New info on room assignement and smoking buildings at OKW

[PJMPA]

It would help to find out what exactly the protocal is between MS and the OKW front desk, i.e. is this an OKW policy or a DVC policy change. Recently, after MS assured me there was no change in procedure (i.e. the old policy of first to reserve gets priority) the front desk manager at OKW informed me that yes, they were testing a new policy whereby rooms that are ready are offered to guests as they check in, regardless of when the reservation was made. It should be interesting - I'm checking in to OKW late on Monday 11/25 on a cash reservation made through CRO with the next 6 nights on points. While I would normally like to link the reservations and be able to stay in the same unit, if there are no options when I check in late Monday, I am prepared to get up early Tues. morning, check out on the cash reservation and look for my requests to be available based on the new policy. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[Sharper]

for anyone to make an informed comment! I find it hard to believe that OKW is simply giving out rooms as people arrive. That would negate any advance room assignment, which is just ridiculous.

We were there last month, shortly after this talk first started about a "new policy." We got precisely what we requested. We made reservations about six months out, and arrived about 12:30 p.m. We had to wait 'til about 3:00 before our room (clearly pre-assigned) was ready. I am thinking that there are likely many rooms which are all essentially identical in OKW staff's view, so if you made a reservation for one of the more generic requests (first floor, nonsmoking, for example) and there are many of those which will be available. then they are letting whomever shows up earliest get them. I mean, if you arrive at 11:00 a.m. and there is a room ready, then why should they hold it for me (since I booked earlier) and make you wait four hours when I may not show until after the second room was also ready? I should get priority for the requests, but shouldn't be automatically entitled to the earlier possession of the room if I don't arrive first. I think that is more what the "change" is, not that they are completely disregarding when reservation requests are made.

 

[Scoootch]

Sharper ---

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I could not agree more with what you just said!!

 

[Terry S]

Well, all I can tell you is what I was told at BCV on 9/30 when I checked in. This is what happened. I checked in around 11:00 AM. This was my first visit as a member and I was really excited. I had made the reseration on the first day possible to make reservations at BCV. I requested Non-Smoking, Epcot View, Top Floor. I excitedly walked up to the front desk, handed him my confirmation, was given a nice friendly "welcome home", he started punching his keyboard for awhile and after a few minutes I asked "so were they able to meet my requests by any chance and assign me an Epcot view?" The CM told me that they were no longer pre-assigning rooms, they were trying a first-come, first serve check in. I said its only 11:00 AM, isn't that pretty early, he then told me that they had over 50 check ins that morning already and all the Epcot views were already gone. I said so your telling me that people who might have made thier reservation last week got an Epcot view because they were here earlier then me? He said "probably".

A few days later I stopped by the front desk to speak with a Manager, I just wanted some type of confirmation of this policy so that I would know on future visits what to expect. A manager and I sat down and had a lovely chat. He confirmed what the CM told me that they were trying this new first-come, first serve policy because people had been complaining about rooms not being ready when they checked in. He told me that BCV found out that OKW was trying this policy so they decided to try it too.

This was on 9/30 so it is really interesting that this CM told you they were trying it for 2 weeks.

 

[BigTigger]

On our recent October trip to OKW, we arrived at 10:30 pm on a Thursday night and got our requests (non-smoking, upper floor, near pool) pretty much as we always had in the past. The resort was 90% full per our CM at check-in. This was despite the supposed "new" policy being in effect. I hope this little tidbit of information puts some minds at ease about late arrivals.

I'm not sure what software DVC uses for room assignment, but I agree with the earlier point where someone mentioned having an arrival time for DVC use in managing room preparations. Marriott uses such a system and can guarantee at the time of reservation whether you will have a non-smoking room, type of bed (one queen/king or two twins, etc.). They also ask for an estimated arrival time and assign your room in advance of that time to speed your check-in. This has worked very well from my view at all Marriott hotel brands from Toronto to New York to London to Amsterdam to Paris in my many travels this year for work. Le Meridien and Sheraton also have very "needs" focused systems in place that work well too. Maybe the answer for DVC is more software investment and less "let the CM decide" in the reservations process.

 

[jmminarik]

Maybe I'm just not getting it, but how difficult is this question:

'Your requested room won't be ready until 4:00 pm. Would you like to take this room or pick another you can check into now and give up your request?'

-Joe

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

'Your requested room won't be ready until 4:00 pm. Would you like to take this room or pick another you can check into now and give up your request?'

Seems pretty simple and straight forward to me.

 

[rbuzzotta]

Joe.........best idea of all!!!

I always plan to "hang" around the pool or resort until my room is ready (around 4) and take it as a "bonus" if it is ready before!!

 

[lsyorke]

All I can say is this will be our first time at OKW. DH just called(he was down on business ahead of us) and is in shock over the room. This is a man who is not easily impressed. Its huge. But back to the requests. Two requests made, near hospitality house, and on the first floor. Both requests made!! . I don't know if it made a difference that he was there at 8:30am but I am thrilled. I made this reservation 7 months out (home is WLV,but I think the DH is questioning that decision now that he has seen OKW LOL).

