moved to another room at SSR two days after checking in...PAIN IN THE YOU KNOW WHAT. Then we did a split stay that same trip and moved three days later to BWV. You do lose valuable time doing that. Not anymore. I am waitlisted our last night at SSR and might have to move our last night BUT I AM HOPING IT COMES THROUGH.

 

[CapeCodFam]

I've seen mousekeeping work pretty darn hard. The only issues I've ever had at DVC have been due to other DVCers. My vote is for selfish self-extenders. If people don't get out when they're supposed to, there's not much that DVC can do.

Having said that, I'd use some sort of check-out notification, when we leave, if it were avail. That way, they could start to address the empty rooms first.

..How about charging a hefty late fee and then handing it over to the next family...