Response from Executive Offices

[granmanh603]

I used to check in and there would be a max of two or three people in front of me, now the line is out the door or worse goes over to the library, one hour wait to check in. Please get your facts straight. OKW is over used by non members and members from other resorts. It has nothing to do with the fact that anyone can get a room two months from now. Years ago we had the place to ourselves now it is like grand central.

The reason the people are out the door is because when the bus arrives there are lots of people checking in. I stayed there in Oct and there were definately times when there was no one on line and times when it was to the door. Also depends on how many CM are at the desk.

 

[Daitcher]

crap happens . you serious about wanting points back or refund?? Guess what happens if that happens .It comes from my pocket . Deal with it.

Sounds a little like you didn't get the entire thing and you are having a bad day!
Yes I am serious about expecting a room that I have reserved, booked and paid for to be ready, clean and in good working order when I arrive on time for my reservation. I would expect the room to be free of other peoples dirty dishes, undetermined liquid stains on the floor and crackers in the pull out bed my child is going to sleep in. I expect to be able to use a working outlet in the bathroom, hang my towel up on the towel bar and close the blinds at night. I would expect that in any hotel I stayed in. I expect that at DVC where I am paying dues and have paid a big chunk of $$$ to stay there. I am not reaching into your pocket-I PAID MY DUES for things to be maintained. I expect that when I go to the desk 10 min after noticing dirt in the bath tub, mold in the toilet and syrup on the silverware that housekeeping would get their butts to the room and clean it or I would be moved to another room. But mostly, I expect people employed by DVC to do what they say they are going do when they say they are going to do it. I expect people to call me back when they say they will. I expect not to wait a month for a canned response from DVC. Oh and I would expect a fellow DIS/DVC'er would not be quite so nasty. I did deal with it AFTER I attempted to calmly fix it when I was there. I didn't ask for a freebie or an upgrade just a clean place to vacation in.

Great post problemchild. I agree with almost everything you state here. Your expectations were not unreasonable at all. We all deserve a clean room in working order. We also deserve to have all problems handled in a professional and timely manner. Now do we deserve points returned to our accounts? No, and that is really where I feel people on this thread have taken issue with your post. You did the right thing by giving DVC feedback so future guests don't endure the unlucky situation you encountered. And people say I'm nasty on here. That one post was a real unprovoked zinger.


DAVE

 

[Daitcher]

I used to check in and there would be a max of two or three people in front of me, now the line is out the door or worse goes over to the library, one hour wait to check in. Please get your facts straight. OKW is over used by non members and members from other resorts. It has nothing to do with the fact that anyone can get a room two months from now. Years ago we had the place to ourselves now it is like grand central.

Lets just agree to disagree on this one. OKW does have the lowest occupancy rate of any DVC Resort. Dispute that all you want. Your first post was wrong, period. Don't gripe and complain about high dues and then blame it on how busy the resort is. BCV has the over use issue going on, not OKW. By the way all timeshare resorts are designed to near capacity year round.

DAVE

 

[gazeborob]

This whole thread once again brings the point that there needs to be a way of reporting maintenance issues in the DVC units. I have sent several suggestions to DVC via the form on the website, but never a response. If I had an email address to send it to, I would send it there as well. My suggestion was that they put a form in every check-in packet that the guest could fill out, and leave on the table when they leave. Most people don't want to hassle with calling maintenance, so these things just pile up until it becomes a big problem. I think if the form was available, when a light goes out, or dish get broken, these things will get repaired while the cleaning takes place. I know that it is the job of housekeeping to check, but we all know they don't. I think this is a low cost way to stay on top of what needs to be done.

If you have an email address for me to send it to, please PM it to me.

Thanks,

 

[RobDoc]

.... OKW does have the lowest occupancy rate of any DVC Resort. Dispute that all you want. ...

Just curious where you got that statistic? I can think of at least 3 DVC resorts with the likelyhood of lower occupancy over the course of a year than OKW and I'm not aware of DVC (or Disney) ever releasing any occupancy figures for the resorts. Please provide the source for your "facts". A link would be fine so we can all see the actual figures.

 

[problemchild718]

This is definitely a case where the problem needed to be dealt with aggressively while you were there. I suspect that you would have had better luck getting satisfaction. I don't disagree with many of your expectations, but some are unreasonable. Dirty dishes is just something that I think I would have dealt with, unless they were in the sink. It is unreasonable to ask housekeeping to go into the cupboards and check on the dishes and then take the time to run the dishwasher to take care of them. Think about it--you are taking the room out of commission for well over an hour or more just for the dishes. JMHO. In addition, the complaint about the sleeper sofa is also a bit of an overreaction, IMHO. Sofa beds are notorious for having stuff fall through the cracks. If the crackers were IN BETWEEN the sheets, that would be one thing, but if there were crumbs on top of the sheets, that would be an entirely different thing. The mechanical issues and the housekeeping issues should have been taken care of quickly for you, but the time to "re-complain" was when you were there. There is no way to confirm or disconfirm your experience once you left, at least as far as the housekeeping issues go (some of the maintenance issues may have a work ticket, so that there might be a record of).

