Not happy with Mousekeeping...

[Disneypubgal]

OP, sorry this happened. I don't understand what they even gained from throwing away trash. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I clean my house, I create new trash; paper towels, toilet bowl disposable scrubber thingy, bleach wipes etc. They would still have to empty the trash after cleaning. I swear I think they made themselves sandwiches and had lunch on your dime!!

Will never know!! My husband was not too happy that the godiva chocolates that they passed out from the x-mas party were gone!

 

[Disneypubgal]

It seems like the Mousekeeping staff at BLT has this problem. We had the same exact experience last December, except the discarded items were my my daughter's wedding cake, crystal cuffs, floral bouquet and a couple of other things.

Here is my post about the subject:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2614261

The mousekeeping adventure starts at post #83, but the part before that was a lot more enjoyable.

We spoke to everyone we could find, sent letters, called various peole after we got home, spoke with DVC brass, etc. After a few months of discussions, we received a small monetary credit for my daughters next visit and a new cake top which they could not ship home...... but never an apology or any admission of wrongdoing by the mousekeeping staff.

Hard to believe it is almost a year ago............

mac_tlc

Ok!! So in comparison my situation doesn't seem so bad!! So sorry this happened to your daughter!!

 

[Disneypubgal]

It must be a different crew at Kidani -- last time we checked into our room there was still food in the fridge. Now, if only there was beer in there . . .

They need a better system of knowing who is officially out of the room. Whatever happened to a formal check-out process. It seems like they could have people call a number from the room phone . . . or do on-line check out . . . or send a text message to the registration desk . . . something!

I am sure there are plenty of people out of the rooms on check-out day long before 11AM which would allow mousekeeping to get started early and still turn over rooms.

On a lighter note, at least you had the option to pound a beer while thinking about what you were going to do for lunch. They should send you vouchers for a free TS meal on your next visit.

Sorry this happened to you and your family.

Update - So "Dave" - night time supervisor, never returned my call, but "David" - Manager of Mousekeeping, called early today to profusely apologize for what happened... No monetary compensation was offered, however he did offer to replace a plush my daughter did leave in the room by accident... I told him I was less upset about my groceries and more upset about how I was treated upon returning home and calling mousekeeping... he apologized again and said that the feedback I received was unacceptable...

 

[kevmag]

It doesn't always work but when i check into the room, before the door closes for the first time, I put the DND sign on. It stays there until I check out, its the last thing I do walking out the door.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

We've received the check out morning hang up phone call that so many others receive. Also knocks on the door etc. I know they have to turn rooms over but one trip they woke us up. We were all packed and ready to go and did not have to leave for the airport till 11 so we decided to just sleep in. 8 am BANG BANG BANG on the door. GRRRR.

One thing we make sure we do though is to make it as easy to turn over our room as possible. So many people leavse such a mess when just taking a few minutes to do the basics can save so much time for the next family. If everybody did this Mousekeeping would have an easier job and we would all benefit on check-in.

When we are done getting ready the morning of check out and have everything packed DH will run the vacuum, I gather all towels and put them in the tub. Load and start the dishwasher and the last thing we do as we are walking out is grab all the garbage and take it with us to dispose of it.

One time a mousekeeper was waiting outside because we told her we just needed 5 minutes etc and she chased after us to thank us for leaving it so neat. She said so many times they walk in and the place is just trashed. Towels all over the place, floors disgusting, trash everywhere, dirty dishes in the sink, general filth. I don't get that. This is not some motel we are leaving never to return to. We own a piece of that room we just left. Have some respect not only for your investment but for the people that have to clean that mess and the family that will have to wait even longer to get their room because of you.

 

[twinklebug]

So sorry these things happened to you & your families Disneypubgal & mac_tlc. Whomever did those things was not thinking about anyone but themselves and ignored the signs of the room still being occupied just so they could get a move on with their work.

The lesson I'm taking away from this is if I have to leave the room unattended on our checkout morning - leave the Do Not Disturb sign out. I typically do for most of the trip anyway, it's just that now that I've read of your experiences I'll be more concerned about early entry by the housekeeper(s) if we go any place for more than a few minutes.

I wonder what Disney would have done if you had to miss your plane because something that was thrown out was essential to living. For example: say there was medicine that was wrapped in a brown paper bag in the fridge to protect it from light that you could not leave without. The whole response both of you received make me think they wouldn't lift a finger to help other than a half-hearted "Gee, I'm awfully sorry that happened."

