Just wow

[CarolynFH]

They built flexibility into the way they created the timeshare. We are all perfectly within the bounds of DVC to move as we wish to or have to depending on how the points worked out. In February I'll be partaking in my FIRST all-one-resort DVC stay in 11 years of WDW trips.

My point was, sometimes guests don’t take into account that housekeeping may have to clean the same villa top to bottom every day or or two instead of once a week because of the more frequent turnover. That takes time, and when staffing is already short like now, it adds to the delays guests experience when checking in. Other TS don’t have that delay (or expense because their guests stay a week at a time, or they pay extra for the extra housekeeping needed).

 

[Evita_W]

Exaclty, there is got to be some level of timeframe that all rooms should be done, except in emergencies.

While DVC does have almost 100% occupancy a lot of the time. thats not the number of rooms that turn over each day. I wonder what that is.

4 PM is the timeframe that all rooms should be done, except in emergencies.

 

[tjkraz]

From my limited experience in hospitality - I feel like I can safely say (though - I'm willing to be wrong) DME info did not regularly make it to housekeeping. Could it have? Yeah - that's sort of my point - all of this is possible. But have they been doing that? No.

While I respect your knowledge of the industry, I'll just point out the following:

1) DME info DOES make it to the resort level on a routine basis. Every day, resort cast members are printing personalized departure notices and delivering them on guests' doors. On some level, each resort knows exactly when guests are leaving via DME.

2) We know housekeepers are given lists of rooms that need to be cleaned. Is it really so far-fetched to believe that in 15 years of DME, someone took the time to funnel DME departure times onto those reports? Across 30K hotel rooms and villas with a 90% occupancy rate, isn't it worth SOME programming investment to make that happen?

3) Instances of housekeepers knocking on doors looking for vacated rooms are still rather rare. In my own case, maybe 5% of my stays. If most / all housekeepers arrive at 8am and their only means of finding rooms to clean is knocking on doors, I suspect these boards would have been overrun with daily complaints by now.

4) So why do the door knocks occur? Simply because not everyone uses DME. Resorts don't have departure information on every guest. If all of the known departures are taken care of--or all in a certain individual's assigned section--time to go looking for new rooms to clean.

5) If Disney truly cannot do something as rudimentary as pass along known departure times for a large block of their guests, is there ANY reason to believe they would be equipped to handle people self reporting their departures? Whether a guest calls (call center?), stops by the front desk or makes some notation on a Disney app that they are leaving, do we really believe that information will be immediately disseminated to staff scattered throughout the building?

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

We have had an equal amount of early and delayed check-ins. The early ones we were very grateful. The late ones, I only got angry once and had good reason. It was our first stay at Port Orleans as a one night add on to get a jump start on our vacation. After a bad experience at check-in, we went to our room to find we couldn't get in. We were standing outside with all our luggage and it started storming and our two little girls had to pee really bad. We were delayed long enough to get soaked and the reason our room wasn't ready, there was a single knob missing from a dresser. Our new room had poop on the wall. seriously. They did compensate us by giving us a free night. When we did take advantage of that on our next trip, everything was perfect. Disney does seem to make things right, most of the time. One other that didn't make me angry, just frustrated, our kids really wanted to have a few hours of pool time before dinner and that didn't happen. Our room at The Contemporary wasn't ready till after 6:00. They did comp our reservation at Chef Mickey's. I would have rather had California Grill but $100+ in free food got no complaints from me.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Instances of housekeepers knocking on doors looking for vacated rooms are still rather rare. In my own case, maybe 5% of my stays. If most / all housekeepers arrive at 8am and their only means of finding rooms to clean is knocking on doors, I suspect these boards would have been overrun with daily complaints by now.

Housekeeping has knocked on our door at 8:00am-ish every single WDW stay. They always ask what time we are checking out and my answer is always "sometime before 11:00".

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Exaclty, there is got to be some level of timeframe that all rooms should be done, except in emergencies.

It means that starting at 4 is when we can expect to *start* getting access to rooms.

is that reasonable though? According to your rules, if they have my room ready at 11:59pm on December 3rd, does that count at checkin on December 3rd? Is it a reasonable expectation that someone who fly's into the area from Australia can't access their room until midnight? Is it a reasonable expectation that they should have to sleep in the lobby?

In the rest of the world, if I tell a place to expect me to arrive on December 3rd, that generally means expect me to be there and have a place ready for me sometime in the afternoon. It doesn't mean I do not need a place to rest until 6am the next morning. There needs to be a line in the sand, and that line is 4pm - which is LATER than almost anywhere else in the world (hotel OR timeshare) which usual practice is by 3pm day of arrival.