I gotta tell ya, I really think housekeeping is responsible for checking that things are clean and in order. They have a checklist for the rooms and kitchen making sure the basics are there and have not been taken. I didn't have an issue with one fork that was soiled-there was visable food on the dishes in the cupboard. They usually start the dishwasher if need be, then clean the room putting away the warm dishes last. I didn't expect them to close the room to wash the dishes! My feeling was that the room had not been cleanned properly. It gave me the creeps. There were too many things wrong for it to be a fluke.
I have 3 kids and ALL there friendshere alot. I know stuff falls between the cushions-however the sheets from the previous users caught the goldfish crackers-as well as a pony tail holder with little brown hairs-my little girl is blonde.
After my second appearance at the desk to complain and several phone calls, I even spoke to my guide at SSR-should I have stood in the lobby and stompped my feet to get a satisfactory solution? Maybe, but my kids were watching how I handled the situation and while I wanted to lose my temper, I wouldn't have been the right thing to teach them.

 

[BillPA]

If you are that upset, you should call The TSS and sell your points.

 

[Doctor P]

I gotta tell ya, I really think housekeeping is responsible for checking that things are clean and in order. They have a checklist for the rooms and kitchen making sure the basics are there and have not been taken. I didn't have an issue with one fork that was soiled-there was visable food on the dishes in the cupboard. They usually start the dishwasher if need be, then clean the room putting away the warm dishes last. I didn't expect them to close the room to wash the dishes! My feeling was that the room had not been cleanned properly. It gave me the creeps. There were too many things wrong for it to be a fluke.
I have 3 kids and ALL there friendshere alot. I know stuff falls between the cushions-however the sheets from the previous users caught the goldfish crackers-as well as a pony tail holder with little brown hairs-my little girl is blonde.
After my second appearance at the desk to complain and several phone calls, I even spoke to my guide at SSR-should I have stood in the lobby and stompped my feet to get a satisfactory solution? Maybe, but my kids were watching how I handled the situation and while I wanted to lose my temper, I wouldn't have been the right thing to teach them.

You lost all credibility with me with this post. Suddenly you have gone from being a "first time home" visitor according to your post who didn't know what to expect since you said "Keeping in mind that we are used to small hotel rooms and staying at less expensive places, I really don't think I am overly critical." You now have asserted knowledge of EXACTLY how the rooms should and ARE cleaned. Which is it? How did you come by this knowledge? When we checked into our villa at OKW over the holidays, there was a note near the dishes to remind you that they were not only not sterile, but that anything that was in the cupboard may or may not be clean. Perhaps this is only done in the studios, but this is the general rule of thumb that I have used in ANY villa that I have ever rented anywhere that provides dishes and such. Unless there is food caked on them, and unless the dishes were out, I don't think is it housekeeping's job to go LOOKING FOR dirty dishes in the cupboards. If the sheets on the sofa bed and clearly not been changed, you have a fair beef on that issue (but certainly not something that would justify asking for a change of room, IMHO). Your tune also seems to be changing on the efforts you made to reconcile the problems when you were there. I'm just not sure what to believe at this point. Again, I am very sorry you had a bad experience, and I wish it was handled better for you, but I also think that expectations are way out of whack on some of the stuff.

 

[NewJerseyDVCMembers]

crap happens . you serious about wanting points back or refund?? Guess what happens if that happens .It comes from my pocket . Deal with it.

You guys are all so damn funny! We're not sure whether to agree or disagree, but we are sure that "Flyers" logo is a serious waste of time.

Disney Trips since our Honeymoon in 97' = 31
Trips to the Meadowlands for Devils Championship parties = 3
The envy of Flyers fans = "Priceless"

 

[rigsby25]

I would've been so embarrassed if I had relatives with me! That is too much to go wrong in one stay! Luckily, the first time we brought relatives, we had such a nice 1 BR. at OKW.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

But the "deal with it" response does have a point. Once you are a member, you are in a system where profit is specified. All expenses, including the DVC "management fee" - their profit, come from revenues. The source of DVC revenues are our dues, breakage income, and investment income. So our dues work backwards - they figure their expenses, their profit, the other sources of revenue and send us a dues bill. Want a point refund - its coming from breakage income. Want dinner in a Disney restaurant? - DVC "buys" it as an expense from the Disney theme park division.

You are no longer a "customer" of DVC, you are a "member" of DVC. The distiction is subtle, but important. And while DVC is a division of Disney, and you remain a customer of Disney - each Disney division manages their P&L seperately - DVCs member dissatisfaction is only tangentally related to theme parks or hotels - if you have a problem at Sam's Club, Wal-Mart doesn't fix it.

