Portofino Bay experience from 1st time visitor and room cleanliness standards

[386chad]

We're on our first trip to UOR, currently half way through our stay.

I had booked 2 standard rooms, with the request they be connecting, several months ago.

Upon check-in, the agent saw the request for the connecting rooms and said the only way for to guarantee that would be for me to upgrade to the deluxe 'villa' category. The plan was for my wife and I to have some quiet time while our teenage girls would have their own room.

She said, "let me see if I can make some magic happen."

Well, she made some magic happen to the tune of around $1094 extra for our 8 nights here. I agreed since it was a bit of a hard sell on her part, and wanted to have the girls close by. I asked a few pointed questions that indicated I did not want to pay any more than I already had. She said, "I like to be honest with everyone, you've booked a bay view room, but where they've got you it's just going to be trees. You'll be much better off in one of our deluxe room where you'll have a patio."

So, upon getting into the rooms, my oldest found a pill on the floor next to one of the queen beds in their room. My wife found a used towel under the sinks in our room, and their was a hair ball in the separate toilet section in the corner.

Being our 1st stay, we didn't know what to expect and was wanting some feedback from you guys. I talked to a couple on the boat to CityWalk and asked how they liked PBH. They said everyone has been very nice, even though they had some issues with their room. The issue was their room was dirty upon check-in.

The goal was to stay at a resort equivalent to something like a DVC villa over at WDW. I'm not sure that this hotel is that.

What do you guys think about the check-in upgrade 'pitch'? Ever had any cleanliness issues at PBH?

 

[mamapenguin]

I wouldn’t have been happy. I hope that you have informed them of your issues. I probably wouldn’t have cared for the up charge upgrade. It is what it is, but magic it is not.

 

[SMF_mom23]

Those type of issues in a room are NEVER ok. A pill on the floor next to a bed (vs underneath it) is potentially a very dangerous issue: What if your daughter was young and decided to put in her mouth? Housekeeping has no foresight into who is going to have a room, so there's NO excuse for this.

The used towel seems like inattention and the hairball (I assume you mean similar to a dust bunny) could be a simple minor oversight. Those two items are less concerning to me than the first, though still should not have happened for what PB bills itself to be (a premier resort at UO).

Charging for a room upgrade would be irritating, but you were given the option to take it or leave it and the agent did try to honor your prior request for connecting rooms. Iirc, WDW doesn't guarantee connecting rooms either, unless the second room will be occupied by children under the age of 16.

TLDR: Call management and make sure they know about the room cleanliness issue, ESPECIALLY the pill. That could have gone very differently under other circumstances. Hopefully the rest of your trip is fantastic!

 

[386chad]

Great responses, guys, thank you. I didn't want to sour the beginning of our trip after a long drive by complaining, having to switch rooms, delaying our fun, etc. I am a laid back personality anyway, but do try to dial things back even more when on vacation.

The upgrade did feel a little predatory on their part. Re: the upgrade SMF-mom, yes they did 'try' to honor the request, but after me saying twice that I would just stay with what I had booked, she kept giving me another reason why the upgrade would be better. You're right though, in the end, I accepted the upcharge.

The parks on the other hand, have been most impressive. Both VelociCoaster and Hagrid's are really stunning, the attention to detail in the queues of both attractions was amazing.

 

[SMF_mom23]

The upgrade did feel a little predatory on their part. Re: the upgrade SMF-mom, yes they did 'try' to honor the request, but after me saying twice that I would just stay with what I had booked, she kept giving me another reason why the upgrade would be better.

IMO, she should not have pushed so hard. It makes me wonder a bit if there are incentives to upsell at check-in? Having three teens myself, I can totally understand why you would ultimately go for the upsell though.

 

[shh]

Re: the upgrade SMF-mom, yes they did 'try' to honor the request, but after me saying twice that I would just stay with what I had booked, she kept giving me another reason why the upgrade would be better.

I think reservation teams are under new pressure from senior management to "make up" for the pandemic losses of 2020 by upselling guests. I just experienced this the first time myself a few weeks back. I was calling the UO resorts line to ask about something on my upcoming Royal Pacific reservation. The agent kept trying to coax me into a room at twice the price I was paying, saying how much nicer it was, more spacious, etc. I listened to her pitch, then very nicely and politely declined. She tried a couple more times, but when I said the rate I was paying was as high as I wanted to go, she did accept my refusal graciously. But still...strange. Never experienced that before.

 

[tony67]

She said, "I like to be honest with everyone, you've booked a bay view room, but where they've got you it's just going to be trees. You'll be much better off in one of our deluxe room where you'll have a patio."

So, upon getting into the rooms, my oldest found a pill on the floor next to one of the queen beds in their room. My wife found a used towel under the sinks in our room, and their was a hair ball in the separate toilet section in the corner.