 

[Caskbill]

'Your requested room won't be ready until 4:00 pm. Would you like to take this room or pick another you can check into now and give up your request?'

The problem with this is that it's not only you giving up your request, buy you may be forcing someone else to give up their request.

What happens to the members who arrive later than you and who originally were going to get the room that you took early?

Maybe you had a request for an upper floor, and someone else had a request for a ground floor. You get there early and take a ground floor unit instead. By the time the other members arrive all the ground floor units are gone, and they're put into an upper floor.

It doesn't have to be the floor assignment. Maybe someone wanted Turtle pond and now winds up at South Point, or they wanted to be near HH?

Now the problem is simple: THEY no longer get their request that they might have made at 11-months because you showed up early and took their villa.

For people arriving early at DVC this may seem like a great idea. But if someone can't get their until 9:00 pm, they're stuck with all the left-overs. Their original request means nothing!

That's what's wrong with it.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by jmminarik
Maybe I'm just not getting it, but how difficult is this question:

'Your requested room won't be ready until 4:00 pm. Would you like to take this room or pick another you can check into now and give up your request?'

-Joe

I agree with Caskbill. The post above makes it sound like they preassigned the rooms and then give you a choice, this will not be the way it works, I suspect you can't have it both ways. The inherent problem is that if things are pretty full, many people would not get their request when they easily could have. That doesn't mean the experiment isn't a workable one, it all depends on how it's done. I personally think it's very possible to work it either the old way or trial way and make most people happy. The only problem with the trial way is that some of those that don't get what they want would be members at that resort that booked at 11 months out and some that do will be non members that booked on much shorter notice. And remember, not everyone was getting what they wanted the old way either, even when they did things the right way.

I'm sure this is a frustrating job to preassign members to units. It's not like a full week timeshare where you only have a limited number of variables. I also agree with others in thinking that some of the very specific requests (like a specific room or building) may have triggered this problem. Personally, if I were DVC, I'd say you could have a max of 3 or 4 requests, could not request specific units or maybe even buildings, give owners at that resort priority and accept no requests outside medical issues and smoking preference for short notice rentals (less than 2 months).

 

[ncligs]

I also agree with Caskbill and Dean. What would be the advantage of all the DVC owners that own at 2-3 or resorts??They could make there ressies at 11 months out, day by day, and not even get any of there requests, besides maybe non-smoking.
Just because someone drives there or gets there early in the morning, gets preference on room assignnment is totally wrong. The old way (room assign) has been working for "10 years".......if it isn't broke don't change it!!!!!!!

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by ncligs
I also agree with Caskbill and Dean. What would be the advantage of all the DVC owners that own at 2-3 or resorts??They could make there ressies at 11 months out, day by day, and not even get any of there requests, besides maybe non-smoking.
Just because someone drives there or gets there early in the morning, gets preference on room assignnment is totally wrong. The old way (room assign) has been working for "10 years".......if it isn't broke don't change it!!!!!!!

Just to repeat something I'm said in a couple of other threads. There is some switching that the CMs do during the day that may take the room you've been assigned. If someone comes in and is unhappy for some reason, they may give them the room preassigned to you. Whether it's fair depends on the reasons they do so but the end result is that some do get bumped. That's why I said the old way is not perfect either.

 

[Chuck S]

Also, if rooms are assigned a few days in advance - housekeeping could find damage to the unit, which would take it out of service at the last minute, and there may be no other rooms available that meet the majority of your requests.

 

[Sharper]

Originally posted by Caskbill
The problem with this is that it's not only you giving up your request, buy you may be forcing someone else to give up their request.

What happens to the members who arrive later than you and who originally were going to get the room that you took early?

Maybe you had a request for an upper floor, and someone else had a request for a ground floor. You get there early and take a ground floor unit instead. By the time the other members arrive all the ground floor units are gone, and they're put into an upper floor.

It doesn't have to be the floor assignment. Maybe someone wanted Turtle pond and now winds up at South Point, or they wanted to be near HH?

Now the problem is simple: THEY no longer get their request that they might have made at 11-months because you showed up early and took their villa.

For people arriving early at DVC this may seem like a great idea. But if someone can't get their until 9:00 pm, they're stuck with all the left-overs. Their original request means nothing!

That's what's wrong with it.

But you are presenting a hypothetical, and furthering this idiotic notion, that OKW is simply handing out rooms as people arrive and totally disregarding timing of reservation requests. That is simply not the case. Again, people with OKW reservations and requests -- DO NOT PANIC. Your requests are not going to be totally ignored and rooms distributed strictly on first-come, first-served. These kind of rumors, with a grain of salt (i.e., OKW is factoring in arrival time to determine if they should shift your room assignment, say from 6211, which is not clean, but instead give you 6213, which is identical -- I am making up room info here -- in that it is first-floor, near HH. They will shift you from your previously assigned 6211 to 6213, then give 6211 to whomever had 6213. They will NOT give you 6213, then give whomever had that room, with requests made at the 11-month mark, a top floor room at the other end of the resort! )

Think about it.