Ok I completely understand that Disney is a seperate company from DVC. BUT DVC as a company needs to keep their members happy to keep up their reputation, keep sales high and retain resale point values. If current members are not happy the word will spread hurting their sales. So it is good business not to give problems lip service and expect that to be enough for the member who felt that they received less than "Disney" service/quality. Just common sence business IMO.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Here is the original post about the problems:

"First Trip Home-disappointed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all, my family and I just returned from our first trip home! We had a great time-great weather, no lines, enjoyed a bigger room. I must say I was very disappointed with OKW. Keeping in mind that we are used to small hotel rooms and staying at less expensive places, I really don't think I am overly critical.
We arrived via ME around 11 am. We didn't expect our room would be avail. and made plans to go to DTD and eat. We returned around 5:30 and our room was ready. No luggage though. (it arrived after 6 pm more than 7 hours after we did! When we arrived, I began to unpack our food. There were dirty dishes in the cupboard-ok not a huge deal. 2 cabinet doors were broken-when I opened them they nearly came off. I then found goldfish crackers in the pull out bed, wrappers on the floor next to the fridge-I let that go too. White stain on carpet in 2nd bedroom.Took a shower and found that the towel bar was broken and lying on the floor and the bathroom outlet didn't work-no blow dryer! Ok-use the one in the other bathroom, pick up the towel. Plug the curling iron in near night table in bedroom-no outlet cover. No vent cover in 2nd bedroom-just sheetrock with a rough opening. Blinds in the 2nd bedroom broken and hanging be one side. (2 windows) I immediately went back to the desk and asked to be moved to another room-no 2BR avail. Nothing avail at another resort, but the room assign. was going to continue to check. No call back. Next morning, I phone the desk, they verified nothing was avail.
I gave up and decided to suck it up and have a great time anyway. OKW will not be high on my list of places to stay again. To their credit, the staff was pleasant, the pool clean and well staffed. Bell services was friendly and accomodating our last day."

I'm sorry, but these seem like relatively minor maintenance issues. One's that should be dealt with, no doubt and no argument. But asking to move your room because of this???? IMHO, you have to be kidding. Yes, service could have been better. But I think you got the appropriate response--thanks for bringing these things to our attention, sorry it happened. I really think it is unreasonable to expect more. JMHO. Hope your next trip is better and that you give OKW another chance.

Dr. P dirty dishes and food in the bed is not a minor issue to me add in the other things and it all becomes glaring. Definitely not what is expected of a place calling itself a resort...Definitely not whats expected to be Disney standards. If the dishes are not clean how clean is the rest of the room. Crackers in the bed? YUCK! I would like to move because of that.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

crap happens . you serious about wanting points back or refund?? Guess what happens if that happens .It comes from my pocket . Deal with it.

Sounds a little like you didn't get the entire thing and you are having a bad day!
Yes I am serious about expecting a room that I have reserved, booked and paid for to be ready, clean and in good working order when I arrive on time for my reservation. I would expect the room to be free of other peoples dirty dishes, undetermined liquid stains on the floor and crackers in the pull out bed my child is going to sleep in. I expect to be able to use a working outlet in the bathroom, hang my towel up on the towel bar and close the blinds at night. I would expect that in any hotel I stayed in. I expect that at DVC where I am paying dues and have paid a big chunk of $$$ to stay there. I am not reaching into your pocket-I PAID MY DUES for things to be maintained. I expect that when I go to the desk 10 min after noticing dirt in the bath tub, mold in the toilet and syrup on the silverware that housekeeping would get their butts to the room and clean it or I would be moved to another room. But mostly, I expect people employed by DVC to do what they say they are going do when they say they are going to do it. I expect people to call me back when they say they will. I expect not to wait a month for a canned response from DVC. Oh and I would expect a fellow DIS/DVC'er would not be quite so nasty. I did deal with it AFTER I attempted to calmly fix it when I was there. I didn't ask for a freebie or an upgrade just a clean place to vacation in.

Robyn that is just disgusting I would definintely call!!! You have every right ! EEEEWWWWWW!

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

This is definitely a case where the problem needed to be dealt with aggressively while you were there. I suspect that you would have had better luck getting satisfaction. I don't disagree with many of your expectations, but some are unreasonable. Dirty dishes is just something that I think I would have dealt with, unless they were in the sink. It is unreasonable to ask housekeeping to go into the cupboards and check on the dishes and then take the time to run the dishwasher to take care of them. Think about it--you are taking the room out of commission for well over an hour or more just for the dishes. JMHO. In addition, the complaint about the sleeper sofa is also a bit of an overreaction, IMHO. Sofa beds are notorious for having stuff fall through the cracks. If the crackers were IN BETWEEN the sheets, that would be one thing, but if there were crumbs on top of the sheets, that would be an entirely different thing. The mechanical issues and the housekeeping issues should have been taken care of quickly for you, but the time to "re-complain" was when you were there. There is no way to confirm or disconfirm your experience once you left, at least as far as the housekeeping issues go (some of the maintenance issues may have a work ticket, so that there might be a record of).

