MS now limiting room requests ???

[Bouncin-Tigger]

On the fence about no requests especially with which area to stay in at ssr but I think if this turns out to be true I think it was a perk that we the members ruined ourselves. I am sure there was some pouting at front desks, or phone calls and complaining even though everyone knows requesting something is never 100%. And I can only imagine some of the crazy requests they have recieved. So I dont blame MS at all for eliminating this option during the booking process.

 

[perfectparanoia]

Hopefully, they are just talking about view requests because I always make room requests. Mine are:

Not first floor
Top floor
Near bus stop (OKW and SS)
Near elevators (everywhere else)

Which at every resort gives a significant number of rooms they could put me in to satisfy my requests (which also means that they are more likely to be filled).

But, hey, if I ended up on the first floor in the room farthest from the busstops (or elevators), I would still be happy with it. Who knows? It would probably be very quiet which could make up for people peeking in my room (you know who you are) and having to walk farther at the end of the day.

If they do this, I would probably end up just asking for the same things when I check in which would cause a big backup in their checkin process since everyone would do the same thing.

 

[Chuck S]

If they do this, I would probably end up just asking for the same things when I check in which would cause a big backup in their checkin process since everyone would do the same thing.

Not if the front desk doesn't allow you to change, unless the room has a mechanical problem.

 

[mnra]

Ok if they don;t allow people to request rooms. How does disney assign them out. thanks

 

[disneynutz]

Ok if they don;t allow people to request rooms. How does disney assign them out. thanks

Random assignment.

They could also change to a system that assigns the room when the reservation is made granting requests first come first served. That would eliminate all requests at check in and give priority to home resort owners.

Bill

 

[mnra]

not sure what you mean random assignment. Just put names in hat and pull out (just kidding) or is it by home resort or number of points. Just trying to understand how it works since I have only requested once and that was for BLT since after my first stay what they considered MKV i had to stand at one corner of balcony and could see parking lot and monorail more then magic kingdom and when i asked for a higher up room the next stay had a great view of MK.

 

[Chuck S]

not sure what you mean random assignment. Just put names in hat and pull out (just kidding) or is it by home resort or number of points. Just trying to understand how it works since I have only requested once and that was for BLT since after my first stay what they considered MKV i had to stand at one corner of balcony and could see parking lot and monorail more then magic kingdom and when i asked for a higher up room the next stay had a great view of MK.

Well, basically, random assignment is putting names in a hat, and luck of the draw.

I don't know in what order (or if it is also simply a random batch file) the resorts receive the resevations. For instance, the first reservation in the batch could be by the date of reservation, or it could be by last name, or simply sorted by resort. My guess the file is sorted by resort, then guaranteed view category and room type. Probably nothing beyond that.

So the first "BLT, Studio, MK view class" on the list get the first one that pops up as being available for that check-in date when the room assigner or software checks. And the availability list may be sorted any number of ways, but most likely check-out date, then room number.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Random assignment.

They could also change to a system that assigns the room when the reservation is made granting requests first come first served. That would eliminate all requests at check in and give priority to home resort owners.

Bill

I agree with this idea, but it will be interesting to see the responses (sorry I can't find the eating popcorn smilie for this)

 

[crisi]

They did used to have a room assigner who apparently put reservations checking in for the day (actually a few days before) into the order they were made and assign out rooms trying to make the best match.

Its a time consuming and labor intensive process - it was done manually. And one tantrum at the front desk that someone gave into early in the morning (which happened) could bring down the whole house of cards.

Then then told us they moved to a system of ROOM READY. This means that rooms that are cleaned show up and the front desk person assigns the room that best meets your needs and is available at check in. The problem with this is that a lot of people are willing to wait for a room, so check in can take a longish time as rooms are looked for and rejected (from my peeking at the screen it looks the the CM only sees four or so rooms at a time - if none of the ones coming up are "high floor" s/he needs to reject those and bring up a new set - and all s/he sees are numbers, front desk CMs don't know if its a HA room, or if there is a tree in front of the window or even necessarily how far down the hallway it is).

Now I don't know how they are doing it. Online check in implies that they are batch processing (which means assigning rooms) before arrival. But if that is a manual match by a person, and if that match is done in the order the request is made, I don't know and I don't know if anyone here does.

