Making specific room requests

[Herding_Cats]

We stayed at SSR on rented points last year, and ended up with a really great view (view is not a booking category, only location) and now own at that resort. I've never made a room request outside of TP a few years ago, or by using the MDE app and its very limited drop down menu. Since we now own, I'm planning on making a request via the chat function. Obviously, requests are not guarantees. I do understand that.

We have an 8 night stay coming up in a few months, and I'm wondering if it would be "worth it" to make a room request for either the room we stayed in and the rooms directly above and below it (basically a column of 4 rooms in that building)

In another building (in the same booking category) there is a column of rooms with a very similar view. Do I request only one of these sets of 4 rooms? Do I request both/either? Do I give a bunch of room numbers or use the TP language on the room finder?

Do longer stays help or hinder more specific room requests, or does it really not matter especially since there is basically no DVC availability anywhere for our dates?

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

We stayed at SSR on rented points last year, and ended up with a really great view (view is not a booking category, only location) and now own at that resort. I've never made a room request outside of TP a few years ago, or by using the MDE app and its very limited drop down menu. Since we now own, I'm planning on making a request via the chat function. Obviously, requests are not guarantees. I do understand that.

We have an 8 night stay coming up in a few months, and I'm wondering if it would be "worth it" to make a room request for either the room we stayed in and the rooms directly above and below it (basically a column of 4 rooms in that building)

In another building (in the same booking category) there is a column of rooms with a very similar view. Do I request only one of these sets of 4 rooms? Do I request both/either? Do I give a bunch of room numbers or use the TP language on the room finder?

Do longer stays help or hinder more specific room requests, or does it really not matter especially since there is basically no DVC availability anywhere for our dates?

I usually don't get too specific with room requests. I feel that if the room assigner can't accommodate a request they will just put you anywhere. A more generic request (like golf course view or water view) would be easier to fill.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

For you to get a specific room, someone would have to be checking out of that room on the day you check in. So you are not likely to get it.

 

[tidefan]

We always put in room requests, but other than VGF (i.e. - not 1221), we leave them general. For instance, at Aulani, we request Ewa Tower, High Floor, at BLT Standard we request 5th floor if possible, at Kidani we request near elevator since we always have our car, and at PVB we always request Tokelau.

 

[CarolynFH]

at Kidani we request near elevator since we always have our car,

LOL, it's been pointed out several times on these boards that because of the 4 banks of elevators at Kidani, "near elevator" means any villa there! It doesn't matter if you have no other preferences, but if someone wants to be near the bus stops they should request "near Timon elevators" or if they want near the pool, they can request "close to Rafiki elevator."

 

[crisi]

For you to get a specific room, someone would have to be checking out of that room on the day you check in. So you are not likely to get it.

And the room assigner has to care enough, and someone else who gets the room assigned before you needs to not have made a similar request for a room like that, and it has to not be given away before its been assigned to you by someone who arrives early and wants the first available clean room, which happens to be that, and.....

Room requests at all are somewhat iffy in DVCs ability to meet them. But the more specific you are, the less chance that they will be able to (or, frankly, I think, even try).

 

[zackiedawg]

I often put in specific room number requests at DVC. I never put high stock in actually getting them all the time, but have had surprisingly good luck - probably around 30% of the time I get an actual numbered room I requested, and the other times I'm usually in the same building and similar view and location, but not the specific number.

Depending on the resort, I usually try to request multiple room numbers that I would accept - so rather than just provide one number, I might give them 8-10 room numbers (for example, at Saratoga, I like Buildings 1 & 4, and prefer the balconies that are 'boxed' in, covered with a full roof plus side walls - so I'll give them building 1, with a request for the two rooms on each of 3 floors (2, 3, 4), that have those boxed balconies).

I was at Boardwalk 2 weeks ago, and I had given them 12 room number requests - due to the refurb going on, 6 of my requested rooms were no longer available, but I ended up getting one of the remaining 6 room numbers I had requested.

In June, I requested specific room numbers at Wilderness Lodge and got one. February at Saratoga I didn't get a requested room, but still got the right building. In 2022, I had 4 trips, all at Boardwalk - three times I got a specific requested room number. Since the pandemic, it seems I've had better than average luck getting requested rooms.

 

[Simba's Mom]

The one time I requested either a specific room # "or room near it ", I got a room as far away in the resort as possible. I felt like the room assigner was tt another thinking "I'll fix her". But another time, different resort, I requested "either..." and listed about 10 different room numbers. That time I got one of the 10. At Kidani, I've always requested "near lobby" but never gotten it. Next trip I'll request "near Timon elevator" and see what happens.

 

[sndral]

I’m testing the system w/ this years upcoming trip . I’ve always requested Kudu trail when I’ve booked standard view at Jambo, but this year I’m mixing it up w/ either Kudu trail above a certain villa # or Zebra trail above a certain #. Mostly because it’s been awhile since we’ve been on Zebra trail, but I don’t want a pool view villa for noise reasons. I figure we have a shot since both sets of villas are a long walk to the lobby which most folks don’t want. We’ll see how it works out in 2 months.
I always wonder what impact the length of our trips (we stay 10-12 nights typically) & the fact that we have 2 br. lock offs has on whether our requests are met. I’d assume it works to our advantage because we have longer trips & essentially 2 connected villas thus they’d need to assign us first & work shorter trips & the studio & 1 br.s around us. But it could have the opposite effect - we may be harder to slot in because of the longer stays resulting in fewer places to put us.
Also, I’ve assumed that the front desk would be less likely to move us around on check in day because that would cause more downstream rearranging if they did move us, but . The only time I know they moved us around on check in day was a trip when we had 3 days booked in a 1 bedroom followed by 7 in a 2 bedroom. I got 3 room assignment texts on the 3 day portion when I landed at MCO, the first a 1 br. at Jambo, next a studio at Kidani, then back to a different 1 br. at Jambo. I suspected whomever was manning the front desk was having a bad day when I saw that series of texts . Fortunately they caught & corrected their downsizing/moving us to a building we hadn’t booked before I got there & made their bad day worse.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I'm going to go ahead and make the request (with some general terms/building AND room numbers.) I know this can theoretically be done via chat, but I'd rather just send an email.

Is there a specific email address I should send this to, or should I use the "contact" email form on the dvc website?

 

[Sandisw]

I'm going to go ahead and make the request (with some general terms/building AND room numbers.) I know this can theoretically be done via chat, but I'd rather just send an email.

Is there a specific email address I should send this to, or should I use the "contact" email form on the dvc website?

Just use the one on the website.