First if the bay view room was mostly trees I really dont see how that is possible - the bay area is pretty open and very few trees - unless they gave you a water view out back which I would not accept as a bay view.

Unfortunately I have found that room are just not as clean as they should be in general - I stay at a lot of Marriott's and recently at PB, Sapphire and HRH. I feel like they are not cleaning as well as they should because they are short staffed and rushed. I find the Marriott's to be worse because they dont clean every day of your stay like they seem to at the Universal Hotels and they are not doing a deep clean of any sort between stays so it builds up IMO. Hairballs seem to be an issue everywhere. Dirty towel is unactable and I am always cautions of the towels in general - I had incident with a dirty robe in a room so now I am always a bit suspect of the towels that are in the room.

The best advice I can give is when you have this issue speak with the manager immediately and give them a chance to make it right. I never want to speak to the manager - I am on vacation and have better things to do -but it unlikely they will make it right after the fact when you get home.

 

[damo]

I would definitely have a chat with the manager and bring the whole thing to his/her attention. I'm very surprised about them not being able to get your connecting rooms. It was indicated on your reservation and there are tons of them available. The room controller should have been able to make that happen.

The cleanliness is not okay. You need to let them know.

 

[vinotinto]

We're on our first trip to UOR, currently half way through our stay.

I had booked 2 standard rooms, with the request they be connecting, several months ago.

Upon check-in, the agent saw the request for the connecting rooms and said the only way for to guarantee that would be for me to upgrade to the deluxe 'villa' category. The plan was for my wife and I to have some quiet time while our teenage girls would have their own room.

She said, "let me see if I can make some magic happen."

Well, she made some magic happen to the tune of around $1094 extra for our 8 nights here. I agreed since it was a bit of a hard sell on her part, and wanted to have the girls close by. I asked a few pointed questions that indicated I did not want to pay any more than I already had. She said, "I like to be honest with everyone, you've booked a bay view room, but where they've got you it's just going to be trees. You'll be much better off in one of our deluxe room where you'll have a patio."

So, upon getting into the rooms, my oldest found a pill on the floor next to one of the queen beds in their room. My wife found a used towel under the sinks in our room, and their was a hair ball in the separate toilet section in the corner.

Being our 1st stay, we didn't know what to expect and was wanting some feedback from you guys. I talked to a couple on the boat to CityWalk and asked how they liked PBH. They said everyone has been very nice, even though they had some issues with their room. The issue was their room was dirty upon check-in.

The goal was to stay at a resort equivalent to something like a DVC villa over at WDW. I'm not sure that this hotel is that.

What do you guys think about the check-in upgrade 'pitch'? Ever had any cleanliness issues at PBH?

Interesting. It does sound like they have some incentives for upselling customers. It may also be that the room was not fully cleaned / inspected if it had not been marked as being used for check-in that day.

Does the deluxe villa have two bedrooms with real beds in them or is it one of these set-ups where there is only one bedroom and sofabeds in living room?

 

[damo]

Interesting. It does sound like they have some incentives for upselling customers. It may also be that the room was not fully cleaned / inspected if it had not been marked as being used for check-in that day.

Does the deluxe villa have two bedrooms with real beds in them or is it one of these set-ups where there is only one bedroom and sofabeds in living room?

I wonder if they are in normal room or a Villa suite? A villa suite has one room with the beds and then another huge room with a dining table and living room. It can have another bedroom attached on the other side of the living room. That would be a two bedroom villa suite.

A normal deluxe villa room is just one room with a little bit of a bigger footprint than the standard room.

 

[vinotinto]

Are you in a normal room or a Villa suite? A villa suite has one room with the beds and then another huge room with a dining table and living room. It can have another bedroom attached on the other side of the living room. That would be a two bedroom villa suite.

A normal deluxe villa room is just one room with a little bit of a bigger footprint than the standard room.

I am booked into a regular room. I'm curious about the deluxe villa "upgrade" described by the OP and what the set-up for it is, since his main thing is having two separate sleeping spaces.

 

[386chad]

I think reservation teams are under new pressure from senior management to "make up" for the pandemic losses of 2020 by upselling guests. I just experienced this the first time myself a few weeks back. I was calling the UO resorts line to ask about something on my upcoming Royal Pacific reservation. The agent kept trying to coax me into a room at twice the price I was paying, saying how much nicer it was, more spacious, etc. I listened to her pitch, then very nicely and politely declined. She tried a couple more times, but when I said the rate I was paying was as high as I wanted to go, she did accept my refusal graciously. But still...strange. Never experienced that before.

This was exactly the vibe I got. I think you are spot on with this. In our 20 years vacationing at WDW, I've never experienced anything remotely similar.