 

[disneynutz]

It seems that each resort does it does it differently. During the last year we have been told that some are room ready, some CM's start assigning 10 days in advance, some 3 days. Some are allowed to choose from their computer screen, others have to go backstage to get a room. At SSR the managers have to OK the room change and assign rooms from the computer on wheels behind the Front Desk. At BLT we were told that room change requests weren't allowed and no one had assigned us a room so they had to try and find one???

Bill

 

[dizfan]

Last week, a CM allowed me to place a room request for October (BCV).
The way I see it, we don't own there and only received a room via the wait list, so we should be among the last to have a request filled. Those who booked ahead of us should absolutely get first choice.

In an ideal world, it would be nice if Disney would use scheduling software to allow people to choose a room. Once you have your reservation number, you could use it to login, see available rooms, and pick your room.
This software would be trivial compared to the headaches I've seen required for hospital staffing.

 

[crisi]

It seems that each resort does it does it differently. During the last year we have been told that some are room ready, some CM's start assigning 10 days in advance, some 3 days. Some are allowed to choose from their computer screen, others have to go backstage to get a room. At SSR the managers have to OK the room change and assign rooms from the computer on wheels behind the Front Desk. At BLT we were told that room change requests weren't allowed and no one had assigned us a room so they had to try and find one???

Bill

It also appears to vary by time of year and sometimes seems completely random. When the resorts are booked and busy, it seems more likely that the rooms have been preassigned and the CMs are less likely to change them. Whatever processes they are using they seem to be using several which are not consistent.

 

[crisi]

Last week, a CM allowed me to place a room request for October (BCV).
The way I see it, we don't own there and only received a room via the wait list, so we should be among the last to have a request filled. Those who booked ahead of us should absolutely get first choice.

In an ideal world, it would be nice if Disney would use scheduling software to allow people to choose a room. Once you have your reservation number, you could use it to login, see available rooms, and pick your room.
This software would be trivial compared to the headaches I've seen required for hospital staffing.

It doesn't work well for high occupancy situations with flexible check in and check out days. Simplified: If I pick room 2112 for Monday through Thursday - But it sits empty Friday and Saturday. And you get 2111 for Friday and Saturday, but its sitting empty Monday - Thursday, and disneynutz looks for a room Monday - Saturday and the resort is fully booked except for your half and my half of the week, he has to move rooms halfway through the stay.

Works great on a cruise where everyone boards and leaves the ship on the same day. Works fine when you work at 80% occupancy.

 

[Dean]

That's not entirely true. There has recently been a number of changes to the ADA regarding hotel reservations:

(e)(1) Reservations made by places of lodging. A public accommodation that owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of lodging shall, with respect to reservations made by telephone, in-person, or through a third party --

(i) Modify its policies, practices, or procedures to ensure that individuals with disabilities can make reservations for accessible guest rooms during the same hours and in the same manner as individuals who do not need accessible rooms;

(ii) Identify and describe accessible features in the hotels and guest rooms offered through its reservations service in enough detail to reasonably permit individuals with disabilities to assess independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs;

(iii) Ensure that accessible guest rooms are held for use by individuals with disabilities until all other guest rooms of that type have been rented and the accessible room requested is the only remaining room of that type;

(iv) Reserve, upon request, accessible guest rooms or specific types of guest rooms and ensure that the guest rooms requested are blocked and removed from all reservations systems; and

(v) Guarantee that the specific accessible guest room reserved through its reservations service is held for the reserving customer, regardless of whether a specific room is held in response to reservations made by others.

So yes, Disney is not required to provide a ground floor room if someone requests it, but if the guest specifically reserves an accessible room, then Disney is required to hold that room for that guest.

But that's not what I was saying. My points were that this does not extend to honoring requests to non HC rooms and that the legal requirement for a HC room does not mean that it necessarily meet the requirement for that guest, only the standard. IMO, DVC has always been very good at meeting additional requests for medical reasons. Even the entire ADA issue gets cloudy when timeshares are concerned.