The cake top is replaceable and is just a symbol - but it's the fact that it symbolized the start of a new life and hopes and dreams for the future that was randomly tossed in the trash that gets me. I'm sure that hurt the bride and groom more than they may admit. As for the crystal cuffs going missing... that sounds more like thievery to me.

 

[jo-jo]

Sorry this happened to you, but thanks for the warning. On the day we are switching from BLT to BCV, we are eating breakfast at The Wave and then figure we'd have an hour or so before checking out. I know we will still have stuff in the fridge to move over to BCV.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

a mousekeeper was waiting outside because we told her we just needed 5 minutes etc and she chased after us to thank us for leaving it so neat. She said so many times they walk in and the place is just trashed. Towels all over the place, floors disgusting, trash everywhere, dirty dishes in the sink, general filth. I don't get that. This is not some motel we are leaving never to return to. We own a piece of that room we just left. Have some respect not only for your investment but for the people that have to clean that mess and the family that will have to wait even longer to get their room because of you.

Towels on the floor and dishes in the sink doesn't qualify as trashed.
Many hotels ask for you to leave the towels on the floor as a signal they are used. I don't think it takes any longer to pick up the towels from the floor than it does any other surface.
It's unclear to me how a floor can get "disgusting" in the short amount of time the villa is used (That is unless it started out disgusting because housekeeping never cleaned it. That is not only possible, but likely). Same can be said for "general filth".
Dishes?? I will run the dishwasher as I need it, but I'm not going to make sure the dishes are washed and put away for housekeeping. That's what I pay them to do.

A very knowledgeable poster here once pointed out that that we should not leave our beds made upon check-out. It's possible that housekeeping will believe that bed was never used, and never change the bedding.
Another informed those Members who strip the bed and wash the linen that it's a waste of time. Housekeeping must use commercial washing machines.

I didn't mean to side track the thread, nor did I mean to pick on you.
It just always bothers me a bit when I'm made to feel guilty for not doing the housekeepers job.

MG

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Towels on the floor and dishes in the sink doesn't qualify as trashed.
Many hotels ask for you to leave the towels on the floor as a signal they are used. I don't think it takes any longer to pick up the towels from the floor than it does any other surface.
It's unclear to me how a floor can get "disgusting" in the short amount of time the villa is used (That is unless it started out disgusting because housekeeping never cleaned it. That is not only possible, but likely). Same can be said for "general filth".
Dishes?? I will run the dishwasher as I need it, but I'm not going to make sure the dishes are washed and put away for housekeeping. That's what I pay them to do.

A very knowledgeable poster here once pointed out that that we should not leave our beds made upon check-out. It's possible that housekeeping will believe that bed was never used, and never change the bedding.
Another informed those Members who strip the bed and wash the linen that it's a waste of time. Housekeeping must use commercial washing machines.

I didn't mean to side track the thread, nor did I mean to pick on you.
It just always bothers me a bit when I'm made to feel guilty for not doing the housekeepers job.

MG

Nobody was trying to make you feel bad. There's a difference between a room being trashed and a room being left in an "expected" condition. Are you saying it's impossible for a guest to leave a room trashed?

I just refuse to leave my room in a an awful condition and go out of my way to leave it in better than expected condition to help the mousekeepers turn it over quicker. I have no issues with anybody that does not do this but I certainly have issues with people that make zero effort and leave the room in such a state that it holds the mousekeepers up.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I don't do the housekeeper's work for them, but I do put all the towels in the tub, strip the used beds and pile the dirty linens on the floor and fold the comforter and put it on the bed with the pillows. I consolidate the trash, but I don't take it out. I also clean out the fridge and put all dirty dishes in the dishwasher, starting it as we leave the room. I make sure there is NOTHING of my visit left behind (like food or anything else). I'm quite sure it helps the turn around, and it takes me only a couple of minutes. It never occurred to me to vacuum. That is their job to do AFTER they have cleaned everything else.

 

[sssteele]

When we are about to walk out the door (often among the first to leave as we drive 500 miles or so that day), we call housekeeping to let them know that we are vacating the room. Would it possibly help if more people took the time to do this, or are they pretty aware of who has vacated because of the knocking on doors? Maybe they wouldn't be so pressed for time if they got more "headsup" calls, and might even be able to be more thorough in the cleaning.

 

[LisaS]

I think maybe guests forget to take the DND signs down?

We had a wonderful mousekeeper on our recent stay at BWV. It came up in conversation that many people do leave the resort without removing the DND sign, causing mousekeeping to wait unnecessarily to clean the room.

