Question about theft and yearly fees

[milachy]

Hi all,

I just got back from a very nice 1st vacation at SSR. Although we did have a nice time I was kind of surprised as to how many items were missing/damaged from the room upon check in.It was mostly little items(wisk,oven mitts,bowls) but some larger things as well(welcome home mat,a damaged picture,damaged door to hide the tv,unworking dishwasher)
I was told by both a maintenance worker and a person working at the vacation club preview center @SSR that it is disney's belief that the damages/missing items have mostly happened from members staying at their own home!!! And that it happens quite often.
I try to believe in the goodness of people but still cannot fathom why a person would feel the need to destroy/damage/steal items from any room they are staying in,let alone a room where ALL of our yearly dues are effected.
Since I am a new member can one of the more seasoned DVC members tell me if this has happened at other disney resorts and how the members handled/rectified the situation? I can understand dues going up for many legit reasons but have a hard time dealing with a variable that can be controlled to some extent.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

 

[milachy]

Oh and when yearly dues go up, is it show exactly where the increase was needed?

For example does dvc show that due to theft yearly fees are going up x amount a year?

thanks again

 

[PamOKW]

Unfortunately, the public at large is likely to perform petty theft or damage units -- this includes members and non-members alike.

No, Disney does not lay out specifically why the dues go up. They do provide budgets that are broken out and you can perform a year-to-year comparison (or wait for some of us nuts here on the DIS to do it) and see where the major increases (or decreases are coming from). Recent increases have been primarily due to a rise in insurance costs -- both property and the medical costs for employees who work for us at DVC -- and a decrease in the amount of interest earned on monies that DVC has invested. I think items "walking" is included in the general planning for the resort -- just as Disney must have to plan for it at the hotels.

 

[tjkraz]

Believing in the innate goodness of all people is nice and sweet, but it's also naive. There are budgets for replacing items and repairing damage to the rooms.

Unless every owner is stealing a set of towels (who would want them) and every utensil in the kitchen, it's hardly a blip on the radar. Not worth worrying about.

EDIT: Just to keep things in perspective, when SSR is complete it will represent about 11 million points. Thus ever penny's worth of dues charged brings in over $100,000 annually.

Sure it's annoying to enter a room and discover that it was clearly abused by a recent guest. But there's only so much that DVC (or any other hotel) can do to control such actions. If your room is in need of repair or restocking when you arrive, you should absolutely contact housekeeping to have the situation remedied. But the cost is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 

[milachy]

Originally posted by tjkraz

Unless every owner is stealing a set of towels (who would want them) and every utensil in the kitchen, it's hardly a blip on the radar. Not worth worrying about.

EDIT: Just to keep things in perspective, when SSR is complete it will represent about 11 million points. Thus ever penny's worth of dues charged brings in over $100,000 annually.

Sure it's annoying to enter a room and discover that it was clearly abused by a recent guest. But there's only so much that DVC (or any other hotel) can do to control such actions. If your room is in need of repair or restocking when you arrive, you should absolutely contact housekeeping to have the situation remedied. But the cost is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. [/B]

thanks for the replies...tjkraz,your post and more specifically the edit makes sense...thanks for clearing it up for me.

Milachy