 

[dizfan]

It doesn't work well for high occupancy situations with flexible check in and check out days. Simplified: If I pick room 2112 for Monday through Thursday - But it sits empty Friday and Saturday. And you get 2111 for Friday and Saturday, but its sitting empty Monday - Thursday, and disneynutz looks for a room Monday - Saturday and the resort is fully booked except for your half and my half of the week, he has to move rooms halfway through the stay.

Works great on a cruise where everyone boards and leaves the ship on the same day. Works fine when you work at 80% occupancy.

The system would need to be smart enough to only allow a person to select from rooms where someone checks out on the same day they check in. It may also only allow you to see rooms where someone checks in on the day you checkout.
As every person selects a room, the list of available rooms changes. (Similar to an airline seat selection. 10 people can be online looking at the seats at the same time, 5 people could attempt to select a seat but it really only goes to the first person that the server sees). I know people get worked up over something like this, but it's a rare occurrence.

In your example, if you book first. The system now knows the day you checkin/checkout. It has an available rooms that meet your criteria. What rooms are available to each reservation has to be recalculated as each person picks a room.

In your example, there is an opening of 6 days after you and I have booked, the system always sets aside a room so when disneynutz books his vacation, he would have a room available.

The only issue I could see is people cancelling reservations. As one person cancels, it changes the openings available. If everyone has already selected rooms, it would limit booking.

To significantly reduce the likelihood of something like this, they could make the room selection occur close to check-in. For example, home resort room selection could open 7 days prior to checkin. Non-home resort room selection opens at 5 days prior to checkin. At 3 days prior to checkin, member room selection is closed and Disney assigns room.

I just realized a problem. CMs would never hear the end of it if a room had to be taken out of service. From Disney's satisfaction perspective, they would be better off keeping the system the way it is (a mystery).

 

[ssawka]

But that's not what I was saying. My points were that this does not extend to honoring requests to non HC rooms and that the legal requirement for a HC room does not mean that it necessarily meet the requirement for that guest, only the standard. IMO, DVC has always been very good at meeting additional requests for medical reasons. Even the entire ADA issue gets cloudy when timeshares are concerned.

Yes, that's why I said it was not necessarily true. According to what you said in a previous post, that Disney was only required to have the rooms in the facility an I was saying that that isn't true.

The original comment was whether Disney would have to honor a request for a ground floor room if there was a medical necessity. I researched what you said and I was just replying with what I found. You were correct in saying that if you request a ground floor room Disney does not have to honor that request. However if you were to request an accessible room, they would have to honor that request. Even if the requirement changes due to being a timeshare, Disney would be stupid to not honor the request and face a possible law suit and bad publicity. The key to the whole thing though is that you would need to specifically request an accessible room.

Also, you are correct in stating that Disney is only required to have rooms that meet the requirements and not the needs of the guest. However, Disney is required to tell the guest what ammenities the room does have prior to taking the reservation (if asked).

 

[dianeschlicht]

Random assignment.

They could also change to a system that assigns the room when the reservation is made granting requests first come first served. That would eliminate all requests at check in and give priority to home resort owners.

Bill

Now THAT'S an idea I like!

 

[Dean]

It seems that each resort does it does it differently. During the last year we have been told that some are room ready, some CM's start assigning 10 days in advance, some 3 days. Some are allowed to choose from their computer screen, others have to go backstage to get a room. At SSR the managers have to OK the room change and assign rooms from the computer on wheels behind the Front Desk. At BLT we were told that room change requests weren't allowed and no one had assigned us a room so they had to try and find one???

Bill

Better yet would be book specific rooms directly, then requests become not applicable.

 

[wdrl]

They could also change to a system that assigns the room when the reservation is made granting requests first come first served. That would eliminate all requests at check in and give priority to home resort owners.

This is a good idea in theory but I think it may have some pitfalls when applied. Even if rooms are assigned at time of reservation, it may be in the best interest of the Members and Disney to change the assignments on or before the date of check-in. By locking in specific villas at the time of booking, it can create "holes" in the room assignment chart if there are subsequent cancellations, resulting in increased chances of villas remaining vacant.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Better yet would be book specific rooms directly, then requests become not applicable.

That would be my ideal situation. Just like a cruise where you can pick your exact cabin. Ah well... we can dream.