 

[Zimbubba]

Just be happy...you are at WDW and you are Home!

 

[Sharper]

Originally posted by Zimbubba
Just be happy...you are at WDW and you are Home!

Great point. I am someone who can be pretty demanding and want what I want when I want it. For me to point out that they are requests and not demands, and that I honestly believe OKW staff is going to make an effort to be fair and accommodating is saying a lot. And fortunately for those of us who make requests on most reservations there are LOTS of people who don't. They reserve a certain room for a certain date. These are the rooms which can logically be moved around as people arrive. The only potential for "unfair" might be if you made reservations 11 months out, but arrive five minutes after someone who made them more recently. They may be given the available 1 bedroom, nonsmoking, ground floor while you have to wait two hours for the next. However, that IS just the breaks and as long as you have your room by 4:00 pm you have no "right" to complain.

Maybe this is a good thread to remind me personally of how much worry I put into where we are when I have NEVER had a bad experience after four OKW visits. I do have preferences and it is a bonus if they are accommodated but I will not let it put a damper on my trip if they aren't. I am already concerned that AKL and Poly will be somehow disappointing to us (particularly DH who has only stayed in villas) after having spread out at OKW! Okay, forget that and be thrilled that we are inside the World!

 

[Lew]

As the one who started this thread, perhaps I should expand a little on what I wrote…

The test period is not two weeks in length; it was slated to run another two weeks before a final decision is to be made. I do not know when the test began, but my guess would be around mid-September to mid-October 2002.

My take is that, under the new plan, I would have my pick of any unit (of the type I had reserved) that was made up and ready for occupancy upon check-in. This was irregardless of any requests I had made at the time the reservation was made. If I had originally requested a room in the Turtle Pond area, I could change my mind and take a unit in building 62 if it were made up and ready.

If no unit meeting my requirements were available at check-in I have the option of waiting until one is made up and ready for occupancy.

We didn’t discuss special request for health reason, but I would assume that some blocking of units would have to be made with respect to those.

Once again, members being upset they could not occupy their unit immediately upon check-in was given as the only reason for testing this new policy. Personally, I don’t understand this at all; anyone who has done any traveling at all knows there are going to be times when early occupancy is just not available. At DVC resorts there has never been any guarantee that members can occupy a unit prior to 4:00pm.

I realize there are members who just don’t care where they stay on property and that’s fine. We travel with a grandchild sometime and prefer to be near the main pool for convenience sake.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Sharper
But you are presenting a hypothetical, and furthering this idiotic notion, that OKW is simply handing out rooms as people arrive and totally disregarding timing of reservation requests. That is simply not the case. Again, people with OKW reservations and requests -- DO NOT PANIC. Your requests are not going to be totally ignored and rooms distributed strictly on first-come, first-served. These kind of rumors, with a grain of salt (i.e., OKW is factoring in arrival time to determine if they should shift your room assignment, say from 6211, which is not clean, but instead give you 6213, which is identical -- I am making up room info here -- in that it is first-floor, near HH. They will shift you from your previously assigned 6211 to 6213, then give 6211 to whomever had 6213. They will NOT give you 6213, then give whomever had that room, with requests made at the 11-month mark, a top floor room at the other end of the resort! )

Think about it.

Sharper, I'm not sure you are totally accurate here. We have heard all types of things reported directly from MS, Managers at the resorts and CM at check in. They all tend to contradict each other but usually come from some direct source of knowledge at the resort or DVC. One will get what they wanted and were obviously preassigned. Another will checkin with absolutely no preassigned room and get nothing like they wanted even though they booked at 11 months out and made specific requests, being told by the CM that they are doing a trial of first come/first served. It seems to vary almost by person or by CM. To take either side as absolute is to ignore the current information available to us. We've had members report that were given totally different rooms and locations than their request even though they scheduled at 11 months out and arrived fairly early in the day.

As I said earlier, neither system is perfect and both have potential for working well most of the time. However, if people feel strongly about this issue, now is the time to let the OKW managers and MS know, before final decisions are made. The first step is to get the total and final information on how things are being done previously and the trial, which no one has seemingly been able to do with certainty even when talking to Managers and MS. Sounds like a good chat topic for DIS and the OKW front desk manager if Pete and the manager are up to it. Maybe Pete could ask the OKW manager or front desk manager to provide a written summary of how things were being done and how they are being changed in a trial basis.

 

[BobH]

I have followed this issue on the boards and emailed member services to ask if a policy of first come first served was to be the new way of dong things. Member services chose to ignore my question. They are usually very good at replying to questions about specific reservations I have made but I have noticed that policy questions are often ignored. Has anyone else had any similar experiences?