1) DME info DOES make it to the resort level on a routine basis. Every day, resort cast members are printing personalized departure notices and delivering them on guests' doors. On some level, each resort knows exactly when guests are leaving via DME.

Actually, I do not know how they do it today, but back when I was involved with DME, the check out letters and plane tickets were all printed out in a medium sized room in the Caribbean hotel behind the lobby - it was the BAGS op-center. They then had runners who would distribute the letters to the doors. The individual hotels were blissfully unaware of any of this and not directly involved. (I toured it more than once).

However, I do agree that it would not have required some great leap of technology to send that information to the hotel and to mousekeeping. But in all my years there, that item never came across our to-do list.

 

[mustinjourney]

While I respect your knowledge of the industry, I'll just point out the following:

1) DME info DOES make it to the resort level on a routine basis. Every day, resort cast members are printing personalized departure notices and delivering them on guests' doors. On some level, each resort knows exactly when guests are leaving via DME.

2) We know housekeepers are given lists of rooms that need to be cleaned. Is it really so far-fetched to believe that in 15 years of DME, someone took the time to funnel DME departure times onto those reports? Across 30K hotel rooms and villas with a 90% occupancy rate, isn't it worth SOME programming investment to make that happen?

3) Instances of housekeepers knocking on doors looking for vacated rooms are still rather rare. In my own case, maybe 5% of my stays. If most / all housekeepers arrive at 8am and their only means of finding rooms to clean is knocking on doors, I suspect these boards would have been overrun with daily complaints by now.

4) So why do the door knocks occur? Simply because not everyone uses DME. Resorts don't have departure information on every guest. If all of the known departures are taken care of--or all in a certain individual's assigned section--time to go looking for new rooms to clean.

5) If Disney truly cannot do something as rudimentary as pass along known departure times for a large block of their guests, is there ANY reason to believe they would be equipped to handle people self reporting their departures? Whether a guest calls (call center?), stops by the front desk or makes some notation on a Disney app that they are leaving, do we really believe that information will be immediately disseminated to staff scattered throughout the building?

I have had mousekeeping knock on my door probably 50% of the time over the last 5 years, and I have done a lot of split stays and a lot of trips, so we're talking over 25 checkouts during that time. BCV/AKV were the most persistent.

so yes -- the door knocking definitely happens. Whether I am an outlier or not? Can't say. Most of my stays are VGF, RIV, BCV, and BWV.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I have had mousekeeping knock on my door probably 50% of the time over the last 5 years, and I have done a lot of split stays and a lot of trips, so we're talking over 25 checkouts during that time. BCV/AKV were the most persistent.

so yes -- the door knocking definitely happens. Whether I am an outlier or not? Can't say. Most of my stays are VGF, RIV, BCV, and BWV.

BCV is where I've gotten it too - persistently. Once at BWV it was a couple of early phone calls. I don't think we've experienced it anywhere else though.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Actually, I do not know how they do it today, but back when I was involved with DME, the check out letters and plane tickets were all printed out in a medium sized room in the Caribbean hotel behind the lobby - it was the BAGS op-center. They then had runners who would distribute the letters to the doors. The individual hotels were blissfully unaware of any of this and not directly involved. (I toured it more than once).

However, I do agree that it would not have required some great leap of technology to send that information to the hotel and to mousekeeping. But in all my years there, that item never came across our to-do list.

That is really interesting, and along the lines of something I have suspected.

 

[eandt]

BCV is where I've gotten it too - persistently. Once at BWV it was a couple of early phone calls. I don't think we've experienced it anywhere else though.

We just stayed at both of those resorts a few weeks ago. We left our room at BWV around 815 and there was a housekeeper in the hallway near our door. We advised her that we were checking out, which she appreciated. We left BCV around 0300 for the drive home so not sure if they knocked on the door or not.

 

[Evita_W]

is that reasonable though? According to your rules, if they have my room ready at 11:59pm on December 3rd, does that count at checkin on December 3rd? Is it a reasonable expectation that someone who fly's into the area from Australia can't access their room until midnight? Is it a reasonable expectation that they should have to sleep in the lobby?

In the rest of the world, if I tell a place to expect me to arrive on December 3rd, that generally means expect me to be there and have a place ready for me sometime in the afternoon. It doesn't mean I do not need a place to rest until 6am the next morning. There needs to be a line in the sand, and that line is 4pm - which is LATER than almost anywhere else in the world (hotel OR timeshare) which usual practice is by 3pm day of arrival.