I wish they provided a way for guests to officially check out, via the TV or the phone or whatever means they care to provide. Mousekeeping would know which rooms they can service and situations like the OP's would not occur. I guess the lesson here is if you leave the room on your check out day, make it as obvious as you can that the room is still occupied, perhaps by leaving the luggage where it will be seen as soon as someone opens the door.

 

[LisaS]

I don't do the housekeeper's work for them, but I do put all the towels in the tub, strip the used beds and pile the dirty linens on the floor and fold the comforter and put it on the bed with the pillows. I consolidate the trash, but I don't take it out. I also clean out the fridge and put all dirty dishes in the dishwasher, starting it as we leave the room. I make sure there is NOTHING of my visit left behind (like food or anything else). I'm quite sure it helps the turn around, and it takes me only a couple of minutes. It never occurred to me to vacuum. That is their job to do AFTER they have cleaned everything else.

We do the same except for stripping the bed. The only things we leave behind are any bottled drinks we didn't open.

 

[twinklebug]

When we are about to walk out the door (often among the first to leave as we drive 500 miles or so that day), we call housekeeping to let them know that we are vacating the room. Would it possibly help if more people took the time to do this, or are they pretty aware of who has vacated because of the knocking on doors? Maybe they wouldn't be so pressed for time if they got more "headsup" calls, and might even be able to be more thorough in the cleaning.

I agree a system to call the housekeeper to the room when it's properly empty would be best, but Disney so far has shown us they can't even schedule the T&T and Full cleaning days appropriately in the system. I have doubts on that working. But, going with this idea....

I'd like to see something like that implemented properly so that it combines checkout with a survey on room conditions, and broken items need to be put on a list to follow up on asap. First: A reporting system needs to be created; Second: Guests need to use it; Third: Housekeeping and Maintenance would need to use the system and not ignore it.

-- A reporting system like this, on it's own, would not be hard to create. What complicates is is the corporate red tape, everyone wanting a say in how it's made and then the spaghetti of existing systems it would have to work with and within.

 

[MLK-RI]

When we are about to walk out the door (often among the first to leave as we drive 500 miles or so that day), we call housekeeping to let them know that we are vacating the room. Would it possibly help if more people took the time to do this, or are they pretty aware of who has vacated because of the knocking on doors? Maybe they wouldn't be so pressed for time if they got more "headsup" calls, and might even be able to be more thorough in the cleaning.

Yes, we do this as well. Just takes a few seconds and may help.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We do the same except for stripping the bed. The only things we leave behind are any bottled drinks we didn't open.

Yeah, I leave those too. Once I had an almost full case of water left, so I went down to the HH and offered it to someone who was checking in.

 

[disprincessatheart]

On our last blt stay the mousekeeper knocked while we were still packing up. I told her we needed about 10 minutes and when we left she was still standing outside our door. We've also had them knock with a dnd on the door. I tried to checkout only to find out it was not needed, but yes, I think a checkout would help.

We just got back from a trip to atlantis and saw something new to me. Inside the door to each room there were two buttons - DND and Make Up Room. We hit the DND on our way in for the night, and on our way out in the morning we would hit the Make Up Room button. If you opened the door again, the DND automatically turned off, so no accidentally leaving it on. I imagine the housekeepers have a pannel somewhere that tells them what rooms are ready to be cleaned, and then the ones that didn't use the button they knock on later. It worked well for us - never were disturburbed even with daily housekeeping.

 

[marynvince]

How about changing the DND sign to have CheckedOut on the other side?

 

[dvcforme1993]

ye, gads. but your experience helps make us aware of the potential problem.

 

[mac_tlc]

The cake top is replaceable and is just a symbol - but it's the fact that it symbolized the start of a new life and hopes and dreams for the future that was randomly tossed in the trash that gets me. I'm sure that hurt the bride and groom more than they may admit. As for the crystal cuffs going missing... that sounds more like thievery to me.

That was exactly our feeling.. the crystal cuffs were on the base of the bouquet -- which was found intact near the garbage -- minus the cuffs. It's pretty obvious they were taken - they couldn't fall off on their own. My DD still mentions it frequently -- and is not anxious to return to BLT. They have been to WDW three times since, once at Fort Wilderness, twice at AKV.

Well, we will be back at BLT i na couple of weeks (no DD this time). We will leave nothing of any consequence on the last morning.

I do believe they could institute a checkout using the TV -- other places do, I also like the "CheckedOut" door sign. Won't solve all the problema but it could help.

mac_tlc