I could not disagree more. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to do a clean check of a room. Even to check the sheets of the sleeper! What if there were more than crumbs folded away so nicely? They need to check the entire room and if that room has plates, pots and pans they should be clean before the next guest comes in. That is just nasty!

 

[Daitcher]

Just curious where you got that statistic? I can think of at least 3 DVC resorts with the likelyhood of lower occupancy over the course of a year than OKW and I'm not aware of DVC (or Disney) ever releasing any occupancy figures for the resorts. Please provide the source for your "facts". A link would be fine so we can all see the actual figures.

Occupancy rates were discussed at two of the owners meetings I attended. It was stated then as percentages, such as OKW had an annual occupancy rate of say 85%. Both of those occasions it was clearly stated that OKW had the lowest occupancy rates of DVC resorts. I'll start digging for concrete proof here.


DAVE

 

[Sammie]

I really do not understand why issues like these if they exist, as I have never experienced them, are not taken care of then and there.

Why would you want to come home and try to present a "cold case" when you could have someone actually "see" the problems while you were there.

If I have a housekeeping issue, and I have never had the issues I read about here at any DVC resort; I would be having the Housekeeping Super in the room with me looking at the situation.

If you leave the resort and then expect the resort or Disney in general to do something you lose your creditability as you no longer have any proof.

 

[wanna-b-Tink]

On the dish issue - just something Mousekeeping told my husband the last time we were at OKW (in December 2005)...

DH was washing the dishes while I loaded the car for our trip home. Mousekeeping came by and told him not to bother washing the dishes, that they rewash every dish when the room is vacated. I swear she told him that!

Of course, I always put dishes, bowls, glasses, mugs and silverware in the dishwasher first thing when we get in our room so I know the dishes we are going to use are clean...

On the blinds issue - I would want that fixed immediately! I had a peeping tom when I was in high school, and its a very scary thing to wake to someone staring at you from the window. VERY scary!

One other thing. We always have to make the pull-out bed ourself when we check in. There's never been sheets already on the pull-out. So if there were crackers on the sheet, in the sheet, whatever...should there even have been sheets present? Sounds like the room was not cleaned thoroughly at all after the last family checked out.

I hate you had a bad experience at OKW. We are one of those families that always stay there, but who own at 3 other DVC locations. We just love the place.

 

[Daitcher]

Just curious where you got that statistic? I can think of at least 3 DVC resorts with the likelyhood of lower occupancy over the course of a year than OKW and I'm not aware of DVC (or Disney) ever releasing any occupancy figures for the resorts. Please provide the source for your "facts". A link would be fine so we can all see the actual figures.

Sorry Doc,

What 3 resorts would you think have lower occupancy rates than OKW? Also I detect a bit of sarcasism in your post? Am I off with that? Resorts track occupancy rates all the time, it isn't unusual. Aslo OR are very important at shared resorts like BCV and VWL because portion of transportation costs are divided up based on this. This is actually how the topic of OR came up at the annual metings. I'm not sure why you are challenging this? Do you have proof to the contrary?

DAVE

 

[wanna-b-Tink]

Sorry Doc,

What 3 resorts would you think have lower occupancy rates than OKW? Also I detect a bit of sarcasism in your post? Am I off with that? Resorts track occupancy rates all the time, it isn't unusual. Aslo OR are very important at shared resorts like BCV and VWL because portion of transportation costs are divided up based on this. This is actually how the topic of OR came up at the annual metings. I'm not sure why you are challenging this? Do you have proof to the contrary?

DAVE

Sometimes I feel like we are the only people at HHI, so I would imagine their OR is much lower than OKW.

 

[Sammie]

We are all entitled to our opinions but this post isn't opinion. Your post couldn't be more incorrect. OKW has the lowest occupancy rates of any DVC Resort. SSR will take over that spot soon, but until SSR is complete we can't count it as yet. If your post said the same thing about BCV I'd agree. OKW HAS THE LOWEST OCCUPANCY RATES among DVC Resorts. Lets get the facts straight before we post. It isn't always b usy at OKW. I could call and get a room there right now for March or May maybe even April.
DAVE

Your last statment can not support occupany rates on a yearly basis. At any given time OKW might have availbility due to its size that a smaller resort will not have, but that does not mean that on a yearly basis there is a lower total occupany rate.

You could have BCV booked to 95% on a certain week months in advance, and you could also have OKW booked at 98% but it only obtained that percentage one month prior. So availiblity does not necessarily reflect yearly occupancy.