Actually, I do not know how they do it today, but back when I was involved with DME, the check out letters and plane tickets were all printed out in a medium sized room in the Caribbean hotel behind the lobby - it was the BAGS op-center. They then had runners who would distribute the letters to the doors. The individual hotels were blissfully unaware of any of this and not directly involved. (I toured it more than once).

However, I do agree that it would not have required some great leap of technology to send that information to the hotel and to mousekeeping. But in all my years there, that item never came across our to-do list.

Exactly, if checking is at 4 PM, then I expect 4 PM. They won't generally let me checkout late without charging me for it, why should they be allowed to make me wait for the room past check in time?

 

[eandt]

Exactly, if checking is at 4 PM, then I expect 4 PM. They won't generally let me checkout late without charging me for it, why should they be allowed to make me wait for the room past check in time?

Yep I am not going to accept the check in is between 4pm and midnight argument which is what those that say check in "starts after 4" are implying .....

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Yep I am not going to accept the check in is between 4pm and midnight argument which is what those that say check in "starts after 4" are implying .....

There is a strictly what is written law, and I agree it's sketchy. From a lawsuit standpoint, It does not guarantee your room AT 4. Having said that, depending on the jurisdiction, there is a level of reasonableness to the law as well. A judge may well agree that the room doesn't strictly have to be ready for 4:00pm, and would side with Disney on a room being ready by 4:05pm (which is likely the intent of the language). However, almost no judge would find it reasonable that the room not be ready until 11:59pm.

I am willing to defend (and forgive) Disney if OCCASSIONALLY they miss a 4:00pm deadline by a few minutes (again, what I think is the intent of the way it's written).

I am not willing to accept the definition that it gives Disney freedom to daily have people's rooms ready late into the evening.

 

[Sandisw]

Housekeeping has knocked on our door at 8:00am-ish every single WDW stay. They always ask what time we are checking out and my answer is always "sometime before 11:00".

Wow! We have had them knock just once in all our stays, including when we were staying on cash! And, the one knock was in June of this year. Prior to that, never had anyone knock to check in to see when we would be leaving.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Wow! We have had them knock just once in all our stays, including when we were staying on cash! And, the one knock was in June of this year. Prior to that, never had anyone knock to check in to see when we would be leaving.

We drive. Maybe that matters because I don't ever remember them not knocking by 8:00ish. Resort doesn't seem to matter.

 

[Sandisw]

Yep I am not going to accept the check in is between 4pm and midnight argument which is what those that say check in "starts after 4" are implying .....

I agree. I am always willing to give them a few extra minutes. But, one thing I think could help is not allowing requests. This way, rooms that are clean go to guests who are there and would like to get in. I am not saying they have to be switched around early in the day...but, by 3:30 pm, anyone who is there and is still waiting, should be put into a room that is ready, even if it means someone else may not end up with their request.

Of course, they can also do what they have done in the past for me...we didn't get a room by 4:20 pm and they offered us 3 FPs as a good will gesture. Offering owners one IAS for the trip when rooms are not done would be a nice way to say "its important to us".

 

[GBBTomorrow]

I tidy my room every day. Partially because I don’t want to live in filth but also because I want housekeeping to be able to clean and have no question about linens. Dirty always go in a pile under/next to the sink

I would hope ALL the linens are being switched out between guests, regardless of what pile they are in. You can't tell by looking at a sheet or towel if someone else has used it, necessarily.

 

[Lexxiefern]

I am shocked at how many of you don’t have housekeeping knock on your door morning of checkout! They knock on our door EVERY SINGLE TRIP. And I go to Disney about 8-9 times a year. And I bought DVC in 2003. It really doesn’t bother me, I’m always up and I just let them know what time we will be out. I just assumed it happened to everyone.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

Wow! We have had them knock just once in all our stays, including when we were staying on cash! And, the one knock was in June of this year. Prior to that, never had anyone knock to check in to see when we would be leaving.

In the last 4-5 years, we have gotten a knock literally every time, and a couple of times these knocks came every 30 minutes or so. This is with the "room occupied" sign on the door, and with me saying "please don't knock again, we will be leaving at 11:00." We also experienced at Boardwalk an angry housekeeper parked outside our door, arms folded, glaring at our door for more than two hours. When we went out to load the car or grab breakfast, she was there. We'd look out the peephole, and she was there. We've gotten knocks at Poly, BWV, Vero Beach, and Hilton Head. Always.

 

[PinkPixel]

Not only would it be helpful if we as guests can let them know we are out of the room on checkout day, it would also be helpful for those of us who arrive, drop our bags and go straight to the parks, to let them know that they can do our room later, as we won't need it until after park closing. I would be happy to let them clean someone else's room who need it by 4:00.

They ask for arrival time?