 

[386chad]

I wonder if they are in normal room or a Villa suite? A villa suite has one room with the beds and then another huge room with a dining table and living room. It can have another bedroom attached on the other side of the living room. That would be a two bedroom villa suite.

A normal deluxe villa room is just one room with a little bit of a bigger footprint than the standard room.

Yes, sorry, new to how Loews does their room designations. I believe you are correct, it was described as having 50 more square feet, patio, quiet pool view. So I think it's a normal deluxe villa room. But we have two, and they do have an interconnecting door that the bellman propped open with a washcloth.

It's a nice room, just seems neglected. The makeup mirror was about to fall to the ground. I had a swiss army knife in my bag, so was able to tighten it. The shower handle is about to fall off, needs a little hex key to tighten. Didn't think to bring my damn toolbox to a deluxe resort to fix everything. The shower pressure handle itself is almost impossible to turn, my wife had trouble turning it on. The towel holder on the bathroom door slams against the shower glass doors due to the stopper being broken on one side. We have a suitcase between to prevent damaging the shower glass.

 

[386chad]

I am booked into a regular room. I'm curious about the deluxe villa "upgrade" described by the OP and what the set-up for it is, since his main thing is having two separate sleeping spaces.

Yes, you might've missed the part about us having 2 inter-connecting rooms. We can close off the door for a little privacy. The deluxe villa upgrade is mainly the patio, the quiet pool "view," 50 more square feet. We have 2 queens in each room. Not sure if there's much else to it than that, since it's my first stay.

There is no extra central living space like the suites may have.

 

[SMF_mom23]

It's a nice room, just seems neglected. The makeup mirror was about to fall to the ground. I had a swiss army knife in my bag, so was able to tighten it. The shower handle is about to fall off, needs a little hex key to tighten. Didn't think to bring my damn toolbox to a deluxe resort to fix everything. The shower pressure handle itself is almost impossible to turn, my wife had trouble turning it on. The towel holder on the bathroom door slams against the shower glass doors due to the stopper being broken on one side. We have a suitcase between to prevent damaging the shower glass.

Good heavens! And you're paying how much each night per room? It is nice that you were able to help them out in a few places, but if a single room has that many issues I have to wonder if you got a lemon or if the entire place isn't being managed as well as it should be. If nothing else, the shower (door?) handle should have been noticed easily by housekeeping during cleaning (and I would argue the makeup mirror as well since you'd think they would wipe it down occasionally).

As to no deep cleaning in rooms between stays: I get staffing is a HUGE hurdle (we've had three local restaurants close in the last month due to inability to staff properly and at least one local Starbucks is closing daily at 2p for the same reason), but if you don't have enough staff to get all the rooms cleaned they way they should be, something has to give. IMO it should be limiting the number of rooms available so you reduce the cleaning load on the staff, NOT reduce your standards to such a degree that guests feel the need to clean or repair their own rooms and certainly not to the degree that it becomes expected/acceptable for rooms to be in such a state.

Maybe I sound like a bitter penny-pincher. But if I'm paying hundreds of dollars a night for a room I expect it to at least not be falling apart and to be cleaned before I arrive. The statement about it possibly not having been thoroughly cleaned due to not initially having been marked for occupancy makes sense, but if mgmt is pushing upsells, every upgraded room should be ready to go just in case it gets sold.

 

[tony67]

Maybe I sound like a bitter penny-pincher. But if I'm paying hundreds of dollars a night for a room I expect it to at least not be falling apart and to be cleaned before I arrive. The statement about it possibly not having been thoroughly cleaned due to not initially having been marked for occupancy makes sense, but if mgmt is pushing upsells, every upgraded room should be ready to go just in case it gets sold.

No - you are completely right.

What I dont get - wasn't this entire hotel just refurbished and completed in December?

I have to say my room was nice but it did not feel refurbished to me - for example there are NO usb ports anywhere in the room except maybe the clock radio

 

[damo]

Yes, you might've missed the part about us having 2 inter-connecting rooms. We can close off the door for a little privacy. The deluxe villa upgrade is mainly the patio, the quiet pool "view," 50 more square feet. We have 2 queens in each room. Not sure if there's much else to it than that, since it's my first stay.

There is no extra central living space like the suites may have.

Did you talk to a manager?

 

[starry_solo]

I would have talked to a manager...

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Oh man, all these reports of unclean rooms are making me a bit nervous. I once stayed in a disgusting hotel that still managed to charge $400 a night because of its location, it was worse than the worst $99 Motel I ever stayed in. I hope that they get their staffing issues sorted soon.

 

[leahgoogle]

Oh man, all these reports of unclean rooms are making me a bit nervous. I once stayed in a disgusting hotel that still managed to charge $400 a night because of its location, it was worse than the worst $99 Motel I ever stayed in. I hope that they get their staffing issues sorted soon.

Me too! We check in to Portofino in two weeks and I am very nervous!