Just wanted to share

[pkpope]

i would like to start this post off by saying that in my almost 22 years of life I have stayed at the swan and dolphin upwards of around 50 times. My parents are starwood members, I am a starwood member, and that has always been our go-to disney resort destination.

That being said, I was appalled at my experience there on April 7-8th. We arrived at check-in at around noon and were told our room was not ready. We were fine with that, as we planned on popping over to hollywood studios for some lunch and we had some fast passes. My boyfriend was at the tail end of pneumonia at the time however, so i asked if they could request our room be ready by around 1-2pm as he needed time to rest before our evening at epcot. I was told this would not be a problem.

Fast forward to 3pm when i am told by the concierge that our room will not be ready until 4, and my boyfriend had to instead try and nap out by the pool while we continued to wait.

We finally get to our room at 4pm, and upon entering i immediately notice that there is a sock lying on the chair next to the bed (ew). So i look more around the room and find that there are multiple hairs in the shower (also ew). I do not consider myself to be a clean freak or anything, but I felt for what we were paying this was not acceptable. So i called guest services and complained and told them I wanted a new room. I was told they could not move us and instead they would send up house keeping (the same house keeping who was supposed to clean the room correctly the first time?) and when i asked to speak to a manager i was deflected multiple times until i got frustrated and gave up.

I am very frustrated with how the swan and dolphin handled this, as i have been a loyal customer to them and have always believed nothing but good things. And i think this reflects a bigger issue at disney right now of customer service going down the drain. Now I will think twice about staying there next time i am choosing between that resort and a moderate. Just wanted to share to those considering the swan and dolphin for an upcoming trip.

(Sorry for the super long post)

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I don't necessarily fault them for not having your room ready before 4pm, if that is the standard check in time. But they should not have told you it would be ready early if it wouldn't. And, not properly cleaning the room is unacceptable! How gross! Sorry you had to deal with that and hope the rest of your trip was great

 

[DisneyWishes14]

i would like to start this post off by saying that in my almost 22 years of life I have stayed at the swan and dolphin upwards of around 50 times. My parents are starwood members, I am a starwood member, and that has always been our go-to disney resort destination.

That being said, I was appalled at my experience there on April 7-8th. We arrived at check-in at around noon and were told our room was not ready. We were fine with that, as we planned on popping over to hollywood studios for some lunch and we had some fast passes. My boyfriend was at the tail end of pneumonia at the time however, so i asked if they could request our room be ready by around 1-2pm as he needed time to rest before our evening at epcot. I was told this would not be a problem.

Fast forward to 3pm when i am told by the concierge that our room will not be ready until 4, and my boyfriend had to instead try and nap out by the pool while we continued to wait.

We finally get to our room at 4pm, and upon entering i immediately notice that there is a sock lying on the chair next to the bed (ew). So i look more around the room and find that there are multiple hairs in the shower (also ew). I do not consider myself to be a clean freak or anything, but I felt for what we were paying this was not acceptable. So i called guest services and complained and told them I wanted a new room. I was told they could not move us and instead they would send up house keeping (the same house keeping who was supposed to clean the room correctly the first time?) and when i asked to speak to a manager i was deflected multiple times until i got frustrated and gave up.

I am very frustrated with how the swan and dolphin handled this, as i have been a loyal customer to them and have always believed nothing but good things. And i think this reflects a bigger issue at disney right now of customer service going down the drain. Now I will think twice about staying there next time i am choosing between that resort and a moderate. Just wanted to share to those considering the swan and dolphin for an upcoming trip.

(Sorry for the super long post)

Check-in time at the Swan/Dolphin is 4 pm. Did the housekeeping team come back to clean the room? Swan/Dolphin are not Disney properties, so I'm not sure how this is a reflection of Disney customer service. Did you send this complaint to their customer service? (Marriott? Westin? Sheraton? Starwood? - I'm not sure if you stayed in Swan or Dolphin, but those are the companies you would need to contact depending on where you stayed - complaining to Disney won't help)

 

[DLgal]

Ok, the room cleanliness issue...gross. Agree with you there.

The other stuff? Not really a valid complaint. Rooms are never promised early, and the lobby concierge has no say in that. If your boyfriend needed to rest, that's on you. Maybe you should have stayed at the resort and had lunch there and relaxed in the lobby until your room was ready, instead of going to a park. I also don't understand how you arrived at noon, had "some fastpasses" at Studios and planned to get lunch, and asked for your room to be ready an hour later? You returned at 3 and were upset you had to wait another hour? Seems nitpicky.

 

[buzznina]

Sorry for the room, but I personally, would have let them clean it again (because now I know it was cleaned), plus there is no guarantee that the next room would be any better. I keep telling people that if you ever are not satisfied with your room or have an issue, DO NOT call! go to the lobby and discuss it face to face, so then if you are not satisfied with their response, you ask to speak to a manger right then and there.
Also, 1 bad room out of 50 stays is very good, sounds a bit overreacting.

 

[AngiTN]

Not sure if you know but Swan/Dolphin are not Disney owned, operated or affiliated in any way. While CS at Disney is on the decline what happened at Swan/Dolphin on your trip doesn't relate back on Disney in any way at all. Starwood/Marriot merger sure. But in this one, Disney is not at fault.

As to the rest, we've had a stay at both properties and honestly, I didn't get why folks rave about them at all. We didn't have any issues or anything but #1, we sure didn't save any money over what we usually pay at BWI with our AP rates and #2, CS was not anything special at all. We don't get points or anything like others seem to find so maybe that's why. The hassles of no ME, no MB, no room charges, etc were not worth the efforts. We haven't bothered to go back. Only reason we stayed there was BWI was booked and we wanted an Epcot resort.

But, really, they shouldn't have ever promised a room early. Surprised they did that. I wasn't aware they could do that.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

I agree with the others that they never should have promised you a room (maybe you misunderstood). At busy times you shouldn't even expect an early check in. It's like people saying they were guaranteed connecting rooms. Nothing is guaranteed.

If your boyfriend was sick the suggestion by hotel to relax by the pool doesn't seem outrageous. If a room isn't ready they can magically make one appear.

The cleaning or lack thereof is gross- you should have gone down to front desk to speak to them.

This isn't on Disney as its not Disney property. Maybe instead of posting here contact Starwood and explain the room cleanliness situation as that is only legitimate complaint.

 

[Sue M]

I’d write to their customer service about being given a dirty room. That is unacceptable. Even worse, maybe housekeeper didn’t understand (English not being first language) that they were cleaning for a new guest, and not a returning guest, because sock was left. Eww. This happened to me once at a Disney Resort. Walked into room and Barrettes on floor, papers on dresser, empty water bottle on table. I went down to desk and asked for a new room. Which I was given plus upgrade. Manager personally came to our (new) room to apologize and explain what happened after inspecting first room.

4:00 check in is not valid complaint, although they could have handled it better.

Did they come back to clean room?

 

[SharonZ]

Like the others, the room condition was unacceptable - but it happens, they offered to send housekeeping. Your boyfriend being ill, and not getting earlier check-in, that had nothing to do with the hotel. I am a little surprised that you are a loyal Swan and Dolphin customer, but didn't know that they are not affiliated with Disney.